The Knitting Squirrel

Recently, I’ve been inspired to pause and think about the Knitting Squirrel and all my ideas and plans for the blog and online yarn shop.

Have you ever wondered why I called my website the Knitting Squirrel?

My website name was partly inspired by my brother’s favourite toy…

A very long time ago, when we were children, we were visiting Robinson and Cleaver’s a rather elegant department store that used to be in Belfast opposite the City Hall. When you went through the ornate front doors, situated across the room from you, was an elegant wide stairway leading to the first floor. We were at the top of the stairs starting to come down. My brother had picked up a beautiful plush red squirrel toy, and mum had told him to go and put it back on the shelf, when it accidentally slipped off the balustrade of the sweeping staircase, straight into a bucket of water. (I suspect Paul was trying to make it slide down the bannister at the time).

At that time, there would be buckets of water left surreptitiously in various corners of a store, just in case of an incendiary device. (Well, it was the early 70’s, in Belfast). The poor squirrel was rather unceremoniously scooped out of the bucket utterly bedraggled and dripping wet. Mum went to the counter to pay for the squirrel… As we left the shop Paul cheerfully turned to my mum and said, “wasn’t he brave”, as he looked into the bag with the sopping wet squirrel. So the squirrel (which became one of Paul’s favourite toys) was named Squirrel the Brave.

… and partly inspired by the fact that squirrel’s find nuts and then bury them carefully for their future needs. Which has always reminded me of my wool and fabric stash (and probably best not to mention my extensive library of books at this juncture). For me, my yarn stash is like a large box of soft pastels – just waiting for the perfect choice of colours to be combined in a project where they will take on a life of their own.

In 2003 I created Sasha Doll Style where I designed collections of knitwear and clothing for the Sasha, Gregor, baby and toddler dolls. (Sasha dolls were originally hand made by Sasha Morgenthaler and later were made under licence in Germany and the UK). Until 2011, most of my time was spent knitting and sewing clothing for these gorgeous 16” dolls and her siblings. I also wrote stories which are on Sasha Doll Style where Paul and Squirrel the Brave were an influence. Over the years, Sasha Doll Style evolved into a website that’s all about playfulness. Enjoying your Sasha dolls. Finding ideas for dressing them. And of course my Sasha Photo Stories!

Writing a blog is a little like the night before Christmas when you were a child… on many occasions, just as I’m falling asleep, I’ll think of something, and I either lie in bed unable to sleep or I get up and open my notebook and write the idea down. Sometimes it turns out to be a great idea, whilst other times, not so much!

In August 2010, I was in Kent, visiting my mum for a few weeks. Out of nowhere, she asked if I would knit her a pair of socks. I hadn’t knit anything for myself or anyone else in many years. So I promised to knit socks for mum as part of her Christmas present. The following months were difficult with the loss of family and pets. And I, having cast on a sock to work out how to knit one, suddenly, found myself utterly obsessed with knitting socks. I wouldn’t have one sock on the needles, no, I’d cast on 5 or 6 socks, mainly because I wanted to see how the yarn would look when it was knitted.

I’ve always had a large stash of sock yarn, 4ply and fingering weight yarn as this was what I preferred to use for knitting Sasha’s sweaters. My yarn collection is stored by colour family in plastic crates. By June 2011, I’d decided I’d like to blog about my knitting and I started my blog, Colour Choices, along side my personal blog.

In 2012, I moved Colour Choices to WordPress and it became the Knitting Squirrel. In the last 5 1/2 years I have posted 255 blog posts, of which, many include a pattern. Much of my time is spent thinking and planning new post ideas for the Knitting Squirrel, choosing new yarn ranges for the shop, or knitting a new project. Knitting is an utter delight for me. I love knitting while watching a movie or listening to an audio book. It always amazes me that instead of time wasted in front of the tv, within a few evenings, I’ll have a new pair of socks, a hat or fingerless mitts to wear.

Of course, it was inevitable that I’d succumb to the lure of the dye pots (again) and beautiful skeins of undyed yarn started to arrive. Dyeing, is for me, like alchemy, you add a touch of this and a drop of that and before you know it, the neutral skein has magically transformed.

And for 2018?

Although, I also have ideas that don’t relate so much to knitting so I’ve been thinking of reawakening my personal blog for those as I’ve always kept the blog on the Knitting Squirrel focused on my knitting projects and yarn related.

We are all multi-faceted people who enjoy a myriad of interests – sewing, reading, drawing, designing, journaling, walking, gardening, watching tv shows, cooking and Sasha dolls to name but a few of my varied interests.

But, I do ask myself, is it a stretch to want to juggle 3 different spaces? I’ve thought about bringing more of my interests into the blog on the Knitting Squirrel but have always erred on the side of keeping it focused on my passion for Knitting.

I have lots of ideas for posts on the Knitting Squirrel, and plenty of posts that were started in 2017, which I intend to finish and post even if they are a bit late! Watch this space…

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