Plain feet and party legs

The phrase ‘plain feet and party legs’ has been going around in my head for weeks now, for some reason. And as I cast on for a nice soothing pair of self stripe socks I found myself thinking about jazzing them up a little. Not too much mind - we don’t want to go wild- but just a little something to make them a little more party-like.

And so I came up with the Introverts Party Socks - a nice plain foot to cruise along and then a slightly jazzier cuff with a single chevron front and back to help show off those colourful stripes. Slightly bolder introverts could always run the chevron along the length of the foot as well if feeling sufficiently brave.

Like all the best ideas this was spontaneous and totally unplanned. So many folk have asked about a pattern though that I thought I could run this as an informal (and free KAL) over on my Instagram and of course, here. Please bear in mind though that this has not yet been through my usual testing/editing process so a few errors may linger here and there.

I will be making this available as a paid for pattern on Ravelry in due course, but for now if you’d like to join in our quietly festive, Introverts Party Socks KAL then please watch this space for updates or follow me over on Instagram.

The season of giving

I’m doing an advent sale this year but a little differently. I’m aiming to keep it as relaxed and fuss free as possible. I’ve created a sale bundle on Ravelry and each day until Dec 12th I’ll be adding a new design of mine into the bundle.

Each design in the bundle will be half price and they will stay there until Dec 13th - so you can buy as many as you wish, all at 50% off.

I know that at this time of year a lot of people like to do little random acts of kindness - often by gifting Ravelry patterns, but at the minute there is no way to apply a coupon code to a gift purchase.

With that in mind I decided to make anything in my advent sale bundle automatically half price - with no need for faffing.

So please do take a look, and pop back during the next few days to see what other treats are added. There’s no limit to how many purchases you can make so you could buy something for yourself and for a friend.

It's Indie GAL time again

Louise Tilbrook Designs

I’m not entirely sure but I think this is my 4th time, taking part in the chaos, the fun and the sheer exuberance that is the Ravelry Indie Giftalong. Almost 300 knitters have come together to offer a 25% discount on a selected range of their patterns in a week long sale, designed to give your holiday knitting a boost.

The sale starts on 26th Nov, 3pm UK time and ends on Dec 2nd but the fun continues long after that in the Ravelry group. There are competitions, chances to win prizes, and more chatter than you can possibly keep up with. To me, it sums up the fantastic, woolly knitting community that we are lucky enough to be a part of. This year there is also an Instagram challenge running - look for @indiegiftalong and also follow the hashtags #indiegiftalong and #gal2019 for more details.

You can find all the participating designers and chat on the GAL Group

You can find my sale bundle here

Hope to see you there? Once all the chat kicks off it’s a busy group but you can usually find me somewhere plodding along in the slow lane thread and making plans to knit All The Things.

Boundaries and putting yourself first

It’s been a busy and exciting week as I launched my new knit-along - the Boundaries Blanket KAL and the dedicated facebook group has been humming as we have all been discussing yarn choices, colours and of course, a few personal boundaries.

Week 1 went out on Wednesday (20th Nov) and as it’s going to be a relaxed bi-weekly KAL there’s still plenty of time to join in if you wanted to (you can find the pattern here). I know that some people have signed up but intend to save the patterns and make a start on them in that lovely relaxed Twixtmas period between Christmas and New Year, which seems like a fine plan to me.

I’ve been really encouraged by the positive response to the KAL and so many people have taken the trouble to get in touch and say how much it has resonated with them. One theme that has struck me throughout these comments is the number of people saying that either they don’t usually do KALs, or that once joined they rarely stick to them.

And it dawned on me - as indeed it had dawned on some of those who contacted me that this is just another example of where boundaries can be drawn. All too often we allow ourselves to put aside what we really want to work on, in favour of something for someone else. Whether it’s a birthday gift for a friend that we think we ‘have to’ knit, or a pair of socks for that relative that we just can’t say no to. 

Even though we might be happy to oblige, there’s often a small part us, tucked away that feels secretly resentful or, at the very least it feels neglected and not listened too.

By doing the opposite, picking a project that we really want to work on. Picking something that really speaks to us - whether it’s the yarn, the colour or the rhythmic pattern what we are really doing is putting ourselves first. Telling that small part of us that we really do matter - as much as, if not more than the cold footed uncle who would really like some socks. 

Of course, it’s nice to knit for others but it’s so easy to fall into the guilt trap of only knitting for others, or somehow feeling guilty for knitting for ourselves - but that’s a topic for a whole other blog post.

For now, why not just grab a favourite beverage, your yarn and needles and relax - making something just for you. At the risk of sounding like a cliched cosmetic advert - you really are worth it.

Boundaries - and a new KAL

It’s an odd start to a knitting post to be talking about Boundaries, but please bear with me. I promise it will make sense soon.

It’s only in recent years that I’ve started to learn about boundaries - what they are and why we need them. mainly because I didn’t have any. I would say yes to everyone who asked (regardless of what else I had to do) and always put my own needs and wants last - the joys of being a born people-pleaser. The upshot of course that when you don’t have firm boundaries, you end up running around in ever decreasing circles and getting increasingly stressed.

In the last year or two I've started to learn about boundaries and how to implement them in my daily life to protect my energy, my time and my mental health. My favourite one so far is saying no to things I don't want to do - rather than soldiering on with a sense of weary martyrdom.

In my knitting life - inbetween projects I’ve been working on a series of blanket squares. Each one with a different stitch pattern. Originally I was swatching for a few new projects but the idea sort of got away from me and became a project of it’s very own. Each square has a seed stitch border - a boundary of sorts - and that got me thinking…

As I've been knitting each square I've been thinking about boundaries and how I can use them to help improve my mental health and the idea started to form for a KAL.

Each week, a new blanket square. A stitch pattern and a suggestion for a boundary or self care practice you might like to try in your own day to day. They would add up to a 12 square (4 by 3) lap blanket and some handy self-care tools to have up your sleeve for tricky days.

The pattern will be going on sale later in the week - with the pre-KAL information and a provisional start date of Wed 20th November, but I'd love to know what you think of this so far? Feedback so far has been that a biweekly KAL might be more achievable - without the pressure of a weekly update and I’d love to know how you feel about that.

Either way, watch this space, or make sure you are signed up to my newsletter so you’ll the the first to know when it goes on sale.

Revisiting old patterns - old friends

Do you ever knit a pattern more than once? Do you have an old favourite that you like to knit over and again or are you of the ‘so many patterns, so little time’ school of thought.

I usually waver in the direction of the latter. Between designs and knitting for myself and family I rarely have the time or the inclination to revisit old patterns. But just recently i found myself doing just that.

I had a lovely skein of self stripe - this is Witchy from London House Yarns - and i wanted to knit something just a little bit more complex than a plain vanilla sock. But not too complex that I’d take the emphasis away from the lovely seasonal colours. Then I remembered an old design of mine and thought it would be fun to re-knit it.

The Expresso sock was named, partly because the original colourway was Cafe au Lait (from the now no-longer-dyeing Berry Colorful Yarnings). That made me think of coffee and the habit my lovely Nana had of referring to an Espresso as an Expresso. In her mind it was an Expresso and nothing would dissuade her. That seemed apt, as this combination of infrequent cables really made the sock zip along - adding to the self stripe fun.

Do stripy socks really go faster? I’m not sure but all I can say is that I cast this on just to do the toe yesterday - and despite my best intentions to finish a sweater WIP I’m already at the heel.

And just for fun - this pattern will be free until midnight Wednesday Oct 23rd (GMT).

Just use code EXPRESSO