Hello there!

It’s good to be speaking to you again.   It’s been a while! 

What a start to the new year we’ve had. It fair swept me along and derailed a lot of my plans. A restorative trip to the UK however, has me returning with renewed energy and enthusiasm, and even a little optimism to add to the pot. This year, despite its rather slow start is going to be a good one I think.

Susan and I outside Assa Marra Wool Studio, home of Susan Crawford Vintage and A Room of My Own yarns – where there’e always lots of great ideas and support – and fabulous window art.

So what does that mean for the blog? 

Well, I’m hoping to be spending more time here from now on and I hope you will too. As I have been finding social media more challenging of late, I plan instead to share more here. There are also events and new opportunities that I will be sharing here. 

Retreat Knitting

For instance one of the things I’m really looking forward to going to, and taking you with me this year is Susan Crawford’s Echoes and Inspiration Retreat in the UK in June. On this retreat we will be visiting Charleston, once home to the Bloomsbury set and to Monk’s House, home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf. These really are bucket list visits for me. The history of Charleston and the opportunity to spend time where one of my favourite writers Virigina Woolf lived and visited and talked about art, literature and politics with her sister Vanessa and the wider ‘set’, and of course knitted, is one I can’t wait for. I’ve also heard that the gardens are wonderful too, so there’s certainly going to be plenty of inspiration.

What’s more, we shall be there in the centenary year of the publication of Mrs Dalloway, which if you haven’t read, I highly recommend. Sometimes I can hardly believe it was published a century ago. The tenderness with which Septimus’ shell shock and mental health issues are dealt with is incredibly touching, but this is not the only theme that seems so very modern. That it is set on a day in the middle of June, also makes it perfect for another re-read just before the retreat.

New Knitting Patterns

For the knitters this year there will be some new patterns coming. I have a pile of designs to be photographed and some collaborations lined up. I’m really quite excited to move some of these forward and to then be in a position to develop new ideas that have been waiting way too long. 

Knitting Workshops

I will also be offering knitting courses locally. As I develop the programme these will appear in a new section here on the website. I will be offering everything from individual tuition to programmed group workshops and courses. I’m also happy to travel to teach and, rather excitingly, I already have plans to do so in the autumn. 

It’s a while since I taught and I’m really looking forward to getting back into it again. Initially I’ll be offering beginners courses, knitting in the round, shawl shaping, an Introduction to sock knitting, socks from the toe up, and stranded colourwork with more courses to follow. Classes will be taught in English supported by fully illustrated handouts. 

Life here in Italy

Spending time away is a sure-fire way of realising what you miss at home too and on the back of the trip to the UK I’ve also been thinking that I haven’t shared much of our life and travels here in Italy. I’m always wary of over-romanticising. Living in a foreign country has a lot of challenges as well as a lot of amazing things going for it, but spending a week showing a friend around was just the reminder I needed to share more of this wonderful place where we live with you too. 

Tiny Etruscan artefacts: We’ve been to the museum that houses these intricate pieces of art 4 times with various friends. It really is one of our favourites and I’ll share it with you soon. The pictures below show a little of the landscape, history and art that we are lucky enough to have on our doorstep.

All things Bookish

I have to say that one of the exceptions to my social media disaffection has been bookstagram, which is one of the nicest bunch of people I have met online. This community has really refuelled my love of reading and made up for inconsistent access to book groups, although it has to be said that the in person Culture Club Bru’ book group here in Siena has also played a huge part in this, and I’ve met some wonderful people through this group. This and my role as a volunteer librarian at the Biblioteca Le Citta’ Invisibili, which takes up a fair bit of time is something I haven’t shared much here and so, in the coming year there will be a new section on the blog all about books.

Website Changes

If you have been reading the blog for a while you may notice some changes already.

I have redesigned the knitting pattern section of the website to make it pleasant to browse and easier to see all the pattern info which you click on any design photograph. 

I’ve also pulled all the natural dyeing information together in one place.

A ‘Subscribe’ button has appeared on each page and post in the bottom right hand corner. If you aren’t a subscriber to the blog, please consider doing so and you’ll be emailed blog posts when I publish. As we go forward I hope the blog will function a little more like a newsletter with regular updates, as well as being a place where I publish longer more thoroughly researched pieces, tutorials and dyeing ‘how-to’ posts.  

The Ko-fi buttons have been on various pages for a while and are a lovely way of leaving a small tip or donation if you enjoy what you read here. Obviously, this is totally voluntary and only if you can afford it. Keeping the site advertising free is rather costly and I’m having to think a little more about how to manage this as I no longer have a full-time job subsidising it. As a result, there may also be a few more affiliate links appearing in some of the content and pages as a way of trying to offset this. 

As always, please feel free to comment and share your experiences. Let’s get chatting in those comments. Tell me in the comments below what you want to see more of and what you think of the proposed changes. I love getting your feedback. 

Now into my 12th year of blogging, I started in what was regarded as the heyday for blogs, I continued through the apparent death of blogs, and while the platforms have come and gone it seems I’m here for the resurrection of blogs. Indeed, last year even more of you stopped by for a read than ever before, for which I can only say ‘thank you’ and how grateful I am to have you here.

All the best, happy knitting and happy reading,

Tess xxx