Hello friends, I hope you are all well.
It’s been a full five months since my last newsletter – things have been busy, and there is much to catch up on. So, let’s get to it.
I’m going to start in the present, and over my next few newsletters look back on what it was that filled those five months.
The Here and Now: What’s on my Needles
My knitting at the moment is tied to another big event in our lives – my wife Claire’s second novel, Lost in France, is due to be released on June 23, 2026 by Alcove Press, distributed by Penguin Random House. It’s the story of dedicated single mum and overworked film festival staffer Marlow, who doomscrolls with way too much bubbly one night, sees an article online about a fabulous house in rural France she could buy with just one euro, and then wakes up the next morning to discover that she bought it. Which wouldn’t be so bad except that there are strings (and much French red tape) attached. To sort out the mess, Marlow takes an impromptu holiday in France where the impossible local bureaucrat refuses her a refund, and many romantic shenanigans ensue with a couple of hot French men. (Yes, it is the rollicking great read it sounds like).
Shameless plug: you can pre-order the book now, anywhere you like to buy books, online and elsewhere. Pre-orders mean a ton to authors, as it gives both the publisher and retailers an indication of which books they should pay attention to. If you felt like pre-ordering Lost in France, that would mean so much to me and to Claire.
Some of you may recall that for her first novel, At Last Count , I knit a pillow of a Henlslow’s Sparrow, a bird which had significant thematic presence in the book.
There happens to be another avian presence in Lost in France, too: a magpie. And so, I am knitting a pillow: Marlow’s Magpie. Here I am working on the pattern in January, so that I would have something to knit as I accompanied Claire on a research trip to Paris as she works on the sequel to Lost in France. Yes—she’s already working on the next book in the series. Pretty exciting, if you ask me.
And here is a shot of a test swatch – just a portion of the pattern progress, as I sat at a kitchen table in Normandy on that same research trip.. Knitting in France. What’s not to like ?
I should be further along on the Magpie, wanting it ready for Lost in France’s release June 23, but I took a short detour to take care of something important: a Melt The Ice Hat in support of the protesters in Minneapolis. In the 1940s, Norwegians knit and wore red pointed tasseled hats to protest against Nazi occupation of their country. The Needle and Skein, a knitting store in Minneapolis, revived the pattern to protest the fascist events occurring in their city. A mere $5.60 US on Ravelry, and all proceeds go to the immigrant aid agencies supporting those impacted by the actions of ICE—a win-win if ever there were one. I started my hat after finding some vintage red wool in a charity shop in Chichester UK and finished it in Paris.
I am now juggling a number of things, Marlow’s Magpie among them. The first sketch is done, but I’m not thrilled about my colour choices. On the other hand, I’m trying to cut myself some slack. What is it they say? There is no such thing as a failed experiment—the worst that can happen is that you find out what does not work. I am always tempted to hold out sharing my work until I have a piece I’m happy to show, but that’s never the whole story. The whole story is that lots and lots of things do not work. With that in mind, here’s a look behind my knitting curtain at my bumbling and fumbling while trying to find a colour scheme I like.
Let it be known that I love the colours of the yarn I’m using – Sport Weight 100% wool (knit double) from Briggs & Little for the magpie, and Merino hand-dyed in Goldenrod by Cabin Boy Knits for the background. My challenge is in figuring out how to combine them.
In my first test swatch (on the left, below), I was going for a gradual blending of shades for the magpie’s feathers, particularly with the black moving into grey and blue. I think the result, though, was pretty muddy. In addition, the background consists of five-row stripes in two different golden rod dye lots, but I don’t think the difference in shades is enough to notice.
This second effort (on the right, above) is doing less blending with multiple strands of colours and is more successful, I think. For the background, I’m playing with stripes of colours from the cover of the Lost in France book. I have some additional hues I could use from my stash when I get back to Toronto, and I think this is showing some promise. I’m only 2/3 of the way through this sketch, but it’s looking better. Not quite there yet, but closer.
And that is where things are at the moment.
My next newsletter will back-track in time and cover the play Spycraft which Claire and I wrote together and produced in November, 2025,, and my 1940s, coded knitting adventures as we mounted that show (spoiler alert – it was a big hit).
Until then, taking things one stitch at a time…
Kirk