OK, i have been away for a while. This retirement stuff makes you busy, however I am back designing some new knitted accessories, The first of which is ‘Goredale Hat’. The theme for the next few designs is ‘Keeping Warm in the Yorkshire Dales’! It was snowing this morning! Winter so far has been more wet & wild & windy but winter may still have a cold sting to its tail, as it did in 2013!

Gordale Scar is a huge gorge in The Yorkshire Dales, only visible when you walk up through the campsite and turn the corner. Gordale Scar was created during the Ice ages, melt water creating a cavern that eventually collapsed to create the waterfall and gorge you see today including smooth rocks formed by Tufa deposits. It is a dark and damp place. Awesome but somewhere where you need a good hat!

The hat is knitted in worsted or aran weight yarn. It can be worn ‘slouchy’ or with the brim turned back for a more fitted hat. The hat is knitted on slightly thinner needles than you might expect for this weight yarn. This gives it a good fitted but stretchy brim that’s pretty windproof. It is interesting to knit but simpler than it looks!

It is sized to fit most adult sized heads but if you are knitting for a particularly small (or large) head then the pattern can be adjusted by multiples of 4 stitches.

The hat is ‘modelled’ here by my lovely son, although I have claimed it for my own!

The pattern can be purchased via Raverlry.com – link here

…… July 5th sees the start of 2014 Tour de France in Leeds, Yorkshire! We have booked a camping spot in Hawes,Wensleydale to watch the race speed through the lovely countryside and to mark the occasion I have decided to try to come up with a knitted design for each of the five Dales they will ride through. Nidderdale Cottage Socks already exist, so next off the needles are Wensleydale Socks.They are a pretty, lacy sock knit in a fingering weight yarn. How do they ‘fit’ Wensleydale? They include broad sweeps of pattern that fit in with the wide sweep of the upper dale and micro details reminiscent of the small things in the dale such as the winding stone walls and the steps in the river & stream beds. Wensleydale is a ‘pretty’ dale and IMHO they are pretty socks. The pattern can be purchased on Ravelry here.

Wensleydale Socks

Penhill, Wensleydale

I have just finished the last two patterns ( Dunstanburgh Castle fingerless mitts & Nidderdale Cott

age socks & I think/hope I have correctly created an ebook of six patterns on Ravelry! Click here for the link to my Ravelry Design Page. The ebook is at the bottom of the page.

I hope people like the designs & consider 6 patterns for £10 reasonable value for money. 5/6 of the patterns are available individually for £3 each. I enjoy designing new patterns and the ebook theme was a fresh challenge. I would like to create more sets of patterns when & if the inspiration hits me. I guess they will have some geographical theme!!!!! ‘Longshore Drift Mitts’ already exist in my head & would be the first real colour work design I have attempted! Watch this space!

The last pattern for my ‘ebook’ to be end Britain on your hands & feet’ is ready for publication. This pattern is a fingerless mitt pattern, suitable for men or women. The name ‘Dunstanburgh Castle was chosen because I was reminded of the two

towers that form the gatehouse of the castle & stand out for miles around & the offset cables on the back of the mitts dominating the baby cables the form the rest of the mitten…………. well thats my story & I am sticking to it! The mix of cables gives a stretchy, warm mitt, that if you knit to the top of your little finger pretty much keeps ntitled “Arou

the whole of your hand warm yet allows access to touch screens, camera buttons or whatever with your fingers. The mitts are  ‘fraternal twins’ with the cable offset close to the thumb & the cables twisting in different directions. They can be knit up in 50 gms of fingering yarn with some to spare. The pink mitts were knitted with one ball of Knit Picks Pallete for example. The pattern is available to purchase individually from my design page on Ravelry now & will shortly be available as part of the ebook. I have just got to work out how that works! The link to Ravelry ishttp://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dunstanburgh-castle-mitts

I am just one pattern away from ‘publishing’ my first ebook of knitting patterns on Ravelry as ‘Brimham Rocks Flip Top Mitts’ is ready to go. They are completely unsuited to the winter that we have had in Britain so far, as they are really warm, toasty warm infact, but not waterproof! They are not my usual fingerless mitts as such….. well they are but they have a flip top as well. Ideal for a smart phone addict such as myself! I have yet to upload it to Ravelry but I thought I would mention it here first! It will be available on my design page here. EDIT…. Published! Let it snow!!!!

They are knitted in DK yarn but knitted on 2.5mm needles, in the round. I have found that mitts knitted on more ‘standard’ size needles recommended for DK or aran/worsted weight yarn tend to allow the wind to whistle through! No chance of that happening here. The ‘millstone grit’ rib pattern means that the fabric still has some depth & bounce. I also knit thicker socks using DK yarn, 2.5mm needles & a basic fingering weight pattern construction which works really well. Traveller’s Socks can be knit either in fingering weight or DK sock yarn. Mr J & the son & heir have plenty of pairs of both weight socks! 

Coffee: Ages since I have written on of these, but this is a twice daily event – breakfast & mid morning! Coffee here on the hill is made in a cafitiere or ‘coffee press’ as it is known west of the Atlantic & usually it is Taylor’s of Harrogate (of course) Lazy Sunday blend. So usual I have a monthly subscription order from Amazon! For me I like my coffee simple – black no extras. – why is it when I order a black Americano I am often asked ‘milk with that?’????

Today would have been the first day back at school after the February Half Term break. We would have probably got back from a mad dash to the Alps & back. As it is we are going skiing in a months time, in TERM TIME. We have spent today doing some jobs around the house & will probably take the dog for a walk at Brimham Rocks before tea. Our time is our own. Our thoughts are not controlled by such things as Ofsted & monitoring, they are our own. Yes I still wonder how I might have bought the recent floods or the changing jet stream into my teaching but I am happy to just be ‘interested’ in such things. I still swear at the latest musings of Mr Gove but that proves I am still breathing! Running as a punishment? I wonder if my PE teacher son has picked up on the ministers latest ludicrous suggestions…. sorry policy statements?!!!!

The sock pattern!

One of the things I have been doing is designing some sock & mitt patterns that I plan to incorporate in an ‘ebook’ called ‘Around Britain on your hands & feet’. Each pattern is named after a place in Britain that I love & the pattern includes some photographs & travel details about the place. The three sock patterns are now for sale as stand alone patterns on Ravelry. They are Rozel, Balevullin & Tarr Steps. That takes in Jersey, Tiree & Exmoor so far! They are for sale on my Ravelry design page ‘Fromonthehill’s Blog’. I hope to have the ebook ready by mid March. The three mitt patterns exist in a wooly form -I just need to write up the patterns!

Not just any calendar but one without term dates marked on (well mine at least -son is now a PE teacher!). Reason? Both DH & I have snatched at a reasonable early retirement package & left teaching in July. Our calendar now has no real pattern or routine in it (other than dustbin collection days!) & we are beginning to feel at little like the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey when she famously enquired ‘what is the weekend?’. We were able to set of on a ‘first grand retirement Roadtrip’ just a few days into September & spent 3 weeks in our demountable camper touring around Somerset, Devon & Cornwall.

I can honestly say that neither of us have had a seconds regret & are loving the freedom we have been given.

This photo was taken on Monday when we took advantage of the beautiful weather and had a day out in Wharfedale & Wensleydale. It actually would have been our first day back at school after the half term break!

OK, its been a while but I might pick up the mantle again!

Not the fruit, the company (or its products to be more precise)! First the iPhone (currently an iPhone 5), then an iPad & now a macbook. They have got me hooked. I especially like photo streaming – take a photo or save an image on the iPhone & it appears on the other two! I love the ‘computer in your hand’ aspect of the smart phone & the quick access – no more waiting for a PC to clunk into life. I love a good gadget & these are good gadgets!

Ferry boat. I am no sailor. I am equipped for tomorrows crossing to Jersey with travel bands & if necessary sea sickness tablets! Ferry boats? My world? Yes. They have taken us to the western isles of Scotland many times, to Tiree, Coll, Mull, the Uists & Harris/Lewis & helped shape great holidays & wonderfully memories. In North America they have taken us to the wilds of Vancouver Island & the Olympic peninsula. We will board a ferry tomorrow to take us to the Channel Islands of Jersey & Guernsey. This will be our 5th trip on these fast cat ferries. Not my favourite but they offer a fast crossing. We have been on big ferries across the North Sea en route to ski holidays, we have been on little ferries like the little Glenelg ferry from the Isle of Skye. Our recent holiday to the Orkney Isles involved one of the smartest ferry we have been on. Shame it was so foggy we missed the view to match! So #19, ferry boats!