Sunday Knitting

I shudder to think at the number of wasted weekend hours, way back when I was a non-knitter. As a student I would spend ages on the sofa with a pot of tea revising (or rather, watching all the omnibus editions of soap operas). Just think how much knitting I could have been doing.

Every week when I gaily skip out of work on a Friday I think gleefully about all the free time I will have to knit over the coming weekend. And then I realise that no, in fact there is adulting to be done. By the time that I have attended to various domestic chores, distributed the appropriate offspring to the appropriate sporting or social event and then boiled the kettle I find myself with, at best 30 minute chunks of time in which to fling myslef on the sofa and knit like fury.

Still, I am pleased to report that I make the most of the time I have a variety of projects on standby ready to leap into the knitting void at all times. Over the weekend though I do try to pick a particular (ideally relaxing) project to work on. Even though the time I can spend on it is broken up into chunks it is still surprising just how much progress you can make on it. All of those little bursts of knitting can really add up - just as long as I leave my phone alone and avoid Instagram surfing.

No cold sheep here

Apologies in advance for the slight mini rant today but I have heard and seen so much online these past few days about 'Cold Sheeping' that I feel duty bound to try to redress the balance a little.

For those that don't know, the practice of Cold Sheeping refers to going on a yarn diet or a restricted yarn buying policy - akin to going 'cold turkey'. It is certainly a common feeling at this time of year to feel slightly overwhelmed by your stash, or to feel as though your house in general has way too much clutter in it to even contemplate buying anything more stuff. Heaven knows, I am certainly guilty of feeling a slight sense of panic as my formerly well-contained stash spills out of its neat wooden drawers and starts to set up home in other areas of my house (is it just me or does the stuff breed when you aren't looking?).

However, whatever the answer is I'm almost certain that it doesn't involve going on a yarn diet. For the simple reason that diets never work. If they did the diet industry would go out of business. Anything that advocates extreme restriction or denial will inevitably involve a backlash at some point and freed from constraint you will be gleefully hoarding pretty sock yarn again before you can say 'Blue faced Leicester'.

So, I am proud to say that there will be no Cold Sheep or yarn dieting here. This is a Cold Sheep Free Zone.

My stash is a thing of joy - it brings warm and woolly solace to dark days - and it means that at the drop of a hat (or the news of an imminent baby arrival) I can rummage in the stash, grab some needles and whip out something cute and giftable in less time than it takes to traipse into town to buy a congratulations card.

It must be especially hard at this time of year for our beloved LYS's and independent yarnies who have to endure all talk of 'cold sheep' with a fixed grin and a firm hand on their budgets. January can be bleak enough for any business but small, independent businesses feel the pinch more than most and a little support at this time of year could make all the difference. I know that budgets can be tight right now and appreciate that not everyone may have the funds to spend, but even if you can't take advantage of your favourite indie dyers latest update you can help spread the word by telling your friends or sharing it on social media. And if you are visiting your LYS but really don't want to buy more yarn you could always take the opportunity to stock up stitch markers or needles - you can never have too many of either.

So, this January I am encouraging you to give the Cold Sheep the Cold Shoulder. Embrace your stash in all its woolly glory and show some love to our fab independent business.

Stash Exploration

I am a huge fan of the Shinybees podcast - a UK based knitting/comedy podcast run by Jo Milmine. She has just announced a great project for 2017 called Active Stash Exploration which fits in so neatly with what I want to achieve in my knitting this year that I was literally bouncing with excitement by the time I had finished listening.

There are no cold sheep or yarn diets required and no self sacrifice. Instead the project is all about making the most of your stash, celebrating it and allowing it to shine in all its glory.

Jo speaks really passionately about how our skeins tell a story. We all have special yarn in our stash, perhaps with memories of a great holiday (any holiday where you discover a great LYS is, lets face it, a great holiday), or a skein that was a gift from a dear friend.

Those skeins deserve to be used and to be seen and #activestashexploration is all about that.

Jo has set up a new Facebook group for the podcast where you can join in with all the chat, or you can participate via Instagram with the hashtage #activestashexploration.

It will be great fun to see how this develops and I'm certainly looking forward to seeing others start to celebrate their stashes as I delve into mine.

Reunited

As lovely as it is to have a break from the routine, there is also a certain comfortable peace that comes from returning home. To your cosy PJs, to your comfy bed and of course, to your stash. Is it just me that suffers from seperation anxiety when you have to be apart from the stash for more than a few days.

I have made good progress on the projects that I took away with me but predictably, as soon as I home I am ruffling through my storage bins in search of something new to cast on. It doesn't help that I recently came across these beautiful skeins of DK from The Fibre Company. To further compound matters these colourways have names wonderfully evocative of my recent holiday. The grey colourway is Scafell Pike and the grellow is Buttermere - where I was walking just the other day.

These skeins are crying out to be a new shawl design - which may or may not involve brioche. I am yet to decide but a bit of swatching might just have to happen today - just to see.

New skills...and cake

It's been a while since I learnt a new technique or skill and so it was with some trepidation that I approached brioche knitting. I have long admired the fabulous brioche shawls a la Stephen West on Ravelry but somehow refused to consider them as potential projects because, "I don't knit brioche"

Daft I know, but I had somehow got into the mindset that I simply was not a brioche knitter. It was a beautiful stitch and gave the most fantastic results but nope, it simply wasn't for me.

Fast forward to December of this year and I found myself going through old bullet journals. I realised that for the past three years, one of my New Years goals had been to learn Brioche knitting. Slightly embarrassed that I still hadn't managed I decided that 2017 would be the year - and declaring it publicly meant that this time I wouldn't be able to wimp out.

IN the end it turned out to be not nearly so horrific as I thought and after a few false starts I soon got into the swing of this soothing and strangely addictive stitch. I found this tutorial to be really helpful and also the pattern instructions for the Purl Soho cowl and hat are super clear and informative too.

Yes, I made some mistakes - as the slightly dodgy photo above shows - but I really enjoyed the project and am now casting around for another brioche project. Next time I would definitely pay more attention to gauge. An 88st cast on should have been for a hat but it came out much larger than that - happily it works as a snug cowl. On relfection I think a smaller needle size would have helped with this and might also have helped to tighten up my slightly wibbly sticthes. But on the whole I'm counting it as a success ... and awarding mysekf some cake,

Simplicity

In keeping with my newly chosen word for this year I have been quietly taking stock and reviewing some aspects of my life and my daily routines that I am less than happy with. My weeks holiday with the family has given me a great chance to reconnect with some of the things that I genuinely enjoy doing and I have realised that I have slipped into some bad habits with regard to my screen time and social media use almost without thinking about it.

So I have decided to make a few simple changes, starting today which hopefully I can sustain as we get back to our normal daily life this week.

1. My mobile phone does not live in the bedroom. It's home is the charger in the kitchen and I will use my trusty old radio alarm clock to make sure I get up (no snooze button allowed).

2. Knit on some simple socks for 15 minutes with my morning coffee - ideally in bed

3. Read a book for 15 minutes before bed (no screen surfing allowed)

I have been doing all of these things while we have been away and I really do think it has made a difference to how I feel. Time will tell whether I manage to keep it going once we are back into the daily grind but by telling you all I feel as though it will hold me to account more.

Are there any simple changes you could make to your daily routine to allow more time for reading/knitting/daydreaming. If you have any fabulously sneaky tips do let me know - I'd love to hear them.