Wednesday 29 April 2020

Yarn Along: 29th April 2020: Bright Above Me

Hello... whispering very quietly... I appear to have three children that are entertaining themselves for a few minutes, so I'm popping by to see what you're up to. We've been on lockdown for five and a half weeks now. Pre-lockdown, I dreamed of all the extra time I'd have without having to do the school run, or all the after school chauffeuring, now several weeks into lockdown I'm mostly wondering how I manage to spend all of my time cooking or cleaning up having cooked!

For the first couple of weeks of lockdown I got very little crafting done. I thought I should be doing easy knitting that I didn't have to concentrate on, but all that happened was that my mind wandered. As soon as I realised that what I really wanted to work on was really complicated, fully-immersive knitting that could distract me from what was going on in the world, I started getting a lot more done!

Starfall sweater yoke

For ages I have been saying that I should get my Starfall Sweater done, but every time I picked it up, I was uncertain about how it was going to turn out, and one evening, having knitted a second sleeve that didn't match the first, I finally gave up and decided to put the yarn to better use. One project that has been on my mind ever since it came out last year is Bright Above Me by Dieuwke Schack-Mulligen. I actually started knitting the sweater last year, but got annoyed by the long strands that had to be caught as they were showing through on the outside and I abandoned the project before I really got started. Since then, I have learnt how to do ladder back jacquard, where you create a second layer of fabric on the back for all the floats and it is actual magic! Yes, it does require a bit more concentration, but it is totally worth it for the finished result.

Bright Above Me yoke

Ladderback jacquard

I've hardly read anything since the schools closed (see comment above regarding cooking...), but I am enjoying reading a few pages of How to Stop Time by Matt Haig every night before I go to sleep. I've read some of Matt Haig's non-fiction before and like his writing style, but this is the first of his novels that I have read. Tom, the main character ages very slowly: 15 years for every Earth year. He looks 41, but is in fact well over 500 years old, and he remembers everything from the long life that he is living. This is another book I have on long-term loan from the library (all the libraries are shut, so I can't return anything), and it is proving to be a perfect read for now. The chapters set during the Great Plague London in the 17th Century feel apt for the current pandemic. During the plague, Tom lost the love of his life, Rose, with whom he had a daughter, who ages at the same rate as Tom. In the present day, Tom is trying to built yet another new life for himself, while still pining for Rose and for his long-lost daughter. While I'm reading this quite slowly, I really want to know how the plot will unfold, and whether Tom will ever be able to find peace.



Work in progress



What are you currently working on? Are you finding yourself wanting mindless knitting that requires no attention, or something really involved? If you've been eyeing any of my patterns, don't forget that everything in my Ravelry store is buy one get one free until the pubs in the UK reopen (can you tell that I am missing my weekly pub meet-ups with my knitting friends?!).


Linking up with Ginny for Yarn Along.

Thursday 9 April 2020

Buy one, get one free!


Hello. How are you getting on? We’re still in lockdown in the UK (like much of the rest of the world), so my social life has switched from knitting in the pub to video calls from my living room, which just isn’t quite the same, so I’ve decided that from now until the pubs reopen, all single patterns in my Ravelry store will be buy one, get one free. No code is needed, just add the patterns you want to your basket and the cheapest one will be free.


Hope you and your loved ones are keeping well. Happy knitting.