Knitwear Design from Wales
My blog shares with you my passion for knitting and creativity through designs, kits, and, sometimes, random thoughts and pictures!
Travelling
We spend quite a lot of time travelling these days – either to yarn shows (14 this year!) or to visit family. Can you guess which chain hotel I am staying in at the moment? Today I am down in the midlands to accompany my mum to the dentist. This means I’m writing this post…
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Doing the Maths
Earlier in the year I wrote about needing to buy a protractor while working on a design for a top and trying to remember how to use sin, cos and tan in mathematical equations (to calculate the angle and therefore length required for the knitting from the neckline to the shoulder). The pattern that all…
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Growing Fast
I finished the back of my short Leaf & Vine cardigan! It’s going to grow quite a bit when it’s blocked and now the two front pieces need to be knitted. The clever thing about the construction of this garment is that the (very) short sleeves are integral to the body – you just cast…
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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…
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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…
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My very first blog post from September 2020…
New Beginnings
Tuesday 29th September 2020
Hi, I’m Kath. Previously a music teacher for 21 years, I became a full-time knitwear designer and knitting teacher in 2018. I love living in North Wales and getting thoroughly immersed in what I’m doing, whether that’s a project, book or border that needs weeding.
This website has been up for a whole week now! It feels as though that was an aeon ago, but when I think that it was 21st August that I registered my domain name and 22nd September (only 32 days later) when I pressed the ‘launch site’ button, I can hardly believe so much has happened in this short space of time.
The theme of this post is ‘New Beginnings’. September has seemed like the ‘New Year’ for me for most of my life – I was either in school, a student, or a teacher. It has always felt like the time to start afresh, create new resolutions and try new things. It’s only been two years that I’ve been out of the classroom so that’s been a well-established habit. On September 1st 2018 I dyed my hair turquoise for the first time as a marker that I was no longer a school teacher.
There are so many things I could say about 2020, but, for now, I want to focus on the good bits:
I took a bullet journalling course with the wonderful Felicity Ford in July, and this practice is revolutionising my life (and given me a good excuse to resurrect my childhood obsession with stationery).
As a result of not being able to sell at craft fairs and pop up shops because of Covid19, and because of the accessibility issues arising from my previous (and still, currently, main) pattern platform, I opened a Payhip shop, which in turn led to this website.
I’m also very excited about the upcoming Craftucation platform for online arts and crafts courses where I have been invited to be a tutor (and my first course is very nearly finished!).
So, there are many new beginnings that I am grateful for, even though a lot of things seem to falling down around our ears right now. My life has its complications as does everyone’s, but there is still enough on the ‘good’ side of the balance and I intend to share some of that with you all in the weeks to come.
Keep knitting,
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I bought Menai pattern at Woolfest but am having problem with row 15. i have picked it out several times but am unable to get this row right. HELP PLEASE
Hi! Thanks for your message. I’ve replied to your query by email.
I bought Petulia pattern but am having problem with rows 7 and 9. I am unable to figure out how to p1, sl1yo into double yo and k1, p1 into double yo. Please help.
Hi, if you email me at kathandrewsdesigns@icloud.com I can help you.