Author: Kath Andrews

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Startitis

I seem to have developed a case of ‘startitis’. It’s nothing chronic, but seems to be in its most active phase at the moment. For those of you unfamiliar with the condition it occurs when a knitter (or any crafter) has the urge to begin several projects one after the other without having finished any of the previous ones. I’ve started two more since I last wrote and I’m contemplating a third (a knitted gnome which will be a gift).

The first of my new projects is my natural coloured version of Tiffany. This is knitted using BFL 4ply from McIntosh in the shade My Innocence. I think it uses the same base yarn as the original rainbow minis in Nene 4ply from Riverknits. It definitely feels like I’m creating the same fabric, although the visual effect is very different. This version of Tiffany would be perfect for a wedding or summer garden party. I know that people have always been able to choose to knit Tiffany in any colour or combination of colours they want, but it can help people have the confidence if they can see a sample to show them it will work.

I am launching August Moebius Cowl as an individual pattern on Friday and that means I will have printed copies at Stafford Wool Gathering this weekend. It can be tricky to explain how a moebius structure in knitting works so I thought having one of these on the needles so people can see the way the yarn and stitches travel would be a good idea and I cast this on yesterday afternoon. I’ve also altered the stitch count and number of repeats in this sample to give an alternative size option in the pattern. It will be a lot wider than it looks here – the central circumference will be approx 85.5cm rather than 128cm as in the first sample published in The Knitter in April – the stitches are just bunched up a lot on the needles. I’m knitting it using another colour way of the same yarn the original sample was knitted in, Schoppel Zauberball. It’s a ball of yarn that I’ve had for ages (I think it was a birthday present a few years ago) and I’m glad to have found the ideal project for it. As the yarn colour changes the new colour appears at both the top and the bottom because of the construction – magic indeed!

Here is what the original August Moebius Cowl looks like. It’s worked from the centre (the wider purple stripe) outwards.

But what of the other projects I was writing about last week? Well, Leaf & Vine still needs to be blocked and I’m hoping to do that tomorrow. Sue’s Gwen top has paused briefly while I’ve been knitting on these, but as the weather is almost too cool to wear it I think that’s ok. I will return to it very soon.

And my Gingerbread cardigan (the adult version of Caramel Slice)? I’ve decided on brown instead of green for the second contrast colour. Quite a few people on social media pointed out that the green would pigeon-hole the colours into the realm of Christmas, which isn’t what I’m after, and a couple of people (including Becci from Riverknits who knows a LOT about colour) said that the green was draining the warmth from the overall effect, which the brown didn’t do. So brown it is!

No more knitting has happened with this yet, but I did spend some profitable hours yesterday working on the pattern spreadsheet. Although the yarn I am using for this version (Yarnsmith’s Superwash Merino DK) is the same weight as the original (West Yorkshire Spinners Elements DK) and has the same meterage, it feels like a ‘plumper’ yarn, and I am getting a slightly different tension with this yarn (that’s the number of stitches and rows in 10cm) so some things about the pattern will need to work very slightly differently in order to get it right on the adult scale – a 66″ chest is very different from a 4 year old’s 23.5″! Things like exactly how many stitches to decrease between the slip stitch colour pattern and the stocking stitch section above it so they end up as the same width. It’s just one line in the pattern when it’s done, but there’s a lot of maths behind it!

I had a great day last Saturday with the Montgomeryshire Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers. They had invited me to go and teach them how to knit two-colour brioche. There were 12 people in total and all did well. I’ve also learnt that some left-handed knitters (where the stitches travel from the right needle to left) also need to reverse a lot more of the knitting instructions in order achieve the intended fabric. I think I need to try left handed knitting myself and see exactly what happens. I think a lot of it depends on also on which direction the yarn is wrapped around the needle. I didn’t manage to get a photo of everyone’s progress, but here are those I did photograph.

The day was more relaxed than a yarn show workshop as we could spread the time out more and instead of a quick stretch half way through which is what I usually do at a yarn show workshop, we broke for lunch! They had very kindly made sure that everything they brought for lunch was plant-based and if things were homemade (such as the wonderful soup!) even included a list of ingredients.

I’ll be teaching two-colour brioche knitting again this coming Saturday afternoon at Stafford Wool Gathering. That workshop is sold out but I am hopefully also teaching it (and stranded knitting) at Ewe Felty Thing on December 5th. I know there are spaces on that one. The shop has re-opened, so keep an eye on the Ewe Felty Thing website which should be up and running again from tomorrow.

What have you been up to this week? Is anyone coming to Stafford Wool Gathering at the weekend? Let me know in the comments! Until next week, take care, K x

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Busy Needles

It’s been good to have a slightly less manic week as I have been able to do some knitting and planning future ideas.

The yarn I ordered for the adult version of Caramel Slice arrived, but the colours were not quite what I had expected. The Copper was lighter and the Carrot was really really bright.

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Still, I swatched to see how it would all look together and, as I anticipated, I didn’t like the result.

I was happy enough with the Copper as a background colour (I needed to be as I had bought 12 x 50g balls of it!) and the Vanilla Fudge worked well, so I ordered a couple of options for the second contrast colour that were darker that the Copper – Bottle Green and Dark Chocolate. I knitted a couple of small swatches with each of these and laid them on top of the original swatch to get a sense of how they would work. My hand on the right of the pics is covered up the orange underneath.

At this point I am a little bit stuck, as I’m not sure which I prefer. I think I prefer the green, but the chocolate brown works well too. What do you think? I’m planning on calling this cardigan Gingerbread if that’s any help! And the sample is going to be knit in my size so the colours need to suit me.

While I was thinking about this I finished knitting the short Leaf & Vine and grafted the neck together for the two front pieces. It now just needs blocking and seaming!

I knitted this using two skeins of a gorgeous yarn from Second City Yarns which is a blend of British Bluefaced Leicester and British Masham wool.

I also cast on for Sue’s Gwen using a darker shade of blue than in the original sample that I made for Knitting Magazine.

I know they actually look the same colour here, but they’re really not (different lighting makes a huge difference!). The yarn in the mag is Topaz and the one I’m knitting at the moment is Lapis. The yarn is CoopKnits Socks Yeah! and it’s a light 4-ply/sock weight yarn. You can see the proper contrast between them by looking at photos taken with the same lighting – these pics are from Find Me Knitting‘s website where I bought the Lapis colour way for Sue’s top.

Alongside all this I haven’t forgotten my promise to share some pics of the Autumn Dahlia Shawl knit-along that was published in The Knitter last Thursday. I haven’t had my subscriber copy of the magazine yet, but this was their Instagram post about it a few days ago:

Yarn kits (which do not include the pattern) of the Naturalis yarn from Lang Yarns in the original colour way are available from McIntosh who also has a good offer on subscriptions from The Knitter if you don’t already get it. If you don’t like the original colour way, you can of course simply buy the yarn in colours of your own choosing (you need 7 balls of the main colour and 2 of the contrast colour).

This is what the shawl looked like when it was blocking (back in June!):

I’m looking forward to travelling to Mid-Wales on Saturday to teach brioche knitting to members of the Montgomeryshire Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers. It’ll be quite a big group of 13-14 people! Then the weekend after that is Stafford Wool Gathering at Stafford County Showground where I am also teaching a sold out brioche knitting workshop!

I’ll let you know how the workshop went next week and if I’ve made any decision on whether to go with the green or the brown for my cardigan – please do share any thoughts on this in the comments! Take care and I hope you get a chance to do something you enjoy this week. K x

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What a weekend!

We arrived early at Skipton auction mart. This was a first for us and gave us time to relax after the drive, eat our lunch (and be chased by a wasp) and chat to fellow vendors who were also there early before the roller shutters went up.

We always forget just how big the building is, but you soon remember when you’re wheeling the trolley up and down the aisles! It took us an hour to get everything unloaded out of the cars.

And then set up began! The roll of black fabric we’d bought having seen someone else use it last year was brilliant for covering the sides of the pens and giving us a backdrop – and was much easier to put up than trying to pin sheets to the rails! It’s the same stuff that is used for the underneath of furniture and also as weed suppressant. We could cable tie it to the rails – and used gaffer tape on the section without rails.

As you can see getting the backdrop up was just the start!

But by 6.15pm we were done! The next photo was actually taken on Saturday as we had chosen to leave the patterns in the cases overnight to avoid them getting spoiled by any rain that might come in or condensation dripping from the metal rafters.

Having a double stand was definitely the right decision – loads of room meant that lots of people could browse and that helped sales too.

Lots of fun was had during the weekend with various vendors joining in the “swish or waft?” game with Meg March Shawl – there are some cracking videos on Sue’s socials. It was also lovely that so many people stopped by to say hello – friends, people who have been on previous workshops, returning customers, fellow tech editors and readers of this blog. If you were one of them – thank you.

My workshops were both fully booked and went well. Neither photo below includes everyone’s progress as some folk had to leave before the photos were taken, but there are now more knitters in the world who can do stacked stitches and two-colour brioche!

I’m teaching brioche again at the Montgomery Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers in a couple of weeks and then again at Stafford Wool Gathering – that workshop is now sold out too!

The best selling patterns at the show were the usual suspects: Nevern Throw, Lichfield and Tiffany. It was good to see Ice Diamond Mitts getting plenty of attention too.

Not for the first time, several people asked if there was an adult version of Caramel Slice and there isn’t.

This has made me decide that now is the time to remedy this! The original child’s version was knitted using West Yorkshire Spinners Elements DK (a blend of Tencel and Falklands wool), but, as WYS is in the process of being sold to new buyers, I decided to use a different DK yarn for the adult version. I’ve chosen Yarnsmiths Superwash Merino DK and selected some gorgeous colours this morning. I’ve gone for ‘Copper’ as the main colour which is a deep rich colour like Parkin or gingerbread, paired with ‘Carrot’ and ‘Vanilla Fudge’. I’ve recently used the ‘tweeds’ version of this yarn for another design and really liked it, so I’m hoping this non-tweedy one will be just as soft and lovely. As this design isn’t a commission I’ll be able to share the process and my progress with you which is quite exciting!

I’m sitting on my chair in the lounge writing this on my phone today for a couple of reasons. It’s warmer in here and I’m a feeling bit under the weather (probably my body’s reaction to knowing that the 3 deadlines and 3 events of this month have now all happened!) and also there is a big box on the floor in the study that needs sorting out and if I write my blog in another room I won’t be distracted by that.

When we were about to start packing up on Sunday when the rain came down with such ferocity that it even came through the wooden slats that made up the upper part of the wall above our stand. All the samples that were near the wall got a bit damp and so they were packed in a separate bag from everything else and are now spread out around the bungalow to air and dry properly – I don’t want musty smelling samples!

On Thursday Part One of Autumn Dahlia knit-along will be released in issue 233 of The Knitter!

You may have seen the special subscription offer they have been promoting on social media with it. It’s a three part knit-along using LangYarns Naturalis. This is a yarn dyed using natural dyes and is a very lightly spun single ply yarn. It’s listed as an aran/worsted weight yarn although I thought it felt more substantial than that while was using it. The shawl is worked on a 7mm needle. I’ll be sharing lots of pics of this with you next week.

What have you been up to this week? Did any of you come to Yarndale? I’d love to hear about it in the comments! K x

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Tide’s Out!

Tickets are now on sale for the North West Winter Wool Festival 2027! And that means my show design is also available. When you purchase an advance ticket for the show you get a download code (it works on both Ravelry and Payhip) so you can download a copy of the show pattern for free! What a bargain!

Tide’s Out is a single skein 4ply shawl pattern with a lovely lace border reminiscent of the patterns that the receding tide leaves in the sand. The variegated sample shown here was knitted using LottieKnits Little Bird Sock (360m/100g) and the gradient/fade sample was knitted using a brown fade set from The Knitting Goddess (400m/100g in 20g mini skeins) – this yarn is now discontinued.

I am very pleased to be able to report that last weekend went well! When I was looking at my diary recently and trying to work out how I would squeeze two events in different places into one weekend when I was organising the second one and needed to set up for it on the same day as the first, I wasn’t entirely convinced I would manage – but we did!

Saturday was Ewe & Ply‘s 10th birthday and I was so honoured to be invited to go and ‘showcase my talents’ that I was determined to be able to fit it in. Becca, Teri and their staff are so friendly and welcoming as were the other four small businesses who were there. Most of us were set up at the end of St Mary’s Parade just outside the shop, which was the ideal spot as I would have to leave early.

Lots of people came to say hello and celebrate Ewe & Ply’s journey from the market stall in Shrewsbury to a large shop and another shop in Oswestry. I had a bit of a challenge with the fact that St Mary’s Parade in Shrewsbury is at the top of quite a steep hill and the car parks are all at the bottom, but once I got my breath back I was able to chat to people!

I left there at 2.30 and managed to get to Mold just before 4pm to set up the venue for Yarn Gathering. We spent an hour marking out everyone’s spaces on the floor with masking tape, putting up signs and bunting and moving lots of tables and chairs around. I was very grateful to have Sue and Anne helping with this!

Then on Sunday morning the alarm went off at 5.15 and we were at the venue by 7.10. Outside posters were put up before the venue was unlocked and then we were able to get most of my stand set up before the rest of the vendors started to arrive from 8am. Many thanks to Sue, Anne and Joshua for being incredibly helpful with getting folk unloaded and moving boxes to the correct stand space. Especially for going up and down those stairs so much!

Everyone’s stands looked lovely and there was a good range of crafts on display – knitting, crochet, weaving (both modern and iron age!), embroideries, hand spun yarn, hand dyed yarn (both naturally dyed and chemically dyed) and fibre to spin your own yarn, award-winning locks from fleece, needle 3D felted sheep and 2D landscapes, info from Tecstiliau about the courses they run and kits they sell and plenty of other items.

People started to arrive just before 10am and there was a steady stream of visitors throughout the day, with a lull during the traditional British lunchtime and towards the end of the day. It was lovely to see familiar faces returning to support the event as well as people who had heard about us on social media for the first time this year. Our collective efforts online must have done some good!

One of the lovely things about in-person events is when someone brings their finished project (or project in progress) to show me. At Yarn Gathering I saw a lovely completed but not yet blocked Twisted cowl and a fabulous Tiffany shawl as well as the first two parts of a Branwen shawl that I forgot to photograph. I love seeing what people have knitted from my designs!

Everyone seemed to have a good day and then, just like that, it was over, and we had an empty and tidy venue by 5pm! That was thanks to all the vendors for being so efficient in their packing up and also to Sue, Anne and Joshua for tirelessly fetching and carrying items back to vendors’ vehicles.

This week I am preparing for Yarndale this coming weekend and checking all the numbers for my final deadline design and I hope to get it sent off this week before we head north.

We are back on the Lairage side of the auction mart this year in M23-24 (a double stand!) and I am fully intending to remember to bring my tights with me this time – I forgot last year which led to a very early morning dash to Asda so I didn’t freeze.

Because we are having a double stand here for the first time – the stand is even a little bigger than our Wonderwool space! – I can bring lots of patterns (60 designs!) and there will be room for people to browse. We will be next to the amazing Jo.Knit.Sew too, so we know already that there will be lots of laughs during the weekend.

I have even been able to do some knitting that I can show you! The left front of the short version of Leaf & Vine was cast off last night and the right front begun. It’s quite a quick knit when you’re making the shorter version!

With all these events and deadlines, as you might imagine, I haven’t exactly been pulling my weight on the housework or gardening front, but I did help with trimming the hedge last week and got some impressive scratches when deadheading the big rose bush in the front garden. After this coming week life should become more balanced! The rest of 2026 contains three more shows, a workshop for the Montgomery Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers and, hopefully, a workshop day at Ewe Felty Thing.

What have you been up to in the past week? I’m looking forward to telling you all about Yarndale next Tuesday. K x

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Progress

Today my car is having its MOT and I’m at home with my phone off silent for a change, hoping there are no calls that have an expensive outcome! When I was a student the Metro I drove dramatically failed its MOT. There were lots of holes in the bodywork underneath the driver’s seat so I could have ended up doing a Fred Flintstone impression at any point whilst driving. Because I was a student I couldn’t afford to get it fixed, so I sold it for scrap and bought a pushbike. That was a viable alternative for my lifestyle back then, but I don’t think a bicycle would work for transporting myself and my ‘stuff’ around the country for shows, workshops and visiting family. So I really hope all goes well for my car today.

Last week I told you about my plan of swapping the artwork from my broken roller banner into the cartridge from the new blurry one. I found an appropriately sized crochet hook (about 3mm) to act as the locking key, but unfortunately the holes in the cartridge had been filled with something which meant I couldn’t insert it and swap things over. It’s a shame as I thought that would be a good way of minimising land-fill. I did manage to cut the old artwork out of the broken cartridge so at least that part can go to the metal section at the tip.

Progress has been made with the designs I am working on. The design that will be the show pattern for the North West Winter Wool Festival 2027 is complete and everything is set up so that once ticket sales open in a few weeks, ticket holders will be able to download their free copy of the pattern. I’ve posted off three samples to a magazine (all for one design!) and emailed the pattern. And yesterday I blocked the garment I’ve been working on for another magazine! What remains to be done with that design is one of the trickiest aspects for me – calculating the yarn amounts for every size. It’s not too hard when the garment is all in one colour, but this one uses four, so I shall be concentrating on my spreadsheet later with my calculator to hand!

However, all this progress with design commissions does mean that once again there has been no knitting done in the past week that I can share with you.

Do you remember when I told you about the archeological strata on my desk? It’s (mostly) gone! There is now just one small pile to the left which is info about current designs and paperwork for the next two shows. And there is clear space to the other side. Even the top of the printer is clear. I would say it was a miracle, but it was actually down to my lovely wife Sue. I had to call on her for help at the weekend when my printer starting playing ‘silly beggars’ even more than usual, eating paper when it did deign to print anything and causing me all kinds of aggro. Sue came to the rescue and, in the process, helped me tidy up my work area, so it is a lot nicer to use!

On Saturday I will be at Ewe & Ply in Shrewsbury for their 10th birthday party. I will have a few patterns and samples with me there. It should be lots of fun, although I will have to leave mid-afternoon to go and set up the Daniel Owen Centre for Yarn Gathering which is the following day!

We have had a last-minute change to our Yarn Gathering line-up with Lana Terrae replacing The Woolly Tangle, who is unable to join us this year. So, we still have 13 vendors with a fabulous range of yarn and fibre-based loveliness for you to browse and buy from. Do come and see us and spread the word amongst your friends!

The weekend after Yarn Gathering is Yarndale in Skipton, Yorkshire – we will be on stand M23-24 (circled in red on the plan below), very close to the entrance to the Lairage where the food vendors are based.

That’s all from me today – I really hope I am able to show you some knitting next week! In the meantime, please share my pleasure at a desk with space on it – I wonder how long it will last? K x

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Old Favourites

Last night I had two sales of my Nevern Throw pattern in quick succession. Now, while Nevern Throw is my most popular design, that actually doesn’t happen very often so I wondered why. A quick visit to Facebook showed me that someone had shared their completed Nevern Throw in the Stranded Knits group and it’s lovely. A range of colours from yellows, greens and blues and really well knitted too. I popped into the group to add my congratulations to the many already there on a great piece of knitting. And woke up to two more sales of Nevern Throw! I know they’re not the kind of pattern sale numbers that will pay the bills, but it does give me a boost when I’m working on lots of new designs currently as well. Nevern Throw was first published in January 2020 by Knit Picks and I self-published it in January 2022 once the rights returned to me. Since then I have sold 867 copies of the pattern either online or at yarn shows – four of which have been in the last 24 hours.

Nevern Throw is also the design at the top of my website and on my banner. I do now have my replacement banner from Instant Print and it is much better. I’m currently tempted to see if I can move the pull up section from my very first roller banner that I broke by falling onto it into the cartridge the blurry one is currently in. I’ve watched the youtube videos on how to do it and it seems you need a ‘locking key’, but it’s just a piece of metal. I’m sure I have a crochet hook of the correct width that I could poke into the hole to stop the art-work/end-piece pulling back inside the cartridge.

I started counting up how many items I’ve knitted in the past two months and it’s no wonder I have a ganglion on my wrist at the moment! There are two shawl samples for one commission (plus the first shawl that didn’t meet the brief, but is still a completed shawl), three accessory samples for another (one of which is a nearly 2.4m long scarf), most of a garment, a hat and part of my short version of Leaf & Vine! Blimey! And we’ve had three shows in that time too! I’m “getting there”, as my mum would say, with the deadline knitting and I’m looking forward to being able to return to Leaf & Vine and to make a start on Sue’s Gwen lace top. That design was published in Knitting Magazine in July, which feels like ages ago now!

I have a new 3-part knit-along design starting in The Knitter next month (issue 233, 234 and 235) which is a shawl in LANGYARNS Naturalis, a roving spun yarn that is dyed with plant dyes. If you get my newsletter you will already have seen the photos (and the offer I have been able to share with subscribers) and you may have seen it being advertised on Facebook and Instagram as the magazine are also running their own subscription offer with the yarn.

Next year I think I want to run my own self-published knit-along design. I may also look at teaming up with one of my yarn-dyeing friends for this – I haven’t mentioned this idea to any of them yet, but I think it could be fun. What do you think? Would you be interested in taking part?

I haven’t done any knitting I can share with you this week! But we have bought some splendid hi-vis. We have to wear these at some of the shows when setting up and packing down and we decided it would be nice to have branded ones. This is a screenshot from the little video we took yesterday. I tried to upload the video here, but it distorted the image from portrait to landscape which looked very odd!

Yarn Gathering is taking place in less than two weeks on Sunday 20th September – it would be lovely to see lots of visitors to this event. Do come if you are free! There are 13 wonderful vendors, spread across three rooms in the Daniel Owen Centre. The full list of vendors and a map of Mold plus more information is on the Yarn Gathering page.

You can also combine a visit to Yarn Gathering with a visit to the Mold Food and Drink Festival which is taking place that weekend as well. Entry to the Food & Drink Festival costs £7 on the Sunday, whilst entry to Yarn Gathering is free!

That’s all from me today. I’m off to calculate and knit a neck band. I hope you have a good week and get to do some things that make you happy. K x

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Getting it Right

Many former school teachers will tell you that the start of September has a funny effect on them. For some it is a sense of renewal and possibility, for others a sense of dread! I have to admit that I have been awake since 4.30 this morning, but not because I have been thinking about my former classroom Septembers.

This September is quite possibly the busiest one I have had since I left the classroom in 2018. I have two yarn shows: Yarn Gathering which I am organising, and Yarndale where I am teaching two sold out workshops as well as having a double stand for the first time.

There are three design deadlines coming up (which is why I haven’t been able to show you much knitting for a while!), a presentation to give on Stitchmastery next week, a yarn shop birthday party to attend which will be lots of fun and my car’s MOT is due. Fortunately that is booked in already. I was also due to be teaching on September 5th, but the shop where the workshops were happening is having a few week’s break so that is cancelled. My next date at Ewe Felty Thing is 5th December where I am due to be teaching Stranded Knitting and Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting. You’ll be able to book a place on those once the shop is back up and running again.

Before that I will be teaching my brioche workshop at Stafford Wool Gathering in October and there is just one place left on that workshop. It’s £30 and the workshop is being held on Saturday 17th October, 1-3pm. If you want it – be quick! This is a new event for us and we’re really looking forward to it.

I have been aware of needing a bit more time and space in my week for a while. Earlier in the year I let the local community choir that I have been leading for the past three years know that I would be stepping down, and tomorrow is my final rehearsal with them. They have formed a committee to take over and I know they will do well. It will be the end of an era in a way for me, as agreeing to run this choir (which started off as half a dozen young children and now numbers about 30 on the register, most of whom are adults) is what got me back into making music regularly. I will still be singing in my church choir, so I won’t be losing touch with music again, but it will be without the planning and admin!

Sue and I have been listening to quite a bit of Dolly Parton this past week following the sad announcement of her death. She was an incredible person and getting to meet her, although very briefly, was a joy.

My replacement roller banner is due this morning and I am looking forward to seeing it. The staff at InstantPrint have been so helpful throughout the process, from my first disappointed email when the banner I ordered after breaking my original one arrived all pixellated around the edges of my logo (as shown in the main pic of today’s post), to helping me get artwork to them that was of the correct resolution for a replacement that I didn’t have to pay any extra for. I still don’t quite understand how the original banner I bought last year looked so good when apparently the resolution on that was not correct either, but I am just glad that they wanted to get it right and get a good quality banner to me.

If you live in the North East Wales/North West England area do consider visiting Yarn Gathering on Sunday 20th September. We will have 13 fabulous vendors, most of whom live within an hour of Mold, showcasing their talents and fibre-based goodies. Parking in Mold is free on a Sunday, entry to the event is free, and you can combine your visit with a trip to the Mold Food and Drink Festival which is also happening that weekend (entry to that is £7 on the Sunday for over 16s).

if you are a monthly newsletter subscriber, keep an eye on your inbox tomorrow. I am launching Spring Breeze Hat as an individual pattern and there will a subscriber only time-limited discount code you can use! This hat pattern was originally published in Knit Now in April. Since then I have added an extra size to the pattern and knitted a sample in each of the four sizes. My samples are knitted in KnitPro’s Symfonie Terra 4-ply yarn, which is a standard 400m/100g 4-ply/sock weight yarn. Here are the extra-large (in Autumn Rose) and large sizes (in Mint Sky). I prefer the extra-large size on me.

Right, that’s all from me for today. I’m off to tackle the rest of my to-do list! Take care and I hope you get to do some things you enjoy this week. K x

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Day Tripper

This past weekend we had a few days in Kent visiting family and having some adventures. Eleven of us went on a boat trip to see the sea forts off Whitstable (followed by some lovely chips eaten on the sea front) and then a smaller group of just four of us had a lovely day trip to Margate on Sunday. The sea forts were eerie and amazing and I still have that slightly bobbing up and down feeling from being on the boat for an hour.

I didn’t take my latest commission knitting with me as reading a colourwork chart in the car is not easy, but I did take a couple of other projects. My short Leaf & Vine sample was sadly ignored in favour of a second sample for a new design for the North West Winter Wool Festival. As in previous years I’m designing a pattern that will be given to those who purchase an advance ticket for the show. My first sample was in a vivid variegated yarn and I wanted a calm contrasting version, so this one makes use of a set of five mini skeins in gradient shades of brown. I’m really pleased with it and, as there are only 20 rows in the whole thing with a pattern that needs to be followed to the letter, it was much easier car and conversation knitting. I’m looking forward to sharing this design with you.

Now I’m back in Wales and the new commission is going to be cast on today. The pattern is done up to the arm-holes, so I can get a decent stretch of it knitted up while I ponder the best way to shape those and minimise ends to weave in on the section that is worked flat.

I had a little treat at The Yarn Whisperer in Margate, run by the lovely Kitey. I am also delighted to say that you will be able to find patterns (and kits!) for my Seaside Winter Cosy hot water bottle cover pattern there very soon!!

I’ve already made use of one of the stickers I got at the Yarn Whisperer in Margate. It’s gone on the front of this year’s bullet journal – main pic of today’s blog. I’m saving the yarn pride sticker for next year’s journal and I haven’t yet decided what to make with the gorgeous hand dyed skein of yarn in the colour way “4 of Wands” that I treated myself to. The Dolly Parton crochet kit is going to be one of Sue’s Christmas presents – I think it will be wrapped in box form and I will make it after Christmas, once deadlines and yarn shows have calmed down for a bit. The fortune telling fish that I found in the bag when I got back to my in-laws house showed that we are all very passionate!

We also went to the Turner Contemporary gallery while we were in Margate. The David Hockney window will be there until early November.

I had intended to launch my Spring Breeze Hat as an individual pattern by this weekend, but… I had forgotten when I put the date in my journal that we were away and I have also not been able to find one of the samples – the medium size that went to the magazine. It’s possibly still with them. Once I get some more photos taken and added to the pattern I will be able to launch it (hopefully this week!) and there will be an email going out to my monthly newsletter subscribers with a discount code for the launch. Do sign up now if that appeals!

Right, I now need to get that commission knit onto the needles – it won’t knit itself! Have a great week and I hope you get to do some things that bring you joy. I’m so grateful there were many things that did for me this past weekend. K x

P.S. My new roller banner (a reprint of the one I broke by falling on it) arrived last week, but the logo was all blurry (the original had been super sharp on the edges). I’ve been in contact with the company (Instant Print) and they’ve been very helpful. I’ve sent them a new file for the logo with a higher resolution and they’re going to print a replacement, which will hopefully be as good as the original one was, if not even better!

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Mr Bump

When I was young I loved the Mr Men books. I’m of an age where they were just Mr Men – the Little Misses series hadn’t been added at that point. I even taught myself how to do joined up writing by tracing Roger Hargreaves signature from the front cover of the books. Mr Bump always seemed a bit of a silly character to me, carelessly getting hurt so often. However, I have been doing a really good impression of Mr Bump this past week or so.

Now I look back on it, my opinion of Mr Bump when I was a child was strange, as I had a habit of regularly walking into lamp-posts – I simply didn’t see them as I was too busy looking at everything else around me. My recent run of “Mr Bumpiness” began with a reversion to childhood. I walked into a lamp-post in the centre of a footpath to McDonald’s just after we’d finished the North East Wool Show (which was great by the way). Unfortunately, said lamp-post had a road sign screwed to it to face the road next to the footpath and so I collided with it edge-on and quite forcefully. The poor lady serving the drive-through customers who saw it happen was quite worried and brought me a cup of ice cubes for my arm when we got into the building. I’m sure that helped quite a bit, although the bruising has been spectacular.

I managed not to injure myself further for nearly a week (apart from a ganglion suddenly appearing on my left wrist) and then on Saturday, during the Pop-Up Wool Show (another excellent event) I misjudged where my chair was when sitting down with my knitting, fell off it sideways and landed on/in our roller banner. Cue another massive bruise, lots of embarrassment and a very broken roller banner – a replacement is due to arrive tomorrow thanks to Instantprint. Sue had just popped outside to eat her lunch and knew nothing of what had happened until she came back to see the banner leaning rather limply against the back of our neighbour’s stand (many thanks to Cuddlebums!). Antidote Yarns and Designs also kindly came over to ask if I needed anything, but all I could think of to ask for was a little more dignity!

My mum suggested I break some matches to avoid a third thing happening. This superstition is not one I’ve ever heard of before even though Mum has always said ‘things come in threes’. I meant to try it, but forgot. On Monday morning whilst removing all the bedding from the bedroom (a new bed was due to be delivered) I walked into the corner of a table in the hallway (hidden from my sight by the duvet, but I should have known it was there) and later on dropped/knocked over a whole pint of water on the dining table. So, it seems I’m either into my second set of ‘threes’ or I’ve just been incredibly unlucky lately with my sudden lack of spatial awareness/co-ordination. I’m just really grateful none of my injuries affected my driving for getting home from our events!

The North East Wool Show and the Pop Up Wool Show were both great and in between these we also visited my Mum and were visited by Sue’s brother and wife for the solar eclipse. All of this meant that I wasn’t able to get a blog post written last week.

Knitting-wise I have been very busy since my last blog post. My shawl design has gone off to the tech editor, I’ve collected the yarn for a big piece of brioche knitting and I’m only ten repeats of the pattern away from finishing it and I’ve got most of the yarn for a new garment design. An additional colour is arriving today.

If you’ve been to any of my workshops on stranded knitting (or any type of colourwork) you’ll know how important contrast in the tonal value of the colours is. If two colours have a similar tonal value the pattern will vanish into the background, even if the colours appear to be different. I learnt this the hard way with a cowl I knitted for Sue. It was in black and red and included one of her poems in morse code. The big writing shows up, but the morse code is virtually invisible because the red and black both had similar tonal values. You can really see the lack of tonal value contrast if you look at the picture in black and white.

It was after knitting a swatch for my new design with the colours I had that I realised there was not enough contrast in tonal value – hence why a new colour is being delivered today. I can’t show you the swatch, but you will see the finished design in a few months.

Next weekend the rights to my Spring Breeze Hat return to me and I will be able to publish the pattern myself. I’ve added an additional size (extra large), which is ideal if you: a) have a bigger head; b) have lots of hair; c) like a more relaxed fit to your hats.

Here is the extra large hat being blocked on a balloon:

I can’t currently find my medium size sample (the one I sent to the magazine) and I’m not 100% sure if it’s been returned yet. With this in mind, the photos for the pattern may have to just include the small, large and extra large to start with and be updated to included the medium when I’ve either found it or knitted a new one. If you’d like a cheeky discount on the pattern when it’s launched as an individual pattern, then do sign up to my monthly newsletter!

That’s all from me today. I am going to aim to be less like Mr Bump for a while! I hope you have a good week and get to do some things that make you happy. K x

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All the Colours

On Friday I went into the garden to pick the blackcurrants. I was too late. With the extreme hot weather the fruit had ripened quickly and then either dropped off the stems or withered away on them. I managed to find one stem of fruit that was protected from the heat by a neighbouring plant and picked what I could from that. We cooked them down and had them with vegan vanilla ice cream (Swedish Glace in case you’re interested – which has been remarkably hard to find in the shops lately!). Having also been too late for the gooseberries this year I am determined not to let these crops go to waste again in the future. I think I will need to have a set day of the week when I check their progress and decide if it’s harvest time. I can start this year with the raspberries. Some of these are already ripening, even though these canes are ‘officially’ autumn-fruiting. On a very closely related note, I am so grateful we had some rain yesterday evening and this morning – we desperately need it!

Last week I told you about a shawl design that I’d had to start again. I am pleased to report that the new version is complete, written up and the shawl is blocking in the lounge. It was harder than I expected to design a single skein (4ply) shawl, in that you need a certain amount of width to get around the shoulders, but with a limited quantity of yarn that requires lateral thinking about the shawl shape itself. I also wanted to ensure that the design allowed for a 10% buffer in the yarn quantity used (ie I only used 90g of a 100g skein). This makes allowances for variation in knitters’ tension, so they shouldn’t run out of yarn. I also made sure the yarn I chose was the type of 4ply I used to refer to as a ‘short 4ply’. Yarn labelled as 4ply weight varies so much in length/meterage; different brands can have between 350m to 420m in 100g. I chose a brightly variegated skein of LottieKnits Little Bird Sock (365m/100g) in the colourway “Catch a Falling Star”. Choosing a highly variegated yarn (and this one contains all the colours!) was also an important factor as I wanted to see if the design would work with a high variegated yarn; if it did I knew it would work with anything! I’m going to knit another sample in a solid or semi-solid colour next so knitters can see how it works on a variety of yarns. Today’s main picture is of my leftover 10g.

As you might imagine, getting this shawl done in a week has meant there hasn’t been much time for other knitting, but I have done a little! Having blocked the shawl yesterday afternoon, I spent the evening working on the small sample of my Spring Breeze Hat. This hat was begun on the day we went on the Waverley Paddle Steamer and I hadn’t much touched it since then. I did realise last night that I don’t enjoy knitting lace on small circular needles, so I switched over to double pointed needles (dpns) and got on a lot better after that. I could have switched to magic loop technique, but my dpns were nearest!

I also got 12 during University Challenge while I was knitting, which is my highest score in quite some time. The Spring Breeze Hat was originally published in Knit Now magazine, issue 193 in April and will be relaunched as an individual pattern towards the end of August.

Last night I also finally got around to blocking the new extra-large size of the hat – this size will be included in the individual pattern, but is not in the magazine version of the pattern.

I am currently preparing for the North East Wool Show at Newcastle Racecourse this weekend, which is followed by the Pop Up Wool Show in Port Sunlight on Sat Aug 15th. We will be bringing 46 different printed patterns (and accompanying samples!) and lots of kits too.

My Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting workshop at Newcastle has been fully booked for a while, but if you want to learn this great technique there are spaces on my workshop at Yarndale (Sunday 27th September, 10-30am-12.30pm) and at Stafford Wool Gathering (Saturday 17th October, 1-3pm), as well as at Ewe Felty Thing (5th September or 5th December, both 10.30am-12.30pm).

That’s all from me for today. I hope you are able to do something that makes you happy this week. K x