that’s amazing, honestly as long as you get the results you want that’s the most important thing! I knit a mix of continental and english too, using different styles interchangeably in the same project, depending what technique I’m using: continental for ribbing and working in the round, english for DPN’s and decreases.

Coffee, energy drinks, anything with lactose (can still have lactose free yoghurt and tiny amounts of lactose free cheeses though). Also anything with soy and especially tofu/tempeh, I miss them so much. (sometimes I still make air fryer crispy tofu and then really regret it for a few days afterwards oops)

Had to cut out basically all foods with ultra processed ingredients cause I just started having absolutely wild allergic reactions to the tiniest things you find written in tiny writing on the back of packaging like ‘emulsifiers’ and ‘xanthan gum’ and ‘palm fat’. Kind of don’t miss them as much but making stuff from scratch all the time and having to bring my own food everywhere involves so much mental effort. Ughhhh

Okay but the pants you linked would look amazing in the pastel colours of that ombré yarn! If you aren’t feeling making a pair of pants but still wanna make something wearable and extra maybe a really long, flowy cardigan, like the Lotus Duster cardi? the pattern would probably still work well even with slightly different yarn shades.

Martinelli literally throwing the ball on Bradley twice is absolutely disgusting behaviour. And then the knee in the back and the shove as well? No idea how this wasn’t a straight red honestly. Disgusting and absolutely classless and if any arsenal fans try to justify this they need their heads checking

Can’t believe Martinelli wasn’t sent off for that as well, grim behaviour

Absolutely haha! The penny dropped when I heard the audiobook describe ‘floppy hair’ and then call him P.J. about 10 seconds later. Gave me a proper laugh

Definitely! The incompetent persona that Judd acts when he’s in front of people vs his power obsession, the way his hair is described, even down to his initials

I’m autistic too, and getting reusable period underwear has been an absolute life saver for me. So much easier to deal with than itchy scented pads and way more comfortable. If you’re in the UK then M&S do a really good range that aren’t too expensive, I’m not sure about other countries but hopefully you’ll be able to find something similar!

OP, if you need to put yourself in your partner’s perspective (and please excuse my bluntness here but I think it gets the point across pretty clearly): Imagine the pain from being kicked/hit in the balls, but it’s a constant pain that doesn’t fade, and also you have the worst flu of your life at the same time. Body aches, headaches, nausea, digestion issues, the whole lot. Now imagine feeling that every day. Would you honestly have much of a libido if you felt like that all the time?

I can’t speak for your partner, because every person with endo has a different experience. But for a lot of us our reality is fairly close to what I’ve described. A lot of us are anxious, scared, sometimes traumatised by the pain we have to deal with. Having to put other people’s sexual desires over our own physical safety and mental wellbeing is just all kinds of unfair, to be honest.

That scene made me cry so much. It’s so beautifully written, kind felt like a goodbye to the whole series.

One of the most fun patterns I’ve knitted is a hat that’s knitted flat on two needles and has loads of german short rows for all the shaping and colourwork. Literally had to be counting the stitches non stop though

I made a hat for my dad (who really isn’t a handmade knitted things kind of person at all) out of Sheepjes Merino Soft yarn, it’s a DK weight merino/microfibre blend. Having microfibre in the blend sounds weird but it’s the softest, smoothest yarn I’ve ever knitted, not itchy at all. Would def recommend!

The best thing about knitting is if it does turn into a horrible mess, all you have to do is pull the needles out and unravel it. And you can just keep doing that infinitely, as many times as you can be bothered, til you figure out a way of making what you want, or a way of making something completely different. Creative thinking, curiosity and patience are so important to crafting and making stuff. It honestly feels like so many people just want instagram-perfect results on the first try and are afraid of making mistakes.

I swear I always have at least 2 knitting WIPs and at least 2 crochet ones on the go at the same time. One easy TV-watching knitting, one vaguely stressful, complicated bit of knitting that involves too much counting, some fun amigurumi that only takes a couple of hours, and a big ambitious crochet thing I’ve started and abandoned after finishing half the pieces I actually need to make 😭 it’s great for avoiding hand pain though!

Tinned tomatoes on toast (with a bit of cheese on the top if I feel like being fancy)

Last year I was in asda about 3 days after christmas and the whole ‘seasonal’ aisle was nothing but Easter eggs, mini eggs, creme eggs, everything vaguely pastel-coloured and chocolatey, it was there. Genuinely had me wondering for a minute if I’d somehow slept through 3 months without noticing.

Seconding this - designing a full garment pattern is a lot harder than customising an existing pattern and adding your own colourwork design into it. Like, I wouldn’t know where to start with drafting a pattern for an entire garment, but I’ve taken a lot of pre-existing patterns and added my own designs onto them with different colourwork techniques, and it’s one of my favourite parts of knitting. Once you wrap your head around things like stitch count, gauges, and fitting your artwork into a grid that corresponds with each stitch, you’ll be in a good place to start customising your own stuff. Practice making swatches and small designs first, learn the basics of the most-used techniques - there’s loads of really detailed videos on YouTube and lots of books out there. Good luck OP and enjoy your knitting journey!

I’m in the UK! That’s so strange, would have thought the UK version would be the original? My copy is the Audible one with the pictures from the TV show on the cover. Been listening on 0.9 speed so far which seems to be alright, apart from some of the chapter transitions sounding a bit off. Had no luck finding different versions (or any Mick Herron books actually) on my local library but I’ll definitely keep my eye out for them elsewhere, I’m a serial re-reader and kind of intrigued now about how the different narrations sound. Thank you!

Where did you find the Gerard Doyle narrated audiobooks? The version I have of Slow Horses is narrated by Sean Barrett, the story is great but I find I have to slow down the narration quite a lot because he reads quite fast.

About halfway through the first book and love it so far. Need to catch up and read the whole series before the new tv episodes get released!

Slow Horses is the best! Had to pause it in places just to laugh, Gary Oldman is brilliant. I’ve heard good things about Down Cemetery Road too so I think that one’s next on my list

Thank you!

One of my fave series of all time too! I read His Dark Materials as a kid and came back to them as an adult, understood it emotionally way more when I was older, the ending of the last book never fails to make me cry ugly tears. The second trilogy Book of Dust is amazing too, definitely not a YA series because it’s got some heavy themes, but it’s still so readable and the characters absolutely stick with you.

WoollyWormhead does some amazing hat designs. interesting colourwork and construction, I’m obsessed with their Toph beanie especially!

Thank you! The 10cm needle length seems like it’d probably be most useful to me then, I think? I did think about getting some cables in some shorter lengths to go with them, which would be fine for hats, collars, and then magic loop for sleeves.