Knitting to keep us warm and to develop ideas.

This week, the weather has had a sharp turn from really quite warm to really quite cold, in fact bitterly cold.

On Monday I reached for my stash Buster neck warmer and here I am on my bike going to the gym at 6:30 in the morning for a 7 am Body Balance class. I love Body Balance class on a Monday morning –  it starts the week in the right way but getting there on these days in the pitch dark and freezing cold with sleet or lashing rain, on a tiny wheeled bike is a bit tough.

I designed the Stash Buster neck warmer in September 2023. You can see a link here for a blog on the making and designing of it. At the beginning of the process,  I decided to chart out lots of Fair Isle patterns in my design sketch book on graph paper using the OXO motifs in different colours which means that the neck warmer is constructed in an intarsia way where each block has its own set of colours.

I have had a lot of new followers on instagram, and since I have been wearing the neck warmer again, there has been a small revival and interest in this pattern.  so I want to say thank you for supporting me.

This week, on Tuesday evening, it was our crafting night at a local café in Nether Edge which has a huge wood burner inside. The cafe is a small room full of wonky tables, lots of chairs, a large fish tank and lots of plants and friendly people.  This cafe is very comfortable in more ways than one – it is open- hearted and totally inclusive.

It is the best café in Sheffield and maybe Yorkshire so if you’re in the area check it out it’s called Café9 and you will always receive a great welcome

Next Friday, I will be flying to Tokyo. This week I’ve been sorting the last small details and meeting people who are going to look after my cat and come and live in my flat over the time that I’m away. 

This afternoon I showed a new friend, that I met through Instagram, all the things in the flat and how they work for when she comes to stay. I wrote a cat and flat manual. This evening, I pondered how Instagram is quite a marvellous platform for joining people up.  I have met so many brilliant women through my Instagram feed – either they’ve got in touch with me or I’ve got in touch with them and over time, we have built up longstanding friendships.

I’ll be taking quite a few of my making ideas to Japan. I’ve decided to take my Tree and Star sleeves to Fuji,  because I have an idea that I’d quite like to add them to a jacket that I’ll make using flea market kimonos.  I’ll take the kimono to pieces and reuse and reshape the pieces in different ways to make a jacket body  – this is one of my ideas –  I have a lot of ideas and I don’t know if any of them will come to full fruition but I am so looking forward to having one month in Fujiyoshida to just be – think, write, observe, sit quietly and notice the details. 

 I am excited to be taking the sleeves, because I know that they can be knitted into to any number of things such as on to a previously knitted vest or as I hope to do, added to a fabric body or as add-ons to the kaleidoscope jumper.

When I begin to be free with my creativity, more and more ideas come.  Ideas to create things that I had not thought of before.

I was asked on Instagram today, if I could post works in progress so, above is an image of both of my Tree and Star sleeves using colours from my stash.

If you would like to knit the sleeves yourself, to add to other projects, or to add to your Kaliedoscop jumper the pattern is here

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tree-and-star-sleeve

I post work in progress on Instagram here – I love instagram for images.