My best business tool

Photo credit: Dave Goudreau via Unsplash

I must have spent £100s, possibly even £1000s over the years on productivity and business apps and software. Show me a course on productivity or a snazzy new app that promises to revolutionise my working day or streamline my content creation and I’m all over it.

Nothing sparkles with more promise than the ultimate hardcopy business planner complete with freshly sharpened pencils and a vat of coffee in my favourite coffee shop.

But lately I’ve come to realise that my best business tool, by a country mile is my beaten up pair of trainers. 

Recently I was stuck on something. Nothing as complex as algebra or bringing about world peace but it was something I’d been mulling over for days and I felt as though I couldn’t move on with my other work until I’d solved it. All day I’d sat at my desk, as well as in the aforementioned coffee shop but the words just wouldn’t come.

The odd idea swam into my head and then floated off before I could even try to journal on it. Put simply, I was stuck and frustrated.

Back at home and with dinner in the oven I shoved on my trainers and went for a walk with my husband. Walking in companionable silence, each mulling over our day the idea suddenly came to me.

It was a perfect, brilliant light bulb moment and suddenly I knew exactly what I needed to do, as though someone had laid out a yellow brick road right in front of me. I didn’t even need to stop and make a note on my phone for fear I would forget it. The idea was so clear and perfectly formed it was as though it already existed.

Thinking back, this is definitely part of a pattern and there’s definitely something that works for me in the simple repetitive soothing motion of walking. Something that calms my frazzled brain and helps me to make sense of the world around me. It’s no coincidence that during the Covid lockdowns our daily walks were the one thing that kept me functioning.

I can’t meditate to save my life. Just the thought of sitting still and deep breathing makes me want to twitch but simple, slow, mindful walking works for me every time. And I’m not alone. I found this wonderful article recently which sums it up far more eloquently than I could. It seems there is some solid science to explain the link between a good long walk and creative ideas.

I’m not ready to ditch the laptop and the coffee shop just yet, but I might just shove my trainers in the boot of the car for a pre-work walk around the block first.

St Bees Shawl

St Bees Shawl available on Payhip

Sometimes you just come across the perfect yarn for a pattern - and for me this one ticked all the boxes. I love a half-pi shawl but let's be honest here, those long rows towards the end can be a real motivation killer. 

Nearly 600 stitches per row is a lot of stitches, whichever way you look at it. But it's made much more fun by having a long change colour gradient to entertain you.

I'd seen cakes of this Scheepjes Whirl before but something about this colourway - Green Tea Tipple - really spoke to me. I couldn't put my finger on why until I was looking back through some old holiday photos in Cumbria and I came across a montage I had done of St Bees - a wonderful stretch of coastline where the sea colour can change daily, even hourly, depending on the weather.

I knew it would be perfect in this half-pi shawl and I love the way the colour changes work with the transition of the pattern - from deep grey garter stitch, to light and frothy lace, through to deep teal at the end.

The half-pi shape gives you a really wearable shawl. It sits nicely on the shoulders if you just want a little bit of warmth - I love mine when I’m sat at my desk in the mornings. Or for a bit more drama and drape you can fling one end over your shoulder - a broach pin would help to secure it on windy days.

Either way, it’s a great adaptable shape and if you haven’t tried a half-pi shawl before I urge you to give it a try. There’s minimal counting and only 7 increase rows in the whole thing. For the rest you are either working garter stitch or an easy-to-memorise lace pattern. What’s not to love.

As with all my patterns, clicking the link below takes you to my Payhip store. if you’d like a copy for your Ravelry library please email me at the address at the bottom of your pattern PDF and I will gift you a copy.

A log cabin blanket with a difference

I do love a good traditional log cabin blanket but sometimes it's nice to switch things up a little and I found myself wondering whether I could combine my twin loves of log cabin and mitered squares. 

And it turns out that you can.

The Log Cabin-ish blanket uses a series of blocks constructed in the traditional log cabin style but rather than each round of blocks overlapping at the corners, this leaves the corners free to be joined with little mitered squares.

Using a yarn with colour contrast adds visual interest and makes for something a little bit different.

This blanket is sized to create a small lap-sized or baby blanket (approx 37" square) but it could be easily sized up if you have sufficient yarn. The beauty of log cabin blankets is that you can just keep going until your yarn supply - or patience - is exhausted.

As ever, the pattern is available to buy through my Payhip store at the link below. If you would like a copy for your Ravelry library please just email me at the address in the footer of the pattern and I can sort that out for you.

The joys of seaming (and a sale)

Cowl design: Women hold up half the sky

Well, not quite. But at least I got your attention, if only because you thought I might be being held hostage and signalling my plight to you. I know I have certainly waxed lyrical before about the joys of seamless knits, and how, if I had wanted to spend time with a needle I would have taken up sewing.

But, every so often there is a good case for seaming a knit and I hope you’ll bear with me while I elaborate.

It’s quite common for cowls to be knit in the round for many reasons not least because you are creating a tube or loop which will be worn as a tube or loop. It makes sense therefore to avoid the need for a seam and cast on in the round.

Now, this is partly personal preference but I sometimes feel that cowls in the round can feel a little bit like I’m wearing a surgical collar, particularly if the fabric isn’t as drapey as I would like.

I almost always prefer a cowl knit flat and then seamed. Partly because I feel that it tends to give better drape and partly because it makes it really easy to judge how long the cowl is and whether you can get one loop or two loops from your yarn. I’m all about reducing leftovers at the minute and anything that I can stretch to get the most out of a skein of yarn is all to the good.

SELF CARE SALE

As I regard shawl and cowl knitting as a valuable form of self care, and I’m in the mood to spread a little love this week I thought I would have a week-long sale on my shawls and cowl patterns. Just tap the button below and use the code SELFCARE to get 25% off any of my shawl and cowl designs - you may choose as many as you like.

And if you know a friend who is looking for a new project please do feel free to forward the link to them as well, and spread the love a little further.

3 good reasons to upsize your Mitered Square blanket

Traditional, sock yarn mitered square blankets look amazing but they use a distressingly small amount of yarn. As I found to my cost when I made mine. I love it to pieces but it took the best part of two years (off and on) and my sock yarn leftover bag doubled in size while I was knitting it.

At some point I hit on the idea of holding yarn doubled for mitered squares though and I was gratified to see it eat through my stash with some rapidity

1. Make inroads into your stash. Each square of my monster mitered square blanket uses 50g sock yarn (2 x 25g balls). Enough to make the most robust stash quail.

2. You get to play with colour. Holding yarns double allows you to play with marled effects much more than you can with conventional squares.

3. It’s wonderfully squishy. Traditional sock yarn blankets are all well and good but at the end of the day they are just lightweight covers. A blanket made with yarn held double has a lot more weight behind it and is just the thing to have over your knees.

The basics of mitered square knitting have been convered on my blog before - here - but if you would like more detail in a easy to read, more condensed manner I have an ebook available at the link below.

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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