My first Instagram free week

It isn’t something I’ve come across before, for obvious reasons. But when you haven’t logged in to Instagram for a few days it starts sending you little automated emails. Trying to entice you back to see what you might have missed. Trying to trigger that little bit of your brain that deals with dopamine and addiction. Heck, even trying to make you feel guilty about not showing up.

Seriously. If ever I needed a wake up call that the whole app is designed to draw you in, entice you in and then, crucially, keep you there, then these polite, chirpy ‘look what you are missing’ emails are just the thing.

Happily I can report that these pester emails are now directed to reside in my spam folder along with emails from companies that like to tell me about ‘summer beach body deals’ and strange people from foreign climes trying to send me an inheritance.

I quickly logged in to Instagram for a check in last week. Sunday morning over coffee. I had an hours leisurely scroll which was really rather pleasant and then I logged off to spend an hour doing some gardening - my new favourite thing. It’s really nice, especially in the evening to put the phone down and go and do a bit of gentle pottering about. I’ve never been much of a gardener but we recently had some help clearing our overgrown (I prefer the term nature friendly) garden and I was thrilled to find some old peonies that have survived years of neglect, so now I’m trying not to kill them with kindness.

My other plans for my Insta-break have been rather scuppered by the heat wave we are currently experiencing in my part of the UK. I was planning to do some spinning and get to grips with my drop spindle but it’s been so warm that even looking at a pile of fluff brings me out in sweat.

A friend on Twitter gave me this useful tip for working on larger projects in the heat though - using a small folding lap table to keep the bulk of your project off your legs. We had this ugly old table back from when my husband had surgery a few years ago and I’d stored it away. But it turns out that it’s the perfect size to rest my giant granny square blanket on while I work on it. And there’s room for my coffee too - winner!

If at first you don't succeed...

Soldotna Crop - a work in progress

You might have spotted this WIP before as I’ve shared it online a few times now. Sadly though, despite much ripping and a moderate amount of swearing it still remains a WIP rather than a finished object.

In my planner for the end of July I had optimistically pencilled in “share Soldotna resolution”. This was going to be a perky, uplifting little blog post about how I overcame my issues with the neckline, came up with a pleasing solution and possibly even modeled it for you.

Sadly none of those things happened. I ripped back and ended up going back a bit too far. I sorted that out and tried a 3 stitch i-cord bind off. That rolled something terrible so I tried a 2 stitch i-cord (on smaller needles). It still rolled. I decided to embrace the rolling and knit several rounds of stocking stitch. That looked terrible on me. I thought I would try a few rounds of garter stitch (on smaller needles). And eureka…

...only joking...it still didn’t look right.

So after several hours of cursing I did what any sane knitter would do, threw it in a corner and cast on for a simple, soothing garter stitch blanket.

It’s too hot to knit much this week anyway. There’s going to be a bit of heatwave here in my part of the UK and I will have no need of a colourwork yoke sweater, no matter how cute the short sleeves are.

At least, that’s my argument and I’m sticking to it.

In the meantime i’m hoping that inspiration strikes, from somewhere.

The PPS - Larger version

2 skein version of the Pattern Please Shawl

For some reason it seems to be the week of 'large things’

Whether it’s been my break from Instagram or something in the air but it seems to be the week for finishing up larger scale projects. Earlier in the week I finished up my large scale Garter Ripple Squish - freeing myself of just over a kilo of scrap yarn in the process.

Yesterday I finally sorted out the update to my Pattern Please Shawl - The PPS - on Ravelry. This is a more generously sized version of the 1 skein original. It uses 2 x 100g skeins of sock weight (fingering weight) yarn - pictured here is a sample using ‘Heliotrope’ in Hayton 4ply from Eden Cottage Yarns (pink) and ‘And You’ll Hand me Your Weapon’ from Third Vault Yarns.

If you’ve already purchased the pattern, you should have received the update in the usual way. I know that a lot of people expressed an interest in knitting a larger version and I’m so excited to see what you come up with.

Happy Knitting

A monster FO: The Garter Ripple Squish

There are FOs and there are monster FOs. At just over a kilo (1100g to be precise) this massive version of my Garter Ripple Squish blanket is a whopper.

Holding 3 strands of sockweight yarn together on 7mm needles somehow managed to make a wonderfully cushy fabric. I’ll be honest, it felt rather dense while I was knitting it and a real dead weight on my lap. But blocking as ever worked it’s magic and it’s loosened up a treat. It’s pleasingly substantial and comforting but it doesn’t make you feel as though you are trapped under something heavy.

I used a whole assortment of random leftovers to make this and at just over 1000g that equates to 10 whole skeins of sockweight yarn. It’s quite a thought to realise that not only did I have a kilo of leftover sock yarn hanging about the house, but that I still have more. Luckily a lot of that is more pinky/purple in colour and is happily slotting into my crocheted Giant Granny Square blanket.

Even more pleasingly this contributes a splendid 4040m to my Stash Dash total for this year - hurrah! It used to be the case that yarn held doubled/trebled didn’t count for the total yardage - only the yardage actually knitted (if you see what I mean) and so I was fully prepared to reduce this total by two-thirds. However on checking the rules it seems they have changed it for 2019 and so the full amount counts.

Happy days indeed.

If you fancy having a go at a bit of a stashbuster yourself you can find the original pattern here - do let me know if you knit it - I’d love to know if anyone manages a bigger one.

A summer sabbatical

What could I do with 2 hours extra every day? 

I've found myself with that thought a lot over the last few weeks, especially since working out that 2 hours is my daily average for time spent scrolling on Instagram. The handy ‘activity’ monitor built into the app shows me all too clearly how much of my daily life is eaten up by this tiny little app that lives on my phone.

Some days it's a lot more than 2 hrs. Now that wouldn't be too bad, if scrolling made me feel good. But right now it's the good old 80/20 principle in action.

20% of my time on Instagram is fantastic. I connect with friends, chat, laugh and share life's ups and downs. I love it and it's truly life affirming.

The other 80% leaves me sad,anxious, stressed and upset. I see online behaviour that I wouldn't accept in any other area of my life and it worries me that it seems to have become the new norm. At a recent school event about online bullying I was struck by the awareness of some of the young adults around me on this issue, it it saddened me that we had adults who aren’t seemingly capable of modelling the behaviours we are teaching to our children.

It's time for a change. My kids break for the summer holidays at the end of next week and I'm thinking I might do the same. The thought of an Instagram sabbatical is an attractive one and the fact that it scares me also is probably a sign that it's much needed.

There are a ton of things I keep saying I want to do more of. I want to read more. I want to learn to spin - properly and I want to spend more time this summer with my kids before I lose them to the mid teen years. All of which are good things to do. And with 2 hours a day at my disposal I reckon that’s a pretty good start.

I’ll also be blogging here a little more and I’ll be using my email newsletters to document what I’m up to, so I’m not going away. Just taking a little step back to refocus, refresh and hopefully enjoy some more creative pursuits.

When knits don't go to plan

Sometimes you knit something and it’s love at first sight. It fits well, you can block it, weave in the ends and call it done. Other times - not so much. This latest project - the Soldotna Crop definitely falls into the latter category.

I love the yoke, I love the length (it will look fabulous over a navy dress I have) and I love the colours. What I didn’t love was the super high neck line that felt as though it was a polo neck. I’m not quite sure where I went wrong - as the original sample definitely doesn’t have a high neck but I know since posting about it on social media that a lot of other people have experienced the same problem.

Yes - I know I should have read the very helpful comments on Ravelry project pages first but since when did I ever do things the sensible way? It seems that knitters, being the creative bunch that they are have found a few different ways around the neckline problem which generally fall into the category of:

1. Ripping out the neckline ribbing and working an i-cord bind off

2. Ripping out the ribbing and adding a few more rounds of stockinette to allow a relaxed, rolled edge

3. Ripping out the ribbing (and a tiny bit of the yoke) and working the ribbing a little lower down.

Either way - the astute among you will have realised that some ripping is required. There were some super organised types (who did read and plan ahead) who started the sweater with a provisional cast on, anticipating such a problem but I’m ignoring them (joke - I am of course secretly envious of your foresight).

So, armed with my trusty nail scissors I cut off the ribbing and ripped back. Of course, I had reckoned without the cunning short rows at the back and so I ended up having to pull back a bit further than intended. But, with only a modest amount of swearing I managed to get the neck stitches back onto waste yarn and there they currently sit awaiting my attention.

At the minute I’m erring towards an i-cord bind off, but time permitting later on today I’m hoping to try it on and make a decision - probably,