The Last of the 2019 Create 365

As the weather turned colder, so grey, rainy, windy and miserable, doing some more knitting appealed more and more.

I found a tear in my turquoise sequined tie top, so I mended that before it got any worse. The pale green lightweight hoodie doesn't get worn much - it's my size, but the arms are disproportionately skinny. The last time I wore it, one of the arm seams came apart, so that's now mended too, ready for a glimmer of an idea I have to get more exercise ....

I made a few more tinsel trees for a craft fair that I was too under the weather to go to, in the end. I also finally got my pattern for swirly trees together (although I haven't got it written up and posted on Ravelry and as a tutorial on here - that will have to slip to the continuation of the craft output next year). They come with two options, for an open bottom or a cork/bottle topper bottom.

And knitted (another) pair of socks, this time with a pattern of pine trees on.

I found the tail end of the Cabaret used for the Virus Shawl earlier in the year and decided that it would make a lovely flower, with a few leaves as the yarn shaded to green and red, add beads and a brooch back as a present for my closest friend, (who received the shawl; now she has a matching brooch!)

I made another swirly tree, this time with the off-white Hobbyknit Alpine Spark. I'd used the green colourway when working on the pattern. It, and the red and blue I used for the Fibonacci inspired lounge socks, are a slightly heavyweight DK. The off-white is slightly heavier and stiffer. I also have a ball of a muted blue with a blue metallic thread which I used to try out a crochet shawl pattern, which turned out to be a yarn-eater; the 200g ball wouldn't go far enough, so I frogged it. I then tried it on a lace shawl, but it really didn't suit, so I frogged that too. I suppose it counts as daily creativity, and I might learn something but have nothing to show, or count!

While I was making the swirly trees, I was intrigued by the way the inside of the tree looked. I played a little and found that by not knitting the point of the tree and flattening the knit upside down, it made a stylised rose. So I made a couple of those (patterns and tutorials to come, too) and a few leaves to make them into rose brooches.
So that's it for the year.
6 tinsel trees, 5 swirly trees, 3 flowers, 7 leaves, 2 items mended and a pair of socks.

Create 365 2019 totals:
This batch of things: 24
Cumulative total: 61

A far cry from 365, so I hope to do better next year!

Spreading some colour!

Yesterday I saw a note on my To Do list - 'Check Zazzle and Add something!' . It must have been there for months.

Zazzle is a print-on-demand (or POD) site based in the USA but with an international marketplace. People can create their own templates or upload images for use on various printed and personalised products, and also sell their designs. I was starting to get to know my way around it (and other POD sites) better, when my old computer crashed terminally and I lost access to Photoshop Elements, which I used to use to manipulate images to create digital art.

Amongst the deluge of messages into my inboxes, at some point there will have been a 'we are changing our policies' message, which prompted me to add the job of checking it out to the list. But, as usual, I didn't get around to it for months. When I checked my account, there was a minus figure! Wait, what? 'Non-contributing account fees' have wiped out the paltry balance I had from sales commissions, because I hadn't been in there to do anything but look for since their policy change back in April.
Zazzle also have a policy of expecting their users who sell to create 'collections', curating designs they like from other Zazzle users, and sharing on social media. This way, you complete your user profile and raise your visibility. If you don't, your designs are consigned to the bottom of the search pile. It's fair enough, the products need to be promoted and POD sites have a huge number of designs, all vying for attention.

So, okay, lesson learned. I shall have to be more active, and that will be okay, because over the past few months I have been learning how to use GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program). I also have a new image to go.

I remembered that I didn't find the POD sites easy to navigate as a designer/seller and had written myself some notes. These came in handy so that I could upload the image easily, but when it came to applying it quickly across a whole range of products, the system only came up with 20, and only a few suited the image. Hmm. I suspect Zazzle's 'quick create' option over their range of products left them with huge numbers of items, some of which weren't ideal for the image. They want their designers to think a bit more about what they offer and that's fair enough. It might also be a difference between working from Zazzle.co.uk instead of Zazzle.com, as most of the designs are made up in the USA, hence a UK Sterling price which makes me gasp a little, so that's another thing to look into.
I went through to my existing products list, and found most of it hidden from the public, so it wouldn't come up in a search or be available for sales. That's not good, I thought I'd left it all public; perhaps this is another difference between .co.uk and .com? There were also some products which were being discontinued, so I deleted them and a few other items (like dartboards and baseball caps) which I don't really want to offer my designs on.

While thinking about what I do want to offer, I had a look at my 'collections', started several months ago. Some were empty, and I know I hadn't left them that way, so probably the items I'd previously added had been removed by their designers. I created a few new collections, including one for cushions, not that I can afford them, unfortunately.

With a bit of work, I found my profile completion had gone from 25% to 60%.

While I've been playing with kaleidoscopic art, one of the issues is creating a nice image on a rectangle; a square seems to lend itself much better to the reflections and repetition of a kaleidoscopic image. I tested out my new image on a square cushion and liked it, so completed that for sale (although it will take 24 hours or so to show up).
Then I loaded another image (which I thought I'd already loaded, but couldn't find it) and did another cushion. I'm biased, obviously, but I think they look lovely. There are options for two sizes and different fabrics.

I checked my profile completion and it had gone down to 55%. How does that work? A bit more product 'tidying', and it bounced up to 75%. I looked for my cushions so that I could copy their links into this, and the profile completion had bounced back down to 55%. I visited my store description, replaced the banner with a neater one, and the completion rate is up to 65%. And my products' visibility depends on this?

Aaargh!

With the amount of work involved here (it's not as simple as just uploading something!), I claim 2 creations.
Create 365 totals:
This batch of things: 2
Cumulative total: 37

Celebrating socks!

As the weather turned cold and I started to wear my wool socks again, I found myself looking back at the socks I've made in the five and a half years since I learned to knit socks.
After my first pair, which in my normal, perverse way I made with impulse-bought yarn which didn't show the pattern to best effect and the instructions for which I had first to translate from Finnish/Suomi, they rapidly became my favourite thing. I was astonished by how the immediate warmth dispelled osteoarthritis pain from my feet.
I needed more; more pairs, more knowledge, more practice. I've experimented with patterns made cuff-down and toe-up, singly and two at a time, circular needle with magic loop and on dpns, plain knit, patterns with yarn overs or cables and a little stranded colourwork. From the basic heel-tab-and gusset with a couple of variations, eye of partridge and other slip-stitch patterns, I also had a go at an afterthought heel, wrap and turn (frogged, not doing that again, what a faff!), Priscilla Wilde's no-fuss short row, German short row ('boomerang'), 'Strong' heel, and, my favourite so far, Cat Bordhi's Sweet Tomato heel.

Patterned socks

I have a pair of intricately patterned socks which are sort of being worked on in slow time, because the twisted stitches and change of pattern on every row, the charts for which are tiny (I'm thinking of getting a Fresnel lens magnifier to help out here) as are the stitches on 2.5 mm needles. So I started another pair of patterned socks.
I've worked out my own, plain pattern for socks and tweaked it a couple of times, so that it fits my wide foot and ankle and round heels.

Plain socks

I've used my basic pattern, adapting it for a narrower foot and different sizes to knit socks for sale.

Socks for sale

I've just finished my tenth pair of plain socks for myself, in DROPS Fabel Wooden Rose long print, because it looked so pretty in the ball, despite containing pink and purple, which I really don't wear. Except on my feet, it seems.

Wooden Rose long print plain socks

Yes, all these socks represent more expense than the usual chain-store cotton socks, as well as hours of work, but they are so much lovelier. I wash them on a 30 degree wool wash in the machine and hang them to dry, simple!
I think everyone should have at least one pair.

My name is Dancing Moth and I'm a hand-knitted sock addict.

Create 365 totals:
This batch of things: 1
Cumulative total: 35

Spider season

As you may guess from the title of this post, it's not one for arachnophobes! So if you hate spiders, perhaps you would like to read a different post?

My house is generally home to a large number of spiders, mostly 'daddy long-legs spiders' Pholcus phalangioides. They are a synanthropic species, that is, a non-domesticated species which benefits from their association with people, in this case, houses with a mean temperature above 10 degrees C. The numbers here are partly due to my laziness when it comes to housework, but I rather like them hanging around, dealing with flies and so on. Apart from the mess they leave, as they clean their webs by cutting their prey out of it and leaving them to drop, shed their skins five or six times as they mature and they produce lots of unstructured web which festoons the upper corners of rooms, they are no trouble at all. When disturbed, they gyrate rapidly in their web, which helps confuse potential predators and trap unwary flies, entangling rather than sticking them to the web. They look dainty and fragile, but are surprisingly avid hunters, and will eat other spiders (including other Pholcus and their own young if no other food is available) as well as woodlice - I've even seen one take on a dozy wasp and win. Yet they are very gentle and ticklish if you happen to have one descend on you (an occupational hazard in my showers). The female carries around her egg bundle and newly-hatched spiderlings in her jaws, until her babies go their own way.

Pholcus phalangioides, the 'daddy long-legs spider'

Around the start of September, I found that a lovely, golden-coloured spider had moved into the living room, near the window. At first, I thought it might be male, but over the next few weeks, fed on a a good supply of flies which had strayed into the web, the spider doubled in size, was slightly greener (though still golden in setting sun) and was evidently a female Araneus diadematus (often referred to as the 'garden spider' or 'crowned orb-weaver'). I've nicknamed her the Golden Girl. I haven't managed to get a good photo of her though - she spends most of her time tucked up on the window surround with a toe on the line into the web. The ones in the garden, like this one I found at St Ishmaels Garden Centre, tend to hang around in the centre of the web.

Araneus diadematus adult female, big and beautiful!

In the second week of October, I saw another spider in the corner of the adjacent window to the Golden Girl. On closer inspection, it was a female Zygiella x-notata (often referred to as the 'missing sector orb weaver' because their webs generally have a section missing from the circle) with a fresh egg mass covered with strands of spider silk which looked like finely-spun gold.

Zygiella x-notata female with egg mass

Not an ideal location, as the Golden Girl would happily have eaten her. Maybe she has, as Ms Zxn disappeared a few weeks ago. The eggs aren't due to hatch until spring (assuming I don't clean up and remove them). I saw three of the same species around the kitchen window.

I saw a male Amaurobius (not sure of species, probably fenestralis or similis) on the wall near the back door, and a female of (presumably) the same species has decided that the downstairs shower mat is hers. As I don't generally use that shower in winter (a bit too chilly!) she can stay there, for the time being. They look pretty scary, as the females are quite big (ha, all of 12 mm!) with big jaws. Their close relation Amaurobius ferox can bite, but they would all prefer to run away and the only problem is usually if you pick them up and they feel threatened. I had problems getting a photo of the female, as all she wanted to do was move away from the light, but managed in the end.

Amaurobius sp female

Amaurobius sp male

The weather has been unsettled for a while now, and there wasn't much evidence of spiders outside when I went down the garden earlier today. At this time of year, numbers of adults start to fall off. Those outside might find more prey, but both the spiders and the flies are vulnerable to the weather. No wonder some spiders prefer to find the shelter of sheds and houses. Even so, there are fewer flies in houses once the weather gets colder too. The Golden Girl Araneus is still hanging on, but as with the Zygiella around the windows and the Amaurobius sharing the shower, it's only a matter of time before this year's adults give way to the next generation.

12 Down, 12 Up

My right knee is 'in flare', that is, very painful (rather than just the 'normal' background ache), not reliable in bearing my weight, which in turn affects my balance, stiffer than usual with a reduced ability to bend and painful to straighten fully, feeling like the knee is on sideways and contains a ball of over-tightened rubber bands which break and twang painfully, and generally the cause of much swearing! It wakes me during the night, and between coping with it and not sleeping so well, I feel so tired and lacking in energy.

It's been like this on and off this year and then consistently since mid-August, when I twisted it attempting to stop a shopping trolley with a mind of its own in a blustery wind from wandering off to play with other cars and pedestrians.

I refuse to go back onto oral pain relief, relying instead on the various methods of pain relief I'd found, but even they are sometimes not enough. I looked for information on rest and arthritis and concluded that although 'sit down before you have to' is good advice, the other advice to get 'proper rest' needed a little more exploration. I was also reading about time-restricted eating - restricting meals to a 12 hour or possibly 8 hour window in the day, so I thought I would combine rest and time-restricted eating and see how that went.

The result was reasonably successful. During my 12 hours 'down' horizontal rest, I could do all my horizontal physio exercises, some yoga and mindfulness exercises, check some email and other messages and get some decent sleep and rest to counter nights disturbed by pain.

During my 12 hours 'up', I tried to get everything else done and feed myself.

I've been on this 12 Down, 12 Up for the past six weeks or so. Now, it's time to stop. My knee is better than it was, though still painful. The time-restricted eating has supported my gradual, imperceptibly slow weight loss. I feel well rested. But, I can't do as much as I need to in only 12 hours, things have slipped due to lack of attention and I'm starting to feel like I'm just being lazy (a sign, if any were needed, that my energy levels are back up!)

I didn't discuss it beforehand, knowing that many people who don't live with chronic pain and the resulting fatigue would not understand, nor be sympathetic. Even so, I found it difficult to give myself permission to do this, but I'm glad I did. It's joined my arsenal of potential techniques to manage and live with severe osteoarthritis.

Dribs and drabs

It seems I have some creative mojo again, or it might just be that the miserable weather and need to rest my knee means I'm sitting knitting a bit more. This set includes a jumper and a pair of socks which have been languishing by the side of the sofa since spring.

I've also had a go at another prototype knitted swirly tree. It's still not quite there yet, I need to correct some things.

I have a bit of a stash of batteries, from the time that I used a CD player for class, torches in the country dark on a regular basis, and various other things. Trouble is, they needed to be sorted into dead ones to be recycled (new recycling scheme here next month is going to take these in the kerbside recycling, hurrah!), recharged, needing to be charged and good to use. So I reused some plastic take out containers, labelled them (colour coded, even!) and, more by good luck than good planning, they fit neatly side-by-side across the drawer I currently use for batteries and other associated bits.

I've also had a couple of sessions recycling a few more old socks and knickers into jersey yarn.

It doesn't count, but I've also learned how to make a collage in GIMP. I got a bit fed up of tweaking things so it's not perfect, but good enough.

Clockwise from top left: swirly tree, jumper, jersey yarn, battery pots, socks

I'm going to need to crack on and create some more stock for a winter craft market - providing I get a table.

This batch of things: 6
Cumulative total: 34

My Cup of Tea socks

I saw this pattern on Ravelry and thought it would be a nice one to allow me to keep my hand in with a heel-flap-and-gusset heel, and a decorative pattern which confined itself to a neat panel down the front.

I used Drops Fabel Sand long print, even though the pattern wouldn't show to best effect with the stripes, I think it turned out well.

The first thing I needed to do was adapt the pattern to my usual 72 stitch cast on, on 2.75 mm dpns. I  also decided to work in my usual way, with the sole/heel stitches all on one needle and the instep stitches divided evenly over two needles. I start by knitting the sole stitches and don't 'number' my needles (effectively working clockwise rounds), so I was rather flummoxed by the redistribution of stitches and renaming of needles at various points in the pattern. I expect it works, but I couldn't be bothered with it.

Another thing which puzzled me briefly before I dismissed it was the rib pattern on the cuff, and I carried on with my usual k2, p2 for 16 rounds.

My additional cast on stitches resulted in 6 (knit) stitches either side of the central panel. Having been so used to knitting plain socks, I found adding a pattern a little slow going, but it's always lovely to see a pattern developing. As I'm short-legged, I decided to work one less pattern repeat down the leg, finishing on the row 11 to work the heel flap over half my stitches (36).

I enjoyed how fast the heel flap grew, and then I had to recalculate again to work out how many stitches to work when beginning to turn the heel. Here comes the maths - don't fret, it's only numbers!

The instructions call for sl 1, k17.
17 is half the heel stitches (32/2=16) plus one; with the slipped stitch at the start, this comes to 2 stitches past the half-way point of the heel.
So for my heel: (36/2=18+1=19) so sl 1; K19 (etc).
I didn't change the numbers of purl stitches on the wrong side row, although the resulting heel start is a bit pointy for my round heels.
Once all the heel stitches were worked, with an ssk (RS) or p2tog (WS) taking a stitch from each side of the gap created by turning the work to 'close the gap', there were 20 stitches remaining for me, instead of 18 as shown in the instructions.

One of the reasons that I like an all-in-one heel is that I'm not fond of picking up stitches and get bored with keeping track of gusset decreases. Luckily, I have a couple of sets of 2.75 mm dpns, which allows me to use extra when dealing with gussets, instead of redistributing stitches. Because I ended the pattern on a R11 before doing the heel flap, my pick-up-and-knit 20 sts down each heel flap was a pattern R12. I then did a round (pattern R1) to 'establish' the gussets, each on a separate needle in addition to the heel/sole and two instep needles, so a total of 5 needles for stitches.
I decreased 1 stitch each side of the gusset on even pattern rounds (starting R2); taking 2 pattern repeats to get back to 36 sole stitches.

I decreased back to 72 stitches, but I could have decreased by a couple more on each side of the instep. Finishing the foot and toe was straightforward, although I left the toe at 12 stitches top and bottom to kitchener stitch.

I could have finished the foot a few round early - I did 30 rounds after the design ended on the instep, assuming the toe would be 4.5 cm, but it's more like 5 cm with my tension gauge, only a tiny bit long in the foot. The decision to do one less pattern repeat on the leg turned out to be a good one - I would have had to cast on more stitches in the cuff to accommodate my bulky lower calf, and then decrease them away after one pattern repeat.

The photo shows the socks unblocked. They were perfectly comfortable, and are now in the washbasket!
I've still got a 'fiddly pattern' pair of socks on one set of needles, but am itching just to do a plain and straightforward pair again. In the meantime, I've picked up the alpaca jumper which has been left over summer while I tried to work out the instructions for the sleeves and how that applied to my arm length. That will be next, watch this space!

To Ink or Not to Ink ...

As in, Inktober ... that is the question.

Inktober is a concept created by artist Jake Parker, an invitation to accept the challenge of producing a piece of ink-based art, and posting it online, every day for the month of October. 31 days, 31 drawings.

I considered it this year, not because I am an artist, really, but because I keep saying I want to get into art and produce something good, and that needs doing rather than thinking about it. I set myself a challenge to produce 365 'creations' in a year (with less than 90 days to go, there is no way I can make this, but hey, no reason to give up!). And even if I only created doodles, it's all practice, and it develops an approach and style, a daily spot of drawing discipline. It would get me completely out of my comfort zone, as neither ink as a medium nor monochrome drawing are things I'm drawn to.

I set about finding paper; the pad I thought I had must have been my imagination, but I found a sketchbook which would do. Next, drawing pens, unused for at least 15 years, clean and hopefully ready to go. So far so good. Ink ... ink ... I was sure I had some bottles of ink. Eventually, I found it. Of course, I could just use biro/gel pen, Sharpie, any and all would count. I had a look at the prompts, (theme words). I can do this!

Can I though? I stopped doodling in the mid-80s, when it attracted adverse comments at work. I recently picked up a pencil again to sketch something and felt very uninspired and insecure, and critical of what I drew.

Do I really want to do this? There are so many other things I ought to be doing. Of course, I could set a daily time limit, but at the moment, I don't need the additional, self-imposed pressure. I'm already tired from knee pain, especially when it disturbs my sleep, and feeling the pressure of the things I'm not getting around to because of my need to rest, even if I would be sitting down to draw.

I agonised about it for a few days and then thought, if it's this hard to decide, the answer must be No.

I need to start drawing again first, to build a little confidence. To be effective, I just need to do a lot, consciously learning, but also letting go of perfectionism and attachment to outcomes, allowing it to just be.

Then, maybe next October.

September - Swallows, Sleeves, Socks, Strictly and Sleep

I can't believe we're nearly half-way through September already!

I haven't seen or heard any Swifts since perhaps mid-August. Small groups of Swallows dash eastwards, making the most of the wind behind them, calling and feeding as they go. A group today were particularly loud. I looked up just in time to see a Kestrel flying low through the gap between my house and next door, so low that it was its light-chestnut coloured back which identified it as a Kestrel. It was gone in a flash, so I couldn't catch whether it was male or female. I've only seen a Kestrel here once or twice, hunting along the fenceline, riding the wind.

The sun sets noticeably earlier and we've had night-time temperatures in single figures. I run hot, so am still in T shirts, but have had to put on something with sleeves on cooler evenings.

The cats have noticed the change in temperature and snuggle closer in bed, instead of sprawling, belly-up, in their own space. Now I'm under the duvet, instead of lying starfished on top of the sheets.

I keep seeing news predicting a week's heatwave in the wake of the Atlantic weather systems formed from the remnants of tropical storms Dorian and Gabrielle, though the weather for the week ahead locally doesn't reflect that. It may stay mild here, but once again, the media headlines refer to London and the south-east of England, as if that represents the whole of the UK.

It will soon be time to break out the woolly socks, and I have picked up some knitting which has been aestivating. I lose the motivation to knit during the summer, but it comes back as the weather cools.

My right knee is having a bit of a flare. A few weeks ago, it took the brunt of the twisting force as I tried to stop a wayward shopping trolley, which also ripped off the top of a finger nail. Despite lots of massage, physio exercises, mindful use, warmth and rest, it is getting worse rather than better. It's not just painful when I try to use it (and it's painful even when I'm resting it), but it feels as though the knee is on sideways. The familiar feeling that the insides are an overstretched, knotted ball of elastic, bits of which catch and ping. It won't bend properly with my weight on it, and is unreliable bearing my weight - a clue that the kneecap isn't tracking properly. Although it's occasionally been bad this year, it's not been this bad. It gave way last night as I was peeling some carrots, and I took a chunk of skin off one of my finger-tips with the peeler as I lost balance. Blood everywhere, and a throbbing finger to add to my irritability!

I'd forgotten how exhausting pain is. It wakes me at night, and though I fall asleep again quite easily (purring, snuggly cats help!), I sleep longer - eight hours becomes nine, ten, eleven ....

Another thing which provides some motivation is Strictly Come Dancing, which always makes me want to dance. Optimistically, I've rearranged a new course of belly dance classes starting in October, to give me a few weeks to try to get my knee a bit better again.

Perhaps if the weather heats up (ha ha!), some lying around on a warm, sunny beach and perhaps having a swim might be good therapy too! Meanwhile, I can sit with my leg up on the sofa, watching Strictly and knitting, which is pretty good therapy all by itself.

Sparks of joy

Deary me, my Create 365 challenge seemed so feasible at the start of the year, and here we are, last day of August without even a month's worth done.

Still, the idea was to motivate me to sort things out, one of which was a new pair of trainers which were comfortable the first time I wore them, and then, for some reason, increasingly uncomfortable. After the fourth time wearing them, I stopped and put them away.

I watched a documentary featuring Marie Kondo, and not for the first time, I wondered about the concept of 'sparking joy'. The answer seems to be straightforward, a binary yes/no.

Not generally one for getting satisfaction from tidying and decluttering, nevertheless when I went to put clean knickers away, I found myself folding them into neat little shapes, then took out some knickers that I only go to as a last resort. Why was that? Did they 'spark joy'? Actually, no. They've always been too uncomfortable, with thick elastic edges. A couple of sessions resulted in balls of  jersey yarn.

I also sorted a few pairs of old socks, a couple of sessions yielding 4 smaller balls of  jersey yarn again. Soon I'll have enough to make something!

I mended a T-shirt which had a couple of small tears in it, probably courtesy of my cat Greebo, who seems unable to jump up for a cuddle without creating holes in whatever I'm wearing.

But back to the trainers. I looked at them, all turquoise and pink and light, and was surprised to find a spark of joy. But they had been cheap, probably wouldn't last long and there was no point in keeping them if they were uncomfortable, so what to do? I slipped them on again to walk around and focus on the discomfort. Something was rubbing my heels, irritating my Achilles tendons. I slipped them off and looked at the backs - they were quite high and curved in a little, unlike my heels. The centre back seam ended in a hard knob, just in the wrong place.

I was unsure if I could fix this, but on the basis that you don't know until you try, I used a stitch ripper to undo the seam where the lining joined the outer across the back of the heel, cut both outer and lining straight across and trimmed the centre back seam, before adjusting the small foam heel pad and re-sewing lining to outer.

This worked, although they may still not last long now that they are wearable!

This batch of things: 6
Cumulative total: 28

It's a jungle out there!

The back garden, that is, although the front is no better, covered in weeds again. While I was concentrating on the front, and especially while I was a bit poorly in May and then again in June, the back garden rewilded itself into an almost impenetrable mass of brambles and pendulous sedge. The compost bins are full, I've hacked back brambles a few times and burned them in the incinerator, but everything is growing so fast! The Alchemilla mollis is about to sprawl everywhere too. I'm tempted to take it out. I've surely got enough of its seed in the soil that I shall never be without it.

The patio is also inaccessible, full of pots which blow about in the wind. I haven't done any moth trapping as setting up the trap feels just too complicated. And the privet hedges, overgrown and in full flower. The sparrows have been enjoying those, as well as the aphids on the roses.

Still, there are compensations. Apart from butterflies, and the occasional damselfly, this Common Darter caught my eye.

(W)Racking my brains

Nolton Haven is a more-or-less U-shaped inlet on the west coast, facing roughly south-south-west. Looking out past the cliffs which form the mouth of the haven, you can see the jagged humps of Stack Rocks, near Brandy Bay and Mill Haven, between Little Haven and St Brides. Beyond them, the curve of land ending in what appear to be hills and valleys is the north coast of the Marloes peninsula. You'd need a telescope to see the details of the spectacular old red sandstone cliffs, but binoculars will help you see that the lumpy 'hills'  are islands. Left to right, the peninsula ends with the steep cliffs of Wooltack Point, then there is Midland Isle and Skomer. Skokholm lies behind the end of the peninsular and Midland Isle, indistinguishable from the other land in the haze. Ships waiting for their place at the oil terminals near Milford Haven often anchor off the coast, looming out of the mist.

I probably only go there once or twice a year, as it always takes longer than I think it will; I get lost in the narrow, winding lanes and drive slowly, as there is a lot of traffic, both cars and farm vehicles, and potentially horses from the large riding stables in Nolton village.

(You should be able to click on the photos below to see a larger version.)

This was taken 4 August 2015, when it was chilly enough to wear a coat!

Last Sunday, a friend and I decided to take some sandwiches and blow away some cobwebs with a little walk on the beach. The sun was playing hide-and-seek, and it was even blowier than expected, adding extra sand to the sandwiches. The tide was out, enticing us to walk down the beach. There's a stream which flows under the road and  onto the beach spreading out over the sand so that it stays wet. On either side, there are rocks covered with barnacles and seaweed, and rockpools.

Take a tip from me and stay in the sandy centre of the haven if you go for a swim. Several years ago, I swam to a little sandy patch near the cliffs and the waves pushed me against some of the rocks. It was only when I got out that I felt the sting and realised when I saw blood dripping onto my feet that one of my shins had several deep scratches from the barnacles.

The rockpools don't generally have much in them. There are the usual beadlet anemones, a few crabs, but I've rarely seen any shrimp or small fish. There is a lot of weed. Every year, I remind myself that I should learn something about seaweed so that I can name what I'm looking at.

I don't know what the astonishingly purple weed is, but it really was that colour!

The most common weed covering the rocks is the brown one with greener blobs on the end and occasional bubbles in it. I thought it was Bladder Wrack Fucus vesiculosus, but was I right?

Back home, I had a cup of tea while I leafed through a couple of my nature guide books. I have quite a collection, but the two I took from the shelf were The Readers Digest Field Guide to the Water Life of Britain, and the Hamlyn Guide Seashores and Shallow Seas of Britain and Europe (Campbell and Nicholls).* I'm not sure either of these are still in print, but you can pick good second-hand copies up very cheaply from Amazon. (* These are affiliate links)

It turned out my memory was correct, and while I had my guide-book in hand, I looked at the details for the other types of wrack commonly found around the UK coastline - Toothed or Serrated Wrack Fucus serratus, Spiral Wrack Fucus spiralis, Knotted or Egg Wrack Ascophyllum nodosum, Channelled Wrack Pelvetia canaliculata, and decided that would be enough for the time being. The green prickly puffs on the end are fruiting bodies.

I love the patterns and textures of the weed-draped rocks. Now I want to see what other weeds I can identify ... or is that just an excuse for another trip to the beach?

Spittle bugs - first survey

An initial drift around the garden, coaxing some of the nymphs out of their froth by wiping a bit of it away with a paper towel, was very easy. The nymphs weren't impressed, doing everything they could to hide or blow some more bubbles, so getting an in-focus photo was rather more challenging.

All the 'cuckoo spit' was on herbaceous or woody plants; Rosemary, Evening Primrose, Ribwort Plantain, Ragwort and Dock. The Pendulous Sedge had no cuckoo spit on it at all, and I couldn't see any on the Lilac or the Privet, or Grasses. Presumably we don't return records for plants where we haven't found something?

All the nymphs I found were green, so according to the BRIGIT Xylem-feeding insects website, (their ID section is great!) all are Philaenus spumarius, Meadow (Or Common) Froghopper. There were also some adults around, but they tended to ping off rather than sit for their photo. When I looked up the species to double-check identification, I was amazed at how variable the adults' colouration can be (so thank goodness the nymphs aren't!).

Philaenus spumarius Meadow Froghopper nymph on a paper towel rather than in foam

Philaenus spumarius Meadow Froghopper adult on Ragwort

Pretty cute! I hadn't realised, but the adults are covered in tiny hairs, so at certain angles, they appear to glisten.

By the time I'd wandered around getting some photos and generally getting distracted, the camera battery was dead, so I put it on charge and registered on iRecord, ready to edit a couple of photos and input the results the following day. Or sometime.

Ah, the joys of relational databases! This is where what I've noted collides with the way the records have been set up. In iRecord, it looks as though the records are numbers of insects at various stages (spit only, nymph, adult) for each host plant. Trouble is, there's a question about how long the survey took. I was out for about half an hour (probably more like 45 minutes, but I got a bit distracted by the blackbird chicks). Do I divide the survey time by the number of plant species? And an estimate of how many square metres. Well, the Rosemary is about one square metre, because it's huge, but I was drifting around in about 30 square metres of garden. Both time and area are mandatory questions. The Xylem-feeding insects website has a Survey Monkey driven survey (for those who don't want to tangle with iRecord), which doesn't contain the time and area questions and allows multiple plants to be listed, aggregating the total number of blobs of spit over all the plants. OK, surely I'm not expected to divide time and area surveyed per host plant, so same time of 30 minutes over 30 square metres it is. I can comment that they were all the same survey session if the database doesn't put the records together.

It took me a while to get used to what I was looking at. I found my way to instructions on the Xylem-feeding insects site on how to fill out the iRecord form and it looked simple enough, but it seems a bit glitchy.

The host plant is mandatory, and encourages users to look up the plant on the drop down list to enable the name to be spelled correctly for the database (data validation, very sensible!). Oh look, it doesn't recognise Rosemary, or Rosmarinus officinalis. Hmmm. Nor does it bring up a drop-down list for Evening Primrose, Oenothera. 'Other' it is then, to list the plants. Nope, a big red box appears saying 'unauthorised', and what I'd entered already was removed. Grrr! Oh well, if at first you don't succeed ... (go and hang out some washing, bring in the dry towels, coo at the blackbird chick in the Lilac, have a glass of water ...).

Having cleared the form, the drop down list for plants appeared. Strangely, it didn't recognise Other, (because it doesn't have Evening Primrose or Oenothera) and I had to scroll to the bottom of the list under O to find and select it, but otherwise it all went smoothly and the drag and drop for my few in-focus photos to be added against the record worked instantly.

It took me a while, but I was noticeably faster after my 8th record, finding that the less I typed into fields with drop-down boxes, the better.

Having entered my records, I decided to have a little explore and came across others complaining about how difficult the form was. I'm glad of my database knowledge and the time spent exploring the Xylem-feeding insects website, but I sympathise; not easy for someone new to iRecord and without knowledge of the spittle bug species.

Now I've got into this, I noticed some blobs on a patch of nettles, so I might go out to have a look at those.

There's a yellow warning for thunderstorms and heavy rain from Sunday (the day after tomorrow) to Tuesday. I wonder how resilient cuckoo-spit is to downpours?

A Creative Lull

I have been struggling a bit over the past few months; ill, stressed-out. Having got myself together a bit from mid-May, I did more work on the front garden, as the pressure to get that done was a source of stress which I could address. I could picture myself doing another create 365 post and adding the paths and beds of the front garden to my creations.

Just being out and working on it again felt good, even though I was low on energy. I soon found that I could only do so much weeding, wrangling the path edging into place and knocking in pegs before my hands started to ache. At first, I put it down to just being out of condition, unused to the work. Switching to the computer to do some typing and editing didn't help, something as simple as doing the washing up felt like hard work. Within the week, I found my finger joints were so painful I couldn't make a fist. Putting on hand cream felt wonderful, cool and smooth.

I had hoped that I'd be able to get the garden done, get crafting and generally catch up in all directions, but with burning, aching hands, it was hard to get anything done. I've always been good at opening jars, and now I'm struggling with them. I am so not impressed. [Expletives deleted - Ed.]

I fixed my washing line, where a line had worn against the hole in the arm and broken next to the fastener. It was easier than I thought it would be, as there was enough spare line in the fastener at the other end to rearrange it. Then I cleaned the line (although looking at it today, that's difficult to tell!) and it was ready for some of the dry weather we had in April. It's fixed, that counts!

I've just had a heavy cold and felt really under the weather for a fortnight, with sleep a welcome respite from the coughing and sinus headaches. At the beginning of the week, it felt like the lights were coming back on, and I've been madly trying to catch up ever since. I'm wary about getting frazzled out, but the sun is currently shining (which it hasn't done very much here so far this summer) and I do have lots to do. According to the weather forecast, we're due a few days of thunderstorms and heavy rain (yellow warning issued) from Sunday (the day after tomorrow), so I'm making the most of it and hopefully seeing a friend tomorrow for some downtime.

This batch of things: 1
Cumulative total: 22

Spittle-bugs and Cellar Slugs

There are a couple of 'citizen science' projects on my To Do list which are nagging at me.

The first is a study of xylem-feeding insects, that is, froghoppers and leafhoppers. Their nymphs (immature stages) are usually called spittle bugs, because they surround themselves with a froth of white foam, commonly called cuckoo spit, possibly because it starts to appear around the same time that cuckoos return in March or April.

Not that there are any cuckoos locally. Despite occasional sirens, traffic noise, screams and shouts from schoolchildren and the whine of power tools and bouts of banging from various neighbours, it's still quiet enough here that I would have heard the persistent cuc-koo call carried on the wind. They aren't unknown in Pembrokeshire, but they are on the UK Red List because of their declining numbers.

In recent years, the bacterial disease Xylella fastidiosa has been wreaking havoc in Europe, killing off olive and fruit trees amongst other plants. Many of our garden plants are imported from European growers, so Britain is on high alert, The plant pathogens are spread by sap-sucking (xylem-feeding) insects, yes, those spittle bugs!

As my garden is running wild, there's a lot of cuckoo spit about, plenty to study.

The second project is a study of Cellar Slugs. My view of slugs is that the ones helping break down my compost are fine, and the ones which are eating my plants should be banished, if not from the face of the earth, then to some other location where they cannot utterly destroy, for example, the pepper, aubergine and fennel plants to which I treated myself only a fortnight ago. Although, the plants could just as easily have been destroyed by snails, of which the garden also has a superfluity, despite the blackbirds' best efforts.

This study is going to involve some poking around with a torch, although my first port of call will be the compost bins.

It's stopped raining, so I'm off for a spot of spittle bug study.

The Unimaginable?

I read a lot of science fiction when I was in my teens and twenties, avidly immersing myself in the work of (in no particular order) Isaac Asimov, Robert A Heinlein, Arthur C Clarke, Frank Herbert, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, Brian Aldiss, Clifford D Simak, John Wyndham, Harry Harrison, Ursula LeGuin, J.G. Ballard, Douglas Adams, Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven, Iain M Banks, E.E. 'Doc' Smith, Philip K Dick, Theodore Sturgeon, Frederick Pohl, ... the list goes on and on. I worked my way through library shelves. I had trouble getting to sleep unless I'd been reading.

There was a lot of dark, dystopian stuff. The novels also featured things which were unimaginable as a reality at the time (although presumably not by the author who imagined them). Satellites? Computers with AI which could react to verbal instructions? Communications equipment small enough to hold and without wires to tether it? Driverless cars? Humanoid robots? All here. Catastrophic climate change? Coming to a place near you soon, if not already here.

I've been listening to Forest 404, on the BBC. It's an immersive dystopian sci-fi eco thriller, with soundtracks including recordings of and mini-documentaries about the natural world, so it ticks a lot of boxes for me. The Rainforest Symphony reached deep into my memory of tropical places and jungle walks in Malaysia, nearly 50 years ago. I love the layers of calls; birds, tree-frogs, stridulating insects, rustling leaves, running water.

Take part in the Forest 404 experiment by clicking here to access the site. I didn't find the questions really matched what I thought - they seemed to be slightly angled towards a younger, urban demographic. Some of the sounds and questions produced a sort of bitter-sweet response in me, in that I loved them as part of the natural world, and awareness of their accelerating destruction makes me sad. I don't think my results will be accurately interpreted. [Apologies in advance in case the BBC links break.]

Whether inside or outdoors, I find I'm aware, however peripherally, of natural noises. The sound of water and waves, the rattle of poplar leaves. bird calls, wind in the branches, grasshoppers, I  listen.

What would it be like not to be able to hear them, because the natural world no longer existed?

Heartbreaking.

Unimaginable.

If one swallow does not make a summer ...

... what does an absence of swallows mean?

I always took the old saying to mean, don't get excited just because you've seen the first swallow arrive, because it's not summer yet. 'Ne'er cast a clout 'til May is out' is also reasonable advice, although I've never quite been sure whether it means don't take your vest/shawl/whatever off until the May blossom is out, or until the end of May.

Back on the farm, the swallows used arrive quite reliably in the first or second week of April, twittering with excitement while they picked off flies and gnats which had come out to enjoy the spring sunshine. The swallows would feed up a bit and quickly settle to making or repairing nests, with mud from around the farm yard and the edge of the farm pond.

Late spring weather would always be a bit uncertain, but there was generally a period of high pressure with sunny days and frosty nights. We would generally have a last frost around the end of May.

Now 25 miles away and closer to sea level, I've not been able to establish when, exactly, the swallows and the last frost might arrive, because in the four years since I've moved, the weather seems different each year.

Every time I was out in April and then May, I listened and scanned the sky, eager for my first sighting of swallows. I caught blog and Facebook posts from people saying they'd seen swallows elsewhere in the county, but still there were none here.

Their absence worried me. What had happened? Where were they?

In the end, I saw my first swallows in Pembroke Dock on 10 May, but it was over a week before I saw and heard some here, while I was out in the garden. I heard and then saw swifts the same day. My heart lifted with joy.

The RSPB listings show the swallows' conservation status as green, although swifts and house martins are listed as amber. Migration can be hazardous; storms can take a great toll, and there were worrying reports of mist nets used to catch birds for food in Egypt. Anything which adversely affects numbers of flying invertebrates, on which swallows, swifts and martins feed, will also cause problems for them. Then they need places to nest; swifts like dark cavities, high up in a building. Martins also like to be high, building their mud cups under eaves. I used to see a lot of tattered plastic hanging from the eaves of buildings to dissuade house martins from building nests 'because of the mess they make', which is so sad. I'd love some house martins, although the local sparrows could be a problem. Swallows prefer to make their mud cups on ledges and beams in sheds and outhouses, sometimes only a couple of meters above ground level, requiring only a clear flight path in and out. I'd like some swallows too; perhaps something could be done when I come to sorting out the shed.

What if, one year, they simply don't arrive? A summer without swallows is unthinkable.

Stress response

I'm fine!
I am!
Actually, not so much.

I've been sleeping well, eating well, perhaps not exercising and certainly not dancing as much as I could or should. I've taken time to relax, be in nature (or at least, the garden, same thing!) and do some mindful meditation. I actively manage my whirling mind.

But my body tried to tell me that I am under stress. My joints are still in achy, winter mode, my hands particularly troublesome. I'm low on energy and tire quickly - both mental and physical stamina are poor. I've been having headaches and indigestion, both very unusual for me. My neck is tight and when I roll my shoulders, it sounds like a symphony of pops and crackles.

Around the end of March, I had a flare of dermatitis on my hands and feet. It's a type called pompholyx, or dishydrotic eczema, where patches of small, itchy, stinging water-blisters develop and coalesce, drying out over a fortnight or so to leave cracked and peeling skin.

Then at the end of April, I came down on a Monday morning, freshly showered and ready for breakfast and to start the day, and I was violently ill. Without being too graphic, it felt like my insides were leaving in both directions. I hate throwing up, and have to remind myself that it's a normal physical reaction, because it makes me feel really sick. I was left with abdominal cramps and after another shower, returned to bed. By Friday, I still felt like the bottom was dropping out of my world and went to see the doctor (anyone who knows me, knows this is another unusual event!) It took nearly another week for the medication to do its bit. The first half of May spent feeling below par! How can I begin to catch up?

Now I have a fresh crop of blisters appearing on my fingers.

Okay Mind, listen to your Body! You thought you were okay, but you're not. Stress can be an insidious thing. Time for me to have a think about what's going on.

• Brexit was due 29th March. It hasn't happened, yet, and it still makes me feel hopeless. It turns out Brexit stress is now a thing and adversely affecting the health of the nation!
• Preparing for the Khaled Mahmoud workshops, all the planning of what to take, how to pack, what to dance, how to travel, where to stay, and would the cats be okay for being left overnight?
• Then the anxiety of finding that Xena, left overnight, had managed to damage her tail (luckily not badly. I checked that she still had feeling and movement at the tip and that there were no obvious kinks or breaks, swelling or pain. She could carry the half closest to her body upright, and let the rest hang in a curve. I was very gentle with her and protective, arranging her tail so it was well-aligned and protected when she was asleep and full function was restored within the week, but still, anxiety, guilt ...).
• Feeling helpless in the face of climate change, (eco-anxiety is now a thing, too!).
• ... and the sheer, bloody idiocy, hypocrisy and corruption of some politicians and sections of the population, worldwide.
• Trying and failing to keep on top of the chaotic house and getting to grips with the garden. A perfect vicious circle, as feeling ill saps energy needed to do it, so it gets worse, so anxiety increases, so feeling more stressed and ill and without energy etc. etc. etc.)
• Fretting about friends with difficult mental and physical health issues. It's my choice to be there for them, even if only on Messenger, and I know I can't fix things (because my magic wand still hasn't been delivered, can you believe it? Come on Universe, I've had the order out for one for years now!).
• The publication of proposed changes to the local plan, showing all the fields behind the house under consideration for development, which alone would grow the village by around a quarter of its current size and obliterate views of fields, hills, the next village ...
• No swallows! Still!

So, having identified at least some of the stressors, perhaps I can stop worrying about what I can't change and try to think of positive things to do. Like, slather my hands in moisturiser.
Any other suggestions?

Spring Equinoctal Springs at Milford Haven

This was one of those lucky coincidences which is such a joy. I went to Milford Haven to do some shopping, then went down to Mackerel Quay to eat my sandwich lunch, where I noticed that the tide was low. Very low. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out. Of course, it was just after the Spring Equinox, so not just a spring tide (when the range between low and high is greatest) but equinoctal springs, (spring and autumn), which have the maximum range.

It was fascinating to see the structure of the quay wall and all the things which are usually under water, like:

the structure of the pier, with some remnants of an older structure ...

the old steps leading down from the quay, (probably inaccessible) ...

and a scatter of old tyres in the mud (why? what were they for?).

The pier is a nice place to stand and look for birds, even if it's just a small group of Herring Gulls, seeing if there's anything worthwhile in all that mud and sand.

 Or to sit and enjoy the view.

A Little Milestone

After I'd been using  Ravelry for a couple of years, I started to think how lovely it would be to design and share a pattern (and even lovelier if I could design something which I could sell!). The tutorial for Little Tinsel Trees has been written up and published on this blog and (fanfare and drum roll!) it's my first pattern published in Ravelry! Now I more or less know what I'm doing with that (and I have the ability to create a .pdf file easily, not something I had with my old computer and software!) I'm planning to get some other patterns written up and published as free patterns. I love Ravelry, I love the other designers who happily publish their patterns for free, so I'm so happy to have become one! Squee, it's even got compliments already, despite it now being past the season when everyone is furiously crafting things for the winter holidays and celebrations.

I'm counting the tutorial and the published pattern as two items. There are only a few other things which count towards the creation goal:

Three crochet squares. The sizes are only approximately the same, a couple have taken a bit of invention to size up (learning point, do 2 rounds of trebles (UK terms) rather than a round of double treble and a round of double). The first set of four seemed so quick and easy; not so much these, each one taking me an evening (with breaks and interruptions). I've learned a neater way to join in a new colour and can now do stitch clusters without wondering if I'm doing the right thing. I also feel like I can switch more easily between UK and US terms.

A pair of summer palazzo pants bought in a late summer sale last year (when it had started raining again here in Wales, although the rest of the country was still parched and sweltering). Two inches too long, now taken up and ready for summer if and when it eventually arrives. We need to get through spring first.

Another pair of old socks reduced to jersey yarn.

I've spread out a selection of sea glass and found my wire (the law of the stash - I'm missing the gauge of wire I really wanted to use for some of the pieces). Other stuff has taken over for the moment, but watch this space!

This batch of things: 7
Cumulative total: 21

Cork/Bottle Topper Little Tinsel Trees

These little trees are worked in the round from the base to the tip. They have a hole in the bottom so that they can sit on corks or atop bottles. If you leave a yarn tail when finishing off, it can be used to attach a gift label, or made into a loop so that you can hang your tree on a tree. Or make a few and use them as table decorations or as part of a festive mini-forest.

I've test-knit these in both purl and knit, but think purl comes out a little 'fluffier'. If you prefer knit, just replace 'purl' with 'knit' in the instructions below.

© Dancing Moth

Yarn: King Cole Tinsel Chunky, 10 g or less; you should be able to get at least 5 trees from a 50 g ball.
Needles: I use 4 mm dpns, but this could be adapted to circulars using magic loop (no instructions here for that yet).
Gauge: Trying to count rows (and sometimes even counting stitches) with this yarn is a nightmare, thus no gauge suggestion. My tension is quite tight, because the tighter knit will stand up by itself well.
I recommend you also use a row counter and stitch marker, either a closed marker you can slip from one needle to another or a removable marker.  You may need to adjust your needle size, depending on your own tension.
Trying to tink stitches is also a problem, so this pattern needs a little concentration.



Abbreviations
sts   stitches
Kfb Increase by Knitting into the Front and Back of the stitch
P     Purl
P2tog Purl 2 stitches together

Cast on 15 sts, distributing 5 on each of 3 needles and join in the round without twisting.

R1-3:  Work 3 rounds purl. (This will form the base with a hole in the middle for a cork or bottle-top).

R4: Kfb in all stitches to increase total to 30 sts, 10 on each needle.

R5-10: Work 6 rounds purl.

R11: *P1, P2tog, P4, P2tog, P1*, repeat on each needle (=24 sts).

R12-16: Work 5 rounds purl.

R17: *P1, P2tog, P2, P2tog, P1*, repeat on each needle (=18 sts).

R18-21: Work 4 rounds purl.

R22: *P1, P2tog, P2tog, P1*, repeat on each needle (=12 sts).

R23-25: Work 3 rounds purl.

R26: *P1 P2tog, P1*, repeat on each needle (=9 sts).

R27-28: Work 2 rounds purl.

R29: *P1, P2tog*, repeat on each needle (=6 sts).

Be careful now to keep the stitches on the needles and keep the work from twisting! Redistribute the 6 stitches over 2 needles instead of 3.

R30: Work 1 round purl.

R31: P1, P2tog, P1, P2tog, (=4 sts).

R32: P2tog, P2tog, (=2 sts, onto the same needle).

R33: Push the remaining 2 sts to the left of the needle and pulling the yarn taught, purl these 2 sts (i.e. work a single round of icord).

Cast off purlwise.

Finish off: Cut yarn, leaving just enough to work in on the inside, or leaving a 4-5"/10-12.5 cm tail.  If you sew the very end of the tail into the inside of the tip or knot it well, you should be able to pull the rest of the tail down inside so that it doesn't show when you don't need it, or pull the loop up to attach a gift tag or hang your little tree.

Create 365, second set

Things are crawling along. The first thing which has become evident (and should be a no-brainer) is that to be productive, I need to be more organised. It's one thing to sit down for 10 minutes to knock out a pair of earrings, but if I can't quickly find the beads I have in mind for them, I can spend 30 minutes or more looking. Which is exactly what I ended up doing for the pair I made. The idea was to make earrings to sell but I love these too much.

The second thing is a question of when, exactly, I have created, made, recycled, upcycled, whatever. So I'm making that up as I go along.

What do you do when you have old jersey, not right to make a t shirt bag, no more space for dusters, not right for flowery things? Make jersey yarn, to be crocheted into some sort of basket, bowl, bag or mat or something. The thing is, does each recycled item count? Perhaps the yarn, as a craft supply material, doesn't count until it's been made into something? I decided against these two and am counting a 'session', so one jersey long-sleeved top session, and another two sessions making yarn from seven pairs of old knickers and a pair of socks.

Talking of socks, a replacement pair of socks in what has become my 'standard' pattern, utterly in my comfort zone.

I also made the Virus shawl, for more details see this blog post.

My ridiculously long Ravelry queue contains lots of crochet block patterns, which I added for no other reason than they were pretty. I picked one and did a set of four blocks. Even though these are also an intermediate stage on their way to being something else, if I can count a jersey recycling session then I can count a crochet session.

Crochet blocks, socks, earrings and jersey yarn. The Virus shawl has already been given to a friend.

Other WIPs are trickling along. I'm going to have to pick up the pace a bit to meet my target at the end of the year!

Set 2 total: 7

Cumulative total: 14

Virus Shawl

I'd had the free pattern for this shawl queued in Ravelry for a while. It was such a popular pattern and everyone seemed to find it easy, so I thought it might be a good bet for increasing my crochet confidence.
Stylecraft's 'Cabaret' yarn, an acrylic DK plied with a polyester tinsel thread was a popular choice, so I bought three 100 g balls (a quantity recommended by others making the same shawl with the same yarn - ah, how wonderful is the Ravelry community for sharing details like this!) in the 'Rainbow' colourway, deciding this would be a Christmas-New Year 'hibernation' project. In the event, I didn't start it until early January, still intending this to be a shawl for myself.

Before Christmas, my friend Chrissie came round for a cuppa. She's had a pretty miserable year, losing her mother and learning that one of her siblings has been diagnosed with cancer. I showed her the yarn and she smiled and squooshed the ball, admiring the softness and the colours. Seriously, the photos don't do this yarn justice. It is wonderfully soft and squooshy, the colours are lovely and the tinsel thread twinkles.

As someone else commented, this yarn isn't great. I had a knot in one ball, a weird thick bit in another, and found that the rainbow inexplicably contained shades of russet and khaki green in with shades of blue, green, purple and pink, (rather than any red, orange and yellow) which didn't seem to follow a pattern. The yarn itself is a bit like a single with a loosely plied tinsel thread. The tinsel thread would break if it were tightly plied, but it sometimes snagged and pulled and I managed to break it in a couple of places. The ball band suggested working from the centre, but I couldn't find a centre-pull end easily and when I did find one, it just pulled a snarl of yarn from the centre of the ball. As others found, the balls are soft and loose, so great loops of yarn fall away from the ball until you're about half-way in. I found them quite easy to manage; even when the loops started to tangle, gently lifting and separating the yarn loops was enough to avoid knots. I doubt I would use this yarn for a cardigan, because matching stripes would be impossible, but I'm going to buy more (perhaps in another colourway) to make a shawl for myself.

Just after I started the shawl, I saw a Facebook post from Chrissie that she had lost her mother-in-law. I'd only just seen a Christmas photo, with Chrissie resplendent in a red dress, her MIL smiling at the head of the table. As I crocheted, I kept seeing Chrissie in my mind's eye, smiling as she caressed the yarn, and decided that this shawl had to be for her, with love.

It really is an easier pattern than it looks and I started to appreciate crochet in a way I hadn't before. The rhythms can be more complex than that of a row of knit or purl. Gone wrong? Just pull the stitches back to where it was right, pick up your loop and carry on. My 'Longshore' throw has been hibernating for a few years now, as I fell out of love with it, unsure of what I was doing and becoming increasingly inconsistent. I now feel I can pick it up again, even if I frog it back and redo it.

The pattern repeats over 4 main rows: create a foundation row of loops creating chain spaces, (UK) trebles in clusters in the larger chain spaces, with loops in between. The third row is trebles onto trebles and the last row is treble+chain 1, before it repeats, As I was getting to the end of the third ball, I finished up on a row 4 and went back over the edge with double crochet into each chain space, with a picot in the centre of each arc.

What do you mean, I can't sit on it?

I took a couple of photos of the finished shawl and marvelled at how light and drapey it was, working just as well as a scarf. I hadn't washed and blocked it (or taken any measurements, but it's about 1.5 metres/5 feet wide) by the time Chrissie came round in mid-January, but she was thrilled with it and immediately put it on. Smiles all round, (except for Xena with the ridiculously long whiskers, who was a bit put out that I wouldn't let her snuggle into the shawl!), job done!

Create 365: The First Set of FOs

It's been something of a slow start, despite my various WIPs and UFOs. And yet, this is a learning journey as well as creative exploration.

The first FO (finished object) was to create space, have a bit of a clean and tidy, and decorate for Christmas. Even though this is only a temporary thing, it counts as a creation for me; with no friends or family visiting, it would be so easy not to decorate. Putting up the tree and some decorations, if only for myself and for a couple of weeks, gets me out of my rut a little and creates some seasonal cosiness. There is a nostalgic sweetness in unpacking the decorations; some of the baubles are at least 45 years old! It also meant that I took the time to swap around a cupboard and a bookcase, which I've been meaning to do for months, and which makes the living room look a little larger. The decorations are now down and put away again, except for the cards, which I shall come to soon.

The first set of Create 365 FOs

In mid-December I started a pair of plain socks in Stylecraft Head Over Heels 'Etna', because I'd made a pair to sell and loved the yarn colours, so wanted a pair for myself. Having finished them and unable to resist, I made another pair (King Cole Zig Zag 3158 Pinecone, a blue/brown print). The burgundy print socks are the 'desk drawer socks' I made a back in 2014 (blog post here)  which needed some mending at the angle of the heel and instep.

The next item on the bottom row is the 'Wellen Baktus' (Wavy Baktus) scarf, which was technically finished before the start of Create 365 (so it doesn't really count). I had intended to use the faulty dyed, white bits of yarn I'd cut out as I was knitting to create a couple of tiny snowflakes, one for each end, but there wasn't enough yarn even for a couple of tiny pom-pom snowballs. So it's finished except for a hand-wash to test for fastness.

The silvery blob in the lower right corner is a little cork/bottle topper tree. I made a few of these in King Cole Tinsel Chunky for the craft market in mid December, but forgot to write down what I did, so I made another and wrote it down before I forgot! I'll write up the pattern and find out how to list it on Ravelry as a separate 'creation'.

Top right is a mended scarf. There is a Japanese tradition and art called Kintsugi or Kintsukoroi, of mending broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver or platinum. The mend shows and is beautiful in itself, reflecting change and imperfection. Having attempted to darn the holes in this scarf (and wondering why I was even bothering, considering it's just a cheap, viscose scarf which crocks dye even after several washes) and found the loose weave just pulls apart, I decided to use a coppery metallic embroidery thread and cover the holey areas with chain stitch. I could never darn this to disguise the holes and make it look perfect again, so the embroidery both mends and embraces the imperfection.

Centre back, an attempt at a crochet motif. The brushed acrylic yarn was donated, and I thought I might use it to make some sort of crochet, snowflakey baby blanket, but I lost patience with the catchy yarn (and I needed to use a larger hook, but that's already in use for something else). So the motif, and the yarn, can be donated to the Yarn Bombers. No doubt they will be able to create something wonderful. #alwayslearning #lifestooshort.

Back left, a 200g ball of super-chunky acrylic, which is also destined for the Yarn Bombers, as it will make a nice something-or-other, like a tree trunk out of a lamp-post. I experimented with seed stitch and linen stitch and different needle sizes and stitch numbers to make a rufty-tufty, manly cowl, but found the yarn colours too drab and the yarn made my eyes itch!

I need to pick up the pace, but can't spend all day crafting!

Total so far: 7