Checking In

I just wanted to check in to see how everyone has been doing. I know a few are struggling with the isolation and the fear. I have been off work this week (planned not due to illness) and have struggled to do anything productive. The vast majority of my week has been rediscovering my Supernatural Sims game. Very little knitting got done and a whole lot of crap on tv got watched. I think there has been a lot of people feeling guilty over how unproductive they have been. There has been a lot of tweets today from various writers who have either said that they are just now feeling creative. Or have highlighted that it’s okay to spend your time processing things.

So yesterday I got my mojo back. I have been knitting away and my sister is back to doing her art as a distraction. While I have been trying to avoid the news and social media I haven’t always managed it. I love Instagram because me feed is filled with so many creative types and I have been watching them get back in their groove. Even before I could lose time looking at everyone’s knitting. It was also helped by joining a knit n natter via zoom. This was hosted by Michelle of The Loveliest Yarn Company. I didn’t say much as it was my first time using zoom. It takes a little getting used to. It was nice though and I would definitely take part again.

As for my own Instagram feed I am trying to keep it positive. I have been posting my own daily distractions. I plan to do that at least on my days off (back to work tomorrow). In the meantime I continue to knit socks and I have managed to get flour to bake banana bread for my team tomorrow. On that note I have finished another pair of socks for my nurse friends. I have no one in mind for this particular pair. I think it will be a case of who needs them the most. I am in love with this pair and it will be hard to part with them. I’m not normally a green person but I am in love with these colours and I am glad I stuck with a basic pattern in order to highlight them.

The yarn has been in my stash for quite some time. I pulled it out when I tidied out my yarn cupboard a month or two ago.  It’s by Mothy and the Squid and is part of her sky series. This one is called Forest Moon and the name couldn’t be any more perfect. The base is merino/nylon/stellina which makes the socks nice and sturdy and gives them that sparkle. You can’t really see it in the socks but the flecks in the image of the yarn is actually the sparkle. So pretty!

I hope you are all keeping safe and looking after your mental health. Remember it’s okay to just sit and watch crap tv in your pyjamas. We are all going to have days like that in the weeks ahead.

Change of Plans!

Most of you will probably know that I am a nurse working for the NHS. I always try to keep my social media and blog separate from what I do although it’s not always easy. Especially right now. There is a lot of fear in the community. Some of it is due to lots of wrong information out there and some of it is being caused by others who either are paying no attention to social distancing or restricting their shopping to what they need. As a nurse I fear for my patients and my family and friends. Not just their physical wellbeing but their mental too.

The problem with fear is that it escalates very quickly. I have seen it in social media and in person. It’s easy to give in to it. I know because I have felt it myself and have had to consciously tell myself not to give in to it. On that note I have decided that I want my blog to continue and to continue as a place of positivity. Instead of giving in to fear I want to be able to do something about it. Therefore I plan to use my craft skills to put a smile on someone’s face. That’s the hope anyway.

I will be postponing my 2020 challenge. In its place I will have a new challenge. That is to knit as many pairs of socks as I can. The reason being that I plan to give a pair to my colleagues when they need it most in the hopes that it will bring them a little light. I also plan to bake when I can and ensure that my team have good coffee and tea to keep them going (something I do anyway).

So this is pair number one. I happened to be talking about knitted socks with the person that these are for before I came up with this plan. She has had a tough week and I hope that these will help. They are knitted in a slip stitch pattern which I have used a few times already. Much like previous I have had to add a few extra rounds as again they came out shorter than I would expect. I usually know how many rounds to knit for length from years of knitting them. This is a pattern that I should really measure as I go instead. After having to unpick a toe and frog back for the second time I have learned my lesson. Worth it though.

I used this beautiful yarn from For the Love of Yarn. I love these colours. I did have this earmarked for myself as I both love the yarn base and the colourway but I have plenty. It’s Donegal nep which is my favourite base. It’s beautiful to knit with and has a tweedy effect. Beautiful in both solid and variegated colourways. If you are a sock knitter and haven’t knitted with this base you haven’t lived (in my humble opinion). I don’t mind admitting that I have ordered more.

So I challenge you fellow crafters. Look after your mental health as well as your physical. Create that something for yourself that you have always wanted to. If you have friends or loved ones that are struggling create something for them that will let them know they are in your thoughts.

With that I am off to wash my hands then make some cookies. Stay safe everyone.

Knotted Roses KAL

I follow Pink Girl Knits on Instagram. Recently she came out with a pattern for a beautiful hat called Knotted Roses. I couldn’t resist and used stash busting as an excuse to join in. It’s been a long time since I joined a KAL. I did finish it pretty quickly. Mainly because I loved how it was knitting up and couldn’t put it down. Bobbles are addictive! It’s very easy to get into and knits up fast. I did the medium sized beanie which is a perfect fit.

I wish the close up of the pattern gave justice to it. It’s so pretty and the twisted stitches really make those bobbles pop. If you are looking to knit this pattern yourself I highly recommend it.

I decided to use yarn from my stash. Mainly because I wanted to start it on time and it gave me an excuse to start up another knit as I could say that I was stash busting. I actually have very little in the way of DK in my stash. I was hoping that I would have a solid colour but as I didn’t I picked out this one from For the Love of Yarn. This came from one of Lisa’s yarn club boxes from 2015 and I had two skeins of this. The first was knitted up into a pair of socks and so now I have a matching hat. I love the striping effect on the hat and I have worn it to work already.

March Haul

I have purchased some sock yarn this month. I needed yarn for some of the patterns I am writing up and I had always planned that I would buy that now. What I didn’t plan was buying some yarn ‘just because’. Actually, it’s not entirely for selfish reasons. As all of you will know I am a huge fan of my talented friend Lisa of For the Love of Yarn. What you may not know is that I am also a HUGE fan of her three very talented children. Lisa’s children have always been creative and inquisitive about what she does and they are crafty themselves. One day they asked Lisa if they could try dying yarn and they love it. It’s a creative outlet where they get to pick colours, names and be part of the process. They also choose the charity the money goes to for any of the yarns that sell. Lisa makes no money from these and her children have always been keen to help out others. This goes back from before even her eldest was unwell. If you follow Lisa you will see that she is coming up with new colour ways herself and Callum (her eldest) has picked an anti-bullying charity Respect Me and a mental health charity SAMH to be the recipients of her upcoming colourways. For someone who has had so much going on in her life. So much has been taken from her I can only admire her strength and her passion on continuing to give to others.

Now to the yarn. The first is a sock yarn and the colourway is called Comic Con designed and named by Callum. I don’t know how he did it but he picked the perfect colours and name for me (being a self proclaimed geek). I had planned to knit up socks for myself but actually I think I might use it to knit socks for one of my nurse friends. The second is a slubby sock yarn. It was dyed teal by the youngest of the cherubs, Isabella. This is my favourite colour and so I couldn’t resist it. I have never tried knitting socks with this yarn before and I’m excited to try. I have plans for a lace design and will use a little of it to knit up a swatch. You can find more of these beautiful yarns under the cherubs collection in Lisa’s shop. Please remember that these children do this for fun and to raise money for charities that they have chosen. So even if you are unable to buy any of these yarns please at least remember this years motto ‘Be Kind’.

I have a collection of patterns that I hope to bring out at the end of this month although it may be April. It’s called my Birthday Diamonds collection. The first sock pattern I designed was for myself as a challenge and to cheer myself up. I always meant to publish it but things got in the way. I then did a pattern for my sister and I planned on creating one for my dad. My dad’s is still in my head and partially on paper although never been on the pins. He is quite fussy with the socks I knit him. He prefers dark colours and plain knitting. I did the plain black socks once and I swore never again. This time though I will give him the dark socks but there will be a pattern. Has to be otherwise there goes my collection. I chose a DK yarn for him and a charcoal colour which is as close to knitting with black as I like to get. The yarn is Roslyn by Cascade yarns which has a beautiful tweed effect. I think he will like it and I can’t wait to knit with it myself. I ordered two 100g balls of this because he has large feet but it also means I will have enough to knit up a swatch. Who knew I would become a swatcher.

For my socks and my sister’s I went with Heritage also by Cascade yarns. I picked out a cream for myself and a rose for my sister since she loves pink. I’m looking forward to knitting these up and finally sharing the patterns with you. My mum is missing from this collection. She passed away before I started trying out my own designs. While I won’t be designing a Birthday Diamonds pattern for her I do have something else planned to honour her. This possibly won’t happen until next year but I have a sock design planned out for her and once I publish it all money made from the sales of it will go directly to Cancer Research UK. This is a very important charity to me as they tried to give my mum a little more time through their trials. Sadly she was never fit enough to start but they wanted to help and their work is important. I’ve seen that since becoming an oncology nurse myself (I don’t work for Cancer Research so my choice is purely in honour of my mum). Any socks that I design in the future which are inspired by mum will go to this charity. As I said this won’t happen for quite a while but I wanted to highlight why my mum wouldn’t be included in the collection.