Tag: knitting

Year of Projects 2021/22 Week Five

This week I’ve been starting to try and sort through some of my knitting related stash. It’s spread all over the house meaning that when I want a certain size needle/those gold beads/a crochet hook/my favourite stitch markers/ my plying spindle I have to search several locations to try and find what I’m looking for. I’m hoping to start finding a proper home for things over the coming weeks and get some of my stash into Ravelry. I have some long weekends coming up so I’m hoping to use that to start getting to grips with where to store things like beads and notions.

In the course of sorting I came across an old project from (I think) 2018. This is some of my handspun but I have no idea what the pattern was that I was using. I’m also not happy with how this was knitting up, I think it’s a bit too thin. I never like frogging a project but I don’t think this is ever going to see the light of day as a finished item. I’m not sure what this yarn is going to be, maybe a second yarn in a held double project?

Image shows a partially knitted jumper
A sad end to some handspun

In other news I’ve been making some good progress on my shawl for the Ravellenics. I’ve realised that I have gone wrong and my stockinette sections are deeper than they should be but I’m not too bothered about that. I have no idea if this will ever be something I’ll wear, but I really like this gradient.

Shawl in Fellview Fibre gradient Witch Hazel

Year of Projects 2021/22 Week Four

It’s been a difficult week with all this heat. Despite the through draft created by having all of my windows and doors replaced this week it couldn’t cool things down enough to think much about knitting.

I did make progress on the Fyne vest. Aaaand then I made a mistake again. And then I had to unravel it again. I have knitted the same fifteen rows more times than I can count now and I’m rapidly falling out of love with it.I’m giving myself one last attempt to get it right and then I’m frogging it for good (or maybe setting it on fire and casting it into the abyss).

I did make some Ravellenics progress however. I cast on Fichu Bleu with the gradient I spun during the TdF. I’m never really sure if I’m a shawl person, some people make them look chic and effortless but I think I look like a badger wrapped in a blanket. Nevertheless I think it’s a nice simple pattern for watching the games and I think it works well with the chain ply.

Image shows shawl in stockinette and broken rib in a green gradient
Fichu Bleu

WIP Wednesday

Welcome to my first WIP Wednesday. I feel I am actually justified in classing this a work in progress as it is actually progressing, albeit slowly, rather than being a ‘work stuffed in a bag/cupboard/drawer’. There’s plenty of time for those to make an appearance in the not too distant future.

As I said, I haven’t done much knitting lately. I think extended lockdowns have affected my attention span and I just want my non-work time to just wash over me without any effort on my part. I’m trying to get back to it (and reading which has also fallen by the wayside). This is the project that is currently on my needles. It’s Marie Wallin’s Fyne Vest.


The yarn for this is a DK yarn from Rowan. DK is a weight I almost never use, but I found this yarn on sale in Booth’s Bookshop in Hay on Wye and came away with armfuls of it thinking I’d find a pattern eventually (let’s quickly gloss over going to the book capital of the UK and coming away with more yarn stash). It’s a wool/alpaca blend and I really love these colours and how they work together.


Progress so far is a bit slow and fiddly and I’ve resolved never to knit stranded work in the flat (is that an expression?) ever again. I note that a lot of others on Ravelry adapted the pattern for knitting in the round but I’m not sure I’m good enough to go off pattern so here I am. Fiddly aside, the pattern is nice and clear so far and it’s not taking too long once I actually get down to it. How’s everyone else getting on with their works in progress?

Welcome: finding mojo

For much of the last twelve months I’ve been in a lockdown. Locked up, in my house, with a massive fibre and yarn stash and… nothing. I’ve barely broken out the wheel or the needles. My partner recently asked me if I ever actually knit/spin/dye or if my hobby is actually just the acquisition of fibre related goodies and quite honestly I can’t blame him. In the past twelve months I have managed a pair of socks and a pair of fingerless gloves. Still they were, you know, a pair, and we all know how hard that is to achieve, right?

So I think it’s finally time to dust off my not insubstantial stash, find my knitting mojo, and get on with the actual business of crafting something and finding the time each day for some unplugged downtime. Hopefully blogging will provide some inspiration and serve as a place to collect my thoughts about my progress with various projects. I hope to keep track of my knitting, spinning, and dyeing projects, as well as my reading and general fibrey thoughts. I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures in fibrecrafting and it’s great to have you along.