How to support your LYS - without spending money

Photo by K8 on Unsplash

When we think of supporting our hard working local yarn stores it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that this must involve spending large amounts of cash on yarn. But in reality there are other, cheaper things that we can also do - especially if, as we head towards the end of January, money is a little tight.

The success of the Just A Card campaign stemmed from the comment by a closing art gallery that if everyone who had visited the shop had bought ‘just a card’ they wouldn’t have had to close the business. Businesses don’t become a thriving success because of occasional large purchases (although obviously, that doesn’t hurt) but it is the continual drip, drip of small things - regular small purchases, visits, reviews, recommendations - all count.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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With that in mind, it's worth considering all the ways you can support for LYS (or fav indie dyer) without spending any money:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
1. Leave them a review (on FB or their website)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
2. Mention them when talking about what you are making - tag them on social media or tell a friend about them.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
3. Offer to review a product for them, knit a shop sample or lend them something you have knit, for display⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
4. If they have a newsletter, sign up to it and share it with friends⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
5. Bear in mind that an LYS is also often able to fulfill online orders - when recommending places to buy online don't forget the small indie businesses at the expense of the 'big box stores'⠀⠀

Can you think of any more? Please do let me know in the comments, and let’s help to share a bit of LYS love this January.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

How to knit a Temperature Blanket - and why...

Far too much dithering over colour choices

January 2021 Update: You can find the update and the completed blanket at this post

And you can find my Temperature Blanket e-book here:

I swore that I would never do a Temperature Blanket and yet every January I would be smitten with gorgeous finished objects, fantastic visual representations of the past year in woolly form and be tempted. This year finally got the better of me and I decided to embark on my own.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about a Temperature Blanket is a year long project (usually) where you work a row or two every day.

You decide on a temperature scale and have a different colour to represent each category on that scale. For example I decided to work on a scale of 0-30 degrees Celcius, with the scale in 3 degree increments.

The important thing to note from the outset is that this is your project and you set the rules. There is no standard pattern, although others have published their projects for inspiration and education ultimately your choice of yarn/needles, your selection of colours and scale will make this project completely and utterly unique. That’s the beauty of it.

However, like all epic projects it does require some planning at the beginning. It won’t have escaped your notice that 365 days is 365 rows (or 730 for garter stitch). That is a lot of rows and in chunky yarn (or crochet) you could well end up with something the length of a hallway runner rather than a usable blanket if you aren’t careful.

Scale

Another consideration is the selection of your scale. This is obviously highly dependent on where you live. Based here in the UK we are blessed with a pretty moderate climate without significant extremes. My scale therefore can be in relatively small increments. Doing it in increments of 6 for example might result in too few colour changes to look visually interesting. Many days in summer here can be in the range 18-24 for example.

Colours and yarn

Pick a yarn you love, obviously and that fits your budget. It’s also worth bearing in mind that you might need to buy more if your estimates are off, so pick something that’s readily available and easy to obtain. It sounds obvious but you don’t have to go for the traditional blue = cold red = hot colour scheme. I’ve seen some brilliant ones where the colours are neutrals (greys or shades of natural yarn) for example that look absolutely stunning.

Time

How you pick and record the temperature is also entirely up to you. I decided to go for noon at our favourite place in the Lake District - I check it daily on a weather app. You could also access a historical weather record site for your area and do a retrospective blanket - based on a significant year for you, for example.

My blanket

After seeing some lovely knitted and crochet corner to corner blankets I opted for this style - mainly because the thought of a super long cast on did not fill me with enthusiasm. 

Yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners 4ply Signature Sock Yarn

Needles: 3mm

I cast on 3sts and I’m increasing 2 sts every right side row, until the midpoint when I’ll start the decreases. I’m knitting 4 rows (2 garter ridges) for every day.

If you are interested I’ve linked to my Ravelry project page and I’ll be doing updates once a month or so - as I’d hate to spam you with the thing. But I’m hoping that a monthly update will keep me accountable and stop the blanket from languishing in a corner.

Wish me luck. In the immortal words of Antarctic explorer Lawrence Oates “I may be some time”

No cold sheep here

Image by Martin Tajmr from Pixabay 

It seems that there are definite seasonal patterns to my blog posts and I often feel the urge to write about the same topics at the same time of the year. January, without exception is my cue for a little rant about yarn diets or cold sheeping or whatever you want to call it.

Call it what you like because we all know it doesn’t matter a hoot, and most knitters will cave like a soggy digestive at the first yarn show or newsletter offer. If you do manage to resist, obviously hats off to you for your impressive show of restraint.

This year more than ever though it seems appropriate to support our hard-pressed yarn shops and indie dyers. Financial insecurity, the looming shadow of the ongoing Brexit disaster and many other factors mean that where we spend our hard earned money is important now as never before.

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.

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.

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.

And if you’d like to make better use of your stash and get some inspiration and support, please do check out my new venture - The Stash Appreciation Society. We can promise you a warm woolly welcome.

PIN FOR LATER

How to do your own DIY yarn club

Please don't get me wrong, I absolutely love a good yarn club. But as I evaluate my stash at the start of 2020 I find that I have plenty of yarn already in need of the perfect project.

This is most definitely not an invitation to a yarn diet or cold sheeping. And I will absolutely be continuing to buy yarn from my favourite sellers. But I am going to make plans for a year long DIY yarn club. 12 small projects I can knit from my stash during 2020 - 1 per month.

I'm going to try and use patterns I already own - ticking the “in library” box during Ravelry searches makes this super easy. But I'm not ruling out the odd spur of the moment purchase either.

I have 12 bags - not all as pretty as this one sadly. Each one will house yarn, pattern if already printed (or I'll keep a track of digital ones in my notebook) and any other bits and bobs I need.

After that it's just a matter of picking one at random on the first of each month, knowing I have a quick, portable, travel friendly project ready to go. With the added benefit that I'll be knitting from stash too.

If the idea of appreciating your stash appeals to you, please do check out this link to my new 2020 yarny venture - The Stash Appreciation Society.

January is all about stash inventory and our DIY yarn club. February will be a yarn swap and themed around making new yarny friends, and so on throughout the year. There's lots of chat in the Facebook group already and it promises to be a fun place to hang out.

If you have any questions about the group please just ask and I'm happy to help.

Introverts Party Socks KAL Part 3

Ensure you have 32 (36) sts on each needle again. Break contrast yarn and resume working with working yarn.

Rnd 1 N1: k7(9), p1, k2, m1, k4, sl, k2tog, psso, k4, m1, k2, p1, k8(10)         N2: as N1

Rnd 2 N1: k7, p1, k15, p1, k8                        N2: as N1

  Work as set until leg measures 18 (20)cm/7 (8)” from top of heel, or desired length,

CUFF

Work ribbed cuff (k1, p1 to end) and then bind off using the Russian bind-off as follows: *k2tog, sl 1 st from right-hand needle back to left-hand needle; repeat from * to end.

I do hope you've enjoyed this KAL, if you are looking for a more sedate knit the pattern will be up on Ravelry early in the new year.

Introverts Party Socks Part 2

Ready for Part 2 of the #introvertspartysock KAL?

These are directions for a standard short row heel using the wrap and turn (W&T) method. Quite honestly though, in this scenario I often use the fish lips kiss heel - which is just 1 dollar on Ravelry - and well worth the money.

The heel uses the wrap-and-turn method, and is worked back and forth on N2.

Set-up row (RS): N1: Drop working yarn (do not break) Using contrast yarn work in pattern as set across all sts. Do not turn.

Next row (RS): K31 (35), W&T (always slip wrapped st back to right-hand needle), and turn.

Next row (WS): P30 (34), W&T. Next row (RS): K29 (33), W&T Next row (WS): P28 (32), W&T.

Keep going in this fashion, working 1 less st each time (ie working to 1 st before the last wrapped st), until you work a final WS row:

Next row (WS): P10 (12), W&T.

You will have 10 (12) central sts and 11 (12) wrapped sts on either side.

For the second half of the short-row heel, you will work back across each of these wrapped sts, wrapping them again.

Next row (RS): K10 (12), k first wrapped st (pick up wrap and knit it together with that st), wrap next st

(this will now be double-wrapped) and turn.

Next row (WS): P11 (13), p first wrapped st (together with its wrap), wrap next st, and turn.

Next row (RS): K12 (14) (this will take you to the first double-wrapped st), pick up both wraps (from the front, bottom to top) and knit them together with the st, wrap next st, and turn.

Next row (WS): P13 (15), pick up both wraps (from the front, bottom to top) and purl them together with that st, wrap next st and turn.

Keep going in this fashion, working to the first double-wrapped st, picking up both wraps from front of work (bottom to top) and working them together with that st, wrapping the next st, and turning. Continue until all sts have been worked and you are ready to commence working in the round again.