A week in the life: 19th February 2017

This week has been... nice. Not the most descriptive word, but definitely the right one. Nothing earth-shattering has happened, the children have been playing nicely together and the sun has shone. I even managed to get away with washing my winter coat and not freezing for the couple of days that it needed to dry.

I've been working hard on my sock yarn blanket, which hasn't seen much (possibly any) action since Christmas. I realised the reason I'd been stalling on it was that I had added a bright orange square during the last session, and was about to add a neon yellow one. Neither are my favourite colours, and I think I was a little upset by the change in colour balance of the section I was working on. So I got out my advent bags and played around with the order I was going to add the next few balls in. Somehow I managed to find an arrangement that made me happy, but that still allowed me to add the colours in the order they'd be drawn in (and no, I can't remember which colours were for which day; there are too many and I've shuffled them too much!). I'm hoping to get to the end of the Day 16 bag by the end of the weekend and will have a nicely squared-off section to work on next time I pick it up.

While working on some new designs I've been playing around with short rows and have picked up two handy new skills in the process: German short rows and knitting backwards. I have used the wrap and turn method for short rows previously and it works, but requires some concentration to ensure you don't miss the wraps when you're working back, otherwise you end up with holes. German short rows are a game-changer as far as I'm concerned. I find them much less hassle to work, and they're obvious when you're working back. I can't show you what I've been working on, but am certain German short rows will feature in a new design in the not-too-distant future. Knitting backwards is something I have been meaning to try for a while: when I'm working my sock yarn blanket I get annoyed turning the work every few stitches towards the end of the square. I had tried it a few times, but ended up with stocking stitch instead, which wasn't the plan. And suddenly (whilst driving to one of my kid's swimming lessons) it clicked - to get a knit row when working from the front, the action is more purl than knit. And it works! No more turning the work when I'm only working on a few stitches, hooray!

This coming week is half term, so we have lots of exciting things planned (my five year old wrote a list). I have also booked my train tickets to go to Edinburgh for a day in March to visit Edinburgh Yarn Festival. I had hoped that I would be able to go, but could only guarantee that this week. Unfortunately advance purchase tickets have sold out, so I'm going to have to gamble on getting a ticket on the door. Wish me luck - the event is looking like it could be rather busy if my Instagram feed is anything to go by!

I hope you've all had lovely weeks. What have you been up to?