Long overdue

Hello, hello, I hope you’ve had a lovely week!  It’s been a bit cooler in the UK this week and we’ve even had some rain – the water butts are full again now, although the grass is still looking a bit worse for wear.  There are thunder storms forecast this weekend so what better thing to do than stay in and read my blog post about long overdue things I should have told you about! 🤣

One of the things that I always have on my blog dashboard is a draft post with a list of things that I want to talk to you about.  I’ve tried making lists for this elsewhere but for some reason, it seems to work best for me if I create it as a blog post and then I can just start writing with the list right in front of me … and the list on this particular post is quite a long one as it goes back to May!  Are you ready?  I need to warn you now that I’ve finished writing that this has ended up a bit of a long post as well as long overdue one, so you might want to get a brew before you start reading …

but before I launch in, I want to say thank you to everyone who used my link to buy Scubl boxes after my review last week.  I’ve been seeing lots of Facebook posts and comments about them arriving already and I am thrilled that you think they’re as useful as I do!

Now, back to this very long, long overdue post!

💜  Winwick Mum Sockalong 10th birthday

Doesn’t the beginning of May seem like a long time ago?  This was such a big event for me and I was working behind the scenes for weeks to get 10 days’ worth of giveaway prizes, blog posts and social media posts all lined up at the right time – and I was so glad that I had put in the effort as I really felt that I’d done the blog and the Sockalong tutorials proud.  There won’t be another 10th birthday – although there will definitely be more Sockalong birthdays as I am not planning to stop encouraging the world to knit socks any time soon – so I wanted to feel that I had done what I could to celebrate properly.

I also said on the birthday post that I would be creating a map of where everyone who left me a comment was in the world.  I’ve done that – and look how amazing this is!

I had to create a file of where all the comments came from so that they would upload – please be assured that I didn’t use any personal address info and I’ve tended to be quite vague so often I would just write “Manchester” or “Florida” instead of trying to get too specific.  I think it’s enough for us to see the general area – and we can see that there really are Sockalongers all over the world!

I did write a second birthday post which had the names of the giveaway prize winners for people to check, and also a running total of pairs of socks that have been knitted since May 2024 – by the end of the giveaway days the total was 27,713 pairs of socks – and as I was encouraging people to cast on to celebrate the birthday, I’ve already got another hundred or so pairs to add to next year’s total!

My point in writing about the Sockalong birthday again is to say thank you.  I know not everyone will have gone back to read the giveaway results posts so this is me thanking you for being here, for being in the Facebook groups, for telling other people about Winwick Mum and the Basic 4ply Socks pattern and the Sockalong tutorials, for sharing your posts on social media – and for generally being an amazing support and the absolute reason why I keep on writing the blog and designing patterns ❤️

💜  My Sockalong birthday socks

As well as encouraging everyone else to cast on a new pair of socks for the Sockalong birthday, I cast on a pair myself too!  Of course they were purple …

This yarn is a hand-dyed skein from Bellwether Yarns and the shade is Purple Rain.  A bellwether is the sheep that leads the flock, with a bell around its neck, did you know that?  Anyway, this photo is taken overlooking Lake Coniston in the Lake District where big daughter was hosting her yoga retreat for this year.  We’ve been to this beautiful house a few years on the run now and we’ve always been lucky with the weather – but this weekend was the best of them all.  Big daughter’s boyfriend and I work as the retreat crew for the weekend and this year, we must have finally got ourselves super-organised as there seemed to be plenty of time to sit in the sunshine.  This was early in the morning whilst the first yoga class was underway before breakfast, and this was absolutely my favourite time of day.  I’ve taken lots of photos as this year, for the first time, I had the time to walk down to the lake at sunset and it was stunning – I’ll write a separate post about it but I wanted to show you my birthday socks.

I’ve finished them now but can’t find them to photograph – I put them away safely rather than in my sock drawer – so I’ll have to show you another day!

💜  Ginger Pink yarn socks

Here’s a photo of socks that I do have!  I finished another pair of socks in May and I posted a photo on Instagram but didn’t show you on the blog – I finished them just after the Sockalong birthday so I’ll have been caught up in the giveaway days and then I ended up having a bit of a break, so I’ll show you now! 🙂

These socks were knitted with Ginger Pink sock yarn that Kerry from Ginger Pink very kindly sent me.  You can read more about the yarn in this post, but I can tell you that it’s been hand-dyed with plant-based yarns – the gold is apple tree leaves and the grey is a natural grey colour.

It only seemed right to photograph the socks in our apple tree …

I’m very pleased with the way they’ve turned out and I’m going to look forward to wearing them when the weather turns cooler again.

💜  Ryegrass Socks

I released my Ryegrass Socks pattern in May – well, it was a first release for me as this pattern was originally published in a magazine back in 2020 when the first Winwick Mum yarn collection came out, but for those who saw it in the magazine when it came out, it was a re-release.

This was a re-written and updated version of the pattern; I know that lots of people still have the magazine version but that was written in their house style and I wanted a version of it in my own Winwick Mum style.  It’s been a long time coming!  Anyway, I wanted to say a belated thank you again to everyone who bought a copy of the pattern as it was released around the time of the Sockalong birthday and as I’ve mentioned, it was all a bit busy!

I’ve started my own pair of Ryegrass socks as I don’t wear the pairs that I create for patterns in case I want to photograph them again in the future, and I do love this pattern.  I took my sock with me on the train to London when I went to the Chelsea Flower Show – and yes, I still have a blog post to write about that too! – and it was just what I needed for my ideal train-knitting experience.  Not too complicated, quick to grow and fun to watch as the colours changed.

I’ve finished the first sock now and here it is.  The yarns I’ve been working with are Yarnsmiths Merino Sock and a single 50g ball of Regia 4ply sock yarn that I found in my stash.  I have no idea why I bought one single ball of this – I suspect it was all that was left on the shelf and I thought I would put it with a contrast.  Ryegrass socks need two yarns that are complimentary but not too close in colour as you only knit with one yarn at a time as they’re mosaic socks, but you pull the yarn from the round below so if the colours are too close to each other, you lose the contrast rather than seeing it stand out as you would with contrast heels and toes.  These two yarns work very well as the Regia has purple in it but it’s not the same shade as the Yarnsmiths, and I love the way it’s all knitting up!

I also promised when the pattern came out that I would show you more of the colourways that my test knitters chose, so they are!

L-R top: Angela, Jane, Heather; bottom: Julia, Karan, Margaret

L-R top: Ann, @knitting_gardener, Sue; bottom: Jane, James, Sue

And I wanted to show you this photo too … Sarah has a copy of my Project Super Socks notebook and I love the way she uses it for all of her socks – this was absolutely my idea behind creating this, and it makes me so happy to see her social media posts! 🙂

Source: @sarahs_sockknitting

💜  DIY yarn Advent calendar

Still on the subject of yarn but not something that I have created, is a DIY yarn Advent calendar.  My lovely friend Lynne of Knit Crochet Create has an encyclopaedic knowledge of knitting and crochet – and a stash to match! 🤣  We were into the 10 days of Sockalong birthday giveaways when she posted on her blog about creating your own yarn Advent calendar, which is perfect for those who might not want or be able to buy one of the calendars produced by hand-dyers which were on sale over the last month or so.  I didn’t want to forget to tell you about it even though it might seem odd to be writing about Advent calendars in July!

Hand-dyed Advent calendars are quite the thing nowadays and if you’re on social media then you might have seen more than a fewposts from dyers as opened their waiting lists, but if you missed that and you’ve got yarn in your stash that you could use to make your own, you’re all set!

I love to look at the images of the mood boards for the Advent calendars but I’ve never bought one for myself as I’ve never been quite sure what I was going to do with the yarn when I’d got it.  Lynne’s idea is to make your own and her blog post has all the information you need, right down to tags and printables so that you’ve got proper little gifts to open each day.  The idea of doing it now is that you’ll have forgotten what you’ve parcelled up for yourself (or someone else, as this would make a great present!), and whilst she gives instructions on making smaller 20g skeins like the indie dyers, there’s no reason at all why you can’t gift yourself any size of yarn ball or skein out of your stash.

If you fancy giving it a go, or even just reading Lynne’s post to see how it all works, just click this link to get through to her blog:  Make your own yarn Advent calendar

Finally for today, this was also on my list … not yarn and not even particularly fun – but definitely very important!

💜  NHS screening services

Earlier this year, I got a letter inviting me to go for a mammogram.  It gave me a date and a time so I put it on the calendar – I had to move something else on that day, but breast screening is important so I did that.  Our health should be a priority!  On the day, I drove to the health centre which was surprisingly quiet, followed the signs to the breast screening department, and prepared to sit and wait.  I had my Emergency Sock with me (actually, my 10th birthday sock), so it wasn’t a problem.

The waiting room was empty and when I walked it, the four members of staff looked up at me as if I had got lost and wandered into the wrong room.  Very strange!  When I explained why I was there, they were delighted.  “Where would you like me sit?” I asked with a grin, indicating the empty waiting room.  “Oh, no waiting,” one of the mammographers said to me, “Come straight through!”.

Now, if you’ve ever been for a mammogram appointment then you’ll know that it’s not very dignified and if you ask any woman what her ideal day would look like, I suspect that nobody would choose to be in a hospital room with their top off whilst x-rays of your boobs are taken from various angles.  For some people, it’s even a bit painful – but the whole experience is maybe 30 minutes of your life and it might be the 30 minutes that will save your life.

With that in mind, are you surprised that the waiting room was empty?

I was, and I asked the mammographer about it.  It turns out that she and her colleagues spend a lot of their time waiting for people to turn up.  Of course, there will be people who genuinely forget, or there’s been an emergency and they can’t go, but an awful lot of people just ignore the letter and that’s such a shame.

I was looking for evidence to back up what I’m writing and in the end, I asked ChatGPT for a summary.  This is what it came up with:

See below for references.

That’s a lot of people who didn’t turn up for whatever reason, isn’t it?  “I do understand why they might not come,” said the mammographer – and as you might imagine, the top fears are of finding something that you didn’t know you had, worries about it being painful, and embarrassment about having to take your top off – “but we might just save their life if they do.”

I can honestly say that the mammographer I saw was friendly, helpful and very respectful.  At no point when I was talking to her did I notice that she was looking anywhere except my face, and she knew exactly what she was doing so there was no faffing about whilst she was getting me to the right position.  This is her job, after all; she sees boobs every day and they all pretty much look the same, so there was no need for her to look at mine for any longer than necessary.  You have to stay very still during the x-ray (no talking or dancing as it messes up the image – ask me how I know this) so I distracted myself by imagining that I was a supermodel draped elegantly across rocks in a Mediterranean cove for a photo shoot instead of a middle-aged Mum leaning on an x-ray machine in the middle of Warrington.  Thirty minutes later (although it felt like much less), it was all done and I was on my way home.

We are so fortunate in the UK that we get offered free screening services for breast cancer, bowel cancer and cervical cancer, but there are a huge number of people who just don’t turn up for their appointments – and that’s a waste of time and money, and also the skills of the people who are staffing the departments, who didn’t spend years studying to sit behind a desk and wait rather than do their jobs.  This article shows how many cases of breast cancers were detected early and were able to be treated if you’re interested in the figures, and I think it proves that it’s worth getting over our embarrassment or fear to get checked out.

Please, if you get an appointment, just go – and if you can’t, then rearrange it to a date when you can.  Bodies are like cars that need regular maintenance and servicing, and if you imagine that the screening checks are simply a mechanical service – and this includes cervical smears and the poo test for over fifties and any other routine tests that you might be offered – then it takes so much of the emotion out of them.

If you have been to an appointment before and didn’t have a good experience, please try again.  We’re all human, no matter which side of the x-ray machine we’re on, and a bad experience one day doesn’t mean a bad experience next time – and if you’re one of the people won’t go because you’re frightened of what you might find out, it’ll be a million times more frightening if you leave it until nobody can help you.  Take your Emergency Sock and I will be your virtual moral support, even if you don’t get your knitting out of your bag! 🙂

And on that jolly note, I’m going to leave to your weekend!  My plans are to get out in the garden if I can – oh, just wait until I tell you about Chelsea and what I have in mind for my garden – and to get on with knitting some socks for not so small daughter’s trip to Tanzania next month.  There’s always more to tell you, so I’ll see you again soon! 🙂

ChatGPT references:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/2025/02/record-breast-screening-level/

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/breast-screening-programme