#4

A week of rediscovering...

Hello everybody, and welcome back to my weekly newsletter!

This week has been extremely hectic, and I thought I wouldn’t have had much to tell you, but boy I was wrong!

What I’m Currently Knitting

I am flying to the U.S. for a wedding in exactly one week, and I suddenly thought that I may be cold in September, in Northern New York State, in my flowy bridesmaid dress. So I impulsively cast on a project that has been in my to-knit list for the longest time. It’s the Easy Wrapped Cardigan by easy as knit, for which I had swatched months ago. It’s knitted on 10 mm needles, which makes it a pretty fast project. It’s the first time I’m knitting with needles this big, and I admit it was a big change from the 3 mm of summer projects. The whole thing is still a bit of a shapeless mess of skeins, as I’m using 3 different yarns to knit this. So I haven’t nice pictures for you yet, hopefully next week you’ll read about this in the FOs section ;)

New Video on YouTube

This past week I’ve uploaded a video on YouTube, and I’m very proud of this one. I’ve done quite a bit of research before sitting down and filming this.

It all started because, as it happens every year when the end of summer is approaching, I was getting frustrated. Once again I had planned of knitting a lot of cute camisoles and tees to wear this summer, and once again I had only managed to knit 3 and the summer was not almost over. The fact that in the Netherlands we didn’t really have a summer, but more of a very early and prolonged Autumn, did not help. So I actually thought about my summer knitting. I love knitting camisoles and tees, but why stop at the end of summer, and why wear them just during the summer? Mine are knitted in all-natural quality fibres that can be as breathable during warmer months, as well as insulating during colder months. Plus I personally love wearing layers during winter, sporting always between 4 to 5 layers on my upper body. So why not keep knitting and keep wearing those summer garments? That sparked a whole dive into my stash for beautiful sustainable fibres for these knits. The result is my latest video, focused on sustainable yarns perfect for late summer knitting. In the video you can find also a lot of pattern inspiration, for garments perfect to be worn for seasons to come.

In Other Knitting News

Until August 31st you can still sign up for the Scrappy Advent Swap organised by Rebecca Clow a.k.a. the.creabea (find the sign-up form at this link). The concept is pretty simple: gather the scrappy yarn you have have, pack it nicely as an advent calendar and ship it off to a fellow knitter. In exchange you’ll receive a similar advent calendar from that same knitter. You don’t have to worry about anything: just input your preferences (such as the size of the advent - 24 or 12 days, or 4 for the 4 advent weeks - or wether you prefer to ship to a fellow knitter nationally, just within the EU, or even internationally - shipping internationally may be pricier, but with the perk of discovering new yarns from other countries), and within a couple of weeks you’ll get assigned a knitter that had similar preferences. You can find all the detailed information on the form.

I think this is an amazing idea: I had actually had a similar idea, as I was chatting with Francesca a.k.a. an_italian_knitter a couple of months ago. We were talking about the FOMO for those nice and colourful advent calendars many indie dyers put out for pre-order already in spring. I always found their price out of my budget, and that, as well as not being sure what project to make with mini skeins, stopped me every year from joining the advent calendar craze. However, when in December you see all those Instagram pictures of people carefully opening their small baggies of yarn every day, the FOMO is real. Francesca and I were playing with the idea of exchanging a scrap advent, but our idea kinda died there. I’m glad Rebecca had a similar idea and scaled it up, as her big following surely will make this project a success. It is a great option not only for those knitters who can’t afford an hand-dyed calendar, but also for the knitters who want to be more sustainable and still experience a bit of magic during the holiday season.

Did I join? Not yet. Will I join? I don’t know. My reasons are fully personal. I honestly don’t have many scraps, as I like to knit all the yarn I have in a variety of scrappy projects, from blankets to striped sweaters and socks. Secondly, a requirement for this project is that the yarn is 4-ply, that is fingering-weight yarn. And again, that’s probably the yarn I have the least off, because either it’s sock yarn, and it’s so fun and easy to knit scrappy socks, or it’s non-sock yarn, which is still incredibly easy to combine with other yarns for a scrappy project. So, at this moment, I personally wouldn’t have much to give. However, as many knitters were asking whether they could just send a calendar without receiving one, just to clean out their scrappy stash, Rebecca added the option of signing up as either just a sender or just a receiver. I may then opt to sign up as just a receiver, as honestly I truly love making a project out of scraps.

Bookclub News

I can’t believe it’s already time for our first monthly meet-up for the ‘Knitting, Fashion, and Sustainability Bookclub’! The meet-up will take place tonight, and I can’t wait to spend some time virtually chatting and knitting with some like-minded knitters and crafters. If you’d like to join us for the next month, you can sign up here. I’ve already picked a book for September, but I don’t want to spoil anything as I will reveal it to the participants during our meet-up. So more information will come next week.

Destash Accountability

This week I’ve been a good girl and I haven’t bought any new yarn!! But I also haven’t completed any of my WIPs, so my net hasn’t got any closer to zero.

IN: 0g!

OUT: 0g :(

Net: + 4583g

Obsession of the week (a.k.a. my weekly source of procrastination)

My big procrastination this week has been my best friend. She has come to visit me from Italy and is staying with us for a week. So these days have all been about visiting castles and museums, hike, shopping second-hand, and catch up on everything in our lives. It feels like the years have not passed and we are some young university students going out for an aperitivo after classes. She’s making me feel like myself again, and I love her for this. Now I just have to teach her to knit, and then she’ll be the BEST best friend any person can ask for.

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Have a great week,

Camilla