A Fine Mess

Crochet Trance

Tue, 12 May 2026 22:44:21 GMT

I’ve started listening to one episode of The Magnus Protocol with The Beef every night, which gave me the itch for The Magnus Archives so I’ve been listening to it again while I’ve been crocheting the last few days. A lot of it is less spooky to me now than it was the first time but some episodes still really get me—The Piper, Lost John’s Cave and, eventually, Blanket. Brr. I’m probably going to skip that last one again.

The first time I listened to these, The Beef and I were on holiday in what was basically a big tent, in November, with the only source of heating a wooden stove. So we put logs on the fire, wrapped up in blankets and sat in armchairs pulled as close to the fire as possible. Because it was November. I vividly recall my fear when I walked along the path to the unlit shed outside that housed the toilet with my phone as the only source of light. So the best/worst place to listen to a horror podcast. (I’m a baby, so the worst.)

Anyway while I have been working my way through season 1 over the last few of days I have been crocheting. My friend described the way that you kind of sink into crocheting and then you realise 2 hours have passed as “the crochet trance”. Absolutely true! I don’t get sucked in that way with knitting!

Voilà! Sewing in ends of any project is the worst part. I put that off for 2 days.

After fiddling about with foam kneeling pads and pins I decided to invest in a real blocking board so this evening I put them on to block overnight, and then I will try seaming everything together.

Granny squares made with various Stylecraft and Yarnsmith yarns. Swatch made with Hayfield Spirit in the colourway Meadow.

There’s also a swatch for a Hexagon Cardigan on there. It may turn into a jumper with sunflower granny squares on front as well as the back? Undecided. Winging it. I’m only seen this modelled by trendy young thin women with a significantly smaller portion of boob so who knows how this will look on me. This will be an ✨adventure✨

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Blimey!

Sat, 09 May 2026 12:59:25 GMT

Gosh. Almost a week since I took a peek at Dreamwidth. Painting the kitchen and the various Agonies and their various doctors etc have really taken it out of me.

I am so close to finishing my first installment of bears. I haven’t quite managed even stuffing yet so all 3 are slightly different shapes lol. As you can see, 3 ears and some faces are needed.

They keep making me think of the Kevin James Shrug meme

My mother has been away visiting my grandparents so she’s been unavailable to pass them to her knitting group, so my lackadaisical approach continues.

I did get Influenced™ into relearning how to crochet and am now working up a little pouch to keep um… something in. I’ll find something.

To the left here you can see the image I am using for inspiration which, infuriatingly, on a reverse image search only turns up on Pinterest. No origin, it’s just Pinterest all the way down. If anybody recognises this I really want to find the original artist and would appreciate a tip!

I love the colour palettes on the bottom two but I somehow don’t have anything that can approximate them because, it seems, I tend to buy muted colours without realising. I am soft autumn in those colour season things (if you subscribe to those things) and I have always tended to that kind of colour palette unless buying for a specific project.

Anyway I didn’t want to buy more yarn so I devised my own delicious colour palette.

Can you tell what my inspiration is?

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Izzy Bears

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 09:56:14 GMT

So a few weeks ago my mum asked me to help with her knitting group’s project to gather as many of these charity bear dolls as they can. They’re for their local children’s centre and will be handed out to the tinysmalls who go to their feelings class (I don’t know what that is but I’m guessing from the name that a lot of people could have used one at that age though. I am hoping the next generation will turn out a bit more well adjusted than we did?)

Cute, no?

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/izzy-teddy-bear-dolls

In theory I should be able to knock these up fairly quickly, but I’ve had a block about it until yesterday when I finally managed to finish the flat knit part. Today between a well overdue haircut and some chores I’m hoping to do the finishing.

I followed my mum’s choice of knitting it flat rather than follow the pattern and do it on DPNs. Mainly because, though I prefer magic loop I didn’t actually have 3mm needles of any kind (how??) and the straight needles were cheaper. I am remembering now that I don’t love knitting stockingette on straight needles, so perhaps it was worth that extra… I don’t remember, it was probably a couple quid at most.

Oh, hey! THAT was the block.

I really like this yellow. I think it’s Winnie the Pooh colour so I might do a yellow/red one?

In other (gross) news I woke up with a mild infection in two piercings—entirely my fault and at a level that I can deal with at home with my sterile saline spray—but it’s aggravated my MCAS so I’m all blistery and eczema-y (in my hands? It always goes for my hands and feet first) and my bones hurt. I am not looking forward to dragging myself out for my haircut today.

I will look very cute later though, so I will take painkillers and my rescue meds and persevere.

Edit: hairdresser needed to reschedule and it’s for a terrible reason but I did get time to rest and feel better post rescue meds. Phew.

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2022 to 2026

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:36:13 GMT

This is actually A Few Years’ Round Up.

Honestly the last few years are a bit of a blur but I try to take a lot of photographs so I can look back and remember that stuff actually happened. I found some pictures of notable knitting projects:

I knit a lot of socks! Some are for me, some for The Beef, some for my parents. I make them for everyone for Xmas and their birthday.

It looks like the original image of my Little Cotton Rabbit has broken but I made him in 2020, I think. I made a load of new little clothes for him recently though. I’ve made 3 frogs so far but this is the only photo I got before I gifted them all away. I plan to make more. Eventually. There have been some patterns for whimsical little clothes released since I made mine, and I simply must make a pumpkin costume, I must.

Little Cotton Rabbit: https://ravel.me/bunny-in-a-dotty-dress
Frog: https://ravel.me/frog-48

Gloves for my permanently cold little handsies.

Crosswise Cadence Gloves: https://ravel.me/crosswise-cadence-gloves
Firewalker fingerless gloves; https://ravel.me/fadewalker-fingerless-mitts

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