The Slow Wardrobe

19/02/2026

Still on the sock-knitting wave I caught in the Autumn. Three more pairs for as many recipients (4th pair already gifted). Turns out that watching Dutch speed-skaters compete (in the Olympics) drives up my knitting speed 🤪

16/01/2026

Pair number 6 in as many weeks…. my knitting-mojo reignited by a declaration of love by my pal for his dwindling stack of me-knitted socks. Some of them were worn pretty thread-bare and I’d weeded them out when we moved house. It had indeed been quite a while since I last knitted him any, so I picked some pretty yarn and cast on.

It turned out my stash of sock yarns had dwindled and of the commercial variants it was almost non-existent. That discovery came just in time to shout “sock-yarns!” in the direction of Santa’s elves. They heard me and so I opened a box full of Regia 4- and 6-ply yarns on Christmas Day.

The socks in the pic are the third (and last) pair of the 6-ply yarns I received that day. Turns out it takes me 3 evenings to knit a pair of these, using 2.5mm dpn’s (my cherished sterling silver ones). Their tips have just the perfect shape not to split the 6-ply Regia yarn. Combined with the stitch-count (56sts in the round) it makes for a speed-perfect set up.

But this is it for 6-ply for now, this evening I’ll be casting on with “regular” sock yarn again, on 2.25mm needles. Stitch-count 68 for the leg and 64 for the foot. Those numbers don’t sound that different from 56, but if you add the higher row-count as well, the total stitch-number to knit means it takes closer to a week to knit a pair (I only knit in the evening).
I sure got a kick though out of knitting like a little machine for the past 10 nights😁

09/01/2026

Turning my Studio in our 18th century French Mill into my space to dream, craft & create. ALL my materials in one space. Starting small with my button stash, seen here. 50+ yrs of gathering, with buttons dating back to my grandmother. Formerly in multiple containers, I am reuniting sets that have been scattered for decades. Stringing sets together to make them easy to find.

22/10/2025

Finishing the painting of this new passage rather later than anticipated today, courtesy of a blocked kitchen sink….

06/10/2025

Picture just taken (@ 0:40) outside our front door to capture how bright the harvest moonlight shines without any surrounding light-pollution.
I am slowly working up the motivation to edit the footage I shot of our recent to France for the next episode of the podcast I promised. If you want to ensure you don’t miss it, subscribe to The Slow Wardrobe podcast on YouTube , where you can also find my already published episodes (all 144 of them).

05/10/2025

The weather here is just so different. On paper, the temperature differences between and don’t look wildly different in Autumn, but the much lower humidity here makes it FEEL so much warmer! Patio doors wide open, current outside temperature 14 degrees according to the weather apps, but the thermometer (in the shade) reads 17.5.
Turns out the mill is wonderful at retaining heat. While nighttime temperature drops to 8 degrees, we wake up to 18 degrees in the bedroom and 20 in the living room…at this fete we are still weeks away from even considering to turn on the heating, and I really wasn’t expecting that…

29/09/2025

Cozy Autumn evenings 🕯️

18/09/2025

15/09/2025

9pm

14/09/2025

Some of the vines, laden with super-sweet grapes, growing along the wall of the barn, as seen from the kitchen 🍇

10/09/2025

Another moody window in our
Swipe to see what it is shining on to….
This room is one of the big reasons for me to want to live here.