Supporting Small Business

As an NHS worker I have been overwhelmed by the kindness of others. Last week received bread, chocolate and pizza. More importantly I also received lots of warm words and messages of support as have my colleagues. I hope that other key workers are receiving the same thanks as they put themselves out there. However, as I said to a friend recently, at the end of the day I will be paid regardless. I will still have a job when we come out through the tunnel. I understand that there are nurses out there who are literally living month to month but I as I don’t have a family to support I am not one of them. Instead, I worry about my friends who are running their own business. Who rely on income from these businesses to feed their families. So I urge you all to continue to support them if you can.

My plan is to support my friends and favourite small business through buying from one of them once a month. I know it is not essential to my needs which is why I am going to try to limit my ordering to once a month. This month is my favourite hand dyer Lisa of For the Love of Yarn. I have to admit I was planning this order anyway for other reasons. If you are a fellow Instagramer who follows various hand dyers you will have heard about operation SJW. Many dyers are submitting yarn under this and donating to various charities. Lisa took part in this as she and her son had been the recipient of some trolling recently. Her son dyed this yarn and it’s called Respect is for Everyone and is part of the anti bullying campaign RespectMe. Callum designed the yarn and came up with the name himself with all money going to SAMH. They have raised over £1000 already. I can’t wait to knit with this. Those colours!

This is another dyed by one of the cherubs. This time Isabella. It’s called Silver Slubby. If you remember to my last yarn haul post I had received the teal slubby and I was planning a pattern for it. All my pattern planning is on hold just now as I am knitting socks for my work colleagues. However, I will get back to it and I plan to use this yarn for the same pattern as the teal. I do love a semi-solid yarn colour and I think this will be perfect for the pattern I have planned.

I realised that I had used the last donegal base I had in my stash. Which is why I ordered this beautiful yarn. It’s called blush and I am loving the colours. I might keep this one for myself. It is my favourite base after all.

I hope that you are all staying safe. If you are struggling speak to someone. And please don’t feel you have to be productive while staying at home. It’s okay to stay in your jammies and watch rubbish on tv. I’ve had days like that too as I am sure everyone has. Yesterday I did very little. Today I’m feeling slightly more energised with banana bread in the oven and I’m about to wind some yarn. Take care of yourselves everyone.

January Socks - Trickle Socks

If you remember one of my plans for this year was to knit a pair of socks each month for myself. This would go towards 'operation sock drawer'.  Since January was my 'get organised' month I had planned on finishing 'Far Into the Forest', That obviously didn't happen. The truth is that I am stuck at the heel. Back when I was initially working on them the heel did not present any problems. I had a clear plan of how it worked. Since that was months ago that plan has long gone and I am now clueless. I am thinking that I might have to start again in order to get back into the swing of it.

Since I didn't want to fail on all my challenges I decided to just start a new pair of socks. I picked out Trickle Socks by Katie Douglas. I found this among my ravelry patterns on my iPad. I had obviously added it long ago and then forgot all about it.

Since the pattern involved some tiny ridged cables I wanted to ensure they could be seen and so I decided to use a solid yarn. Perfect since I had just picked up a few via my friends new etsy page (go check it out).  I love the Donegal base so I was extremely excited when I saw that not only was it in one of my favourite colours but that it was also sock weight. It's extremely soft and lovely to knit with. The little flecks are perfect against the jade colour of the yarn. Let's face it, this yarn was always going to be used on me as soon as I ordered it

As for the pattern itself, I very much enjoyed knitting it. As I have said time and time again, I love a cable. Look at those little ridges. This pattern is most definitely not for beginners. I think you need to be comfortable knitting socks to do this one. I wouldn't suggest it for someone wanting to try their first pattern away from the basic socks either. Unless of course you are fairly confident with cables. The heel and the toe aren't that much different to the basic socks. The heel is a little different in that it tries to follow the purl and knit pattern of the rest of the sock making it look like the cables evolve naturally from it. The pattern also comes in written instructions and in chart format. I personally prefer the chart so I went with that. The pattern is a 12 round repeat so you begin to pick up a pace fairly quickly. Be warned though as you might struggle to put them down.

October Stash

I am sure there will come a month where I don't buy anything...maybe. So don't be expecting this every month. This time I decided to add some fabric into the mix. Mainly because I bought fabric that didn't come from hobbycraft. I have picked up fabric in other places before but I wasn't very careful in noting where I got it or what it was. These fabrics usually have a purpose in mind even if that purpose still hasn't come to fruition. This fabric though I happened to spy on instagram. Mandors were showing some of their liberty fabrics which they happen to sell on etsy. Now I could have went into town and had a look myself but given the shifts that I have had this week that wasn't going to happen.

As I said both fabrics are Liberty fabrics. They are known for their bright florals. I have been very tempted in the past to buy shoes with Liberty fabrics (this still might happen). I picked up the red and the blue as I thought I would more likely use them. My favourite though is the blue although it's darker than I would have liked. That still wouldn't have stopped me from buying it.

 This fabric is from Hobbycraft. I was going in to get a few tools I needed for my hexies when I spotted this. My sister loves her skulls and she likes black. Her entire wardrobe is pretty much black. However, she also loves pink and accessorises with it. Her bedroom is also pink and so I thought this fabric would be perfect for her. I have made umpteen things for her living room but only one crochet blanket for her bedroom. I think some hexie cushions are on the cards (providing the first ones turn out).

My good friend Lisa has been on top form this month with all of her kits. I should just hand over my monthly wage to her. So far I have ordered the Christmas stockings, the Christmas yarn box, the sock kit and this which is the cowl kit. We were given options as to the yarn base. I chose the donegal base because I liked working with it so much. This came in my favourite colour - blue. I will be making this one for myself. I chose the larger kit and I think I will be making myself a matching hat if I don't use it all in the cowl.

I bought this last month and you saw the hat that I made with one ball. This is the rest which I finally have planned out. In fact I have started to use it up. For that though you will have to wait and see. It's a lovely yarn to work with. Nice and soft plus I am really loving the tweed yarn just now. Normally I wouldn't go for the beige but this was originally meant to finish a lap blanket. I actually like the colour as it seems to change in different light settings.

I can't promise there will be no stash next month but I will do my best. It is coming up for Christmas after all.