Updating …

Phew, it’s Tuesday again … I think my regular blog posting days have gone to pot a bit at the moment but as long as I’m still posting, eh?  It’s good for me to keep track of things and it’s lovely if you want to read about them as well 🙂

Today’s post is about updates on things I’ve been talking about recently – nothing to worry about, not that sort of update – just the sequel, if you like, to things I’ve mentioned in previous posts as it’s always nice to be able to tell you more!

 

💜  Update … Kilimanjaro

The first update for today is this …

Oh my goodness, she did it!  This is not so small daughter at Uhuru peak, 5,895m (1,796ft) above sea level and on the Roof of Africa.  She’s got a yellow smiley face as the altitude made her face puff up and she would not have thanked me for showing you (fortunately, the puffiness dissipated as she got back down the mountain), but she was happy for me to show you that she got there!

Thank you so much for all your good wishes before her trek.  We lost contact with her for a few days as there was very little phone signal so we were relying on Instagram photos from the charity she was walking with, but we kept telling ourselves that no news meant she was still on her way to the top and hadn’t had to come back down.

AMS, or acute mountain sickness, is a real issue at high altitude and the group had to be prepared by taking medication (apparently some people debate whether this is necessary; not so small daughter’s experience was that it is) and also ascending at a regulated pace so that they didn’t climb too quickly.  They had a doctor available to check them over on the way up, and their very experienced guides and porters were able to keep an eye on them and help them to reach the peak.  It took them five days to reach the summit and then a day and half to get back down again.

Not so small daughter is going to write a post for me to tell you more about it, but she was beyond thrilled to have done it – she said it was the hardest thing she’s ever done and they weren’t prepared for quite how cold it got, or how the altitude would affect them all (fatigue, appetite loss and face puffiness amongst other symptoms), but it’s an experience that will last them all a lifetime.

The reward for reaching the bottom of the mountain was a bottle of Kilimanjaro beer.

This is a tradition, apparently (the best beer she’s ever had, not so small daughter said!); it’s bad luck to drink it before you ascend – and also not a good idea as alcohol and altitude aren’t a good mix – but it’s part of the celebration when you get back down, along with a certificate to prove that you’ve made the climb.

After the climb, the group split as some of them came home, and the rest (not so small daughter included) moved on to spend a second week in Tanzania firstly on safari and then travelling to the island of Zanzibar.  It was an add-on option to the cost of the climb and we didn’t hesitate – compared to what not so small daughter had fundraised and earned through her job to pay for the climb, this extra week didn’t cost much at all and we don’t know when or if she will ever go back to that part of Africa.  It made perfect sense to add on the extra days while she could.

And what a time she has had!  Back on the wifi, we’ve been treated to amazing photos of wildlife …

(just one giraffe here as I don’t want to spoil not so small daughter’s post) and the most amazing clear sea and blue sky photos …

Zanzibar looks like a beautiful place and not so small daughter is sorry to be leaving.  We can see why!

Oh, and let me show you these …

Sound Waves socks in West Yorkshire Spinners ColourLab DK Sock yarn which I knitted for her trip to Nepal last year – this shade is Jazz which is actually pink rather than orange; the light in the tent has changed the colour of her socks.  She loves these socks, they get worn quite a lot in her boots over the winter and they stood up well to 7-8 hours of daily trekking in Nepal before heading up Kilimanjaro.

She took four or five pairs of hand knits and one pair of bought technical socks just in case she needed a thinner pair to wear as well, or if it was very wet as they dry faster than wool.  As far as I know, though, she stuck with the hand knits and I’m so glad they kept her feet cosy.

This is the new pattern I designed for her, and this yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners Wool Revival DK in the shade Sage.

These are the socks she wore to the summit and she said they were very comfy.  Once they’d been washed, I thought the yarn was nice and soft for DK socks (sometimes they are more woolly) and I’ll have a good look at them for wear when she gets back, but so far it’s looking like they’ve coped well!

The new pattern is called Well-Travelled Socks and it will be out this year, hopefully in the next few weeks, so if you want to get some DK socks knitted up for the winter or for Christmas and holiday gifts, this pattern might be a nice option.

 

💜  Update … Scubl boxes

On the subject of yarn, I’ve been doing some tidying up.  I’ve got the ends of the balls of yarn from not so small daughter’s trekking socks, I’ve got the leftovers of the WYS Mulled Wine Nutmeg socks, I’ve got balls of yarn here, there and everywhere, I can’t find some of my sock needles … it was time to do something about it!

You may remember back in July that I wrote a review of a Scubl box that I had been sent to try out.  These are boxes designed to fit into IKEA Kallax units, but unlike the boxes that you can buy at IKEA, they’ve got clear sides, two zipped layers and a carrying handle.  I was so impressed by this box and how much it stored, and it didn’t take much deciding to order another two boxes so that I could start to organise some of my stash.

I don’t have a huge yarn stash and most of it is what I call “working” yarn, ie the yarn is either full balls that I may design with or leftovers from socks that have already been designed and which might be used again for something else.  I’ve already got my skeins of hand-dyed yarn stored away safely in small storage boxes to reduce any moth risk, but my working yarn – pretty much all the West Yorkshire Spinners yarn that I have – was all over the place.  Project bags, baskets, drawers … I was finding yarn everywhere and of course never when I actually wanted to use it.  Something had to change!

I decided to start with the classic Get Everything Out and Make a Big Mess method.  As you can see, I seem to have acquired a cat in one of my drawers …

I had a few Really Useful Boxes in different sizes for my WYS stash and I was hoping that I’d be able to get everything into the two Scubl boxes that I’d bought so that I could downsize the space my yarn was taking up.  Here’s some of my working stash …

Full balls (skeins), part balls, some in cakes and some rolled into smaller balls … Pulling them all out of the boxes to see what I had, I said, “Oh, I didn’t realise I had so much of that!” to myself more than once, so clearly I needed a better system as I must have kept going to buy yarn I thought I didn’t have! 🙂

And now, the exciting part!  The Scubl boxes are delivered flat …

and you just push them into shape and pull the zips round to make them sturdy.  I realised that if I put my yarn balls in horizontally (as in photo 1 below), I’d be able to see all the colours through the clear sides without opening the box – much faster than my current method of taking the lid off the storage box then rootling round like a rabbit digging a new burrow.

Once again, I was amazed by how much I could pack into these boxes!

This is my entire working stash, including DK yarn and some hand-dyed leftovers from previous pairs of socks – reduced from the Really Useful Box you can see, another bigger one and umpteen tote bags which had been stuffed into my existing IKEA boxes.  The relief of being able to find things again!

And they fit perfectly with my other Scubl box …

Is this a sales pitch?  No, not really.  I am a Scubl affiliate and if you need some Scubl boxes for your stash or crafts or anything else then you can click here and get a 10% discount, but I’m just showing you what I’ve been up to and that I like the product I was reviewing so much that I bought some more for myself 🙂

 

💜  Update … socks

What’s on the needles?  Well, still (embarrassingly), Christmas socks from last year but I am nearly at the toes now so they should be finished before this Christmas.  This is a reminder to myself that I shouldn’t take on deadline holiday socks unless I know that I’ve got time to make them – and because I know that I’m not the only person who might do this (although hopefully you finished your gift knitting sooner than 9 months later), I’ve been writing a gift knitting guide which I hope to have ready very soon.  It might have been helpful to have had it done by the beginning of this month or even sooner, but it is what it is and I’m hoping that if it helps even one person this year then it was worth the effort!

I’m half way through my second Ryegrass sock and that’s coming along nicely …

I’ve also got a new Emergency Sock on the needles.  I found this yarn whilst I was sorting out my stash and decided it was time to cast on.  It’s a hand-dyed yarn by Clare from Red Squirrel and Dune, and she created this colourway – Christine’s Camassia – last year when she saw a photo of camassia flowers on the blog.  Here’s the skein, the flowers and how it’s knitting up …

What lovely little stripes!  I’m really enjoying knitting this, and I’m also trying to knit the whole pair using the Continental method of knitting.  There is a reason for this – the dog knocked me over a few months ago (not deliberately but he’s a big lad and if you’re in the way, you’re going down) and I jarred my shoulder when I put my hand down to save myself.  It’s not really recovered; it’s painful if I move it in a particular way although it isn’t stopping me from doing too many things, and the last time I chatted with my osteopath about it, she told me I’d got the equivalent of whiplash in my shoulder which would take time and exercise to heal – and then said the dreaded words … “Are you still knitting?”

There was no suggestion that I should stop, but the fact that she asked has made me think that she was thinking it, so I decided to give Continental knitting another go to see if I could reduce the movement in my shoulder that comes with my usual technique.  I do know how to knit with the yarn in my left hand and I’ve done it on and off over the years, but I’m just so much faster with my usual style that I always end up going back to that.  It’s time to embrace being a beginner again!

There’s no deadline for these Emergency Socks and so it doesn’t matter if it takes me a bit longer (I’ve found myself going back and re-knitting a few rows quite a few times already as my tension isn’t quite right yet), but hopefully by the time I’ve got to the end of the pair my technique will be significantly better and so will my shoulder!

 

💜  Update … OpenLearn

This is a quick one and I will probably remind you of it during the Winter Haven KAL next year, but I’m mentioning it now as it’s in my head.  I’m an Open University graduate; I did both of my degrees through the OU and I am a massive fan of how they make education and learning available to everyone.  I’m a regular supporter of their Open Futures Fund which offers scholarships to disabled military veterans, unpaid carers, low-income Black students, people who have spent time in the care system, and those seeking sanctuary in the UK (if you or someone you know could benefit from this, or the other funding options the OU offer, you can click here) – and the point of me telling you this is that I get an update magazine every now and again.

In the most recent one, there was a feature about OpenLearn which is free to use and is a pathway to OU study as all OU degree modules have at least 5% of their content available for free on OpenLearn, allowing anybody to “try before you buy” on degree courses, to improve skills or employability, or just to learn something new.  I’ve talked many times about how there’s always something new to learn about and using our brains keeps us healthy and engaged, and previously I’ve mentioned a website called FutureLearn – but this one is better because it’s all free!

If you’re interested in finding out more, the website link is: www.open.edu/openlearn

 

💜  Update … Attic24

Last one for today!  Many of you found me through Lucy of Attic24 and vice versa, and I wanted to let you know that her blog is going to be moving to a new home very shortly.  Why am I telling you this and not Lucy?  Well, Lucy has been talking about it but there have been some issues with the blog, she’s on a short deadline and she’s been posting on Facebook and I know not everybody else is –  I had to move blog homes from Blogger to WordPress in a hurry a few years ago and it was pretty stressful, so this is me doing my bit to help 🙂

Attic24 is currently hosted on Typepad which is shutting down at the end of the month so Lucy’s been working with her husband, J, to get all of her patterns and blog post archive transferred in time.  Last week, there was a system glitch on Typepad and every website hosted by them disappeared for 24 hours which caused some concern (not least to Lucy herself!) so this update is just to let you know that she’s OK, the blog is also OK but Typepad might not be quite as stable as everyone hopes right now, and just in case you’re in the middle of working on something that you needed the blog instructions for, it’s probably worth downloading them now in case there’s a gap between the old blog going offline and the new one being available.  If the blog does go offline again, you can access her archives on this website here, but be aware that it’s very slow!

Here’s Lucy’s post from Facebook on the day the blog went missing and I’ll let you know where she’s going to be moving to when I’ve got more information so don’t worry if you’re not on social media.  Phew!  Technology is brilliant until it isn’t! 🙂

 

And that’s me for today!  This has turned into a longer post than I intended but I think I’ve told you about all the updates I’ve got going on, and I’ll be back to chat again soon! xx