Greetings, comrades!

I am slowly returning to the normal world after several months tucked away in BOOKLAND. The KNITSONIK Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook is in the final proofing stages and, though exact dates are not yet concrete, I can tell you things are happening soon.

I am also off to Shetland in less than a week and this is a thoroughly cheering prospect. I am looking forward to seeing loads of my favourite woolly comrades and revisiting the spiritual home of the wonderful yarn with which I have been knitting for many months.

Here is one of the things I shall be wearing – Shwook is a special hat pattern designed by Hazel Tindall for SHetland WOOl weeK and I have really enjoyed knitting two versions.

After a long, hermetic time immersed in my own knitting ideas it has been a great fun to knit a pattern written by someone else. Shwook is a swift and easy knit, and the nifty design enables multiple colour ideas to be explored. I am really looking forward to seeing all the different versions that people have made.

The two versions I made borrow ideas from the Sloes and Wonders of Electricity swatches knitted for the book so it seems I cannot get away completely from BOOKLAND.

I confess I cannot walk anywhere without noting which shades of Jamieson & Smith I would use to knit the view… lovely 121 and 125 for old books about electricity and workflow diagrams for BOOKPRODUCTION…

…49 to describe the beauteous blooming of an artichoke thistle.

You would think I would be done with colours after all the time I have spent writing and thinking about them in BOOKLAND but I find the opposite is true; I feel like I have been somewhere that has changed my outlook forever.

That said, it’s nice to be back.