Tag: Sourdough

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An Abundance

Two small metal colanders sit on a bamboo worktop, filled with raspberries. There are a few borage flowers in the one on the left as well.

Yarn Gathering is in less than three weeks! I am excited to tell you that Anne and I did the floor plan at the weekend and there’s going to be a really lovely mix of vendors for you to visit. There will be nine stands in the main hall of the Daniel Owen Centre and three in the cafe space. The cafe itself won’t be open, but you can get refreshments from a variety of places in Mold on a Sunday – or even better, why not visit the Mold Food & Drink Festival while you’re here? There’s a map of the town showing the venue and car parks on the Yarn Gathering page.

One word of caution, especially for the folk who are not from Wales and may be less aware of the upcoming changes in the traffic laws. From 17th September, (nearly) all roads in Wales that were previously 30mph will be 20mph. There will be 30mph signs for any roads that are exceptions to the 20, but the general intention is ‘see street lights, think 20’. I don’t know if traffic police will be issuing fines from ‘Day 1’, but we would hate anyone to get caught out. My town has been one of the 8 trial areas for the 20mph speed limit and there have been very mixed responses from the local community, but it will be happening, starting from Yarn Gathering day, so take it steady on your way to inhale the yarn fumes!

I’ve been baking again!

These are vegan sourdough chocolate brownies and they are truly delicious – especially with vanilla ice-cream and homegrown raspberries. My sister-in-law is coming to visit today, and it seemed an excellent reason to get the baking going again.

Update – Katie loves the brownies and helped pick today’s raspberry harvest.

We’re getting this many every day or two at the moment. Even though they’re autumn fruiting, the canes are really going for it!

Last week when I wrote I was getting to the end of the medium sized sock for my upcoming sock pattern, Bodelwyddan. As you can see, that sock has been finished and the small (second size) sock has also been made! The dark (medium) sock is in RiverKnits Nene 4ply (100% British Bluefaced Leicester Wool) and the light variegated (small) sock is in The Yarn Artist Sock 4ply (75% Superwash Merino, 25% Nylon). Both of these socks were knitted using leftovers from other projects – there wouldn’t be enough for two of each, but who says your socks have to match?!

I’ve also been storming ahead with my own version of Lichfield. This is size 7 and I have finished the back and the left front, and made a start on the right front. As we have a couple of long car trips this week, I may even have finished a sleeve by the time I write next!

Something I forgot to share with you last week was my one purchase at the Pop Up Wool Show.

I bought these two beautiful skeins of 4ply wool from Doulton Border Leicester Yarn. The yarn comes from their own flock and all the sheep live out their full lives, even after their fleeces stop being suitable for use – they have an oap/retired sheep field! I really like their philosophy and the yarn looks and feels very high quality. I don’t know what I’m going to make with it yet, but I have a few ideas up my sleeve!

I’ve been doing a little more crochet recently – what, two crochet projects on the go? Shocking! To the right is my first attempt at puff stitch. Those are the stitches that form the heart in the centre of the granny square. I’m not sure I’ve got it quite right in terms of tension, but I think it’s pretty good for a first attempt! I also decided to treat myself to a crochet blocking board.

This was one of the Amazon images for this crochet blocking board. Can you see what is wrong with it?! 😂

It almost put me off buying it, but at least I could see the pics were of actual crocheted items actually held in place with the metal pins. This was a big improvement on some listings which showed a similar board with badly cropped pictures of crochet overlaid and photoshopped images of the pins floating in mid-air in front of them!

I’m glad I did get it though, it’s decent quality bamboo and metal pins and I like the idea of being able to block several squares at once stacked above each other – guaranteed to be blocked to the same size!

Anyway, that’s all from me for today. Take care of yourselves and I hope you get to do some stuff you enjoy this week. Keep your fingers crossed on the cardigan progress for me! K x

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Second Time Lucky

This week I am only a little further on with my current knitting design in terms of knitting progress, despite the fact that I have knitted more than two feet of it in a week. How can this be?

After the first (quite large) part is completed, the design is worked in two directions, and I wasn’t happy with the fact the two ends weren’t behaving in exactly the same way. The reason for this was at the VERY BEGINNING of the knitting. I considered ignoring it (which didn’t sit right), I even briefly considered altering the pattern so the ends would be the same and letting the publishers know there would be a slight discrepancy between the pattern and the knitted item (that one got a really big ‘No!’ from my gut straight away). Which left one option. Rip it out and start again, altering the pattern and the knitting so it does what I want it to do. Which I did, and it now behaves perfectly and looks great. Oddly, even after a mountain of swatching this was one thing I hadn’t experimented with before the main cast-on.

So, lots of knitting done, a good lesson learned, but only about 8 inches more to show for it in terms of volume compared with last week.

I have made the rhubarb jam! I had to wait an extra day and make it on Thursday as, after finding the recipe on Wednesday morning, I read the instructions to chop and layer the fruit with the sugar, cover with the juice of three lemons (didn’t have any), and leave overnight… Once the lemons had been bought and the fruit was prepped on Wednesday evening, it was such a quick jam to make. I included crystallised stem ginger, chopped into small pieces rather than a bag containing a piece of bashed root ginger. Five jars were made, which is precisely the quantity the recipe stated and it’s really good!

We also finally got the veg seedlings planted – today!

We have put five types of courgettes, two types of broad beans and some mange tout in the veg beds. They don’t look like much at the moment and I’ll have to water them regularly – especially since we’re not due any rain until at least the end of next week, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll get some crops from them. Believe it or not, this photo was taken after watering!

I had sown other veg too, but the French beans were completely eaten by the slugs and snails, the cucamelon is only just germinating and the coriander is *not* going in the ground (I’m not sure how the local cats would react to it) – I’ll put that in bigger pots and keep it inside or in the mini greenhouse.

Earlier in the week I also had my first go at making a babka. This had dried apricots, flaked almonds and homemade plum jam in it. The bottom took an age to firm up and sound hollow, so it got a little harder on the top than I’d have liked, but it was fabulous toasted with marmalade. I shall definitely be trying this one again! The recipe came from The Sourdough Whisperer by Elaine Boddy.

Three days ago I took photos of all our roses, thinking they were looking good. Whilst out in the garden today they looked even more glorious – so I photographed them again. Today’s pics are on the right. Not only are the flowers more open and fuller, the photos are better too!

Having enjoyed the yarn shows I’ve done this month so much I’ve been seriously looking at which other shows I could apply to. I have to take into account stand fees, distance/travel time and accommodation costs for each one as well as keep an eye on the widely differing deadlines – some are 16 months ahead of the event! I’ve got two more lined up so far this year, and because of the deadlines I’m looking at 2024 shows now. I have been very lucky so far and have been accepted first go at the shows I have done, but some shows tend not to accept ‘new’ folk (ie new to that show) the first time they apply, and it’s good to know that and be prepared for a ‘better luck next time’ or a ‘we’ve added you to our waiting list’ response.

This has also led me to wondering whether there are any particular wool shows you would like to see me and my designs at? If so, tell me in the comments and I’ll consider it!

Yesterday evening I was on the sofa winding yarn after a long walk around Liverpool (new iPhone battery achieved and excellent lunch had at Maray!) when I noticed my projects basket was somewhat overflowing. This morning I got all the bags out of / from the side of the basket and made an inventory of what was there. This is all of it. Let me take you though it in groups – strap in!

First of all, the three designs I am currently working on – two of which have deadlines. These are deliberately vague photos are the designs are not yet published:

Next, the bags with yarn for existing designs that I intend to knit new samples for. One of these has not yet been published, but I intend to knit a sample in a size I can wear, the other two are shawls (Amy March and Marianne Half Hap):

We follow this up with yarn for a design that is currently only in my head, but has been sitting there since October (the yarn and the idea):

Next, other projects that are in progress. The Beekeeper Quilt is an ongoing way of using up odds and ends of 4ply, there’s the socks for Sue I started a couple of months ago (plain standard sock that I usually knit) but deadlines got in the way, and my Umbriel sweater which still only has 1/3 of a sleeve on the body:

With all this you think I’d be mad to even consider anything else, wouldn’t you? But no, there’s more. These are projects ‘in potentia’ – the yarn and the pattern have been matched up, and in two cases the yarn is wound and needles/hooks readied: more bedsocks for Mum in Socks Yeah! DK (Bob, friend of Dave, by Rachel Coopey), Mackinac Mitts by Kate Atherley in Mothy and the Squid 4ply, and the yarn I was winding into balls yesterday – Welsh Mule dyed by Wrigglefingers (years ago) for Mystical Lanterns, a crochet blanket pattern by Janie Crow:

I make that six knitting projects in progress, and seven projects in waiting. Too much?

I’ll be doing some more work on my nearest deadline piece tonight, even though I am so itching to do a bit of crochet! At least I know I definitely won’t be ripping it back to the start this week!

Remember, any wool shows you’d like to see me at – pop it in the comments.

Have a good week – I’m off to play with some yarn 😊, K x

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Reader, I frogged it.

Despite the cold mornings over the past couple of days, spring is really here. The daffodils are looking wonderful. We went a bit mad on bulbs last year (we got ours from Scamps in Cornwall) and there are 10 or so different varieties in flower at the moment, of all shades, shapes and sizes. One is so frilly and multi-layered, it almost doesn’t look like a daffodil at all!

The rhubarb is coming up a treat too, and I think I will be making rhubarb and ginger jam again very soon. I last made it on 6th April 2021 – and I noted on the jam labels that it had been snowing that day. Hopefully we won’t get any more snow this year – last month’s was quite enough for a while.

I’m managing to gradually wake my sourdough starter (Audrey 2) up, though she is still very sluggish. It’s taking about 24 hours for it to nearly double in size and it should be a lot quicker than that. I think it is time to consult one of my “Sourdough Whisperer” books by Elaine Boddy. She is an absolute whizz with sourdough, has a very no-nonsense approach, and has advice on almost any possible scenario from getting a happy active starter, to trouble-shooting loaves that haven’t turned out as expected.

On the yarn-based side of things I’ve been quite busy as ever. The adult cardigan has been delivered to its destination and the pattern emailed. No pics allowed yet – it’ll be published in July. The child’s cardigan (next commission) has a healthy looking spreadsheet and I cast that one on last night. Again, no pics – that one will be published in August.

In a couple of weeks I will be giving a workshop on Finishing Techniques. This is the one workshop that involves a lot of knitting prep, as I like to give the knitters the blocked swatches they will be working with. The first time I ran this workshop knitters were asked to bring their own blocked swatches and they were…quite varied. Some people did not know how to block, so hadn’t. That’s fair enough – that’s all part of finishing. It is far easier to seam something once it’s been blocked (as long as it’s done properly!).

So, now knitters are given two swatches and then the one remaining swatch that hasn’t been blocked is given a wet block there and then to show them how easy it is – and what to avoid doing. They will have squares of two colours, pick up stitches along one of them (in a third colour) to knit a shaped flap with a buttonhole, and then seam the two squares together to make a small purse. There are a lot of skills involved in this – picking up stitches, directional decreases (choosing and positioning them well), different types of buttonholes, working mattress stitch seams down the side of a knitted piece and on a cast-on edge, weaving in yarn ends. And how to block.

There are a couple of places left on this workshop (18th April, 6.30-9pm, £35 at Yarn O’clock in Mold), and if you’d like to brush up on your finishing techniques contact Anne at the shop (01352 218082) to book a place.

Pikachu – the crochet kit I bought after Christmas – is coming on well. He has a body/head, two stripes and a double thickness tail. I’ll be making the feet later today, which just leaves the ears and arms. You never know – it might even be complete by next week!

The first sleeve of my Umbriel sweater was sailing along. Until today when I tried it on. You may remember I said that I’d picked up extra stitches than stated in the pattern as I need generously sized sleeves. It turns out I’d overdone it. As I was working the short rows there were a couple of points on around the armhole where it was looking a bit ‘pleated’, but I thought it would be ok once on and my arm would smooth the fabric out. Once I transferred the stitches to a long needle so I could try it on I realised just how unlikely that would be!

So, dear reader, I frogged the sleeve worked so far (‘frog’ as in ‘rip it, rip it’) and I’m back to square one. The moral of this tale is to listen to nagging doubts – it won’t always block out – and try on as you go when you can. I’m so glad I hadn’t completed the first sleeve before trying it on. Frogging your knitting is almost as much an act of faith as knitting it in the first place. You’re saying ‘I can do this differently, better’. Also, although some people will look at you pulling out what to them look like several evenings worth of perfectly good knitted stitches, if you know that you won’t wear it as it is, there’s no point in leaving it as it is. It’s quite liberating actually.

Good points I noted when I tried it on: the sweater does have a wonderfully soft and warm fabric, I was right to shorten the length as much as I did, and the body fits beautifully – even over a t-shirt and woollen dress.

This is the armhole after the sleeve was frogged. Ready to go again!

I’ve got my ticket for Wonderwool Wales (which is less than three weeks away now!) and then before you know it I’ll be exhibiting at Buxton Wool Gathering (May 7-8) and Wool @J13 (May 13-14). Full details and links for how to buy tickets for these are on the “Where I’ll Be” page and I’ll be writing more about upcoming shows in the next week or two.

I hope you have a good week, and are able to do some stuff you enjoy. Take care one and all, K x

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Time Flies

Can you believe that it’s already six months since Tiffany and Agnes were launched into the world at Yarndale? It’s really flown by. That means that I will be adding the patterns to my usual platforms (my website, Payhip, Ravelry and Lovecrafts) on Friday 31st March. RiverKnits are still selling kits (yarn and printed pattern) and I will include a direct link to those where I can for people who want a kit rather than the digital pattern. I will also have printed copies with me at future yarn shows! Yay!

I have to admit to a particular fondness for Tiffany (shown in the Shadow Rainbow Set of Nene 4ply minis), but Agnes also has great deal of charm (shown in two colours of Aysgarth yarn) and the pattern includes two size options. They will soon be joined by Petulia – the third in my collection of shawls named after the younger witches in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series – and they all use RiverKnits yarn.

Keep an eye out for social media posts towards the end of the week letting people know that the patterns are available from me!

I’ve finished the cardigan that I can’t show you – it’s all sewn up and all the ends are woven in! It looks really smart and I will be making one in my own size as well. I have checked and double-checked the pattern against the publication’s house style and the wonderful tech editor has been very helpful with my queries.

All I have left to do now is: a final check on all the numbers (particularly that they’ve been transferred correctly from the spreadsheet to the word doc); double check the chart files; finish the schematic; and calculate the yarn quantities for all the different sizes. That last one ends up sounding like one of those maths questions where the question setters try to put things in a real world context – except this one already actually is – and on a big scale: “If a UK size 8-10 cardigan takes 368g of DK yarn, how much will a UK size 4-6/ 12-14/ 16-18/ 20-22/ 24-26/ 28-30/ 32-34/ 36-38/ 40-42 take?” That will be tomorrow’s job!

Also tomorrow, I will be posting off the yarn I sold on eBay. One person bought both colours – they got a very good deal and I recouped some of the money laid out on yarn I won’t be using. So, thumbs up for everyone!

I promised to tell you how I got on with my new ChiaoGoo needles. I was using the two shortest tips (2-inch long and also the thinnest at 2mm) with what I thought was the shortest cable (I thought it was 5-inch long, but it was actually 6). I was finding it quite hard to make sustained progress, although it was much better once I’d finished the ribbing and there was *something* to hold on to. I think this is also because I have been using 4mm and 3.75mm needles a lot recently as well as the shortness of the tips.

In an attempt to make things easier on my hands, I tried knitting continental style (carrying the yarn in my left hand rather than my right) which helped a little, but not enormously. Continental knitting is a very rusty technique for me even with regular sizes needles, but I do think that it will be a good knitting style for small circumference knitting if I can persevere with it and improve.

My final tweak has made the most difference. I now have a 3-inch long tip for my right hand and a 2-inch long tip for my left, joined by what actually IS the 5-inch cable. My hand next to the needle tips in the pic below gives a sense of scale. As the previous cable I was using was the 6-inch one, the overall circumference is the same, but there’s significantly more needle to hold on to with my right hand now and I feel much more in control! Fingers crossed for further progress during the week.

I began the crochet Pikachu last week as well. This was partly due to my frustration at not being able to show most of my current knitting to you or on social media. I wanted to be doing something I could share! I’ve done a few more rounds since taking these pics and I’m getting better at keeping track of stitch counts – thanks to the bulb pin to mark the last stitch of the round. The yarn is a thin 4ply cotton and the hook is 2.5mm which gives a nice firm fabric – ideal for stuffing!

That’s all I’ve really got to tell you about this week. Apart from the fact that I’ve been trying to wake my sourdough starter up. Audrey2 has been having a long snooze in the fridge and currently seems disinclined to wake from her slumbers, despite two feeds. I will keep going with her though – she’s always come through for me in the past!

Take care folks, stay safe and cosy and do something that makes you happy this week. Kx

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Ta-da!

The most exciting news for me this week has to be the publication of The Knitter, issue 185 last Thursday. See that shawl on the cover? That’s Branwen, my design, and it’s a five part knit-along that is begin run during this and the next four issues! Part One is in this month’s magazine. It’s the top centre section of the shawl (in green). It’s a DK weight shawl, using West Yorkshire Spinners Fleece (2 skeins of cream and 3 skeins of green) and it’s sooo soft and cosy! Once I’d bought my copy of the mag in WHSmith’s I wanted to go round the town showing it to everyone and saying – look! I made that!

But not only that, this video shows you a glimpse of the (three page!) interview with lots of pics of my designs and lots about me, my designing, inspiration etc. If you ever wanted to know where it all began, this article will tell you!

Speaking of knit-alongs, this is the completed Part One of Am Byth MKAL. Also, a DK weight project, this one only uses one skein. You can see the design taking shape now, but can you work out what the project is going to be yet? All will be revealed on Friday, when Part Two is released.

I’ve had a burst of activity with my spinning in the past week. I finished spinning the braid into singles on Sunday, and today I chain plied the whole lot! The thing about chain plying is that as you are making a big loop in one hand to catch and pull the strand of yarn from the bobbin through (to form the next big loop – it’s like really fast giant finger knitting), you’re using the other hand to control the twist and your feet are working the treadles. I tend to find that the singles yarn tries to turn and twist back on itself when I’m getting going, until I get a regular rhythm going, at which point I don’t want to stop and have it all tangle up again!. This is partly because the singles are spun (twisted) in one direction and this makes the yarn unbalanced. Plying twists the yarn in the opposite direction which balances the twist and gives you a yarn that doesn’t want to turn into nightmare corkscrews.

I’m pleased with how the chain plied yarn has come out. The clear shift from one colour to the next has been maintained which I wanted, with a subtle blending of colours in places. It’s a little thicker than I was hoping for, but considering it is a 3-ply structure it’s pretty good. About a sock weight I think, but I’ll check it later once it’s been washed. I absolutely love the colours – the fibre was dyed by Sealy MacWheely.

Finally, there is some progress on mum’s picture embroidery that you can actually see! I’ve done (nearly) all of the column on the right hand side which was half a page wide (20 stitches) and three and a bit pages long (190 stitches) and I’ve made a start on the next full page width to the left. The sections where there are more colours, such as the bottom right corner, are much more interesting, but take so much more concentration – and there are about 40 different colours in that section, so it’s quite hard to keep track of as well.

I baked my first sourdough loaf of the year today as well. Audrey 2 (my starter), was living up to her name after going into semi-hibernation over Christmas, and it took a lot of feeding to get her active again! It’s a good loaf, although I dived into it for lunch before I took any pics (don’t worry, it isn’t all gone!). I shall have to remember to photograph the next one before slicing it.

There are still spaces available on my Knitting for Beginners workshops!

These are due to start on Feb 6th 1-3pm at Caffi Isa in Mynydd Isa, near Mold, Flintshire. If you or anyone you know fancies learning to knit in a small group, in a relaxed setting with access to tea/coffee and cake, contact me to book a space!

This is what we’ll be making (these are Knitting for Beginners workshops 1, 2 & 3 on my Group Workshops Tuition page):

There are also some spaces on the workshops I am giving at Yarn O’clock, but they are booking up fast! In brief they are:

  • Introduction to Socking Knitting, 16th February, 6.30-9pm
  • Stranded Colourwork, 7th March, 6.30-9pm
  • Finishing Techniques, 18th April, 6.30-9pm
  • Moebius Knitting, 18th May, 6.30-9pm

Full details are on my “Where I’ll Be” page and also on Yarn O’clock‘s website. Contact Anne to book a space on one of these.

Just before I sign off I want to tell you that I am sitting here typing this in the dark, running the laptop from the battery. There’s no problem; we’ve signed up to take part in the energy reduction trials that are happening. There was one from 5-6pm yesterday, today is 4.30-6pm. It’s amazing how many things are on or on standby all the time even when we only use them for a small part of the day. Or rather, I should say how many things were on or on standby. They’re not now – I’ve been going round unplugging stuff or switching it off at the wall! (Just like my dad – but then he used to unplug the tv aerial every night as well) The multi-sockets that each have their own switch are proving handy too. It’s also striking how much quieter the house is, which is interesting as I never really considered ‘things plugged in’ to have a noise, but I suppose they must!

Anyway, take care, stay warm. Dw i eisiau un deg un paned! (I want eleven cups of tea). Tell me what you’ve been making lately. K x

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Slowly Does It

A flatfish sourdough loaf is held in the right hand above the bread board. It has been cut and the crumb (cut side) is held up to show the camera.

I’ve done three hours of knitting today and I can’t show it to you (it’s for the next MKAL!), but there are some other things making some (albeit slow) progress that I can share with you.

Over the past couple of days I’ve made my first sourdough loaf in quite a while. The dough was still very soft when it went into the fridge overnight and spread a lot when I tipped it out of the banneton this morning. It’s a little on the flat side, but nothing like the frisbees that I have been known to create in the past. And, regardless of how it looks, it tastes amazing.

I’m pleased with the crumb – not too many large holes. Next time I will try reducing the quantity of water as I think in the past that has helped create a dough that holds together more before baking. Lots of sourdough bakers keep a journal of all their bakes with details of temperature, timings and quantities of everything. I could do that, but I’m not sure I’d remember!

My sock is growing. If you remember I’m using RiverKnits Open Day 2022 Show yarn in 100% Cormo wool. It’s not a breed I’ve come across before, but it’s knitting up really nicely. I paused a little with this over the weekend as I wasn’t sure if I’d made the leg too long. I knew the answer was to try it on and if the top of the cuff was tight on my calf I would need to rip out the foot, gusset, heel turn and heel flap and a little of the leg. You can probably tell from that list that I was not keen on this option, but I knew that if the socks were tight at the top they would either sag down my legs or stay in the drawer unworn. So, I was putting off the moment of finding out. Eventually I plucked up the courage and tried it on – it fits! Phew!

I don’t often knit ‘regular’ socks for myself, but when I do I knit them top down with 80 stitches on 2.25mm needles. I do a slip stitch heel flap and reduce the foot down to either 72 or 68 stitches over the gusset. I’m hoping to finish the pair by the end of the month, but then I’ve also challenged myself to finish my ‘Safe Space’ embroidery this month as well, so we shall see – I may have been somewhat over optimistic when I set my monthly goals as I do actually need to do some work as well!

Speaking of which! The Safe Space embroidery is coming on – the big flag at the bottom left that I posted about yesterday is now more than half finished.

I was able to do some of it in front of the telly last night with the aid of my little Serious Readers lamp that came as a freebie (!) with my desk lamp. They are both great and the little one is charged by USB which has proved handy in power cuts (while the battery lasts!).

I’m going to set up a new page on the website of “Where I’ll be” as I’m doing more workshops and other events now. In the meantime, there is an Introduction to Two Colour Brioche Knitting workshop coming up on December 8th (Thursday) at Yarn O’clock that has a couple of spaces remaining. Contact Anne at Yarn O’clock if you would like to book a place.

I’m trying out Mastodon as a new social media platform and am gently finding my way around. If you are on there you can find me as @KathAndrews@toot.wales – it’s also encouraged me to have a go at learning Welsh and I’m on Day 3 of my adventures with Duolingo. So I now know how to say “Noswaith dda, Kath dw i. Sut dych chi? Dw i wedi blino!” That’s “Good evening, I’m Kath. How are you? I’m tired!”

So, as ‘dw i wedi blino’, I’m going to stop here, make dinner (bread plus curry made yesterday!), have a cup of tea and put my feet up for a little while before watching ‘quiz night’ on BBC2. Take care one and all. Hwyl! K x

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Rounding Up

A large drift of chives with lots of purple flowers taking over one corner of the bed.

Last week I promised a round-up of the Calon Cariad shawls, didn’t I? Well, I’ve had a scour through the images posted in my Facebook group, posted on Instagram with the hashtag or sent to me and this is a good mix! I know for certain that Anne’s (top left) is finished, but I don’t have a picture of it post blocking.

Shawls knitted by: Top, L-R: Anne, Sandra, Patricia; Middle, L-R: me, me, Katrin; Bottom, L-R: Markus, Karen.

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I think you’ll agree they all did a fabulous job! I know there are some other knitters out there who also made a start on their shawl and if you are one of them and have some progress to show, please send me a pic!

Speaking of progress… things are happening in the veg plot! As well as the chives flowering profusely, the broad beans are starting to make their presence felt more and I’ve planted the edamame beans and the squash and courgette plants. The rhubarb is also finally finding its feet after we split the crown and moved it, giving various parts away and the raspberries, red and blackcurrants and apple tree all look like they’re going to be quite productive this year!

It’s not a massive garden, but it’s got a lot in it (including the ground elder which I’ve chosen not to show you)!

I made some ‘same-day’ sourdough rolls yesterday – it’s a quicker process which uses more sourdough starter than the regular recipe (100g instead of 50g) and they came out of the oven a mere 13 hours after feeding Audrey2 (my starter). My lovely wife chose her two favourite ones this morning for her lunch before I’d remembered to photograph them! They are lush.

I have been doing quite a bit of knitting this week, but sadly none of it is stuff I can show you at the moment. I’ve also been doing lots of Excel spreadsheet magic, calculating (and recalculating) the sleeves for the sweater I’m working on. It makes life so much easier when you can make the formulae do the hard work for you (and when you know the ones you need), and then also round the results up/down/to a specific multiple. I’m going to cast on the sleeve for the third time later on and hope that it will be third time lucky. Fortunately, WYS Fleece DK is a very forgiving yarn!

The workshops I mentioned last week are filling up. The Two-Colour Brioche class is full (which is good as that is the first one – next week!), Beginners’ Crochet has one or two spaces left and there are spaces on the Closed Ring Cables workshop.

And on Saturday I get to see some sheep! We are going to the Riverknits Open Day which I’m really looking forward to.

I’ll tell you all about that next week – the blog post will be on Wednesday next week and I’ll tell you about the Brioche workshop then too!

Til then, take care and make time to do some of what makes you happy. K x

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Waiting for the Phone

I should have saved last week’s blog post title (A Little Fall of Rain) for today. We were going to have a day trip to Prestatyn and have lunch on the beach. Except it’s been raining. All day. Fingers crossed for drier weather in the next few days. 🤞

Today’s title is just as fitting though (Check out Waiting for the Phone by Jeff Ronay)!

We had planned to have a seaside day yesterday, but ended up waiting for a plumber for the second day in a row. On Day 1 (Sunday) we had a leak from the pipe into the toilet, so I rang the Home Emergency line of our house insurance. Yes, it was covered if I paid a £25 excess charge, yes, they could get someone to us – he was with us and done within four hours of my first phone call. Though the number of times I had to explain on the phone that no, we didn’t have another toilet, it is our only toilet would make you laugh if it wasn’t true!

However, it seemed we had merely swapped a big leak for some new piping and a smaller, slower leak. We hoped it might just be condensation on the new copper pipe, but it wasn’t. So, on Day 2 (yesterday, Monday) I rang again at 8.45am. Same procedure (except no queries about the number of loos this time) – the contractors would ring within two hours and tell us when the engineer would be there. But… Three hours came and went and no phone call.

I rang the insurers again. Got put through to the ongoing claims line to find out what was happening only to have a phone line so distorted I could barely make out what the chap was saying. I’m pretty sure he said to hang up and he’d ring me back. Except he didn’t. So, 40 minutes later, I rang again (bear in mind I’m not a massive fan of official phone calls). This time I got Tracy, who put me on hold while SHE rang the contractors and then connected me directly to them. Brilliant – thank you Tracy! Our plumber (Ben – a different chap from the day before) arrived at 3.30 and was able to fix the problem quickly, having agreed that the new nut shouldn’t be wet and dripping water on to the floor.

In theory this was all good knitting time, and in fairness I did get quite a bit of my secret project done (10 very long rows), but being in ‘waiting mode’ for that long? It’s exhausting and for some reason it stops me from being able to settle properly to other tasks. It’s been such a relief to get up today knowing we won’t have to have an another day of waiting for the phone – or keep checking the floor for puddles (they’re all gone!).

Today I plied the sparkly yarn that I’ve been working on for a while. I did include the clump of multicoloured long curly locks that came attached to the fibre batt in one of the singles, though I’m not sure I handled them very well. Looking at Hairy Dog Crafts‘ website, who prepared and dyed the fibre, I think they must be Valais Blacknose – they certainly had a longest staple (length of fibre) I’ve yet experienced. So, I now have some ‘fluffy unicorn’ style yarn sitting on my lazy Kate – the main fibre was a mix of Merino, Corriedale, ‘glitter’ (Angellina?) and Rose Fibre. It will be really interesting to see how it looks once it’s been skeined and washed.

As it’s that time of year I made hot cross buns – a week early, but never mind. They were (and still are) delicious. There’s something about the smell of mixed spice laced dough baking as well that just makes me smile. In case you’d like to try them, this was the recipe, ‘Easy No-Knead Sourdough Hot Cross Buns’. I used all white bread flour and vegan butter (Flora Plant B+tter) in these ones.

And I finished my Good Riddance socks by Lauren Rose (Laur_oftheBlings Designs) – since I hadn’t even turned the heel of the second one when I last wrote I’m quite impressed with myself on this. The ends are still waiting to be woven in though.

These did use a goodly amount of my leftover 4-ply yarns, but I still have a huge amount remaining – a full bag of little bits, as well as several bigger part-balls in one of my yarn storage boxes. I may have to make a second pair. And make more hexiflats (I prefer not to stuff them, so I call them hexiflats rather than hexipuffs!) to continue expanding my Beekeeper’s Quilt.

The transcription of my Introduction to Lace Knitting course is nearly done. Of course, this is the stage where I’m looking at the videos at my most critical and half wishing I could re-do some of them – especially the wet-blocking. Unfortunately, once a lace item has been blocked it never returns to that pre-blocked state, so it’s possible I’d have to re-knit the whole project just to block it again… I think I need to get a more objective pair of eyes on it!

If you want to see the Nos Da baby blanket in the real world and are in the North Wales area, I am glad to say it will be taking up residence at Yarn O’clock in Mold very soon! The hedgehog will be staying at home though.

That’s all from me for today. It’s time for a cuppa and to finish off those transcriptions!

Whatever you do this week, hold your loved ones close (whether human, fur-babies or stuffed hedgehogs!) and do what makes you happy. K x

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A Little Fall of Rain

This week has flown past – I can hardly believe I’m writing another blog post already!

The main image of today’s post is the Helmet hat I made for Sue from my hand spun yarn, the pattern coming from Woolly Wormhead‘s Introspection collection. I realised I hadn’t taken a photo of her wearing it since it was blocked – and this overhead shot shows the crown decreases really nicely.

Some good news – I have finished recording and editing my videos for my new Craftucation course, An Introduction to Lace Knitting. They are currently in the process of being uploaded to the website and that just leaves the final bits of transcriptions to write and the still images to capture from the videos for the pdf downloads. Hurrah!

A screenshot of the first title page for my lace knitting course. The text on the left reads "Introduction to Lace Knitting, 1.1 Welcome". On the right is a sample square of different lace stitches worked in pale blue DK yarn. The background is a wooden desk.

In a week or so I will upload one of the introductory chapters here – they are free to view before buying the course anyway, to give you a flavour of it. That’s probably better than showing you the out-takes where I end up blowing raspberries at myself for tripping over my words!

Looking back at last week’s post, I see that more knitting progress has occurred than I’d realised. The first of my Good Riddance Socks by Laur of the Blings Designs is complete and I’m just about to start the short row heel on the second one.

One complete multi-coloured hand knit sock lies on a pale gold carpet with a sock in progress on top of it. The sock in progress is being worked toe up, starting in stocking stitch with two colours held together then going to a section of 2-colour brioche. Stocking stitch returns just under the needles (dpns). The colours change randomly as each yarn runs out.

I’ve also passed the half-way mark on my ‘secret’ project, so that will be complete in the next couple of weeks which is fabulous as it gives me plenty of time before the deadline. I really wish I could show you this, but you are going to LOVE it when you do eventually get to see it – in September. The yarn was dyed especially for me to match a picture I sent the dyer. The picture relates closely to the name of the pattern. The dyer will then be making yarn kits for the pattern to coincide with publication in September!

I don’t yet have photos of everyone’s finished Calon Cariad shawls, but they are going to make a stunning collection when I do manage to bring them all together. Some people are still working on them I know. It was lovely to get feedback about including Zoom events as part of a KAL. Those who attended really appreciated them and said it gave them more of a sense that they were taking part in a group event, rather than just knitting and sharing photos of their work online. It’s something I think I will do with future KALs and MKALs – though I might need to invest in the Zoom package that stops your meeting unceremoniously ending after 40 minutes!

The embroidery of Mum has stalled a bit, although I did do a couple of hours on it yesterday for the first time in a while. I’m not sure I can see the difference yet from my previous update photo as my current colour – dark brown – is so close to the black that it’s hard to see. I have decided the next colour I choose to work will have a clear contrast with the dark brown, black and olive green there so far. I need to be able to see some progress being made. What do you think?

A piece of cream linen with patches of tiny black, dark green and dark brown stitches. The fabric is marked off in squares with fine black thread and pale blue thread marks the centre lines. The image of a laughing woman can just be made out in the emerging picture.
The same embroidery as the image on the left with more stitches worked, adding a very dark brown.

A book I pre-ordered back in August arrived recently. The Sourdough Whisperer by Elaine Boddy. It’s the second of her books that I’ve had and they are both brilliant. I love the tips and tricks and ways to revive and boost your starter and different things to try if your dough isn’t behaving the way you want it to. As you may remember I’ve had some spectacular failures in my baking adventures (total frisbees!) as well as successes and this book mentions the effect that being in a hard or soft water area can have. We have incredibly soft water, so I followed the suggestion to reduce the water content by 30g and it worked a treat. At first I wasn’t sure all the flour would mix in, but it did and we’ve been enjoying a cracking loaf for the past few days.

A round sourdough loaf sits on a cooling rack.

It had finally stopped raining and drizzling – there was even some sunshine! – so I interrupted my blog writing to grab the opportunity to go for a walk. Less than ten minutes out the door en route to the post office the rain began once more. Just a little fall of rain. It’s a shame we weren’t wearing our hats when we went out!

Take care, keep safe and keep knitting, Kx

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Tread Softly

Today’s blog post title continues the tradition of using song titles for my posts, but it’s also the opening of the final line of the poem (He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W B Yeats) that Of Night and Light is named after; “Tread softly because you tread on my dreams”. This seems apt today.

Well, this is the first time in three weeks that I’ve actually written my blog post on a Tuesday. The previous two posts were written in advance as I was going to be at Mum’s and I knew I would be busy there.

But today? Today is Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday. It’s also St David’s Day (the patron saint of Wales). I will be making pancakes – vegan sourdough ones if you’re interested, complete with lemon and sugar. They will be the ‘afters’ to a tofu stir-fry.

Much of this morning was spent reviewing how my business was in February and planning the month ahead. I’m ever more grateful for the writing gig I have on the side now (still very much knitting based), as that is bringing in some regular money which is helping and may even fund upgrading my website, enabling me to add a shopping cart at last!

I relaunched Of Night and Light last week, as I now have the publication rights back and I’ve added in a few extra things that weren’t there when the pattern was originally published in Knit Now Issue 134 last October. The yarn I used is Rowan Felted Tweed and I wanted to make it easier for people to substitute a different yarn without them having to buy far too much of particular colours. So the relaunched pattern includes the yarn lengths required for each of the four colours in each of the nine sizes, in both metres and yards, including a 10% buffer (in case of gauge differences).

For example, the original pattern states that, for the silver grey colour (CC3), one 50g ball of Felted Tweed is needed regardless of which size is made, but the yardage used from that ball varies enormously, from 56m for XS to 130m for 5X! If you are substituting a yarn that comes in 25g balls or 100g balls, or even considering using some left-overs from your stash it is useful to know this!

I’ve also taken on board feedback that was given after I asked knitters about another sweater design, and all measurements are now shown in cm and inches and the table below is now included as one of the images on both Payhip and Ravelry so people can tell in advance whether the sizing works for them.

I have also made a commitment to myself to finish my Introduction to Lace Knitting Craftucation course and get it live on the website by the end of April. My hands are still split on the knuckles, but having recorded a short video yesterday on wrap and turn short rows, it was really encouraging to see that they did not look as bad on screen as I feared. It WILL get completed!

Speaking of short rows, our Calon Cariad KAL (which I did the video for) is going well and people are posting their progress on social media which is very exciting to see. There’s continued to be more interaction in the Facebook group too! This is my Calon Cariad with the short row section completed – can you see how the plain section above the lace border is deeper in the middle than at the edges? That’s what short rows can do. (It’s sitting on top of my Nevern Throw).

I think I’m going to have to extend the KAL for a week and rebook the Show & Tell Zoom for March 25th, instead of March 18th. Last month I broke a tooth (a back molar) and when I was given the first date available at the dentist of course I said yes, not realising it was the same day I’d planned to have our end of KAL Zoom. The last thing I want is to be trying to host a Zoom event with my face still numb from the dentist! I don’t think anyone will mind having an extra week.

I wasn’t sure I would be able to write today, as my little corner of the world seems rather insignificant compared to current world events. However, I decided it wouldn’t be helping anyone by not writing a blog post, and it might be an enjoyable distraction for someone.

Hold your loved ones close and keep knitting, and maybe eat a pancake or two. Also, if you can, please consider making a donation to one of the charities working to support Ukrainians.

‘Til next time, Kx