Hello there, my fine fibrous friends. You know that saying about how even a stopped clock is right twice a day? Well due entirely to coincidental fortune, I've just published a pattern at what you'd probably agree is exactly the right time. How on earth did that happen, because it's certainly not the result of meticulous planning and adherence to timetables. The Twisted clock is usually not so much stopped as chaotically unpredictable. Yet here on the cusp of autumn for us northern-hemi folk, Continue Reading
Monty The Mole
Hello. I know. It's been a while since we hung out together in here, and I've missed you. And my goodness is this place looking dusty. I'll have a clean-up shortly, but in the meantime, make yourself at home. Don't take it personally if the cats sniff your feet: they're cautiously friendly, but the word 'decorum' never troubled their minds. It's very kind of you to have stuck around. I deeply appreciate it, as well as the recent comments wondering where I'd gone. My absence was mostly Continue Reading
Grapevine
My Fine Fibrous (Festive?) Friends, hello! I have a pattern for you. Yes, really! And it doesn't involve the despair-inducing ridiculousness of the allotment cushion that I showed you last time. No, it's this knitted scarf:- I'm sticking with the food-growing theme. This piece was inspired by the grapevine that sprawls enthusiastically across the pergola at the back of our house. That probably sounds more glamorous than it looks. When I say enthusiastically, I mean that it wouldn't Continue Reading
Plotting
A warm hello to my Fine Fibrous Friends. Yes, this has been my longest ever absence from the blogosphere. I've again been plagued by worries that nobody wants to read stuff these days. And yet it was inevitable that an excess of words would eventually build up in my brain until it exploded out onto the page. So here we are, fending off shards of projectile verbiage. Apologies for the mess. I'll just go and clear a few adjectives off the sofa so that you can sit down... Also, I was slowly Continue Reading
Bayeux
There's trouble in the strawberry bed. Not the real strawberry bed, from which we've had a decent crop of fruit this year, but the one on the crocheted allotment cushion that I'm designing. It turns out that it's difficult to convey the essence of a strawberry plant at a tiny scale using DK-weight yarn. What even is the essence of a strawberry plant? I had the same problem with cauliflowers. And potatoes. But I managed those in the end. The pattern is coming fairly soon, I promise the Continue Reading
Fun With Food
Hello, my Fine Fibrous Friends. I do like a yarny challenge... if by 'like' we mean that I sulkily endure the process whilst ripping back my stitches for the eleventy-seventh time in order to try and rework whatever it is I'm designing, whilst wondering whether I should take up a less annoying hobby such as sword-swallowing. The current challenge is the crocheted allotment cushion I'm designing, with a pattern that will be available for those of you who are comfortably in touch with your Continue Reading
Tales Of The Unexpected
Hello from Twisted Towers, where I'm crocheting a yarny allotment in the rare moments when I'm not busy reconfiguring my new and very real allotment. More on that in a minute. First, there is news on one half of the twinnage, whose real name is definitely Hieronymus Algernon Lancelot Entwistle III. It's surprisingly good news. (Thank you all for your support and commenty kindness since this crazy journey began with a seizure on the last day of 2024.) Having tested the first part of him Continue Reading
Giant knitting and SchrÃķdinger’s cancer
Just when you least expect it, knitting tests you in new and unanticipated directions. My teenage son Twin One isn't much interested in any kind of yarnery, but he did show me a couple of TikToks he admired of people arm-knitting blankets using giant yarn. I didn't think much more of it until he was diagnosed with cancer shortly afterwards, when I decided to ask him whether he'd like such a blanket for himself to snuggle under when times were tough. (Actually, things have become weird and Continue Reading
Plotting
Thank you, my Fine Fibrous Friends, for your kind words in response to my last post about how Twin One* has cancer and potentially also another alarming condition. We're continuing to wait for more news about Twin One's more precise diagnosis, plus his prognosis and treatment plan. I assumed that we'd know more by now but they're still testing the portion of him that was surgically removed. It's taking so long that I'm beginning to suspect that they're culturing a whole new twin (ergo Continue Reading
When Life Gives You Lemons, Plaster Them All Over The Internet
I've said this before, but the thing about being a blogger is that when a bad thing happens, most of my response comprises "Oh no! Oh woe is me! A bad thing has happened! Whatever shall I do to mitigate the badness of the thing?" But a small yet undeniable portion of my brain thinks, "Ah-ha! BLOG FODDER. I can make a great anecdote out of this." (Exhibit A: I had breast cancer back in 2020. And I laughed about the twists and turns of cancer treatment on here. Thank you to those of you who were Continue Reading
