Another catch up

Hello! Welcome on this miserably damp Sunday. Pour yourself a cuppa, the kettle's just boiled and there's some banana cake if you fancy a slice? Things have been pretty hectic here for the last couple of weeks. I had to go down to King's College Hospital in London for a couple of days of tests and also up to the Salford Royal Hospital to take part in a research project. I've got a sensor, about the size of a £1 coin, attached to my leg, recording my muscle contractions, and feeding back in real time to the research team at Salford, via an app on my phone. The hope is that this technology will detect inflammation in the muscles before it starts to become a big problem, causing permanent damage. Isn't technology amazing? It feels good to be involved in something  that may have a really positive effect for sufferers. I did manage to get some knitting done while I was away, although much of it is secret. But there are a few snippets that I can share with you.

You can find me in the current edition of Crochet Now magazine, as part of the Stylecraft Blogstars Crochet 101 page, giving you a few hints on how to plan your Christmas (yes, I said it!) crochet. If you're a knitter rather than a crocheter, you can still follow my advice. After all, it's less than 100 days now until the Big Day. What a scary thought that is!

An Instagram friend, @florahoneypot, sent me a 'Flora Hug' in the post. Flora was taking her flock of sheep to Yarndale to give out this weekend and she contacted me as she wanted to send me one too. I love our woolly community.

A sneaky peek at something currently on my needles - beautiful rainbow stripes. What could it be?! Shhhh!

My 'Strictly Sockalong 2019' sock is coming along, helped with the glitter ball stitch marker from Ironbridge Yarns. If you would like to add some sparkle to your knitting, Felicity still has some of these in stock. The pattern is my own design and I'm happy with how it looks so far.

Flo was very happy when I returned home. People say that cats are aloof, but that's definitely not true of Flo. She loves company and has kept me pinned to the sofa pretty much since I got back! 

I'll be back on Friday when I will be sharing a new design with you. To say I'm excited is an understatement! xxx

A bit of a backlog

That, my dear readers, is a pile of socks waiting to be photographed so that I can publish the patterns. It doesn't include 3 pairs that I've already gifted; I gave the recipient strict instructions not to get them too worn before photos. The only trouble is, that was back in April! Oops! It's really hard to take good photos of socks on your own feet. Or at least it is for me. I'm not able to get into strange, contorted positions to get the best angle. Mr JK was my sock photographer, and would patiently take photos, and with a wry smile, take more photos, until I felt like I had the perfect shots! One of my friends (she who has already received the 3 pairs) has offered to be a sock model, but it's proving incredibly hard to find a time to get them taken. Fingers crossed that in the next couple of weeks I can get some photos taken so that I can start to share my designs with you. Otherwise I might be on the lookout for some plastic feet! xxx

New beginnings

I always liked the preparations for going back to school, even as a child (except for buying school shoes, don't get me started on that!) and that hasn't changed since becoming a teacher. I like to buy a couple of new folders to keep planning in, perhaps a new set of pens or occasionally a pencil case. So seeing all the 'back to school' things in the shops and knowing that I have no need of them currently left me feeling a bit like a fish out of water. So I decided to buy myself a couple of 'not going back to school' things, to bring a bit of cheer to the first week of (not) going back to school!

On Instagram I spotted someone knitting socks in a 'new to me' yarn. A little bit of detective work took me to the Etsy shop Burrow & Soar, and there I treated myself to a couple of beautiful skeins of sock yarn. The colours are just so pretty, I can't wait to start knitting with them. 

I had also read on Instagram about a 'Strictly Sockalong' starting during the launch show of this year's 'Strictly Come Dancing'. Another 'new to me' dyer, Lay Family Yarn, had created two different sock sets especially for the KAL, and I just couldn't resist 'Gorjus Darling'! I have a rough idea of the pattern I'm going to knit and hopefully if it all works out ok, I will write the pattern up if you like it. I wound the yarn, found the perfect matching project bag from ThreeBagsFull and had candles and fairly lights twinkling away in readiness. 

I also bought myself a new, bigger notebook for writing down my pattern notes. I've been using small notebooks but there isn't enough room to keep ball bands, yarn samples etc in those very easily. I'm really pleased with the book that I found on Amazon - the paper inside is a good quality as is the cover. The pens aren't new, but I really like using these along with the Waterman fountain pen that my Dad bought me many years ago. It's my absolute favourite to write with. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to make a start on my next pattern. xxx