{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "title": "Michelle May", "icon": "https://avatars.micro.blog/avatars/2025/43/1839608.jpg", "home_page_url": "https://thegiddystitcher.com/", "feed_url": "https://thegiddystitcher.com/feed.json", "items": [ { "id": "http://thegiddystitcher.micro.blog/2026/03/20/fibre-crafts-made-me-do/", "title": "Fibre crafts made me do it!", "content_html": "

Almost the first thing my driving instructor asked me, when I got in his car for my first lesson, was why I hadn’t learned to drive at a younger age.

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Of course, he was picking me up from my house on the badly-connected outskirts of a badly-connected town, where there are only two places you can reach by bus and only if you want to travel during weekday office hours. So I guess in that context, his question made sense.

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But as I explained, most of my adult life was spent in a city, so driving just sort of didn’t come up. It wasn’t needed. We had the Metro for local travel, trains for visiting far away places, and regular buses to fill in the gaps. Bliss!

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As you’ll know if you’ve been following the saga, I am finding learning to be very stressful. As I write this it was only my fourth lesson yesterday, and I think it’s maybe starting to improve a bit, maybe? But I’m woefully lacking in some of the core skills and learning in our hilly town is definitely complicating matters. Before yesterday’s lesson I honestly felt sick with nerves and was apparently white as a sheet!

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So if it’s so awful, why do it?

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Would you be surprised to know it’s mostly craft related? ๐Ÿ˜„

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What if I have a yarn emergency?

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See, last year our local craft shop closed down. It was a successful business, mostly focused on quilting fabrics and workshops but with a halfway decent selection of yarns and embroidery supplies that saved me on a few occasions. I even used to co-host a knitting group there back in the day! But the owners wanted to retire, and tried and failed to sell the business to someone who would keep it going, so that was that.

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Now the closest yarn shop is a 20 minute drive away, and it’s a nice place with a much better selection than our more general craft shop ever had. But the public transport option? Two buses, an hour and a half, plus waiting time (that’s each way).

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So it’s an admittedly specific thing, but I do feel kind of precarious not having access to emergency yarn and this is a big driver (no pun intended) for me learning now.

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Crafting events are always in weird places

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\"A\nWho wouldn’t want more of this in their life?

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Another thing is that I’d really love to go to more craft events, I managed to get to the North East Yarn Show in 2024 (and made a video about it) as a friend’s partner was kind enough to drive us, but most events are held in very out-of-the-way places that are difficult by public transport. I’d love to go to the Knit + Stitch Show in Harrogate later this year, which is at least accessible by train, but it’s over 4 hours and very expensive to get there versus less than an hour and a half if I could drive. Which of course means I’d have to stay over the night before and quite possibly the night of too, making it cost waaaaay more.

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There are plenty of “local” craft groups as well, but taking the bus(es) means I’d basically lose an entire weekday to attend one. And not to mention craft fairs, I’d absolutely love to sell at one of those one day but it’s just not viable without a car!

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Collecting streets is fun!

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My final reason is extremely niche and quite low stakes in the grand scheme, but we find motivation where we find it. We’ve been attempting to walk every street in our town, using a site called CityStrides to track progress. But it’s built by a USian, and doesn’t work so well in other places, so our “city” on the site is actually our entire county including lots of other small towns and villages and miles upon miles of winding country road.

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\"Screenshot

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So right now, Dave is still interested. We’ve been driving out to different places most weekends and getting a few streets here and there, and it’s nice! But he’s not interested in trying to complete every single place, only the ones that are actually nice to walk around, which is fair enough. But guess who can’t easily get to these places without him driving? Yeah.

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So to sum up: yarn shop, craft events, and a completely pointless desire to walk every street in our entire county for some reason.

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But hey, at least it’s more interesting than “I have to drive for work” ๐Ÿ˜‰

\n", "summary": "Learning to drive at 41 isn\u0026rsquo;t easy, so why bother? Because crafts, that\u0026rsquo;s why. ๐Ÿงถ", "date_published": "2026-03-20T11:41:15+00:00", "url": "https://thegiddystitcher.com/2026/03/20/fibre-crafts-made-me-do/", "tags": ["Real Life"] }, { "id": "http://thegiddystitcher.micro.blog/2026/02/13/knitting-is-a-bit-like/", "title": "Knitting is a bit like magic", "content_html": "

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Last September, we took up running through the Couch to 5K program. It was fun at first, then it was awful, but after a lot of sweat and suffering and a few minor injuries that meant it took me 15 weeks instead of 9, we both came out the other side able to run (or in my case shuffle slowly) for 30 minutes straight.

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\"Me

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(yes I happened to graduate at our parkrun’s special festive event)

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But then Winter kicked in, as it tends to do at that time of year, and whole new logistical problems emerged. It turns out despite being cold most of the time in normal life, I massively overheat while running, so wearing an actual coat of any kind is out of the question unless it’s VERY windy. I’ll go to parkrun and people are running in two or three layers and I’m just in my one long-sleeve very thin tshirt and still outsweating them by miles.

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At one point I went out in well below freezing in just that tshirt, and a neighbour from over the road stopped me with actual concern to ask if I was ok!

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But the one part of me that does seem to feel the cold if I stay out long enough is my hands, and the gloves I bought in November to fix that problem quickly fell to bits. So, naturally in my rage at having wasted money, I went stash diving for yarn and made my own!

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\"My

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Simple mittens don’t really need a pattern, but I really wasn’t in the mood to brain at all so five minutes of browsing led me to the Everyday Mittens pattern by mona.in.stitches, convertible mittens with a handy thumb hole.

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The idea was that I need to be able to play Pikmin Bloom while out and about, or message Dave to confirm that I’ve just gone a different way to usual and not been kidnapped. But also mittens are generally warmer than gloves, so having convertible ones is perfect. And the addition of the thumb hole means I can do most stuff without having to open the flap on especially cold days.

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\"Playing

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Speaking of that flap, the pattern consistently refers to it as the “flop” and I don’t know if this is a non-native speaker mistake or if it’s on purpose but either way it’s adorable.

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The stash dive turned up a few contenders but I decided on this very old and frankly abused orange Big Merino from Drops. Coincidentally the yarn recommended by the pattern, but it’s just been sitting around for a decade since being frogged about three times in a row and I wanted it to finally feel useful.

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I mostly followed the pattern other than adding more rows, except for closing the “flop”. For this I wasn’t a fan of the method used, so did an extra decrease round and then grafted the ends together which gave a nice round mitteny shape.

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I did also experiment with just grafting after the first decrease round, but decided that looked square and weird.

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\"Rounded\n\"A

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Now being the slow knitter I am, and being endlessly distracted by new shiny things, these did take me a few weeks to properly finish off. The weather is officially getting (slightly) milder now, and they probably won’t be needed much until next year. But they could’ve been done in a day or two if the cold was enough of a problem, and that’s where the title of this post comes in.

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My hands were cold, and I had all the materials and skills needed to solve that problem for myself. Maybe not just by clicking my fingers and saying the magic word, but certainly by clicking the needles enough times and cursing when I kept forgetting to actually put in the thumb hole because I was too busy watching Stargate SG-1. Maybe I wasn’t wearing a billowing wizard robe, but I was wearing an oodie with pandas on it and that’s definitely in the same ballpark.

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Knitting, and crochet, and sewing, and embroidery, and felting, and macrame, and 3d printing, and origami, and any other craft you care to name. They’re like magic to me! And I hope that never changes.

\n", "summary": "Solving one of my many, many problems with exercise through the magic of knitting fun gloves! ๐Ÿงถ", "date_published": "2026-02-13T13:53:35+00:00", "url": "https://thegiddystitcher.com/2026/02/13/knitting-is-a-bit-like/", "tags": ["Knitting"] }, { "id": "http://thegiddystitcher.micro.blog/2026/02/09/a-muchprocrastinated-yarn-haul/", "title": "A much-procrastinated yarn haul", "content_html": "

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Shopping for yarn is harder work than it sounds. First there’s the “what type of yarn can I substitute for the far too expensive stuff the designer used?” dilemma, and then there’s actually sourcing it in a colour you like, and then there’s the part where you read the yarn reviews and find out it’s going to be too scratchy or the project photos show that the shade is actually completely different to how it’s portrayed in the shop and now you’re back at square one…

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So, long story short I’ve been meaning to buy yarn for a while but just didn’t have the mental capacity for the task. Until now! Hooray for new yarn!

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First up I ordered a load of Drops Nepal in Dark Ivy, which will hopefully become a cropped version of this Bloomsbury jumper.

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\n\"Muted,\n\"Pink
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There are definitely some red flags with this project. First, I’m not historically great with wearing wool against my skin so before ordering I spent some time rubbing old Nepal projects all over myself in places where this would be touching me. I think it’ll be ok, but we’ll see.

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The real pain point will be my neck since that’s extra sensitive, so I’ll need to think about sewing in a soft fabric of some kind to keep it from touching me. Of course the alternative was to buy merino for about three times the price, so I will live with this compromise!

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The other problem is the pattern itself, it…doesn’t get great reviews. Still, enough people have knitted this that there are tons of helpful project notes on Ravelry, and of course forewarned is forearmed. It’ll be fiiiiine…

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A new to me yarn is Drops Nord, in Navy Blue which is lovely and soft at first touch due to the alpaca. This one is going to be a Spin-Stitch Poncho (off-Rav).

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\n\"Navy\n\"Light
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I did the recommended swatching and was a bit surprised to see how holey it is, but on closer inspection everyone else’s is too and I was just being unobservant.

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This is one of those patterns that’s all stockinette except for the occasional special row, so should be good TV knitting on an evening. Or at least it would be, if I hadn’t chosen dark blue which is basically impossible to focus on during winter and requires The Special Lamp to be on at all times. Maybe I’ll cast this one on last of the three, waiting for lighter nights seems like it might be wise!

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The final addition to this haul is Drops Fiesta in the Ink Spots colourway, which is so far removed from something I would normally buy for a garment but what can I say, it won my heart. It is, in theory anyway, going to be a Refracted Sweater (off-Rav).

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\n\"Light\n\"Side\n
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This is a pattern I stumbled across during the Fasten Off Yarn-a-long in December and I do love it, but my yarn choice might be a problem. Again it’s the itchiness factor. But I am planning to make the short sleeve version of this, and it’s got a wide boat neck, so it shouldn’t hit my major problem areas sensitivity-wise.

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That said it’s very cheap wool and feels like it (even after a wash), so I’m really hoping this works out but if not it might end up frogged and repurposed as socks for someone with hardened feet. We’ll see how it goes.

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\"The

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If you follow me on Mastodon you’ll know I got overexcited and already started that last project, it’s very squishy and I love the look of the yarn but my wrists are already suffering from the itchiness. Might have to wash my swatch a couple times more and see if it softens up at all before going much further.

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Or maybe I’ll just suffer. Because damn, I love this colourway!

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๐Ÿงถ

\n", "summary": "A closer look at my new yarns and the questionable project plans I have for them! ๐Ÿงถ", "date_published": "2026-02-09T14:38:50+00:00", "url": "https://thegiddystitcher.com/2026/02/09/a-muchprocrastinated-yarn-haul/", "tags": ["Knitting"] }, { "id": "http://thegiddystitcher.micro.blog/2026/01/29/new-year-sort-of-new/", "title": "New Year (sort of), New Crafting Blog!", "content_html": "

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A long time ago when I was first learning to knit*, I had a blog. About knitting. Projects, plans, what I’d learned that day, fun events that were happening in the community.

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Then I learned to crochet, and blogged about that too. Cross stitch joined the party, and by this point I had a decent network of crafting friends all with their own blogs.

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We’d post WIP Wednesdays and FO Fridays, organise blog tours to share our audiences, it was just generally a good time.

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“Social” media

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Of course, personal blogs have become a much rarer beast over the intervening years and even I stopped posting in the end. Everything moved over to social media, on platforms that I never felt entirely comfortable on, and even when those platforms started making it harder to connect with real people a lot of us stayed there anyway because where else was there to go?

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If you already know me, you’ll probably know that I sacked off that part of the internet a few years ago now, abandoned Instagram entirely and moved my social presence to the Fediverse, an interconnected network of all kinds of weird and wonderful social media sites that can all talk to each other. I waffle on craft projects but also all kinds of other things over on Mastodon, my videos are all cross-posted to PeerTube, and that’s really just scratching the surface.

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But the thing with the Fediverse is that the low-pressure, relaxed socialisation really strongly reminds me of those halcyon blogging days. And naturally I started to think “what if?"…

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2026, the year of the blog

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So here we go. After literally a whole year of trying to find a blogging platform that ticks all my boxes, I’ve given up on that because my list of boxes was way too long. But I did find micro.blog, the service powering these words you’re currently reading, and it just about ticks enough of them for now.

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You can expect an erratic as-and-when non-schedule of eclectic posts including written versions of my video tutorials, personal updates on crafts, but also just whatever I feel like writing and sharing even if it’s not strictly about crafts at all! Because the best blogs were always a bit chaotic and that’s one tradition I plan to uphold.

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You can follow this blog and interact with it from your existing Fediverse account (search for @michelle@thegiddystitcher.com) plus apparently Bluesky (I do not know how that place works, sorry!), you can add the RSS feed(s) to your reader, and in a real blast from the past you can even check out my blogroll to find other crafty bloggers that might interest you!

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I’m excited. Writing always came more naturally to me than staging photos or video, so let’s hope that still holds true.

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* yep that’s a photo of my first ever knitted thing, an excitingly experimental rectangle

\n", "summary": "In which Michelle makes a new crafting blog, as if that\u0026rsquo;s a normal thing to be doing in 2026.", "date_published": "2026-01-29T16:41:02+00:00", "url": "https://thegiddystitcher.com/2026/01/29/new-year-sort-of-new/" } ] }