epalmerbrown

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Destash Alert!

Some of the yarn babies in need of a new home. I’m having a big destash to start the year. Clicking on the photo above should take you through to the Flickr album showing all the goodies. 100g skeins and mohair blends are £10 each. 50g skeins, Rowan and WYS are £5 each. P&P is not included. I’m in the UK so be aware that there are some places I cannot send parcels to. I’m posting about this on…

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In Which a Very Strange Week Was Had by All

I know, I know. A whole week without posting.

We don’t know each other well enough for me to go into the details, so let’s just say that several things collided in my personal life, and updating the blog was not a priority.

Despite that I’ve managed to keep going with the analogue side of my Reading to Write project, and I will post those entries, and write a little reflection on how it’s gone,…

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New Torch

I don’t dare to carry a light. Wind rushes through the reeds, batters stunted willows, and we creep along the lane, navigating by shadow and starlight. His right hand is warm in mine, the other makes his pocket rustle. A slight whine in his voice, he asks, “but why can’t we use the torch?” Reminder that it’s shiny new, the fat batteries hardly used. “Because He’ll come.” I mutter back. “And chase…

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Thoughts on Wallpaper

Today’s poem was ‘The other bride’ by Pauline Yarwood (The Emma Press Anthology of Contemporary Gothic Verse Ed. Nisha Bhakoo, 2019), author of the pamphlet Image Junkie, and a founder-director of Kendal Poetry Festival.

I’m struggling to write anything much today, despite the image of unlikely wallpaper catching my fancy, so instead have another of these disturbing insights into how my brain…

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The Pier

Don’t go near it on the hot days of Summer: all lobster-red, shaven-head men trailing wives in designer sunglasses, and ice-cream-smeared children, to a carnival music soundtrack.

Evenings are best avoided too: all Goths and lovers needing a fix of drama in the cool night air. And steer clear of early morning constitutionalists, especially before an acceptable level of caffeine has been imbibed.

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Routine

She did not like to see him go. He held her to his chest, his beard drawing strands from her neatly coiled hair, whispered, “I’ll be home by Spring. Watch from the window; wait for me there.”

And so, each day, she brushed her hair to gleaming gold, dressed herself in white, and ascended to the highest window to wait. Spring came and went with no word. Each Spring that passed stole the glow of her…

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Omens

When the crows circle then we know the battle is at hand. Word carries from wingtip to wingtip: there’s fresh meat to be had. The horror of a crow head deep in the flesh of a fallen friend has unnerved many who seemed fearless in battle.

When the crows leave it can only mean that something worse is on it’s way. Then we should fear indeed.

‘Exodus’ is by Elaine Baker (The Emma Press Anthology of…

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The Boats Have Eyes

The Boats Have Eyes

The symbol of protection from the Evil Eye is also an eye, but this one watches out, keeps guard, extends protection. Nowhere is this more needed than at sea – who knows what evil lurks beneath the waves, what storms will come, what wreck or ruin awaits?

The eyes do not just guard but lead; through rocks, to fish, and home again when the stars are silent. What person would dare risk a blind boat?

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A List of Things I Know about Haworth, West Yorkshire

A List of Things I Know about Haworth, West Yorkshire

The village is over 800 years old;

The Bronte family lived there;

Keighley and Worth Valley Railway has a station in the village;

The Railway Children was filmed in Haworth;

Liza Cole (parachutist) died and was buried there;

The main street is cobbled;

Haworth is a Fair Trade village, and twinned with Machu Picchu;

Haworth hosts an annual Steampunk weekend;

It takes me around an hour to walk from…

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Seasons in the Northern Hemisphere

Seasons in the Northern Hemisphere

Winter lingers longest. Arrives in November, nipping at Autumn’s heels, and sucks us into winter cheer before casting us into the dark new year of January misery and dull February.

Spring lifts her head in March, then takes till April to wake up. Tearful ’til May when she begins to flirt with Summer.

Summer, enlivened by the kiss of Spring, runs wild and lush through June and July, only pausing,…

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Liminal

She had hoped to be the first to arrive, but Dreadmoon was there ahead of her. Of course. She tilted her head to the side, watched. He stood like an oak, stance wide to brace himself against the unmoving ice, broad shoulders twitching as though his thoughts itched.

“Don’t do that.” His voice was quiet, but held a rumble of the wrath that stirred so easily. When he turned his head, one milky eye…

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Secrets

Do seven magpies symbolise a secret waiting to be told, or neverto be told? Unspoken words have potential and therefore power. Creation and Destruction. What might an untold secret fuel? A simulacra; a spell? A name is the greatest secret, and must never be told to a Fae. The most powerful words bind, and none is more powerful than a name. Sometimes we must break free of that binding – of the…

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And now for those of you who have been hopefully tapping on the Arts & Crafts link in the menu since I fired up the blog again, a knitting post.

I’ve been meaning to knit a new tee for a while. I made a Marettimo tee a couple of summers ago and have worn it year round.  I used a fairly cheap Rowan yarn as the main colour and it has not worn all that well [also it’s an acrylic blend so I overheat like crazy].

The Marettimo fresh off the needles in 2018.

I decided to use lockdown to make a Navelli tee to replace it. I’ve had the yarn for this for a while: three skeins of Baa Baa Brew Marble 4 ply in the Mulier Fortis colours ‘Emmeline’ and ‘Valentina’, and the ooak  Tits Out Collective skein from Bluebell Yarns. Since both are a BFL/Masham 4 ply I knew that they’d work well together.

This knit took me longer that I expected [I started in April I think?], partly because I had to pause for some gift knitting, and partly because I was alternating the two skeins of Valentina to get an even colour [the joy of hand-dyed yarn is that each skein is unique, but man, alternating the skein every second row is dull], but I am really pleased with the end result:

I did modify the sleeves because the way the pattern is written the sleeves would have ended up as a double layer  – fine if you plan to wear this as a tee, but excessive when I’m primarily using it as a layer. It does mean that I sacrifice the way in which the additional weight would help the sleeves to hang correctly. The body also has a cm or so more length than it should because I went over and couldn’t be bothered to rip back  – can you tell I’m more of a project than a process knitter?

The problem with my being a project knitter is that my Anxiety [that control freak] tries to plan all the projects I will knit for the rest of my life, and basically sits in my brain with a stopwatch and clipboard yelling at me to stop browsing any patterns or admiring any yarn that isn’t on her list. The result is that I stop knitting because it stops being fun.

For me the solution is to knit what I call a palate-cleanser [mmm, sorbet!]: a one-skein super-simple shawl project, using whatever beautiful yarn most appeals to me at the time. All other WIPs are ignored until it’s done, and the process short-circuits Anxiety and helps me to enjoy finishing whatever else I was working on. My usual go-to pattern for this is Louise Tilbrook’s Fuss Free Festival Shawl, but I’ve already made 3 or 4 of those so I went for Justyna Lorkowska’s Close to You shawl using a skein of Countess Ablaze The Bluefaced Baron Fingering, colour ‘Girl at the Rock Show’.

I know this photo is terrible, I was in a hurry. But you get the idea.

I wound the skein at least a year ago so it was nice to get it out of a project bag and turn it into something. I’d like to think I’ll wear this, because I love the yarn, but I enjoy knitting shawls more than I enjoy wearing them [they fall off and try to lose themselves, or I strangle myself trying to adjust them – I should probably just resign myself to the fact that I’m a cowl girl], so this may end up in the gift knits box instead. 

On the needles

I’m 2 sections away from finishing a Nefelibata shawl that’s been languishing for months, and I’m making another Fuss Free Festival Shawl [I know, keep reading] as part of the Every Knitter Group KAL. Hopefully, I’ll be back to show at least one of those off next week.

Wardrobe Additions And now for those of you who have been hopefully tapping on the Arts & Crafts link in the menu since I fired up the blog again, a knitting post.

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What comes after the Witching Hour?

What comes after the Witching Hour?

They say that midnight is the Witching Hour. (They’re wrong, it falls between 3-4 AM; that break in the old canonical hours when everything supposedly good rested). But what then is the time between dawn and sunrise? (The Iberians call it madrugada). A moment  of colourless light when all creation seems to hold it’s breath to see the sun reborn. Who haunts it? Following in the footsteps (or lack…

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Citations Needed

This is the Greek in us – can another citizen attest to the fact that you are indeed a citizen? Two witnesses would be even better. All the paper in the world cannot beat the word of a man, but always a man, and then only if he’s the right colour.

The Renaissance was not a rebirth but a rediscovery, and to  the slogan of ad fontes the churches began their fall, and the European project of…

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Shopping list for an Exorcism

salt

holy water

candles

a cross (a crucifix?)

an old priest

a young priest

plastic sheets?

  ’Exorcism’ by Kitty Coles (The Emma Press Anthology of Contemporary Gothic Verse, Ed. Nisha Bhakoo, 2019), was the poem for day 8. The shortness of this entry reflects how awful I was feeling that day.

I’m mostly over my cold (yes, just a cold, but I’m being cautious) so I’m hoping to get the past few…

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Thoughts on Shadow

What I didn’t allow for when planning this reading / writing project is that I might get ill. I therefore have no energy for actual writing, and have created another mind-map for your enjoyment. On shadow, so I will absolutely be coming back to this in October.

You may have spotted a few book titles and / or references: I heartily recommend N.K. Jemisin’s The Killing Moon, and I am a late, but…