Tag: Sourdough

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Tea and Toast

Well, this week has seen me doing a lot of knitting and there’s so much of it that I can’t show you! The next MKAL with Yarn O’clock is developing well and I’ve been working on a swatch for a new submission (which I’m tentatively quite excited about).

I can, however, show you the finished tea cosy! It’s a little snug getting it on and off our teapot, but that does at least mean that it doesn’t flop about when pouring and it does a really good job of keeping the pot warm. I’ve had some tea cosies in the past that you end up pouring the tea *through* which is annoying – they’re not designed to be tea-strainers! The Cartref Yarn is good and sturdy and the double layer of yarn is highly insulating. I may need to reinforce further around the steeked edges (to stop the cut ends wiggling free) as it’s going to be pulled around quite a bit by the spout and handle, but that will be easy enough.

A bright blue Fair Isle tea cosy with dark blue and cream pattern sits on a red teapot on a bamboo kitchen worktop.

There has also been pleasing progress with the border of my new shawl design, using Queensland Yarn’s Llama Lace which is imported by Knitting Fever. Despite the name, this yarn is actually a 4-ply weight as it is 420 yards (384m) per 100g, but it is 100% llama. The shawl doesn’t have a name yet, but it will soon.

The image below shows how well the blocking holds up. The right hand side of the image has been soaked, pinned out and left to dry. This opens up the lace and shows the pattern to its best advantage. The left hand side of the image hasn’t been blocked yet and is more bunched up and almost corrugated. As I mentioned last week, I’m quite impressed by how well the blocked lace (on the right) has coped with being squashed into a small project bag and carted across the country. It’s not perfectly flat still, but it hasn’t been treated with any special care and shows the shawl will work well as a garment in the real world.

A copper coloured garter stitch shawl with a silvery deep edging lies on a pale carpet. Part of the edging has been blocked and lies flat, the rest is bunched up.

If you’re a newsletter subscriber you’ll already know there’s a 20% discount code in this month’s newsletter on the four other knitting designs I have using yarns from the Knitting Fever stable. It can be used multiple times and lasts until the end of June. Of course, you can make the patterns in any brand of yarn you wish, but it might also introduce you to some new yarns. I’ve also added a new subscriber link to my linktr.ee in my social media bios to make it easier for people to sign up.

I’ve also been baking again – banana bread and a sourdough loaf this weekend. There’s nothing quite like sourdough toast. I’m going to need to do some more preserving, having ordered five *bags* of pears instead of the intended five pears last week! There were so many helpful suggestions as to what to make with them on social media last week after I confessed to my lack of attention when ordering the shopping online. I’m planning on pear and ginger jam and bought the sugar this afternoon. The wasps and bees are out in force at present, so I think I’ll be making this early tomorrow morning with the windows shut!

I hope you all have a good week. I’m going to have something very exciting to show you next week and I can’t wait!! Stay safe and keep knitting, Kx

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We’ll Meet Again

Today I will make the longest journey I have undertaken in over 8 months. I’m driving 120 miles to visit my mum. I’ll be so glad to see her after all this time, but I don’t mind telling you that the prospect of that drive and being away from home is making me anxious. It will be worth it though.

So many new things have happened since I last saw her. Sourdough for one. I baked a loaf this morning to take down with me.

A round seeded sourdough loaf sits cooling on a wire rack. Behind it are two jars of marmalade and a jar of Marmite peanut butter.

Spinning is another. Although my lovely Ashford Joy 2 is very transportable in its carry bag, I’ll probably just take some skeins of handspun yarn to show Mum (and to keep if she feels her hands are up to knitting it). I’m only there for two days so there probably wouldn’t be time to spin anyway. Maybe next time.

A large bouncy skein of handspun yarn sits on a white windowsill. It is in serious shades of blue and light sea-green.

Remember the marmalade I made in January – unsupervised for the first time? Two jars of that will be coming with me too. The marmalade used to travel in the opposite direction, but that’s just another sign of the way the years change relationships.

13 jars of marmalade are lined up on chopping boards, cooling down. Behind theme are various kitchen items; bananas, a stand mixer and casserole dish.

My new shawl design is coming on well. I’m using Queensland Collection Llama Lace from Knitting Fever Inc which is 100% extrafine baby llama. The main body is very, very simple; just garter stitch, with a double slip stitch edging on the top. There will be a knitted on deep lace border in a contrasting colour once the main shawl is complete. Llama is a new fibre to me – there are the (very) occasional spikier fibres in it which can be pulled out easily, but overall it is incredibly soft. Knitted on 4mm needles the garter stitch is light and airy and the ‘halo’ on the yarn (the fuzzy bits) will trap the air between the stitches to add an extra layer of warmth.

A garter stitch shawl in a copper colour lies draped on the carpet. The ball band is on top, next to a silvery-blue ball of the same yarn which will be used for the lace border.

Finally, there is one more very new thing in my life. A couple of weeks ago I began ‘A Masterclass on Grading’ by The Tech Editor Hub. It’s a very well-structured course, with lots of support and feedback from the three tutors and it has a flexible scholarship scheme too which can reduce the fees by 50%, 75% or 100%. I’m learning all sorts of new tricks to use with Excel. Previously, if I used Excel at all I would treat it like a table in Word; do my calculations on a calculator and type them in! Now I’m learning more about formulae. The historical aspect of how sizing charts developed is fascinating too – initially, it was done so that military uniforms could be mass-produced in the American Civil War. Grading (working out all the different sizes for a pattern) was the one thing not included in my City & Guilds course, so I feel like this will give me more confidence and skill, especially when designing garments. I’m sure I’ll be telling Mum loads about this too – she specialised in tailoring at teacher training college when she trained to be a Domestic Science (home economics) teacher, so I’m sure she’ll have loads to contribute.

I hope you are able to catch up with someone special soon. Stay safe and keep knitting. K x

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A Song of the Weather

The title of today’s post refers to a song by Flanders and Swann of which I quoted a verse in my monthly newsletter yesterday: “Farmers fear unkindly May // Frost by night and hail by day!”.

I seem to mention the weather a lot, don’t I? Now I’m working for myself from home, rather than being in a school setting all day, the weather has more of a direct impact on what I do and when. For example, I want to go for a walk today and need to buy some ingredients for dinner (vegan casserole), but every time I think about going, the rain starts again! Walking in the rain is not impossible I know, but I’d rather not get soaked carrying a bag of parsnips, cabbage and carrots for some reason.

Plans are afoot for the next MKAL with Yarn O’clock and I’m going to start swatching this afternoon. Yes, this does mean that the Grand Mystery Project is all done – it’s going in the post in the next couple of days once I’ve photographed it. Again, this is dependent on the weather…

I’ve talked about my love of swatching before – it’s great trying out a range of ideas on a small canvas and seeing what works best for the design overall. Swatching as a designer is like playing with the paint box or dressing up box – lots of fun and endless possibilities. Swatching as a knitter is different, as it tends to be knitting stocking stitch squares (known as gauge swatches), but it can help you get to know an unfamiliar yarn and how it behaves and sometimes a new stitch pattern as well.

It always amazes me that so many knitters are reluctant to knit gauge swatches, looking on them as a waste of time. The main point is to see if your personal knitting tension with your needles and your yarn matches that of the designer with their needles and their yarn, with the goal of checking that your knitted item will come out at the right size. This is rather essential for garments.

But I would say it’s so much more than that; it’s to find out whether the fabric the designer had in mind is one that works for you – I once really struggled to ‘get gauge’ with a pattern I loved the look of and tried a range of needle sizes until it matched. I was using the designer’s own yarn, so there shouldn’t have been a problem there. However, once I got the stated gauge, I hated the knitted fabric. It was like cardboard. But I had ‘got gauge’ so I carried on making the garment with those needles. Did I ever wear it? No. I ripped out the yarn in the end (this is called ‘frogging’ – because you ‘rip it, rip it’) and re-used it for something else.

Of course, what I should have done was stop at the gauge swatch point and ask myself if this was a fabric I liked the look and feel of. If not, I had choices – I could have made something else straight away (and saved myself many hours of knitting that didn’t result in a wearable item), or I could have found a needle size that gave me a fabric I did like and work out which size to make from there.

So, this afternoon, while my sourdough rests between sets of pulls and folds – I’m trying a larger quantity today, 1.5x my usual – I shall be playing with yarn and peering out of the window at the clouds to see if I can make it to the shops in time before the next downpour.

What will you be up to? Whatever it is, stay safe, Kx

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Needles and Pins

An overhead shot of three knitted hexiflats lying in a horizontal row

Well, the Covid jab knocked me sideways for a good few days. I had the Astra Zeneca one and side effects have been varied and wide-ranging! My arm is still sore and when I went out for my first walk five days after the jab I was so wobbly we had to cut it short and come home very gently. But I’m taking comfort in the thought that this probably means my immune system is doing what it should.

My plan of knitting some hexiflats to add to my Beekeeper’s Quilt was a good idea. The queue outside the vaccination centre was very long (but at least it was dry), so I knitted whilst waiting beforehand. I’ve made a few more since then too – it’s useful to have a small project to hand when your arms and fingers are tired. Not only can you feel like you’ve actually achieved something tangible, as one hexiflat takes about 40 minutes, but also you’re not having to wrangle large quantities of fabric.

And what news of the Grand Secret Project? Well, it’s finished! It’s blocking (has had a long soak in the sink, been rolled up gently in a towel, been laid out flat on a mat and patted into shape) and I’m now just waiting for it to dry. I’m so pleased with it and can’t wait to be able to share it with you. I also worked out a really nifty way to accurately calculate the yarn quantities for all the different sizes. The pattern and associated files all need tidying up and double checking and then it’s good to go!

What will be next once the loose ends are all tied up? Well, I’m going to talk to Anne at Yarn O’clock soon about plans for the next Mystery Knit-along and I will be able to finish recording my Introduction to Lace Knitting course for Craftucation. I also have plans for a new shawl design using Knitting Fever yarn.

The wholemeal and seeded loaf was gorgeous by the way. So much so that I’ve made a second one just the same. I do want to get more rise (also called Oven Spring) into my sourdough loaves; the dough is now a good consistency when it goes in the banneton, but the loaves do tend to grow sideways rather than upwards in the oven. Some experimenting is called for, I think.

An overhead shot of a sourdough loaf scored with five lines spiralling to the centre

Having caught a crow in the act of removing and stealing the filled half coconut from the apple tree I’m keeping an even keener eye on it than before. That was the second one that had been taken; the first had moved from the tree to the lawn one day and vanished the next. I’m sure it’s the same bird that has made a few skirmishes on the replacements too – it gets a loud ‘shoo!’ which seems to do the trick at the moment. An alternative feeding solution has been ordered from C J Wildlife which should put a stop to the thefts.

A crow caught stealing, flying in front of a camellia bush with the coconut hanging from it's beak

It’s been lovely to see the range of birds that visit the garden increase since putting the feed out. There have been robins, blackbirds, pigeons and sparrows which we’ve usually had, but also blue tits, coal tits, gold finches and even a pair of thrushes! The magpie is quite keen on it too. There was a pair of coal tits yesterday on the tree, one of which was feeding the other (as a sign of being a good provider I think) and I’m hoping we’ll get visits from any offspring they have too.

That’s all from me for today. Stay safe and keep knitting, Kx

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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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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