When the universe has your back

Blanket is the Garter Ripple Squish with 3 strands of sock yarn held together

Do you ever have one of those moments/weeks where you just feel a bit overwhelmed? Pulled in so many different directions at once. So many things whirling around in your head that you don’t know where to start?

There are many parallels that I can draw between knitting and tarot (two of my favourite things to do during quiet moments). That’s a blog post for another day, but sometimes - quite a lot in fact - the daily card that I draw has a habit of being uncannily on the nose.

This was the card I drew the other day - the Seven of Wands - which is all about finding courage and inner strength. It’s also a really great reminder to look to yourself for advice and help - not to rely on others for support. To be your own guiding light as it were.

I took this as a signal from the universe to undertake a mass unsubscribe from a ton of business-y type email lists. Things I’d signed up to, to get free worksheets or PDFs. Things that were filling up my inbox with a metric ton of (often contradictory) advice. The ‘must do’s or even worse ‘must not do’s’ were starting to put me on edge and make me doubt myself.

So I spent a happy hour unsubscribing from lists, as well as muting or unfollowing a bunch of accounts on social media that were just getting to be a bit too much. And boy, do I feel better for it.

A good spring clean was just what I needed to freshen up my socials and to give me lots of new ideas and inspiration to follow.

It made me think about the issue of seasonality and social media. I know that the accounts I follow in autumn/winter are perhaps very different from the ones I want to see more of as spring approaches. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing necessarily. All things go through seasons - including ourselves - and so to me it makes sense to have that reflected in my social media feeds.

What do you think? Do you like to see the same things all year round or do you find yourself going through ‘seasons’ too?

5 good reasons to knit socks

There are way more than 5 - obviously - but I was in need of a catchy title.

1. People will think you are really clever. I’m not sure why this is but a lot of people attribute sock knitting to the ‘really hard’ category. No word of a lie, I once had a real-life, actual brain surgeon tell me that she could never knit socks as they were ‘too complicated’. She spent her days doing the most mind-boggling surgical feats with people’s brains for heavens sake. Yet she thought my plain vanilla sock was too hard.

2. Turning a heel is as close as you can get to magic without a wand. The point I made above, notwithstanding there is something a little bit magical about turning a heel. It was always my favourite part of teaching a sock knitting class. The part where you knit backwards and forwards for a bit and suddenly manage to bend your sock tube through 90 degrees. It still delights me even now.

3. You get to knit with all the cool yarn. It’s a well known fact that sock yarn doesn’t count towards your stash. And you can always pick up a 100g/400m skein on impulse at a yarn festival and know, with certainty that you can knit a pair of socks out of it.

4. You’ll always have warm feet - I haven’t worn a pair of commercial socks in years and my feet are eternally grateful.

5. You’ll never fear having to take your shoes off in airports again. My husband travels a lot for work (always in handknit socks) and he’s lost count of the number of times total strangers have approached him in airports or on planes asking where he bought his socks from. Cue the smug ‘spouse of knitter’ expression as he explains that they are unique and not available anywhere else.

As I said above, I could keep going but there are the first 5 that spring to mind. In short sock knitting is just my favourite thing to do (apart from drinking coffee and cuddling my cats). And if you don’t currently knit socks I hope this has inspired you to give them a go.

If you are looking for something to get you started, head to my free patterns page and there you’ll find a free download for both a cuff down sock pattern and a toe-up one as well.

Happy sock knitting

Five things I love about knitting

5 things I love about knitting

The alternative title to this was ‘A love letter to knitting’ and also ‘Knitting lasts longer than friends’

Seriously though I don’t think I’ve ever had a friendship last as long as I have had a relationship with knitting. I’m not one that makes friends easily at the best of times and as a card carrying introvert I often prefer the company of my needles to others.

I do love a good catch up with friends over coffee, don’t get me wrong but I’ve never been great at maintaining friendships over time, as people and circumstances change.

Over the years I have often felt as though is a bit of a character flaw of mine - the fact that, unlike others I’m not in touch with any of my childhood friends, or people I was at Uni with, or worked with in various jobs and places over the years. But it took the pandemic for me to realise that actually, I’m OK with that.

The people around us and friendships that arise from that are constantly changing and evolving - and that’s probably a good thing.

Goodness me, that got a bit deep didn’t it? This was intended to be a light hearted look at why knitting holds such a firm place in my heart. So in that spirit and with tongue firmly in cheek may I present

5 things I love about knitting:

1. Knitting doesn’t demand that you make conversation with it

2. You can ignore it for months at a time and it won’t sulk

3. Knitting will forgive you if you shout at it

4. Knitting will do it’s level best to stretch to accommodate your needs

5. Knitting will always be there for you, no matter what

What about you - what do you love about knitting that you can’t get from others? Do let me know in the comments.

Two different mitered square decreases

A mitered square over an even number of stitches (left) vs one with an odd number (right)

Everyone loves the look of a mitered square blanket but one of the most common questions is around which decrease to use to create the distinctive mitered square look.

There are several different options available for how to knit a mitered square but they fall into two camps - those worked over an even number of stitches and those that use an odd number.

Even number of stitches: These have a marker at the centre point and an even number of stitches either side (32 sts in total in my example above). On each RS row the square is worked:

K to 2 sts before m, ssk, sm, k2tog, K to end.

The WS row is knit all the way across.

This creates a fairly broad ridge up the centre of the mitered square. It’s simple and easy to remember but some people are looking for a narrower, more defined ‘spine’ to their work.

Odd number of stitches: These squares have a central marked stitch with an even number of stitches on either side of that stitch. In my example above the 2 sides have 16 sts, with a central stitch (33 in total).

In this case the spine is formed by creating a central double decrease (CDD) - decreasing by 2 sts at the central point:

K to 1 st before central marked st, sl 1, k2tog, pass slipped st over the k2tog just worked (psso), K to end.

There are number of different ways to work a CDD - I have just given one option here - but the principle is always the same. You knit to 1 st before the central stitch then do a double decrease.

It gives a neat, defined line up the centre of the stitch which some people prefer.

I love the look of the CDD but I have an irrational dislike of actually carrying out the decrease itself. It’s always advisable to mark the central stitch in some way (I use a little bulb pin) but every time you do the CDD you need to move the marker up to make sure you do the CDD in the correct place on the next RS row.

Every time that I get lazy and think I’ll remember where the CDD goes - I forget. It’s OK when you are paying close attention but it only takes a momentary lapse and suddenly your nice straight spine looks more like a dogs hind leg.

For this reason |I always prefer to do my mitered squares over an even number of stitches - you always know where you are with a paired ssk/k2tog decrease.

But, as with everything it’s worth experimenting and seeing which decrease you prefer. Do you have a favourite? Let me know in the comments below.

OTHER BLOG POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE:

Tips for a straight-edged mitered square blanket

How much yarn do you need for a mitered square?

How to Knit a Mitered Square Blanket

£7.50

Top tips for faster knitting

I originally wrote about this in 2017, but I thought it was time to revisit the topic of faster knitting. A lot of people comment that I must knit very quickly in order to be able to churn out the projects that I do. Having seen other, very accomplished knitters in action I have to say that I’m pretty slow in comparison.

What I do however, is short bursts of very focused knitting where I can power through quite a lot in a short space of time. The other thing that I do is to take my knitting everywhere - and I mean everywhere - so that if I find myself with an unexpected wait somewhere I can whip the needles out and get a few rounds in. It’s amazing how much those little moments accumulate throughout the day.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I do love a good meditative knit sometimes and not every project knits to be rushed off the needles. But as deadlines loom or a loved ones birthday approaches there are always those times where a bit of power knitting is called for. If you’ve ever wondered how to knit faster I hope that these few simple tips will help.

Top tips for faster knitting:

1. Use super slick and shiny needles: As slick as you can get away with without your stitches flying off the needles. I like Addi Turbos in particular for lots of stocking stitch. The points aren't the sharpest but they really are super speedy.

2. Front load your stitches: Scoot as many stitches as you can to the tip of your left hand needle. That way you don't have to pull the next stitch to the top of the needle - it will already be there.

3. Knit at the tips: Knit each stitch right at the tip of the left hand needle - but be sure to wrap the yarn fully around the wider part of the right hand needle as this is what determines the tightness of each stitch.

4. Set your timer for 10 minutes. Eyes down and why not see how much you can knit when you really put your mind to it.

When is a skein not a skein

When is a skein not a skein? A chance conversation with an online pal lead to a very confusing "crossed wires" situation.
I'd shared some advice for new knitters (in my last post) about not trying to knit direct from a skein but to wind it first.

She responded that she always knits direct from the skein. And I wondered how on earth she ever left the house.

I turns out that we were talking about 2 completely different things. To me, a skein (let's not get into pronunciation 😂) is a tightly twisted length of yarn as in the picture.

But to my friend, this is a hank. She refers to the kind of fat ball (swipe left) that sits neatly on a shelf as a skein - hence the confusion.

Partly it might be a geographical thing I guess. I've only ever heard hank refer to rope - or embroidery thread.

But it was a timely lesson to remember, especially for newer knitters, to always be clear exactly what you are referring to. And not to assume anything.

So what would you call this?
Skein or hank? Let me know in the comments