This week I’ve made a bit of progress with my Hardware Jumper, which is a pattern (and yarn) from Erika Knight. I have little to no discipline when making things for myself. If I’m making something for my Etsy shop I’m focussed and deadline driven, but when its for me… It can wait. For years. This has been the sad life of this jumper, which I love and really want to wear but has been on the needles for a very long time but I’ve nearly finished the back so that means I’m about a quarter in doesn’t it and that feels pretty good. I bought the yarn on one of the Great London Yarn Crawls, if yo ..read more

Its Strictly season! Thank god for that. I needed a bit of sparkle and fun. You know what else that means don’t you? Its Strictly Sock time. If you don’t know what I’m talking about it’s the sock MAL run by Ali of the Little Drops of Wonderful podcast on YouTube. She runs this very easy going knit along every year where you quite simply knit a pair of socks while you watch Strictly. You’ll have to check the podcast (there’s a Ravelry group too) for all the details but there are prizes and cheating is encouraged so you don’t have to worry about sticking to a load of rules. Not a ton of progress ..read more

We’re settling in nicely to our new home, we love this area, the people are so friendly and smiley – I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy anywhere I’ve lived. Of course the house needs a few bits and bobs doing but nothing urgent and we’ve almost unpacked everything, I think there are about 18 boxes left, and most of that is stuff that really belongs in the loft or it’s my craft supplies that I need to buy new storage for. So now that we’re pretty much sorted I have been able to do some lovely relaxing Sunday knitting and what is better than a nice pair of socks? Teensy bit too long for my bl ..read more

You’re impressed with my progress, I can tell. I had to check my projects page on Ravelry to remind myself how long ago I cast on these socks. 29 September 2018. 2018! That’s pretty bad isn’t it, and to have only got this far. I’m a little bit ashamed of myself. So I suppose these socks should be what I concentrate on making this week. I mean, they should be but knowing me I’ll be distracted by all the other things I have on the needles but my intentions at this part of this day are good. If you’re not familiar with the pattern, these are the Bob socks by Louise Tilbrook designs, Bob is really ..read more

Good morning. Here we are again at Sunday and a nice long day of knitting ahead. It absolutely tipped down with rain here all day yesterday so that would have been a perfect day to make some progress with this jumper but I had a few things I needed to go to the next town along for so I spent the day getting drenched in between getting a hair cut, shopping (boring household things) and going to the post office. So today the skies are clear and I’m staying indoors with YouTube, podcasts, Jewellery Maker and Sewing Quarter for company. Lovely. I’ll probably nip out to Costa later for a black for ..read more

Every year the local churches distribute hundreds of these little angels around town, they just appear overnight each with a positive message attached about Christmas, they call it the Fleet Angels project. Its a lovely sight, they’re literally everywhere – on shop window sills, hanging off trees and buses, dangling from railings… you might even find one hanging on your front door. I’m not a Christian but I do have a fair amount of scrap yarn that I accumulate throughout the year from my Gin Poodles and such like so I like to contribute the odd angel as and when I can. This year I have only m ..read more

Another nice long Sunday of crafts this weekend, because I’m doubly blessed with a rainy day and engineering works on the trains. I went to the next town along yesterday to watch Judy at the pictures. I’d really like to see it again but its only on for less than a week. I’m telling you that is the best film I’ve seen this year, its so sad but Renee Zellweger is incredible and the ending… my god if you’re not in tears at the end you’re a stone. I’ve also decided I want Judy’s last hair cut. So we’ll see how well taking a picture of Judy Garland into the hairdresser goes… Anyway, that’s yesterda ..read more

The weather today is fantastic. It’s absolutely tipping down so I’m staying in and knitting all day long.  It’s 9am as I’m writing this, I’ve been up for four hours and there’s no sign of it stopping. Once I’ve finished this and done a lovely facepack its just me, fibre, coffee and The Grocery Girls all the way.   This is a perfect day to put some inches on my Mini Mania scarf – this is a free pattern on Ravelry by Sarah Core and it makes a huge linen stitch scarf.  Well, mine is huge. There are smaller options. I went for the Epic size which means my rows are 600 stitches long ..read more

In my usual way, I start at the bottom left and work my way around clockwise. So, here’s what we are looking at in this picture: An alpaca sweater  Placemarker for things I have to do today Placemarker for my embroidery coursework A reminder to write this blog Crochet heart bunting Fisherman’s rib scarf That’s a cup of black coffee in my ‘I’d rather be knitting’ mug.  I used to have that mug at work but then they banned individuality so I had to bring it home where I’m always knitting so it makes no sense here.       A  couple of weeks ago me and The Mister we ..read more

Here is my plan for today. Every Sunday I choose a maximum of six projects to work on for the day and work on them in rotation, either in one-hour blocks or for the length of whatever podcast I’m watching on YouTube, because Sunday is also the day when I binge watch podcasts and Sewing Quarter. I start at the bottom left corner and go round in a clockwise direction. If I finish something I can replace it with another project. I’ll go into each project in more detail below but so far today we have: The PPS shawl – by Louise Tilbrook Three snood orders to pack up ready to post My current book ..read more