I love it when newsletter day coincides with the first day of a new month, and is there any better month for fresh starts and ‘back to school’ energy than September?
I’m not going to lie, it’s been a weird sort of week. The bank holiday combined with the Full Moon (a blue supermoon no less) has conspired to leave me being utterly confused with no idea what day of the week it’s been. And to add even more confusion the weather has been saying it’s September for the past week or so, despite the calendar evidence to the contrary.
Seasonal discombobulation aside though, I always associate September with the start of autumn/winter knitting in earnest. Yes, I know we knit all year round but something about the ‘back to school’ energy of September has me wanting to knit All The Things - mainly sweaters and blankets. You know, those tiny things that take no time at all and definitely won’t hang around being a long term WIP for the next 3 years (insert sarcasm emoji here).
I’m resolutely resisting KALs, MKALs and Instagram challenges as I know from past experience that I will invariably overcommit and then fade away - and apart from anything else I have a bed sized stripy blanket to knit for my Uni-bound eldest son. I started it months ago, in good time. So of course I now have half a blanket to knit in less than 3 weeks, of course!
Making me smile
The Everyday Knitter book club started today and that’s definitely making me smile. We opted for The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon for our inagural read. It’s not too late to join in, if you’d like to.
Monday thoughts...and an announcement
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Normally my Monday Thoughts emails are the ones I send exclusively to paid subscribers but I didn’t want anyone to miss this particular announcement. On September 1st I’m going to be starting the Everyday Knitter book club here on Substack. The idea is that we will vote on which book to read each month and then have a little weekly check in, each week just to see what people are thinking/feeling about that particular book.
I’m not doing mystery KALs, specifically I’m not doing the new Stephen West one, no matter how tempted I might be. But I will be following along vicariously as I love seeing how these things turn out. I love following Martyn of
and his post today is just perfect. A well run KAL is such a great thing to take part in and it really brings out the community side of knitting that I love so much.
I know I said no KALs, and I am of course a woman of my word. But I did catch sight of one that is very achievable - all you need to do is knit a pair of socks and at my current rate of sock generation I feel pretty confident of managing this one. It’s being run by Ellyndria.Knits on Instagram - the Fall into Socks KAL 2023 and it lasts from now until Nov 15.
Oh - and one more thing before I go. I have just re-written and updated my e-book on How to Knit a Mitered Square Blanket for 2023. If starting a new stashbusting project for autumn/winter is on your to-do list then fear not, I have everything you need to get started, distilled into a handy 10-page e-book. Just tap the link below for more information:
September is always get into real knitting gear for me and I do love the Autumn leaves and smells of burning leaves and wood fires. I have never done a MCAL because they often use up a ton of yarn and I wouldnt want to commit my best skeins without knowing where they would go. I really didnt like the last SW one, although he is a genius. His YT channel is full of little tips and tricks which open up new windows in the knitting brain. I'm thinking of a scarf and a short sleeved top as my next designs and will be swatching on the beach as were heading south tomorrow for a few weeks.
September is the beginning of the “BER months” ~ my favorite season septemBER, octoBER, novemBER, decemBER!