First week back

Hello, and how are you?

Safe and dry, I hope – the weather this week has been quite wet and wild, the tail end no doubt of Hurricane Irma which has battered the Caribbean and east coast of America.  Whilst a bit of heavy rain here has been nothing compared to what people there are going through, it makes you realise that we are all connected in some way on our small blue planet and we have an obligation to keep it safe so that we can keep all of us safe.  I send my thoughts and prayers to everyone affected by Hurricane Irma and hope that it blows itself out soon.

It’s also the end of the first week back to school for us; this year it’s been the same but different as small daughter has gone to high school and our school runs to the primary school are over.  Am I missing them?  Not at the moment!  Neither is small daughter who has thoroughly enjoyed her first week at high school and is looking forward to next week already.  I have to say that the first morning’s achievement of being up and dressed by 6am wasn’t repeated, but we’ve not had any issues with getting her out of the house on time!

I have to say that actually, I’ve been enjoying the change in routine.  The dog and I are out earlier in the day after I’ve dropped small daughter off at the bus stop (my girl getting the bus – on her own!  It only seems like five minutes since she was in her pram!) and we’ve been exploring the footpaths around Winwick again.  It’s been a while since we’ve walked this way and I’d forgotten just how rural this village that I live in is, despite being just a short distance from two major motorways.

There used to be alpacas in this field with the sheep but I didn’t see any on our last walk so they could have been in another field.

Can you see the church spire in the distance?  I hadn’t realised from quite how far you could see it – we were quite a way away at this point!

Heading back home over a stubbly footpath.  I’ve always liked walking on the stalks that are left after harvesting, I like the way they scrunch under my feet.  The dog met a (doggy) friend at this point and behind me the two of them were charging about, scattering stalks and mud left right and centre – certainly not the calm view that you can see here! 🙂

Also this week, I’m thrilled to see my article in this month’s issue of British Fibre Art magazine.  It’s a magazine aimed at people who work with fibre, so there are lots of articles about spinning and fleece; I feel very honoured as a non-spinner to be featured on the pages!   My article is about knitting socks (no surprises there!) and using hand-spun yarns to knit with – I must confess to not knowing a great deal about knitting with hand-spun yarns but it was really interesting to talk to a few yarny friends who do spin to find out more about it.  There’s another article in the magazine for those who do want to try spinning yarn for socks – and if I had more hours in the day I’d definitely want to give it a go because it seems that there is no end to the blends that you can create to make your own special sock yarns.

 

There’s Yarndale Sock Line news too!  I spent yesterday afternoon with big daughter opening, sorting through and logging all the socks that I have so far.  Big daughter was opening the packets and numbering the pairs of socks whilst I was logging the details.  Every now and again I’d catch her reading the messages on the back of the labels – “this is making me feel really emotional!” she said.  It does, it really does.  All those words of love and hopefulness sent to somebody that none of us will ever meet, and all those loving stitches knitted so carefully into these socks.  It’s a privilege to be able to do this.

The pile grew bigger.

And bigger!  There’s 115 pairs of socks there, believe it or not.  I’m not going to tell you just how many there are in total – I like to save that surprise for after Yarndale when they’ve all been counted – but I will tell you that already last year’s total has been passed and Lucy says there are more socks waiting for me in Skipton.  That’s just stunning, thank you so much!

Thank you also to everyone who has sent me treats, notes, and money towards posting the socks on to their new homes – that’s so very kind of you and they are all much appreciated!  I’ve tried to contact everyone directly but sometimes there were no details for me to do that, so please accept this as my thank you xx

I’ve photographed all of the socks now too, so my next job this weekend is to get them uploaded to the Pinterest board.  Unfortunately, this is the slowest part of the process so do bear with me if you can’t see your socks there yet – as long as I’ve got them they will be going up there, and if I haven’t got them yet I’ll be picking them up very soon.  Any socks that come directly to Yarndale will get photographed after the Yarndale festival.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I’ll catch up with you again next week!

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16 Responses

  1. Shelagh says:

    I'm halfway up the leg of my 2nd sock and hoping to have them finished today or tomorrow 🙂 I had Himself try on the first one, just to check I'd got the sizing right; they were a perfect fit and he was very disappointed that they weren't for him!

    • Winwick Mum says:

      I am quite such that as such a prolific sock knitter, there will be a pair for Himself in the pipeline too! Thanks for knitting for the Yarndale Sock Line, it's really appreciated xx

  2. Caroline says:

    What a wonderful rainbow of colour! A good job well done Christine and Big Daughter.
    The start back to school was a bit wobbly here so I'm pinning hopes on next week being better. These things, like socks, take time!

    • Winwick Mum says:

      Hope it all gets better for you this week at school; that first week is always a tough one and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that things continue to go well once the new school novelty has worn off! xx

  3. Heidijo says:

    I'm glad money is appreciated I wasn't sure if it was okay but put some in anyway,knowing you would put it to good useor donate to charity.

  4. Julie says:

    Fabulous collection knitted for the sock line, I could just reach into the screen and squish them….

  5. Anonymous says:

    Gosh! Can you imagine how many you'll be getting in ten years time. You may have to employ staff! Eilidh x

  6. Anonymous says:

    aaaaargh! Just back from holidays and realised I've missed the date, can I still send them or bring them to Yarndale, or save them till next year? such a scrumptiousness of sockness!

  7. Anonymous says:

    Thank you, so pleased I can still contribute, see you there ;o)

  8. Svetlana says:

    Hello
    I am new to the blog, it was recommended to me thought a yarn shop I often visit. I have leaned to knit socks only recently and now experimenting with different types of yarn. I like king cole zig zag at the moment. Hope to hear more from Winwick mum, it is a lovely blog, thank you, Svetlana

    • Winwick Mum says:

      Hello Svetlana, it's lovely to see you! I'm glad you've discovered socks – I think they're fabulous things to knit! 🙂 xx

  9. Svetlana says:

    Thank you for a lovely blog and ideas!

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