Today the sky through the window was so beautiful at sunset it demanded a photo be taken albeit through glass. So here, an appreciation of our piece of Hebridean sky: a free, ephemeral artwork that in every glance and even as you stare and stare without thought is new, forever abstract and always the space that gives a place for the eye to rest and ourselves to breathe.
Dusky pink and warm taupe yarns of Rowan bamboo tape, Shetland wool and a divine feathery wispy faux fur yarn, this Inner Wild Blush Wrap was described as an "excellent confection" in the sweet review left by the dearheart who bought it. Love!
Thank you so much to all the wonderful dearhearts who take the time to write beautiful reviews on Etsy.
Graceful, hardy Mute Swans build their nests among the rock and heather around the lochans and crannogs of Uist and raise their young on the rippling waters. Sometimes their cousins, the Whooping Swans, visit and there is much fierce wing-flapping.
These fingerless mittens in hardy Shetland wool are named 'Swan Mitts' for the Hebridean Mute Swans and are cabled like ripples of water pooling.
This shade, 'birch brown' looks so nice worn with the 'Stag' shade of Sassenach Capelet. There's also an Inner Wild Ancestor's Apron in the same birch brown, so like the downy grey brown plumage of young mute swans:
Curator of indie design boutiques, Trouva, forecasts one of my loves, wabi sabi, as a design trend for 2018. Swoon. My resonance with wabi sabi runs so deep I've written several posts about it on my inner wild therapy blog including this one.
Feeling the love-crush of wabi sabi-style individual, imperfect design I thought I'd share some of my favourites with you:
1. Art by Kitty Sebastier
2. Inner Wild Storm Gauntlets
3. HK Living Small Ocean Ceramic Bowl
See Trouva's 2018 Trend Guide here. 
A plump, pink skein of soft silk yarn turns into a pair of pretty Inner Wild Peony Mitts. A skein with potential like a peony flower bud is unfurled. Its silk yarn is first wrapped around my fingers to make a soft ball of silk. Now it is wrapped around a needle and knitted. Soon it blossoms into a piece of clothing. Yes, feeling flowery and satisfied today.
I bought this mohair yarn a few months ago thinking to knit a huge mohair blanket on my new Lykke circular needles. I had visions of wrapping myself in it in the morning like you see people doing in Scandinavian crime dramas. However, a sudden drop in temperature and our first snow has me reaching for it to make myself a fluffy sweater instead. Honey Honey approves.
We seem to be on a bit of a home decor sort of rampage this week so I'll just carry on with a post about my carrier bags.
Now, some may call them string bags for granny. That's fine. Laugh all you want because I can fit a truck load of groceries in each of these things.
I like the idea of only possessing items that bring beauty into your world. So the hideous but practical bags I used for my grocery shopping became increasingly irritating for their ugliness. I looked around for some lovely natural bags, nothing really appealed.
I first thought to sew several rectangles of my Sanderson fabric stash together, and I still like this idea, then I saw string {polyester} bags and wondered could I knit a bag? A search online and ta-da! zillions of free patterns for knitted and crochet market bags.
My favourite, and the one I based my bags on, is Laura Spradling's Grrlfriend Market Bag which is knitted, not crocheted, and absolutely addictive. Laura's free pattern design is super-easy, knits up fast and uses a pleasingly rhythmic lace stitch to work.
I cheated and used knitted swatches I already had for the bottoms {hence the fancy knotwork panel on one of them}. I picked up stitches on all sides using DPS needles and then switched to a circular needle as soon as I could. I think I also fudged to the tops.
One of the most satisfying things about making Laura's completely adaptable bag design - any wool, any size needles, any size - was the wool I used. I can't believe how strong these bags are, how much they expand and how much weight they can take.
They are knitted in Uist Wool - the creamy ones are pure Black Face wool which is a traditional sheep of the Hebrides, very hardy and the wool is too. The one in the middle is the gorgeous {I love ombre} Reothart. {I also knitted someone who benefited from a bit of comforting a pair of slippers in Reothart recently - absolutely gorgeous.}
Carry on.
I've been languishing happily in a stonewashed linen dreamscape for a few years now thanks to the gorgeous interiors blogs I follow. I adore natural textiles with wood and stone. Just looking at the photos makes me feel content.
What caught my eye in this serene reading nook was the blanket.
That pretty blush shade - and, wait, is it linen? A linen blanket?
Looking more closely, I don't think it is. However, a new dream is born! I like this idea of a linen blanket much, much more than the mega-chunky, arm-knitted, wool blankets that were in vogue, which I just didn't care for, I don't know why not.
I've made several foraging trips into yarn world over the past year looking for pure, raw linen yarns (I was thinking of knitting a few precious tea towels and face cloths). Linen and cotton mixes are readily available. And you can find linen and silk, presumably the silk makes the linen softer. But raw linen, primitive and only lightly processed to maintain its inherent qualities is not that easy to find. {It's the same with wool, of course.}
I have, however, found this glorious pure linen yarn in a lovely grey shade. I would like to put this on my bamboo needles, maybe it's even good enough for my new Lykke circulars, oh yes:
For now, day dreaming about a pure linen blanket in a simple lace or open sort of stitch. Wondering if this might turn out like my grey chunky wool blanket in garter stitch phase which ended abruptly after three balls of Drops pure wool for no particular reason and is now a sort of rug thingy.
Reading nook image from Shelterness.
Writing about faux fur yesterday got me thinking about real fur darlings featured in Inner Wild photos.
So I thought it'd be fun to curate a little collection of my cats and dog who've helped me model some Inner Wild pieces over the years.
Let me introduce you to ...
Twinkle Star:
Seen here as a kitten modelling Inner Wild Lovey Warmers with me. And below, a little older, modelling the Inner Wild Moonshine Cowl.
Minkie MyLove, her mama, looking gorgeous with Inner Wild Woodcutter Warmers:
Tom, bringing out the 'Firestar' gold of Inner Wild Stag Warmers:
Indi, who felt her own inner wildness was being impinged upon by modelling Inner Wild Sandy Bluff Warmers:
and the big fella, my Malamute Bubba, who just made everything in my world more magnificent, including Inner Wild Wanderer Warmers and Inner Wild Wolfkin Capelet:
So I thought it'd be fun to curate a little collection of my cats and dog who've helped me model some Inner Wild pieces over the years.
Let me introduce you to ...
Twinkle Star:
Seen here as a kitten modelling Inner Wild Lovey Warmers with me. And below, a little older, modelling the Inner Wild Moonshine Cowl.
Minkie MyLove, her mama, looking gorgeous with Inner Wild Woodcutter Warmers:
Tom, bringing out the 'Firestar' gold of Inner Wild Stag Warmers:
Indi, who felt her own inner wildness was being impinged upon by modelling Inner Wild Sandy Bluff Warmers:
and the big fella, my Malamute Bubba, who just made everything in my world more magnificent, including Inner Wild Wanderer Warmers and Inner Wild Wolfkin Capelet:
I made this Snuggle Sack and Hat for Finn, the new baby boy in our family. It's based on an adorable design by Teresa Cole. Teresa has shared her Owlie Snuggle Sack pattern free for us all on her Comfort Wool blog. It's very popular, of course, as is her matching Owlie Hat pattern.
Thank you Teresa from cozy, snuggled-up, swaddled-in-hand-knitted-love babies around the world! For Finn's snuggle sack I used Rowan Pure Wool Worsted, shade: 'cocoa bean'.
A little preview of Inner Wild Wintergreen Collection for this winter 2017/18. See more in my etsy shop. Some new things, some favourite things, all good things.
