It’s that time of year …

⭐️   It’s that time of year …. to break out in to break out into cheesy musical songs about chimney sweeps …

Our sweep doesn’t sing or dance, though.  I did ask him and he said he no.  He doesn’t do weddings either.  Instead, we guessed how far out of the chimney the brush would be (it’s always bit of a guess as to how many poles to push up there), had a really good discussion about renewable energy and decided that burning the chimney cleaning logs (paid link) about two months before the chimney was swept made a really big difference to the amount of soot that came down.

 

⭐️   It’s that time of year …. to remember that Winter isn’t over …

It was a peculiar frost that we had the other morning.  Some plants were covered in what I think of as “proper” frost, but others had frosty droplets clinging to their leaves – and the plants were right next to each other so it’s not like they were in different parts of the garden so more sheltered.  Just one frosty morning out of a wet and windy week.  Strange, eh?

 

⭐️   It’s that time of year …. to appreciate clear skies!

Oh, it was so lovely to see blue skies and wispy clouds when the dog and I went out!  We’re back to mostly grey skies and mizzly, drizzly weather at the moment so any sunshine at all is gloriously welcomed!

 

⭐️   It’s that time of year …. to drink in all the reflections …

I love the reflection of the trees in the water.  The photo at the top with the single bronze-leaved tree reminds me of one of those black and white photos with a red telephone box in it (paid link – but it’s just so you can see!).  Can you see the water steaming in that photo?  It’s quite hard to capture with my phone but it always looks eerie, especially if there’s nothing but the sound of birds around.

Even the dog was taken by the reflections – he was teetering on the edge more than once as if he thought the water was solid enough to walk on, but luckily he didn’t try it out.

I think the last photo is my favourite.  All those colours, the vapour trail reflected in the water and even the reflections in the puddle.  There’s something to see everywhere.

 

⭐️   It’s that time of year …. to try something new!

Can you guess what this is?  It was a gift from Sheepers who contacted me through Instagram (thank you very much, Sheepers!).  I must admit that I had never heard of them before but I’m always interested in something new, especially with sheep in the name!

This is what’s called a Slipkit and is a do-it-yourself mule slipper kit.  I do wear slippers (I call them baffies 🙂 ) around the house to protect my lovely hand knit socks – well, Crocs these days as I wear them in and out of the house and you don’t wear your baffies outside – but there’s a story to the Sheepers slippers and I couldn’t resist!

The Sheepers company was started by Nicola Skowronek in 2015 after she decided to design her own pair of Polish Moccasin slippers based on a traditional pair that her Dad had bought for her.  Nicola wanted to continue the tradition of slippers made by the Gorale who are a community who live in the mountains in Poland.  By working with the Gorale, Sheepers has provided an opportunity for a traditional craft to be continued whilst making sure that the people making the slippers are paid a fair wage and that there is minimal waste as the slippers are made from offcuts from other farming methods.  You can read more about the Sheepers story here.

I am all in favour of companies that support work in a local area (look no further than my favourite yarn company!) and I didn’t have to think very hard about whether I wanted to have a go at making my own pair of slippers and telling you about it!

In the kit box are two pre-made slipper bases (you choose your own size), two upper pieces (they are the black shapes at the bottom of the photo) which have been pre-punched so that I can embroider them with the coloured yarn.  There are two blue fluffy pieces which will go around the top of the slippers, and thread and tape for sewing them together.

I love the cardboard flowers with the thread wrapped around them!

There are step-by-step instructions and apparently I’ll have my own pair of Sheepers slippers in 2-3 hours.  I will let you know how I get on!

 

⭐️   It’s that time of year …. to not give up your hat just yet!

It’s take a while but my Variance Hat is finally blocking!  Not so small daughter blew up a balloon for me and was rather too gleeful about how a balloon was the same size as my head (“but it’s so small!”).  I told her that it was still full of brains and not to be so disrespectful to her mother 🙂

I’ve still got to line it once it’s dry and I think that’s really the reason why I’ve been putting it off – not the actual lining but the thought of cutting into the fabric to do it.  I’ve got a horror of doing it wrong and wasting material, but I should just get on with it because I’m sure it won’t be as bad as I think.

 

⭐️   It’s that time of year …. to buy yarn for socks that you don’t need but can’t walk past in the yarn shop! 🙂

This is a brand new yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners called Elements.  I had spotted it on WYS social media and when I met my friend Lindsay from Making Stitches podcast at Black Sheep Wools for a brew yesterday, I wanted to see if they had it in stock.  And they do!

It’s a double knit yarn and what caught my eye about it is that it’s a wool and Lyocell blend.  That may not sound like anything familiar, but it set off my no-nylon sock yarn radar as Lyocell is made from wood pulp – usually eucalyptus but sometimes oak, birch or bamboo … and my longest-lasting pair of no-nylon socks was made from a wool/bamboo blend that I bought from The Yarn Badger.  The Elements yarn is the same make-up as the Heartspun 4ply yarn that I used for my Changing Staircases shawl during Blogtober – and I originally bought that to try out for socks so I thought that I would give this a go.  It’s got the most beautiful shine to it and it’s lovely and soft to touch.  It’s made with Falklands Island wool which dyes incredibly well, and meant that I had quite a job choosing which of the soft pastel shades that are available were coming home with me.  In the end, I chose four colours as I like the idea of contrast heels and toes, and the yarn comes with a free pattern by designer Sarah Hatton too.  There is another pattern book to go with the yarn with more designs by Sarah Hatton and also Chloe Elizabeth Birch – they’re all very lovely – but my mind is set on socks!

I don’t expect that the socks will last as long as my sock yarn ones with nylon in them, but I am going to enjoy knitting them and wearing them for as long as I can 🙂

 

⭐️   It’s that time of year … in fact, any time of year is a good time for this really … to say thank you to you for being here and for your comments on my posts – I do love that we can chat in this way! 🙂

 

Oh – I almost forgot to tell you!  That video I was making last week?  Well, I finally finished it and it’s up on YouTube now.  It’s an introduction to the Sockalong tutorials as I thought that might be helpful for people who had only recently discovered my blog and the tutorials and might have wondered why they are a bit different to other sock knitting tutorials that you can find online.  You can see it on YouTube here if you’d like to 🙂 :

 

I hope you have a lovely weekend! xx