There’s nothing quite like social crafting. You sit yourself down in a new group, get your craft kit out and instantly you’re asked what you’re making, is there a pattern, or is it your own, oh and what’s the yarn? Then allsorts of topics just flow, you join in as little, or as much as you want and before you know it you’ve drunk your coffee, crocheted a small pile of circles and two hours have vanished!
This week I’ve gone to two crafty meet ups, one leading to the other, and topics have ranged from Jeremy Clarkson‘s new pub, his finding of knickers on the site, dogging (!) Rashes under boobs, muslin cloth, block deodorants, traffic issues, local festivals, roadworks, politics, ID, living in Yorkshire, the north and south of England a personal comparison, air fryers, gin, husbands reluctantly making their own lunch: “But what will I have?!” (mentioned by the older women, the younger were slightly agog. How about: “Anything you fancy making darling?”) and much, much more. Craft is probably about 3% of the range of topics covered. There is always much laughter.
When I first started visiting yarn groups, maybe 12 years ago, crocheters were in the minority. There might be me and perhaps one other, unless I felt I needed to bow to the general trend and took knitting. The morning after an evening spent in a pub or cafe I would realise my knitting was always a complete mess, because I couldn’t concentrate on any kind of pattern, chat and sip coffee or alcohol at the same time. Naïvely I once took some lace knitting to a meet up in Oxford. Never again! I find crochet much more free flowing.
At the first craft group I went to this week seven were crocheting, three knitting and one was sewing up some knitting. At the second I would say it was about the same; more were crocheting than knitting of the fifteen. Unfortunately the one who was sewing up on Tuesday came to the other group as well and was re-sewing because she had made a mistake. But it looked like a gorgeous little jumper in variegated shades of green. It will be perfect when it’s finally done.
You see we’ve had a bit more summer this week. I snapped these photos on a 3 mile loop of field paths one evening.
As we were halfway through the walk chatting away I suddenly realised there was quite a loud noise in the field behind. Peeping through a gap in the hedge I saw a combine harvester was cutting the meadow grasses to make hay. It’s been much better, drier weather lately. At last!
It’s the first time I’ve grown mangetout and I can’t believe how many I’m picking every day. I hate to say it, it sounds a little miserable, but I’m getting a bit fed up of eating them now! I didn’t realise they would produce so many. Our lovely neighbour watered our garden when we were on holiday and so I took her some. It’s time to pass them around I think!
The peas are ready and absolutely delicious. We had roast chicken and lots of summer veg on Sunday, the peas were sweet and beautiful. They only took one minute to steam, along with homegrown cavolo nero and mange-tout.
The beetroot are nearly ready to pick as well.
As for book talk this week I’m still listening to Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, it’s making me laugh out loud now. I’m also listening to
Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle by Clare Hunter. This was mentioned on another blog recently and I thought I’d give the audiobook a try. It’s on Spotify premium. It’s really interesting so far and I like the Scottish narrator a lot. I recognise Siobhan Redmond’s voice from a medical drama I used to watch on TV.
I’m reading an advance copy of Jenny Colgan’s new book Close Knit, which has knitting and quite a funny knitting circle (more social crafting!) up in the highlands of Scotland. It’s out here very soon.
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What have you been up to in the last week? Making? Reading? Growing anything? Any good recommendations for TV? Tell me a few things please!
Today it’s a dark afternoon and steadily growing colder. I made spicy lentil and coconut vegetable soup for lunch and read some Yarn Along blog posts while it cooked. After taking this photo I swapped the peppermint tea for hot chocolate with mini marshmallows. That’s my treat.
There was lot more besides: more trees, more decorated rooms both upstairs and downstairs, but I make a conscious effort not to take hundreds of photos There has to be a balance between wandering and enjoying the atmosphere and not seeing it all through a screen. I’ve captured the look of the house and gardens, which hopefully gives you a flavour of the property.
A finished thing? Yes!!!!
Nala the cockapoo, one of the salon dogs relaxing on the hair-wash chair. She’s either resting her head on your knee asking for love, or curled up on a chair. It’s clearly a hard life. Cora her Goldendoodle half-sister is often asleep by the front door, waiting for the postman who always brings treats. They are probably part of the reason why I’m so much more comfortable around dogs. I like my hairdressers a lot, so it wasn’t a difficult choice between leaving because of the dogs, or staying and getting used to them. This year I’ve patted them both once. This might not seem impressive, but believe me it is! 
Now I don’t think I would ever really want to buy them again, they are incredibly easy to make and very tasty, without the somewhat cardboardy texture of shop bought versions. A little bicarbonate of soda (aka baking soda) gives them such a satisfying crunch.
It’s now week four of no crafting. I feel so frustrated at not being able to sit quietly to focus on making something for a few minutes. I didn’t realise how often I do that when I’m at a loose end, or when I feel I need a spot of calming or relaxed activity. I’m also missing my social crafting time, as it’s pointless really to go to a knit group and just sit. It’s genuinely surprised me how truly unproductive I feel too. I’ve crocheted (knit, sewed and generally fiddled around with new crafts) for years now. It’s a habit that’s been hard to consciously break. It’s only one aspect of life I know, and hardly a life or death situation, but as regular crocheters or knitters know it’s an important part of day to day life, for all sorts of reasons. The other thing is that after losing my mojo a little, I was suddenly raring to make all the things. 
I tried a bit of crochet one day this week, but decided it’s not a good idea if it causes discomfort.
I’m so pleased with my appropriately Easter egg shaped find!
The joins make me think of those foam play mats we have for blocking.
I’ve spent a bit of time playing with my yarn leftovers and planning out my next strip of moss stitch (aka linen and granite) blocks. I thought it might be easier than trying to do it in the pub at Knit & Sip, in the semi dark. We ended up not meeting anyway this week, but no matter; it’s quite nice to have a plan. The fewer brain cells used during the evening, the better I find. It’s not my brightest time. Nor is very early in the morning. My optimum time seems to be between 10-3pm! This isn’t new either. I’ve always been the same. Are you at your best in the morning, evening or middle of the day?
I popped in to see Mum with some Butternut & Sweet Potato soup yesterday. I’d made a huge pan-full, but as I’m the only one who eats BNS or SP I thought it would be good to share, or I’d never want to eat it again after litres of the stuff. Barty was savaging a ball he was given for Christmas. He is funny; as I’ve said I don’t think he was given balls to play with when he was a kitten, so he doesn’t play ping pong like other cats we’ve had. I’ve tried to model batting it back and forth with my 
I just started reading 
Last night I chose my border colours and sat down to start the tricky first row. I don’t think I want to crochet through the end posts again, yes it’s less gappy than working around, but it means you’re in danger of pushing out some of your darned ends. Phooey! It’s also damned tricky to do. That made me pack up my Hitchhiker knitting to take to Knit Group instead; as I didn’t think the light would be good enough to see, or the company would want to hear my groans and sighs.
A. also brought along this gorgeous crochet shawl that she’s made for one of her young daughters. Apparently the yarn was cheap stuff and on offer in the local wool shop, but it feels luxuriously soft. Privately I thought it would rather suit me when I wear my smart black woollen coat and could imagine shimmering into a carol service, but sadly it was popped into a bag on the floor across from me. No stealing. Rats!
Next there’s J’s 
And P’s is currently a tea-pot cosy making machine, I can’t say anything much about it (secret squirrel) but it is making me want to try crocodile stitch. I’ve never been particularly keen on the stitch, now I wonder if it was the items I’ve seen made with it. P makes everything look good. The other knitted cosy is sooo special that I’m not dwelling on it, as it makes me feel knitty-knotty inferior! Yes, she does have a drink problem.
I posted a pic of my Hitchhiker scarf the other day on Instagram. Click on the pink camera on the sidebar if you want to see how it’s getting on. After Winnie’s Wave Blanket that’s the next thing I need to finish for Christmas, for my Mum. Then the world is my oyster. Anyone who types the words ‘sock’ or ‘garter stitch blanket’ will be blocked. I mean it!
This is what I’ve always called a kitchen sink post; since it feels like everything’s included except the sink.
As I wandered the streets around Covent Garden on my quest, I couldn’t help taking a few photos. What a lovely row of window boxes this building had.
At the end of our hour long solo walks our little group met back upstairs in Le Pain Quotidien for hot drinks and to share our experiences. I can’t say I got particular insights regarding the question I asked, but I really enjoyed the afternoon. I always find meeting new people interesting and with events like this anyone can turn up. The experience reinforced the fact that I do tend to notice what’s around me and always end up talking to strangers. I do try to appreciate the little things and look out for little acts of kindness. Even in a big bustling city like London you’ll see everyday, ordinary acts of kindness, with good manners in action and people generally behaving decently to one another. I shall sign up for another Street Wisdom session one day, it was fun. Maybe I could lead a group at some point too.
Mum’s dahlias. Perfection.
I also got another fix of the seaside, albeit courtesy of the North sea. It is not, it has to be said, as pretty as the Atlantic sea which surrounds West Cornwall, but it is good to walk along to Sutton. I certainly felt I needed to walk at least 5 miles! We walked 8 by the end of the day.
My cousin hosts several BBQs from early summer to mid-autumn for family and different groups of friends. We try to go to one, or maybe two, each year. They’re always good fun, with everybody mucking in. The informal rule is that every time you go to and from the cottage, across the tiny lane to her field, you take something. I have to admit that the (huge) glass of champagne I had on arrival went straight to my head, so the only thing I initially managed to take across was another glass of champagne! But if this was hash-tag land I’d probably be typing #winwin.
I was pretty pleased with myself for finally finishing darning all those ends yesterday!
As you know, I disliked the feel and look of the Stylecraft Special DK when it was knitted, so swapped to a lovely soft DMC Creative World merino I had in my stash.
We all know swatching is important, even vital, but it seems a drag – not that I’ve ever actually done it before. The honey cowl is meant to be 12″ in width, but mine was actually looking like 10″ which meant I was knitting a neck brace! I didn’t think blocking would make 2″ difference so after pondering the inevitable I undid it all. It is best to do this quickly, rewind the yarn into balls and stuff it into a bag out of sight, out of mind!
I can choose a new audio book on Friday when I get my new Audible credit, do you have any recommendations? 
Yes! I’m knitting a deformed cat! It’s the stripy one you can just see on the book’s cover but mine’s obviously not stripy. I’ve been having some trouble with holey M1s (I grew up, like most, knitting into the front and back of a stitch, not fiddling about picking up strands) but think I’m getting betterish.
The Little Room of Rachell 
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