I’m sitting at my Mum’s dining table looking out at her garden in all its autumnal glory. There was a frost on the lawn this morning and it was jolly cold outside, but there is now a brilliant blue sky and a brisk walk through the town warmed me right up!
A total contrast from the weather as I left Wales yesterday morning – torrential rain and strong gusts of wind meant that my raincoat got very wet even going from the front door to the car!
I’ve finished the back of my deadline knitting garment and cast on another section last night. I am now wondering about the selvedge stitches though and so the new section was cast off this morning… I will block it when I get home to see if my slip stitch edge adds stability as I’d hoped, or just stops the pattern opening up properly! (Can’t show you pics, sorry!)
And this is why I always bring more than one knitting project with me when I go anywhere. If something crops up that means I need to press pause on one, then I’m not left knit-less. So, my Woolly Wormhead Get Garter Beret will be getting some action later.
Yesterday, I sent out my monthly newsletter to my lovely website subscribers and it contained a brand new exclusive discount code for them to use in my Payhip store. 15% off all my hat, mitts and cowl knitting patterns from now until the end of the year! If you’re not yet a subscriber, but think you like the sound of that, sign up by the end of the week and I will make sure you get the November newsletter too. There’ll be a reminder of it in the December newsletter as well.
I haven’t talked about my Craftucation courses in a while, and that’s probably because I’m feeling guilty that I still haven’t finished my ‘Introduction to Lace Knitting’ course. My hands are still in a right state and certainly not ‘camera-ready’, but I have every intention of getting it done in the next couple of months. Any encouragement gratefully received!
That’s all from me for today – I’m going to go and make some lunch happen.
Stay safe, keep knitting and doing what makes you happy, K x
Ok, own up; who actually noticed I didn’t publish a blog post yesterday? Answers in the comments please!
It was our return journey from Kent yesterday and, at the weekend, while we were still at home, I wondered whether I should draft a post in advance. Then I thought, “No, it’ll be fine, I’ll just write it when we get home”. Well, that plan didn’t work. We got home at 6.30pm (having left at noon), unpacked, I made dinner, read and signed a contract (missing the first 10 minutes of Bake Off while doing so) and then? I just didn’t have the spoons left to do it.
It was a good trip to Kent. We were visiting my lovely wife’s family – only the second time I’ve been there since Xmas 2019 and only the third for Sue – and we had a great time. My niece had made a birthday cake for me – it was gorgeous and I am absolutely going to investigate the non-dairy alternative to condensed milk that she used. On Monday we had a long walk to the sea front, up the pier and then along the harbour arm with my sister-in-law. There was brilliant sunshine, a fabulous rainbow, a carousel ride for Sue and Katie (I couldn’t have decently got on the horses in my long dress, and I don’t think side saddle would have worked) and a detour through the park.
And then? The heavens opened. There had been a little rain/drizzle prior to that, but it went full biblical downpour. Katie had a coat with a hood and I borrowed her umbrella and Sue had a neckband that she put over her hair, but, to be honest, none of it did much good. We got thoroughly drenched. So much so that the only solution was a shower to warm up and a complete change of clothing. I am eternally grateful to my lovely mother-in-law that she washed and dried our wet clothes for us that evening as otherwise we would have had no clean things for the following day.
While we were away I did a fair bit of knitting. The majority of it I can’t show you for quite a while yet. One lot of commission yarn I was waiting for last week arrived last Wednesday and I got cracking, only to change my mind about six inches in about the placement of the stitch patterns. I left the original version on the needles, went back to my spreadsheet, copied the sheet and played with the numbers again. Then cast on for the new version. Once I’d done the same amount for both versions so the comparison was fair, I was so glad I had listened to my misgivings and paused. The new version is so much better – and so that was the majority of what I worked on in Kent and in the car. I’m getting better at knitting on rumbly concrete motorways!
The other project I took with me was a new type of knitting project for me – a sideways knit hat by Woolly Wormhead. I’m definitely enjoying the process of seeing how the structure develops and I can’t wait to see how the whole thing looks when finished. The variegated yarn is playing nicely with the short rows too. It’s going to be a beret style hat, but it looks nothing like it at the moment! The yarn is Neps and Tatties in ‘Raisin Girl’ by Ewe & Ply. There’s a knitalong running on her Facebook group (and on Ravelry) at the moment for sideways knit garter stitch hats – it’s definitely worth a look as there are a huge number of exciting designs and ways of constructing a hat that I’d never imagined.
The other creative thing I had a rethink and restart on last week was my embroidery. I was finding it hard to keep track and, though I knew I had gone ‘out’ (wrong) by a stitch or two in some colours that I’d done, I couldn’t quite work out which they were. This meant that I was finding it hard to trust the stitches that were in place when it came to using them to position new sections. So, I began again, this time with a more thoroughly prepped piece of fabric. Again, it was worth it, as my progress has been quicker and easier since. It probably also helps that I reprinted the chart (again!) so it is larger AND with colours on the squares as well as symbols so it is easier to follow. It does take up 16 pages now instead of 9, but hey. It’ll be worth it.
What have you been up to this week? I hope some of it has been fun.
My plan to weave in a section of yarn ends on my advent sweater (Serenity by Joji Locatelli) each day worked a treat. I seriously underestimated how many there were; I’d forgotten that as I had worked each colour from the top over the back and each side of the front, several colours had six ends not two. It turned out that there were over 80 in total! However, I did a sleeve’s worth and so on and the ends were soon completed. It is such a gorgeous sweater to wear and the yarn is so very soft.
We took this picture on Sunday, during what we call our ‘country walk’. We are so lucky that we can get onto lanes like this within a kilometre or so of our front door. The main pic of today’s post is the view of Moel Famau, to the left of where we were standing.
Last week I asked you to keep your fingers crossed for me regarding a submission I’d sent, that I was due to hear back about by Friday. Well, it worked! I had an acceptance email on Wednesday morning!! Since then, I’ve been grading the pattern (10 sizes for this one) and starting to write it up and I am now waiting eagerly for the yarn to arrive in the post.
Can you believe that my flowers from last week are still going strong? The yellow roses have opened up and become all frilly on the edges and the deep red carnations are a lovely contrast.
My Fiery Dragon Skin Cowl is done and very cosy in my hand-spun yarn. I still have to pinch myself a bit that I only started learning to spin this time last year and I am making yarn I can use when knitting up my own designs. That disbelief is going to get to a whole new level once I have finished a project with yarn from Doris, isn’t it?!
In the meantime, here is my current spinning, some Southdown fibre, from Hilltop Cloud. The two bobbins are intended to have stripes of different sizes as I am attempted fractal spinning; you split the fibre lengthways, then one half lengthways again and then one of those lengthways again. The horizontal finished bobbin contains the singles spun from the fibre that was split more often and the bobbin still on the wheel is being spun with the other half of the fibre, so there are much longer stretches of colour.
As I’m waiting for yarn to arrive for two commissions at the moment, I decided to cast on something small in the mean time. I posted about this sock on social media the other day and I’m pleased with how it’s coming along. It did take me a while to adapt to using the KnitPro single 25cm long circular needle, especially trying to work out which hand the shorter needle tip felt best in, but it’s feeling more natural now. That’s a 2mm needle in the pic with 80 stitches per round. I did once have 2mm bamboo needles, but they did not last very long. Sue likes her socks knit to a tight gauge – it makes them last better – and bamboo just snapped in my hands. The stripy yarn is fabulous isn’t it? This is Zandra’s Rainbow, one of the Zandra Rhodes colourways on their Signature 4-ply yarn for West Yorkshire Spinners.
I have spent several hours on the embroidery so far. You can see progress from last week, but no sense of the image yet. But this is only working from the central page of nine…
There has been slightly less baking than I would have liked recently, but Audrey2 is waking up again after a short time in the fridge. Hopefully I will be making another loaf in the next couple of days. I was feeling more than a bit off-colour yesterday, so there was definitely no baking, or much activity at all!
That’s all from me for today. I hope you all stay safe, stay well and do what makes you happy. K x
Do you like my roses and carnations? They were a gift from my lovely wife to celebrate the launch of “Of Night and Light” in Knit Now last week. After all the excitement of the magazine release last Thursday, I have been getting on with some new projects and returning to some not so new ones.
My advent sweater is dry so now I have the ends to weave in – approximately 50 of them! I might take a similar approach to the one I used to use for writing school reports; decide when I want it finished by, work out how many I need to do each day and get that day’s ‘portion’ done in the morning while the light is good in the front room. If I take next Wednesday as my deadline, then if I do about 7 each day it will be ready – that doesn’t sound half so intimidating as 50!
When I finished spinning my Merino d’Arles, dyed by Anne Murray, back in March, I knew what pattern I wanted to use it for. My Fiery Dragon Skin Cowl seemed ideal for the colours of the yarn and the fact it is very textural meant that irregularities in the yarn wouldn’t matter so much. It’s coming along really well and I am so pleased with the effect. It’s slightly thicker than the yarn I designed the pattern for originally (Painted Desert by Knitting Fever), but that’s ok. It’ll be a little warmer. This is the first time I’ve used my hand-spun yarn for a knitting project, as opposed to a swatch and it’s so satisfying.
Another new project is the embroidery of Mum’s photo – I’ve actually started it! It doesn’t look like much yet and it will take a good while before the picture takes shape, but it has at least begun. The embroidery hoop is helping enormously as is the re-printed chart. The first one had 70 x 100 squares per page (4 pages) and it was just too small to keep track of with 40+ different symbols. Now the chart has 50 x 75 squares per page (9 pages) and I can actually see the symbols without them swimming about. Thumb for scale!
There are a LOT of colours involved too. I love the fact that I can use this box mum finished making recently (after starting it well over 10 years ago) to store them in:
The sweater design I’ve been working on for a while now has completed Back and Front sections, all written up. The sleeves have been charted with all the shaping and I’ve started writing them up. I redid the front of the round neckline with my coloured pens and graph paper and now I’m really happy with how the nine different sizes relate to each other as well as all having a pleasing curve. The really tricky part was working out the most logical way to write it out – that was yesterday’s task and fortunately was a success!
Glancing out of the window I see it is raining. Again. I’m so glad I had a walk before lunch, but it does put me off doing much in the veg patch today. Maybe it’ll be dry again later in the week. One of our tomatoes has ripened – I can see it from here! So, it was worth tying them up to get some sunlight. I think I should probably get them in soon and finish ripening them on the window sill.
Audrey2 (my sourdough starter) is getting all grown up now. I’ve made three good loaves with her (after one dodgy one and some flat-as-pancake rolls) and she’s doubling in size and then some when fed. Not wishing to be caught out with fruit flies again like I was with Audrey I have dried some starter and the shards are now safely in a jam jar should they ever be needed. When I read about drying out sourdough starter and seeing that it would take 2-3 days I thought it must be a typo since any starter left on a spoon or spatula goes rock solid so quickly, but no. It really took 3 days. Hurrah for a silicone rolling mat and pop up food cover that could be moved around as necessary.
Do you remember I said I was going to plan a new workshop last week? Well, it’s done! Great project, loads of skills and if I can complete it in one hour (taking my time and not rushing), then knitters taking the workshop will be able to complete it in two and a half. More details coming soon. It’s also given me a really rather fab idea for a kit to launch next year…!
That’s all from me for today. Stay safe and do what makes you happy, Kx
P.S. Keep your fingers crossed for me on Friday – that’s when I find out about the latest design I submitted!
For the past few days I have been very excitedly telling the world about my new design that will be in Knit Now Issue 134 that is out this Thursday. I may have mentioned that it is their tenth anniversary issue with twice the usual number of patterns and articles.
So, I thought it was about time I showed you a sneak peek of some of the other wonderful patterns that will be in the issue! I am in very good company. All photos in today’s blog are from Knit Now Magazine and used with permission.
Aren’t they gorgeous? And this is only a small selection! You can find Knit Now magazine in WHSmith and ‘all good newsagents’ and you can also order it online here.
As you know I am a fan of brightly coloured hair. Do you recognise the fuchsia-headed icon in the pic above? Yes, that really isZandra Rhodes! She is collaborating with West Yorkshire Spinners and has developed six new colourways of their Colourlab yarn in both DK and 4-ply weights. Anne at Yarn O’clock is stocking it; I’ve seen the colours and want them all! Anne will also very soon have a life-size Zandra Rhodes cut-out in her shop, so if you want a selfie with this amazing woman (albeit, only her likeness, not the living, breathing person), get yourself to Mold!
Knit Now Issue 134 will not only include an interview with Zandra Rhodes, but it also includes a scarf pattern using one of her colourways.
And there’s an exclusive Clangers pattern! And a whole Christmas supplement including an official Wallace & Gromit pattern! And lots more too.
Not only is Thursday a big day for me, but it is also National Poetry Day and my wonderful poet-y wife has some new poems coming out into the world (three in the next few weeks, I think!). Keep an eye out on Twitter for @soopoftheday.
Right, I’m off to develop a new workshop. Yes, a real-life, in-person workshop, that (fingers crossed) should be happening in late January. More of that nearer the time.
Take care, stay safe and do what makes you happy. K x
So, I’m back at Mum’s for a few days and she is home from her two week ‘adventure’. Cleo the cat was pleased to see me yesterday and even graced me with her presence on my lap twice this morning! She and Mum were very glad to see each other again today as well and Cleo is keeping a close eye on her to make sure she’s staying put!
I haven’t started my embroidery yet. I was two colours short (I did get a message that they were delivered today), but I have prepared my fabric and even put a bright red running stitch through the horizontal and vertical axes. It’s definitely going to be something I need to use my Serious Readers light for – even with my brand new glasses! I’m using exactly the same fabric as for Dad’s so they’ll look right together, and I’d forgotten just how small the weave is.
I’m playing with ideas for lace swatches again – one of my favourite types of ‘Call for Submissions’ is for a lace design. This time I’m taking a slightly different approach. I’ve gone through my favourite stitch dictionary and written down the names and page numbers of the ones that really appeal as well as the number of sts and rows per repeat. Instead of trying each stitch pattern out separately, when I cast on for my swatches I’ll pair up ones that I think will look good together and ones that have row repeats that are multiples of each other – eg one with a 24-row repeat and one with an 8-row repeat and swatch them together. One reason for this approach is to check whether the row gauge on selected stitch patterns matches (after blocking), as if I want panels of different stitch patterns they’ll need to. Another is to not only make the pattern and chart writing simpler, but make things easier for knitters too!
I mentioned having some exciting news last week. The big reveal begins on Friday, but I can tell you that I have an adult garment coming out in Knit Now on October 7th! I’m so proud of it and the way it has been styled in the photos is gorgeous. If you have the current issue of Knit Now, it’s one of the photos on the “coming next month” page near the back 🥳. (I can share photos on Social Media from October 1st – and will add a pic to this blog post then as well).
Because of knitting the above-mentioned garment (back in March/April/May) and then working on our MKAL with Yarn O’clock (Into the Vortex), my advent calendar sweater (yarn from Bear in Sheep’s Clothing, pattern Serenity by Joji Locatelli from Interpretations Volume 2 became sadly neglected. I have now returned to it and realised that I far prefer knitting sleeves two at a time, but on separate needles and that I also needles some more really short needle tips for small circumferences. With these things in hand progress is being made. The sleeves only need another 8cm or so and then it’s just the neckband, weaving in ends and blocking! I have brought it with me along with my stuff for lace swatching in the hope that I will be able to crack on and at least get the sleeves finished. You can tell it’s been ignored for a while can’t you? All those creases!
Have you been caught up in the fuel panic? I needed to get some to come here (it’s 120 miles from home) and did manage to get some on my first attempt, although the only option was the new E5 petrol, which I hadn’t had before. I’d always wondered what the E5/E10 sticker meant inside my fuel cap cover. I’m just so thankful that my car is a self-charging hybrid and doesn’t use a huge amount of petrol. I’ll still have just under half a tank by the time I get home. The staff on the forecourt at Tesco Mold were doing such a good job, cheerfully checking that everyone knew what was available and showing people into different lanes to keep the queues moving and the mini roundabout clear.
That’s all from me for today. Take care, stay safe and do more of what you love, K x
I have *a lot* to tell you about today – looking back over the week it hardly seems possible so much has happened in fact.
Can you believe that tomorrow will be the 1st birthday of my website going live?! I’m quite amazed at what has been achieved in that time, but also that it’s only been a year. I started writing this blog a week later and I have only missed one Tuesday (between Christmas and New Year).
Speaking of the website, I have revamped the home page and updated the Knitting Tuition pages. It may not seem like much, but I think it’s better and I’m pleased that the tuition pages are now laid out in the same way as patterns etc.
After last week’s post I started looking at what cross-stitch software is available these days. I tried out a couple of free online ones, but the result of the uploaded photo was really pixelated, even at the best resolution offered. So, I decided to spend a little money. Only a little – £30 – got me MacStitch which had some great reviews (this review also includes a discount code!) and I’ve been able to get a detailed chart from the photo I’ve chosen, along with choosing the brand and type of embroidery threads I wanted to use. Not only did this provide me with the codes for the different colours required, but having put in the thread count of the fabric I’m going to use it even gave the yardage used for each colour! To two decimal places!! I will be using far than stated less of course as I intend to work in tent stitch again, so the two embroideries make a pair. The threads are due to arrived tomorrow (and I have plenty of even-weave fabric squirrelled away in my old college ‘tuck box’). I let you know how I get on.
The photo I chose to use is of Mum when she was in her twenties. I know she had started teaching as she’s wearing the jacket that she spent half of each of her first two month’s salary on!
New coaster designs have been uploaded to my website and to Payhip. All based on the same image, but with different phrases to accompany them. The company I bought this and a couple of other rubber stamps from is an ‘angel’ company, which means you can sell items made using them with no worries over copyright. Once stamped, I carefully burn over the image with my pyrography pen, add any text and then wax the coaster, buffing it up to a sheen. It takes a steady hand!
I’ve also blocked the large version of Into the Vortex, had the finished pattern checked over by other eyes than mine, and uploaded the new pattern file to Lovecrafts, Ravelry and Payhip. This now contains both sizes of the shawl, as well as helpful tips on how to adapt the pattern towards the end if you are running low on yarn. Here you can see the original and large versions side by side to more easily compare them.
Sue has been photographing flying shawls as well – she loves doing this and the results are always amazing.
The garden continues to produce edibles – yesterday I picked another colander full of raspberries, four green courgettes and one enormous yellow one that I can’t call a courgette any longer, but it doesn’t look much like a marrow either, so it will have to just be a gourd. Oh my gourd, indeed! It’s huge and very heavy. The large marrows harvested a little while ago are keeping well. We are having another one tonight: roasted and then stuffed with last night’s bolognaise sauce, topped with breadcrumbs from my sourdough disaster loaf and baked til golden.
Yet to harvest are some blueberries, more raspberries, a few more courgettes, three apples (that’s all I can see on the tree) and, if I can get them to ripen, some tomatoes! They were hidden amongst the borage and courgette leaves, but I think if I support the plant so they get some sun, there might be a chance.
There has even been some more spinning and plying happening and the Tour de Fleece 21 BFL fibre I bought from Hilltop Cloud is now yarn! I’m very pleased with it, but it’s still damp, so photos next week. On the theme of spinning, I have mentioned on my socials that I visited Fibrehut in person last Wednesday for the first time. This was significant for me as they are the company I bought my wheel from nearly a year ago. I did buy more fibre – of course.
I have other exciting news to share with you as well – but I have to wait a little longer. All I can say for now is that October will be a celebration!
Take care everyone, and stay safe. Do what you love as much as you can. K x
It’s been a funny couple of days with a bit of generational role-reversal going on. Tonight it’s going to be me and Mum’s cat keeping each other company. I tried spinning when Cleo was around on Sunday and she wasn’t sure about it at all – though I swear my wheel doesn’t squeak – so we’ll see what she makes of it tonight. She has left my fibre and knitting completely alone over the past couple of days which is impressive I think – so much so, I’m tempted to catnap Cleo up to North Wales!
The main pic of today’s blog is an embroidery I did years ago – it’s a sepia-ish portrait of my dad in his WWII uniform (yes, really). I used to have some software that you could upload a photo to and it would give you a cross-stitch chart. The picture would have been far too big as cross-stitch (which goes across two threads at a time, so I just did tiny diagonal stitches across one thread at a time. The finished embroidery is only 7cm by 9.5cm! I don’t have the software any more, but I’d love to do one of Mum as well while my eyes can still take working at such a small scale.
I have probably mentioned that my lovely wife, Sue Finch, is a poet (and if not, I should have!). At midnight tonight, IAMB Wave Seven goes live and she will be part of it! Audio recordings of 15 poets reading their own work alongside the printed text. If you like the spoken word it will definitely be worth clicking that link. Here is Wave Six to give you an idea of the brilliant quality you can expect.
The large version of Into the Vortex is complete and is going to be blocked in the next couple of days. After a quick test on the extra sections, they will be added to the main pattern for all to enjoy – keep your eyes peeled for updates!
That’s all from me for today. Stay safe folks and keep doing what makes you happy, K x
Have you ever had one of those experiences where you’ve been fighting to try to make something technical work, but it won’t? For the past week I have been unable to access Microsoft 365 on my MacBook. That meant no email, no Word docs, no Excel… Basically I could do no work that involved those things, unless I could do it via my phone, which bizarrely (and thankfully) remained unaffected. It’s so strange to have a window repeated pop up to tell you there is no valid subscription for that email address when you know there is, cos it’s working fine on another device!
So last Friday I contacted Microsoft via their ‘chat support’. The person I was communicating with said there was no valid subscription showing up at their end (I explained in various ways how that could not be the case), then said it was a known issue for people who had purchased through the Apple App Store, but would be sorted out very soon and I would be notified by email when it was fixed. His other suggestion was to ring Apple, ask for a refund and re-purchase directly from them. I was reluctant to do that – it’s a family subscription and I didn’t want to risk impacting my lovely wife’s ability to access her files.
Four days later when I still couldn’t get access to my files (other than to look at them), I looked up Apple support. There are three options – online chat, give them your number and they’ll ring you or email. Well the online chat hadn’t solved my issue when I contacted Microsoft so I opted for the phone call. A friendly person asked what the problem was and asked to access my screen, for which I gave permission. Their mouse pointer was big and red so I could very easily see what they were asking me to do. I went through the same process as I have been doing for DAYS to no effect and then they asked me to try clicking on “restore previous purchases”. I was doubtful this would have any effect either as I had tried that myself too, but I was wrong! Some magic must have been woven by the wonderful Apple Support employee (though they claimed it wasn’t when I asked) because it worked!! Word, Excel and Outlook are all now fully available to me again on my MacBook – I am SO relieved.
It made me feel a bit like the pupils must have when I was teaching and their computers were misbehaving; they would ask for help, very frustrated, yet when I came over to talk them through it, all of a sudden the computer did what it was supposed to.
Another bit of magic has been the transformation of Doris’ fleece from raw fleece, to washed fleece, to spun yarn, to knitted fabric. I’ve only done a small swatch so far (using all of the little skein I’d spun) and I can tell that the areas of fabric with less twist in the yarn are much softer as it allows the wool to bloom. It’s not the most evenly spun yarn, but it’s a little swatch that I’m very proud of nonetheless and I’m already thinking about what full-scale projects I will make with it.
The large version of Into the Vortex is coming on and will be finished by the end of the week (yay!). Now that I can use Word again I’ll be able to type up this version of the pattern, get it checked through and tested and then add it to the main pattern file. I posted a pic in yesterday’s subscribers’ newsletter (hurrah for Mailchimp) and also showed them some sneak previews of some new coasters!
Now, since it’s such a beautiful day outside, I think I’m going to take my journal and knitting outside and sit on the patio (under the sunshade) and finish the final part of the shawl.
I hope you get some time this week to stop and rest – and maybe even experience a few things that might just be magic!
Just a short one today, though lots has happened in the week (and I did manage to avoid falling over again!).
Doris’ fleece is now clean and drying. I posted about the cleaning process yesterday on social media, so for now, here is a photo of the final drying stage; on a heated airer, with tea towels between the fleece and the bars. The heat was only on for about an hour and a half and it made a big difference. It’ll stay there now til tomorrow.
Audrey, my sourdough starter, had a disaster. This morning I found a fruit fly in the sealed jar… So, she has had to go away. Sadly I hadn’t got any dried starter as back-up so I shall have to start again from the beginning – Audrey is gone, long live Audrey 2!
The full fancy version of Into the Vortex was published on Friday and the large version of Into the Vortex is coming on nicely – so far there’s an altered Part Seven and a brand new Part Eight.
Part Nine will be coming into being this evening. I’m hoping there will be enough yarn for 11 parts in total, but we shall have to wait and see. There are currently 165 stitches on the needle and it’s amazing how much extra yarn one stitch extra every other row takes up over a section.
165 stitches sounds like nothing though compared to the i-cord bind-off for the Brioche + Mystery Shawl by Suzanne Sommer (Sosuknits) – there were over 1000 for that once I’d picked up along the top edge! It does look splendid, even before blocking. I’m hoping to block it before the end of the week. The gorgeous mixture of 4-ply yarns are: Artist’s Palette Yarns’ Smoothie Sock in Ocean Sky (light blue) (no link as they paused trading in 2019), Lottie Knits‘ Little Bird Sock in Nightshade (dark blue/purple), The Knitting Goddess‘ Britsock in Blackened Yellow (olive green-ish) and Triskelion Yarn‘s Elen Sock in Freo (magenta). The yarns all played very nicely together!
Tomorrow will be a busy day – it’s price rise day for my knitting patterns! That means I will need to go through 42 of my 46 published patterns on three platforms and here on my website and alter the price for each of them. If you’re canny and you have your eye on a pattern, you might beat me to it. There’s nothing as fancy as automation here, it’s all done by me, one at a time. Remember you can get an on-going discount code (for ALL purchases, not just patterns) exclusive to subscribers by signing up to my monthly newsletter; the next one is coming out on Monday 6th September.
That’s all for today. Stay safe and keep knitting, K x
