Moving on

This week I took the rather drastic step of stepping away from my Twitter account of over 10 years and starting afresh. A drastic action certainly but it wasn’t an impulsive one. Rather it came about by a gradual process of realising that I wasn’t happy with something, and then setting about the process of working out how I could rectify it.

In doing so I came across this article by Tim Denning which perfectly summed up my attitude to Twitter and encapsulated my feelings emboddied in that tiny blue bird logo.

Over the years, off and on I have spent a lot of time on Twitter and have certainly made some great friends there. Friends that I would really miss if I were to leave the platform completely. However, of late I had found myself needing to take more breaks from the app, and of longer duration as it was really starting to affect my mental health. Partly that was due to my actions - I had followed a lot of news and politically active accounts all of whom were equally outraged at world events as I was. The problem of course was that I was struggling to process my own emotions during the past few years, and adding in other peoples anger and outrage wasn’t really helping. In addition the Twitter algorithm as we know is geared up to keep you on the app as much as possible - and outrage keeps you there a lot longer than cute photos of otters - so that’s what it shows you.

I recently took an unplanned break from Twitter which extended into a week as I found myself increasingly reluctant to log in, even though I missed catching up with pals. The answer was obvious - if something isn’t serving you or doing you good - stop it or do it differently.

For me that meant creating a new account, and setting it up with care and intention. Following those people that I wanted to keep in touch with and creating lists so that I can do that effectively without having to rely on the chaotic main feed. You can find my new account here if you want to see what I’ve been up to. My old one I’ll keep up for a little while before archiving it.

The whole process has got me thinking about other things that have changed or I have moved away from over the past few years. I ditched my Facebook group of over 20k members in favour of a much smaller but much easier to manage Mighty Networks community, and in 2020 I moved away from Ravelry. Something that previously I would have thought was unthinkable and would spell certain death for my business.

In fact, nothing drastic happened at all. I’m still carrying on writing and selling patterns, still connecting with the knitting community and friends around me. I’m just doing it on terms that serve me better. The world didn’t end just because I ditched Ravelry.

And at the end of the day I think that’s what it’s all about, and it’s taken the chaos and upheaval of the last 2 years to show me that. It’s OK to evaluate what’s going on in your life and what helps - or hinders you. And it’s OK to discard perceived wisdom or advice in favour of what suits you.

How we spend our days, is after all, how we spend our lives. And for me, that means spending my precious minutes on things that make me feel good for hours.

Reading summary: January

If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen that I set myself a reading challenge for 2022 - to read 50 books this year. I’ve really startled myself by how much time I have found to read to be honest - and I’m slightly embarrased to admit exactly how much time I have I have reclaimed for myself by the simple task of removing Twitter from my phone.

Goodbye mindless doom scrolling and hello reading!

In January I have read an amazing (for me) 10 books - and might even had made it to 11 by the time this goes live.

Books I’ve finished:

1. The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris

2. The Lobotomists Wife by Samantha Green Woodruff

3. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

4. The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

5. The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden

6. Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner

7. Faerie Winter by Janni Lee Simner

8. Faerie After by Janni Lee Simner

9. The Unheard by Nicci French

10. The Maningtree Witches by AK Blakemore

Currently reading:

Spinner Silver by Naomi Novik

Wintering by Katherine May (non fiction)

Enough by Jessica Rose Williams (non fiction)

If you want to follow along with my reading I am putting all of the titles I have read in the highlights section on my bio page.

Shawls v cowls

The PPS

I asked a question on Twitter recently about whether people preferred making cowls or shawls and it generated such a vibrant debate that it prompted me to sit down and think about why we choose to make the things we do. Why we choose one pattern over another. And why in some cases do we choose to make the same pattern over and over again.

There are millions of patterns out there - both knit and crochet. The choice is astronomical, but for many of us we stick to many of the same familiar designers or styles.

In most cases I stick to the mantra of never knitting the same thing twice - life is too short after all. But there are a few notable exceptions. I must have made well over 10 Honey Cowls during my time as a knitter - most have obviously been given away as i think I only have one left in my drawer. I’ve also made quite a few of my own Fuss Free Festival shawls (and not just for sample knitting).

Both of these patterns share common features. They are relaxing to knit, they don’t require very much active thought - leaving your brain free to go off and do it’s own thing. And they both work with a variety of yarns. meaning that you can ‘shop your stash’ at 2am and cast on exactly when the mood takes you. Sometimes the planning of phase of project is enticing and enjoyable - the yarn selection, the ordering, the swatching. But sometimes let’s face it you just want to grab your yarn and needles and get cracking.

Anyway, back to shawls v cowls. Shawls won the day but only by a narrow margin. I do love a good shawl, don’t get me wrong but when it comes to actually wearing my handknits, my cowls are worn far more often than my shawls. Especially these days where I’m rarely doing anywhere fancy. For me, cowls are way more practical for everyday wear.

I guess that’s another point isn’t it. There’s a difference between what we choose to knit for fun (maybe to give away or just ‘because’) as opposed to what we knit because we want to wear the end product. but that’s a philosophical question for another day.

With my mind on all things neckwear I thought I would put together a discount across all my shawl and cowl patterns - running from now until the end of January. Another bonus of shawls and cowls is that they knit up quickly, so if you cast on (and you are in the northern hemisphere) you still have a few months of cosy wear ahead of you. And if you are in the southern hemisphere - well you are just getting cracking ready for autumn.

You can find my shawl and cowl patterns here, and you can buy as many as you like with the 50% discount code WARMTHOUGHTS.

So, how about you - are you Team Shawl or Team Cowl?

It's OK not to share

It’s OK not to share: This seems like a bit of an odd subject for a social media post, but bear with me.

At the start of the year I set up a private Instagram account, just for me. The intention was to deliberately take a photo every day, to document what I’m calling a ‘tiny delight’ - nothing momentous, nothing earth shattering, it might just be a bowl of granola. But it’s a daily record of something I’ve done or seen that day, that made me happy and that I appreciated.

This was inspired, at least in part by the writings of two women:

Laura Pasha - author of Little Stories of Your Life - all about noticing the beauty in the mundane, everyday things.

Jo Dimmock - of @ochreandflax - and her gratitude and journaling practice.

So, if it’s private why am I telling you about it?

Ah - good question - I’m so pleased you asked.

It occurred to me while I was out walking this morning that, in an age where we are encouraged to share so much of ourselves and our thoughts online, that the deliberate choice to keep something back, to hold it just for ourselves is a really bold, assertive thing to do. It feels like a tiny act of rebellion in a world where oversharing is not just accepted but is actively encouraged. 

I wanted a place to share my ‘tiny delights’ in a way that was visual but that wasn’t just on my phone or in my journal. I wanted it to be somewhere separate from all of my other online activities but also somewhere just for me. A place where I can scroll through and see a permanent record of all of my daily ‘tiny delights’ that will hopefully help to perk me up, during those low moments which we all experience.

I’m keeping in mind the image of a determined toddler, with a very set expression on her face, arms crossed, saying calmly but fiercely “no, that’s mine”.

And I’m carrying that energy forwards into a few aspects of my online life this year, most notably with my Twitter usage. Twitter has been for the most part, my favourite online social media platform, the place where I am most free to be myself. Sadly though, for me at least, it’s become an increasingly noisy and hostile place where it’s all too easy to lose yourself amid the outpourings of so many other angry and frightened people.

As an empath, it’s something I have been increasingly aware of and the negative impact of Twitter on my mental health is no longer something that I can ignore.

This isn’t a grand ‘I’m leaving’ statement or anything like that. But simply a gradual realisation that I need to move towards something that serves me better - and 2hrs of daily twitter scrolling does not serve me well - at all.

Instead I’ve replaced the twitter app on my phone with the Kindle reader app (to supplement my Kindle and the physical books I have) and if I feel a scrolling urge I read a book instead.

I have set myself the target of reading 52 books this year (having read 25 in 2021) and I’ve surprised myself by reading 4 already. It turns out that 2hrs a day can really add up - who knew?

I’ll still be around on Twitter, and indeed I’ve curated a (private) list of knitty friends so that I don’t miss any updates, but I will be much more intentional about the debates and accounts I engage with. Reserving my energy and my attention for that which I can control, not that which I can’t.

I haven’t set any knitting-related goals this year - I’m not quite sure what that says about me - but there’s still time. For now I’m just happy that I have had a bit of a reset and I’m hoping that being more mindful in where I direct my energies will help me to be more present in other areas of my life - including my crafting.

How about you? Do you have any big (or small) goals this year?

If you’d like to find out what I’m reading I’ll be sharing this on my Instagram stories (and saved to my highlights) or I’ll be chatting about it in my bi-weekly newsletter too).

New Year, New Blanket

I think everyone needs a good dose of colour at this time of year, and bright cheerful colours were very much the order of the day when I was planning this simple crochet blanket.

My youngest son (now 15) asked for a replacement stripy blanket as his old crochet one was showing distinct signs of wear and tear after many years of faithful use. He wanted stripes - “quite thick and not too holey” so we settled on a crochet blanket using simple UK treble stitches.

After a lot of faffing over yarn choices we opted for Stylecraft Special Acrylic DK, mainly because of the amazing colour range. My preference was strongly for natural fibres but it proved difficult to find a range that offered the colours he was looking for at a price point I could afford :)

When starting the blanket I asked for advice online - as the looong foundation chain needed for straight blankets is always my undoing with crochet. I was recommended this superb method for avoiding the foundation chain altogether. It was so straightforward to do and got me off to a flying start in no time - highly recommended if you haven’t tried it before. The video is from the very talented Sarah who is @yarnandblarney on Instagram.

REQUIREMENTS:

Stylecraft Special DK - 15x100g (colours listed in order below)

Hook: sized to give a fabric you like. I used 3.5mm as I am quite a loose crocheter

Terminology used is UK throughout - Treble (tr) and Double (dc) stitches are used.

STARTING:

Start with 200 stitches in the first colour - Grape

Row 1: continuing with Grape ch3 (counts as 1 tr). Tr into each stitch all the way across. At the end be sure to work the last tr into the top of the last st of your starting row.

Row 2: Turn. Ch3 (counts as 1 tr) and continue to work tr st all the way back. Break yarn and join next colour.

Following colour repeat below, continue to work 2 rows of each colour.

Repeat until blanket measures 66” or until desired length.

BORDER

I used 3 colours, working 1 full round of each. Join yarn and work 1 round of dc stitches. At each of the 4 corners, work 1dc, ch2, 1dc. When you get back to the first stitch, join with a slip st to complete the round.

COLOUR ORDER

1067 Grape
1432 Wysteria
1188 Lavender
1302 Denim
1003 Aster
1841 Cornish Blue
1708 Petrol
1062 Teal
1722 Storm Blue
1019 Cloud Blue
1820 Duck egg
1842 Spearmint
1712 Lime
1065 Meadow
1203 Silver

This pattern is offered for free here with love. If you would like a PDF with all the information clearly laid out along with tips and tricks that I, as a by-no-means proficient crocheter found helpful, then you may use the button below to purchase a copy at nominal cost.

Credit: Full credit for the colour choices go to my son, Joseph Tilbrook who dreamt up and then laid out the design. All proceeds from the sale of the PDF go to his college fund.

Go big or go home

My last Mitered square sock yarn blanket barely made a dent in my bag of sock yarn leftovers, so this year for the 2021 KAL I'm going for a different approach.

I'm sizing up.

Holding sock yarn doubled on larger needles and with more cast on stitches to make larger squares.

So far I'm really pleased with it. The fabric has a pleasing weight to it and is wonderfully cushy - if that's a word. And of course you get to play with the fabulous effects you can get with marling two colours together.

And more importantly, each square uses a fabulous 60g yarn (2 X 30g).

Hooray for big squares.

There's a link in my bio to the Comfort blanket KAL which is re-running this year, starting on Monday 13 Sep, if you'd like to join us.

Big squares are optional