December/New Year mood

 I started a new project at the end of December for a dear friend of mine. It will be a huge blanket when finished, and I will make a smaller one for me, in the same colours, so we both have one. It's always nice to have the time to knit or crochet and enjoy the outdoors in the colder and darker months. I find it lovely to enjoy the rays of sun that we do get, and the ever getting later, sunsets too.

I have 20 skeins of yarn for the project, and each skein seems to make 4 squares. That makes 80 squares. I plan to make an 8 x 8 square blanket for my friend and a 4 x 4 blanket for me. Over the festive period I have enjoyed crocheting. I also got out and about to experience the lovely time of the year. 

Headbands

 I seem to really like to do small projects in between my large blankets (one in progress, one planned). I have been inspired to make headbands as I get painfully cold ears in the winter and it's a change from a hat (I have made a lot of hats over the years). I made a cabled headband a few weeks back when I learned to cable, then made another. I wore the first headband but found that the wool is a bit scratchy on my forehead. I was on a trip to my hometown at the time so popped into the covered market and bought some fleece. I lined the headband but it's not really been cold enough to do a proper test drive. Last weekend I treated myself to some suri lace (a blend of baby Alpaca & silk, it's very fine & fluffy). I never really knew what to do with this kind of yarn but I thought it would look good with the blue aran that I made my first two headbands out of. So I used a 5mm hook with the aran and lace to make a very simple single crochet headband. I didn't do a pattern as the yarns are on the luxurious end of the spectrum and the colours speak for themselves. I decreased and increased at the back to give it a definite orientation, and also, to fit in front of a ponytail. The colours are more muted with the lace, but it gives a very cosy look which is perfect as the process of wintering is starting in the northern hemisphere. I lined it with fleece but left a gap at the back to allow the headband to stretch when putting it on. It feels so soft, hard to convery in a photo!

The comparison of the two.

Making mistakes

I knit my socks on two sets of needles and only have one set out at a time (I have cats, I can't have wool/needles lying around!) and it wasn't until I got both sets of knitting out that I could see that one was slightly bigger than the other. I was using a 3.0mm set of needles in bamboo compared to a 2.5mm set in steel! I have since bought a 3.0mm set of steel and will be taking the knitting back to the cuff to start again from there. Frustrating but worth getting right as these socks will be an Xmas present.

Re-purposing

After having a very Marie Condo clearing out weekend, I found myself with quite a large number of different shaped and sized pom-poms. The day before I had spent time at a social enterprise shop where they sell clothes, recycle and upcycle and encourage everyone to do their bit for the environment. It was mentioned in passing that they would make pom pom garlands as part of a Christmas making afternoon (using donated yarn of course). This idea obviously inspired me to make a garland out of the spare, unwanted pom-poms. I used parcel twine to connect them via a crochet chain stitch, and I think it looks quite good.

Patterns and early mornings

 There is something really lovely about the start of a day, when the sun is coming up but has not yet appeared over the horizon. It's even lovelier when it's cloudless and the sky could be anywhere, even Greece maybe. I wore a scarf that was woven at a "weaving weekend" with a friend before lockdown, in Yorkshire. It was too warm to wear it so I sat and looked at the pattern a bit as the sun came up.

Starting swimming later in life

 

A new start after 60: I overcame my fear of water – and learned to swim at 69 | Life and style | The Guardian

I know this is named as a yarn blog but swimming is also a passion of mine and this article caught my eye. The lady learned to swim at 69. I've always maintained that age is no barrier to achieving things. It's us, ourselves, that is often holding us back. I learned to swim head-in crawl at 45 having believed that it was a skill for "other people" and I wouldn't ever be able do. It's still a work in progress and I can always work on my technique, but with the help of some friends, moral support from my family, I have achieved it. I often swim outside but that is a post for another time.

WIPs

One of my Work In Progress (WIP)s is a pair of socks. I knit socks really slowly and can only do plain knitting and not a pattern. I like to use self-striping yarn or yarn with a gradient so I like to think the colours do all the talking. These are for my youngest as the rest of us already have homemade socks. They are great for winter as they are soo warm, and they are very portable project (I guess compared to a blanket which I am more often than not, also working on. I have two sets of DPNs (double pointed needles) which is admittedly, an old fashioned way to make them but it works for me. With two sets of DPNs I don't have an issue where you have finished one sock and have the whole process to start again. I like knitting them simultaneously. I don't seem to get issues with the "ladders" you sometimes see where the boundaries of the needles were. I have also taken my bamboo DPNs on planes and never had a problem. I haven't tried the steel ones as I presume they wouldn't be allowed. The steel DPNs you can see are shorter and I think in an ideal world, they would be the same length as the bamboo. The bamboo needles do have a tendency to break though (I used to have 10, I now only have 5!). I feel I can knit these while watching TV or listening to a podcast. Although with the heel and the toe, I need to concentrate, count stitches and write everything down but apart from that, they are quite relaxing project. I learned to knit socks via Winwick Mum (Learn to knit socks and Join the Sockalong! – Winwick Mum), who has a great tutorial, and also basically taught me how to knit and to start to read patterns. I'm really happy with the yarn and how it is looking so far. Self-striping yarn is very satisfying to work with!