Last night we saw about 6 meteors from the Perseid meteor shower over the course of about 30 minutes. It was so lovely to be able to sit in the back garden on our wooden chairs gazing at the sky, randomly pointing and exclaiming, “There’s one!”. There may be more tonight, but as it’s started to rain (and get cooler!) we may not be as lucky seeing them.
It’s been important to grab moments of calm and quiet enjoyment lately as it’s been so busy. We were at the wedding of one of our nephews at the weekend – a beautiful occasion – and I was able to ask Jess, the bride, if she and James had managed to take a few moments during the day to soak it all up. Like we had, she was finding her wedding day was happening more quickly than expected, and I was pleased to hear they had had some time before the buffet to take stock of all the wonderful moments that were making their wedding day an occasion to remember.
We captured moments of the day (and the whole weekend away) in photographs, and some of them are hilarious. These are some of the shots from the wedding – even Ronnie (our rhino) got involved!
It’s also good to put your full focus into experiencing the moment as we did during the ceremony where no photos were taken apart from by the official photographer, and as we did last night looking at the sky and hoping for meteors. Incidentally, This Moment, the title of today’s post, is a beautiful song by Melissa Etheridge, and it just happens to be the song that my lovely wife and I walked out to when we got married. (The chorus begins: “I want to stay here in this moment…”).
Capturing moments sometimes does have to be done by photo or video, especially if you want or need to be able to share it with other people later on. Today I took delivery of a new tool that will help me with making videos and also in my Zoom workshops. It’s the Olivia 2 – a stand to hold your phone horizontally above a surface (and at lots of other angles too), with an adjustable built in light, and it comes with a remote control as well, so you don’t have to make the phone wobble every time you press record, then wait for the shaking of the image to subside before you can actually begin! I had the original version of this phone stand, but I sometimes found it difficult to keep the base out of shot when recording knitting techniques. This updated version has redesigned the construction so the base faces away from you and there is nothing to get in the way of what you are recording, no matter how close up. It’s currently charging up and I’m looking forward to trying it out very soon. I also like how it collapses down into a really compact ‘block’ when you’re not using it. Please excuse the rather busy desk these pics reveal!
So, keep an eye out for more videos going up on my new YouTube channel! And do sign up for my Zoom workshops too:
- Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting, Tuesday 8th October, 7-9pm (British Summer Time)
- Fair Isle (stranded) Knitting, Saturday 12th October, 7-9pm (British Summer Time)
- Next Steps in Two-Colour Brioche Knitting, Tuesday 22nd October, 7-9pm (British Summer Time)
There are a maximum of 10 spaces on each workshop, to keep it as similar as possible to an in-person workshop, where participants are actively involved and able to ask for help when they need it.
I’ve finished the central square of my new same of Elinor Hap Shawl and am part-way through picking up the stitches for the border – with such fine yarn I had to recount/redo the first side this morning with proper light. I am determined to get all the stitches picked up and on the needles today so that when I am sitting at the garage (again) tomorrow while they fix the car’s judder and lack of ability to accelerate properly (it wasn’t just the spark plugs, apparently the car needs a new ‘coil pack’) I will be able to work on the border.
With this pattern, the central square doesn’t have slip stitch edges and stitches are picked up from the very edge of the garter stitch border. It’s quite a tricky process, added to which there are regular points where you ‘pick up and kfb’, so knitting into the edge twice in the same place to create extra stitches. I might use my new gadget to help record this process this evening!
Because my car was not in the best of health last weekend I got to be a passenger on the way to the wedding and socks happened! Well, one and a half socks, which is still pretty good for a weekend with lots of other things in it! DK yarn and 3mm needles make them grow nice and quickly. The finished sock just needs to be grafted at the toe, but I forgot to take a darning/tapestry needle with me on the trip. The second sock on the right is partway through the gusset. The pattern is Bob (Friend of Dave) by Rachel Coopey and the yarn is Socks Yeah DK from CoopKnits (also Rachel Coopey). I’ve made this pattern quite a few times now, and this time I included my usual reinforced slip stitch pattern on the heel flap.
The final thing I want to tell you about today is very exciting. I have finally got my Barragán wrap pattern online (on ravelry, Payhip and my website – and Lovecrafts once it’s gone through all the approvals there) and I’ve printed out 20 copies ready for the Pop Up Wool Show on Saturday – hurray! So, if you can’t get to the Pop Up Wool Show, you can get yourself a copy online.
