Five fun facts about Herdies

Photo credit: chandler-media-xb_oRYa-TJ0-unsplash.jpg

Try saying that 3 times fast :)

Seriously though, Herdwick sheep are the most amazing of creatures and every time we visit the Lake District I’m always thrilled to see these little smiley faces peeping at me through the bracken. Or - more usually - standing stubbornly in the middle of a single-track road.

Over the years I have amassed a few interesting facts about these most handsome of sheep and I thought, in the spirit of Wovember I would share them with you here:

1. 95% of all commercially farmed Herdwick stock lives within 14 miles of Coniston and they have an unparalleled homing instinct which means they can be left to roam free on the fells with very little human intervention. It’s known as being ‘heafed’ or ‘hefted’ - the process by which they actually belong to and are part of the landscape itself. Each flock carries knowldge carried down through generations of mothers so that each sheep instinctinely knows how to not only survive, but thrive in what can be a harsh environment. They know where the best shelter is, the best grazing at a given time of year and they pass that knowledge on from mother to daughter.

2. They are born dark brown (usually with amusingly shaped white eye-goggles) and gradually get lighter over time. A year old Herdwick has a brown body with a light grey head, and over the course of their second year the wool on their bodies also lightens.

3. Herdwicks are smaller than most commercially farmed sheep and slower growing. They are a dual purpose breed - used for both meat and fleece. In the past their use for fleece fell out of favour but thanks to the efforts of conservationists and sheep enthusiasts the unique properties of Herdwick wool are now being appreciated again - in companies such as this one

4. Beatrix Potter was passionate about Herdwick sheep and campaigned strongly to ensure the breeds survival in the 1940s. She bequeathed 4,000 acres of land to the National Trust, with the proviso that it be used for Herdwick sheep farming.

5. They can survive the harshest of winters and there are many reports of them being dug out alive after days trapped in snowdrifts. There are even reports of sheep which have survived such conditions by eating their own fleece whilst waiting for rescue.

In short, they may look cute but they are seriously tough cookies. You never want to mess with a Herdie - and they always get right of way on single-track roads.

How to make a blanket grow faster

Do you ever have one of those projects that just steadfastly refuses to grow? It seems to defy the laws of physics - yarn is being consumed, time is being spent and yet each time you measure it, it remains stubbornly the same.

I have a blanket like that on the needles. It’s a stripy garter stitch baby blanket and I’m on a deadline but no matter how much I knit on the thing it still refuses to reach the finish line.

For the purposes of private amusement yesterday I compiled a tongue-in-cheek list of the strategies I had employed so far to make the blanket knit up faster and I thought they might make you smile too.

1. Keep stopping to stretch it out and measure it. Be sure to stretch it hard for maximum optimism.

2. Put in progress keepers - lots of them - so that you can see physical evidence of progress.

3. Use snacks as a reward. My preferred method is a square of chocolate after every pattern repeat or set number of inches.

4. Persuade yourself that rectangular is the new square - much more practical. You aren't giving up you are just making a design choice.

   Only options 2 and 3 have ever had any measure of success for me. But I'm totally open to other suggestions.

PIN FOR LATER

Things I wished I'd known when I started knitting

I remember vividly standing in John Lewis (a large UK department store) with a birthday voucher and a vague hope of taking up knitting again - after not touching the needles for over 15 years. The choice was overwhelming and I had absolutely no idea where to start in selecting something for my first project. In the end I bought a Rowan pattern book and the specified yarn/needles to make a striped sweater.

Overall, the knitting of it was a success. I remembered how to do the basics and I produced a flat, seamed sweater that was fine in all respects - apart from the matter of the too tight bind off at the neck which meant I couldn’t actually get the thing over my head.

And then I accidentally felted it, but that’s another story altogether.

The point being that if I could go back in time and tell my baby-knitter self a few things, it would be these:

1. Don’t bother buying a lot of straight needles. Interchangeable circular needles are so much more adaptable to a variety of projects and better for travelling and ergnomics. If you do happen to need a pair of straight needles, you can pick them up in charity shops for pennies.

2. Buy the good yarn. Enough said.

3. Don’t buy yarn just because it’s on sale. Especially the large 10x50g packs of DK/aran weight yarn unless you are absolutely certain you are going to use it. They take up a lot of space and sales are generally repeated from time to time. There are always bargains to be had.

4. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking there is only one way to do things. Whether it’s different cast-offs, cast-on’s, cabling with and without a needle etc, there’s always more than one way to do something and it pays to have a few of them up your sleeve.

5. If you are a Continental knitter, learn to throw the yarn - and vica versa. As with point no. 4 it’s good to have more than one way of doing something at your disposal and changing things up from time to time can be a good way to avoid repetitive injury.

6. Gauge matters. It really does. In time you might be able to wing it a little based on experience but in the beginning at least, a gauge swatch is absolutely essential if you want something to turn out how the designer intended.

How about you? Is there anything you would go back and tell yourself when you were a beginner? Do let me know in the comments.

The stashless knitter - discuss

I read a blog post a while ago by Staci of VeryPink.com, the post was actually written many years ago now but I came across it during a bit of late night yarny scrolling. In it she talked about how she was a knitter without a stash - a stashless knitter and I freely admit that the concept floored me.

A knitter without a stash? How is such a thing even possible. At first I couldn’t wrap my head around the concept. I don’t have a huge stash by any means but I do have a reasonable amount of sock weight (and some DK) yarn, and if pressed in an emergency I could ‘shop the stash’ to cast on for something at short notice.

Whilst I do my best to buy yarn only for specific projects I often find myself drawn into a bit of spontaneous purchasing - one of a kind (OOAK) colourways being my particular weakness. And even if I do buy yarn for a particular project, sometimes it ends up not working out quite right and I have to try something else - the original yarn going back into my stash for a rainy day.

If you’d asked me a few years ago I’d have said the more the merrier, with regards to yarn. But since Covid hit and we had to re-evaluate our home/living space I have definitely become a ‘less is more’ knitter. Whilst I do still have a stash I have downsized it considerably. It’s a sad fact that the yarn I bought at the beginning of my knitting journey is in many cases not what I want to knit with now. Tastes change - I know mine certainly have - as have the kinds of projects that I like to knit.

Over the course of six months or so I’d say I reduced the size of my stash by half (some was sold and some was donated) and then over the next year I halved it again.

In fact, writing this I’m thinking that I might be overdue for a bit of a clearout again. I now keep all my yarn in two large plastic tubs - and that’s it. Once it spills out into other areas of temporary storage it’s generally time to pare things back a bit. Going through my storage is also a useful way to remind myself of what I actually have already - it’s all too easy to forget and be attracted to the lure of new, shiny yarn when you already have something very similar at home.

How about you - would you ever see the appeal of being a stashless knitter or do you love to curate your extensive yarn collection?

It takes a village...

Knitting on a West Yorkshire Spinners sock

There is a well known phrase which originated from an African proverb

It takes a village to raise a child

It refers to the idea that raising a child is an incredibly difficult thing to do, and that by banding together and seeking support from others you not only improve your own child’s situation but you benefit and strengthen the whole community.

Whilst knitting is in no way comparable to the difficulties involved in raising a child, I firmly believe that it ‘takes a village’ to raise and nurture a knitter.

In the past knitting was seen as a solitary endeavour, and if it was done in company it was usually by necessity as women grouped together to undertake chores - and they simply knit along with everything else that they were doing at the time. There undoubtedly was some support and help available though, to help guide the new knitter and it was very common for skills to be shared among friends and passed down to children.

These days many knitters are self-taught and knit, often at home for recreation and relaxation. Today’s knitter might not be able to call on a network of friends and relations for help but they have the whole internet at their disposal. Whatever the time of day or night, whatever the question there will undoubtedly be a knitter online somewhere who can answer your question, or a quick Google search might reveal a whole host of tutorials and ‘how to’s’ to answer your particular question.

Such a choice can be a little overwhelming of course, and as with everything it’s important to get your information from trusted sources, but for me, the online knitting community is unparalleled in the information it freely offers. People in general are incredibly generous with both their time and their expertise in a way that I have rarely encountered in other spheres.

By contributing to and learning from online knitters, we not only improve our own skills and knowledge but we help to strengthen and integrate the whole community - everyone benefits and it’s a brilliant thing to feel you are a part of.

One of the reasons I created the Everyday Knitter Facebook group was because I wanted to have a freely available resource for knitters to come together and share their work and their experience. I know that Facebook certainly has it’s issues and it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But a well-run, spam-free Facebook group (which the Everyday Knitter group is) is an invaluable online community, something which I would have loved to have had access to when I was a beginner knitter all those years ago.

I’m a bit biased obviously, but if you’d like to check it out for yourself and you are looking for a drama free group that’s ‘All about the Knitting’ then please just tap the link below - I’d love to see you there.

Can we talk about shawl storage?

From left: St Bees Shawl, Fuss Free Festival Shawl, Paris Is Always a Good Idea, Lackenduff, Autumnity

Can we talk for a minute about shawl storage? As knitters and crocheters we spend an inordinate amount of time talking about shawls, planning shawls, working on shawls. But we spend very little time actually talking about what we do with them once we’ve made them. Specifically, how do you store shawls?

Assuming they aren’t given away or put into long term storage (moths are not our friend) we need to talk about how we actually store the shawls that we have in daily use.

As much as I love the idea of just displaying them on the wall as hanging art objects I fear that those I live with might not share my enthusiasm so I asked on Twitter recently what people use.

There were some brilliant and eminently practical suggestions which I’d like to pass on to you here. All of these are from commercial companies - and so - mindful of potential copyright restrictions I have just provided the link to the website rather than actual accompanying images.

Hanging storage seems like the perfect solution

mDesign Wardrobe Organiser for Scarves - for The Organised Storage of Scarves and Shawls in Your Wardrobe - Ideal as Scarf Holder and Shawl Organiser - 16 Loops - Clear : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen

Holders designed for ties would also work well

Personalised Wooden Tie Scarf Belt Hanger & Rack Storage - Etsy UK

Scarf hanger from Etsy

Heart Scarf Hanger - Etsy UK

Or this nifty one that would hang over a cupboard door

Tie and Scarf 360 Degree Rotating Hanger - Etsy UK

I’ve also seen people repurposing hat stands or hallway coat hooks, which I’d love to do - sadly precluded by having the world’s tiniest hallway, but I love how they look in other people’s houses.

Blanket ladders are also a great idea and Etsy has a great selection:

Blanket Ladder - Etsy UK

This is the option that I have ended up going for and I am awaiting it’s delivery with keen interest. I like the fact that they take up very little space and will hopefully keep them free from feline interference.

For now, my shawls in use reside over the stair rail - definitely not ideal, not least because Blossom likes to use them to perch on, ready to pounce on her brother.

How about you? If you have a nifty shawl storage solution do please let me know.