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’.
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
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
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
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
As we move into February the evenings have begun to lighten a little. I was really surprised and quite excited the other day to see that the sky was not dark at 5.15 when I looked out of the window. A sign of hope, along with the flowers that are blooming in the garden. Our garden currently has lots of hellebores, snowdrops and cyclamen in flower and it was even warm enough yesterday to get outside and cut away some of the old hellebore leaves and overgrown grasses that were trying to hide the snowdrops. The photo isn’t mine by the way – it’s from The Wildlife Trusts website and was taken by Les Binns.
Other new life is also making its presence felt. I have an urge to make sourdough bread. I know that most people jumped on this particular bandwagon last year, but I was just making standard wholemeal and seeded loaves. Now, though, the idea of sourdough made with my own homemade starter is calling.
If you follow me on social media you will have seen that yesterday Hanna Germander of Germander Cottage Crafts published her Designer of the Month blog feature for February – and it’s yours truly 😊! I did know it was coming out this month, but it’s such a buzz nonetheless. Go and have a look – I’ll wait. And while you’re there have a look at Hanna’s Etsy shop too – it’s super.
You know that I’ve been working on a hat and cowl to go with my Heart in my Hands mitts. The cowl pattern is now live! I wasn’t sure whether to grade it for a range of sizes or just have one size, so I asked for opinions on social media. One or two people said “Just do one, if we want to change anything, we will”, but the majority of folk were in favour of some guidance, even if just to avoid a bit of maths. So, in response to this, the pattern has various options:
The Standard Size (24cm x 72cm) with six chart repeats, including meterage used for each colour
Information on making the circumference bigger in increments of 12cm, including the meterage for each colour used in that amount.
Options to make the cowl taller or shorter by 8.5cm with guidance on how that would change the meterage.
This approach gives *almost* limitless combinations and I think the flexibility is much better than a two or three size pattern.
The hat pattern will be published soon – in three sizes. Very happily you can make the mitts, standard size cowl and large hat all from one skein of each colour of the yarn (Erika Knight Wool Local). You could probably even make the cowl a bit bigger too.
The last crafty thing I want to tell you about today is more of a reminder – Craftucation launches this month!! In less than two weeks, in fact, and I am getting very excited about it. The materials for the optional kits to accompany the courses which will also be available to buy from Ewe Felty Thing are arriving this afternoon (thank you, Yarn O’clock!) and it’s all coming together.
My audiobooks (yes, plural) this week have been from the Shardlake series by C.J. Sansom, narrated by Stephen Crossley. At one point the events completely intersected with the book I am also reading, Six Tudor Queens No.5 Katheryn Howard by Alison Weir, which was fascinating and slightly bewildering on occasion. It meant I had to keep reminding myself which bits were murder mystery and which were historical fiction. Both brilliant though.
Yesterday was apparently Blue Monday. It’s not something I subscribe to, although two people I spoke to said they’d felt a bit more down than usual. I’m not sure that simply being the third Monday of the year is enough to qualify in this particular decade – there are plenty of other things going on.
It’s raining here in North Wales today. No surprise there, but it’s due to keep on raining for the next couple of days, after which we get a couple of days of sleet! Thank you, Storm Christopher. I am so glad we live up a very big hill – I would rather get snowed in than flooded any day. Despite the rain, or maybe even because of it, it is the perfect time to be knitting hats and cowls.
About a year ago, when I was doing stalls at the local pop-up shop, one of the people browsing said that I should do hats and cowls to match my stranded mitt designs and that is what I am currently working on. It was so lovely to return to charts I knew and ‘play’ with them, trying out different variations and seeing what I liked most. It’s ‘only’ taken me a year to respond to that feedback, but I get there in the end.
The cowl to go with Heart in my Hands Mitts is done. I just need to make sure I’m 100% happy with a couple of design decisions and then it will be published. The hat is not far behind. The cowl will be in one size (or maybe two), the hat in three, and there will be more maths involved in getting the sizing just right for the hat, hence why I did the cowl first! What do you think?
Heart in my Hands Mitts and Cowl
If you have subscribed to my newsletter via the sign-up on the website, you will know that there is a special 15% subscriber-only discount running until the end of January on ALL my products in the payhip shop (everything on the website links to this). This covers not only digital downloads of patterns, but also all the wooden treats and knitting kits too! What a bargain! I know I mentioned last week there would be a discount code in the newsletter, but if you sign up before the end of the month, that discount could be yours as well.
Llanberis Mystery Knit-along is going well. It feels weird that it will be over so soon though – the third and final part is being released on Friday. People are posting their progress on Facebook and Instagram, and saying that they are enjoying the pattern. That’s one of the things I like best about social media – you can see what people make with your designs and get instant feedback.
Even a bit of negative feedback can be useful – certainly more so than radio silence. I had an email a couple of weeks ago from someone who didn’t like the layout of one of my patterns. Initially, I was offended and a bit hurt, but after I’d got over myself (and had a sleep) I looked at it again and thought about what I could do to improve things. This is the Beanstalk Throw I wrote about last week and shows how even negative feedback can help you develop – as long as there isn’t too much of it!
I made the marmalade last Wednesday. It’s gorgeous, though it did take six hours – partly because I had forgotten that though my mum’s fast hob ring is front left, mine is back right, so if I want a fast boil I need to remember whose kitchen I am in! Fortunately I managed to move the preserving pan without burning myself. It’s a therapeutic process in some ways, whilst leaving you totally wiped out in others, albeit with the added bonus of about a year’s worth of marmalade.
13 lbs of Marmalade cooling in their jars
Yesterday I had some fun with my spinning wheel. I haven’t done any of the exercises in Katie Weston’s Spinning with a Purpose course for a while, so I had a go at making slubs and also some consistently thicker yarn than my ‘standard’ instinctive spinning tends to produce. I don’t know whether it’s a tension thing or if I just want to scrape every last bit of value out of the fibre I have, but I have tended towards the finer fingering-weight and lace-weight end of things. This was a challenge. I loved it. I’m also ridiculously pleased with the slubby yarn I made, despite the fact there’s only about two metres of it and I’m unlikely to ever be able to knit with it. I just want to admire it and pet it! WPI stands for ‘wraps per inch’, as in how many times yarn of that thickness can be wrapped around a piece of card or wood an inch wide. The gap at the top of the WPI tool in the photos is an inch wide (and the massive slub almost fills it!). The numbers under the horizontal lines show how wide a strand of yarn would be if it were 4/6/8 etc wraps per inch.
Slubby Yarn hung round spinning wheelMassive slub on WPI tool
Skein of Bulky yarn on WPI toolSingle strand of Bulky yarn on WPI tool
Skein of DK/Worsted weight yarn on WPI toolTwo strands of DK/Worsted weight yarn on WPI tool
Speaking of challenges and learning new stuff – Craftucation will be going live in less than four weeks!!!! (Yes, I know four exclamation marks are a lot, but I think this warrants it). I will be jumping around and shouting about this more and more as February 15th comes around. If there is a new craft you are interested in learning, that will be the place to go. Not all the course will be up at the very start, but it will grow and there will be some wonderful opportunities to learn new skills.
Keep going – you can do it. And keep knitting. And stay warm. K x
For the very first time I bought my own marmalade oranges this morning. I have been making marmalade for about three or four years, but in previous years the oranges had always been bought by my mum and I would make the marmalade at her house, after which we would share out the jars. Last year was the first time I did it without direct supervision. Trusted at last? Yes, but also she could no longer stand in the kitchen for long enough and instead checked on progress from her reclining chair. It is sad that this year will be the first time in 25 years that her house will not be filled with the wonderful smell of marmalade making and that I cannot travel to see her. Another little cruelty of Covid. So, tomorrow I shall make the marmalade and put some jars aside for the time when I am again allowed to visit my mum.
Over the past few days I have been doing lots of other making:
I have knitted my Part One of the Llanberis MKAL and enjoyed seeing others begin to post pictures of their progress.
I am now on the final part of my Avix cardigan by Jennifer Dessau and can hardly wait to finish the neck / front bands later today. This will be the second time I have made this pattern – something I hardly ever do unless it’s my own design. It’s a great cardigan and I want to wear it as soon as possible!
Yesterday I spun the second half of a mohair and wool mix that I carded into rolags last week – it left a really strange residue on my hands, a little like the oily wax from the skin of citrus fruit. It will be interesting to see how it behaves once plied and washed.
Mohair and Wool Rolags
I have been busy creating charts for FOUR new patterns – Stitchmastery is such a great programme. I’ve also been looking at my pattern for the Beanstalk Throw as I regularly get queries about whether there is a written version of the pattern or a single full chart and I will soon be able to supply knitters with those which I’m really pleased about and will open up the pattern to those who don’t use charts.
And! I have drafted my first newsletter!! It will be going out on Thursday to my subscribers with a special subscriber discount code that can be used on ANYTHING on my website until the end of the month. So, if you fancy a great deal – why not sign up to my email list?
I think all this ‘busyness’ has been partly a way of stopping myself from doing an impression of Edvard Munch’s famous painting, The Scream, over everything that’s going on in the world right now. Serious distraction and re-direction of attention along with doing things that keep my hands occupied so I can’t doom-scroll through the news.
Stay safe folks and, when you can, keep knitting and making stuff. It’s good for the soul. Kx
Happy New Year! 2021 has begun here with flurries of snow and some crisp cold weather. Having taken the decorations down today and taken delivery of a new desk chair I have got my breath back and realised it’s quite chilly. 16.2 degrees in the house! Definitely calls for the ‘boost’ button.
The new desk chair is part of my push to look after myself a bit better – it’s a Humanscale chair, which are scarily expensive when new, but Sue got a reconditioned one last year from Corporate Spec and having discovered how supportive and comfortable it is (and that I can spin in it!) I have now got one of these as well. They are a quarter of the price of new – literally – and the ones we have had have been delivered in excellent condition. Yippee!! Hopefully the Voltarol will be able to go back in the cupboard!!
Lockdown is now UK wide, rather than just Wales and Northern Ireland as of last night. I hope it works and that everyone follows it properly. I will continue to send out orders as I get them as the post office is only a walk away, but I may limit trips to just twice a week.
It may just be the time to start a new project or treat yourself or a loved one to a ‘hug token’. They are available waxed or unwaxed (£2.50/£3.50) and can also be personalised (£3.50/£4.50). The one pictured is from old stock; the new blank hearts I have are slightly different; 5cm across and 2mm thick, with a very slightly different shape – a new photo will be uploaded soon!
Heart Shape with Hug Token burnt on
If you follow me on social media you will have seen that I had a happy dance this morning as Knit Picks sent an email promoting their blanket patterns in which both the blankets I had designed for them were featured! This was most exciting!
It’s a year and one day now since Nevern Throw was published and it seems to be doing well from looking at the ‘bestselling’ pages of Knit Picks website. You can even buy it as a kit from them. It’s definitely cold enough to put either that or Beanstalk on the bed this evening!
Don’t forget that Llanberis MKAL starts on Friday this week! There’s still time to buy the pattern and join in; you just need 25g of each of 3 colours of ‘sticky’ DK yarn and 3.25mm and 3.75mm needles (40cm circular and/or DPNS).
Next week I’m going to be introducing my newsletter to you. Subscribers will get regular discounts and special offers not open to everyone else, so it’s worth signing up!
