Knit With Me: Slow Knitting and Gentle Company: Reflections

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Hello. Welcome to this week's knit along. This is your chance to just sit back, relax. You can work on a project, whether that be knitting, sewing, drawing, whatever you're doing. Or you can just sit and listen as we chat along, listen to some music, just spend some quiet time together for the next 30 or so minutes. If you're new here, I hope you enjoy it. And if you are returning, welcome back. It's lovely to see you.

[00:00:42]So this week I I haven't finished my um muscle bear hat. I'm close to finishing, but I haven't quite finished it yet. In fact, I'm knitting on something that I'm just wondering now is am I going to have to look down a little bit too often to talk to you because um so this week I am working on the zik sack um scarf which is a free pattern can't remember who by I will pop it up in the details below um and this pattern was suggested to me by a friend who was on the retreat treat and she was knitting it and I admired it and um I went ahead and got it and the yarn is two different colors of this is oh god it's gone out of my head lang yarn marino uh I think it's the marino it's a four ply yarn color shifting yarn u marino b be um I think and That was color 55 and that was color 88. Um, and it is a color shifting yarn and the design is sort of like a misone is it mizu the um designer and it's just really interesting because color shifts it's ever such an easy pattern to to do. Um so um if apart from the fact you do have to count your stitches a little bit. Um, but yeah, the muscle bur is nearly finished, but I thought I'd give you a change of scene this week. Um, thank you to so many of you who commented on my video last week and on the video before cuz a number of you were giving me name suggestions for my emotional support chicken. If you watch my video this week about um the the hype trap, the knitting, why knitting trends are so addictive, um you will have seen her featuring quite a bit there. And the most popular name from everybody was Moana, which is probably a really good name for a Cornish chicken. Um, so she's sitting in pride of place on my sofa at the moment and uh the dog's paying her no attention at all, which amazes me cuz I thought you would have grabbed hold of her at some point and shared the love, but he hasn't.

[00:03:15]Um, so thank you for naming her. And so many of you have been commenting about school milk um and your memories of school milk and how it affected your um how you thought about milk going into the future. And I have laughed out loud after some of you have shared with me the stories of your PE uniform that you used to wear at school. Um I am not alone in dreading those. Um well, as were navy blue knickers, but I know some of a lot of you seem to wear brown knickers, which to me was even worse than the navy blue. Um and it just a number of you shared sort of stories of memories from going to school. And some of these are probably probably particular or peculiar to going to school in the UK. But um you know a number of you sort of talked about school dinners and um you know whether the things we had at school dinners were things that we still look for today or fondly remember. And you know on the milk theme um it was about milk puddings.

[00:04:29]Um, so here in the UK, rice pudding is a sort of probably an oldfashioned dessert now. Uh, but it was a milk pudding made with pudding rice and quite often nutmeg. Uh, formed a skin on the top.

[00:04:42]The time you had it at school, it always had a skin on the top. Um, because it was served by the dinner ladies in big trays where the skin would form. I actually love the skin of rice pudding.

[00:04:52]Um, does that make me weird? Anybody else really love the skin on white rice pudding? I still make it today. Um I have to say and I do love the skin. Um and then there was other milk puddings like semolina pudding, tapioca pudding.

[00:05:10]So semolina is like a ground rice, so a sort of grainier texture. And tapioca was just like frog spawn basically. I'm making it sound so attractive, aren't they? Um, but often served with jam and uh I love all milk puddings. I hate milk, but I love milk puddings. That's that's a bit weird, isn't it? Um, but a number of you were saying how much you still loved those those sort of puddings that we had at school. Who remembers the pink custard or the chocolate custard with sponge? Um, always always something we fought over.

[00:05:51]And um yeah, the rest of the school dinners were not that memorable, I have to say.

[00:05:57]Um yeah, I I can't I can't really say that I can remember. Lumpy mashed potato or they probably used the powdered mash in those days, so it was like watery stuff.

[00:06:12]Um but I had school dinners at school. I I don't think I ever didn't have school dinners at school. I think I I never took pack lunches or or anything. Um mom was always working, so it was much easier to make sure that we had a nutritious meal in the beginning of the day. Um but yeah, no, it was just funny how some of you sort of remembered those and then it sort of got me thinking about what we used to do in PE as well at school. So again, forgive me if this is peculiar to to us here in the UK, but we used to have gymnastics and you used to do these badges which were B A British Association of G British I can't remember probably a gymnastics association but I can't remember what the the first A stood for. Um British Athletics gymnastic association something like that. Anyway, you had different levels and I I really struggled not being the most flexible of people. Even as a child, I really struggled with those. I never got I struggled with a forward forward roll.

[00:07:26]Ne could never do a cartwheel ever in my life. And the humiliation of having to try and climb a rope when it's just not you. Um, I can never forget that that sort of dread of looking at the rope as you were in the queue to try it and you'd see these sort of people sort of shin the way up really quickly and you think, I know I've got to get on that rope and they're expecting me to get to the top and tap the top and it's going to take forever and everybody's going to be watching me and probably laughing at me.

[00:08:02]Oh, the humiliation.

[00:08:05]I never did get to the top of the rope ever. Um, it just wasn't. I was good at sports, really good at sort of ball sports, hockey, net ball. Played hockey for the county, played hockey for my school into adulthood, played net um for my for the I went when I started work in the bank, one of the reasons I went to work in the bank is because in those days they had sports teams and I was in the hockey sevens and the net team. um and loved it. Um but I was useless at gymnastics.

[00:08:40]Absolutely useless. And the humiliation of being there in your little vest, navy blue knickers and plimples on one of those foul smelling gym mats, um smelling of all sorts. I wouldn't even like to say what they smell of. Um sticks with me to this day. And anytime I walk into a school sports hall now, um, fortunately, most of those gym apparatus have gone. You know, used to have the pummel, used to have the wooden horse, all sorts. It was like a torture chamber for somebody like me. Hated gym gymnastics and gym with a pattern. I'd be interested if any of you have got memories of of that as well because it was it was it was shocking. Um, and the fact that we all had to do it. And I think, you know, as you grow into a teenager as a girl, the showers in school were always horrid. So, that was the other reason that sort of put you off sort of going in and and sort of getting hot and sweaty and then you knew you had to go into these horrible cold showers at school. Um, I'm I'm talking with some venom here, aren't I? So, you can see it's left an imprint on me. Me who loves sport, but just not school sports in that way. um be interested to know know what your experience and particularly if you were in another country did you share any of those experiences that we did in the UK back in the sort of 70s and 80s well no probably 60 say yeah 70s going to school I left school at in 1979 I started working then at 16 um I didn't go off to uni I did uni much later when I was an adult I went back and and did open university whilst I was working full-time. Um, so yeah, I'd be really interested to know. So, I'm going to do a little bit of knitting now, calm down, and come back in a moment.

[00:12:36]Heat.

[00:12:49]Heat.

[00:14:05]the the issues of clothes. I mean, school uniforms have changed enormously, haven't they, over the years. When I was at school, we had to wear a blazer and tie and and qu I know quite a few schools still do. Um, and I was giggling about somebody mentioning about the length of your skirt. Um, cuz we had to have kneelength socks and our skirt used to have to be a certain length. And I don't think there's a school girl alive that didn't go out their front door and then sort of twist their skirt. So, it was much shorter to go to school. But I see some girls go to school now and you think, "Oh my goodness, that skirt is short."

[00:14:46]Uh but they look amazing and good for them. Um but I don't think we ever well I never dared to get as short as some of the girls I see now. Uh but when I went I sort of mentioned I went to work in a bank when I went to work. So I was a female working in a bank. There were lots of female working in a bank at that time. It was the day it was the days when computers had just really been integrated into workplaces.

[00:15:13]I mean the commu computers I remember going to see our computers they were all housed in a central place in the southwest of England for the southwest and they were as big as a house the computers you know you look at them now they're a tiny little chip um but they were as big as a house and computers were sort of quite a new thing um and you know I went to work in a bank uh started off as a junior role and then moved on to being a cashier and I never forget I never forget being you know we think how PC everything is now but I was sat on a counter used to have to write every entry count the pound notes they were filthy um ended up with impetigo from counting pound notes and not being able to wash my hands in between each time um and yeah you used to have to manually write it all down balance your till at the end of the day.

[00:16:12]And I never forget one of the the male customers who had a query about something that they'd paid in and they spoke to the manager who was always a man. Always a man. Um and he said, "Oh, do you know who served you?" And he went, "Yeah, it was the girl in the blue jumper who looks like Lady Dye who has the huge great tits."

[00:16:36]I was just like my manager said, "Oh, I know you mean Jane."

[00:16:42]And I think today people would take huge offense at that. But in those days it was the norm. You know, you you sort of rolled with it cuz if you said anything or you were offended then you well, you just wouldn't have been allowed to be. So times are very different and thank goodness they are.

[00:17:03]But I was also reflecting on the fact that when I worked for the bank um and I often I I went on to be like a loans manager and sort of seeing customers about and those were the days when you made a decision on a loan for a customer based on what you knew about them and your relationship with them in terms of how you knew they operated in the community.

[00:17:27]you know, farmers would come in, you know, enough about their farm and how they operated to make decisions based on that before we got to the computer says no. Um, and then gradually as I was working there, computer generated responses came in and that sort of personal risk analysis piece disappeared. But in those days, you know, we had to always wear a skirt as a female working in the bank. Uh, trousers were just not an option. Even if the weather was really bad, I can think of times when it snowed and we still had to wear a skirt um, and tights of course or panty hose I think as you call it in the US. Uh, and you know quite draconian in respect of the clothes we had to wear. The bank I worked in. If you were going to go and work on the till as a female, you had to go to the training center and be taught how to apply makeup and make yourself presentable. Um, it was a week-long training or other things obviously about manning a till and balancing the books and things, but I can't remember the guys getting the same lesson. uh as I look back and you know we were we were sort of told how to how to present ourselves um and yeah it was it was a very sexist environment in those days um we you know people could get away with saying things that they wouldn't dream of saying nowadays and whilst I am all for equality and you know um making sure there's no discrimination in workplaces or whatever. I look back at what we experienced as as females working in those environments and think oh my goodness how much has changed. Um yeah, you know, when I left school, you your only options really if you sort of did quite well in your exams was working in a bank, nurse, secretary, teacher, probably about it. Um there weren't many options for girls, were they? Um thankfully that has moved on tremendously. And you know, I said to my daughter when she was looking at university options, "Oh my goodness, you are so lucky cuz we just never had those chances and opportunities." Not to say that we didn't go on to get them. We did, but um it was something that we we had to fight for really. Uh so yeah, how things have changed. Thank goodness they have, huh? And thank goodness our daughters have got much more freedom in in sort of our our I know girls around the world haven't got anywhere near the same freedoms um in other countries but thank goodness in most of the western civilized world they have those opportunities.

[00:20:46]So it's a good place to pause and do a little bit more netting.

[00:20:52]See you again in a moment.

[00:21:41]Fox.

[00:24:14]This week I have been in the shop quite a bit because uh Nick who works in the shop has got two weeks leave and we've had a couple of really big cruise ships in um so in terms of into the town. So that always means that there's lots of people around sort of milling around. Um I don't know why I keep keep making a mistake.

[00:24:46]Um yeah, so there's lots of people around which means that the the town is really busy. We are based on I I don't know is this dementia setting in for me?

[00:24:58]Can't remember whether I've said this before, but we are at a sort of halfway up quite a steep hill in the town. The old high street is um where we're based and it's where um most of the independent shops are in the town. So, it's a it's a vibrant little sort of shopping area, but it's it's sort of where if people come in on the cruise ships, they come in on the other end of the town and then they meander through and then they get partway and they get to the bottom of the hill that leads up to all the independent shops and they probably stop and pause and think, do I want to venture up that hill? What's up there that's going to interest me? So, we are doing all we can to try and entice people up, but um it's not always easy to to get people to venture up up the hill to see us. Um but it's been quite a busy week. Uh I've got quite a bit done in the shop. Uh it's always good to spend time in the shop and um I recorded my video which you may have seen. If you haven't seen it, it's up now about why we get sucked into knitting trends. Um, and that was really interesting to do and also planning my next trip to the dye studio, what I'm going to to make there. Um, in terms of dying and really just catching up with some friends. So I I sort of been out sort of apart from being in the shop, I've sort of tried to touch base with a few friends, arrange a few things for when Nick's back and I can I've got a bit more freedom and I also um have been obviously taking mom and dad out for their for their little trips too. I mean the weather here has got better. I mean there's more sunshine, less rain, but it's there's quite a cold wind at the moment. Hence why I'm wearing this is my flora scarf by a long aa which I've shown you before many times but just in case um you'd forgotten it.

[00:27:05]This is this is that uh what else have we done? We launched our um knit latest knit along on the flock. So the flock is my online community and so we do knit alongs and crochet alongs. So, the crochet along is coming to an end. We've done a lovely fisherman's beanie by um Zoe Curtis, a local designer to us here.

[00:27:31]And then we have um launched our next one which is two options really which was a two-colored shaw um asking people to work on a two-colored shaw or to work on the uh new shlet which has just been released by comfort road knits Nikki who's part of our flop. Um and so many people are taking part which is always great. It's lovely to see so many people taking part in these in these things. Um, and it'll be lovely to see what people create. So, I love doing that. We're sort of getting to the end of our book for book club, so I need to decide on what we do next for our next book club. Um, we've we've been reading A Man Called Ove, which is based the film uh A Man Called Otto, which Tom Hanks was in. um was uh based on that book. So the story is very familiar and it's a really well I listen to it. It's a good listen. So I'm enjoying listening that to that and my mom who is an avid reader has gifted me a few books that she's been reading. I mean she trolls all the charity shops and has loads of books and at the doctor's surgery where they have a book swap. So she does that and then she gives them to me and then I return them to the places where she got them from.

[00:29:04]Um but she she reads 10 books to my one.

[00:29:08]Um she'd never well she's her hearing is not great so she would never listen to an audio book. Uh I would never convince her to do that but she she will read a book from cover to cover easily in an afternoon and an evening. Um, and she absorbs all the information too. It's not like she sort of skim reads and she doesn't take it in. Whereas my dad's not reader at all really. Um, he enjoys his television. He watches television. He loves his sport. He's a massive football or soccer in the US. Um, supporter as am I. Um, and we both support a team which he supported since he was a little child and his father supported which is a team called Arsenal who play in our Premier League and are doing quite well this season. So, we are both enjoying that and they've got through to a big final which actually occurs at the same time as my mom and dad's.

[00:30:08]I'm just trying to think what is it?

[00:30:11]It's their I think it's their 74th wedding anniversary. 74 years of being married.

[00:30:19]So my mom is so used to my dad loving his football that she sort of knows that that will be his main focus on the day.

[00:30:27]So we're just trying to organize something that we can do with them that's sort of special.

[00:30:33]And we've got um well it's got we got quite a bit happening in the family.

[00:30:37]We've got new additions, new babies due.

[00:30:40]um not for me but for my sister's two boys um imminently. So that's exciting.

[00:30:48]And yeah, so quite a bit happening. But yeah, dad dad's not a reader really, but he does love watching his sport. But my mom is just like a machine with books.

[00:30:58]It's that's why she gets so many from the charity shop. She used to go to the library. I think she's exhausted on library books. Um and quite often she reads books, you know, she'll read them again and again. But um yeah, we sort of we share a love of reading, me and my mom. Uh I've always loved reading. Even as a child, I loved reading. So it's something that I I return to again and again. I just don't seem to have as much time to pick up a physical book as I used to. So that's why um Audible and audio books really work for me because I can just pop them on whenever I want to.

[00:31:42]So if anybody's got any really good suggestions for a book for a book club, then it's summer time, so I don't want anything heavy, nothing too pretentious, uh but really good for women to read that sort of inspires women. fiction preferably this time of year. Um any suggestions please please do let me know. Um that would be gratefully received.

[00:32:08]So I hope whatever you're doing this week is a good week. Um and that you have plenty of time to do stuff for yourself and spend some time for yourself. I hope you've enjoyed me witting on uh particularly about my memories of school and also you know what it was like working as a female in in the early8s and how much that working environment has changed thankfully has changed. So yeah, do do comment below as always. I love reading your comments. And uh as always, don't forget to subscribe. Please share this.

[00:32:51]If you know somebody you think would enjoy this or who can't connect with people in a knitting group or for whatever reason, please do share this.

[00:33:00]And I'm really looking forward to seeing you next week.

[00:33:19]Look ahead. The sea is coming. I know we've been through a lot, but just wait.