Embrace imperfection

This week's Tuesday Tip is less of a tip and more of a mindset shift, and it's around the idea of perfection.

If I could offer knitters - both new and old - one piece of advice it would be to let go of the idea of your handknits being perfect. If we want something to be perfect and to look as though we bought it in a shop we can just go ahead and buy it.

Machines make the same thing, in the same way each time. They churn out endless, identical items untroubled by fatigue, emotion or thoughts and feelings.

Human beings aren't like that and thank goodness.

Think about it in terms of an average adult sized sweater. It will contain 1000s of stitches all of which you have created perfectly. There might be a couple of stitches that aren't - why on earth would you chose to focus on the 1 stitch that's wrong, rather than give yourself credit for the 1000s and 1000s that are absolutely perfect?

Embrace imperfection - life's way too short to focus on the tiny imperfections, especially as they are the things that show our humanity.

I'm now on Substack

It’s been a long while coming. I think I created an account on Substack nearly two years ago - and then promptly sat on my hands and did nothing with it.

But, something about the shifting seasons, the coming of spring and - let’s be honest - the dire state of Twitter right now - has made me dust it off and read all those articles explaining what Substack is and why I should be using it.

My regular weekly newsletter isn’t going anywhere, please don’t worry. But that newsletter, while I love it, is pretty much focused on yarn and knitting with the odd snippet of ‘other stuff’ thrown in there for good measure.

With my Substack I want to do something a little bit different. There will still be knitting and yarn - obviously - but I want to explore some of the other aspects of my online and real life. We are all made up of many parts and have varied interests and I’d like to be able to write about all the aspects of my life. Not just the woolly bits.

My first post goes up today, so please do pop over and check it out. And if you’d like to subscribe, posts will go directly to your inbox so you don’t have to search for them or worry about missing them.

Two ways to a neater ssk

A short and sweet tip for you this week. If you find that your ssk stitches look a little loose or distorted this is for you.

SSK is the abbreviation for a left-leaning decrease. Two stitches are slipped knit wise, separately to the right hand needle, then are knit together. This introduces a twist into the stitch though, which can be irksome and stand out a little in the finished piece.

Alternative 1: Slip the 1st stitch knit wise and the 2nd stitch purl wise, then knit them both together.

Alternative 2: Work the ssk as normal but on the next row purl through the back loop (or ktbl if working in the round)

Both of these methods help to untwist the stitch and produce an ssk which lies flatter in the finished work.

Anything you'd like me to cover in this series? Please let me know in the comments.

Where the magic happens

It was a long time coming, but this past weekend I finally got to go to an in-person yarn show. My first in over three years, since Covid intervened and overturned everything.

And oh my goodness, was it worth it. A really well organised show - thanks to Laura (aka The Lonely Knitter) - the East Anglia Yarn Festival, Norwich was a real treat to attend. There was plenty of space, stalls were thoughtfully set out and loads of seating too.

I did set out with a bit of a shopping list - the grey yarns from The Little Grey Girl are for a Love Note sweater, and the set of browns/speckles from Lay Family Yarn is destined for a colourwork sweater. The rest were all pure impulse purchases - and very happy ones at that.

Whilst the shopping and yarn squishing was fun by far the best bit was being able to chat to people. Real live people.

It was lovely to catch up with old friends but I was also able to talk to people who previously I had only ever chatted to online. It’s quite bizarre really when you think of it. Some of these people I feel as though I know really well, we chat online most days, certainly most weeks and I share things with them that I probably might not even tell my family. But until now our entire relationship had been via my phone.

Very odd. But the perfect testament to the positive, powerful upside of social media. It’s easy to focus on the negatives, but without social media I wouldn’t have known any of these people at all - I wouldn’t even have known there was a yarn show going on in the first place!.

And there’s the energy! I had quote forgotten the buzz and the excitement of a yarn show. So many yarny folk packed into one space creates their very own hum of activity. It’s impossible not to survey the hall, stuffed full of woolly goodness and not smile.

It’s such a joyful experience. Chatting to vendors it seemed that for a lot of the visitors it was their first ever yarn show experience - partly a reflection of the fact that many people either took up knitting or returned to it during the pandemic.

If you haven’t yet been to a yarn show I would urge you to have a go. There is a comprehensive list here - do have a look and see if there is one near you.

Start small - maybe leave the huge shows until you are a bit more confident - and also check out my top tips for attending a yarn show that I shared over on my Instagram account. And if you are hesitant maybe rope in a friend to come with you, that way you’ll always have someone to chat to and to help with those all important yarny decisions.

5 top tips for travel knitting

The dedicated knitter will invariably want to maximise their knitting time by knitting 'on the go'. Whether you have a 10 hr flight or a 10 min doctors wait - it pays to be prepared.

1. Always take a photo or a screenshot of your pattern. Just in case you lose your paper copy or you don't have wifi to access your digital one.

2. Don't risk scissors getting lost, confiscated or damaging your bag. Use tiny Hiya Hiya snips or - my favourite - the cutter on a little pack of dental floss.

3. Always have a small notebook and pen/pencil in case of ad hoc pattern adjustments. Relying on memory alone is a bold move.

4. Keep a small notions case/tin in your handbag or project bag. You never know when you'll need an emergency stitch marker - a bulb pin can catch a dropped stitch until you can rectify it later.

5. Finally - consider stowing an emergency ball (ready wound) of sock yarn and DPNs in your car's glove compartment. I do this ever since I was stuck sans-knitting on the M11 for 5 hours.

Any top travel tips? Do let me know in the comments.

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The Slipstream Socks

Slipstream Socks - link to purchase

These toe-up socks were originally published as the Socially Distant Socks two years ago, at the height of the Covid epidemic when no social gathering was complete without the words ‘socially distanced of course’.

Times have moved on and although I loved the socks, I didn’t like the name and the reminder of some very difficult times. I was also unhappy with a little aspect of the stitch design so I took the opportunity to re-work them and also rename them at the same time.

They are now the Slipstream Socks - because with these regular stitches they really do slip quickly off the needles, and the regular smooth ridges really reminded me of the patterns that water makes as it smoothly slides around obstacles in it’s way.

The yarn is the beautiful Eden Cottage Yarns Brimham 4ply in the Pumpkin Seeds colourway