Typecast

My recent crochet WIP has been this Whirl Mandela cardigan /shawl. I'd bought what I thought was enough yarn but it became blatantly obvious when I was three-quarters of the way through that I'd completely misjudged the amount I'd need. I jumped back on the website but as the yarn had been in their outlet, they were sold out. I thought I'd throw myself on their mercy with a cheeky email asking if they had any languishing in a dark and dusty corner of their website, but didn't hold much hope and Plan B was to finish it off with a contrasting colour. To my joy, Matt at The Wool Factory offered to search their Sheffield store, sourced 5 balls (more than enough), sent me an invoice and posted them off to me. That's the level of customer service that keeps you returning to feed your needs! I've made this as a shrug type evening cozy for the summer and it was an easy pattern to follow so I could lose myself in it during the evenings. It was also the smallest hoo...

Every so often, a headline lands that feels less like news and more like a collective intake of breath. Recently, it’s been the idea of banning under-16s from social media. Australia has acted. Spain is talking seriously about it. The UK is 'consulting', which is political code for we know this is complicated but we need to be seen to do something . If you’re a parent, carer, or anyone who has ever watched a teenager scroll at lightning speed while claiming they’re “not really doing anything”, this probably sparked a mix of relief, confusion, agreement, and dread. Relief because something might finally change. Dread because banning something rarely makes it disappear. Twelve years ago, and in partnership with  Jump! Mag,  I made a lot of noise about the access that children had to social media. Parents reported that were already anxious about safety, peer pressure, screen time, and digital footprints that felt permanent before kids even understood what permanent meant howev...

Everyone is talking about Brooklyn Beckham’s statement, and I’ve had thoughts about children in the public eye for a long time - though mine are rooted more in the blogging and vlogging world than celebrity culture. It was this quote that stood out most to me in Brooklyn’s exposé: “For my entire life, my parents have controlled narratives [..] about our family. The performative social media posts, family events and inauthentic relationships have been a fixture of the life I was born into.” You can scroll back through this blog and see that it started around 2009. Before that, I used various precursors to blogging platforms to document my thoughts and memories. Before social media (fuck, that makes me sound so old), blogging was a way to talk to people about… well, literally anything and everything. I shared family pictures, started discussions, and built a small but respectful community. As the internet developed and my readership grew, I was approached by some forward-thinking b...

I recently finished a yarn basket made from those little ends of yarn balls. You know the ones – not enough to make anything useful, but somehow still too much to throw away. When I showed it to a couple of fellow crafters, they asked for the pattern… except there isn’t one. I took inspiration from a few scrap yarn projects I’d seen on Facebook groups and YouTube, but mostly I just winged it. I’ve never written a pattern before, and I don’t even have progression photos, so we can dive straight in without you having to read my life story or a tale about how this was my grandmother’s pattern, passed down through generations using a secret code. PREARATION I used a 6mm hook and two strands of contrasting colours, joining the next colour with a magic knot when I reached the end of each ball of yarn. The entire basket is worked using half treble crochet (UK terms - I believe the US equivalent is a half double crochet). BASE Chain 6, then join with a slip stitch to form a circle. Wor...

You may already have seen my images on Instagram but I couldn't be happier with how my version of the  Storyteller Blanket by Attic24 turned out!  But there's a bit of background to how we ended up here...  One of my team at work was interested in relearning how to crochet a granny square after trying a few years ago but losing interest.  We started a mini crochet club in our lunch break and by the end of the first week, she was stitch-perfect!  I went on annual leave for a week and, by the time I returned, she was crocheting pumpkins for Halloween and decorations for the office.  We both spotted the Storyteller pattern announcement on Facebook and thought it would be a perfect project to work on side-by-side.  She ordered the official yarn pack but I saw it as a great opportunity to use up a good chunk of my yarn stash, which seems to have accumulated a lot of pink and purple. On top of this, rather than following the pattern to the letter, I went a...

For those of you that are new here, I used to host an irregular series called " Soundtrack To My Life " where I invited friends to share five songs that transported them back to a specific moment in time. It didn't have to be a major life event; just a treasured memory that you associate with that particular song. I occasionally interjected with my own lists of music and now I think it's time to revive the series.  This time, I want to share songs that I discovered by accident.  Now, back in the day (haha, that makes me sound SO old!) the only time I heard anything outside of my comfort zone was by friend's recommendations or... well, you'll see.  Nowadays, it's more likely to be by following 'you might like this' recommendations on Spotify.  But it provides an eclectic playlist  This time, I’m sharing songs I stumbled across completely by accident. Back in the day (I know, that phrase instantly adds years on me, doesn’t it?) the only way I’d hear ...

I thought you might be interested in the Volunteer Coordinator set up at Witton parkrun . This is the table where all volunteers come to register for their high-viz hero stint and where they receive all their training (if needed). I have my clipboard which has a list of all the lovely volunteer's names and their assigned role for this week. I check them off as they arrive and issue them with their bib (in a bag, just out of sight). As our route is mainly on trail paths, in the woods, we issue most of our marshals with a walkie-talkie and a lanyard which holds laminated directions to their marshal point and emergency instructions if needed (including the 'What Three Words' reference for their marshal point). They are asked to radio through to the Run Director when the first runner and when the Tail Walker has passed, on both loops. This information is also radioed through to all marshals so everyone has a good idea of where all runners and walkers are on the course. On th...