Winter Haven KAL 2026 – Week 3

Can you believe that we are already three Fridays into January 2025?  We’ve passed “Blue Monday” (it was “Gloomy Wednesday” for me this week – I don’t know what was going on!) and February is almost in sight.  If January is usually a difficult month for you, we’re over halfway now and I hope that spending time in your cosy space has helped the days pass more gently for you.

Thank you again for all of your photos and emails, it’s been lovely to hear from you and to see all of your projects – wow, so many of them!  It’s been lovely to see so many of you back to join me in the Winter Haven KAL again, I have spent so much time smiling at familiar names as I have seen your photos … we might be miles apart but feels like we’re all in the same room together!

I looked back at last year’s Week 3 post as I was writing this and the weather was damp and grey … and guess what I can see out of the window today!  I’ve not hesitated to light the fire during the day recently, and the bright light and crackle of the flames has really helped.

If you’re only just finding out about the Winter Haven KAL this week – welcome!  You can catch up on the previous posts – Week 1 is here (and tells you about what you need to join in), and Week 2 is here.  You’re not behind at all, this Knit-along is all about taking time for yourself and recharging your batteries, and it’s always the right time to do that.

 

🕯 My space

You’ve seen my space – the chair by the fire – before, so let me show you another Haven space in our house …

Ah, Astrid has the knack of making anywhere her perfect space – especially if there’s a box available!  No knitting going on here (I’ve had to untangle her from mine once too often), but she’s showing me exactly what wintering self-care should look like: make yourself cosy and have a snooze if you want one!

I’ve got more photos of your Haven spaces this week … would you like to see?  Thank you so much for sending me your photos – we all love to see them, don’t we?

 

Allison has got her feet up, her hand knit socks on and there’s another pair started on her needles.  That looks like the perfect setup to me!

Chris has a good stack of books in her Haven space – I’ve read Blackberry Wine but not the others, and it’s always good to have book recommendations!  I love that Chris is wearing her Easy Mosaic Socks too!

Jan sent me these photos by email.  She said she needed to declutter her Haven space as it had got a bit messy – but I think that just shows that she’s been using it, and what a wonderful thing that is at this time of year!  Her flowers come from the garden – snowdrops, forsythia, hellebores and lots of lush green leaves … perfect!

I love this cosy space with the log burner door wide open to let the heat out!  Luise has absolutely got the idea of the how the Winter Haven KAL works 🙂

Michelle is across the other side of the world from me in Australia, and I’ve got to tell you – I never get tired of knowing that someone so far away from me is knitting socks and taking some time for themselves!  Michelle’s sock yarn tones with her beautiful quilt too.

Sharon has chosen the Winwick Mum yarn Autumn Leaves with a contrast of Sunflower (I think!) for her socks in her cosy Haven space.  Having a blanket to wrap yourself up in just adds to the cosiness!

Thanks again for showing me your photos for this week, it’s been great to see them all!  I’ll have more to show you next week!

 

🕯 Project

I finished the second pair of socks that I was knitting for my husband this week, and he was a very happy boy to have two new pairs in his sock drawer!  I showed you the first pair last week and this is the pair I finished off this week …

This is the first time I’ve tried a forethought/afterthought heel and it worked out pretty well.  My husband is happy with the fit and the process was more like creating the toes than creating a heel so I think I would use this method again, but I’ve no plans to use it in a design as I like the way a heel flap fits better.  These are bespoke for my knit-worthy man!

There are more socks in the offing for my husband (fortunately, he is VERY knit-worthy) as I discovered that another pair I’d made for him were on the way out when I washed them …

I did think about trying to repair them and then found the notes from when I’d made the socks for him … November 2010!  They’re 15 years old and that’s pretty good going for a pair of hand knitted socks, I think!

The yarn is Cygnet Truly Wool Rich 4ply and it used to be a lovely lilac colour; now it looks more on the grey side and I think it’s time to let these socks retire.  My husband was quite sad about it.  “I really like those purple socks,” he said.  But if there’s one colour of yarn that I am likely to have in my stash …  💜

A new pair is on the needles now!

I was hoping that he’d want a fully purple pair then I could use my usual heel flap heel but no, he likes the black heel and they just don’t look quite right done with a heel flap.  Ah well, time for me to get some more practice in on the new heel style!

 

I’ve got lots of pairs of Abacus Socks to show you this week.   Don’t worry if you don’t see your photo, I’ve got more saved to show you next week – I didn’t want to overload you in one blog post!

 

They’re all looking brilliant!  I am so happy that you have wanted to knit the pattern – and that your socks have turned out so well!

If this is tempting you to have a go at the Abacus Socks for yourself, you can get a read more about it on the blog post here or go straight to download your pattern from the Winwick Mum shop here.

 

I’ve got more photos of other socks to show you …

Angela is knitting a pair of Neat Ripple Socks with this lovely bright Yarnsmiths yarn.  I’ve admired this yarn a few times when I’ve been on the Wool Warehouse website, I’m looking forward to seeing how the socks turn out!

Catherine has used Winter Icicle yarn to knit a small sock … I always love to see my yarns knitted up, but there’s nothing cuter than a little sock for a little foot! 😍  Want to knit little socks for someone with small feet that you know?  This is the Basic 4ply Children’s Socks pattern.

Another Winwick Mum yarn on the go here … this is Seascape and Janice is knitting a Basic 4ply Sock.  She’s new to sock knitting and is off to a great start!

This lovely bright red sock is Shiona’s first sock away from the Basic 4ply Socks pattern and she’s chosen to knit the Easy Cable Socks.  They’re a great knit for anyone wanting to try their hand at cable knitting – you can choose whether to repeat the pattern on the back or just leave it on the front depending on how confident you feel!

Finally for today, we’ve got another first – this is Tracy’s first attempt at a lace pattern and she’s gone straight in with Nutmeg, the sock I designed for the West Yorkshire Spinners Christmas 2025 yarn.  I’ve always said that if a pattern calls to you, just have a go and Tracy’s done exactly that – and with a fantastic result!

 

🕯 Something green

New flowers for myself this week – I loved these pink and purple chrysanthemums at the supermarket and they always last a really long time as well.

There are the first signs of life in the garden – snowdrops …

and hellebores.  These are Helleborus niger or Christmas roses.  The purple one was a bit shy so I had to help it show you its face 🙂

 

🕯 Light it up!

We changed our energy tariff at the end of last year to one that has one peak and two off-peak periods, the idea being that you use less energy (electricity in particular) during the peak period of 4pm-7pm.  I don’t think we could have done this when the girls were living at home but now that there’s just my husband and me, it’s much easier for us to work around those times.  The peak energy charge is really quite high to dissuade you from using it and I’m on a mission now to use as little electricity during those three hours as I can.  This is one of the ways that I’m doing it …

USB lamps!  This cute little lamp reminds me of a snowdrop and is perfect for the Winter Haven KAL!  It comes from IKEA and charges during the day on the lower-cost power so that it can run at night using its own battery.  It’s not bright enough to be a reading or knitting lamp – well, certainly not if you’re going to be knitting black socks! – but it’s useful for areas where you don’t want it to be completely dark but don’t necessarily need a light on all the time.  We’ve got one in the hall and this one tends to get carried around the house to where we might want a bit of light for a while.

 

🕯 Listen up!

This week’s listening has been health-related again as I’ve been listening to Modern Rituals, the new podcast from Exhale Coffee.  I don’t drink coffee, as you know, but I’ve been reading the weekly email from Exhale for several years now because I think it’s a great email – there’s always something interesting to know about in terms of healthy living, and it’s not just about coffee.

Alex, one half of the husband and wife team who own Exhale, is an extreme athlete and is really interested in ways to live a healthier life, and it’s him who’s been doing the interviewing.  I’ve got to be honest and say that some of the episodes of the podcast talk about lifestyle choices that are not for me (I am absolutely not an ice bath kind of girl), but it never hurts to broaden your horizons if you can do it with a brew and your knitting in front of the fire!

 

🕯 Self-care

Self-care for me this week has looked like wielding a giant pair of loppers and tackling an overgrown hawthorn hedge in the garden!  Yes, I know that sounds like work rather than self-care, but I alway feel so much better when I’ve been out in the fresh air for a while, and if I’ve got something done in the garden to show for my time as well, that’s even better still!

I’ve not got on very fast with either of the books that I said I was going to read at the start of the Winter Haven KAL.  Instead, I’ve been distracted by a book that my cousin told me about when she was staying, called The Diet Whisperer by Drs Paul Barrington Chell and Monique Hope-Ross.  One of the book subtitles is “Lose up to 12kg in 12 weeks” and I don’t need to do that (I’ve got a bit of a shortbread shelf going on, but not a 12kg one!), but my cousin said she found the book really interesting to read because of the way it presents the science bits.

I’ve got to say, she’s absolutely right and I have found it fascinating to brush up on biology that I learnt at school (ie, how your digestion works) but with a deeper look based on more recent knowledge (it’s been a few decades since I sat in a biology class!) and also in context with contemporary diets.  I’m just coming up to the diet plan section and even that has plenty to read about before you make any decisions (it’s based on intermittent fasting which may not be for everyone); irrespective of whether I decide to give it a go or not, I’ve enjoyed reading the book and I don’t think I would ever have expected to do that!

I’ve got another book to start, too.  Big daughter bought this one for me … Let Them by Mel Robbins.

She’s a big fan of Mel Robbins and thought I might like to read this book (I think she’s planning to borrow it as soon as I have 🙂 ).  I’ve not read any of her books before but I’ve seen some of her stuff online and I’m intending to start this one as soon as I’ve finished the Diet Whisperer book.

The premise of this book is taking back your power by letting other people get on with their own stuff rather than wasting your time on things that you can’t control.  I’ve been trying to live by this principle for a while now: you can’t control what other people do, you can only control your reactions to them (ha! easy to write, not always easy to live by!), so I’ll be interested to see what this book adds to the principle.

*Both the links for these books are Amazon links.

 

🕯 Thank you

Have you been remembering to think about what you are grateful for?  It’s good to write it down but it doesn’t really matter if you don’t – the important part is that you think about it as being grateful for what we have opens the door for more in our lives to be grateful for!

This week, I’ve been grateful for our lovely vet who checked the dog over at his six-monthly health check and told him he was doing really well.  The dog was very pleased, and he’s even more pleased with his new harness as the vet said that he should probably stop wearing his collar as his neck has got a bit too big for it.  Old age, saggy skin … it happens to dogs too!  You might think that this is just something that I’m writing, but when the harness arrived and I’d adjusted the straps to make it fit, he practically danced around the living room looking very pleased with himself!  I’ve never been a big fan of harnesses, and especially for dogs like ours who are particularly wilful and would have seen a harness as an excuse to square his shoulders and drag me off into the distance (all I’d have needed would be skies or chariot wheels and I’d have been heading off at speed!), but I am glad that they’re available now that this will make his walks more comfortable.

I’ve also been really grateful to see the Northern Lights again – did you see them on Monday night?  They were visible over large parts of the UK again, as well as other parts of the world.

We’re a bit too close to the M6 and M62 motorways here in Winwick to get a really good view of them and it was a bit cloudy on Monday night too, but this is what my camera picked up.  I couldn’t see them without the camera but if you look at the photo, you can just see a line of green near the bottom of the photo and a line of pink slightly higher up.

If I play about with the exposure on this photo, you can see that there’s green high up in the sky too – I bet if it hadn’t been cloudy or quite so bright, it would have been an amazing show!

Thank you for being part of the KAL with me this week, I have so enjoyed having you here with me again!  Don’t forget to keep tagging me into your posts so that I can have a nosey into your cosy spaces and see your projects – the hashtag is #WinterHavenKAL.

I hope you have a wonderful week in your Winter Haven – see you next Friday for our last January week! xx