crafts & knitting · garden stuff · general stuff · wildlife

Late May


The days seem to be whizzing by at the moment and all of our schedules are up in the air here. Toby had his annual school play last week, which always throws our comfortable routines out of whack as he’s off timetable and his school is open in the evening rather than the daytime for a couple of days. And this week is school half term break, so our days are continuing to have a slightly chaotic feel. Amy is deep in revision for her A levels and is on study leave. In 3 weeks time she’ll have sat all of her exams and then she’s done with her school years – it’s almost incomprehensible how quickly those 14 years have passed, I still clearly remember her first day of school and it’s got me feeling more nostalgic than usual.

Time has passed quickly for our robin family too. The chicks spent 3 weeks hanging around in our garden being fed mostly by their dad and now they’ve flown on and their mum is sitting on a new clutch of eggs in her nest in our garage. I did get a couple of pictures of them flitting about before they departed, they seem so unprepared for the world and I really hope that they do well and survive long enough to have chicks of their own.

As always, knitting is my constant and I’ve cast on too many new projects – most of them in blues. Do you find yourself drawn to certain colours at different times? It’s definitely blue that is most appealing to me at the moment. These socks are coming along nicely and I’m hoping to keep my focus long enough to finish the pair and avoid the temptation to start something else new. The yarn is Eden cottage Hayton in ‘Tarn’ and Madeline Tosh twist light in ‘paper’ and the pattern is a free one – Fair Isle Flower sock by Candice DeWitt.

And I’m working these beautiful gradient mini skeins of Julie Asselin’s Leizu 4ply into a shawl that reminds me of breaking waves, going as they do from deep sea blue to a foamy sea-spray light grey. This colourway set is called ‘Oresund’ and the shawl pattern is Pebble Beach by Helen Stewart.

There’s also another blue yarned project that I’m working on at the moment but that needs some concentration, so I’ve had to put it on the back burner until after half term break when I’m able to call my time my own again. I look forward to showing you then ๐Ÿ™‚

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Lastly, I’m sure you’ve been bombarded with emails about the new GDPR regulations brought into force by the EU on May 25th and so are aware that these govern how your information may be used and stored by others. In line with that I have written some new privacy policies that detail what information I collect, how I use it and what rights you have regarding that. I have not sent out an email to my mailing list as everyone on there is only there because they have requested to be and all of the emails that I do send (all 3 or 4 of them a year) have an easy way for you to manage your preferences and unsubscribe.

Any questions please get in touch.

 

 

crafts & knitting · general stuff

Cosy knitting

Yesterday morning was bright and beautiful and I should have taken myself off for a walk but I am a bit hooked on knitting bunny heads at the moment, so I sat and knitted instead. It always happens when I find a new and particularly nice bunny knitting yarn and I’m having fun turning a big bag of yarn that I bought before Christmas into lots of animal heads.

This particular yarn isn’t just a single ball but a combination of 2 strands knitted together, both from a new brand called Willow and Lark. One is tweedy and rustic and has interesting flecks of subtle colour – Woodland, and the other is a thin strand of very fluffy blended mohair and silk – Plume. The nice thing is that there are similar shades in both different yarns so they match up perfectly. I’ve done the same thing in the past (with Rowan Felted tweed and Rowan Kid silk haze) and the two new Willow and Lark yarns are similar to those and combine beautifully to create a lovely knitted fabric that has texture, fuzz and subtle tones – in short perfect for bunny heads. I like the lovely halo that you get around their little ears and you can even brush the finished fabric to tease out extra mohair strands and increase the fuzziness.

The other reason I’m finding it a bit hard to step away from the knitting at the moment is because I want to release an updated version of the 2 rabbit patterns with a couple of extra head options, so I am knitting samples, tweaking a stitch here and there and making sure I’m happy with the instructions. I’ll keep the blog here updated with news when the pattern is ready but it will be a free update.

So a sunny day passed by outside while I sat inside knitting, but by yesterday evening the winds were beginning to build in strength ahead of an overnight winter storm. Happily I was still snuggled up with tea and chocolate and feeling cosy. When I was a child I loved the sound of storms at night, it was thrilling and a bit scary. But being an adult and a homeowner puts an entirely different complexion on things and instead of lying there listening to the sounds of the storm and pretending that you’re on an old-fashioned sailing ship with big sails and creaking decks, you’re lying there wondering how many roof tiles are flying off and how expensive it will be to get the roof fixed.

Happily for us all of the roof tiles seem to be intact this morning, though we do have a couple of loose fence panels and the profile of the hill that I can see from my kitchen window looks somehow different, so there may be a tree or two down up there.

Hope the weather is calm and restful where you are and you have the chance to do something you enjoy sometime today x

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PS: Before I go I just wanted to say a big thank you to Feedspot for including this blog in their top 50 UK Knitting blogs. I’m in some very good company, so if you are a fan of knitting blogs then it might be worth visiting and seeing who else is included.

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Disclosure notice:

Please be aware that I only write about and recommend yarns/products that

A. I’ve paid for with my own money and

B. I actually use in my projects

At the beginning of December I bought 2 of every shade suitable for bunny knitting and received the tote bag as part of a promotion that was running (a free bag with a minimum spend of ยฃ10 while stocks lasted).

 

general stuff

Happy New year


Hello, just wanted to pop in quickly to wish you a very happy start to 2018 and to share some of my favourite moments from 2017 (the usual mix of knitting, home and nature).

We’re all in disarray here until later in the week, when the return to routines will smooth everything out again. Enjoy the beginning of your new year –ย  I hope it’s a good one for us all, full of small and simple joys and plenty of gentle good times.