Women hold up half the sky

Women hold up half the sky -Cowl pattern available on Payhip

“Women hold up half the sky” is a quote famously attributed to Mao Zedong. I came across it recently online and it has really resonated with me in the aftermath of my dad’s sudden death.

This pattern is dedicated to all of the strong women in my family.

It's been a difficult time, to say the least but together with the women around me we've got through it with tears, with laughter and with a gentle but indomitable strength.

We’ve looked back through old photos, we’ve remembered happy times together and we have supported each other, unfailingly in our darker moments.

Women everywhere, do indeed hold us up.

This cowl is knit in some glorious yarn from Black Stag Yarn & Fibre in a colourway called ‘Hat full of sky’ - a wonderful Terry Pratchett reference.

As soon as I saw it I knew it had to be something sky/star related and I hit upon this star stitch pattern, which I think looks fantastic spaced out across the stocking stitch background - like stars in the night sky.

The cowl is knit flat from a provisional cast on and grafted closed at the end. As I like my cowls quite snug there was a generous 40g yarn leftover from this one - probably enough for a short pair of fingerless mitts - but if you prefer something with more drape simply keep knitting until you’ve achieved the circumference you are looking for.

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Sometimes it's good to go back

“Never say never” was one of my Nana’s well-used sayings and, as so often, she has proven to be right. When I closed the doors to the Everyday Knitter Facebook group, almost 2 years ago, the phrase “never again” may have crossed my lips. It was an action largely borne of frustration and pandemic-induced overwhelm. Everything felt too big, too loud, just too much.

The much smaller Mighty Network group in comparison felt a whole lot more achievable, calmer. In short I felt more in control of it. And back then, control over external things was very much in short supply.

Obviously a lot has changed in 2 years - for all of us - and that’s definitely a blog post for another day. But one things that has changed is the set-up of Facebook groups - specifically the moderating tools that are now available and a number of automated systems designed to reduce the need for admin interventions.

I used to be a member of an official Facebook Admin group, and it looks as though a lot of the things we were crying out for back then have actually been implemented - which makes a refreshing change.

In addition to this I think it would be fair to say that I have experienced a few issues with the Mighty Network group in terms of it’s set-up and relative inflexibility in some areas. For a small group it works well, and for a larger group with integral courses and multiple teams it probably also works well, I’ve certainly seen it working well for others. But for me, for the size of my group and my team (ie me - solo) it doesn’t seem to work as well. And I’m not convinced that spending time, and money, in trying to make it so would necessarily be the best use of my time.

That’s not to say that the Mighty Network group is going away. There is a definite place for those amongst use who prefer a Facebook-free environment, and the group will continue in it’s present form, but I just won’t be developing any new things there for the foreseeable future

So, here we are. It seems as though I’ve gone full circle. I’ve now opened up the doors of the Everyday Knitter Facebook group and am once again standing on the doorstep, ready to welcome you with coffee, cake and a bit of knitting chat.

I hope you’ll decide to pop back in - we have a lot of catching up to do.

Spring socks

The title of this was going to be Spring Sock Sale - but honestly - try saying that 3 times fast.

Beltane is celebrated on May 1st - as it is the halfway point between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice.

These are the Beltane socks - a design that’s a few years old now but that is always one of my favourites. As with many of my sock patterns it comes in cuff down and toe up formats and features a cable design that it is fun and by no means as complicated as it looks.

Adding the Beltane pattern into my Payhip store lead me to do a bit of rearranging - it has a handy feature where you can group your patterns into collections. So I thought it might be a good time to do a little Spring Sock Sale - hence the tongue twister.

From now until 8th May you can use code SPRINGSOCKS for 20% off any (or indeed, all) of the sock patterns in my Sock Collection.

Scrappy socks...with a little bit extra

Smackerel Socks

In our house there are snacks and there are meals. But there is also an in-between category - a fancy snack which is known as a Smackerel.

And when I started working on these scrappy socks, the word Smackerel kept coming to mind. They are a bit fancier than a plain scrappy, striped sock but don’t require the effort and preparation needed for a full blown meal.

They are the perfect happy medium. Simple to work but fancy enough to show off. And each colour band uses just a hair over 1g, meaning that you can use up the tiniest bits of sock yarn leftovers that you have hanging around.

Fancy and thrifty - does it get any better.

Actually yes it does, as the pattern is written with both toe-up and cuff down options - just pick the option you want at the pattern download stage.

We bend but we don't break

It’s been a hard month. As many of you may know I have been taking a break following the sudden and very unexpected death of my father.

Everything still feels very raw and very strange as you can imagine, but now we have had the funeral I feel as though I can start to dip my toe into the online world again. Even though my brain is strangely scattered and forgetful - just last night I made coffee without boiling the kettle and then wondered why the coffee was cold :)

Everything has changed and yet as I log in here and sit down to write (with a hot cup of coffee this time) everything seems familiar and comforting.

These daffodils made me smile the other day - snapped on one of the many trips north I’ve made over the last few weeks. Just the day before they had been smiling happily in the sunshine before their enthusiasm was dented somewhat by a sharp snow shower. Like us though, they bend but don’t break. Their display might be over for this year but they retreat underground, look after themselves for a bit and then re-emerge triumphant next year.

I’m not sure I’m going to be doing any triumphant emerging any time soon, but we do go on. We change, we adapt and we grieve, but we do go on.

Most of my regular knitting is on hold - due to lack of enthusiasm - but I did pick up an old long-neglected sock WIP - which seems to have caught my interest. And I’ve been finding huge diversion in the new series of Bridgerton - both watching the TV series and reading along with the book. It’s very entertaining - not least because I’m not sure that those who adapted it for the screen had even read the book - I can’t believe how different the two plotlines are.

Still, it all makes for harmless feel-good fun, which right now is just what is needed.

Keep on, keeping on

If we don't need cosy knitwear now then I don't know when. With everything that's happening in the world right now, a to do list that starts with “must write blog post” seems unbelievably trivial but I'm firmly of the opinion that all we can do in the face of such terrible events is to “keep on, keeping on”.

Holding it together, knitting it together - I'm sure there's a great community building metaphor here somewhere but it's beyond my slightly frazzled and overwhelmed brain.

There's so much I can't control right now, but I can make damn sure that I share the love for my new sweater - Reykjavik Soft by Meiju K-P and my absolutely new favourite yarn - Keld Aran from Eden Cottage Yarns. It's a wool/linen blend with amazing sheen and strength but with a hint of crispness. It worked perfectly with this colourwork sweater and even though a few of the rows were 3 colours at a time (a step up in my colourwork skills) it blocked out beautifully.

Full disclosure: I didn't read the pattern properly and ran short of the dark grey so I opted to do the bottom of the sweater plain without any additional colourwork.

I did the 2nd smallest size and used:

4 X 100g main colour Ash

1 X 100g Charcoal (dark grey)

1 X 100g Echinops (light pinky grey)

I’m just so pleased with how it turned out and now planning how many more colourwork sweaters I need in my life - answer: Lots!