String Revolution

Hardware! I love hardware. These are the accessories that came with my old Singer sewing machine, which I inherited from my great-aunts. (A Singer No. 201K, incidentally, with “rotating hook, reverse feed, for family use”.) Aren’t they marvellous-looking things?
I should confess straight off that I haven’t used a single one. When I was younger I [...]

It’s been quiet around here this past week, because the household has been felled by swine flu. The Feaster and I got it on Sunday, the Oyster on Tuesday. Niall either had it two weeks ago or will be getting it some day soon.
It knocked me over, attacked my children and scuppered my birthday, but [...]

My sister’s best college friend is from Kolkata (aka Calcutta), in India. When she went there for a visit, I gave her money and said, “Silk. You know the sort of thing I like.”
And she did. Isn’t it gorgeous? It is so GREEEEEEEEEEEEEN and so PEEEEEEEEEEEEENK.
I can’t remember how much fabric there is, but maybe [...]

Here are two skeins of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd’s Sock, which I bought in This Is Knit a long, long time ago.
I’m embarrassed (how interesting) to confess that I’ve made a grand total of – count them – two socks in my time. One pair, to be precise. Socks seem to have an almost forbidding mystique [...]

I went a little mad at the Alpaca Select stall (incidentally, that link has an automatic video, and it’s LOUD!) at last year’s Knitting & Stitching Show. That’s 100% alpaca, in a mixture of DK and 4-ply as far as I can tell (the weight is not marked on the band), and it feels gorgeous. [...]

Feast your eyes on this thrilling silk, which a dear friend brought back from Vietnam as a present for me when she travelled there a few years ago. Isn’t it amazing? I adore the way the woven pattern is so sumptuous and intricate on the front, then recedes to make way for the calm stripes [...]