It's great when serendipity changes your plans, at least where knitting is concerned. In my last blogpost I was recounting the story of what happens when you discover a new wool shop with a treasure trove of yarns. That was how I discovered a new‐to‐me merino‐mix yarn in a lovely colour palette. I was especially taken with the combination of a soft graphite colour and a lighter silver grey.

I walked around the store for a while with a skein of both in my hands and then decided it was perfect for a man's cowl. Later on I decided that I should have purchased more as it proved so good I wanted to make a ladies' headwarmer too, as a mix‐and‐match set.

I remember reading a newspaper article earlier this year about a Japanese couple who like to wear co‐ordinating clothes and accessories every day and have done so for 37 years! However, they are not alone. Many young couples in Korea and Japan like to demonstrate their love by couple‐dressing. Indeed, sometimes it has even become a subtle way of announcing that they are actually now a couple – much like the wonderful "in a relationship" announcement on Facebook.

So I decided that I would make some mix‐and‐match sets for both men and women, and here is the first of these, the Teversham Cowl & Headwarmer.

I am currently listening to an audiobook by Elizabeth Peters in which the redoubtable lady Egyptologist Amelia Peabody Emerson frequently says "I am the most fortunate of women!"

Well, I suppose that could be my catch‐phrase too. In my last blogpost, I recounted the sorry tale of what happens when a full cup of airline tea soaks into a large amount of cotton‐yak yarn. The result, I am sure you can imagine, was not pleasant.

Under normal circumstances this could have induced a degree of panic – arriving at the start of a long visit with no knitting on hand... However, our first port of call on arriving in the UK was to our daughter, Anna, and she is blessed with a wide and varied yarn stash, filling not just a few boxes but a whole room!

I was faced with a difficult decision recently – shall I allow some scalding‐hot tea go over my legs or soak my yarn instead... OK, only a knitter would see that as even a relatively sensible choice to be made, but when you're only one hour into a long international flight it seemed logical at the time.

We were on one of these new Dreamliner planes and had read ahead of time about how uncomfy the seats are so were prepared with extra cushions, shawls and so on. These were carefully stowed into the tiny spaces under the seats along with my knitting yarn and other flight essentials.

I then unlocked the tray table which came down into place with a loud 'clunk' and a decided list to one side. I tried to make it go flat but when I placed a pencil on the table, it rolled off and went under my neighbour's seat. Not a good start. We retrieved it, had a brief conversation about how to get his overhead light on (not an easy task either) and I put the pencil along with everything else on my lap.
​
Soon our meal came along and I left my knitting where it was as I couldn't manoeuvre down to place it into a bag. The meal finished and a cup of tea arrived which was scalding hot. I held it on the sloping table for a while and then made the mistake of deciding it might be better if I folded the tray table over so it was slightly more stable.

Have I ever mentioned I like reversible knitting stitches? Well, yes, OK, just once or twice... Or perhaps I should make that three or four times!

I supposed I am slightly obsessed with reversible patterns, but as I've said before, they just draw me in. I love the way the fabric drapes when you use a reversible stitch, their ease of use, their versatility, their range.

And I know I'm not the only one who loves this category of stitches, judging from some of the lovely messages that you have been sending us after the publication of our E‐Book, Reversible Knitting Stitches. Both Anna and I have been so pleased to hear your feedback, so many thanks if you have taken the time to write to us.

So I thought I would let you know about some updates I have just made to my website.

I wanted to include some extra information about the book and about reversible knitting in general so I have added some new pages:

• Firstly, I have added a new tab “Reversible Knitting Stitches” with lots of information about the book and also how you can order a gift copy for a friend.
• On that page, you can also see a gallery of sample pages from the book.

​

• Then there are three new sub-pages which you can see in a drop-down list. The first of these is “What’s in the Book?”. This includes chapter information, summaries and a list of other resources included in the book.

​

• In the second, “Using Reversible Stitches”, I explore the benefits of using reversible stitches in knitting projects and their advantages for items such as rugs, placemats, scarves and wraps.

​

• Then the last one is "Project Ideas" with photos of all the projects that we have featured in the book – currently 87 of them!! If you see a project you would like to look at more closely, then click on the relevant image for more photos and information. We hope this will provide you with lots of inspiration for your own projects using reversible stitches from the book!​

We hope you enjoy exploring all this new information about the book and reversible stitches in general. And do please keep ideas for new stitches coming in – we love to hear of other stitches for inclusion in any future updates of the E-book.

Until next time – Happy Reversible Knitting!

Moira

A few months ago, I blogged about Wool Week and headed the blogpost with a photo of Prince Charles, who launched the Campaign for Wool in 2010.

Little did I know that only a few months later we would get to meet him in person! The photo above was taken by my husband Tim when Prince Charles came to speak to us at Chartwell, the former home of Winston Churchill and now an important National Trust property in the south of England.
The Prince had been touring the house and seeing the recent renovation work. He told us that he was keen to encourage people to visit from the United States, as we were.

So I thought I would take a brief divergence from knitting for this post and say about some of the wonderful places that we visited on our recent trip.

We were in the UK for my mother‐in‐law's 90th birthday, but took the time on the return journey to meander through the Welsh borderlands and explore some of the rich treasures in the area.

The first of these was Chirk Castle, a National Trust property near Wrexham in Wales. This is a large structure with a commanding view of the surrounding countryside. I have to admit that I sat for quite some time, knitting a cowl and listening to the bleating of the lambs in the fields below. It was delightful. I am truly blessed that I get so much knitting time in these amazing locations while Tim is taking photos.

Of course, in addition to Tim taking photos of the castle, he also took one of me knitting! If you'd like to see it, then please have a look at the "Where I like to knit" slideshow on my website. Just scroll down to the middle of the "About" page to find it. There's also one from our previous visit to Chartwell!

We hadn't planned on visiting any more castles on that trip, but what to do when you see a sign saying "Stokesay Castle 1/2 ml"... We had always wanted to visit there but hadn't realised that it was on our route! Even a shower with winds and horizontal rain didn't dampen our enthusiasm and we happily explored the various nooks and crannies of this fascinating building. Tim's photo shows the magnificent gatehouse – now also the location for the castle tea‐rooms.

Well I hope you have enjoyed seeing some more of Tim's wonderful photos and if you do ever get the chance to retrace our steps, then you will not be disappointed. These are only a few of the many castles and interesting sites in this area, too, so if you have a few more days then you could easily locate some more wonderful places to visit!

Next time, I will return to chatting about knitting with news of some updates to my website.

Until then – Happy Knitting!

Moira

It's Earth Day today, so perhaps it seems odd to be thinking about the sea. However, I was drawn to the problem of plastic in the sea just the other day.
​
We were walking on South Venice beach in FL and my husband Tim's photo shows the beautiful calm Gulf waters alongside us. The sun was shining in a clear blue sky, and at the horizon it just seemed to melt into the turquoise water. It just seemed so clear, so calm, so perfect.

But further down the coast there were three plastic bottles washed up on the sand dunes, and a plastic bag wrapped around a twig. We have all seen something similar but after that perfect vision of sea and sky, it just seemed so jarring.

There is something delightful about Spring. The long still evenings, the scent of flowers in the air, the quiet buzzing of insects and a gentle glow in the sky as the sun goes down at the end of a warm day.

Even in Florida, where daffodils and tulips never appear (except in other people's Facebook photos), we have the same feeling of change. The oaks are greener and the palm trees are bedecked with heavy fronds of waxy yellow flowers. Bright orange butterflies flit past and the sun is noticeably further round before it finally fades away.
​
It's evenings like this that call for some Zen knitting. Something where your hands can do all the work while your mind is somewhere else. You can even let your hands be still for a moment and pick up the work again without forgetting where you are.

Every year at about this time, our beaches in Florida fill up with excited college students on Spring Break, all keen to soak up the sunshine before restarting their studies. And it’s a timely reminder that warmer days are on their way!

So here’s a beach bag ready for the summer ahead. This is Anna’s Nokomis Beach Bag, named for one of our favourite local beaches. Nokomis Beach is usually wonderfully quiet, and you can just sit and watch the sunset while children swim in the ocean or hunt for shark’s teeth along the shoreline.

Anna has perfectly captured the essence of the beach in this striped bag, with colours inspired by the sandy coast, turquoise sea and clear blue sky.

We also had a few extra samples which we wanted to squeeze in, including the one in the photo above. This is Textured Knot Stitch and you will now be able to find this in Chapter 1. This is one of my new favourite stitches and we just had to include it in the book.

​Oh and we’re always on the look-out for new stitches, so if you see we’ve missed a favourite stitch of ours from the book, do please let us know so we can include it in a future update!

For details of Anna’s Nokomis Beach Bag, please click here to see the pattern on her Ravelry store. For information about our Reversible Knitting Stitches book, please click here. The book is available for immediate download from the site.

Until next time - Happy Beach Knitting!

Moira

I remember laughing as a child listening to the UK comedian Spike Milligan reciting a short poem about Spring:

I'm back! Sorry that I have been away from my blog for so long. I needed a small operation which kept me away from my computer for a while and completely zapped me of energy. However it all went very well, I am very pleased to report.

Fortunately, it didn't stop me knitting for long and I have been having fun finishing up some projects that just needed a bit more love and attention. The first of these was a scarf made from the Hamilton Table Runner pattern.