Author: Kath Andrews

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Rain!

A brief catch up with some old friends this afternoon talking about our gardens reminded me that we never did plant any vegetable seeds this year. However, the rhubarb, raspberries and other fruit bushes will no doubt be extremely grateful for the rain we have had today, especially after the extreme heatwave last week. The cooler weather has been very welcome to me certainly.

I had thought I might have been able to show you a completed back of the short version of Leaf & Vine cardigan, but my needles have been busy with something else. A call for submissions came in last Tuesday evening with a very interesting concept, but with only a week until the deadline which is tomorrow I’ve been busy knitting up different samples and working out how best to present my ideas. The swatches dried really quickly on Sunday afternoon, helped by the fact that I took the blocking mat outside and weighted it down on the patio table – it’s a good job I didn’t try doing that today! Of course, as it’s a submission for a possible publication I can’t share any photos with you at this stage, but I’m quite excited about the idea. If it doesn’t get accepted, I’ll definitely self-publish this one!

I have done a little more on the cardigan, even though I haven’t finished the back. There are only about 16 rows left to work on the back now. It’s going to grow quite a lot when it’s blocked.

I also did a tiny bit more on the small Spring Breeze Hat yesterday as Sue drove us down to the Midlands to visit my Mum. It was only a tiny bit as I discovered that it’s quite difficult knitting on a smaller circular needle (3.25mm and 40cm long) when the roads are quite bumpy!

Speaking of the Midlands – it’s not long now until the Midlands Wool Festival! This is a brand new yarn show being held at Wolverhampton Racecourse on July 11th and 12th. You can buy tickets in advance or on the door and it would be lovely to see you if you are local to the area. Our stand will be in the Ringside Suite. I’m teaching both afternoons as well and there are just three places left on each day’s workshop, so if you’d like to learn to knit two-colour brioche, get in touch to book a place!

Next week I’ll tell you more about the other shows coming up this summer and, who knows, maybe I will have finished the back of Leaf & Vine this time?!

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Ticket to Ride

Tickets had been pinned to our noticeboard for many months and then hey presto Monday came and it was the day of our sailing on The Waverley Paddle Steamer. The Waverley is the world’s last sea going paddle steamer, and you can find out more by clicking the link, but I can certainly tell you that this ship provided a wonderfully smooth and quiet ride. I was fascinated to be able to see the engineering in action below the deck we were sitting on, and to see the three massive cranks working. There’s a really cool video of it on Wikipedia that I was hoping to embed here, but it’s not behaving, but if you follow the Wikipedia link and scroll down to engine you’ll find the video there..

The main picture for today’s post is my view of Llandudno pier and the Grand Hotel with the Great Orme rising to the right, taken from the boat as we were about to go around the Orme.

You never know what the weather will be like when you book things like boat trips (or when Sue books them for us to enjoy!), but I was delighted by the cool sea breeze on such a warm day at the start of a very hot week – even though I ended up with a rather pink nose! And yes I took some knitting with me. The smallest size of Spring Breeze Hat still needed to knitted up before the North East Wool Show in early August (I get the rights to this pattern back at the end of July) and this seemed like the ideal small project to have with me whilst queueing and for some of the ride. As I was mostly working on the brim it meant that I could easily knit and still look at the view! As you can see it was quite breezy out on the water – my hair was blowing around everywhere!

The view and the experience of the journey to Colwyn Bay and then back around The Great Orme didn’t give me much time for knitting, but as you know I like to have it with me for all those moments when I need something to occupy my mind and fingers. Knitting whilst queuing is highly recommended – I get far less stressed about the wait when I’ve got my ‘socially acceptable fidgeting’ with me and I end up with knitted goodies at the end of it! I added the first repeat of the lace pattern once we got home and it’s looking good already.

In other knitting news, yesterday morning I took a stroll to the post office with the newly completed design which I can’t yet share with you. Sadly the box was about 2″ / 5cm too long to fit in the ‘small parcel’ category, but I will know better for next time and buy my posting box further ahead and from somewhere with a greater choice of size options! There were only two boxes in our Spar / post office when I bought this one and the other would have been far too small.

A lot of time and attention today will be on staying cool during my other jobs of invigilating exams and teaching piano. It’s definitely a scorcher and any gardening or walking will be done at the very coolest ends of the days this week. I’m hoping we’ll be able to pull some rhubarb as some of the new plants are going great guns (in amongst some oriental poppies and borage that is almost as tall as I am)!

It’s a short one today (I blame the heat!), so I’ll be back to tell you more about the progress I’m making on my short Leaf & Vine cardigan next week – you never know, I might even have finished the back by then! Until then, take care and stay hydrated. K x

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Magna-ificent!

Last weekend was my first time exhibiting at The Wool Monty at Magna Science Adventure Centre, and I really hope it was just the first of many. It’s a fantastic event where the organisers have really thought about making the show as accessible and welcoming as possible for visitors and vendors alike. The slightly larger than usual stands (3m square for a single space) meant that people using mobility scooters, wheelchairs or other walking aids could actually get into the spaces properly and see everything on offer. Because of the bigger space there were times where seven or eight people were browsing patterns and looking at samples and kits all at once!

As well as this there were chairs and sofas dotted around the hall and a quiet room for anyone who needed a bit of ‘time out’ from the whole yarn overload. We had a well equipped vendors’ room too – there was even oat milk in the fridge as well as the usual semi-skimmed which meant I could refill my tea flask near the end of the day on Sunday so I had a drink in the car with me on the way home. Very much appreciated.

Everyone was super friendly and helpful (especially in keeping an eye on my stand on Sunday morning while I went to teach) and I can’t wait to have Sue (now christened Mrs Kath!) with me next year to experience it all as well.

The venue staff at Magna were lovely too, with one member of staff offering to carry a large awkward box back to my car at the end of a long afternoon setting up.

It was a joy to talk to so many knitters, some of whom were newer knitters asking for advice as to which designs might be a good next step for them and some were experienced knitters wanting to try something different. There were some familiar faces and people who wanted to know where Sue was as she is now such a regular part of the yarn show circuit (she was at home a bit poorly, but is much improved now!) A couple of people even arrived armed with a list of patterns already picked out! I really enjoy talking to other vendors and visitors at these events and sharing ideas with them.

I am still tickled pink (and all the other colours) with the pompom crown Molly made for me/Sue on Sunday. It’s glorious!

I made one purchase during the weekend from one of my lovely stand neighbours, Flyy Dyed. It’s a skein of sock yarn that is destined to become a pair of socks for Sue.

If you’re wondering what ‘OOAK’ means on the label, that’s ‘one of a kind’ – unique and non-repeatable.

My Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche workshop went well. Everyone got the increases and nearly everyone tried the decreases – some people even did a second repeat of the pattern! I was impressed by their progress and concentration too. Yes, some of the swatches have rows where you can see errors and that is all part of the learning process. I think they did brilliantly!

I’m teaching this workshop again on both days at the Midlands Wool Festival next month (11th and 12th July) and there are just 3 spaces available each day. If you’d like to book a place, get in touch!

Yesterday afternoon I gave an online talk to a group of people from my tech editing course community about my ‘design process’. It was interesting to prepare this as I started off by basing it on the talk I gave at Wool-in Garden City in January 2025, but quickly began to realise that talking about design process to a group of tech editors, some of whom are also designers, is a bit different from talking about my designs to visitors to a pop-up shop/yarn show. So I was able to get more in-depth and technical about what I actually do – and we even started talking about spreadsheets and what my favourite sizing charts were. It was a far from perfect presentation – I was sharing my screen on Zoom for the first time, with some Powerpoint slides. The slides were initially changing themselves too soon and, when I thought I’d paused the slideshow I think I’d paused the screen sharing… I got the hang of the technology and how the programme behaves and interacted in the end! Anyway, people were kind and some even said they’d enjoyed it!

The rest of this week is a little quieter which means I will have time to check through my latest design commission thoroughly prior to sending it off and I’ll also be planning a new brioche workshop for knitting brioche in the round! Yesterday I thought I didn’t have any designs that used brioche in the round, but I’ve just remembered that Bryn Brioche Cowl is written so that it can be knitted either flat or in the round! Silly me. That’s what having a bit more time in my day does for me – gives me space to think more clearly!

I may even get into the garden this week and tackle the roses – many of them need deadheading to various degrees – and the weeds.

I’m not going to be teaching at Ewe Felty Thing this coming Saturday after all as not enough people had booked for it to be a viable event for the shop, so if you do want to learn Stacked Stitches or Next Steps in Brioche keep an eye on the Events page of my website for future opportunities.

That’s all from me for today. Have a great week and I hope you get to do something you enjoy. I’m going on a paddle steamer on Monday, so that should be fun! K x

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Juggling

Today’s post photo is one of the flying shawls – Into the Vortex spinning through the air, which feels appropriate for this week’s post! The past few weeks have felt a little bit like a juggling act . I’ve been working on a design commission (and exploring possibilities for another), relaunched Ice Diamond Mitts, launched Making Tracks as an individual pattern, been preparing for The Wool Monty and for an online talk I’m giving the day after The Wool Monty about my design process, started to promote Yarn Gathering, have been invigilating A-level and GCSE exams, teaching piano, singing in the church choir, visiting my Mum, celebrating my lovely wife’s birthday and accompanying her to some appointments. It’s been quite busy! There are a couple of things I haven’t done in as timely a fashion as I’d intended, but my trusty bullet journal usually helps me keep track of what I should be doing – as long as I remember to write things in there in the first place! I suppose this is what is meant by a ‘portfolio career’? Doing lots of different jobs at the same time.

To help with my preparation for the show at the weekend (and for all yarn shows in the future) I’ve made myself a list of things that will always need doing/planning beforehand. This kind of thing is helpful for me so I don’t end up in a situation where, for example, I’m at a show and then realise I haven’t brought the workshop samples with me. It’s too late to go home and fetch them at that point! I’m definitely a list person – are you?

With all this recent busy-ness I don’t have any modelled photos of my grey 4-ply sample of What Do Points Make? yet. I have taken a few photos this morning on the mannequin and on a hanger and I’m sure I’ll get some modelled shots during The Wool Monty.

I haven’t written this month’s newsletter yet either, but I’m assuming that as I’d sent out a short one about the launch of Making Tracks on May 27th, people wouldn’t mind not hearing from me again immediately! If you’ve been waiting for the June Newsletter and wondering where it’s got to, that’s why.

I have made some progress with my short version of Leaf & Vine and reached the point where you cast on for the integral (very short) sleeves. It looks as though the stitch pattern on the left is taller than that on the right hand side, but that’s due to how it behaves before blocking. Once blocked it’s all the same height – and quite a bit longer than it looks at present! What you can see is most of the left side of the back. This is one of the things that continues to fascinate me about lace knitting – how different stitch patterns can behave before and after blocking – and that’s another reason why blocking lace knitting is so important!

Have you put Sunday 20th September in your diaries? Yarn Gathering will take place once again at the Daniel Owen Centre in Mold (Ch7 1AP), 10am – 4pm and entrance is still free! I’m not sure free entry will always be possible in future years, so do make the most of it this year. We have 13 vendors for you to enjoy, spread across three spaces. See the webpage for more Yarn Gathering info. Thanks to Laura for updating our logo once more.

Writing about Yarn Gathering has reminded me that I need to make the flyers and social badges for the vendors to share with their customers and followers – another thing to add to the journal list!

It’s going to be a short one today as there are lots of things to do – including the less fun stuff like ironing some clothes! Have a good week and next week I’ll tell you all about how The Wool Monty was for us. I’m really looking forward to this show, please do come and say hello if you come to the show – we’re on stand 2! I’ll also tell you how my talk about my design progress went next time. K x

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Drawing a Line

Making Tracks was launched last week as an individual pattern as the rights returned to me six months after it was first published in The Knitter magazine. I have to admit that a heatwave (and one that was the UK’s hottest May on record) was probably not the best time to launch a cabled jumper, because although the pattern pages have had lots of views, no-one was in a jumper knitting mood and no copies have yet been sold!

Mind you, with the sudden change back to ‘more appropriate’ weather for the time of year – along with thunder storms and some very heavy showers – you never know! It’s cool enough now to start knitting a jumper and it would certainly be ready to wear by autumn.

I have been blocking something that I cannot show you – you’ll get to see it in October – but I’m pleased with how it’s come out and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you. I’ve just taken the pins out and left it to relax on the blocking mats as I want to see how much it pulls back in when no longer under tension.

I’ve already been promising myself (and customers at yarn shows) that I would knit a sample of the short version of Leaf & Vine and I cast on this week. Because the short version still has quite deep armholes, I’m already halfway through the length of the body before I do the sleeve cast-on! Having been knitting longer garments recently, this seems really short, but I must remember that the length will grow when the lace is blocked and the overall measurements are good. I’m knitting it using a lovely light 4 ply yarn that I bought from Jo at Second City Yarns. It’s an undyed yarn in light grey.

I’ve been getting everything ready for our next show, which is The Wool Monty. This is held at Magna in Sheffield and is famous for being super inclusive. We received our lanyards, set-up info (including directions on how to get to the room I’m teaching in on Sunday morning!) and a copy of the show brochure through the post yesterday and I think it’s going to be an impressive event.

I’ve sorted out the kits, so I can bring a good range of kits in one big box, rather than bring absolutely everything in two! I’ve decided on the pattern inventory and printed anything that was needed, and I know that everything we are bringing will fit in the car. I’ve even ironed the black cotton double sheet that goes on the table. Now all I need to do is sort the sample bags out, so that the new patterns are in them and any samples of designs not going with us aren’t!

The weekend after The Wool Monty I am due to be teaching at Ewe Felty Thing once more. The last workshop (on Steeking) had to be postponed as not enough people had booked to make it viable for the shop to run, so I’m really hoping that some lovely knitters will want to expand their brioche knitting skills and/or learned how to use the stacked stitches technique, which is exemplified in the designs of Xandy Peters. If either of these workshops sound like fun to you – please do book a place and come along! There’s cake, drinks, biscuits and laughs as well as lots of knitting and top tips.

Here are just two designs you could knit with these techniques:

Meg March

On the left is Meg March Shawl designed by me, and on the right is Fox Paws designed by Xandy Peters. Pictured is the scarf I knitted using this pattern (photographed before I wove the ends in!).

Brioche designs can be either very geometric or organic in their lines, but the key feature is how the main colour creates lines that can draw shapes. You’re using two colours, but one colour at a time, working each row once with the main colour (the light colour here), then once again with the background colour (the dark colour here).

Stacked stitches is a fabulous technique where, again, you only use only colour at a time. No stranding or bobbins of little colours, just a whole row of one colour that take wonderful twists and turns by working increases and decreases on top of each other – hence the ‘stacked’ in the name!

It’s struck me that all the pictures I’ve shared with you today have clear lines in the designs, just formed in different ways; through cables, lace, brioche and stacked stitches. It never ceases to amaze me how versatile knitting is and how we can create beautiful and detailed fabrics with just yarn and needles!

That’s all from me today. I’m hoping that I’ll have some photos of my grey 4 ply What Do Points Make? to share with you next week. I didn’t want to get ‘official’ pics taken until I’d refreshed the blue of my hair, but that is now done, so we are good to go (in between the rain showers!).

Take care and have a good week. I hope you get to do something you enjoy. K x

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Keeping it Real

Pictured today is a shot of three dark pink peonies in the front garden, surrounded by cowslips that have gone over, some pink primroses and lots of weeds and grass that shouldn’t be in the border. We haven’t done the ‘big weed’ of the front garden yet (the back garden has been mostly tidied up), and this very ‘real’ pic seemed appropriate to the title of today’s post!

There have been a number of news stories and social media posts about AI recently and I felt I wanted to put down my thoughts and feelings around the subject.

There are certain phrases and structures that are beginning to stand out as massive AI indicators in writing, such as three short phrases each on a new line, “It’s not X, it’s Y, and that makes all the difference”, “and honestly?” and pretty much anything described as “quietly” when it has absolutely nothing to do with volume.

I’m now noticing it in so many things I read; newsletters, articles, social media – even BBC news articles seem to use some of these structures and patterns. Quite often I’ll be reading for a while and then spot one of these things and increasingly it just puts me right off reading any further.

What’s the reason for my antipathy towards AI? There are several! It uses massive amounts of water to run the data centres where it takes place. AI is literally costing human jobs – 8000 Meta employees lost their jobs recently as a way of funding the AI part of the business. It’s also built on the theft of real people’s creativity. Articles, books, poetry, art have all been fed into these machines to ‘teach’ them how to ‘create’ the responses you ask for, often without the permission or even knowledge of the original artists. And it all looks and sounds so much the same after a while. More ‘generic’ AI than ‘generative’.

Woolly Wormhead wrote an excellent post on May 11th on social media, asking people not to input their knitting patterns into ChatGPT or other AI systems when looking for help or translation. I second this plea wholeheartedly. If people need help with a pattern there are videos available, tutorials and groups with lots of people (over a thousand people in Woolly’s case) on Facebook very willing to explain things.

There are also apps that people feed their patterns into in order to mark their progress. This worries me too, as I’m not sure what the companies behind the apps are doing with that data. Please don’t feed the machine!

With my patterns, if you do need help, please just get in touch with me directly via the website and I will answer your questions. I’ve been known to draw diagrams to help explain things and even record videos with little demos of how to do something.

The news that Google search is becoming more AI driven is also a concern, especially since the answers given in the AI overview aren’t always accurate. For example, I just typed into Google “What is Kath Andrews’ most popular knitting pattern?” The AI overview came back:

“Kath Andrews’ most popular designs include the Nevern Throw (a stranded colourwork Celtic knot blanket), the Meg March Shawl (a cozy, large two-colour brioche wrap), and Caramel Slice (an approachable child’s slip-stitch cardigan).”

Me being me, I just did a bit of sales analysis to check this out. Now, the first one is correct as I thought – Nevern Throw is my best selling pattern, by quite some distance. I’ve sold 820 copies of this pattern, with 643 of these being online sales (that number took me a bit by surprise!). Meg March Shawl is well admired and has sold 152 copies, with 60 of those being online sales, but there are several other patterns in between Nevern Throw and Meg in terms of sales. But Caramel Slice? I’ve only ever sold 12 copies of that, and only one of those was an online sale. Although I think it’s a good design, it’s hardly one of my most popular! So, that rather throws the AI answer out of the window.

Anyway, those are my thoughts about AI today. What are your views on the subject?

On the more practical side of things, I am launching Making Tracks as an individual pattern tomorrow!
As always, if you’d like a subscriber discount for the pattern, please do sign up to my newsletter (always written entirely by me, occasional typos and all!). The jumper has finished chest measurements of 101.5-174.5cm (40-68.75 inches) with adjustable body and sleeve lengths.

If the weather cools down enough later I will also photograph my grey 4ply What Do Points Make?. That’s likely to be past 9pm though!

Unfortunately, my Steeking workshop at Ewe Felty Thing that should have been taking place this coming Saturday (May 30th) is being postponed until the autumn, as not enough people wanted to learn how to cut their knitting open safely (that’s what steeking is!) to run the workshop this weekend.

I should be teaching Stacked Stitches and Next Steps in Two-Colour Brioche workshops at Ewe Felty Thing on June 20th – there are plenty of spaces. Please do come. Both these workshops are a lot of fun. Stacked Stitches opens up a whole world of amazing designs, mostly created by Xandy Peters, who is a genius! If you have some experience in basic two-colour brioche knitting (straight stripes is sufficient) then you will be able to do the Next Steps workshop and create a little coaster/mat. Again, this workshop will open up a huge range of possibilities for you in brioche knitting patterns.

Before then, the next yarn show we’ll be at is The Wool Monty, at Magna just outside Sheffield, on June 13th and 14th. I’ve never been to this show before, but I’ve heard some wonderful things about it. I’ll have printed copies of the new version of Ice Diamond Mitts, Making Tracks and many many more, as well as kits and postcards. Do come and say hello if you visit the show! I’m teaching my Intro to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting workshop on Sunday morning – and it’s sold out!

I cast off my super secret knit recently which means I’ll be able to show you things that I’m knitting again soon!

That’s all from me for today. It is very hot (it’s 26.2 celsius in the house and apparently ’26 feeling like 31′ celsius outside which is hot as anything for our corner of North Wales in May!). We live only about 5 miles from the place that had Wales’ highest recorded temperature yesterday. I’ve stayed inside so far today in the shade, and I’m trying to remember to drink plenty of water. I may or may not attempt digging up the final mini sycamore tree in the border this evening. Make sure you stay hydrated wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. Take care one and all, K x

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Ready, Set, Go!

If you are a newsletter subscriber you may wish to check your inbox – there is a cheeky discount waiting exclusively for you to celebrate the relaunch of Ice Diamond Mitts. I’ve changed the yarn used to the gorgeous Welsh Cambrian Wool and knitted new samples in each size. The pattern has been re-written to make it clear and easier to follow and the lengths for each size have been slightly shortened, making the mitts easier to wear and also ensuring that even the largest size uses only 90m/45g yarn for a pair! You can seem from the photos that the smallest size still needs its ends weaving in and also that it looks really cool if you knit the ribbing in a contrasting colour! I did this partly to see how it would look and also because I didn’t have enough yarn of one colour that wasn’t red for a small mitt.

The photos on the wooden table are of the large size, the ones on the black background are medium and small.

Following hard on the heels of Ice Diamond Mitts will be my own self-published version of Making Tracks, which was first published last November in The Knitter. I just need to insert the charts into my own format of the pattern and add some of my new photos. The rights for this jumper return to me towards the end of this month and so I will have printed copies with me at The Wool Monty in June!

Making Tracks is a cabled men’s jumper with saddle shoulders and a round neck, knitted in pieces and seamed. The jumper is designed in 8 sizes (S-5X), with 10-12.5cm positive ease. Positive ease might sound ‘fancy’ but that just means how much bigger a garment is than your actual body measurements. If you had no ease on something it would be your exact body measurements. (If you have negative ease then the piece is smaller than you are, but hopefully stretchy enough so that it can be put on and then cling to the contours of your body). Positive ease on a garment means you can move in a garment and probably wear layers under it and approx 10cm (4″) is the amount of positive ease for a ‘standard’ fit to a jumper/top.

You may remember my mentioning that this jumper was modelled on a female model when published in The Knitter. It’s the same jumper and it was designed as a man’s jumper, but they didn’t have a male model available for the photoshoot. What those photos do show is that Making Tracks also looks good when worn by a woman. It gives more of a ‘boyfriend fit’ feel, and the sleeves are a bit longer than you might expect on a woman’s jumper, but it still works well!

If you want to knit this sweater for a woman you may wish to check the underarm length of the intended wearer. You can reduce the length of the sleeve easily as there is plenty of straight sleeve knitting between the increases and the point where the sleeve joins the body.

We had a day out yesterday, meeting up with some friends in Coventry. It was a super day. We visited the cathedral (both the bombed ruins of the old cathedral and the new cathedral next to it), walked, feasted and chatted lots. I recall going to Coventry Cathedral once on a school trip when I was quite young – and definitely too young too appreciate the beauty of the modern design when I had grown up going to churches that were hundreds of years old.

It finally occurred to me yesterday why concrete was a good idea for parts of the design of the new cathedral in Coventry. As well as being entirely fitting for the brutalist design, it was probably the only way to get the cathedral built quickly. Entirely stone built cathedrals can take more than a century to build. For example, Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is finally structurally complete with the final piece of the central tower being put into position in February this year (building work began in 1882 and Gaudi took over as chief architect in 1883!), but construction will continue for another decade. The design for Coventry Cathedral was chosen in 1952 by competition, the foundation stone was laid by Queen Elizabeth II in 1956 and the finished building was consecrated in 1962. So there were just 10 years from “this one please” to it being opened. That’s incredible. The building is also full of modern art on the floor, walls, windows and in sculpture. Even the way the organ pipes are positioned looks like a work of art. The 23m x 8m tapestry behind the altar is mind-blowing, not just in how it looks, but in how it was made – in one piece! That must have been one enormous loom!

The ruins of the old cathedral, bombed in 1940, are also a very powerful place. “Father Forgive” was ordered to be carved behind the altar by the bishop of the time. It’s amazing that so much of the outer walls, as well as the tower and the spire survived. The cross has been made with some of the burnt remains of the original building.

It was a visit to Lichfield (including visiting the cathedral) with these same friends that inspired my Lichfield cardigan. So, who knows, perhaps yesterday’s trip to Coventry will result in a new design?

That’s all for today. Have a good week, and I hope you get to do something you enjoy. Perhaps it will be casting on some Ice Diamond Mitts? K x

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Whatever the weather, we knit!

I had to check the calendar this week as it’s been so cold! Even though it is nearly mid-May I’m back in my woollen dress and tights, especially important while doing exam invigilation in a very cool hall. The last thing the exam candidates need to be distracted by would be my teeth chattering!

Are you one of those people who doesn’t knit in the summer? I’m an all-year-round knitter as you might have guessed – and quite often I’m knitting quite thick autumn/winter items during the spring and summer months because of the way deadlines for magazines go, so in that respect the current coolness is not a problem, not when I’m at home knitting with a pile of wool in my lap anyway. It is slightly different when I’m out and about!

The rhubarb that we planted and that seemed to be settling in so well is sulking a bit, but I think that might be the lack of decent rain. We are due some more this week, but if it turns out to be more of a drizzle than a soak I might have to do some watering. The rain we did have recently made the chickweed and goose grass grow like mad, but not the things we actually want to flourish!

It is nice to see the aquilegias in flower again though. Did you know I have a shawl inspired by the colours of aquilegias? That’s the shawl in the main photo for today’s post. Aquilegia Shawl uses a Fibonacci sequence for the zig-zag stripes and is very adaptable in terms of both width and length.

You can tell it’s one of my older designs as my hair isn’t blue in the picture!

On Friday the updated version of Into the Vortex was released, now including all the information you need to knit a version of the shawl using 2 x 100g DK yarn as well as the original two sizes for 4 ply.

I’m planning to relaunch Ice Diamond Mitts next week now as this week has turned out to be quite busy!

If you are hoping to learn two-colour brioche knitting with me at a yarn show this year, there are still spaces at the Midlands Wool Festival (3 on Saturday, 8 on Sunday) and some at the Stafford Wool Gathering. The workshop at North East Wool Show in Newcastle is now sold out. I may put a Zoom workshop on in the summer if there are people interested who cannot attend an in-person workshop. Do let me know if this would interest you!

I finally got my grey 4ply What Do Points Make? blocked yesterday. It was not as easy as expected. Not because of the measurements, but because I got hiccups just as I started to pin it out! It’s not terribly easy to pin out knitting with straight edges when your diaphragm is kicking at you! It is done however, and the measurements are the same as the lace weight version! Do you remember when I knitted my multi-coloured 4ply one in Size 4 and it came out bigger than the lace version? I think that was definitely due to the yarn being a ‘thicker’ 4ply, at 365m per 100g whereas the grey is 440m per 100g. That’s quite a difference really and yet they still both count as 4ply yarn!

Now that I know what type of 4ply yarn maintains the original measurements I can update the pattern – and maybe include a note that if you want to use 365m/100g 4ply then it will come out bigger than stated!

I ended last week’s post saying that I was off to ask for some help with something. I did and got a very kind and helpful response.

That’s all for today as I can’t show you what I’ve spent most of my knitting hours on this week as it’s a commission using yarn that isn’t even publicly available yet! I do like how it’s coming out and hope everyone else will too once it’s published!

Take care one and all and I hope you get time to do something that makes you happy this week. K x

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Flying Solo

Saturday was Yarnies at the Flaxmill and it was a very good day, even though I was flying solo for a change! I’ve got so used to having Sue with me that I’d forgotten just how hard it is to put the whole stand together (and take it down again at the end of the day) when you’re on your own. I’m so grateful that it’s only occasional that I ‘fly solo’ now and mostly it’s something we do together. Shout out to Jo from Jo Knit Sew and the organisers of the show who between them carried most of the stuff out to my car once it was all packed down. Also to Antidote Yarns and Designs who were one of my stand neighbours and offered to keep an eye on the stand if I needed a loo break during the day and provided Candy Kittens during pack down!

Being on my own also meant that I wasn’t able to run the stranded knitting workshop. I remember a few years ago when Sue and I looked after Cat & Sparrow‘s stand at the Summer Wool Show so that she could go and teach a workshop when the person who was going to help her on her stand all weekend was unable to attend at short notice. It was fun, even though it felt like a big responsibility! We got to do it because Rachel had put out a call on her socials asking for help from anyone who would be attending the show. Last year my friend Matthew stepped in as ‘booth babe’ at East Anglia Yarn Show on the Saturday as we didn’t know if Sue was going to be able to make it to the show or not. Amazingly she did get there and they ran the stand between them splendidly in my absence while I taught.

Today I’ve been thinking about the importance of asking for help with stuff and how hard that can be for me at times. It’s always been something I’ve not been that good at (in fact it was once a target in my appraisal when I was teaching full time), and it seems to be something I still need to work on!

I started knitting a super secret commission yesterday. It’s not a gift for someone, but a design using a yarn that’s not even out yet. I’m really pleased with the colours I chose to use and it’s knitting up well.

While I was at Yarnies at the Flaxmill on Saturday I bought some yarn (colour me shocked!) from another Jo, this one being the lovely person behind Second City Yarns, my other stand neighbour for the day and who was good company in the occasional quieter moments of the day. Her yarns are properly ‘woolly’ and her hand-dyed colours are spectacular, but surprisingly it was some undyed yarn that I bought. Two gorgeous skeins to knit a sample of the shorter version of Leaf & Vine. This pattern was originally designed for Knit Picks using Palette, another ‘woolly’ 4ply yarn that comes in 150 colours, and my sample is the full length version in a leafy green. I want a sample of the short one, partly to wear at summer shows when I’m not wearing ‘What Do Points Make?‘ and partly so folk can see the difference in length. Sometimes it’s hard to just imagine these things.

The reason I bought this undyed yarn from Jo is that at 450m per 100g it’s closer to the original yarn thickness (of 422m per 100g) than her hand-dyed yarns which come in at 350m. The hand dyed stuff is gorgeous and absolutely perfect for other designs (and I am brewing some ideas for one gently in my head), but I needed the thinner option. Here it is!

Some exciting news to share with you is that Yarn Gathering will be back this September in Mold! The venue is booked, the licence is paid and the prospective vendors have completed their forms. We are once again at the Daniel Owen Centre in Mold and this year’s date is Sunday 20th September. The page with all the details and vendor info will go up on the website very soon.

The updated version of Into the Vortex should be available later this week, once the final checks have been made. I’ve added in details for knitting a DK version. It’s so gorgeously squishy.

Ice Diamond Mitts will then (hopefully) be relaunched either next week or the week after. I’ve changed the pattern layout and made it easier to follow as well as changing the pattern itself a bit (mostly in terms of length to keep the large size under 50g).

This is the pre-blocking photo of the large size. I also knitted a medium size mitt yesterday evening!

That’s all from me for today. I’m now intending to go and ask for some help with something else that I do. Wish me luck and have a good week! K x

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Wonderful Wonderwool

We had a wonderful weekend at Wonderwool Wales. It was the 20th anniversary of the show and our third time of being there. We were in the same spot as usual, W16 in Hall 3, and I love the fact that it felt easier to unload and set up this time – partly due to familiarity with the process and being in the same space. I think our stand looked the best it has done so far at Wonderwool, what do you think?

Here’s 2024:

And 2025:

And now 2026!

I think you can see that the pull up pattern display stands have been increasing in number! We also vastly increased the number of designs we brought with us – it was 66 this year!

We sold out completely of Lichfield before lunchtime on Sunday and only had one Nevern Throw left by the end of the show. These designs have been reliable best-sellers ever since they came out. It was also lovely to see some of the designs that don’t come out very often, such as the Lighthouse Blanket, get some attention too.

We had a lot of fun during the weekend as well as working hard and it was great to be able to chat with fellow exhibitors, even if that was mostly during set-up, break-down or occasional trips to the loo! Familiar faces of friends visiting the show and knitters who have visited our stand in previous years added to the camaraderie and fun. We laughed a lot during the three days we were there and the main pic to this post, when Sue was playing peek-a-boo, gives you a sense of the mood!

It really helps that the show is very well organised and as well as the main organisers, there are loads of volunteers around in high vis tops offering comfort breaks to anyone on their own and always ready to point people in the right direction.

Sue managed the stand on her own for a couple of hours each day while I went off to unravel some of the mysteries of two-colour brioche knitting with some fab knitters. They did really well and made excellent progress in two hours with a technique that was new to them and uses some unfamiliar terminology too!

I was absolutely delighted to see another Tiffany in the wild. This one was knitted by Kay who was with one of the guilds and popped over to show me her shawl. It’s a fabulous bright version with some extra colour changes added in!

Apologies for the magazine in shot as well – I had my latest designs that are out in magazines on display just underneath where we laid this shawl for the photo.

Sue has a new plan for a series of videos/reels with the theme of ‘swish or waft?’ and I was the guinea pig that had to try it out first. I’m always shy to be in front of the camera for things like this but I think her final video is fun. If you are a stall holder, you are quite likely to be asked the same question quite soon!

This coming Saturday I will be at Yarnies at the Flaxmill at the Flaxmill Maltings in Shrewsbury. I’m actually going to be flying solo for this one. If you are coming to the show, please stop by and say hello. Between now and then I need to go through all the sample bags and pattern cases and put together the patterns and samples I need as I won’t have 66 designs with me as the space is a more modest 4m x 2m. I think we’ve whittled it down to 48. I also need to reprint a few things!

We came home to a riot of yellow in the garden that wasn’t out when we left. Fortunately not all dandelions (though there are some of those too), but lots and lots of yellow poppies. We’ve never planted these, they’ve just self-seeded and spread themselves during the 22 years we’ve lived here, and I love them. The aquilegias are starting to come into flower as well. I will get some photos of them to share with you next week. Until then, take care and do something that makes you happy. K x