Friday catch-up

I’ve had a lovely week this week, spending time with family. Very little knitting has been done as a result - I’ve done a lot more driving than knitting unfortunately - but that’s fine. Everything has it’s season after all and I’ll more than make up for it I’m sure in the coming weeks.

We’ve taken the decision not to have a summer holiday this year for a variety of reasons and so we are having a series of short day trips and possibly the odd overnight stay somewhere different. I have to admit the the thought of an overseas flight and all the stress that entails was rather weighing on my mind, and it was really rather liberating to have a family discussion where we all felt free to admit that actually, none of use wanted to fly somewhere this summer and that we were all just making theoretical plans for trips because we thought that’s what everyone else wanted to do. Turns out I’ve managed to raise a family of people pleasers.

Lack of knitting time hasn’t stopped me looking at patterns, and I’ve been adding patterns to my queue at a frightening rate. Latest to join the ‘needle adjacent’ list is this beautiful shawl - Carabosse Shawl by Penny Baker Knits - I think I might even have the perfect shade of purple in my stash.

While pattern browsing though I have come across more than my fair share of AI generated knitting images - largely being shared unsuspectingly in facebook groups. You’ve probably seen them without even realising. There’s the now infamous Gotham Grannies series but also photos of (mainly) little old ladies posing next to huge knitted kittens or dragons or elephants. In all of these case the old adage ‘if something looks too good to be true’ usually applies. There is a brilliant article here by

A. I. Knitting

on Those Viral Knitting Memes. It is a really good read and it explains how they are generated as well as some of the issues with the way they are shared and abused online.

What’s making me smile this week.

Creatively Conscious Substack - If you read one thing this week, please do check out this fabulous Substack. It’s one of my favourite newsletters to receive and there’s always something in there to inform, delight or entertain.

How to Keep House While Drowning - A book that I came across recently which is really helping me with my decluttering and my desire to live in a simpler, cleaner home.

Threads - I’m really enjoying the new Meta app. Especially since they have added a tab so you can just see posts from people you follow. Adding alt image text has also been added and (so far) the team there seem very responsive to feedback. Long may it continue.

I’ll leave you with an image of one of my recent drives - heading over to moors to my childhood home to spend time with my mum. Pendle Hill in the distance - home to the Pendle Witches of years gone by.