They tell me that today is 'Blue Monday', the most depressing day of the year. As I understand it this was actually the invention of a long since defunct holiday company who wanted to boost post-Christmas sales. Personally I'm not convinced that booking a holiday would cheer me up right now, largely because after the expenditure of Christmas, and the long wait for the January pay day, I'm pretty certain that I couldn't afford to book a holiday even if I wanted to!
Regardless of the spurious "facts" behind the myth of Blue Monday, it can't be denied that a great many people do feel very low during the winter months. It even has a clinical name - SAD, or Seasonal Affective Disorder, suspected to be linked to the reduction in daylight hours, and the lower average temperatures.
As someone who has spent many years battling clinical depression and anxiety, I can tell you that knitting has been my saving grace a number of times, and this winter is no exception. Something about the repetitive action of making stitches is soothing, and it's impossible not to love the sense of achievement when you finish a project. This too is a recognised phenomenon, and is actually being used as the basis for a kind of therapy by Stitchlinks.
Knitting can definitely be a much cheaper way to cheer yourself up than booking a trip to the Maldives. Yes, yes, I know that the likes of Yarndale, Bakewell Wool Gathering, Shetland Wool Week, and those terribly tempting knitting holidays to Iceland can make it as expensive as you like, but you can also pick up a ball of yarn and a pair of needles for a few pounds in any Local Yarn Store, as well as many charity shops, and even a fair few supermarkets.
KALs
A prime example of how inexpensive knitting can be is my current main project. Last year the Sheffield knitters ran a year-long stash-busting effort called "12 in 2014". The aim was to knit at least one project per month from yarn that was already in your stash before 01/01/2014. I'm proud to say that by the end of the year I had managed 14 and a bit. (There's a sweater still sat next to me here that isn't finished yet). So this year we're doing it again, and we're kick-starting with a Deep Stash KAL.
The oldest full skein in my stash turned out to be a ball of King Cole Haze. It's an acrylic yarn that calls itself a DK, but I'd class it as more like sport-weight. It has a lot of halo, and a strand of sparkle running all the way through, and there's a whopping 466m per skein. I bought mine in the January sale at my LYS in 2013 for a grand total of £1.50.
Yes, that's right, £1.50 for 466m of sparkly yarn.
I'm making a shawl out of it, and if you're new to knitting shawls, or new to lacework, then I absolutely recommend this pattern. It's called Dinner at the Eiffel Tower, and it's the most effective, yet simple shawl pattern that I've ever knit. Almost all of the increases are part of the pattern, so there's no need to remember to make 1 at the start of each row, and the most complicated lace repeats are only 7 stitches long.
This is mine so far:
So sorry about that, I've just realised that this is the first picture in a post that otherwise is a little bit "wall of text crits you for 9000"! I promise there will be more photos soon!
Anyway, you can't see the lacework very clearly, but I'm hoping that a good steam blocking at the end will fix that.
The other KAL I'm currently taking part in is in the Countess Ablaze Ravelry group, and it's based on the Throwback Thursday concept. The idea is that every Thursday you make a sincere effort to deal with one of those WIPs that's been languishing at the bottom of the pile, unloved. UFOs my sister calls them - UnFinished Objects.
I've been subscribed to a partwork book collection called Big and Little Knits for over a year now. Every few weeks I receive 2 new pattern books, and 2 balls of yarn. The yarn is intended to be used to knit a sampler style blanket or throw. The most recent book that I've received was number 31, but the most recent square that I've knit was from issue 18. I'm a bit behind! So my Throwback Thursday is to knit at least 1 square for this blanket every week until I'm caught up.
Here's the one I did this week:
PDFs
My next project this month was supposed to be a sweater for Gemma's eldest son. But I made a booboo.
In case you don't already know, on January 1st 2015 the VAT laws regarding downloadable products changed. Basically, nobody now understands them, or how it affects their downloadable product. Some people have stopped selling gift voucher codes because they don't know if they count or not. Mostly though, from my perspective, it's knitting patterns that are affected. All across Europe designers have been taking their patterns offline until they receive some sort of clarification on exactly how the new rules affect them.
I chose the pattern for this sweater back in October, but I forgot to actually buy it before New Year. Last week I went to download it, and found that it's no longer available. I may be able to find it elsewhere if I hunt around, and it may become available through Ravelry again at a later date, but sadly I don't think I'll have time to knit that sweater before the end of this month as I'd initially planned. I do hope that Gemma will forgive me!
I did at least manage to finish the other project that I wanted to take up north. These were delivered to Vikkie over the weekend:
Turks
So yes, I was up in Newcastle again last weekend. My step-dad had to have a minor operation, and needed someone to stay with him for the next 24 hours in case he had any adverse reaction to the anaesthetic. He is fine I'm pleased to say, and even went out for a game of snooker the same night he had the op!
While I was up there I took the opportunity to visit my dad too, and he had a gift for me. I can't remember if I mentioned that I'd made a contact at Bakewell who might be able to supply me with a Turkish Spindle. Well after a long correspondence, caused by me being distracted mostly, I did acquire a beautiful turk from the lovely Angie:
This is it separated into its component parts. The 'whorl' cross is made from Zebrano wood, and the spindle itself is made from Yew.
I showed this to my dad, and explained how pleased I was to have found one, as they're so difficult to get hold of in the UK. So my daddy being my daddy, he disappeared into his shed for a while, and came back with this:
Penguins
Christmas was barely over last time I made an update, so I've got a few more Christmas presents to show you:
From left to right we have; a set of Russian Doll penguins given to me by Stephen's parents, a ceramic penguin storage pot given to me by Alan and Vikkie, intended for holding sweeties I think, but I'm using him to hold my crochet hooks, and Barry the Geordie Penguin from Gemma, Graham, and the boys. In the words of Phedre from the amazing Kushiel's Legacy series of books by Jacqueline Carey, "Not all family is born of blood and seed." This is so true, and all of these gifts are from my family, regardless of the fact that we don't share blood-lines. They are all awesome.
Then there's this:
I've mentioned before that I run when I've talked about doing the Race for Life. I run slowly, and I often get laughed at by the teenagers hanging out in the park for my size and waddling gait. Then I discovered The Penguin Chronicles, and I didn't feel so alone in my struggles anymore. Then I saw an oversized t-shirt of the type I prefer to wear when I run, with a picture of a knitting penguin on the front of it. It's like all of my hobbies in one awesome garment! And it was on sale! I had to have it!
Finally, just to prove that I can acquire new penguins absolutely anywhere, while I was waiting for Davie (my step-dad) to come back from his operation, I went to buy a cup of tea from the hospital cafeteria. On a shelf behind the counter they had an array of cuddly toys and a sign saying that all proceeds from the sale of these toys went to the hospital trust charity. Right at the front of this gathering of plushies was this fellow:
It would have been rude not to, right?
I think that's it for now, so take care my darlings.
