I suppose I’m not really that new to dress making any more, but I’ve felt like a stumbling newbie for so long I’d kind of just got used to it. Looking back I see that I started my endeavours in earnest back in May ‘22, but not that much in earnest as I made a grand total of five things in these past four years.

Basically it hasn’t come easy to me at all. As I mentioned in my last dressmaking themed post (linked below), this is partly because I seem to be scared of sewing garments for some reason, and partly because I haven’t been doing it often enough to build up any skills and therefore any confidence. At last though, I think the tide has turned!

I’m not sure how the idea came to me now, but at some point early in the New Year, I decided I wanted to make the Etta dress. Maybe I was just browsing the Merchant & Mills site, I’m not sure, but however the seed was sown, it definitely germinated. Before long I had a nice crisp pattern and some lovely Japanese cotton/linen blend1 fabric sat on my craft table ready to go.

Normally I would avoid a wrap dress, the fear of the skirt flying open in the wind or the neckline gaping inappropriately mean that I discounted them as a realistic option years ago. So I’m not sure why this one appealed to me, but I’m glad to say that the neckline is reassuringly high, the skirts are soothingly long and the wrap is encouragingly overlapped and anchored when tied. I glad to say I feel quite secure and comfortable in it.

My experiences so far have led me to believe that whatever I want to make, just make it a size bigger than I think I will need. I dare say it will catch me out at some point, but so far it’s holding. I made this two sizes larger than my ‘normal’ dress size2. The pattern sizing instructed me I needed one size larger, I banked on it being more like two and so it seemed to be.

There is actually nothing to report about the process of making this dress. I adopted the same ‘slow and steady’ attitude to the project that I took with the Liberty blouse and I think I was more relaxed this time too. Everything went much more smoothly and seemed to fall into place quite nicely. Sleeves were set in with no problems, even the gathering went it should. It was only as I was coming to the end, with just had the hand sewing to finish, I realised I’d actually quite enjoyed making this project.

Maybe, just maybe, I’ve turned a corner and gained a little more confidence?

S x

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My first finish of the year and it’s a totally frivolous knit.

I saw the gorgeous Manderley Scarf, by the equally gorgeous Ami Lowden (@andotherknits) pop up on my Insta feed over Christmas and although I admired her pretty pictures and very cute design, I resisted temptation at first. A seed had been planted though and when I started catching up on Jules’ (@SewSweetViolet) vlogmas and saw her planning and making a version, I quite quickly caved.

I don’t need a scarf, I can’t even really think of any justification for making a scarf, but I loved the scallops, the opportunity for colour play and the lure of the simple garter bumps. So I made it for the sheer hell of it really.

Although I was looking forward to playing with a lovely yarn colours I didn’t have a smooth ride in my selections. I wanted a nice gradient and I originally planned to start and end with the same colour yarn. I had two hanks of ‘Fairy Lights’ that I was planning to bookend my other colours with.

The first spanner in the works came when I started winding up the yarns. Choices that looked like they would work together when the twisted hanks sat side by side, suddenly didn’t look right once they were wound into cakes and my two skeins of ‘Fairy Lights’ looked so different that the plan for sitting one at either end didn’t make a whole lot of sense any more.

So I made a few yarny switches, rewound the swaps and then set off with my new colours. Things went fairly smoothly once I started. It’s a nice easy pattern and once the initial scallops are done it’s really plain sailing. Ami is a wonderful pattern writer and always gives you all the little extra bits of information and guidance which make knitting her patterns a breeze.

I did have a few moments hesitation after I started knitting. Some of the colours, that looked one way in a hank, another way when wound and somehow different again when knit, made me pause for thought again. I ideally wanted something softer between ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ and ‘Winter’ for a smoother slide from the pink to the paler shades, but I didn’t have anything that fit the bill exactly but ‘French Earl Grey’ was the closest and is a glorious colour, so that was a last minute switch.

I also found the greens in ‘Winter’ stood out far more than I thought they would. It’s also an utterly glorious colour, but when knitted up next to the pink it seemed to emphasise the green tones all the more, which I wasn’t at all sure about. It’s such a precious yarn (dyed by dear friend Sam) that I did contemplate ripping back and saving it for something else, but decided to stick with it in the end.

It’s unlikely that I’d ever knit this again, as I couldn’t really justify making it this time round. But if I ever do, I’d like to remind myself that in a project like this, where the yarns have to blend in one solid piece, I should pay a little more attention to the weight and fibre choices. The ‘Fairy Lights’ is a plumper yarn and feels heavier than the others as a result. Also ‘Winter’ has some silk in, which makes it little less firm and gives a softer drape than the others. All things I should have known, things I do know in fact, but I suppose my focus on the colours made them slip my mind. Ahh well, you live and learn…. in theory! Luckily I don’t think it affected the outcome too much and after all, this is just for me.

So the end result was a little different than I intended, but I think it came out ok. It was a fun and easy knit, it was another great stash buster and those scallops are just the cutest.

S x

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She’s done!

What can I say about this wonderful, vast, cosy and totally delicious blanket now it’s all complete? Well, I can tell you all the nitty gritty of the yarns, the size, the number of squares, construction process and so on, and I will do that. But more importantly, I want to tell you how much I absolutely love this blanket and how much I’ve enjoyed every last bit of making it. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact I’m getting such a kick out of seeing it all complete and sitting beautifully on my bed, I’d really be missing making it still.

I started this epic back in October ‘24. I wanted a new, huge blanket to go on my bed in the colder months and I also craved a nice, simple, cosy feeling project to work on during Autumn and Winter. You can read more about the inception of the project below if you’d like to…

(This is also where you will find a lot of the aforementioned logistical nitty gritty, yarns (such as I can), size, the process so far & such, if you’d like more information on that kind of thing.)

In that first cold season over winter and into the new year I worked away on my little squares and in March I had the 900 that I needed. That felt like a great milestone and with the worst of the cold weather behind us, the perfect time to hibernate this comfortingly cosy project until it was next needed.

I had sorted my yarns into bolder and more colourful shades for the first two rounds, and it was good to see that my baskets of colours were now so depleted. The amounts needed for a round or two were so small that I could use every last scrap of my favourite left-overs and nothing went to waste. I also now had 4 boxes filled with the most beautiful array of colourful squares. I enjoyed seeing these around the place so very much that it almost seemed better to just keep them in this form, rather than convert them into a finished blanket!

Plan of attack

But Autumn of ‘25 rolled round and the ‘cosy project’ craving reared its head again. As much as I loved the eye candy of those boxes, I really, really wanted the finished blanket too. So the boxes would have to be raided and the joining would have to start. The reason I wanted all my squares completed first was to make sure that I could distribute them vaguely evenly. I had such a mish mash of colours and yarns, some were used in only one or two squares, some of which featured in twenty or more and I wanted to make sure I didn’t have recognisable yarns or bold colours all clumped in one area and not at all in others.

It did mean that I had 900 squares to join though, which was a bit daunting, not to mention logistically difficult to lay out and plan in one go. So I decided to break it down into four sections, a quarter of the blanket at a time and a bit more manageable at 225 squares each. But even so, I still needed to make sure I’d have a good spread of yarns and colours before I began. So I decided to sort all of my squares into broad colour groups before I started.

Colour Palette (Inners)

Deep magenta, bold orange, deep & brick reds, cool & warm mid & pale pinks, rusts, peaches, mustards, yellows, deep & mid browns, warm & cool beiges, a few mid & pales greys and a smattering of pale blues.

Once this was done, I split each of those colour groups into four so I would have roughly even amounts in each section. (A little nerdy no doubt, and too much fuss for many, but to me it was the only way!) Once I was happy I had roughly even starting point, I started on the layout.

I needed to arrange the squares in a 15 by 15 grid. Starting with the bolder colours, I randomly placed squares, spreading them out over the area. Then I worked my way through the different colour groups, adding squares here and there, trying to avoid any of the same colour groups sitting next to each other. It was quite hard to keep to a grid formation at first, but as more squares got placed, it became easier to see where the rows and columns would fall. Then it was just a case of collecting up each row and numbering them all. Finally the joining could begin.

Colour Palette (Outers)

Warm & cool mid & pale beiges, creams, off whites, pale pinks & peaches, pale yellows, pale greys and a few deep browns.

It was a little bit harder to plan how to spread the calmer, more neutral colours of the third round across the blanket, but I just tried to use them as evenly as I could. I had a mix of shades, so I made sure the same yarns or colour groups were never next to each other and tried to spread the smaller left-over scraps in among the whole skeins as well as I could.

With all of this detailed explanation it probably sounds like a torturous, lengthly and agonised process but actually it was just the opposite. I wanted to split the colours across the sections to make sure there was a good spread, but once that was done, all of the other decision making was very casual. I didn’t deliberate for ages over the colour placement of the squares, just made sure nothing jarring stood out. The same with the joining, it didn’t take much thought, I just picked up a new yarn for every square I attached and made sure it was slightly different from the one I’d picked last. Honestly in a blanket with this many different colours and yarns I don’t think I could really have gone wrong.

The home straight

It all came together so much quicker than I thought too. I imagined making a good amount of progress, but was quite prepared for the joining process to flow well over into this year. But, the more I enjoyed seeing it grow, the more I wanted to add ‘just’ one more row’ and see it grow a little more. In the end, I could see that it would be joined in time for Christmas and I might even get a finish before the end of the year, so I started to plan the border.

Using bits and pieces of scraps had worked brilliantly for the small amounts needed for a square, but with a blanket of this vast size I knew just once around the outside of the whole blanket would take a good chunk of yardage and I wanted to have a few rows at least. I estimated the amount of yardage I thought I should need and reckoned I’d want around 60g or so for each round I wanted to do. This is where holding two strands of 4ply together to make DK weight was so very helpful. I only had a few yarns which had 60g or more left, but I did have quite a few balls of 30g or so that I could pair up together. I even managed to work some of my scrappy amounts in, picking ones that looked similar in colour and then holding them together with another yarn. Very satisfying!

My gut feeling was that the border should be very simple for this blanket, so after a bit of deliberating and some quick experiments, I decided the border of just straight granny rounds would be perfect. I didn’t even add a scalloped row to finish, just a neat squared edge was what I felt was needed. I worked 7 granny rounds, 2 in paler colours, 3 bringing out some of the shades in the blanket, then a further 2 of the paler before ending with a round of dc stitches. Utterly pared back, a frame with no flourish, but in my mind it’s exactly right.

This is such a huge blanket, I’m sure it must be the largest I’ve made and it weighs in at an incredible 4kg! I’m not totally certain of the yardage it took. I used such a mixture of 3 and 4ply yarns, sock yarns as well as DK that it’s hard to say for sure, but I’m estimating it at somewhere around 17,500 yards. Of course that’s a rather scary figure in terms of volume of yarn used, but it’s not like it’s something that happened overnight. The yarns I used here are a culmination of literally years and years of collecting and gathering yarns and saving any and all oddments that remained from projects created in my knitting/crochet life so far. It seems it can mount up!

More than a blanket

Now I can pour over this blanket and spot so many gems in here that mean so much to me. It’s filled with some of my most favourite left overs and minis, treasured gifts and swapped yarns that make it so, so much more than a stash buster blanket, even though it did that job amazingly too. It’s been a true joy working on this. Picking colours to put together, enjoying my favourites as I worked each one up, knowing that as well as appreciating them in the moment, that they would make something so special that I will savour in the years to come.

So in the end, this blanket was finished just in time for Christmas and it’s like the most brilliant present to myself, both now it’s finished and while I was making it. It’s been such a warm, comforting and cosy project physically, but also emotionally and mentally. It’s been a huge hug of a blanket.

S x

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Happy New Year! I hope that your festive break, whatever it looked like for you, was an enjoyable, or at least a calm and peaceful one?

I wanted to do a little update on my creative doings over the festive period and as we ease into this new year. There seems to be a huge push back on the idea of resolutions and the ‘new year, new me’ ethos in recent years. I think a lot of it has to do with strenuous exercise regimes, strict diets, denying yourself pleasures and the tumultuous events of recent years leading to us feeling that the job of merely surviving is enough to be getting on with. I certainly get that.

Personally though I love the hope of a bit of ‘fresh start’ energy. It’s a new year, a blank page, nothing has gone wrong yet and that brings feelings of optimism and possibility for me.

So I like to make a few plans for things I’d like to try and accomplish or focus on in the year ahead. When it comes to expectations and goal setting I like to keep things loose and achievable. Less about end results, more about deciding on a direction of travel and seeing if that takes me where I wanted to go. Looking out for some milestones along the way and seeing if it’s those or others that I find.

Which brings me to my intention last year for Substack. I wanted to try and rejuvenate my blog post writing and record my creative projects. I wrote 14 posts, I can’t say I completely succeeded in that endeavour, but I know me, and it tends to take me a bit of a run up at such things to really get going with them and the new year seems as good a time as any to renew my attempt.

To begin, I thought I’d wrap up the last of my makes from 2025…

Christmas Economy Block Quilt

I talked about this quilt on my Christmas Special Podcast (which I’ll link below if you fancy it). I had finished the quilt top and just had the backing and binding to do. I wasn’t necessarily planning on getting it all done in time for Christmas, I was just aiming for it not going too far into this year and hoping it would be ready for next season. As it turned out, I managed the last of the binding stitches while sitting under it on Christmas Eve, so that was lovely.

I didn’t want it to be a huge quilt as I haven’t made one for a while. This was intended to ‘ease me back' in’ and I wanted to quilt it on my home machine too, so I went for a lap size using 8” ‘Economy blocks’. (I used the tutorial on this site as it included info on how to adapt sizes.) I had fun choosing and fussy cutting the centres for those and although the whole thing isn’t perfect, I did enjoy the process and was quite content to let the imperfections go. I also have a ‘quiet moments’ video of me making the quilt top so I’ll stick the link for that below too.

Father Christmas Felt Decoration

Earlier in the year I had gifted myself this little treat from Pretty Fabrics & Trims and saved it for the ‘inbetween days’, when I stitched it up in the glow of the fairy lights. As I have said so many times before, I love Sarah’s kits and this one was no exception and just perfect for those lazy days. Next year he’ll get his chance to hang on the tree.

Gilded Doilies

You can never have enough doilies, or so my motto seems to be and even though I have quite a few, I still found myself thinking there was a place or two about my Christmas decked home which didn’t yet have one! So, I whipped up a few more in patterns I’ve used before, but this time adding a golden touch to make them more festive. Two using the Inscribed Snowflake by Julia Hart with different amounts of gold and one using Festive Feast by Drops and I love how they all turned out.

Sitting by the Fire Blanket

I also put the finishing touches to my latest vast and very cozy granny square blanket. Again this was a finish I wasn’t sure I would manage in 2025, particularly as I suspected that the joining might be a rather lengthy process. It turned out to come together, if not quickly, then as least much quicker than I anticipated and the border was complete before we’d iced the cake or finished wrapping the presents.

This one deserves an exclusive post of it’s own though I think, so for now I’ll leave you with this small peek and a link to my post earlier this year where I shared the story so far…

Thanks so much for reading and I’ll hope to be back with more projects soon.

Wishing you a healthy and happy 2026!

S x

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A while ago I made a couple of crochet cases for my glasses, which I shared them on my podcast some time ago. Since then my need of reading glasses seems to have grown and grown so I grabbed myself a couple another pair of those cheap ones the other day. So handy to have them wherever you know you need them, and now I can have a set in the craft room too. Which of course means, I need a new case!

As the original case seemed quite popular and I got some questions about how I made it, I thought I’d take you through the process with me this time. So that’s the subject of my latest ‘Quiet Moment’s video. I say a Quiet Moments video but it’s sort of become instruction video as well I suppose. It’s not quite a functional ‘how to’ tutorial though, it’s hopefully retained some of the peaceful, calm and relaxing ‘moments’ feel, as well as being useful.

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I’ve written up the instructions below too so they can be used as an easy reference and a memory jog. It will save trawling through to find the right spot in the video, but you can always refer back to the video to see how I did it, if you get stuck anywhere too. The best of both worlds (hopefully)!

So here’s the video:

And here’s what I did…

The crochet part

This pattern is very adaptable to whatever yarn you have in stash, as you can make the sizing up as you go. But for reference, here’s what I used

Yarn: Stylecraft Organic Cotton DK

Hook: 3.5mm1

Size: Adaptable as I say, but I ended up with a case 2.5” wide, by 6.25” tall (6.d x 16 cm)

Terms: UK (as I’m UK based) But here’s a translation for you:

UK = US

dc (double) = sc (single)

tr (treble) = dc (double)

ch = chain, sl st = slip stitch, st/s = stitch/es, shell = 3tr sts

Here’s what I did:

Starting chain: You need a multiple of 3, plus 1 more. I used 10 for this case, but you could do 13, 16, 19, etc.

R1: Chain 1, make a dc into the second chain from the hook, and then into each chain to the end. You should have the same number of stitches as you starting chain. (In my case 10)

Now we work in rounds:

R2: Chain 1, and without turning the work, rotate around so that you are working into the back of the starting chain (the bottom of the stitch just made). Make a sl st into the base of the first stitch. Chain 3 (which counts as your first tr) then work 2 tr stitches into the same place. *Skip 2 sts and then work 3tr’s (a granny shell) into the base of the next st. Repeat the instructions from * to the end.

Now we’ll work along the other side of R1, working into the top of the dc sts this time:

So rotate the work again, and make a shell (3tr) into the first dc, *skip 2 sts and work a shell into the next st. Repeat from * again to the end, then make a sl st into the top of the starting 3 chain.

All the rest of the rounds will be worked in the same way…

Attach a new colour to any of the spaces between shells, then:

R3: Ch 3, 2tr in same place, then work 3tr into each space around to the beginning, sl st into top of starting 3 chain to finish.

Work as many more rounds as you need to get a good length, then to finish, I work one more round…

Last round: 2ch, 1dc in same place, 1 dc in each stitch around, sl st into top of first dc.

That’s it for the case, just the small matter of weaving in the ends of course!

For the lining

I picked two different fabrics. An ‘outer’ fabric which sits under the crochet, I usually go for something plain, to blend in with my yarn colours and also an ‘inner’ fabric, which you will see when you open the case, I like to choose something prettier for this.

To see what size fabric to cut, measure the crochet case.

Width: Width of the case, times 2, plus half an inch for seams. (My case was 2.5” wide, so my fabric width was 5.5”

Length: Length of case, plus half an inch for seams (My case was 6.25”, so my fabric length was 6.75”

Cut 2 pieces, one from each fabric then sew the case as follows:

1. With wrong sides (WS) together, sew along the top edge (the width line) using a quarter inch seam.

2. Open out and press the seam open.

3. Fold in half lengthwise, WS together again, then sew along the three open sides, leaving a gap to turn out. (Make sure you leave the gap along the edge of the ‘inner’ piece of fabric.

4. Cut the corners and then turn out so the right side (RS) is facing. Take a moment to arrange everything neatly and press into place.

5. Close the turning gap by stitching along the open edge. (Or hand sew if you prefer.)

6. Fold the ‘inner’ into the ‘outer’ to make the lining.

7. Insert the lining into the crochet case and sew into place along the top edge. I used whip stitch.

For the final touch, I like to add a tie to the top in case I need to secure the glasses in the case, to carry round, or travel. Weave a ribbon, or piece of fabric in and out of the shells of the top row of grannies. Or, if like me you don’t have any ribbon that works, make a cord from your yarn!

I hope you enjoy making yours if you give it a whirl and I’d love to see what you come up with so if you fancy tagging me into your photos on Instagram (@sandracherryhrt) that would be great!

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S x

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This year has not helped me out in this regard though and has certainly put it’s far share of obstacles in my way. Rather than dwell on all of that though, let’s have a little chat and catch up on the crafty side of things because even when life hits hard it usually doesn’t bring my creative side to a complete stop, or at least, not for long. So here are some of the things I’ve been working on so far this Autumn…

Time to get cozy

First of all, my ‘Sitting by the Fire’ blanket has come out of hibernation. (You can read more about it below should you wish to.) When I tucked it away earlier this year, in favour of more summery projects, I had completed all 900 of my 2 round granny squares and had a small portion of them joined together to see how it would look.

Now that the weather has turned cooler, a nice warm and snuggly blanket project is just what I needed so the process of joining the remaining 829 squares has begun! I’ve divided the blanket into four sections of 225 squares. Laying out and deciding on the arrangement of a quarter of the squares at a time. So far I’m onto the second section, so a total of 360 squares joined so far.

I don’t know that I’ll get this completely done this year but a decent amount of progress before 2026 would feel very good.

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Wreathed in smiles

Next up is a nice a quick project that my daughter and I worked on together, an autumn wreath. I’d seen some in the shops but I find they are often too heavy on the bright oranges for my taste and so I decided to construct my own. I had a few autumn bits and pieces already and so we just needed a wreath to add them too. We also picked up a few little wooden mushrooms in Hobby Craft and spent far too long painting and re-painting them, but I like how it turned out.

Coming up Daisies

I’ve recently stumbled across the Instagram page of Hana (@Hana_Ouacreate) which I’ve found massively inspiring. Her use of colour changes on the humble granny square to make innovative new designs is so very clever. One particular design though just pushed me over the edge and I had to try it. So on the spur of the moment I began a new project, initially just to make a few squares to see how they would look, but as they looked good, I just kept going! The result was a pretty bag, just like Hana’s. It was so good I just couldn’t deviate from her idea.

Sewing a Little Happiness Every Day

I’m sure many of you will be familiar with Sarah Edgar, her beautiful site Pretty Fabrics & Trims, and these legendary seasonal samplers from her #sewalittlehappinesseveryday series. I have collected them all now and am trying to make each one in the appropriate season. I’ve now finished the ‘Autumn’ sampler. I always enjoy working on these projects but this one gave me particular pleasure. My shoddy embroidery is slowly improving and that together with this super cozy designs makes the stitching so much more satisfying.

You can read a little about my last sampler, the Christmas themed one here…

It’s beginning to look a bit like…

Which leads me nicely on to talking about a little idea I’ve had ruminating away lately, which is a Christmas themed quilt. I have made one before, a little research shows me it was way back in 2011 though, wow! So it seems high time (or at least not too unreasonable) to think about starting another. I’m in the plotting and planning stage and have just placed a rather tasty little fabric order so I’m excited to think about starting this one. I tried out a little test square today to see how it would look, what do you think? These fabrics aren’t the ones I’ll be using, I’ll be going for something a little more bright, retro and jolly, but I think I like the idea!

S x

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Although I have been sewing for quite sometime, I am a very tentative seamstress. I have only made a couple of things so far but despite mixed results, I do now actually have things in my wardrobe that I have sewn and that I do wear!

For some reason, I am quite afraid of sewing garments and as a result I procrastinate terribly and even after a successful outcome, I leave it an eon before I dare pluck up the courage for another attempt. This of course means that I forget any slight skill or useful experience I had acquired and makes the whole process much harder again when I do finally take the plunge.

Despite this irrational (but I’m hoping relatable) behaviour and general lack of experience, I have also had this idea that I would love to make myself a blouse out of gorgeous Liberty fabric.1 So when Sam (my treasured friend in all things yarny and crafty) and I started to plan a trip to London, Liberty’s was top of our list.

After much delicious browsing and agonising over so many pretty designs, I chose the ‘Tapestry’ Tana Lawn fabric and decided on the Florence pattern for my top.

Fired up from our trip, I decided to not wait around before getting started and traced off the pattern and cut out my pieces before I could get cold feet. Unfortunately, that’s all I had time for, so the rest of the pattern took a while to come together. It’s probably been about 2 weeks in the making to be honest, in lots of short sessions fit in here and there, but I don’t necessarily think that was a bad thing.

As it turns out I’ve pretty much made this top twice. Everything started smoothly enough with the bodice construction. I had a fair amount of trepidation about the button holes as I remembered last time I tried had been a disaster. But careful following of the instruction manual and some practice runs meant everything went smoothly when it needed to. So far, so good. My first button plackets and holes completed. Then I attempted a little fitting to see how things were going…

It turns out the bodice was way too short on me. This was quite a cropped style blouse, and I still had a peplum style frill to add to the bottom but even so, there was no way it was going to work! I cursed my lack of foresight because, as I have learnt from my garment knitting, I almost always have to add a little extra length to my body (and arms if it’s a long sleeved garment). Why on earth did I not remember this when it came to a sewn garment? Apparently at 5ft 7” I am considered ‘above’ average height as most patterns are drafted for someone around 5ft 5”.

Luckily when I bought the fabric I didn’t trust myself to not make some sort of hideous mistake at some point, and made sure to get a little extra length as a contingency. So, it was back to the drawing board, but at least I had a drawing board to go back to! I lengthened the bodice pieces by 2”, re cut them and re-sewed everything I had done so far. Frustrating but good for the sewing practice I guess.

The second attempt was a much better fit and so I tackled the sleeves. Nothing feels very easy to the novice sewist and so this wasn’t a straight forward job for me either. But after a half botched first attempt, it went well and I actually ended up with two sleeves I was happy with. This is a first for me and a pleasant surprise, as up to now I've found one goes smoothly and one goes horribly. Two going smoothly is progress!

Next up was the bottom peplum/frill, which meant my nemesis - gathering. This is one of those, ‘love how it looks’ but ‘horrible to do’ things. I have only done it two or three times before but have struggled with each time.

So I decided to take it very slowly in hopes I’d manage a little better this time. I gathered, I pinned. I pinned some more and then I sewed it in place. I held it up to inspect afterwards and knew something wasn’t quite right. I hoped a little pressing would sent things straight but as I started in with the iron I saw the issue. I had sewn my seam line with the huge gathering stitches too and that had puckered the seam up as well. Ahh!

Of course, it was back to the unpicker and a morning’s work wasted. But the experience wasn’t entirely useless as I had picked up a few tricks for my next attempt. A different colour thread for the gathers to make it easier to see for a start and I also had a better feel of where to place my gather lines and how much drawing up was need to fit the bodice. The next day I set out on the second attempt and I’m glad to say this time all went as it should. It still isn’t completely perfect but it’s really not bad at all and certainly my best gathering work so far.

So I have done it! I have made a cute little blouse using the prettiest Liberty fabric and I’m actually really quite proud of it. It took me ages and I either remade or unpicked and re-sewed almost every part of it at some point, but in the end, I did it!

S x

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Well, how are you? It’s been a while since I last posted (almost 5 months) and I have been feeling a tiny bit guilty about that fact for at least the last three of those five months. I started my Substack at the beginning of the year in a flurry of excitement and rejuvenated hopes for re-kindling my blog-style posting of the past, but given my track record since I started podcasting, I suppose it’s not surprising I didn’t quite fulfil that promise. Nevertheless, I am here now, and somewhat unoriginally, it’s because I have something to hawk. 🙄

Yes, I’m here because I have completed a new pattern and I’m somewhat tentatively attempting to drum up some trade. You see, despite having been in this ‘pattern selling’ game for years now, I really don’t find the process of releasing a pattern any easier. Even less so, promoting it. I did start to gain some confidence in the area for a while and for a time even felt more… if not comfortable, at least accustomed to the process. But, in recent years that has declined again and now I’m back to very uncomfortable, unconfident and honestly really wondering why I even bother continuing with this strange ‘job’ of sorts I seem to have created.

But I don’t seem to have actually given up yet, so here I am. With my new pattern. It’s called the Florentines Blanket and it’s been a total pleasure for me to work on. I came up with the original motif quite a few years ago when I wanted to a pretty crochet design that would show off hand dyed yarns and that could be made with just one 20g mini. As is often the case, despite liking the creation, it got put to the side while I worked on other things.

Recently it resurfaced though. I’ve been worked on de-stashing some of my 4ply/fingering weight yarns and my latest obsession is holding them double. It helps mitigate the tininess of 4ply motifs and with a 4mm hook seems to work up nicely like a DK weight. I decided to try this motif out in this new style and loved the effect. It makes a lovely size motif and it also inspired me to come up with a better way to fit the motif into a nice square which I had struggled with before. Huzzah!

Armed with a motif I liked, I set about pulling out some of my favourite 4ply left-overs and random minis and happily settled into working up motifs. (I have a little video I made of me enjoying this part.)

I decided to keep to 24 motifs, the idea being that it would then work perfectly with a 20g advent yarn calendar, a way to show off each day’s yarn! Honestly I could have made many more though, they seemed to come together so easily. I added one more round to each square, to frame each one and as a way to join too. A simple border with a playful bobble and the whole blanket was done. It seemed to go in a flash.

In something of record time (by my own terrible standards) the pattern didn’t take too long to pull together either. I have my usual written instructions in both UK or US terms. The whole pattern is charted as well, so if a more visual option is your preference, then I have you covered. I’ve also linked to a range of photo tutorials that I thought might be useful. I’m calling this an intermediate pattern, just because there are a few non basic stitches (puffs and bobbles) and some experience with Join As You Go would be useful, but otherwise it’s quite straight forward I think.

All there is to do now is send it off into the world and to hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

If it sounds like something that you might be interested in, the pattern page link is below for you. Full of all the details you need to know and some lovely purchase links too.

Florentines Blanket

I can even offer you a discount on Ravelry sales of 20% off till the end of August! Get it while it’s hot, as they say!

S x

I’ve come across a few things lately that talk about procrastination being an emotional problem. Meaning you avoid a task because you anticipate doing it will make you feel a negative emotion: anxious, annoyed, like you’re failing, or doing it wrong. This makes perfect sense to me and I’m as guilty of it as the next person.

But, is it still procrastinating if the reason you aren’t doing the task is because you’ve hit a block in the road with a project and there’s no clear way to continue? Is the resulting inaction actually procrastination or is it thinking time? Space to allow creativity to spread her wings?

Should you ‘work the problem’ and get stuck in, hammering answers out, thinking of 100 solutions, hoping that somewhere in all the inevitable dross a glint of brilliance will shine through? Or do you just sit back and ponder a while? And are those two things really that different? One more visible, one more theoretical?

Certainly I’ve heard a lot of advocates for the first option. Writing certainly seems famously to hinge on the ‘write something first, make it good second’ principle. I’ve heard it applied to all kind of writing and many other creative endeavours and again, it makes so much sense.

But when it comes to making (crafting), I’m wondering if diving in isn’t the best idea. If I knit half the sweater or crochet half the blanket and then work out the solution I needed all along, I could well end up having to undo all my work and going back to the starting line. Granted, this is often part of the creative process too. But if it was something I just needed some time to think through before I started? That’s going to be pretty frustrating. More a case of ‘look before you leap’.

I’ve been thinking about this because I recently made a sweater where I had a big gap between intending and actually starting it. I called it procrastination at the time, but now I wonder if maybe I was just stuck at a creative bottle-neck. Something needed to wiggle it’s way free and once it had, everything ran smoothly again.

I often have this with a project. I get to a point where I just stop and nothing happens for a while. I procrastinate over what to do or how to move it forward. But rather than procrastination per se, I think it’s because I have a problem that I haven’t solved, (at least to my own satisfaction1).

Quite often the way to ‘move forward’ when I am making is to just decide something. Should I go for option 1 or option 2? When I get stuck it’s because I don’t like either option enough to choose it. Sometimes I think you can ‘settle on’ one of those as being close enough and sometimes it even stops being a problem after a decision of any sort is made. But I often spend my a decent chuck of my time trying to think up option 3. But maybe this is the necessary step, the creative step. Allowing myself the time to think and come up with a new idea, a different solution.

“You call it procrastination, I call it thinking.” ~ Aaron Sorkin

Because I’ve learnt that creativity, as least for me, needs space. I can not come up with new ideas without some empty(ish) time in which to think of them. Sure, an idea might spring seemingly from nowhere, a sudden spark of inspiration. But I’ll bet that’s because the mind had the space to wonder and find the way to it in the first place.

So maybe what I’ve called ‘procrastination’ is just ‘creative process’ and something I should be more accepting of? Maybe the project stops until the project can move on. In fact, maybe it doesn’t stop, it simply enters the ‘thinking’ phase. When the time is right, when the decision is made, the creative avenues explored, the third option found, then the ‘making’ part of the project resumes? I think that might be it.

Or maybe I’m just adding combustible excuses to my hungry procrastination fire?

S x

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I've been talking about this blanket on my podcast lately, (here and here if it's of interest) and how it's making my crochet heart happier than it's been in a long time. It doesn't have to be granny squares, although the rhythmic simplicity of them does really hit the spot with me, but something about creating stacks of crocheted squares and seeing them pile up on one side, a basket full of colourful yarn balls sitting the other. Oh how it just makes my little heart all warm and content.

As you'll know if you've seen the podcast, I'm calling this one the 'Sitting by the Fire' blanket. Because that's the image I had in my head as I was thinking of the colours I wanted to use. Warm colours that said 'curl up and snuggle right here, all cozy by this toasty fire and maybe with a little hot chocolate to drink too'. A literal and metaphorical warm hug of a blanket is what I'm aiming for.

As much as I do chatter way on the podcast and show my progress, it can be hard to cover everything without making an epic feature of the thing and I've been getting a few questions about the yarn, the process I'm using, how I am placing the colours and so on, which I thought it might be useful to cover here.

Let's get into the detail...

(Summary at the end if you want to cut to the chase!)

Yarn & Hook

It would be impossible to pin down exact details here as I have such a vast and wide ranging amount of different yarns in this blanket. Yarn from a multitude of different yarn dyers and vendors, collected up in whole skeins, minis and swaps from over many years1. In fact I have raided my stash in a very literal sense and have scoured through it all to find the most suitably warm and snuggly colours that I could contribute to the cause. I have a (possibly embarrassingly) large amount of 4ply/fingering weight yarn, more than I really have space for, so I am using that for the most part.

Because I've had my fill of 4ply blankets for the time being and I didn't want to be making this blanket for the rest of my life, I am holding the yarn double (ie: 2 strands together) when crocheting. Using it this way equates nicely to working with a DK weight and so I have also found a few balls of DK in the right colours and work and I have added those to the mix.

As using the yarn in this way is like using a DK weight yarn, I'm using the standard hook size for DK, 4mm, or a G hook if you are stateside.

Size & Yardage

I'm actually basing the idea of this blanket on one I made several years ago, which I still love, but wanted to re-make in warmer tones. So I'm sticking to the three round granny squares of the original, but I want it to be a little larger. My plan is for it to be 30 squares wide by 30 squares long and so I'm aiming for 900 squares. A bit of a daunting task but I'm trying not to focus on that part! My squares are coming out at about 7cm (2.5") so the final blanket should be somewhere in the region of 2m (82") square.

It's always hard to know how many yards you'll need to finish a huge blanket, especially when you don't know the final plan when you begin. As I'm not sure on the border yet, I'll just think about the squares for now and worry about the rest later. To begin, I made up about 60 squares, with all three rounds completed, and weighed those. From that I worked out how many grams I was using per square and therefore roughly how many grams I'll need for 900 squares. The answer is a lot!

Process

Now I've collected up all my colours I'm happily working on my crochet production line. I've divided the amount of yarn I need loosely into two halves. The first group of colours are the more saturated tones and they will make the first two rounds of my squares. The second group are the paler, more neutrals tones and those will be used for the third (joining) round.

First I'm making a one round granny out of each of my more saturated tones. I let them all pile up in a little basket until I've worked through every colour. Once that's done, I sit and weave in all the ends. The next step is to match all these little centres up with another saturated colour, this will be the second round colour. I tip all my yarn out on the floor and then allocate a centre to each one. I'm not being too precious about this, not thinking about the match up too much, just avoiding combos which I really don't like.

Once that's done, I collect them carefully all up and work on adding all the second rounds. This is where make all the lovely little towers of squares that please me greatly. Again, I leave the ends for now and just work them in when all the second rounds are added.

That's it for now. Apart from the first 60 or so squares that I made and joined together at the beginning, where I worked all three rounds, I'll make up all the other squares I need to the two round stage, using up all my saturated colours, until I have the amount I need. Then I'll work on the layout and joining.

Layout & Joining

The reason I'm working up just two round squares for now is so that I can distribute my colours in a way that I call 'organised random'. It'll probably be a term familiar to you if you've been with me for a while, but it's my favourite way to distribute colours in a natural looking way. I don't generally love following a specific system for a layout as it ends up in a more regimented scheme, or creates a distinct pattern, neither of which I would usually go for. But I also don't want to go completely random and have no thought to where colours end up at all. I wouldn't want similar colours too close to each other or to create eye jarring colour clashes. I like to achieve a layout where the colours and patterns are not ordered but are still evenly distributed and look natural and pleasing. Of course, it often takes quite a bit of time and effort to create this 'natural' look! ;)

With this vast number of colours though, I don't think it will be too difficult to create a fairly random look and I'm planning on being quite loose with how I place the squares. As I have do have a few stronger tone yarns I want to make sure their depth of colour is distributed nicely across the blanket though. I also have varying quantities of the different yarns and colours, so I want to make sure the yarns I have more of don't dominate and yarns I have less of are well spaced. This will be much easier if I wait to the end.

Once I have all my two round grannies complete, I can work on the third round with the neutral tomes, joining as I go. I have a mix of these paler colours too so I'll have to be careful to try and distribute these evenly as work on joining. I'll also be throwing in a few squares that have a slightly darker third round, to keep things interesting.

Well I think that's everything, but if you do have any questions, please do just ask below!

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I’ve been wanting to change up the way I make videos and podcasts, so I’ve come up with the ‘making:’ series where I’ll talk about the process and experiences while making one project. I’m starting with the Ranunculus so you can watch the video or read the post…

Last year Sam (my yarn friend) and I went to Unravel Autumn and amongst the many gorgeous stands, one in particular stood out for us, the Raw Wool Company. There we met Anton who explained to us that their yarn is completely natural and undyed (different colours originate from a range of sheep breeds) and that he and a group of other young farmers, all based in Cornwall, oversee the whole process, from rearing the sheep themselves to spinning the yarn locally.

“Yarn in the colours sheep intended.” ~ Raw Wool Company

We loved everything about this stand. How it looked, the story, the people, the pictures of sheep and of course, the yarn. So naturally I wanted a special project to show off my special yarn. I pondered various different projects but when I stumbled across the softest, fluffiest yarn I’ve ever felt (also from Unravel) I thought that pairing these two together would be the ideal thing to do. So I tested them in a swatch to see how they would look, but the contrast between the two colours was too great and as much as the additional fluffiness was soft and lovely, it was rather hiding the gorgeous Raw Wool which I really wanted to shine.

I ended up settling on making a Ranunculus. I’m not sure how I came to it now, but it’s a hugely popular pattern which everyone seems to knit at some point so I’m sure it was just a matter of time before I did too. I do know I could imagine this lovely dark Raw Wool looking good in that pattern. So the paler yarn, despite its fluffy credentials had to go.

The pattern is designed to be knit using any weight of yarn from lace to worsted but on large needles, so that the weight of yarn determines the feel, drape and openness of the fabric. I didn’t want something very light and lacy, but as I had opted for the 4ply version of the yarn, I thought that holding it together with something else would still be the answer. So next I tried pairing it with some Kid Silk Mohair, in a dark brown. The colour was great, but the fabric was still very open and I wasn’t convinced I’d be happy if I went ahead with that either. So which was the best option, or should I do something else?

It seems I wasn’t willing or able to make a clear decision as my next step was to procrastinate for about three months. The swatches hung around, waiting me to get my act together. Eventually, I decided to have a look at the pattern details again, I think with a view to seeing if I could come up with third option. Exactly what yardage would I need and did I have something in stash maybe?

Well, apparently the 3 months time-out was all part of an elaborate but very necessary process, because somewhere along the way, my plan for a long sleeve winter sweater had morphed into a short sleeve, cropped version. Suddenly the answer was blindingly obvious, I could hold my Raw Wool Yarn double and include the strand of the mohair as well. This would equate roughly to a worsted weight, give me a nice fluffy, full fabric and show the natural yarn off in all it’s glory. Eureka!

The enthusiasm sparked by this discovery led to an immediate cast on and two episodes of Extraordinary Attorney Woo meant a decent amount of yoke progress on day one. In fact, due to the ‘moreish’ nature of the yoke pattern and the yarn weight, by the end of day three (Thursday), I had started to get an inkling that it might actually be possible to finish this sweater at the weekend. A sweater in a week(?) - get out of here!

There is an amazing amount of information included in this pattern. The explanations are detailed and, I would say, leave nothing open to misunderstanding. There are also copious tutorial links on the Ravelry page to assist further. I assume it’s aimed at someone knitting their very first sweater and I think it would be a good pattern to recommend in that case. In honesty though, as I am not a beginner, I found some of this excess of instruction to be a tiny bit of an a hinderance. I would come across a paragraph of text, think ‘gosh this needs some looking at’. Settle down to read the passage, just to discover it all boiled down to a simple, ‘knit to next marker’ or something similar. But that is the merest of mere gripes. It is as well to be thorough I suppose, and anyway, I soon acclimatised to the style.

The pattern has the option of two necklines, I cast on using the smaller version and my only modifications were to the body length and the sleeves. For the length, I knit to match an existing cropped sweater that I love and added some short rows to the back just before the ribbing. The short sleeve version of the pattern cast off immediately after separating for the body which left them very loose and open. I wanted something slightly more structured, so I added a few rounds, then worked a few decreases before finishing with the i-cord bind off from the long sleeve version.

But back to the mounting tension1 of the knitting itself, I was 3 days in, the weekend was approaching and I had aspirations of finishing in less than a week, I know you’ll be on tenterhooks…. did I manage it?

Yes, I did it! I actually knit a sweater in 6 days!

It would usually take me at least a month, probably two, so this feels like quite the achievement. Of course there are some massive caveats about why it was so quick, it had short sleeves, it’s cropped in style, it’s knit on big needles, I happened to have a lot of knitting time that weekend… you get the picture. This is not a normal level of production for me is what I’m saying. But, futile achievement though it may be, it’s still one that is very pleasing to me.

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As much as I always have a project (or several) on the go, when it comes to travelling, only specific types of project will do. So what do you do when a long journey rolls around and you have nothing suitable to take? Well then it’s time for an emergency cast on of course!

Now that Millie (our daughter) is at university in Cornwall, we like to pop down to visit her every so often. Well I say ‘pop’, for us it’s a 300+ mile trip each way which usually takes at least 6 hours and can be much longer… our record so far is 9 hours 40 minutes. Luckily for me, Hubby is more than happy to shoulder the burden of driving, which is good, as I am more than happy to shoulder the burden of industriously stitching in the passenger seat.

That length of journey can be seen (and is) a bit of a chore, but for those of us than can manage in-car craft, it’s also a bit of a gift. I find car bound knitting much more comfortable than crochet on the move (something to do with looking down less I think), so that’s my project of choice when travelling.

On this occasion though, I had nothing on the needles (gasp!) and nothing suitable to take with me, so the only solution was to cast something on sharpish! The question was - what? I hadn’t actually planned on making any more garments for a while, but as I was scratching around for something to fit the ‘emergency cast on’ bill I scrolled through my Ravelry queue for inspiration.

Which reminded me that I wanted to make another cropped Whitmoor Sweater. The first is such a wardrobe staple of mine that I wanted to make a second in a different colour. Not only that, but I had some yarn already in stash that would work for it too. Well, that seemed just about perfect.

So I quickly wound up the hanks (making sure I had more than I could possibly need for a small weekend trip), printed the pattern, gathered the needles, selected a project bag, and got the first few rows underway so I wouldn’t have to cast on in the car.

Phew! Now I could leave.

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This is one of two jumpers I’ve finished this year so far. Sounds impressive, but to be honest I did a lot of work of this one before Christmas.

jumper

noun /ˈdʒʌmpə/

1. BRITISH

   a knitted garment typically with long sleeves, worn over the upper body.

   "the evenings can be chilly, so warm jumpers and sweatshirts are essential"

I intended it to be a long term project. All of that lovely stocking stitch on the body I thought would make the perfect ‘pick up and knit in front of the telly’ project, for when I had hit a sticking point on other things. It did work out that way for a while, but after I reached about half way, I started to get excited for the finish and powered through a bit.

This is supposed to be an over sized sweater, and I really wanted it to be oversized too. I’ve made a few large fit ones lately, with mixed success. I can tend to tighten up when I’m knitting and end up with something that isn’t quite as roomy as I imagined, so for this one I went up a needle size to make sure it would be nice and huge.

It worked and I’m really happy with the loose and baggy fit that I got. Due to the needle change, I have gone over on gauge a little so I did need to adjust my sleeve length accordingly. The patterns calls for 5 repeats of the sleeve lace, but I ended up only needing 4. I also found that the shoulder line wanted to sit quite far back on me. I liked how that looked, but I decided to add a few short rows to the front, just before the start of the ribbing, to make sure the hi-low hem wasn’t too drastic.

suviknits

A post shared by @suviknits

I really adore the beautiful faded/heather yarn look of the original jumper and I’m so happy that the yarn I choose ended up replicating this look perfectly - exactly as I had envisioned - now that doesn’t happen often! The Hampshire 4ply was a new yarn to me and has a lovely woolly-ness to it. A little scratchy (I’m a bit of a princess), but I’d only be wearing this over long sleeve tops, so not an issue. As the Little Grey Sheep yarn was a bit of a treat to myself at Unravel in Spring last year, I went a little cheaper for the second yarn and just paired it with some Drops Mohair.

The pattern was lovely to use, unfussy and easy to follow. This is my second Suviknits pattern and she has so many gorgeous designs that I am sure I will be making more of them in time.

Overall I am so happy with how this turned out. Suvi is one of those talented people who creates stunning designs and is able to present them so beautifully that I absolutely fall in love with the look she has achieved. I wanted my project to look just as gorgeous and I think, for once, I managed it!

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Do you enjoy a new mug? I do. They say simple things please simple minds. Well my mind must be incredibly simple because I take a great deal of pleasure in small things like a new mug. It makes me happy to select it from the cupboard, to make the tea in it and to drink from it. I enjoy how it looks, how it feels in the hand. How silly of me I suppose. But then again, it makes me easy to please.

I once read something that talked about this idea, annoyingly, I can’t remember where. But the gist of it was that if you expect happiness to come from great adventures, fantastic achievements and exciting events, then you won’t spend a lot of time being happy. If you need to wait for a big holiday abroad, to get promoted or for your birthday celebrations to roll round, then happiness is being rationed. Not only are those types of thing infrequent, but they require a lot of planning and effort to bring about and are often not guaranteed even then. How often do we go out, intent on ‘having a good time’ and the evening falls flat?

Much better if your happiness can come from the small things in life, the moments, the incidental. If your happiness can come from enjoying stepping into a warm bath, curling up with a book, taking the first bite of a tea drenched biscuit, knitting a few stitches, looking up at a clear blue sky, or indeed - choosing a pretty mug to use. Well, then your happiness is limitless. You can fit dozens and dozens of little things like that into one day. You could squeeze one or two into a busy and relatively miserable day. Wouldn’t that be so much nicer? So much easier? So much more attainable?

“It's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary.”

―Paulo Coelho

Of course, I don’t suppose we can engineer happiness but we can do things to help it along - food, exercise, sleep and such. But if we can look for, and notice it, in the small and the everyday, that could make a such difference too. We used to call it ‘taking pleasure in the little things’, now apparently they say it’s 'looking for glimmers’. That works well too, I like catching sight of these shiny flashes as I go about my day. Whatever you call it, it definitely makes a difference to me.

What small things make you happy?

S x

☕️ All my posts are free. But if you’d like to support me, you can buy me a coffee.

I’ve been trying to do a little less over the last week or so. Which might make more sense if you read my last post (linked below). I’m finding it quite nice but also slightly strange. It’s rather odd to be taking time to myself and especially at the moment, when I’m trying to discover what it is I really want to be doing.

If I was sure I wanted to continue on as I have been in the past, taking this break would be a lovely opportunity to give myself some space from the pressures of ‘creating content’ (vile expression), a break from social media and some time to dedicate to the joy of just making things. Progressing projects, starting something new.

But the thing is, I’m not sure if I want to continue on as I have done in the past. I’m not really sure of much at the moment. As I mentioned in the post above, I started the year laying out my ideas and objectives for the year ahead. No grandiose schemes or Herculean challenges, but nevertheless I had some ideas on how the year ahead might shape up… or so I thought!

So my little break is slightly more existential than some time away. I am wondering what it is I really want to do this year, and beyond. What is going to happen if I give myself some space? What will I want to fill it with? Will I just revert to my old ways, or will something new emerge?

I’m hoping time will tell.

Joyeux Noel Sampler

In the meantime, I do want to continue writing here and I also want to carry on documenting my creations. On that front, I do have some catching up to do, as I have a few finishes hot off the press. A happy side effect of taking a break to re-think my life (or something a little less dramatic), is that I can often craft and think at the same time!

My first FO is a lingering Christmas project that was so tantalisingly close to being done at the end of December that I decided to take a little time in January to get it over the line. This is the ‘Joyeux Noel’ sampler by Pretty Fabrics and Trims. From her delightful #sewalittlehappinesseveryday range. I have already completed ‘Summer’, which I worked on earlier in the year last year and I will probably work on another one of the series later this year too. I have been collecting the kits up (they make a great gift idea) and have them all now. So I am looking forward to working my way through them when the ‘embroidery’ mood takes me.

I’m not a natural at embroidery by any means so these kits are perfect for me. Something I find a little challenging, but mostly manageable and with plenty of lovely guidance. I enjoy following along with the instructions, knowing that all the difficult decision making has been taken care of with impeccable taste by Sarah and I just need to walk along the path she has already beautifully cleared for me.

The only modification I did decide to make was adding some snow and icicles to the roof of the gingerbread house. If there was snow laying on the ground, I reasoned, there would surely be snow on the roof too? I also thought it might look cute and I think it does. I’m actually reasonably pleased with how that turned out. My one diversion from the signposted route!

I enjoyed stitching this one even more than I did the first one I made. Partly because I hope my embroidery is continuing to improve and partly because there was less satin stitch on this sampler than the last. I am not good at satin stitch and find it hard to get nice neat results, so I do not enjoy doing it so much. It’s a shame as it can look wonderful. Other people’s satin stitch does look wonderful. Sometimes mine even starts out that way too, but usually at some point it seems to go slightly wrong. Not in a ‘oh that bit went wrong and I can just unpick it’ kind of a way. More in a slow realising ‘it’s not actually going quite right and I can’t pin point where the failure is, but maybe if I keep going it’ll turn out ok… oh, no, it hasn’t’ kind of a way.

But I’ve got 4 more of these to work through so maybe I will conquer those devilish satin stitches, my nemesis, by the end of it all - you never know.

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S x

All my posts are free. If you would like to support me, you could buy me a coffee. ☕️

So how has your year been so far? Mine got off to a lovely start. I’ve taken it slowly, gradually picking my way out of holiday mode and easing my way into the New Year. My birthday is early in the year so often allow myself a kind of ‘soft launch’ into the first month so I can enjoy the process and treat myself a little along the way.

I do usually get a little reflective toward the end of the year and I like to spend a little time thinking about what I’ve achieved (or not) in the year just gone by and my plans for the year ahead. Although I’ve never been one for resolutions, I do find goals and objectives quite motivating so in previous years I have often set out some things I would like to achieve or habits I want to instil.

This doesn’t always work of course, but as I enjoy this kind of thing, I find it often does work quite well for me. In recent years most of my ‘goals’ have become less targets to achieve and rather more 'vague directions of travel’ that I’d like to take, but nevertheless I find it can be useful to providing me with a little focus and something to aim for.

This year was no different and although I probably had my slowest and most gentle lead into it, once again I spent some time thinking about where I’d like to focus my efforts. The last couple of years I’ve been working on doing less rather taking on more, simplifying and attempting to reduce some of the more chaotic elements of my life.

I can be rather like a magpie and my eye is often caught by so many ‘shiny’ things that I could possibly do. I don’t just do crochet patterns, sometimes I do knitting and sewing ones too. I don’t just do patterns, I often release step by step guides as well. I don’t just record podcast videos, but I want to do my ‘Quiet Moment’ vlogs and tutorial videos too. Then there’s social media, Instagram photos and now Reels of course, plus keeping up with comments on all the various platforms and of course now I’ve started this Substack on top! My ‘doing less’ isn’t working out quite so well for me.

I recently read a post (here on Substack) which annoyingly I can’t find now, which said something like - “Just because you have the ability to do various things, doesn’t mean you should spend your time in trying to do them all.” In attempting to find it, I stumbled across this which is more concise and also very pertinent.

It got me thinking about just how much time I do spend doing things just because I ‘can’1 and wondering why. The answer is partly because I ‘can’, but also because I do enjoy them too. Which does lead me into some difficulties, because if I do want to get some things off my plate, how do I choose which ones?

I didn’t really answer this question in my plotting and planning. In fact, I now think about it, I did rather the opposite. I came up with a ‘Word of the Year’ and some ways in which I will use that to guide me over the year. I had some lovely clear thoughts about what I’d like to achieve, or ‘my vague directions of travel’ for this year. I’ve even set myself something a little more of a definite challenge this year in the shape of “Buy 50% less yarn than I use” in an attempt to reduce stash.

In thinking about ‘everything I do’ I re-visited my thinking on the whole ethos of what inspires me to create anything at all. Although this remains the same as it always has (enjoying making things and finding some calm and peace through doing so), I am now feeling nicely clear on how everything I do connects to that. It all sounds rather grand but really it’s just me feeling like I’ve been opening up more and more paths and as a result feeling like I’m being pulled in too many different directions at once. My re-thinking efforts were useful in many ways because it made me realise that actually, although I have many paths, most of them are heading in roughly the same direction.

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That felt like a good realisation. I felt like things were clearer and that I’d achieved some clarity there. Interestingly, that’s not quite what I feel like now. While I was doing the re-thinking, I also chatted over things with hubby and in doing so, we realised how seldom I take time off. I go on holiday when we go as a family, but as with any trip of that sort, there is quite a lot of preparation needed before you go and then catching up to do when you come home. That doesn’t mean it’s not great fun, very worthwhile and a lovely change, but it doesn’t always give you too much ‘rest’ as such. I also make time to see friends or do other fun things here and there in the week, so it’s not like I’m a slave to the grindstone 24/7 either. But as many self-employed/work from home people can testify, switching off from things can be hard.

I actually think I’m pretty good at setting decent work/life boundaries. I don’t have email on my phone, I have grouped notifications for certain apps so I don’t get endless interruptions, I make sure I don’t ‘work’ into the evenings or weekends regularly. But, my ‘work’ is also my hobby and vice versa, so that always blurs the lines. What I realised is, although I’ve probably managed things well enough to ensure I haven’t had a full on burn out, I also never get time in which I don’t have to think about ‘work’ at all. I can never just leave the office, shut the door and forget about it for two weeks.

So it’s been a month of mini revelations I suppose. The first is that even if my ‘paths’ are roughly aligned, there is still too many of them. The second is, I need to give myself a break, literally.

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One of the things I want to do here is keep a record of the things I make. That was always the ‘bread and butter’ of my posting content and since I stopped, I miss having that to look back upon. I also really miss the photos I used to take of the things I made. There are instagram posts of course, but it’s not the same and who’s to say when an IG account may get inexplicably shut down or hacked or otherwise meet some gloomy fate?

I chat about them on You Tube too, but as much as I try and index my podcasts, which does work quite well, a search for ‘Magical Snowflakes’ turns up a gratifying complete set of results. But watching through clips across several videos to look up something specific isn’t easy, and is far more time consuming than just popping back to read a post.

No, it’s time to resume the practise of recording my makes and so we begin with my latest, my Magical Snowflakes Blanket, the rainbow version. I made the original blanket (and the pattern) in 2023. That version featured a set of icy blue flakes (which you can see in the link above) and as much as I like that one, I also knew immediately that I wanted to make a rainbow edition. I could just see the cascade of colours across the blanket and it’s the reason the blanket is called ‘magical’. A magical multicoloured range of snowflake shades.

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I made this blanket in stages. The snowflakes were made around Christmas 2023 and then set aside. Partly due to our house move…

…but also because it seemed like a good ‘winter’ make and so come December time, it was the perfect time to re-visit the project. I figured that I would on work on it through the month and see how far I got, if necessary bringing it out next December and so on. As it turned out though I managed to fit the rest of the blanket making into one month. Almost exactly, as I finished it on the 30th. Very satisfying.

Yarn

I made this blanket using a mish mash of 4ply (fingering) weight yarn for the snowflakes. Some from yarn advents of the past, some old minis I’d collected over time and some left over from other projects. Part of the ongoing ‘reducing my stash’ drive that I’ve been working on since… well about 3 days after I ever started knitting and crocheting I think! The white yarn is Drops Baby Merino, which is a bit of a ‘go to’ of mine for pairing with 4ply yarn. It’s actually described as a sport weight and although it is a little heavier than a lot of 4ply yarns, I find it still works very well with them and is a bit more affordable than the beautiful hand dyed yarns I often work with.

Using a lot of minis in both this blanket and the last (blue) one, has got me thinking that this does actually make a great project for advent minis. You can get a minimum of 4 snowflakes out of a 20g mini and in most cases a half snowflake too. I’ve even managed 5 out of some of them. Even at 4 motifs per skein though, with 24 days of 20g minis that would give you 96 whole motifs, enough to make a blanket bigger than I’ve managed here.

Colour story

As always with my projects I ummed and ahhed over the colours and the layout. I picked out quite a few promising looking yarns as a starting point. I had some variegated minis I wanted to use with pinks, purples, blues and greens, so the basis of a kind of rainbow was there at the start, but it became clear I’d need to add a few more to the mix. So I raided the stash reserves to see what I could rustle up in colours that would work and started making up motifs. That got me most of the way there, but I was still shy of a a dozen or so motifs for the size I wanted, so back to stash again. I wanted a slightly bolder pink at the ‘top’ of my rainbow and could only find a very strong and bright ‘barbie’ pink yarn. I also needed to add another shade to fill out the ‘bottom’ of the rainbow and after much agonising decided I could tip over into yellow. I didn’t have much that I felt worked but choose the closest fit I could live with, (including an almost fluorescent yellowy-green that I really wasn’t sure of) and made those up into flakes too.

Making the grade

The layout was relatively simple. I knew I wanted to accentuate the rainbow, so I was aiming for a gradient. I didn’t want just a row of each colour, I wanted something less rigid and slightly more graduated than that. Besides, I didn’t have enough motifs in each of the shades for that, so another plan was needed. I quite quickly settled on the angled approach and I’m really happy with how that worked out. It made it easier to move from one colour to the next and still muddle a few up to make sure it wasn’t too formulaic. It also eased some of my colour qualms once I saw them all in place.

Once that was done, it was just a case photographing the evidence and getting started on the edges and joining. This is a join as you go blanket, so I worked through each colour in turn, joining each motif in place according to my layout photos and it all just fell nicely into place. I could normally manage to join one colour (4/5 motifs) in each sitting and so it made for nice smooth progress.

Seeing it steadily, seeing it whole

Now that it’s complete I blooming love it! The white edges around each snowflake just brings the whole thing together and I think works to calm those bright and bold pinks and yellows I was worried about and together with a few more punchy purples and zingy greens I’ve got mixed in there I think overall the balance of it isn’t too bad at all.

Which I am taking as a gentle reminder to self to not worry too much about exact shades of colours and agonise too long over placements. I mean, I am who I am, so I’m always going to overthink these decisions to a large extent I’m sure, but it’s another good lesson in letting go a little and trusting the broad idea rather than getting bogged down in the minutiae. You never know, maybe one day I’ll take this lesson on board.

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So what is my substack about? I’m not 100% sure yet. So, why am I here? Because I’m interested and intrigued.

I initially thought that this would be a new place to continue my existing blog, Cherry Heart. I currently have a creaky old Blogger blog and although I loved it back in the blogging hey-day, things have changed a lot since then. I started a YouTube podcast and ended up saying a lot there instead. Social media took off and the audience fragmented. Leaving Blogger comments became harder, the community grew quieter. There was less to say and fewer people to say it to. My post writing voice and habits dwindled away.

But lately I’ve been feeling the urge to revive it. There is something about getting thoughts down on a page. Forcing them from their nebulous state floating around my head to coalesce into a defined structure of words and sentences on a screen is a process that I find incredibly useful. Well, that’s hardly a breakthrough realisation, but I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it, or felt satisfied by it and need it maybe?

I’ve also been thinking about moving my website to a different platform on and off for a long time now. But it always seems like such a gargantum task, especially for someone who doesn’t really have much knowledge of how the buts and bolts of websites work. Then I stumbled across Substack. Ah ha, I thought to myself, could this be an answer? Maybe I don’t move the whole website, but just the ‘blogging’ bit? A more modern place where connection might be easier again and a few mod-cons, like - actually telling people I’ve posted - would be possible. That seemed interesting.

While I mulled over the possibilities of Substack, I opened my blog and I wrote. Going back onto Blogger felt a little like going up into the attic. It’s old and dusty, it’s a bit rickety and precarious, I wasn’t really expecting to see anyone up there.

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At first that made me a little sad. I could resume writing, but would anyone resume reading? Would anyone still be there? Would there be a point? Then something happened. Instead of feeling like it would be pointless to write if no-one was there to read any more, maybe that would be the reason to write now? Sounds strange I suppose. Is shouting into the void usually a motivator? But you see, I had been writing on the blog for a long time and I only wrote about certain things. I used to write about things that I talked about elsewhere now. So what was I writing for now? Well… because I wanted. And if potentially no-one was reading it, I was writing just for me. So… I could please myself? Bingo!

Maybe this was the chance to do something new. Something genuinely different. Something I think I’ve been craving for a while.

Which brings us here. I came here hoping to revive something I had lost, to pick up where I left off, but maybe I don’t want that. Maybe now I want to follow up on that chance and make a fresh start.

I also wanted to revive that connection to others. It’s part of what made it fun. I met some great people back then. So maybe this is a place where I can do that too.

I guess I’ll find out.

S x

❤️