Tag: Inspired by and living in Wales

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Early Bird

A close-up of knitted hexagons made from a random mix of leftover sock yarns

Last week was a first as I wrote my blog post sitting outside. Today’s first is that I’m drafting this a day early – on Monday! Normally I like to write about how things are right there and then, with the topics inspired in the moment (though you have probably noticed some regular themes).

So, why am I writing ‘early’ this week? Well, early on Tuesday morning (I wanted to write ‘tomorrow’, but then that gets confusing as I intend to post this on Tuesday morning!), I am due to have my first Covid-19 jab! I’m both excited and a bit nervous and not sure what sort of side-effects I might get – I’m keeping my fingers crossed for not much more than a sore arm – so I’m trying to clear the decks a bit.

The Grand Secret Project is coming on really well. I did the really scary part today and now it’s just the finishing touches. The pattern itself is written up to almost the same point which is great. Do you remember how I was feeling a little apprehensive about the 1st June deadline when I got my commission through? It seems like I *should* (touching wood and hoping the gods aren’t reading this) even be able to send it in early!!

There’s some sourdough having it’s ‘bulk proof’ in the kitchen right now. I’m trying seeded and wholemeal flours for the first time with sourdough – that’s the mix I tend to use with instant yeast so it will be interesting to see how it comes out. It’s going to have a sleep in the fridge overnight and be baked first thing tomorrow. Elaine Boddy‘s method is brilliant – and I especially like the fact that you can put the loaf (inside a lidded roasting pan) into a cold oven so no waiting for the oven to heat up first.

I’m trying to decide what knitting to take with me to my appointment tomorrow. My lovely wife has already been there for hers and they ask you to sit and wait for 15 minutes afterwards to make sure you’re ok. 15 minutes isn’t a lot of time, but it’s long enough to need some yarn between my fingers. My advent calendar sweater is rather large – I think I would prefer to take something small. I had to look for my 3mm crochet hook earlier today and I discovered it in a bag with my left over sock yarn that I’m using for my Beekeeper’s Quilt. The fab thing about this project is you only have a small hexagon to work on at a time and, once you’ve joined them all together, you can keep adding to it over time. I did stuff some of my hexagons initially as the project suggests, but I definitely prefer ‘hexiflats’ to ‘hexipuffs’.

Has anything been early for you lately?

Take care and keep knitting, Kx

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Stepping Out

A close-up of turquoise, purple and blue knitting; part of a sweater in progress

This is the first blog post I have written whilst sitting outside on the patio. We are so lucky to have outdoor space of our own and this year I am determined to make the most of it.

The birds have proved extra greedy this week – I put up a new coconut half yesterday and it’s already half gone! I’m hoping this means the birds need extra energy for flying around and feeding small ones. It’s great to see the blackbird still doesn’t know he’s supposed to be a ground feeder too – though he is a very messy eater when perched on the apple tree. There is so much birdsong around me and it’s wonderful; it almost distracts from the roofing that’s going on a few doors up!

I’ve planted some of the seeds for our veg patch – courgettes, broad beans, mange tout peas and coriander, along with some nasturtiums, which are lovely and peppery in salads. We were given some potatoes by a friend (already chitted) and these have been planted into potato sacks. Recent years have been very disappointing potato-wise when they’ve been in the ground as they’ve been riddled with crawlies when dug up. And we always manage to miss one or two which gets messy later in the year. This method should be more successful, as long as I remember to water them. There are still other seeds to sow, but not for a weeks or so yet – squash (a couple of varieties) and cucamelon which my sister-in-law had great fun with last year.

Things have been quiet sales-wise this month. I’m thinking of expanding the range of images that I burn onto coasters, hanging hearts and stitch marker pots, to include more knitting themes. Think along the “I love ewe” type of route and you won’t be far wrong. I intend to develop some prototypes over the next couple of weeks, so keep your eyes peeled! If you have any suggestions or requests do let me know 😊

My knitting commission, AKA the Secret Project, is coming on apace. There is now a jolly big spreadsheet, lots of drawings to help check calculations of different sizes and I this morning I wrote out the rest of the pattern (in rough – there are some stitch counts to fill in). I am now ready to pick up the pointy sticks and carry on with the sample, which is great.

Forced downtime from knitting the Secret Project hasn’t been all bad though as it got me back to working on the sleeves of Serenity by Joji Locatelli – that jumper I began in January! I’m on Day 22 of the advent calendar yarn, as there were three mini-skeins I chose to put aside for bed-socks, and I’ve found a 50g Triskelion Yarn Elen Sock (now discontinued, but I have a chunk of different colours in my stash) skein which seems to use the same yarn base and the colour flows on perfectly from Day 25 if/when I run out of the yarns from my Bear in Sheep’s Clothing advent calendar.

My Serenity sweater at different stages of construction

I’ve also stepped out into the world and been to the shops early this morning, before it got busy. I got most of what we needed, dropped some bags in to a charity shop that wasn’t full for donations and even saw a friend to talk to briefly! In person!! What with that and our mini trip out to Llandudno (NOT the pier – it was heaving with people, but we found a quiet corner of the West Shore to enjoy for half an hour or so), it almost feels like I’m emerging from hibernation. Must remember to spend more time outside. It’s good and the sun on the back of my head makes me happy.

Take care and, if you can, do more of what makes *you* happy, K x

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What’s New Pussycat?

Following last week’s excitement of getting the Little Orme Hat pattern and The Little Orme Collection out into the world (and photographed at the Little Orme, too!), there has been a real change of activity in the past couple of days.

I’ve done lots of knitting on my garment commission and I *so* wish I could show it to you, because I am absolutely in love with it. However, you (and I) will have to wait until October before it gets revealed.

As I can’t tell you very much at all about the current main knitting project in my life, I shall have to focus on the other things I’ve been doing. I was very kindly sent a bag of Bowmont Merino fleece locks a little while ago, and over the past few days I’ve been cleaning them. Fortunately, the kind person who sent them to me also sent a couple of links to some very helpful videos (thank you, Anne M and YouTube!), so I had some idea of how to go about this. The change of colour was quite astounding, although the first dip in really hot soapy water and rinse in even more really hot water left quite a lot to be desired. So, they got dunked again, and this time came out gleaming.

Today I attempted to spin some of them – the idea being to spin the yarn as finely as possible. This was much easier said than done, even to get it to catch onto the leader yarn to get going. Eventually it did though and I got about two and a half locks spun, before frustration at the constant falling apart of the yarn finally got to me. So I took a deep breath and put that to one side for the time being.

And then to console myself I got out a plait of Polworth fibre dyed by Rachael of Cat and Sparrow. I got this at The Knit-Tea Retreat marketplace and it was said to be a great fibre type for newer spinners. I love it. As well as the fact that I’m not attempting to spin as finely as possible with this, it’s a gorgeous fibre that so far is behaving beautifully.

Do you remember me talking about the next Craftucation course I’m working on? It’s called An Introduction to Lace Knitting and goes through all the important aspects of lace knitting. You learn many of the common stitches one at a time (yarn overs and eight types of knit decreases!), before putting them together into a practice piece, as well as learning how to follow both a written lace pattern and a lace chart. You then move onto a similar but larger and slightly more challenging small blanket/throw. In this you learn about lifelines – the amazing lengths of thread that stop your knitting unravelling any further – and how to insert and make use of them. You also work a knitted on lace edging and block your finished piece. How cool is all that? All you need to know before undertaking this course is how to cast on, knit, purl and cast off. If you can follow a basic pattern already that is a bonus.

Here is the practice piece:

I’ve recorded a fair chunk of this course already, but I can’t record the next part until my skin heals a bit more. The sudden change back to very cold weather has caused my knuckles to split and that’s not a great look close up on video. I want people to be looking at what my hands are doing rather than the state they’re in!

Hopefully I’ll be able to record the next section soon, but the joy of these courses is that I’m able to create them on my own schedule. Which is the same for the people who take the courses too – no deadlines, no weekly meetings that might not work in your time-zone – you just work through the course at your own pace, in your own way, with access to the tutors and other students on your course via the individual online course forums. There are videos, downloadable and printable pdfs of notes with the video script transcribed and lots of still pictures as well as the original patterns used in the course. So, if you want to try knitting and would like a course that can work for you and around your schedule, have a look at my beginners’ courses: Knitting for Beginners 1 and Knitting for Beginners 2. These links give me a higher proportion of the course fee than if you simply go to the website so if you’d like to starting learning to knit (or know someone else who would), please do use these links!

My current audiobook, Time’s Convert by Deborah Harkness (the fourth book in the All Souls Trilogy….), has given me one of those weird coincidences. Last week we watched Hamilton on Disney+ (it’s amazing what you get when you upgrade a phone these days), which I found fascinating and really enjoyable. I previously knew nothing about this period of history. Then, Time’s Convert takes me to the same time period and some of the same characters as well! It’s funny how things sometimes line up together in life like that.

It seems I had plenty to tell you about after all, despite not being able to share the Grand Secret Project!

Stay safe and warm, and keep (or start!) knitting, K x

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Snow in April

Overhead view of three sizes of colourwork hat in a row on a dark grey background. All use the same colourwork pattern, but the changes in colour order give different effects

My Little Orme Hat is done! Hurrah 🥳 While I write this it’s freezing outside (what a change from the 20 degrees of last week) and there was snow and ice on the ground this morning. So, although it’s April, it doesn’t feel inappropriate that I will be releasing a hat pattern on Friday.

Newsletter subscribers will be getting a discount for any of the following: Little Orme Hat, Little Orme Cowl, Little Orme Mitts, or indeed the whole Little Orme Collection which will be available on Friday as well (this already gives a discount on individual patterns, so newsletter subscribers get a double treat!). I will be sending out April’s newsletter on Friday with the discount code in it. You can sign up for the newsletter here! (Please note, this is separate from subscribing to my blog).

The different effects that come with changing colour order in stranded knitting never cease to inspire me. All three of these hats were knitted using the same four shades of Knit Picks Palette.

The Medium size uses the colours in the same positions as the mitts and cowl.

Overhead shot of the crown of a hat with six segments against a dark grey background. The hat is silver grey with three shades of green worked in stranded colourwork.
Medium Little Orme Hat

The Large size uses the dark green (Contrast Colour 1 in the mitts) for the main colour (MC) (so CC1 became MC) and then the other colours rotated round (CC2 became CC1, CC3 became CC2 and MC became CC3).

Overhead shot of the crown of a hat with seven segments against a dark grey background. The hat is dark green with two lighter shades of green and silver worked in stranded colourwork.
Large Little Orme Hat

For the Small size I changed it again, going for the greatest contrast between background and pattern colour in the centre of the design as I’d really liked that effect with the Large hat. I returned to the original main colour and then swapped C1 and C3, leaving C2 where it was.

Overhead shot of the crown of a hat with five segments against a dark grey background. The hat is silver grey with three shades of green worked in stranded colourwork.
Small Little Orme Hat

Aside from all this, you get a kaleidoscope effect (remember those cardboard tubes with the bits of glitter and plastic shapes in) due to the changing number of segments in the crown. The smallest size has five, the medium has six and the large has seven. Because of that (and maths) the angles being created at the point where the segments meet are different in each hat and so the decrease rate and shaping has to change to accommodate this – otherwise you can end up with a hat that looks more like the top of a baby’s bottle if you know what I mean! So there’s a fair bit more to writing a hat pattern in different sizes than just changing the number of stitches cast on (or at least there can be).

The three stranded colourwork knitted hats in different sizes pictured separately earlier are grouped together on a wooden table. The angle shows more of the sides of the hats as well as the crowns
Little Orme Hat family group

As well as this the yarn has arrived for my design commission – yay!! I’ve re-swatched, as it’s a slightly heavier weight yarn than I’d originally designed the garment for, played with the numbers for all nine sizes, tweaked the charts and I’m ready to cast on! ☺️ This bit is very exciting. I’ve written the opening part of the pattern and there’s a solid chunk I know I can do now following that. I could do the rest of the maths first, but I want to get it on the needles so it feels real.

Also – rhubarb and ginger jam has been made. I tried a recipe this morning that I’d not used before (from the same very traditional book my marmalade recipe is in). The ginger part is root ginger that you ‘bruise’ (or in my case, smash) then tie up in some muslin and drop in the pan with the rhubarb, sugar and lemon juice that have been steeping since the night before. The muslin bag is taken out before potting the jam up, so there is no physical evidence of the ginger but, oh my word, it’s got quite a presence!

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What a difference six months make

A view from the top of the Little Orme towards Penrhyn Bay and Rhos-on-Sea. The sea is calm and the sky has a few hazy clouds.

Can you believe it’s six months since I launched this blog? So the website is six months and one week old! Reading back over my first post I was concerned then about the changes Ravelry had made (though I left it un-named), was excited about Craftucation (from which I received my first payment yesterday!) and showed a picture of the view from the Little Orme, one of my favourite places, and the place after which the collection I am currently working on is named. The hat pattern will be released soon by the way! Today’s picture is unashamedly the same one as from that first post.

I didn’t know then that I would be getting a spinning wheel, or bringing a sourdough starter into existence and doing lots more baking. I also didn’t know that I wouldn’t see my mum once in this whole six months. Sometimes it’s good not to be able to see into the future. Hopefully the restrictions on travel between Wales and England will be lifted soon and I’ll be able to visit her again.

Today, there are butterflies in the garden, it’s 20 degrees outside and the sun is shining. The blackcurrant bush is coming into leaf and the redcurrant is just starting to think about joining it. Last year I allowed all the redcurrants to be eaten by the birds, partly because I hadn’t pruned it and the stems were so overlapping that it I couldn’t face the tangle. Now, of course, that means we have run out of redcurrant jelly, which is a real shame and meant that on Sunday I did something I’ve never done before; I *bought* a jar of redcurrant jelly! Inspired by the weather today and Sunday’s purchase, this morning I pruned the redcurrant bush and promised to take better care of it in future.

Sunday itself was an adventure; we went to a garden centre. They were allowed to re-open in Wales just over a week ago I think. Our nearest one is exactly five miles away, though it felt further! We bought some red cowslips which I have never seen before, some cell trays for the veg seeds and a few other bits and pieces, including the redcurrant jelly. It was so strange to be out in a place where there were quite a few other people and, although our trip was quite a brief one (less than 30 mins), by the time we were through the tills I was glad to be going home again.

It feels late to be planting seeds in a way, but with the extreme winds of yesterday and the snow and sleet forecast for Easter weekend here I didn’t want to kill off delicate seedlings, so I still haven’t done it. Next week!

Following my post about Ravelry last week I had a lovely message from someone offering me an extension/theme that might help. If you’ve seen my social media posts you’ll know what happened; I stupidly compared the version of Rav showing with the theme to the actual NuRav page and got hit with a horrible headache and nausea. It slowed me down somewhat on Friday to say the least. But, at least I know the theme works! I won’t be going onto Ravelry more than I have to after tomorrow though.

Speaking of which, there is a plan to stage a three day boycott of Ravelry from 31st March to 2nd April. Why bother? Well, their main income is from the advertising that users are shown and if you’re not on there, you won’t be shown adverts and so their revenue will drop. It may not have any impact at all or change anything, but I’m happy to wait to pay my March invoice for a couple of days!

Some exciting developments happened during the week with my magazine commission. Having received the email listing the chosen yarn and colours, I expressed some concerns about the way that yarn would behave given the nature of the design. Those concerns were listened to, considered and a different (much more appropriate) yarn was proposed. There is a whole new colour scheme and a new name. Also, a new gauge as the yarn is a slightly different weight, but that just means I get to play with numbers a bit more. It’s making me want to stalk the postman for yarn deliveries, but fortunately I have plenty of other things to keep me busy in the meantime.

I hope the year is being kind to you so far and that you are benefitting from the longer daylight hours. I know I am.

Stay safe and keep knitting, gardening, baking, spinning and doing what makes you happy. K x

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Unravelling

How’s your week going? Mine’s going quite well.

I’ve done most of what I can with my design submission until I get the yarn. Hopefully that will be quite soon as I’d love to crack on with it.

I’ve made a few different sourdough recipes – the last loaf was fab and the hot cross buns were amazing! The smell of cinnamon and nutmeg in the house was divine.

A well-risen sourdough loaf on a cooling rack.
Sourdough loaf
A dozen homemade hot cross buns sitting on baking parchment.
Hot cross buns

I’ve also re-recorded a chapter of my latest Craftucation course (not yet published) where my hands kept disappearing off the screen. Most distracting!

My Little Orme Hat took on a life of its own during the week and I’ve finished the medium size, started the large one and written up the pattern. It’s quite possibly the most comfortable hat I’ve designed so far and I’m wondering whether that’s because of the brim. The folded, ribbed brim extends the knitting time considerably, but it’s so worth it! The pattern will be out soon!

A blue-haired middle-aged woman (me) looks at the camera over her glasses wearing Little Orme Hat, a stranded colourwork hat with a striped folded brim. She is sitting in front of a patchwork blanket.
Little Orme Hat
A top-down view of the crown of Little Orme Hat being worn. The wearer (me) is holding their arms up as the camera is above their head.
Little Orme Hat crown (Medium size)

Despite all this progress, something is niggling at me.

I’ve mentioned elsewhere that, although my patterns are all listed on Ravelry, I don’t recommend you visit the website if you have a tendency towards migraines or any kind of visual impairment. That includes common issues like astigmatism (which I have). The design of the site was completely overhauled in June 2020 and caused many people problems, from eye strain to migraines to seizures in some cases.

After a couple of weeks they introduced ‘Classic’ mode which was supposed to be the old version of the site that people could toggle back to if they ‘didn’t like’ or couldn’t use the new version of Ravelry (NuRav). It’s not quite the old version though. I switched to ‘Classic’ as NuRav was making me queasy after about 10 minutes, but I still need to limit the time I spend on there if I can. Which is a shame and a pain, since most of my pattern sales are made through Ravelry.

Yesterday I spent about an hour adding the Payhip link for each of my patterns and adding Lovecrafts as a clickable source and my eyes were very relieved when I was done. By adding these links I’m trying to make it easier for people to access my patterns through Payhip and Lovecrafts even if they originally found them via Ravelry. I’m not adding links to Ravelry here for what I hope are obvious reasons.

I haven’t said much about the whole Ravelry re-design previously (apart from cheering on those who have been trying to push Ravelry to hire an accessibility consultant and raise awareness of the real harm being done to some people), so why am I raising my voice now? Possibly, selfishly, it’s because at the end of this month ‘Classic’ Rav will disappear (be retired) and the only option will be NuRav. I don’t know how much I will be able to use it and that worries me. I’ve already told my (largely inactive) Ravelry group that I won’t be using it as a social forum in future and will be focussing efforts on my website/newsletter and social media instead.

As a concept Ravelry is brilliant and for over 12 years it’s been the go-to place for designers to host their knitting and crochet patterns as a selling platform, for knitters and crocheters to log all their stash, projects and notes (and for others to search them) and a social forum that was a lifeline for many. We were probably far too reliant on it in retrospect, but it was so damned convenient.

If you buy knitting or crochet patterns, from me or anyone else, and you usually get them via Ravelry, please consider buying them from other sources if they are available elsewhere.

Right, I shall now step down off my soap-box and go and transcribe some videos.

Take care folks and keep knitting, K x

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It’s a Good Day

My Little Orme Cowl was published last Friday on all the platforms I use; here/Payhip, Lovecrafts and Ravelry – be wary of Rav if you have any visual sensitivity, it’s caused lots of problems since the redesign in June. I’ve done the calculations for cast-on numbers for the three sizes of hat and the charts are also done. I don’t have a deadline for getting the hat out there, but it would be nice to finish the collection sooner rather than later. However, something rather exciting has also come up. 😊

I had some great news yesterday. It was particularly pleasing as I had pretty much decided I wasn’t going to get a ‘yes’, but I did! I had a design submission accepted for a UK knitting magazine later in the year. It will be published in October, which sounds like ages away, but there’s so much to happen before then.

The deadline is June 1st. Between then and publication it will be checked by technical editors, the pattern will be laid out by professional magazine people and the garment will be photographed to its best advantage. Any queries will come back to me to answer and I will make any corrections to the pattern and send it back to be re-checked.

Between now and June 1st is even more exciting! I have put in my yarn support request and should get notice of what yarn I will be using (and then receive it) within a couple of weeks. See how time is ticking already? During that ‘wait’ time I can do some maths. Maths, you say? Why, yes, there are a lot of numbers involved in designing a garment in nine sizes, especially when motifs are involved. I know what size I’m required to knit and although it will be too small for me to wear afterwards, it will certainly be quicker to make than a ‘me-sized’ one. I’m sure it will fit a friend!

So, there’s writing the pattern, calculating the numbers for the different sizes (this is called grading), typing the pattern up according to the magazine’s style sheet (they all have their own particular ways of doing things), knitting the design and posting it to the magazine’s office. Suddenly June 1st seems awfully near.

This is when I become ever more grateful to have my journal. One of my tasks for today is mapping out all the different elements I need to do and to tie in all the other plates that I’m determined to keep spinning as well.

I have now successfully recorded one section of An Introduction to Lace Knitting, my third Craftucation course, (Knitting for Beginners 1 and Knitting for Beginners 2 are here) and I have finalised (and slightly simplified) my plans for the main project involved, as well as knitting a sample version of it. My initial plan was to get this published by the end of April and I would still like to achieve this, but as a self-imposed deadline, there can be flexibility.

Happy dance for being busy – especially with some of them being things that will/could pay! It’s a really good incentive to cut back on the online scrabble too.

The sourdough baking is going quite well, incidentally. There are some sesame-topped buns proving in the kitchen right now. One of the benefits of this type of baking is there are decent stretches of time in between stages so they can be used as blocks of knitting, planning, writing or recording time. And then there’s something lovely to eat at the end of it – with any luck.

I’ve only spun once in the past week, but I do intend to keep going with that as well. I think that if I can get into the habit of little and often with it there will be more improvement than doing an hour once a week.

Something will probably have to give at some point and it will undoubtedly be the dusting that goes first! I’ll let you know. 😉

Keep knitting / doing what makes you happy and stay safe, K x

P.S. It’s a Good Day sung by Peggy Lee is a great song and is quite likely to get your feet tapping.

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It was red and yellow and green and brown and…

This has been a very visually stimulating week for me, so I hope you won’t mind a rather picture filled blog post.

A friend I used to work with in a former life send me a cryptic message a couple of weeks ago: “Look out for a parcel in the post”. I had no idea what to expect. What arrived was this!

Child’s hat, possibly from Peru

There was an accompanying postcard, but all it told me was that my friend was having a sort through her textiles collection and she thought I might like this and that it was ‘authentic’. It is a small hat, for a child, knitted from the top down with ear flaps and knitted to a very tight gauge. The inside shows it was made using the intarsia technique which is perfect for designs with lots of patches of different colours in the same row. However, this technique is usually worked when knitting a flat piece of fabric and I cannot find a seam anywhere on this hat. It must have been knitted in the round. This leaves me puzzled. I contacted my friend to see if she had any more information. She thinks it’s from Peru, but really has forgotten as she’s had it for about 25 years or more. The bright colours were seen as desirable as they were Western chemical dyes. It really is bright – some of the colours are neon and they contrast so strongly with the probably undyed yarn used as the background colour.

I want to do some research into this and find out more about the knitting traditions from Peru and the surrounding areas.

My own colourwork knitting of the Little Orme Cowl has progressed well this week from the tiny circle of knitting I included in my picture on the previous post. It’s going to be super warm as not only is the fabric double layered from being stranded, the cowl is actually a flattened tube so you get four layers of wool between your neck and the icy winds! Ideal for when we can walk up the Little Orme (and the Great Orme) again. It’s always cold at the top! Remember that the mitts pattern is already available – it won’t be long before the cowl is as well.

Little Orme Cowl in progress next to Little Orme Mitts.

I think I’m about halfway round here. Once the knitting is finished I must remember to weave the yarn ends in before I graft the two ends of the tube together or there will be some unsecured ends that I won’t be able to access!

I had two creative successes this week as well. I finished spinning my gorgeous yarn from Anne Murray on Saturday. After letting it sit overnight I plied the two bobbins of ‘singles’ together on Sunday. Monday was skeining and washing and today it is dry. I’m probably biased, but it is a thing of beauty. Anne told me that it would fluff up and bloom after washing and she wasn’t wrong.

The yarn now has a bounce and body that wasn’t there yesterday morning. It also looks more green in real life than I can get the images to show, but either way, I love it! I think it will be the first of my hand spun yarns that I actually knit up as I can’t wait to see how it looks. But what to make?

On the baking front, last week’s sourdough was not great, despite being an improvement on the previous loaf. Yesterday I changed a whole bunch of things at once (which I know isn’t the scientific approach). I fed my starter with rye flour, put the heating on (I know it’s late winter/early spring, but it usually has to be making me shiver before I put the heating on in the daytime), left the starter on the window sill in the sunshine. For the first time ever it doubled in size!

Then more changes: I used 100g of starter instead of 50g, I reduced the water from 350ml to 300ml (along with 500g flour and 10g salt). It was a bit scary at first as I thought the flour was never all going to mix in. But it did. The dough felt and looked just right yesterday evening. I put its shower cap on and let it rest overnight on the counter. The mistake I made was not leaving the shower cap loose as the dough had risen to the top of the bowl and was completely stuck to the underside of it this morning. I finally managed to peel it off, but was a bit concerned I might have wrecked it.

Then, the cold proof in the fridge and the bake. I am delighted! There are still some improvements to be made, but this one is looking far more like a loaf. It’s taking a lot of will power to wait before cutting it open.

Sourdough loaf number four

While I have been doing all these pursuits I have been listening to a new set of audiobooks. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness and read by Jennifer Ikeda is keeping me gripped, and I do like an audiobook that’s over 20 hours long. I’m just a few chapters into the second book of the trilogy at the moment (Shadow of Night) and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

So, I shall put the kettle on, continue knitting the cowl and listen to another chapter.

Stay safe and keep knitting, K x

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What have you done today to make you feel proud?

Things I have learned this week:

I have knitted a lot more since the start of the year than I thought I had, especially when you see it all together. The green cardigan had already been a work in progress, but both sleeves have been knitted since the New Year. Everything else has been cast on since then. The geek in me wants to calculate how many stitches it all adds up to, but the realist in me points out that it’s much more sensible to say, “Look, you know it’s likely to be in the hundreds of thousands, if not the millions, so rather than working it out, use that time to do something more useful!” So, I will. I’m going to be casting off the body of the Serenity Sweater by Joji Locatelli today and will be continuing to work on my Little Orme Cowl. The cowl is so far that small circle on the needles towards the top left of the picture – there’s quite a lot to do. Down the left hand side (as I’m sure you’re dying to know!) are some swatches for my next Craftucation course – An Introduction to Lace Knitting. Look for that in a month or so.

I quite enjoy an Instagram yarn festival/marketplace! I wasn’t sure I would like it as a set-up. Each vendor has half an hour on Instagram live to talk about their products and the processes and inspiration behind them. There’s no actual buying happening via the livestream, but I had the IG live up in one window and the website of the vendor talking in another next to it. It was a bit like being at a yarn show where you can talk to the dyers and suppliers of yarn and fibre and ask them questions, without the stress of being on camera or not knowing when it might be your turn to talk. Have a question? Great, type it in the chat. A number of skeins of yarn and a couple of plaits of fibre fell into shopping baskets. Well, it would have been rude not to! (and one of them has just arrived!! – Nene 4ply in Starry Night from Riverknits – and it’s gorgeous!! And the hand-written thank you note, written, I think, by one of the children, is a lovely touch.)

The marketplace mentioned above was the Sunday part of the virtual Knit-Tea Retreat, Nordic Edition, that took place over the weekend. I have learnt SO much about differences in knitting traditions from different countries (thanks to Karie Westermann) and in particular Swedish knitting (thanks to Estelle from Midwinter Yarns) as well as a fascinating talk on colour theory from Becci from Riverknits. I can now even identify the different Nordic countries on a map (yes, that sounds a bit pathetic that I couldn’t before, but geography was never a subject I excelled at).

Hønsestrikk is something I want to learn more about. Stranded knitting with political/ funny/ personalised motifs in bold clashing colours and with a feminist twist is something I could really get behind!

Sourdough starter is a tricky beast. My dough this morning looked like a bowl of over-excited lava after an over-night proof. I’m hoping it comes out better than the weekend ‘loaf’ which looked more like an alien space-ship and was all ‘gummy’ inside. I have also learnt to follow the damn recipe when it’s something new, even if it seems like your dough will never pick up all the flour initially. Don’t go adding more water – or you will end up with a sticky loaf that looks like a flying saucer…

Rice flour gets everywhere and it’s really gritty under your feet.

I still get really excited and do a happy dance when someone buys a pattern and even more-so when they buy a kit or a course. You know, just in case you felt like making me want to dance 😉.

What have you learnt this week?

Stay safe, warm and keep knitting. K x

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Learn Something New

Nature is weird, wonderful and amazing. Only a few days ago it was so cold that the water butt was frozen solid and yet today we have been out for a walk without our coats on (!) and these bright pink flowers decided to open again. They seem to close at the end of each day and after the really cold snap we had I thought they were done for because they hadn’t opened in almost a week, but here they are. I don’t know what they are, but they are the brightest thing in the border and they make me smile. There is an app to identify plants on your phone by scanning them, but I’ve done the more traditional thing to learn this plant’s name; I took a photo and have sent it to my mum. She’ll know. (She did, sort of – it’s a ‘species crocus’, but she can’t remember the exact name!).

Yesterday afternoon the thing I have been raving about for months finally happened! Craftucation.com went live!! It was a soft launch with 13 courses available in a wide variety of crafts at the moment, but there will be many, many more coming. Two of the courses are mine (as I might have mentioned once or twice) and there are courses on crafts I’ve never even heard of before – and I have a fairly broad crafting experience. Ice-dyeing, anyone? This looks really cool! Or Anglo-Saxon embroidery? Beautiful! There are also ones you are likely to be more aware of – felting, crochet, sewing, cake sculpting/decorating, and more knitting. The folks behind this venture have worked so hard and have made the website easy to navigate and friendly as well, with a range of chat forums (fora?), including ones for the students of each course to share their progress, ask questions and communicate with the tutor. So, you’re not just on your own once you’ve bought your course, which is so important when you’re learning something new.

My Heart in my Hands Collection was published in full on Sunday too (it’s been a busy few days). It seemed appropriate to get it out there on February 14th! Photographing all three sizes of hat made me realise that there has been quite a lot of knitting happening here since the New Year. There have been these three hats, the matching cowl, my Little Orme mitts in (almost) original colours – I’m halfway through the second mitt, my Llanberis hats (at least two were knitted this year) and my Serenity jumper using my Bear in Sheep’s Clothing advent mini-skeins which is coming on nicely. I’m currently on the yarn from Day 14. That’s in six weeks! Oh, and I’ve been swatching like mad for my third Craftucation course – An Introduction to Lace Knitting. During the week I’m going to gather everything together and photograph it all to share with you visually next week.

I also submitted a design to a UK mag. It’s a lovely design idea that I really want to get out there. I don’t hear back for a little while yet, but I’ll let you know how it goes.

In sourdough starter news, I have had a breakthrough today. It’s been bubbling and looking interesting, but not actually growing in size. Some friends on Facebook shared their starter tips with me, many of which included ‘throw some rye flour at it’. I don’t have any of that, but I do have wholemeal, so this morning I fed the starter with a half and half mix of strong white flour and strong wholemeal. And it’s loving it! It’s almost doubled in size for the first time and I’m getting quite excited, especially as, having named my starter (Audrey) I was beginning to worry that I was going to need to try again. But, hey, the name is ready if that does happen – Audrey 2 (from Little Shop of Horrors in case that made no sense to you at all).

I’m still enjoying my spinning very much and am trying to ensure that I spin at least twice a week. I’ve finished the first half of the wonderful fibre dyed by Anne Murray that I showed you a couple of weeks ago and started the second half last night. Mostly I’m getting an even twist and a regular thickness, but sometimes I lose my way a little and it just stops holding together. I think because I am focussing hard on not over-spinning it and making it too tight there is a tendency to go too far the other way and not put enough twist in. Perhaps it’s a hint that I need to spend a bit more time with the online course that I’m using (Spinning with a Purpose, by Katie Weston from Hilltop Cloud)?

Anyway, that’s enough from me for today – I have spinning to do!

Take care, stay safe and go explore something new, K x