Little by little

Now, the snippet I am about to share with you is hardly ground breaking in any way. It is not some super clever tip or incredibly nifty short cut. It is simple common sense, but yet for some reason it has been a revelation to me this week.

If you pick a given project and actively work on it for at least 15 minutes a day - you make progress on it. Who would have thought?

Now I know you are probably rolling your eyes at me and thinking 'doh'!!! but bear with me. As a chronic multitasker and self confessed cast-on addict I often have multiple WIPs scattered around the house in various states of being unfinished. In addition I have a number of commissions on the go which mean that my personal knitting time is in increasingly short supply. When I do get some downtime I tend to grab the WIP that is closest and the end result is that each WIP gets a little bit of attention during the week but not enough to make a visible difference. Some WIPs, especially those where a crucial stage has been reached (such as needing a different needle) have a habit of falling through the cracks completely and sitting unnoticed and unloved for weeks at a time.

This week I opted for a different approach and used my Foolproof Cowl as my go-to WIP. Every day I carted it around the house with me (or threw it in the back of the car) and every time I had a bit of free time I whipped it out and did a few rows. This required a bit of dedication to the cause I have to admit as, due to the nature of the stripes (and my unwillingess to cut the yarn and sew in the ends) some untangling was usually required.

But, I made considerable progress just during those odd moments and by Friday this week I hope to be triumphantly casting off.

If you wanted to adopt the same principle this would make a great 31 day challenge. My blog post on my own 31 day challenge contains the link to a free printable download - in case you wanted to play along at home. If you do decide to give it a go do let me know how you get on - I'd love to know.

A way to show appreciation

For the past few years it has been my practice to have a series of sales promotions and discounts on patterns over the New Year period. This year however I chose not to for a variety of reasons but chiefly among these has been the realisation that I want to be able to target my special offers and discounts to those loyal followers.

Certainly mass promotions can have their place and the past several years has seen some of my older patterns pop back into the Ravelry Hot Right Now charts, but that has been at a price. The proliferation of (largely overseas) pattern sharing websites means that any patterns - particularly those offered for free - are vulnerable to copyright abuse and fraud and sadly last year that happened with a number of my patterns that I offered free for a limited time.

So, moving things in a more positive direction I would like to make better use of my email newsletter in order to be able to send special offers directly to those who follow me and who are interested in my designs.

In 2017 I am planning some changes to my email subscription service and this is just one of them. If you are reading this, the chances are that you are already subscribed but if not you might want to consider signing up for regular (non-spammy) updates, snippets and top tios.

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.