Winter Haven KAL 2026 – Week 1

Hello, hello, it’s lovely to see you – and welcome to Week 1 of the Winter Haven KAL 2026!

It’s been a bit chilly here in the UK and I’ve been very glad of our cosy fire to sit beside – and the Winter Haven KAL (Knit-along) has been a good excuse to sit next to it for a bit longer!  It’s often difficult to stop ourselves from hitting the ground running after all the Christmas, holiday and New Year festivities, but just one look out of the window tells you that the garden certainly isn’t hitting the ground running so it’s definitely OK for you to wait a while longer too!

Our garden always looks very folorn in the winter – I love it when it’s covered with snow (and given the weather forecast that may well happen this weekend!) so that I don’t have to see it looking like nobody loves it when really, I know that it’s all just resting.

Elsewhere in the world, you might be looking out onto flowers and sunshine, sweltering and turning on the air conditioning but that won’t stop us being able to join together virtually through the magical power of the internet!  Hooray!  I love this knit-along time of year and a snowy UK knit-along sounds like the perfect sort of January to me!

If you’ve never taken part in the Winter Haven KAL before you might be wondering what it’s all about, especially if you’re used to a knit-along being for a particular pattern or using a particular yarn.  This one is a bit different as I want it to be more than just about the knitting; I believe so strongly that knitting is something that makes us feel safe and calm, that it brings us joy and allows us to pass that on to others through our woolly gifts and through being nicer because the knitting has made us calm … 🙂 … that I wanted to find a way to focus on and incorporate that into the KAL and make sure that we give something back to ourselves.  Finding a cosy Haven space, making time to sit and knit, finding ourselves treats, books and focussing on our own self-care is so important and never more so than at the start of the year when we have just spent weeks or months thinking about what we can give to others.

This is your gift to you.

 

So what is this Winter Haven, then?  Is it just a chair by the fire, or some other place that you like the look of?

On the face of it, yes!  This is the 7th Winter Haven KAL which seems quite amazing to contemplate, but time moves fast and we are already six years on from the Covid year when it started.  What hasn’t changed for me, though, is the desire to start the year as I would like to go on by giving myself permission to sit down for even a few minutes instead of rushing through from the minute I wake up to the minute I collapse into bed.  Everything seems to move faster and faster until we get to Christmas and even then, my good intentions of having a rest tend to get swallowed up by other things.  The calendar page has to turn to January to remind me that it is actually OK to sit down during the day!  I hope you will give yourself permission to do that as well if it’s not something that you do already – and if you find it hard to give yourself permission, then I will give you the permission to have a moment to rest!

It’s important that it’s somewhere that you feel comfortable, where you can sit and think as well as sit and knit.  It’s going to be your safe space, your command centre, your eye of the storm.  You don’t have to sit there for hours but you know that the minute you are there, it’s as if you’ve been able to step off the world for a few moments to get your breath back.  I think that wherever we live and whether it’s winter or summer, we all need some place like that!

The Winter Haven KAL is about making that space and that time out a habit, at least for this month.  It’s about knitting (or crafting) a project that makes your heart sing, certainly, but it’s also about more than that.  For me, it’s about fitting my own oxygen mask before helping others, and whilst knitting is a vital part of that for me, there is more that I can do to prepare the ground for the coming seasons.

Each week, I’ll talk about what else I’m doing to recharge my batteries during the dark winter days, and I hope there will be something useful in there that you might like to try too.  There’s no rush here, no deadlines, just ideas to consider whilst you sit in your space and let your fingers work their yarny magic.

You can look back at the Winter Haven KAL 2026 getting ready post for more information on what this KAL is all about if you’re new here (hello to you!).

 

🕯 My space

My space hasn’t really changed – it’s the same chair by the fire although we’ve moved the furniture around a bit and it’s a bit further away now.  Well, I say that, but when I sit down and the fire is lit, that chair moves right up close so that I can toast my toes from the footstool! 🙂

What does your space look like?  This is where you get to be inventive!  It doesn’t have to be a dedicated space anywhere – in previous years we’ve had people who have had moveable spaces, their Winter Haven essentials (project, book, snacks) on a tray or in a box that can be taken around the house to where it’s quiet.  You might already have your own seat somewhere, but I’ve found that sitting in your “usual” place at a different time of the day makes it feel quite different and sometimes that’s enough to make me sit there for longer instead of bouncing up to do the next job!  Some people like to have a basket or box containing their project, books and treats nearby and getting things out of a container that you don’t usually keep next to you can also make a familiar place feel different if you felt the need for a change from the usual.

Part of creating a Winter Haven is making it feel as cosy as you can.  The Danish word hygge is a familiar one in our language now (although it’s so much a part of our language that it might make you think of the homewares section of a department store 😉 ), but although it loosely translates as “cosy”, the word is more to describe a feeling of cosiness and that’s certainly something you are more likely to feel at home than in a department store!  You might not want to embrace the idea of blanket and candle “cosy” quite so much if you’re in 40 degree heat, but you can be comfortable and still have your own Haven space for sitting and knitting and thinking.

Every year, I ask you to send me photos of your Winter Haven spaces so that I can include them in the posts over the weeks, so if you’ve got yourself set up and you’d like to do that, feel free!  It’s easiest to send me an email (you can find the email link in the sidebar on the left) but Facebook works well too 🙂

 

Well, that sounds very good but how is the KAL going to work if I’m sitting and thinking or reading a book?  And how is it going to work if everybody is doing their own thing and not knitting the same project?  

You know, every year someone asks this question but it’s like magic!  It does work because everybody is connected by the yarn and by intention, even if they’re doing their own thing.  It actually works brilliantly well because we’re not all going to be doing the same thing.  One of the things that I love most about the internet is being able to see life in another part of the country or even the world and I hope that we’ll be able to share some of that through the KAL as we’ve done in previous years.  I’d really like you to be part of my blog posts – do let me know what you’re up to, show me your photos and let’s make sure that we’re all connected.

 

To join in with the KAL you’ll be using either Winwick Mum yarn and/or a Winwick Mum pattern so that connects us even if we’re not all making the same project – and is, I think, a much more flexible way of us all being able to join in together as not everybody wants to make the same thing all the time.  It also means that you don’t have to miss out if you aren’t using Winwick Mum yarn because as long as you’ve got one of my patterns, you can use stash yarn or support your local yarn shop or indie dyer and everybody wins!  If you’ve not chosen your pattern already, you can have a look at the Winwick Mum ones here.

The knitting itself is part of the whole experience; a way to sit and be creative even as your hands are busy, because all the best ideas come when you are relaxed and there’s some thinking to be done over the next couple of weeks – it’s not all about sitting and knitting whilst we eat treats!

And whilst we’re on the subject of knitting …

 

🕯 Project

Have you chosen your project yet?  This year’s free pattern, Abacus Socks was released yesterday and I hope you like it!  I love being able to offer a free pattern for the Winter Haven KAL every year – it feels like I’m starting the year right! 🙂

The blog got a bit overwhelmed by the number of people trying to download it at the same time (I am very flattered as this number was a Very Big Number although I do appreciate it was very frustrating for you!), so please do try again if you couldn’t get a copy.  If you’ve emailed me about it, I’ve replied to you but I can’t send copies of the pattern through the blog comments so please do try to download it again.  I’m sure you’ll be fine today, but you can email me if you have a problem.  Thank you VERY MUCH for all the cups of tea that you have bought me as well – they are all very much appreciated! xx

Although I designed the Abacus Socks for the KAL this year, I’m also looking forward to seeing what else you might have chosen to work on – remember that it doesn’t have to be those socks or even socks at all.  I’d love to know what you have picked that’s going to make your heart sing, what yarn you have chosen – have you bought new?  Have you used stash?  You can let me know through social media on Instagram (use the hashtag #WinterHavenKAL) or Facebook, or send me an email (you can find the email link in the sidebar on the left).  If you have photos, I’d love to share them on Instagram and also through the weekly blog posts so do get in touch!

I showed you my projects in last week’s getting ready post and I’ve made good progress on the socks but I’ve not started the shawl yet – that’s going to be next week’s knitting!

 

🕯 Something green

At this time of year, I bring our house plants into the living room to make sure that they don’t get too cold in the conservatory.  They’re all on the hearth by the fire so there’s the risk they’re going to get too hot instead, but they’ve survived for the last few years of me doing this so I’ve continued this year.

The flowers in the vase are definitely looking past their best now so I’ll have to change those!

 

🕯 Light it up!

Ah, it’s candles for me!  I love having candles lit and my family are now very well-trained in not buying me anything that’s too nice to burn.  You can get so many candles that look like yarn balls or teddies or owls or some other beautiful shape and they remain unlit as I can’t bear to see the shape collapsing as the candle burns down … it’s the same with wax melts and even chocolate (I know – disaster!) so now everyone who knows me well knows that I’m all about the tea lights, pillar candles and generic wax melt shapes! 🙂

This year’s candle was a gift from a friend – it came from Marks & Spencer and the outer case lights up when you light the candle (there’ll be a simple technical reason for this but it looks like magic!); it’s just beautiful.  I love the glow of the case with the glow of the candle, and it’s absolutely the right thing for my Winter Haven space.

 

🕯 Listen up!

This week, I’ve been catching up with episodes of the Dr Louise Newson podcast.  Dr Louise is an expert in menopause and whilst it might not be the most glamorous thing to be listening to, it fits in very well with the self-care portion of the Winter Haven KAL.  She’s the doctor who created the Balance app where you can log peri- and post-menopausal symptoms to keep track of how you’re feeling, and produce a record to speak to health care providers (because forgetting your words when you’re talking to someone about brain fog is not helpful!), and her website is full of useful articles to help educate everybody (men and women) about menopause.

 

🕯 Self-care

Self-care comes in different forms.  For some people, it’s a bit of personal pampering, for others it’s taking time out in the fresh air, and for others it’s writing things down on a huge list so that you don’t worry that that you’re going to forget everything that’s in your head.  At this time of year, there are so many options to get us into good self-care habits and whatever your view of self-care is, there will be something for you.

Sitting and working on your knitting project is self-care time (I never EVER call it “selfish” knitting because knitting for yourself is important!) and that might be enough for you, especially if you’re one of those people who is very good at looking after those around you and forgetting to look after yourself in the process – because many of us are – and as appealing as the idea of taking time out to pamper yourself might be, it’s not always practical.

Self-care is also about looking after your best interests and being a friend to yourself.  We’re often harder on ourselves than we would ever be to someone else and I’m hoping that we can all take time in our Winter Havens to think about that, and perhaps be a little kinder to ourselves.  This year, being kind to myself means that I am going to try to take more breaks during the year – being self-employed and having a day job as well as Winwick Mum means that it’s very easy for me to fill up every available minute with “doing” and I need to get better this year at just “being”.  My very first Monthly Musing was all about that – I’m going to try to take my own advice!

I’m going to add my book recommendations into this Winter Haven category as well, because I know that knitting and reading go very well together, although not always at the same time!

This is my book pile for this year and I’ve already made a start on the first one – Made in Scotland by Billy Connolly (Amazon link).  I do enjoy his books and this is a fun read!

🕯 Thank you

Did you remember to find a book to write in?  It’s all about saying “thank you!”  Thank you for being here!  But more than that this is also an important part of our Winter Haven.  We can get so busy living life from day to day that we forget to be grateful for what we have, and that’s where your notebook and pen come in. 😀

I’m totally sold on the idea that writing down what you are grateful for is a very powerful practice and thinking about what you’ve appreciated during the day or the week is a good way to remind yourself that life isn’t all bad – I’m just not that good at remembering to do it, especially at night when I’m tired.  My plan this year is to try to write earlier in the day – I can always add something extra in if something wonderful happens after 5 or 6pm at night, but I think it’s better that I write something than nothing.  I do honestly believe that the more that you focus on what’s good in your life, the more of that you’ll attract and notice – and we could all do with a bit of that, couldn’t we?!

The hardest part (as with so many things) is often deciding where to begin, but it’s not as hard as it might first seem.  You can call it “gratitude”, or “blessings”, or “positive thoughts”, or whatever you’d like to, but write something that you are grateful for.  And there’s always something to be grateful for – even down to the air that you breathe, the clothes that you wear and having food on the table.  You can write as much or as little as you want, either as bullet points or you can expand into paragraphs.  You might find this an easy thing to do from the beginning and that’s wonderful, but don’t feel pressured into writing every day if you’re not inspired to.  If you’re stuck as to where to start, having air to breathe, food to eat and someone to love (or to love you) is a good place to start 🙂

You might also choose to write down something good that’s happened to you, or a compliment that someone paid you – these are also something to be grateful for, but again it’s that thing that the more you tune into the good things, the more of them you’ll have, and noticing positive experiences is definitely something to cultivate!

 

Finally, before I leave you in peace for the weekend – I’ll be sending emails on Fridays with the KAL weekly updates but not if I post in between (although the links will be on the emails) as I don’t want to over-email anybody!  If you’re not signed up to my mailing list and want to join, you can do that by clicking here and you get a free Kitchener Stitch guide to download when you do! 🙂

And there we are … Week 1.  I hope this has given you some ideas for your time in your Winter Havens!  Next week, I hope to have more of your projects and ideas to share, so do tell me about your Winter Havens and your projects because I can’t wait to hear all about them!

 

Until next week! xx