Tag: FastenOffYAL

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Turning The Lights On

It’s just turned 4pm, I need the main light on to see what I’m doing and it’s getting really foggy outside. This morning there was bright sunshine and a pale blue sky as I walked up to town for an appointment. For myself, I’m glad the fog waited until now, but I’m sure those driving in it as it gets even darker won’t be thinking that way. (The photo for today’s blog was taken at 5pm – very dark and still foggy. Yes, it seems it does take me an hour to write this!)

I have good news! I went with the concept of the Nevern Lap Blanket with full joining instructions, rather than just a set of six charts as an expansion pack for Nevern Throw, and today the pattern has gone live on KnitPicks‘ website! You can find the pattern here.

As it’s been published as part of the KnitPicks’ Independent Designer Program(me), there is no exclusivity period before I can also publish it here on my website, and on Payhip, Ravelry and Lovecrafts. It will be going live on my platforms on December 9th – and newsletter subscribers will be hearing from me next Monday with details of their special new pattern discount code.

I’m waiting until December 9th as that is just after the Fasten Off Yarn-a-long sale period ends and I can a proper ‘launch’ with the bells and whistles.

And shortly after this, likely around December 16th, Ceridwen will be launched as an individual pattern!

There will be a subscriber code for this too, so if you’re not a newsletter subscriber, but you’d like discount on either of these patterns, now is definitely the time to sign up!

Speaking of the Fasten Off YAL, I cast on and completed my first purchased pattern from the yarn-a-long today! It’s a mosaic stitch coaster called Jasmine Tea Coaster by Arella Seaton, a designer I’ve not come across before. Mosaic stitch is a technique I’d never tried previously and once I understood the concept it was quite straightforward and very satisfying and the pattern was really well written and clear. I think this coaster will definitely be getting some friends.

One of the brilliant things about the database that has been put together for Fasten Off YAL is that it is fully searchable. You can search by designer, by type of pattern, by yarn, by technique and so on. You can also search by inclusivity features such as patterns for low vision. There are 109 designers taking part this year and ALL their available patterns are in the database, not just the ones they’ve included in the 25% discount period; that’s well over 4300 patterns for knitting, crochet, loom knitting and Tunisian crochet, with over 3500 eligible for a discount using the code FO2022!

Several designers are putting together collages of some of their designs, such as this one I posted yesterday. The globe/yarn ball in the centre with the crochet hook and knitting needle through it is the Fasten Off YAL logo.

Even if you don’t want to get involved with the games and social media side of the YAL, it’s a great resource and a wonderful way to find ‘new to you’ designers. AND the databases for 2021 and 2020 are still available to search as well.

I’ve joined seven extra rows of hexiflats on to my Beekeeper Quilt. That’s 161 hexagons added in total, all with the yarn ends from the joins at each corner hidden inside them. I don’t even want to think about how many ends of yarn that adds up to, but it is looking really good. I haven’t got a photo of the ‘updated version’ yet, but I’ll be sure to take one to show you next week.

At the beginning November when I set my monthly goals I wrote that (among many other things) I wanted to finish my socks, finish the Safe Space embroidery, spin at least three times a week and go out for a walk daily. I’ve achieved the spinning goal and the walking goal has been partly achieved. I’ve walked 20 days out of 29 so far. I’m not sure you’ll see much difference in the amount of yarn on the bobbin since the last photo of my spinning wheel – the photo on the right is from today.

The socks are still very much in the singular (and I haven’t finished that one yet…), so a definite fail on that goal and, while the Safe Space embroidery won’t be finished either, there has been a lot of progress! It now looks like this:

I think that when I go December’s monthly goals in a couple of days I will need to be a touch more realistic about what can be achieved. And remember that these things are in addition to my work goals!

Take care out there folks. K x

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Snowdrop

The first snowdrop is in flower in the garden! It’s called Gabriel and is one of the earliest, always flowering before Christmas. Seeing these always lifts me – they are so delicate and yet so very resilient. I couldn’t understand how they survived the frost and snow until Mum told me that they contain their very own version of anti-freeze.

Why are booster jabs like buses? You wait for ages for one and then two turn up at once! On Sunday evening I received a text message giving me an appointment date in January for my booster. Then, yesterday evening I got another text offering an opportunity to book one sooner if I wanted to, by clicking on the link. So, my booster jab will be happening this afternoon! Don’t worry, the whole text message thing isn’t dodgy – I’ve had all my notifications from NHSWales this way.

This has made me replan today a little, just in case I feel a bit ropey later on, but that is a benefit of being self-employed; I can organise my time to suit, which makes me very lucky indeed.

The knitted baubles are in the post, as are two wooden coasters that were ordered last night. If you are thinking of ordering a kit or anything else that needs to be posted for Christmas please do so by the end of this week (17th December). The lady at the post office thought I should sell the baubles (I’d need to develop my own base pattern to do that, but that is fine), although I’m not sure people would pay for the time/skill involved. Would you purchase one of these? If so, what would you be willing to pay? Answers in the comments please!

My sock knitting is on schedule as I finished one yesterday and started the second. I should get some more done later while I wait for my jab.

I’ve also made progress with two of my Fasten Off Yarn-a-Long pattern purchases! Gridlock Mitts by Karen Butler is now into the main colourwork (that was during Only Connect last night).

Water Dragon Wrap/Shawl by Red and the Wolf Designs is skipping along. I began with 140 sts and currently have 340 sts on the needle. The increasing will continue for a while yet and that will mean the rows get slower, but it’s great telly knitting!

The first deadline project that was due at the end of November has now had its first tech edit and has come back to me to be checked. This is where I get to see if I can remember how to use ‘track changes’ in Word…

My other secret deadline project (so no pics) is also coming on, though I haven’t touched it for a couple of days while I’ve been knitting other things – I’m still totally in love with the yarn though and plan to knit a lot of it in the next few days!

And… I’ve been swatching for another design and I’m really quite excited by how it’s working out. The submission deadline for this one is early next year and I’m keeping everything crossed that they want it. 🤞

It’s getting a bit scary again out there with Covid-19, so please take care and do the things you know will keep you and your loved ones as safe as possible. K x

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Good with my Hands

Somehow, despite being away from home for three days during the past week, I have managed to do quite a lot of knitting! I’ve finished two projects, started another and worked on yet three more (two of which I can’t show you). As part of the Fasten Off Yarn-a-Long I’ve bought four patterns (supporting other designers and because these patterns are awesome!) and matched them all up with yarn from the stash (yay!).

The main image for today’s post is one of my project bags from The Knitting Goddess. Yes, it’s a bit cheeky; yes, I like it!

Treble clef baubles:

Woodstock:

Sock! (Heel flap completed, heel turn is next):

Gridlock Mitts by Karen Butler (one of my pattern purchases as part of Fasten Off Yarn-a-Long):

As I got to the end of the cuff on these I realised that I had reversed the Main Colour and Contrast Colour stitches. I ‘fixed’ it by fiddling the set up round before the main colourwork chart began by moving the start of the thumb gusset to the first two sts of the round instead of the last two, as I could see from the photos that the edging of the thumb gusset was supposed to grow organically from one column of ribbing in the same colour. If I hadn’t worked those extra two stitches, the thumb gusset would have been sitting awkwardly on top of a column of differently coloured stitches.

Do you remember that last week I told you all about the Fasten Off Yarn-a-Long and that there would be games? One of these is bingo and I’ve just been filling in my bingo card – it’s looking good! A column completed already and two rows nearly done!

Yesterday we had BT Openreach here to upgrade our broadband. I hadn’t quite appreciated that it would involve the engineer scaling the nearest telephone pole and actually putting new cable from there to our house, but it did. He drilled holes where he had to and persevered through phone calls and lots of trial and error when the broadband didn’t seem to want to work at all after all that effort. Three hours of work and we now have super speedy fibre broadband and a… digital phone…?!?! That last bit threw me a little – I didn’t realise that our old phone simply wouldn’t work any more as the old copper wires were gone and the new ‘wires’ are made of glass. The new phone is nice, though I’m not sure about the Alexa feature – and I’ve chosen not to enable that yet.

I’ve listened to a lot of audiobooks this week as well – Terry Pratchett’s Snuff accompanied me on my long car drive and over the past couple of days I’ve been listening to The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. I wasn’t sure about this one to start with, but the more I listened the more I got into it and I was very pleased with the ending. I do like an ending that brings things together and feels satisfying.

Audrey2 has been been behaving very well recently and you can see how well she’s doing in the photo below (the jar behind the loaf). I started a loaf yesterday that was baked at midday today and looks gorgeous:

And now I’m going to go and make some sourdough banana bread. This will have two benefits – we have a couple of elderly bananas in the kitchen somehow, and Sue and I both fancied cake yesterday and there wasn’t any. There will be soon.

Stay safe, keep knitting and do what makes you happy! K x

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Silent Night

Last Sunday was Advent Sunday, so we put the Christmas tree up and decorated it. It took a little bit longer this year (maybe we’re a bit older?), but it was good.

A couple of hours after we had finished, the power went out. Storm Arwen did most of her damage on Friday night in our area, so we were surprised to get a power cut on late Sunday afternoon. It wasn’t the tree – we checked and the whole street and most of the town was in darkness.

It’s not until something as ‘invisible’ as electricity goes that you realise how much you rely on it. The heating went off as the boiler itself is powered by electricity. All the lights, except one USB chargeable lamp, went out. We couldn’t make a cup of tea.

So we scrabbled about in the dark to find the small candlesticks and the taper candles and lit three of those. Once it got chilly we lit the gas fire (ignition is battery powered and it had its service less than a week ago!). Carrying the candles into the kitchen to make a quick stove top casserole, we discovered the ignition on the hob is run off the mains, so back to the matches to get that on. We lit the candelabra with the multi-coloured candles that has been on the dining table in the kitchen unused for ages. Going to the bathroom meant taking one of the candles with us.

But it was so quiet. We sat and did a crossword by candlelight and talked. The constant hum of electrical equipment that is always on the edge of our awareness had stopped and it was peaceful.

A free standing Christmas decoration of a plaster sheep, with a rug over its back, with a cat sleeping on the rug and a small red bird sitting on the cat, stands on a base that is inscribed with the text "Sleep in Heavenly Fleece" is on the mantlepiece. Behind it part of a red and white glass clock and a small china Santa can be seen.

The power cut only lasted two and a half hours for us – barely anything compared to the four days some people in Wales have endured. But it made us stop, reflect and be grateful for the many things we still did have and were able to do (even without electricity for a little while). When the power came back on (as we sat down to eat and just in time for the Strictly results show) we were glad, but there’s something in that still quietness we had imposed on us that I don’t want to lose.

Today sees the start of the Fasten Off Yarn-a-Long for 2021 which runs until the end of the year. The discount code (valid from 9pm tonight EST until 11.59pm 6th December EST) is FO2021 and gives the same 25% discount for all patterns (well over 2000) from all the designers who are involved – that’s 101 of us. My page for the event is here.

In knitting progress, I’m back on track with the socks – the first leg is finished and I’ve started the heel flap.

A stripy sock in progress is shown on maroon fabric. The beginnings of the heel flap in blue show at the top of the work. Part of a hand is visible holding the sock flat.

I emailed my pattern with four days to spare before the deadline. I’m almost halfway through the sample for my second secret knitting and last night I knitted a bauble. I used the blank chart at the back of Arne & Carlos’ 55 Christmas Balls to Knit book to create a treble clef design and I’m quite pleased with it. I’ll be making two as Christmas gifts. It’s been a couple of years since I last made one of these baubles and I’m glad I still have the book to refer to for the shaping.

A hand knitted stranded Christmas bauble lies on maroon fabric. The background is cream with two bright red treble clefs showing. The bauble has not yet been stuffed and finished.

I’ve also cast on another design-in-progress of mine as I’ve decided to knit a sample in my size as I finish the write up of the pattern – partly to check the numbers and pattern writing and partly to get a new jumper! Unfortunately this is another thing I can’t show you yet, but I can show you the yarn I’m using. It’s Fleece by West Yorkshire Spinners, a really smooth DK yarn in Bluefaced Leicester wool – I’ve done the ribbing of the back so far and it’s working up beautifully. The colour is called Bramble.

A skein of deep purple yarn lies diagonally on a pale gold carpet. The text on the white ball band says "West Yorkshire Spinners/ Fleece/ 100% British Wool/ Bluefaced Leicester/ DK".

The really tricky decision for today will be which of these projects do I take with me to my mum’s for the next few days? Actually, I think I know the answer to that – all of them.

Take care, have a look at the Fasten Off Yarn-a-Long (it’s for crocheters as well as knitters), wear your mask and stay safe out there. K x