A week in the life: 31st January 2017

The past week has been full of many tiny moments that have filled me with joy, and as we're in the depths of winter here in the U.K., and the world's political situation is not what I would wish for, I thought I would share some of these moments with you.

A friend on Instagram has just started selling Jamberry wraps and held a little competition to identify the wraps she was wearing. I won! And received a lovely little package containing half a sheet of wraps (enough for a full manicure and pedicure) and a sheet of samples. I've not used the full set yet, but have used a couple of the samples as accent nails and am really pleased with how they look (they've had lots of compliments). If you fancy getting hold of some for yourself, head to Natasha's Jamberry page.

My friend Amy sent me an unexpected parcel containing two of the Enid Blyton parodies that came out for the Christmas market. I've just finished Five Give Up The Booze and loved it, so am very much looking forward to reading the second. The parcel also contained a ball of yarn sew-on patch that I will one day add to my camp blanket!

The postman has had a busy week, as I also received thank you letters from afar, including a parcel from Nikki that contained a book by Scarlett Thomas, whose work I love (I will confess to already owning the book, but it has reminded me that it's been a long time since I've read it, so I've added the new copy to the reading pile), and two mini balls of sock yarn to add to my sock yarn blanket.

Last week at my regular knitting group a friend noticed that my hands were looking rather dry and cracked, and when I next saw her on the school run she handed me a pot of handmade hand cream. It's working wonders. Another thing that is working wonders is covering the cut on my finger with micropore tape - it's enough to help my finger recover without stopping me from knitting! I'm glad I mentioned it on the blog, as the recommendation came from a comment on here that Rachelle left for me. This has also allowed me to make huge progress with my socks. I'm only working a stripe every day or two, but am getting through them - they're doing much better than they were a couple of weeks ago!

What little things have added joy to your week?

Quick and Easy Baby Knits

Every once in a while the team at Knit Now publish a compilation of knitting patterns that have appeared in their magazine. The collections are always themed, and the latest is quick and easy baby knits, and features four of my patterns: Elephant Parade, Barley Twist Cardigan, Reach for the Stars baby jumper and Hedgehogs and Hoglets.

Elephant Parade. Image copyright Practical Publishing.

Barley Twist cardigan. Image copyright Practical Publishing.

Reach for the Stars. Image copyright Practical Publishing.

Hedgehogs and Hoglets. Image copyright Practical Publishing.

The magazine also features an excellent selection of baby knits from other designers. My favourites include Lucy Lamb by Barbara Prime and Beach Hut Cushion by Kim Dickinson.

Lucy Lamb by Barbara Prime. Image copyright Practical Publishing.

Beach Hut Cushion by Kim Dickinson. Image copyright Practical Publishing.

The collection is available at many newsagents and supermarkets, or can be ordered online, and is a bargain at only £7.99.

Slow socks

Just after Christmas I offered to knit a pair of socks for a friend. She wants a pair of hand-knitted socks, and while she can knit, she's struggled to knit socks that fit in the past, and I always have socks on the go and there are only so many pairs of socks I can wear myself, so I offered to knit some for her. Simple.

I chose the yarn, Sirdar Heart and Sole that has been in my stash for a while, and cast on a pair of toe-up socks. I used my usual pattern and set to work. But they weren't growing (I hadn't finished the toe increases a whole week after casting on). While I knew they were on the needles, I wasn't wanting to knit on them, and I wasn't sure why. So last week I decided that I was going to knit a stripe a day on them to make sure they get done in time for my friend's birthday in March.

I got two and a half stripes into the first sock and there was a funny join in the yarn - a single ply had been knotted, and an end twisted in a little untidily. I persevered and knitted over the end, which seemed good and strong, but when I got to the end of that stripe, while I was looking closely at the join section, I noticed that my sock was getting larger the further I got from the toe. I thought about it for a bit and remembered that I'd had similar tension problems last year using the same needles. So I did the only sensible thing: snipped the yarn and cast on a new sock on new (and totally different) needles. I'll unravel the old toe some other time. The needles have gone in the bin (one tip was bent anyway), and the other pair of needles that are the same will also be leaving the house. No one wants to battle with their needles while they're knitting socks!

Since I swapped needles the sock has grown much faster. I now have a different problem - the new needles have reopened the small cut in my finger tip. Argh! I can't wait to get these socks finished... Do you ever get the impression that some items just don't want to be knitted?

 

 

A week in the life: 19th January 2017

Another busy week here, so there's been rather more than a week between weekly posts, oops!

Last week was crazy busy. Last Thursday was my PhD graduation ceremony, so I got to spend the day prancing around in a silly hat and fancy gown (at one point I even had a wand! Nothing to do with the ceremony) in the wonderful surroundings of Durham Cathedral. I had a last minute panic about what to wear when I realised how little of my outfit would be covered by the gown, so made a dash to Next the evening before to buy a black dress, and had to buy a black jacket on the morning of the ceremony as it was freezing when I got up (and snowing, which was fortunately short-lived, but I did have to walk very carefully to the bus stop as I was in danger of falling over in my heels! The day was lovely, especially as my parents had come up for the week so they could attend.

Not everything last week was excellent; my husband was in a car crash early in the week, and while he's absolutely fine the car is not and has gone off to be scrapped. This has left me without a car, and while I live on a bus route  it's still a little annoying as everything is taking longer than usual. In addition my son and I have both been a little poorly, nothing more than colds, but enough to wipe us out for a few days. I think we're all better now though, and are starting to make progress on sourcing a new car, so things are definitely not all bad.

Over the past few weeks we've started reading the Harry Potter books to my son. We're only on the first (and might pretend for a while that the later ones don't exist as I'm pretty sure he'll find them scary), and I am loving revisiting the series. So on Saturday night I rewatched the first film (for vetting purposes). I'm not sure I've watched it since I saw it in the cinema in 2001 (?!), and it is as wonderful as a I remember, so that pleased me hugely. I'm looking forward to watching the later films.

I have managed to make some decent progress on some crafts over the past week or so. My finger has heeled (finally), and I have finished the first pair of socks of the year. They're in Regia Stripemania Colour, which is a DK weight yarn, and have gone in the gifting pile. I cast another pair of socks on the bus on the way to graduation, and even though that was a week ago I have made so little progress they're not worth showing!

At the weekend I got some long overdue pattern cutting done. I've been meaning to make a dress for my friend's daughter for ages, and when I finally got round to cutting the pattern out I realised I needed to cut out the largest size. Isn't the fabric lovely though? And as they live in Australia I don't need to worry about the baby keeping warm.

I have also been cracking on with lots of design work, especially this week as I'm back into the normal routine. I am about to cast on a new blanket, and am halfway through a pair of socks. Nothing to share now, but there will be soon.

This week I made an Instagram-enabled purchase. I've been following Yarnistry for a while (I mentioned them in my Christmas gift list last year), and earlier in the week she posted a photo of her new glittery dinosaur stitch markers. I was completely powerless to resist, and was delighted when they arrived in their holographic posting envelope. And I love them. They'll definitely be used on the next project I cast on.

Last night I made an impromptu visit to the cinema. I'd seen trailers for La La Land, but not with the sound on, and knew I wanted to see this film. It's a romance and a musical, set in present day Hollywood about a wannabe actress (Mia) and a purist Jazz-enthusiast (Sebastian) who dreams of setting up his own Jazz club. I loved everything about this film. The set piece at the start really gets you in the mood for the film. The whole thing is beautifully acted, and the costumes are wonderful - there is so much colour in his film. It is strongly reminiscent of old-school musicals, with the likes of Doris Day, with both ballroom and tap dancing. The film is about the power of dreams and ambition, but also how these can be interrupted by real life things like having to pay the rent. The ending of the film is wonderful, yet it made me cry so much! This film is one I will watch again; it's perfect. 

The film also left me for a hankering for a dark green silk dress and a new red handbag. In fact I loved Mia's whole wardrobe, in its pallets of bright primaries. The school run this morning did, however, remind me that while floaty dresses may be suited to the Hollywood climate all year round, they're not practical in Durham; it was freezing this morning!

That's it from me this week. What's everyone else been up to?

How to obtain patterns from out-of-print issues of Knit Now magazine

I write a lot of patterns for Knit Now magazine, and while the rights revert back to me within a few months of publication, it can take me a while to get round to adding them to my Ravelry store (I need to reformat them and add my own photos, which means re-publishing often gets put to the bottom of the to do list as these things are time-consuming!). One of the questions I get asked most frequently by customers is how to get hold of the patterns I have published in Knit Now before I self-publish them, but after the print issue is available. The answer is to buy the digital issue of the magazine.

Digital issues of Knit Now magazine can be purchased through Pocket Mags, and allow you to read issues that are no longer in print. Pocket Mags has a handy page of digital magazine FAQs here, which may be helpful to you.

I do hope this post has been helpful. And I am currently working hard to get all my third-party publications up in my Ravelry store.

Best Year Ever CKAL

Last year at The Flock launch party I met a lovely blogger and podcaster called Nikki.* I have been listening to her podcast Tea and Possibilities ever since (and if you haven't checked out her podcast already, I would definitely recommend it, especially if you like knitting, books, tea and Harry Potter; it's a lovely cheerful corner of the internet). This year Nikki is running a year long knit and crochet along (might even be a craft along, you'd have to check) called the Best Year Ever CKAL in her Ravelry group,* and the aim is to make four things over the course of the year that make you happy.

I know that joining in a CKAL so early in the year is clearly a breech of my "no more KALs" rule, but this one is pretty straightforward, and I was planning on making (at least) four things over the course of the year anyway, so I'm definitely on board. All you have to do is make four things and post about them in Nikki's Ravelry group.

So what are my four happy-making things?

1. Antler jumper 

I cast on an Antler cardigan for myself last year and rapidly decided I had started the wrong size and that I wanted a jumper rather than a cardigan. This year I am going to get that back on the needles and get the garment I want.

I'll be knitting it in Sirdar Wool Rich Aran, which I believe is discontinued - I managed to snag ten balls (that's a full kilo) for just over £25 last January with this garment in mind.

 

2. Lush cardigan

I have loved this Tin Can Knits pattern since before it came out a few years ago (I think I snuck a look at it on a testing thread). The cardigan is beautiful, and so unusual. I bought the yarn for it in a clearance sale at the department store near my parents' house at some point in 2015, definitely with a plan to use it for this pattern, and haven't got round to casting it on yet, but will do this year. For a minute I thought about completing it time for a yarn retreat I'm going to at the end of February, then remembered that was a crazy idea!

3. A squishy purple shawl

Having said I only got one ball of wool for Christmas, this week's post proved me wrong when the Christmas present from my brother arrived: two skeins of Malabrigo Worsted in an amazing shade of purple. This will definitely become a shawl for me to replace the purple one I made last year that was too itchy for me to wear. I'll probably use one of Susan Ashcroft's shawl patterns as I want to use every last scrap of yarn, and the Love Train shawl I made last year gets a lot of wear.

4. A reindeer head

I have talked myself out of knitting a unicorn head as my husband doesn't want an animal head up on the wall all year round, boo. But I think I can probably get away with a reindeer head instead as it only has to be out for about a month per year (though I am tempted to leave it up in the spare room all year round and decorate it seasonally for guests to appreciate).

What happy things are you planning on working on this year?

 

*You will need to be logged into Ravelry for these links to work. Ravelry is free to sign up to, and is an excellent resource for all things related to knitting and crochet.

 

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New design: Snowflake infinity scarf

Over the past week I've shown you not one but two shiny new designs, Granny's Button Jar and Leaf socks, and here is a third, my Snowflake Infinity Scarf.

Image courtesy of I Like Knitting.

The scarf is knitted in the round as a really long tube with a stranded, tesselating snowflake design that runs the length of the tube. When the full length required is acheived, the tube is cast off and the ends seamed to make the tube into a cowl. The cowl is long enough to be wrapped round the neck twice, making it very cosy (I think this cowl would be perfect for wearing on long winter walks, or while out in the snow).

I love this design, and can't wait to get the sample back from the publishers! It's knitted in Rico Essentials Soft Merino Aran, which is lovely and plump and squishy. I definitely think this design could be worn by men and women, and the Rico yarn comes in a large variety of colours, so there should be something to suit everyone.

And very excitingly, the design is on the cover!

Image courtesy of I Like Knitting.

The pattern is published in the February 2017 issue of I Like Knitting magazine, an e-zine that is available via a subscription model.

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