Lesson learned

I fully intended to blog every day during our holiday. I really did. But then a funny thing happened. A thing that doesn't happen to me very often. A thing called relaxation. And it was proper relaxation, the kind where you have no idea what day of the week it is, never mind the date. The kind when you struggle to remember what you do for your day job and where you left the spare key for the cat sitter.

As a result daily blogging went out of the window. Also it didn't help that I remembered my laptop but forgot the charger. I did write in my journal most days which I love to do when I have the time but I have to confess that I did miss my daily blogging.

Anyway, here we are. Back home and ready to get back into our routine. Even though part of my mind (and a good part of my heart) is 250 miles north. Many bags need to be unpacked and I need to make contact with my stash again, having had separation anxiety from it. Some knitting occurred during all that holidaying and relaxing I'm pleased to report and now I feel the urge to dust off all my WIPs and make plans to get them finished. Spring startitis is all very well but I want to see some completed projects now. And also, I've run out of 4mm needles.

And breathe...

And breathe.. .

There's something very soothing and very special about visiting the same place at the same time of year, each year. Every year we rent the same cottage in this little corner of the Lake District and it is such a special place.

The amount of knitting that gets done though can be variable and is heavily dependent on the weather. Fine, sunny days see us out on the fells as a family whilst wet and windy days are for cosy cottage hunkering down. Fortunately for me springtime is a very variable time of year here. We have been in the cottage with 5 feet of snow outside and we've been here with the boys skinny dipping in rivers.

This week is the usual mix of sunshine and showers with a good dose of knitting predicted too and I can't wait.

Holibobs

It's an early start for the family today as we attempt to cram all our possessions into the car and make our regular pilgrimage north to the Lake District. It's a mark of how busy the past few weeks have been that I havent even thought about my holiday knitting, much less packed anything 

One option is just to gather up a selection of WIPs and bung them in the boot. The other option is to grab a few skeins of yarn and my needles and start something new and unspecified - every holiday should have a new cast on...no? The sensible option would be to go for option one but I think you can probably guess that option 2 is by far the most appealing one to me.

I may be a bit quieter than usual on social media but I will still be around - there night just be a few more photos of sheep than usual.

Our most important tools: and top tips to look after them

As knitters we are often asked what our favourite tools and notions are and we will happily discuss the merits of wooden needles vs metal ones. We rarely give much thought to our most important tools of all though - our hands.

I experienced a mild bout of RSI a few years ago after trying to take part in a challenge to knit 26 pairs of socks in a year. I got to June if memory serves but all that sock knitting took its toll and I had to take a short break from knitting altogether. That experience was so unpleasant, and the thought of not being able to knit was so uncomfortable (read: horrific) that I vowed to take better care of my most important tools in the future.

1. I always try to give myself a weekly manicure. If my nails and hands look good I'm more inclined to treat them better. I try to wear gloves whilst washing up and doing the housework and have little pots of handcream dotted around the house and in my project bags. I particularly like the solid lotion bars, such as the Love + leche ones pictured above, for my knitting bag as there is no risk of the dreaded lotion explosion.

2. Some knitting friends on Instagram recently shared a tip with me for smoothing rough skin when working with silk yarns - which will catch on every tiny flaw. Mix a small amount of olive oil with sugar or salt and use to massage into your hands. Rinse under hot water and dry.

3. Frequent breaks. I take a tip from the Knitmore Girls and take a short break in my knitting every 15 minutes. Even if it is just to set down the needles, flex my fingers and move my gaze to somewhere in the middle distance (my eyes also have a habit of complaining if I focus too long in one spot). I do this even when power knitting to meet a deadline but I do find it hard to remember sometimes so I set a reminder on my phone.

4. Stretches. I found this website a few years ago and they have a great series of hand exercises specifically for knitters which I try to do as often as I can. 

I hope these tips help you to take care of your mitts and if you have any top tips that work for you do please let me know, I'd love to hear them.

If you need a bit of motivation you could always check out the #nailsandknitting hashtag on Instagram where people (myself included) have fun matching their nails to their yarn. If you are going to be taking a photograph of your hands that's always a good incentive to slap a bit of handcream on.

Fuss Free Festival Shawl - with added stripes

I am really pleased to say that my Fuss Free Festival Shawl pattern has now been expanded to include directions for making a striped version. The original uses just 1 skein of sockweight yarn and the striped version uses this plus 25g of a contrast colour.

You could go the whole hog and use both skeins to create a larger two colour shawl - just keep going with the contrast colour. Just make sure you save enough yarn for the picot bind off if you want it to be in the main colour.

In the pattern I've allowed fairly generous yarn estimates but the pattern is very adaptable and you could easily change it to suit the yarn amounts you have.

When estimating the yarn needed for the bind off the conventional wisdom states that you measure the length of knitting to be bound off and then multiply this by 3 to give you the length of yarn you will need to finish the bind off. It's important to remember that a picot bind off uses considerably more yarn than normal and so I would probably double this number just to be on the safe side.

The pattern is available to purchase on Ravelry or if you sign up to my newsletter you can snaffle it for free for a limited time. If you are already a subscriber - check your email as you should have received an email with the update in it yesterday.

I really hope you have fun with this pattern and I can't wait to see how the different projects take shape.

My first sock blank

I've never knitted with a sock blank before and this year I was determined to give it a go. I wasn't sure how I would feel about knitting with kinky yarn and to be honest as soon as I started knitting with it I knew that I couldn't knit a whole shawl with it. I think it might work better for socks where you knit at a tighter tension but trying to knit a garter stitch shawl on 4mm needles left me with a very wobbly and unpleasant fabric indeed.

I knit the start of another Fuss Free Festival Shawl - maybe just a few inches and then blocked it still on the needles. I just wanted to see what a difference blocking made to the fabric. It helped but didn't entirely get rid of the wibbliness so I decided to wind the yarn into a skein and soak it to get rid of the kinks. 

I was planning to take photographs of the process but in the interests of honesty and authenticity I have to report that it didn't go well. There may have been a cat intervention at a crucial point. Winding yarn with such kinky energy into a skein takes some concentration and effort and things ended in a heck of a tangle.

There was swearing involved and let's just say that you wouldn't have wanted to see pictures of the ensuing chaos. But with a bit of patience I got the yarn soaked, dried and then to beat the tangles I handwound it into a ball.

Now that the faffing is done I can relax and enjoy the knitting. The gradual shift in grey tones is very pleasing but part of my just wants to knit faster to get to the colours!