Yarn with a mind of it's own

Don't you just love it when yarn has a mind of it's own? By which I mean that it virtually shouts at you what it wants to be. It saves so much time spent dithering around, trying out and rejecting ideas, endless Ravelry surfing and general indecisiveness.

As soon as I got my mitts on this delicious alpaca yarn from We Are Knitters it practically shouted at me "Make me into a cowl - now". Then it added "Please", because of course it is a polite and well behaved yarn.

So, who am I to argue? This 100% alpaca yarn is listed as a worsted weight but part of its appeal is that it can be worked on a range of needle sizes depending on the effect you are aiming for. I am thinking of a relaxed, drapey cowl - ideally one which can be wrapped once or twice around the neck. 

For this reason, and also because I am planning a little cable action too I'm thinking of starting off with a 5mm needle and will see how I go from there.

First things first, coffee and a quick scout around for my needle case, then I can crack on and let the yarn do it's thing.

Why I block Instagram followers

Now, it's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Instagram. I love the community feel there, I love the chat and I love the woolly inspiration that I find there on a daily basis. What I'm much less keen on is the rise in fake accounts, in 'pay for follow' activities and general spamminess which gets in the way of my daily dose of fibrey goodness.

I recently logged in to find a rush of over 300 new followers which, to say the least was mildly surprising given that I usually get an average of 10 new followers per day. Closer inspection showed that all my new 'fans' were from non-English speaking accounts. And judging by the 'duck-face' selfie pouts and fairly scanty clothing I'm guessing that most of them weren't interested in knitwear of any description. The mystery was solved a few hours later when I had a direct message from an account saying that they had given me the 'gift' of 300 new followers, and if I paid them a sum of money they would be happy to send more fake followers my way.

Quite apart from being contrary to Instgram rules I found this to be pretty disturbing to be honest. Yes, my follower numbers had taken a huge boost - which was nice - but they were all fake and I'm sure they would have all unfollowed over the next few weeks. It felt horrible knowing that they were there, falsely inflating my IG stats and also I didn't like the fact that if someone viewed my 'followers' page they would see a whole host of the aforementioned duck-faced selfies.

So, I sat down with a cup of coffee and deleted them all - yes - all of them. The main account and a handful of others I also reported to Instagram for good measure. It took some time but it felt so much better and I genuinely felt relieved at the end of it.

Since then I have started to review my new followers on a regular basis and any which are obviously fake or engaged in a 'follow for follow' program I remove and block so they don't show up any more on my followers count. Just this morning I had a new follow from a charming looking gentleman, seated on the bonnet of his shiny Mercedes overlooking a tropical beach. He has 2 posts to his account and followed over 1000 people. I'm pretty sure he isn't my target market - and with 1000 followers he will hardly notice 1 less. 

My IG account now feels happier and healthier and I see far less of the sudden drops in followers that can occur periodically as all the follow bots kick in and unfollow those who don't follow them back.

I feel that I can focus more on relaxing, chatting and engaging with those wonderful woolly folk around me, and spend less time worrying about fake followers.

Although, maybe with hindsight I could brush up on my selfie pose - it clearly needs work.

How to keep track of your Stash Dash total

There has been a lot of discussion and questions about the actual process of taking part in Stash Dash and whether it is cumbersome to keep track of exactly how much you have knitted. As ever in so many things knitting related Ravelry comes to the rescue.

By entering the amount of yarn you have used for a project Ravelry will automatically calculate the exact amount of yarn used (in meters and in yards). For example, for a shawl where you have used 1.5 skeins of a sock weight yarn - you can just enter 1.5 skeins (or you can do it by weight - 150g) and Ravelry will work out the rest.

To make life even simpler you can set up Ravelry to keep a running total of your total. Just assign each completed project a tag (eg StashDash2017) and then you can set up a filter to just show you all of those projects - and at the bottom it proudly displays your running total. With zero effort on your part.

If you've never done this before go to your notebook page and click on the ‘organise’ tab.

Then click on the button to ‘create a new set’. You just need to make sure that you enter your stash dash tag exactly as you've used it on your project.

Then when you go back to your main notebook page you will see a new tab across the top for StashDash2017. You can then click on this to see all of your Stash Dash projects neatly in one place.

In these screen shots I have shown you the one I set up for last year - I do hope it helps. After all Stash Dash is meant to be about maximising your knitting time so it makes sense to let Ravelry take care of the maths.

Withdrawal

Does anyone else experience withdrawal symptoms when they are away from my stash? In my case this manifests as a strong desire/need to cast on All The Things as soon as I return home. 

We had an amazing and fun weekend in London celebrating our boys' birthdays and on coming home I should have either been relaxing with a cup of tea, keeping the mellow mood going - or doing laundry and getting ready for the school week. Instead I found myself pawing through my stash and seriously contemplating winding 5 skein of sock yarn (in my tip of a kitchen) so that I could start a Find Your Fade shawl (or similar). Never mind that a particular skein of yarn has been in my stash for over 2 years. I have to knit it and knit it now.

Fortunately DH knows me well and lured me away with a well timed glass of Prosecco - otherwise I dread to think what the consequences might have been.

I was sensible and knit on a sock (whilst drinking the lovely Prosecco) and disaster was averted. Tonight through I feel might not end so well. I definitely need something soothing and gartery on the needles.

How to get your afterthought heel in the right place

As much as I love the afterthought heel I know that not everyone is convinced and one of the most common questions I hear is from knitters who worry that they won’t know where to place the heel to ensure a good fit.

This is one of the most common concerns and is heard a lot with toe-up sock knitting in general.

With cuff down socks it is very clear. You knit the leg until you have a length you are happy with - for me it’s 6.5”, for my husband it’s 7.5”. The you knit the heel, then you work the foot.Simples!

With toe-up socks it is more of a leap of faith. Standard instructions tell you to start the heel between 2-2.5” before the back of the heel ie total foot length minus 2 to 2.5”. If you get to the leg and find that the heel is in the wrong place, then a bit of judicious ripping is required.

With an afterthought heel this is a rather more unnerving prospect as once your heel is cut, there isn’t much room for error.

The best advice I can give for this, which will also increase your confidence, is to practice doing a few standard toe-up socks first with either a basic short row heel or a fish lips kiss heel. Learn where the best fit point is for you - you can put in a lifeline if needed so that if you do make an error in the heel placement you can just rip back to the lifeline and not worry about lost or dropped stitches.

Make a careful note of the exact length for your ideal heel placement then use this measurement when doing your afterthought heel.

Also - my best tip for making sure you get a good fit is rather than measuring the toe-up sock flat, actually slip it onto your foot and use a bulb pin or similar to mark the point on the base of the sock where the cut should go. For my UK size 6 foot, this is usually at 7.5” from the toe (with sock slightly stretched). My total foot length is 9.75”

Armed with this information I can now pretty much pop in an afterthought heel (for me) wherever I am, safe in the knowledge that the sock will fit me fine.

I hope this helps ease the nerves somewhat. If you do decide to be brave and give it a go - do let me know how you get on.

Project overload

Too much choice?

It was inevitable. Yesterday in a fit of pre Stash Dash planning I pulled out all my WIPs and neglected projects and piled them up in a heap on my bed. And then I sat back and looked at them. 

I'm not going to outline them all because to be perfectly honest with you I felt a sense of shame and overwhelm that I find quite hard to put into words.

In my house I have, let's be frank a lot of money tied up in projects that have lain untouched for months and years. And in an age where austerity and very real hardship is a problem for so many people I have to say it made me feel incredibly sad that my WIPs had got to this level. I am lucky enough to be able to buy beautiful yarn and yet some of it is yet to see the light of day and again.

I have no wise words or cunning plan today I'm afraid. My tried and tested list making skills failed to help as itemising it won't make the problem better. Equally, shoving it all back under the bed won't help either but that was the solution I opted for.

One day, when I have steeled myself I will go back and pick out a few projects at random and make a decision on them. Frog it or finish it. I'm not going to number them or set goals for myself right now but by the end of Stash Dash I'm hoping to have considerably fewer bags under the bed and hopefully a lighter heart too.