Indie Love

While I was away my brain was fizzing with ideas for the next few months and first up is my plans to devote the month of September to promoting the work of our fabulous indie dyers, yarnies and designers. Over on the Everyday Knitter Facebook group we have been watching with dismay as various local yarn shops have closed down and the big high street stores seem ever more visible with their huge advertising budgets and near domination of our Facebook feeds. Just one search for baby acrylic and it seems that adverts for the likes of Deramores will crop up on your feed from now to eternity.

With that in mind I'd like to do something within the group to promote the many and varied alternatives to the high street behemoths. I'll be running a weekly thread within the group and inviting you to post anything that you've done to help an independent business. Whether you have visited your LYS, bought from an online indie store, bought some hand-dyed yarn or knitted a pattern from an indie designer., even just recommended an indie person to a friend. It all counts.

The intention is to give us all a bit of inspiration and to perhaps find some wonderful new indie suppliers. 

Word of mouth and personal support are so important to our indie suppliers and can make all the difference. It really is a case of "use them or lose them".

Scrap yarn challenge

Now don't tell me you don't have any scrap yarn about your person.

We all have those little bits squirreled away somewhere don't we. Over on the Everyday Knitter Facebook group we have set ourselves a challenge this month to learn the Russian Join technique and make a "magic ball" from all our scraps. I'm using sock weight yarn but some others are using DK. 

If you've never used the Russian Join method before I'd highly recommend that you give it a go. All you need is a nice sharp tapestry needle and it's a way of giving you a smooth join between 2 ends of yarn without any additional bulk. 

Once you've made your magic ball you can then knit (or crochet) until the cows come home, making a wonderful multi-coloured project without any worry about sewing in the dreaded ends.

I used this tutorial here which explains it all very clearly. If you find yourself with a spare 5 minutes this weekend why not give it a go. Be warned though, it's highly addictive.

Have a great weekend
 

And breathe

Sitting down at the laptop after a break of almost 2 weeks feels very strange indeed. I made a deliberate decision to leave the laptop at home during our recent travels and I'm so glad that I did. A total break from routine and clear space in which to think was really refreshing. It does mean of course that I have come back with a head fizzing with ideas, with inspiration and with Big Plans. All of which is jumbling around in my head with the usual 'back to school' chaos.

The trick at this time of year I have found is not to get too stuck on trying to do everything. Too many fresh starts and too many new projects on the go can rapidly lead to overwhelm. So I am taking it steadily and yes - making many lists.

During September the thoughts of most knitters turn towards colder months and the all important sweater knitting. I'd like to cast on another sweater (after my recent stash dash successes) and so I was thinking of making the September challenge a sweater related one.

After reading about so many local yarn shops closing I'd like to do a bit more to promote our fabulous indie suppliers this coming month too. I have lots of ideas buzzing around on this one so keep an eye out for more news soon. If I see one more Deramores advert on my Facebook timeline I might just scream and I think the time has definitely come to redress the balance and starting singing the praises of our LYSs, our online independent stockists and our yarnies.

For now though, I'm just going to deal with the school uniform mountain and then reward myself with some stripy sock knitting. Hopefully by the end of the day I can tick off some items from the never ending 'list of doom' and get cracking on some fun knitterly projects instead.

Starting today - a special offer and a prize draw

August is a big month for me as it marks my birthday and this year is especially exciting as it is my 10 year knitting anniversary.

To celebrate I am going to be offering a 21% discount on all of my self published patterns - I'm not 21 anymore but a girl can dream, right?

In addition, to mark my knitting milestone I have put together an exciting prize package from my (ahem...) extensive stash. Each use of the exclusive discount code - 21TODAY - will earn 1 entry into a prize draw for said lovely package.

I'll be sharing details of the prize over the next few days but it includes yarn and notions from some of my favourite indie people - ideal for sock knitting on the go.

So, keep an eye on your email inboxes over the next days to make sure you don't miss out.

Until the end of time

The rational part of my brain tells me that I'm almost done. That just 15" of stocking stitch in the round (and a bit of ribbing) is all that stands between myself and a finished Breathing Space sweater.

My knitters brain points out that between the narrow stripes, the frequent colour changes and the endless untwisting of both sweater and yarn - I'm going to be knitting this sweater until the end of time. Or until hell freezes over. At least I'll be glad of a warm are when it does.

Sleeves truly are my nemesis and next time I firmly resolve to knit them first once I've separated for the body. In truth I would have done this in this project except for the fact that I was worried about striping in the 2nd skein of grey as it was quite different to the other. Well that, and the fact that I forgot to.

The thought of boosting my stash dash total really is the only thing keeping me going at the minute. Well, that and cake. Please send tips for how you see deal with sleeve island. 

Snacks would be nice too 😀

Being brave

Sometimes you just need to take a deep breath and go for it, whether it's applying for a new job, making that dreaded phone call or tackling your next big project.

If you've followed me for a while you'll know that I'm no stranger to the fine art of procrastination. In fact it's probably fair to say that I could procrastinate for my country if it were ever to become an Olympic event.

For ages now I've been wanting to do a Facebook Live in my group (Everyday Knitter). I've planned it, rehearsed it, imagined it but never actually taken a deep breath and done it. Various excuses have included "I'll just wait until I've had my hair cut" and "I need to find the right shawl to wear".

Yesterday I listened to the very inspiring Making Good podcast with Jen Gale. There was a whole episode about making more out of Facebook and using it to best advantage. Jen is so down to earth and practical that I just thought - "why the heck not".

I was going to wait for the right time (I even scheduled it in my diary) but then I found myself with 10 child free minutes and just took a deep breath and went for it. I was very nervous but people were very kind with their comments and I'll definitely be doing it again. I'd like to do a weekly slot where people can ask questions and each week I'll pick one at random to answer.

Sometimes you need to take leaps of a smaller scale too. This skein of gorgeous yarn from Goldings Yarns has been sitting patiently in my stash. It came in the Mystery Gems package from The Little Grey Girl a while ago now and I've been saving it for that "perfect project".

But in the interests of "just going for it" and as an antidote to the horrible grey weather we are having at the moment, it's going on my needles today.

Bright, cheery, fearless socks are on the way.