Tag: Family

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Better late than never

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.

A sideway knit garter stitch hat in progress is lying on a wooden desk. The ball of yarn can just be seen in the top right corner. The yarn is in variegated shades of pink, purple and white, like raspberry ripple ice cream and there are tufty news in cream and black on the surface of the fabric.

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.

A piece of cream coloured linen with tiny diagonal tent stitch in patches of black down the centre of the fabric. There are two pale blue thread running vertically and horizontally marking out the centre points and thin black threads of running stitch between every twenty threads of the fabric from the centre outwards.

What have you been up to this week? I hope some of it has been fun.

Take care, stay safe and keep wearing a mask! K x

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We Are Family

The past few days have seen my lovely wife and I take a road trip to Kent. Although it had been 8 months since I had seen my mum, it was 9 months for her and 17 since I’d been there! It was glorious weather and we made the most of it, taking a walk to the sea front. Fortunately my sister-in-law (the tall one!) knows the town so well she was able to help us avoid the crowds for most of our walk.

Packing to go away as a knitter has two elements. First of all there are the things that everyone needs to take; clothes, toiletries etc. Then there is the matter of which knitting projects to take. Always in the plural as you want to have choice. I took five. And yes, I did work on all of them!

First of all there was the Nordic Tea Cosy by Zoe Carter (@pinsandneedlesuk). The pattern was part of the Nordic themed Knit-Tea Retreat that I attended via the wonders of the internet in February. I had done quite a bit of this already, so it didn’t take long to finish and steek. Now it just needs to be blocked. The Cartref Yarn is so good – I’d never used it before and I did treat myself to a couple of other colours so there is more to come with this yarn. I love how at this angle the pattern looks a little like a grumpy alien!

A stranded tea-cosy in teal, dark blue and natural cream is held up with my thumb emerging from the stetted hole for the teapot handle. The angle of the Nordic stranded knitting pattern gives the impression of a grumpy face.

Then there was the obligatory sock knitting – excellent for car journeys as, with a ‘vanilla’ sock like this one, after the ribbing you get a big chunk where you are just knitting every round with nothing more taxing to pay attention to than keeping track of how many rounds you’ve done. This was another yarn I bought during the Knit-Tea Retreat – RiverKnits Nene 4-ply in “Starry Night” and the yarn is really living up to its name. I didn’t get a whole lot done of this sock as this is for said lovely wife and she does prefer her socks knit to a tight gauge. These are on 2mm needles. The section you can see here contains more than 4000 stitches!

The beginnings of a multi-coloured plain knit sock with a deep ribbed cuff in blues, silvers and flecks of yellow lies next to the hand wound ball of yarn. They lie on top of a garter stitch shawl and its lace edging. There are 20 rounds of ribbing and 30 rounds of plain knitting, with 80 stitches on the 2mm needles.

I did a couple more ‘hexiflats’ using up old ends of 4-ply. I think the blue is CoopKnits Socks Yeah! and the green is Alice Starmore‘s Hebridean 2-ply.

Two hexiflats lie on a garter stitch shawl. The left one is dark green with pink yarn finishing the last few rounds and it is overlapped by a blue one on the right. Circular sock needles are lying on the blue 'hexiflat'.

The border for my new shawl design in Llama Lace from Knitting Fever is coming on well and the corner has been rounded which is always a good point to get to. The first seven repeats have stayed flat since being blocked (and rolled up and rammed in a project bag), so I have high expectations for how the whole shawl will look once completed.

A copper garter stitch shawl is laid out on a pale carpet. The silver-blue deep lace edging is half completed. Other knitting projects sit on the garter stitch.

The final project I was working on I can’t show you as it is the next MKAL with Yarn O’clock. Believe me, though, it uses some truly great yarn and will be lots of fun to knit.

A tiny bit of pale multi-coloured knitting peeps out of a denim project bag.

My family (both my mum and my family-by-marriage) really support my knitting and I value the fact they don’t mind me knitting away while I’m with them. I’m lucky that they understand knitters can hold conversations and be just as much a part of what’s going on even when we have needles in our hands.

It’s been so good to reconnect with people recently. The English ‘Rule of 6’ for being indoors was a particular bonus as that hasn’t come into force yet in Wales.

Now that we are back home we’ve started tackling the garden in earnest and have begun the annual battle with the ground elder. I’m hoping the weather holds so we can get our garden looking as neat as my in-laws’.

What are you up to this week? Whatever it is, stay safe and keep knitting or doing whatever makes you happy. Kx