The Cosy Corner

The new year started well for me but I hadn't been knitting or crocheting in a couple of years, other than to finish off one or two scarves I had started. Recently, a delightful new little shop opened not very far from my ballet shop, and I was inspired to start all over again, because I suddenly realised that I had become addicted to social media and have not been producing anything.  (This also goes for my jewellery, my photography, colouring and other things I enjoy doing in terms of arts and crafts). By constantly trawling social media, I realised that I was becoming a numbhead and somehow I wandered on to Ravelry  and was inspired to create.  Part of it was also seeing that lovely huge stash, waiting to be turned into something pretty or cosy. Ok I did buy two lovely skeins of a new yarn (will post it in my online stash at some point), but in the meantime I have started a project that burns up 3 skeins of yarn that are not matched up with anything else.  I...

I sometimes have issues with yarn weights, especially because I often buy the yarn and then try to fit it into a pattern, which is probably what most people do.  I must admit that this is fundamentally wrong, in the sense that it then becomes very difficult to gauge what we can actually do with the yarn, unless you end up buying a pattern specifically for that yarn, which is not necessarily what you want! I've ended up making many project messes with that one and will seek to avoid doing that again, believe me! Such a waste of yarn as it is never the same once you unravel it again. It seems to lose the natural feel of the fibre though that has never really made a difference to the finished project. I've managed to find a good weight guide here .  This should allow me to be able to guage whether a pattern is good for the huge stash I have at home... and hopefully to start working through it although I sometimes spend years not even looking at the yarn I have! Here is the...