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And… relax

Well, Wonderwool Wales was absolutely fantastic!

The organisation was amazing and the team of stewards managed to stay cheerful throughout the day whether directing traffic at 8am/6pm, helping man stalls so folk could go for a loo break if they were on their own or modelling items on the Sheepwalk. It really makes a difference when you know that if you need help with something, asking a person in a crocheted version of a hi-vis vest will actually get you the answer, or point you in the direction of someone else who will know! I hope that Chrissie and her team are taking a well-earned rest now.

It may seem strange to start by talking about the organisation and ‘backstage’ part of the show, but until I started exhibiting/vending at yarn shows (and then helping to run one myself!) I didn’t have any idea about what was involved. Getting 205 different companies set up in three large agricultural sheds for a weekend, when everyone has at least one vehicle they need to unload from and we all want to minimise the carrying/wheeling distance is no mean feat. The set-up time was from 12-8pm on Friday and although a lot of folk arrived at 12 or shortly after as we did, it was spread out over that time period. Not so the get-out. The show finished at 4.30pm on Sunday. Everyone packs down their stand and returns any hired tables and chairs to the show office or nearest steward (thanks Amy!) and goes to reclaim their furniture deposit. Then everyone wants to get their vehicle out of the exhibitors’ car park, load up and go home. It could have been chaos, but it wasn’t. A short wait in the queue to get out of the car park, told the steward which hall we were in and where we wanted to go to load up, and we were loaded and out of the show ground by 6pm!

So, what about the bit in between? The actual yarn show? It was amazing. I had to keep pinching myself that we were really there. After so many years as a visitor thinking “I’d love to do this”, now I actually am! I loved every bit of it – talking to visitors, explaining patterns and techniques, pulling my on-the-go brioche swatch out of my pocket for an impromptu brioche tutorial (many times!), modelling Meg March Shawl and Twisted moebius cowl on the sheepwalk (four times!) and helping folk choose which patterns or kits they’d like to buy.

The Sheepwalk was fun. When I first went to Wonderwool I saw the Sheepwalk listed in the brochure and thought it must be a livestock display. There are plenty of animals at the show after all – sheep in particular. But that’s not it at all – it’s a fashion show of items from different exhibitors, some modelled by the makers/designers themselves (as I did), some by stewards and volunteers from the audience and it happens twice each day.

I loved catching up with some of the other vendors too – though I didn’t have time to talk to everyone I would have liked to. I also completely failed to take any photos other than a few photos of our stand. Sue did get a pic of a customer’s Nevern Lap Blanket though. She had chosen to use just one of the charts with a whole range of colours of tapestry wool and omit the garter stitch borders, and it looks amazing. This is a photo of the photo on the customer’s phone.

Another knitter arrived wearing Tiffany, which literally made me gasp. I still find it a little surprising and a whole lot delightful when I see people wearing my designs that they have knitted. And someone else showed me her Forest Ferns Moebius in progress being made with two gorgeous yarns held double.

The only reason I was able to take part in the Sheepwalk was because Sue was with me at the show, and was able (and happy) to look after the stand and customers while I wasn’t there. She was an absolute trooper throughout the entire event. I am so proud of how much she is able to tell folk about the designs now and how many questions she is able to answer too! It’s quite a luxury to be able to do something you love with the person you love. Sue’s help also means I’ll be able to apply to lead workshops at more shows in the future, something I haven’t done as much before due to running the stand on my own.

There are a couple of things to learn from this year’s Wonderwool for the future. One is to bring more patterns and kits that tend to sell well. I brought 20 copies of each of Nevern Throw and Nevern Lap Blanket and by the end of Saturday we only had 2 copies of the Throw and 6 of the Lap Blanket left – and they were all gone by about 11.30am on Sunday! We also sold out of the large Twisted kits (partly thanks to the Sheepwalks I think!). Another is that when we’re staying somewhere with no lift that’s on the third floor to check we’ve got the soya milk out of the ‘under storage’ part of the car boot… There were 65 steps up from the ground to our apartment and we have bungalow legs! On both days we’d got to the top before realising something important had been left in the car… It was a lovely apartment though and I’d happily stay there again – even with all those steps!

There was lots of interest in Sugar Loaf Cardigan with its ‘Coming soon!’ sign and I’m hoping that will be ready to go up online and be printed out for Buxton Wool Gathering which is less than 3 weeks away!

I had taken a sock to knit during quiet times, but there weren’t really any. I did a little on it each evening and it can be my yarn show project for the next few months. The yarn is from Weku Yarns (they’ve stopped dying yarn now, which makes this skein even more special) and the pattern is my Bodelwyddan sock pattern. The colours in the yarn are creating some really interesting patterns – this is called pooling.

The past couple of days have been about checking stock levels, making sure the numbers add up correctly in the takings, analysing what sold (and what didn’t), reprinting some patterns and starting to plan new ideas. There are several – ideas for new knitting designs, about stand layout, whether to get another collapsible brochure display stand for my designs etc.

You may also have noticed that my website looks a little different. I kept getting a message that my website ‘theme’ was incompatible with ‘AMP’ (I’m still not sure what that is, but it seems important) and that I needed to change it, so I looked through the themes that were listed as being compatible, did a preview of this one, and changed to it. The computer seems to think this theme isn’t compatible with AMP either, but having just had to rebuild my homepage from scratch, I’m not changing it again just yet! What do you think of it?

Take care one and all, and I’ll tell you more about some of my future plans next time. K x

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It’s Really All Happening!

There are only a few days left before we travel to Wonderwool Wales! I’ll be in Hall 3, Stand W16.

Late this afternoon and early evening I’ve been going through edits on Sugar Loaf Cardigan from my tech editor. It’s getting there! Sue did a fabulous job of modelling the cardigan outside at the weekend so I could take some proper photos and the pics were really well received on social media:

I made the sample in this size as it’s the size of my mannequin, but I hadn’t realised that the mannequin has no shoulders and therefore the cardigan doesn’t sit right on it. A real person shape complete with shoulders was needed for the photos, and I was sooo grateful that Sue agreed to be the model!

Note: The final thing I do when I write a blog post is to choose the title of the post. I initially chose “It’s All Happening” as that seemed to encapsulate the week. But I did my usual check in case I’d used that title before. And I had! On December 5th 2023 when I’d just cast on the sleeves for Sugar Loaf Cardigan! So, I tweaked the title a little to avoid a repeat, and because I like the link between two posts referencing the cardigan!

Even before we go to Wonderwool, I have a workshop tomorrow night – and there’s still time to book! Introduction to Brioche Knitting is the same workshop I taught at Wool-in Garden City and it’s a great one – and tomorrow I will be teaching it at Shaz’s Shabby Chic in Buckley.

You may remember that a couple of weeks ago I updated my website with pages that grouped my designs by yarn weight. I now have a new events page as well!

This replaces my “Where I’ll Be” page and hopefully will be a better way of seeing what workshops are available and which shows I’m going to be at.

See that ‘Beginners’ Knitting Workshop’ on the drop-down list above? That’s taking place at Ditzy Rose in Tattenhall on May 23rd.

It’s an afternoon workshop, 1-3.30pm, so it won’t suit everyone time-wise, but if you know anyone who would like to learn to knit, or return to knitting after a long break, then please point them towards this workshop! Nikki, who hosts all the many and varied workshops at Ditzy Rose, is lovely and welcoming and will be providing drinks and cake as part of the £30 price of the workshop.

All the details are on my Events page about it as well as the Facebook event page. If you’d like to book, email nikki@ditzyrose.co.uk

I have actually done quite a bit of knitting as well this week, but guess what? I can’t show it to you! I did, however, ball up a skein of gorgeous sock yarn that Sue chose from Weku Yarns when we were at Wool-in Garden City. It never ceases to amaze me how different yarn can look in a skein and in a ball. And different yet again when knitted up! Of course, if I was super clever I’d have made sure I’d got a photo of it in the skein before I wound it up, but I didn’t, so here it is all wound up.

I’m going to have to keep this one short today as my head is a bit mashed after driving down to Mum’s yesterday and then back again today (followed by the number crunching). It was a quick impromptu visit in advance of her birthday and it was lovely.

I’ll see you on the other side of Wonderwool and have lots to tell you next week. K x

P.S. If you come to Wonderwool, please do come and say hello!

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After the Storm

I’m glad the wind outside has dropped since yesterday. For 24 hours we had winds over 40 miles an hour and we’ve been very lucky that nothing has been broken, just a small tree in a pot on the patio that got blown over into the border.

It was a day to settle down into the knitting. I’m working on a new design with baby alpaca laceweight yarn and I’ve very nearly finished the first section now. The photo just below the title (which you may not see if you receive this blog by email) shows a full ball of alpaca on the left for comparison and what was a full ball on Friday morning on the right. There’s 12g (of 50g) of that ball remaining currently (along with four full ones).

I was hoping to start it while I was at Mum’s last week, but I didn’t have anything appropriate for a provisional cast-on with me. When you do a provisional cast-on (i.e. one that will later be undone so the live stitches that remain can be picked up) you need a yarn that won’t felt or stick to your main yarn. One that isn’t fluffy, or too thick – for something that is referred to as ‘waste yarn’ it is funny how important it is to have the right characteristics. Once I got home I had the pick of my 4ply leftovers and a merino superwash 4ply that I knew to be quite slippy was the perfect choice.

Because I couldn’t get started on that project at Mum’s, I worked on the other project I’d taken with me (I don’t make the mistake of only taking one project away with me anymore), so there has been quite a bit of progress on my Persian Tiles blanket, designed by Janie Crow. I’m following the original colourway more or less, using West Yorkshire Spinners ColourLab DK – do follow the Persian Tiles link to check out some of the other colourways!

I know they look like flowers now, but they will ultimately become octagons.

I blocked my final sample before Wonderwool over the weekend. Petulia came out in September with RiverKnits. It’s really two patterns in one as the different sizes of the shawl are also different shapes. RiverKnits have kits for sale for both sizes on their website. I recently finished knitting the smaller, symmetrical version of the pattern and I’m really pleased with it. Both versions of the shawl use the same lacy brioche leaf motif, in different arrangements.

Photos were taken yesterday and added to the pattern, so the front cover looks a little different than it did seven months ago, but it is the same pattern inside (with a couple of previous typos also now corrected). Now you get to see both versions on the front cover!

Copies have been printed and I will have them with me at WonderWool – and, if you want to use the same yarns I did (Chimera and Nene 4ply from RiverKnits), you’ll be able to buy those directly from RiverKnits who will also be at the show!

Petulia is the third of my Discworld named shawls that I designed for RiverKnits. The first two were published in September 2022; Agnes and Tiffany. These two designs ‘bookend’ the designs on my Shawl & Scarf Patterns page, being the first and last alphabetically.

Preparations are nearly complete for WonderWool (I think). I’ve got to the point where I’ve updated my packing list and started drawing possible stand layouts on squared paper – the stand is 10 x 14 feet – that’s nearly as big as our lounge! As I think I mentioned previously, I’m trying to get ahead of myself as I don’t know if I’ll need to do any extra trips down to Mum’s before the show. If Sugar Loaf (the adult version of Honeybun Cardigan) is back from the tech editor in time to print I’ll bring that with me too. I may bring the sample with me anyway even if the pattern isn’t printed and ready to sell, so folk can see how the design works on a ‘grown-up’ scale. The photos below were all taken at the same time and the colour has come out differently in each one. I would say the reality is nearest to the top left image.

I spent quite a bit of time on Friday working on my website, setting up a WooCommerce store, and getting the first few products uploaded. I then realised that every time I pressed ‘publish’ for one it was sent out as a social media post! That would have been fine, except neither the basket or checkout pages would load on mobile devices, so it wasn’t really working. I turned the product pages into drafts and tried to find out what the problem was, but it seemed to make a few other things go wonky instead. And then I couldn’t check whether the basket worked without pressing publish again – and getting another social media post going out (to four different platforms, no less)…

Anyway, by Saturday lunchtime I still couldn’t fix it and it seemed weird to have a ‘basket’ option on the main menu of the website when you couldn’t add anything to said basket. Also, in the process of all this, the Payhip pop-up window plug-in stopped working as it was incompatible with something ‘Woo’. You can possibly imagine my joy frustration.

So! I have deactivated the WooCommerce store again for now. The price buttons on my pattern pages take you directly to the relevant product in my Payhip store now, rather than giving you a pop-up Payhip checkout window, and you can add patterns from my whole store to a basket and check it all out at the same time, which is useful if you did want more than one pattern.

I will investigate the WooCommerce option again at some point, but possibly when my head is clearer and things aren’t so busy.

Excellent news this week is that my lovely wife, Sue Finch, has had her second full collection of poetry published. Welcome to the Museum of a Life is available from her Payhip store, Amazon and all good book stores – your local bookshop can order it for you if you give them the title and author.

That’s all from me for today. I hope you all have as good a week as you can and that you get a chance to do some stuff that makes you happy. Take care, K x

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Meg and Mog

I posted on social media today that I’m exhibiting at Wonderwool Wales in a couple of weeks’ time. Held at the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth Wells, Wonderwool is an aptly named show that I really recommend (it’s always been by favourite to go to as a visitor) and I’m going to have quite a few new kits (including six kits for Meg March Shawl!) and one or maybe even more new patterns with me.

In case you don’t access social media, here is the content of my post (apologies if you’ve already seen it everywhere):

In just a couple of weeks I’ll be exhibiting at @wonderwoolwales for the first time!

Hall 3 Stand W16.

As well as samples and patterns, I will have lots of kits, some handmade project bags, hand burnt wooden items and printed postcards of my designs. 

Come and say hello if you are visiting the show. 

27-28 April at the Royal Welsh Showground.

Pictured are: Top – Meg March Shawl (patterns and kits available), Bottom, left to right – stand display from Wool-in Garden City; Lichfield (pattern available); more of my stand from Wool-in Garden City.

Something else you may already have read about if you follow me on the socials is that I’ve done some work on my website and you can now browse my knitting designs by yarn weight.

The Patterns page has a set of yarn weight links as well as the original links to the pages that organise the designs by type:

Clicking on one of the yarn weight options will take you to the relevant page where all the patterns that are designed for (or also work well in) that particular yarn weight are grouped. These are the first six designs on the DK page – all designs on each page are listed alphabetically:

Even quicker, the yarn weight page links are also options in the main menu, so you can jump to the one you want straight from any page:

I am going to be doing some more work on the website during the year, setting up a WooCommerce store which will give folk lots of different ways to search for what they like – I can’t give any promises on when that will be done by though!

Cleo, my mum’s cat, has been on my blog before. This photo was taken in February when she was slowing down, but still doing ok. The past week has been a fast decline for her though and yesterday, when I arrived at Mum’s, I could see she wasn’t well at all. This morning I took her to the vets and for Cleo it was a one way trip. It’s been a very sad day as you can probably imagine, so I hope you’ll forgive me if I stop here and leave you with Cleo’s beautiful eyes.

Take care, look after yourselves and do something that makes you smile this week. For me that will be casting on the full version of a new design that will (I think) be out in August. K x

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True to my Word

Not only did I make progress on my small version of Petulia this week; reader, I finished it! It still needs to be blocked and have the ends woven in, but I may even have it with me at WonderWool Wales!

As you can see when comparing the pictures, the small version is symmetrical, starting and ending with just one leaf, whilst the large version starts with a single leaf and just keeps on getting wider! Becci from Riverknits who commissioned Petulia (along with Tiffany and Agnes) is modelling the large version.

You will only have been able to buy the pattern (and kits!) directly from RiverKnits so far, and that’s because they have exclusive rights for the first six months. Having knitted the smaller version as well now I have found a couple of typos, but they’ll be updated very soon and if you want to get the pattern from RiverKnits they’ll have the latest version by the end of this week.

The rights are returning to me now as well and I will also have the pattern for sale in the near future. You’ll still be able to buy it from RiverKnits as well which is ideal if you want a kit.

The small version of the pattern uses 100g of Chimera (2 x 50g skeins) and 100g of Nene 4ply. The image of the small part balls shows how much I had left, so you won’t be in any danger of playing yarn chicken if you have a slightly looser tension than me. The large version used 3 x 50g skeins of Chimera and 2 x 100g skeins of Nene 4ply – though about half the second Nene skein was left over.

I’m looking forward to blocking this and seeing it bloom into its full glory! It’s a shape that you can wear draped around your shoulders with the widest part over your back or wrapped around your neck like a scarf with the widest part at the front and the points hanging down at the front. There will be photos!

I also did some more crochet, working on my Persian Tiles blanket, designed by Janie Crow (Jane Crowfoot). I’m cheating a bit here with this photo as most of the triangles had already been completed. Again they need blocking, as at the moment you might be hard pressed to identify them as triangles. However, once they’ve had a soak and spent some time on the blocking board they’ll look a lot tamer!

The circles are the centres of all the remaining octagons. I completed one in full in January to find out how the patten worked, but I rather like the production line approach – it means I don’t have to fish about in the bag for the next yarn colour quite so often.

I had thought I’d finished working on a design in alpaca last week, but I learnt something else about this fibre once I’d pinned it together and popped it on – it flows like water! This meant that there was no knitting sitting around the neck, where it was intended to be. However, I managed to come up with a solution that I think works well, and just adds a small section on, using the original cast-on as a stabiliser. It’s rather like when you cast off the back neck of a jumper and then pick up those stitches to knit the collar – the cast-off gives stability to the shape of the garment and helps it keep its shape.

Fortunately the next new design I’m working on that also uses alpaca (100% this time!) doesn’t need to stand up in any way; the flowing draping nature of the yarn and the fabric it creates will actually work in this design’s favour. Phew!

If you are a member of my FaceBook group or receive my monthly MailChimp newsletters you now have access to April’s discount codes for patterns beginning with G-H. Actually, it’s just patterns beginning with H as Gnarly Roots hasn’t yet been launched online. But, you could still get a discount on any of the individual Heart in my Hands patterns (Mitts, Hat or Cowl), Honeybun Cardigan or Helena Rose Stole. Want the code? Join my Facebook Group or sign up for my newsletter!

By clicking submit, you agree to share your e-mail address with the site owner and MailChimp to receive marketing, updates, and other e-mails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those e-mails to opt out at any time.

I’m away next Tuesday and will probably only have secret knitting with me, but I will do my best to put a post up, even if it’s just a short one. For now, take care, look after yourselves and those around you and do something that makes you smile. K x

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Let’s Twist Again

Last week I introduced you to Gnarly Roots (Gary…) and yesterday I received photos of the moebius version knitted in HeartSpun DK (the yarn I knitted the regular cowl in) and it looks glorious!

Helen from Woolly Chic Designs will have this sample and some printed copies of the pattern with her at The Sodbury Yarn Over! If you’re visiting the show, which takes place in Chipping Sodbury April 6th-7th, be sure to have a look and say hello from me!

You may also remember that last week I asked for name suggestions for the adult version of Honeybun and my wonderful wife has come up with a fantastic suggestion – Sugar Loaf Cardigan! Not only is a loaf larger than a bun, and honey is linked to sugar, but there is also a Sugar Loaf mountain in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire! (As well as the other ones with a single word name in Brazil and Maine). So, Sugar Loaf Cardigan it will be.

I’ve been knitting a lot of brioche this week. One item is for publication in July, and today I’ve been typing up the pattern and making the chart. I even created a stitch symbol in Stitchmastery that wasn’t there before – although it is a known brioche stitch. Brpyobrp (brioche purl 1, yo, brioche purl 1 all into the same stitch) is the purl version of brkyobrk. It’s very satisfying when you remember how to edit your stitch library in this programme. This is what the new stitch looks like, compared with the knit version above it:

On Sunday I knitted another Twisted Cowl. Twisted is my moebius brioche cowl that has two sizes and two yarn weight options. I’ve knitted quite a few of these now, so why did I make another? Well, one reason was that I wanted to have samples of both colour combinations that I’m going to have as kits with me at WonderWool Wales and the other reason was that I wanted to triple check the yarn usage in the small version. The new one is one the left in Soft Pink and Rust – it’s not even been blocked yet or had it’s ends sewn in. I have already made one in these colours, but it’s visiting Anne at Yarn O’clock currently.

There will be large and small versions of the kit in both of the colour combinations. The yarn is Town End Yarns Poldale DK which is a 100% Falklands wool and it’s so soft and squishy whilst still having enough body to hold the shape of the stitches really well.

The small version shown uses 24g of each colour and the kits include 26g of each. How did I manage to get 26g when the yarn comes in 50g balls? Well, there’s always a little bit of variation in the weight of balls of wool, so I weighed each of the balls I had, took the ones that were 52g or even 53g and split those to make the small kits! You can see soft pink and rust balls on the top of their piles are already part balls, as I’d used those ones to make the sample.

My kitchen scales have been getting a good work out today.

It may seem as though I’m being very organised and ahead of myself for a show that is a month away, but I need to be. I’m likely to be travelling down to Mum’s more frequently in the coming months as she is intending to make a big move this year (although nothing is finalised), and that will inevitably mean lots of time sorting stuff out. So, while I can, I’m getting my own things ready!

Caramel Slice is now available to buy online as an individual pattern! I uploaded this yesterday to my website, Payhip, Lovecrafts and Ravelry. The pattern was launched in printed form at East Anglia Yarn Festival, and I’d intended to put it online straight away after that, but then I came down with that cold and forgot all about it until reviewing my plans for March at the weekend! It’s a really cute child’s cardigan for ages 1 to 8. It’s knitted flat, with the body worked in one piece and the sleeves knitted separately. The colour-work on the body and sleeves is a slip stitch pattern, so you only use one colour at a time. And no matter which size you make you only need 1x 50g ball of each of the two contrast colours. One lady spotted the sample of Caramel Slice on display at EAYF and recognised it, having knitted it from The Knitter when it came out last August. This prompted her to buy two more of my patterns, Honeybun and Nos Da, on the basis that she knew she could trust my pattern writing as Caramel Slice ‘worked’. That was such a great thing to hear and has stayed with me (in fact, I may have told you about it before!) – a crafter’s appreciation for the pattern writing and being able to successfully use the pattern.

That’s all from me for today. Next week I’m hoping to show you some more progress on my small version of Petulia and on my crocheted Persian Tiles blanket, which is designed by the brilliant Jane Crowfoot. If you like crochet, have a look at her patterns – they are beautiful and they work.

Have a lovely Easter if you celebrate it and take care, K x

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What’s in a Name?

This morning I finally got the buttons sewn on to the adult version of Honeybun! I still need to choose a new, but related, name for this pattern. ‘Adult Honeybun’ is way too clunky, but the name does need to be close enough to Honeybun so folk realise it’s the sized up version of the original child’s cardigan pattern that was published back in 2018. My original name for the design had been ‘Joseph’s Jacket’ as I had designed it for a little boy called Joseph as part of my City & Guilds design qualification, but the magazine gave it the name Honeybun. ‘Honeyloaf’ (?), since a loaf is a large version of a bun? That sounds strange. Any thoughts or suggestions will be warmly welcomed and considered!

Why did it take me over a week to get the buttons on since getting home from EAYF? Because I picked up a cold virus (not covid, I did check) and ended up feeling somewhat grotty for a large chunk of the week. However, I’m all better now, and the cardigan is complete (as is the shawl I was working on before I went to Norfolk)!

Positioning buttons for a cardigan can feel like a tricky business, so I thought I’d share the process I use, in case it’s helpful. The buttonholes are already there, worked into the button band as it was made. I line up the two sides of the button band with the buttonholes on top and use locking stitch markers to dip down through the buttonholes into the band below. I do this for all the buttonholes so I can check it’s lined up properly with no stretched or baggy areas.

Once these are all in place you can ease the buttonholes over the stitch markers, leaving the positions to sew the buttons in nice and obvious! I sew the buttons on with sewing thread that closely matches the main colour, even though the stripes I’m sewing into are contrast colours. Apart from anything else it makes it easier for me to see where I’ve sewn!

There are 9 buttonholes, so I bought 10 buttons – I thought it made sense to have a spare just in case. I’ll get some proper photos of the whole garment taken soon to add to the pattern.

By Saturday my cold was improved enough for me to be able to lead Shelby’s Singers, our local community choir, as we sang at Buckley’s Easter Market. It was really well received by all the shoppers, with eight songs ranging from ‘Consider Yourself’ from Oliver!, through Rivers of Babylon by Boney M to This is Me from The Greatest Showman! I’m so proud of how far the choir has come since we started last autumn – and rehearsals continue on, starting some brand new songs tomorrow.

Do you remember I showed you a sneak peek of a new design with cables in it a couple of weeks ago? Well, the design is a cowl called Gnarly Roots and it will be launched next month! There are lots of great features and options in this design. First of all, it’s a DK design that only uses 100g. The cables are reversible, and they’re different on each side. So, knitting one cowl gives you two options for wear!

Sue is modelling the cowl here and it’s knitted in 100g of HeartSpun DK by Woolly Chic, which is a gorgeous soft and silky yarn with 70% Bluefaced Leicester wool and 30% Tercel. The Tencel is what gives the yarn a wonderful sheen and silky feel. You can tell why this colour is called Marmalade!

Now, you know how I love a double sided design and the fact that a moebius construction means you get to see both sides of the fabric at the same time. So, Gnarly Roots also includes a moebius option!

This sample is knitted in 100g of Ewe & Ply’s Shropshire Ply 2018 Double Knitting in the colour Lady’s Mantle. It’s a completely different type of yarn from the HeartSpun DK, being a woollen spun yarn with lots of personality and body, whilst still being soft enough for a cowl. It’s made from 34% Welsh mule, 28% Shropshire, 20% Sherino (Shetland x merino) and 18% Bluefaced Leicester.

So, keep an eye out for Gnarly Roots coming out next month (auto-correct keeps trying to change the pattern name “Gary Roots” which is quite funny, but I think I’ll stick to Gnarly). There will hopefully be HeartSpun kits for it at WonderWool too!

I’m going to keep today’s post a little shorter than usual, partly as it’s already gone 8pm, so I’ll catch up with you next week with more knitting news. Until then, take care and enjoy the warmth of the sunshine when you can! K x

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Oh What a Show!

Wow, what a show! East Anglia Yarn Festival on the outskirts of Norwich was the furthest we’ve travelled for a yarn show, but it was worth every mile. My amazing wife, Sue, has been the most enormous help and support throughout the lead-up to the show and during it and makes a splendid booth babe! Ronnie wanted to join in too, so we made sure he got into some of the photos.

The organisation of the show was fabulous (thanks to Laura and all the volunteers) and everyone was so friendly and helpful. One of our neighbours, Folkestone Harbour Yarn, even let me hang two shawls on hangers from the top of her gridwall! Some of Suzi’s yarn is dyed with natural dyes and some with acid dyes and the range of colours is super – there are even some proper fluorescent neons!

Speaking of stall neighbours, everyone near us was lovely and although I didn’t manage to take photos of anyone else’s stand, I highly recommend giving their websites a visit. On the other side of us was Felt Fusion whose colours are amazing and included some funky zebra striped yarns, whilst behind us was Coastal Colours who also have gorgeous hand-dyed yarns and great needle sets too. Opposite was another designer, Victoria Marchant Knits, who specialises in size-inclusive designs with patterns where you can mix and match the body and sleeve sizes – I’m going to have to get one of these for myself! Next to her were Alex Collins who makes lovely bags and Skein Queen with even more wonderful hand-dyed yarn. It was great too to catch up with Charmaine from YarnTings who was at Wool-in Garden City and Tanya from The Woolly Tangle who had also travelled from North Wales!

One of the helpful things about vending at a yarn show rather than going as a visitor is that I tend to spend less! On this occasion I bought two things! Some rather wonderful buttons from The Button Box Devon for – you guessed it – the adult version of Honeybun, and a sweater pattern from An Caitin Beag which I saw Marna wearing at the show and just loved the way it moved and swayed with her. I haven’t sewn the buttons on yet – that’s a job for tomorrow.

Last week I picked up a lot of yarn from Yarn O’clock for kits, including yarn for new Meg March Shawl kits! This is my only kit that won’t come in a tin as the six skeins of yarn wouldn’t fit, but look at that lovely squishiness! The kit includes 6 x 100g skeins of hand-dyed Fyberspates Vivacious 4-ply (100% Merino Wool) in Blush and Verdigris (the original colours for the design), a printed copy of the 16-page pattern and a lockable stitch marker. There will only be 5 of these kits available, priced at £120 each, so if it appeals to you, don’t forget to visit us in Hall 3 at WonderWool Wales, April 27th & 28th!

I’ve done a lot of knitting this week, but sadly I can’t show you any of it yet! Sorry! I must try to include some knitting or crochet this week that isn’t for publication – maybe I’ll start my Catnip sweater…?

Whatever you’ve been up to this week, I hope you are well, safe and warm. Too many folk out there aren’t. As well as being a fabulous booth babe this weekend, Sue also helped with the hosting of a Zoom launch of the poetry anthology To Light The Trails, Poems By Women In A Violent World, published by Sídhe Press and available from Amazon. Sue was one of the editors of this anthology. It was a powerful evening listening to all the poets read their work. The book is important and worth a read.

Take care all, K x

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Change

I have enjoyed our walks the past few days and I am so grateful that we can get into country lanes quite quickly from our doorstep. These are some of the lovely sights I’ve seen recently on two separate walks. I love watching the clouds in the late afternoon – the light on them is magical, but fleeting.

There’s activity in one of the fields that may be the beginnings of a new housing estate down this lane, so I’m not sure how much longer we’ll have this peaceful route for, but I’m determined to make the most of it while we can.

There are signs of spring in the garden too which is really encouraging. (Yes, I know, I really need to cut those hellebore leaves back, and I will, soon!) There’s lots of work that needs to be done in the garden and I feel a bit guilty that I haven’t been out there much, but now there are increasing hours of daylight, hopefully I should be able to!

Yarn arrived at the end of last week for two new designs and I’m about to get started with one of them later today. I won’t be able to share the designs with you until publication (July and September respectively), so instead, here is the yarn itself. Isn’t it fabulous?!

I can hardly believe that in three days time I will be in the Norfolk Showground Arena, setting up for the East Anglia Yarn Festival! I printed out a few extra copies of patterns today, and have been planning the layout of our space. It’s 2m x 2m and I want to make the best use of it possible.

When we go to Wonderwool Wales next month it will be a very different set-up. The space we have there is 4m x 3m! I had applied for a 3m x 3m space, but they only had a 4m space left and asked if I would be willing to take that. Yes please, and thank you!

I’ve been working on a shawl design this week and it’s coming on really well, despite having had to rip out approx. 100 rows and rejig things a bit. It’s a semi-circular shape, and I was using a standard half-pi shawl construction but, because the fabric is not lace, it doesn’t stretch out in segments in the same way that, for example, my Tiffany shawl does. This has led me to experiment with the spacing of the increase rows and it’s looking SO much better now than it did. Now there are no funny sections where everything is stretched out and then goes all puffy (and there were…) – so I count that a big success!

One of the things I really need to be better at is trusting my gut when it’s telling me that something isn’t working out quite the way I’d thought it would. I was about 20 rows away from the weird puffy increase row when I thought it wasn’t right, but did I stop then? No. I kept knitting, initially telling myself it would block out. When I was coming up to the next increase row and I could tell the fabric was going to do the same thing, but possibly more-so, I had the brainwave of changing the rate and placement of increases. I tried it out and it worked a lot better, but I still kept going, ignoring that earlier section. Why did I do this? Then one evening I sat down to work on it, saw the part I wasn’t happy with and suddenly realised it would be a good idea to use the same tweak to the increases there as well. So, out 100 rows came! The small balls are all ripped out knitting. The large white ball only has the ripped out yarn wrapped around it.

All of these small balls have now been re-knitted and I have to say, this is a great, sturdy yarn. It hasn’t minded a bit! It’s Donegal Rich Tweed 4ply by McIntosh and it’s behaved perfectly well being knitted, ripped out and re-knitted.

I’m really looking forward to showing you this shawl – I love how the three colours and the different slip stitch patterns work together.

Until next Tuesday – when I shall have lots to tell you about EAYF – take care and do stuff that makes you happy. K x

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Scale

One of the things I didn’t expect to need as a knitwear designer was a set of kitchen scales that measure to 0.1g. But it has been so useful on many occasions. Most recently I have been using it to calculate how much of each of the main and contrast colours I’ve used for the sample of the adult version of Honeybun Cardigan. I can tell you now that each 50g ball of Rowan Summerlite 4ply actually tends to contain between 51g and 52.2g. I’m glad I had some full balls of yarn left over, as I hadn’t thought to weigh them before I started. If I’d assumed the balls were exactly 50g and simply weighed what was left I’d have been slightly underestimating my usage. It would only have been by a couple of grams for each of the contrast colours, but that scales up to about 20g when you’re looking at 9 or 10 balls of the main colour – even more so for the largest sizes.

I am pleased to have finished the cardigan. The shoulder shaping has worked a treat. The ends are all woven in and the pattern is now with my tech editor (hi Deb!). The only thing left for me to do with the sample is to choose and sew on 9 buttons. And possibly give it another wash.

Something else I’ve been thinking about regarding scale (and scales) is my Fiery Dragon Skin Cowl! I first designed this in 2019 using Knitting Fever’s Painted Desert 4-ply in the now discontinued colour way Show Stopper (left-hand pic below). Painted Desert is a lovely yarn with gradual colour changes (a bit like the Zauberball Crazy sock yarn).

You may have seen photos of the orange chunky-ish hand-spun version I made for Sue while we were at Wool-in Garden City. I’m currently updating the pattern so it includes options for DK, Aran and Chunky weight yarns as well as the original 4ply. The cowl itself is knit in the round and, to make life easier for folk, I’ve also included a knit-flat stitch pattern so you can swatch easily. This means you can use the pattern with any yarn you want (particularly useful for hand-spun yarns which can vary a lot from the commercial standards of weight/length) by swatching and doing a tiny bit of maths to work out how many stitches to cast on for the size you’d like. Fortunately it’s a 10-stitch pattern repeat, so that part is quite simple!

I love how the texture of the stitch pattern looks and behaves with different weights of yarn – it gives such a varied character to the finished fabric of the cowl.

I’m really excited about East Anglia Yarn Festival (where I’ll be in less than two weeks!), where Caramel Slice will have its debut as a single pattern (having been originally published in The Knitter last August).

It’ll be the first time I’ve exhibited at this particular event and also the first time I’ve sold only patterns at a yarn show (so there will not be any wooden items, kits or project bags etc). My patterns are printed and ready – I’ll be bring 640 with me (of 41 designs), so there should be plenty! This is what 640 printed patterns looks like:

It may not look terribly exciting like this, but wait until it’s all on display! Taking 41 designs with me to EAYF does mean there will be 20+ designs staying at home, but they will still be available online if I don’t have something in particular with me that a knitter is after.

I’ve been working with slipped stitches a lot lately – and I’m doing another design at the moment using slip stitches, but there are other techniques I’m enjoying currently too – particularly brioche and cables! Here’s a sneak peek at some cool cable work:

Isn’t the yarn gorgeous? Now, you probably know I don’t use silk, so what’s making this yarn so shiny? It’s TencelTM which is a fibre made from wood pulp. The yarn is HeartSpun DK from Woolly Chic, a long DK at 250m/100g with 70% Bluefaced Leicester wool and 30% TencelTM in the colourway Marmalade 2022. Helen from Woolly Chic was one of the organisers of Wool-in Garden City and this was where I got the yarn (and the commission to design something lovely with it!)

There are just two and a bit days left if you want to take advantage of the February online pattern discount for members of my Facebook group and subscribers to my monthly newsletter. This month’s discounts are for patterns beginning with C or D. Pictured below are the patterns that applies to: Calon Cariad, Ceridwen, Codetta Shawl, Croeso Baby Blanket, Diamonds in the Breeze and Drifting Leaves.

It’s a 10% discount for Facebook group members or a 20% discount for newsletter subscribers. From Friday 1st March the discount changes to patterns beginning with E or F. Those will be Elinor Hap Shawl, Fiery Dragon Skin Cowl, Forest Ferns Moebius and Furrowed Fields Scarf. Sign up for the newsletter below (my “Mailchimp audience”) or join my Facebook group if this appeals to you!

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That’s everything from me for today – I’m heading back to my knitting now! Take care of yourselves and each other. K x