Time is a funny thing. It doesn’t seem like a whole week has passed since I was at the dentist with my mum, and yet, at the same time, it feels like ages ago!
On Friday night I went to see The Wonder Stuff in my own home town. They were phenomenal, but the fact that I didn’t know any of the first 9 songs they played (out of a set list of 22!) made me realise that I’d only really listened to the same albums I had when I was a student in the 1990s, and yet they’ve released decades of music since then. I think I will have to explore some of their other albums.
I also realised it’s nearly four years since Tiffany and Agnes were launched on the RiverKnits stand at Yarndale 2022. The reason I was thinking about this is that Becci and Markus have announced that they are closing RiverKnits. They have a sale on with their last remaining yarn, so go and grab what you can, while it lasts! Tiffany and Agnes were specifically designed for RiverKnits yarns and Tiffany has proved to be one of my best-selling patterns. Four years have gone by so quickly since these patterns were launched into the world and, while I am pleased for Becci and Markus that they both have new adventures ahead of them, I am sad that their wonderful yarn won’t be available in the future. If you have a rainbow set of minis from them that you are wondering what to do with, it’s ideal for knitting Tiffany!
This week I’ve been doing lots of design work/knitting – none of which I can show you, but I can tell you a little about it:
I’ve submitted an idea for a new design to a magazine (this process also involves knitting and blocking a swatch to photograph and include in the submission).
I’m three quarters of the way through knitting the second of three samples for a design for a different magazine. Why three samples? You’ll have to wait until January to find out!
I also blocked a finished shawl design that I wasn’t at all sure about, wondering if blocking it would sort out the weird bulges in a few places, but no. It didn’t. I do know what I did wrong though (maths again!) and I spent an hour or so last night knitting tiny versions of different shapes to see what would be the best solution to the problem. I’m now on the right track and can get cracking with that properly – fortunately this particular design isn’t for a magazine, so I can use yarn I have (which is why I could block the first version – I’m just knitting the next version in a different yarn of the same weight), experiment and try out ideas as I go. I do have a brief for what is required and the first version in theory met it, but in practice it didn’t and I wasn’t at all happy with it. Sometimes part of designing is saying, “No, that doesn’t work. Let’s do it a different way.”
This morning I took a good look at my desk and thought that I really need to find a way to actually keep it tidy. I would show you, but there’s so much stuff on there I can’t show you (design stuff etc) that I’d actually have to tidy it up first! “Tidy desk” is a frequent item on my list of jobs for the day, but I never seem to manage to get it fully sorted. I know what’s there and where it all is in the strata, but it doesn’t make for an uncluttered working environment when I’m working at the computer. There are even some Christmas cards at the bottom of a pile on the right hand side of my desk from people I fully intended to write to. Except now it’s July – and nearly August. There’s time playing games with me again. Maybe I need to take everything off the desk and only put back the things I need currently, but I do find that difficult. The rest would probably end up in a pile next to the desk instead… Does anyone else have this problem?
Last Sunday was the final sung service at church until September. The choir gets August off. So, I have brought my cassock and surplice home to wash and to move the neck buttons on the cassock so it feels less like it’s trying to strangle me as I sing! It was made for me, but the only measurements that were asked for were length from nape to ankle and chest. I think that either my neck is wider than ‘standard’ or (more likely) I don’t tolerate non-stretchy things too close to my throat very well.
We are looking forward to our two shows in August, The North East Wool Show in Newcastle and Pop Up Wool Show in Port Sunlight. If you are at either of these two events, please do come and say hello. I’ll be teaching on Sunday afternoon at North East Wool Show and Sue will be looking after the stand during that time.
That’s all from me for today. Have a good week and I’ll aim to have some knitting on the needles next week that I can share. And it will be August by then! Time flies… K x