Category: 2022

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Peek At You!

I said it might be finished by this week, didn’t I? The individual pieces were all complete by the weekend, but it took until today for me to sit down and sew it all together. One of the hardest things, strangely enough, was cutting out the felt pieces and glueing them into position. That right eye (the white part) had to be stuck on four times before it decided to stay put!

If you play Pokemon Go you might appreciate Pikachu’s pose in the featured image above – for those of you who don’t, sometimes they pop up in the corner of photographs!

Pikachu Front
Pikachu Back

There’s actually enough yarn and stuffing to make at least one more, although I used all the felt supplied. I won’t be making another one yet though – a 2.5mm crochet hook can be quite hard on the hands.

Buxton Wool Gathering is just under four weeks away now! I love the new social media images that have been shared with the exhibitors by the organisers. That crown on the sheep is very jaunty and a nicely subtle nod to the yarn show now being on the Coronation weekend. The show itself is on Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday – do come!

An important point to note is that the 10am opening is for folk who have bought their ticket in advance – if you want to buy a ticket at Buxton Pavilion on the day, you’ll be able to from 11am on both days.

I finished my current spinning this week. I think it’s come out at about an aran weight, which is what I was aiming for. I’ll check it soon against my yarn gauge. The colours are not ones I usually go for, but I really love how it’s turned out. ‘Faded Blooms’ is a really good name for it, don’t you think? The fibre came from FibreHut and it’s 100% Bluefaced Leicester Wool, which is brilliant to spin with.

Last week we had a lovely trip to Bodnant Garden – making use of our National Trust membership. We walked nearly all the way down to the bottom of the gardens and I felt very brave crossing the water on a set of stepping stones. I’m not sure I’d have been brave enough without the handrail there too though! The magnolias, rhododendrons and camellias were absolutely beautiful – and some of them are VAST!

The swathes of daffodils (or should that be ‘hosts’?) across the meadows were also gorgeous and very varied and it inspired me to photograph all of ours once we got back home.

This is one of my favourite new daffodils. It’s got real ‘attitude’ and is quite large too so we can see it clearly from the kitchen even though it’s at the bottom of the garden. I think it’s ‘Boscoppa‘.

The knitting is coming along well. Re-reading last week’s blog post I saw that I was just about to cast on the body of my latest design last Tuesday. Well, I’ve knitted the whole body now (some of it twice) and today I’ve written the pattern for the sleeves, so they will be started next! It’s been quite a number of years since I’ve knitted a child’s garment and I’d forgotten just how quickly they grow.

This coming Thursday (13th April) sees Issue 188 of The Knitter hit the newsstands which includes Part Four of Branwen Knit-along Shawl. Subscribers probably have their copy of the mag already! If you’re knitting this shawl, do share your progress on social media – or even by email! On social media, add the tag #KathAndrewsDesigns and I’ll be sure to see it. There’s one final part left to be published after this one. If the weather continues as it is today for much longer (cold, wet, very windy) knitters making this cosy DK shawl will be very glad of the growing shawl on their knees as they knit!

By the way, my sourdough starter is behaving a bit more reliably, but it’s still taking nearly 24 hours to not quite double in size. It needs a bit more TLC, but we’ll get there.

That’s all for today. I hope you stay warm and dry, and get to do some things that make you happy this week. K x

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

A couple of women stand in front of a tree constructed from silver baubles. They are grinning into the camera.

We’ve come to the last blog post of the year! I know there is still one Tuesday left, but I am taking a week off (!), so my next post after today will be in 2023. I’ll still be posting periodically on social media during the next two weeks, but not daily.

Speaking of social media, I’m now on Mastodon (@KathAndrews@toot.wales) as well as Twitter (@KathAndrews7), Instagram (Kath_Andrews_Designs) and Facebook (Kath Andrews Designs)! I’m finding my feet there and that’s where I share my progress in learning Welsh. This week I learnt how to say “Dw i’n hoffi gwisgo sgert a ffrog” – I like wearing a skirt and dress (yes, both at once, it’s called layering). Also; dw i’n gwisgo siwmper newydd, heddiw! (I’m wearing a new jumper today). It’s not hand-knitted, but it’s 80% wool and 20% recycled nylon, from Seasalt. It’s what I’m wearing in the pic of me and my lovely wife while we were in Chester this morning.

Christmas is only five days away now, but the cake is decorated, most of the cards are written (just the very local ones to do later today), everything is wrapped and the tree looks fab. Apologies for the very poor styling of the photo – a tub of tomatoes next to the cake isn’t exactly slick is it? It is however, very real.

I only made one knitted gift this year, which I shared on here a few months ago. Socks for one of my niblings – they know they’re getting them as we did a ‘try on’ part way through the first sock to make sure the fit was right, so I’m not spoiling any surprises here. They were knitted with British BFL/Nylon yarn from The Knitting Goddess in semi solid black and transgender flag colourways.

There have been times in the past where I’ve wrapped up one sock and a second one in progress on the needles, and another occasion where I’ve wrapped up a pattern book with a note saying “choose the style you like and I’ll make it for you”! That was when I was working full time in a school as well – it’s good to be more in control of my time now and to have been able to get these finished a while ago.

Looking back on the working year there has been a LOT happening – I published nine patterns during the year (they’re all in the picture above), completed my online course Introduction to Lace Knitting for Craftucation, taught several workshops, some for Yarn O’clock and some at The Knit-Tea Retreat, was a vendor at my first yarn show (Pop-Up Wool Show), jointly organised a yarn show (Yarn Gathering), had space on the RiverKnits stand at Yarndale, was on the cover of The Knitter with my first design with them and took part in the Fasten Off Yarnalong once more. There’s loads of other stuff too that hasn’t even come to fruition yet, but has been bubbling along in the background.

Next year I will be adding a new page to my website – a “Where I will be/What’s on” page listing events and workshops, which I think will be even more useful as I get out and about more.

The event that will be happening first in 2023 is my next MKAL (mystery knit along) with Yarn O’clock. Called “Am Byth”, it just requires 100g of DK yarn (We are using West Yorkshire Spinners Croft DK) and 3.5mm needles (dpns or circulars). Can you believe it will be our 7th MKAL since September 2018!?!

There will be three parts to the MKAL, each released on a Friday:

  • 13th Jan – Part One
  • 27th Jane – Part Two, where you find out what it is you are making!
  • 10th Feb – Part Three

To take part, you can buy a kit from Anne at Yarn O’clock at £15, or just the pattern at £5 from either Yarn O’clock or myself. I will be adding a ‘placeholder’ for the design with just the basic info to the MKALs page in the Patterns section of my website, to Payhip, Ravelry and Lovecrafts very soon so you can buy the pattern if you want to get it from me. The three parts of the pattern will be uploaded to those places by 10am GMT on the dates given. We’ll be sharing our progress on all the socials using the hashtags #AmBythMKAL and #YOMKAL.

And you might want to keep en eye out for Issue 185 of The Knitter…!

For now, though, stay warm, stay safe, and hold those you love close. Take care one and all and thanks for reading! K x

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Open the Door

I bought this book a couple of weeks ago in our local Welsh shop along with The Welsh Learner’s Dictionary. It was encouraging that I could understand the title (Agor yr Drws, 6 stori i ddysgwyr – Open the Door, 6 stories for learners) even then, and that each page has a couple of new words in bold with their definition at the bottom of the page. Today I sat down to read part of one of the stories and, although I didn’t know or quite understand every word, I certainly got the gist of the first half and was using my dictionary as best I could with some of the other new vocab! I’m looking forward to finding out how Martin gets on with his plan to get fitter now he’s turned 50 – he’s already visited the gym and bought lots of vegetables (llysiau) and fruit, but his boss is causing him stress.

Having said last week that I thought my plan to finish the Safe Space cross stitch by the end of the month was looking more possible, I went and finished it on Sunday! It needs a wash and a press and then it can be stretched over the mount board that I picked up from the framers today. What do you think? I’m really pleased with it.

The Christmas Fayre on Saturday at The Rise was well attended and it was good to see people getting out and supporting a local event even though it was snowing for much of the day.

I didn’t sell a lot, but I did have some lovely conversations with other stall holders and visitors to the fayre. Sometimes we were talking about the knitting they used to do but found themselves unable to do any longer, sometimes about types of knitting needles, techniques or letting people know about my online courses. And sometimes it was talking to the primary age children with their parents who were quite fascinated seeing knitting in action. A number of people said they didn’t knit, but wanted to learn – or refresh their skills from many years ago. This makes me think that it would be a good idea to book in another series of Knitting for Beginners classes in the New Year – so watch this space!

Saturday was also a great opportunity to catch up on my sock knitting. The ball of yarn can easily sit in my dress pocket while I move around and chat with folk. The heel and gusset fit really well, although the toe is less marvellous. I’d got carried away on my rounds and had done 40 from the end of the gusset before I realised it. Never mind, thought I, I’ll just do a squarer toe. It works well by my big toe, but there’s far too much spare fabric by my little toe, so it won’t work in shoes. Fortunately I didn’t have my tapestry needle with me on the day so was unable to graft the end. This will make it a lot easier to rip back and reknit. Normally I find my socks are a bit too short when I do 30 rounds between the gusset/instep decreases and the toe shaping. Maybe 35 rounds will be the sweet spot?

This Friday sees Ceridwen published as an individual pattern on all my usual platforms (my website, Payhip, Ravelry and Lovecrafts). The pdf is nearly ready; I just need to do a final check that everything is in the right place, comparing it against the version that went in The Knitter in September, and choose a second photo for the front cover. It takes 250g/2000m of lace weight yarn. Yes, that is 2km of yarn! The Lammermuir Wool I used was so gorgeous to work with and so comfortingly sheepy. They are currently sold out of the lace weight yarn – hopefully they will be getting some more spun.

Today I popped into Yarn O’clock for a natter and to set some dates for our next Mystery Knit-a-long in the New Year – more on that on the socials at the end of the week! While I was there I picked these up; Repair Hooks. You get 5.5mm, 4.5mm and 3.5mm in the pack, each with a crochet hook at one end and knitting needle point at the other. I’ve been doing some brioche knitting in the evenings recently and if a stitch pops off the needle in the middle of decrease it can have unravelled a couple of rows before I catch it – especially if it’s happened on the other side to the one I’m looking at! I think these little tools will be just the thing to quickly hook any dropped stitches back into place without stretching the stitches near the tips of the knitting needles out of shape.

Next week I might even given you a little sneak preview of what I’m working on!

Until then, take care, stay safe and warm – knitting really helps with this! K x

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All At Once

Three wooden spoons lie face down on a darker wooden desk. The back of each is decorated with a pyrography design of two comical sheep. A fourth spoon is just visible at the top of the image.

It’s one of those week’s where everything is happening at once and some of them are coming to fruition after quite a while!

I’m on the final flag of my Safe Space cross stitch! Once that is complete I shall do the final bit of cross stitch (the word “Welcome” in the middle), then crack on with the outlining and blackwork.

I do want to get this finished in 2022 and it’s starting to look more feasible, which is very encouraging.

On Thursday I will be teaching my Introduction to Two Colour Brioche Knitting workshop. I’ve re-jigged the course and re-written the notes, and therefore also re-knitted the samples! We’re going to start with straight brioche knitting with a garter stitch border so folk can get comfortable with the brioche stitches before having to deal with the fancy cast-on. We’re also using DK yarn this time, so the stitches will be bigger and it will be easier to see how it all works.

Brioche front
Brioche back

Once the straight sample is done we’ll move on to the Italian two-colour brioche cast-on and add an increase and a decrease into the mix!

Brioche leaf front
Brioche leaf back

On Friday I’m launching Nevern Lap Blanket on my website, Payhip, Ravelry and Lovecrafts. Newsletter subscribers have had their discount codes already! The pattern is already live on KnitPicks and it’s selling well so far. If you’re not a subscriber and you can’t wait until Friday you can buy it there!

Nevern Lap Blanket on sofa
Nevern Lap Blanket on floor

And on Saturday I have a stall at the Christmas Fayre at The Rise in Buckley! It’s open 10am – 4pm, so if you’re in Buckley and you still have any Christmas shopping to do, this will be the place to come. (This pic is from a post on their facebook page in October, so there probably aren’t stalls still available now!)

I will have my knitting patterns, kits and pyrography (wood-burning) decorated coasters, hearts, wooden spoons and spatulas with me. I’m really looking forward to it, and have been adding a couple of items to my products in preparation – sheep- themed wooden spoons!

Among other kits, I will have the Mini Socks Advent Calendar kits with me. You may think this a bit strange as Advent has already begun, but bear with me… If you start now for next year and knit one sock every week or so you will be ready without having to knit lots and lots all at once!

Speaking of Advent and Christmas things, how cool is this post box topper? It’s on the post box outside the Spar in Buckley and was made by a group of knitters who meet regularly in the town. A huge amount of work has gone into it and it looks very impressive. It makes me smile every time I go to the post office (which is in the Spar) – a frequent activity at present!

I do have a very exciting piece of news to share with you. Next March I will be a vendor at the Buxton Wool Gathering! This is held in the Buxton Pavilion Gardens and tickets are only £5 for the day, or £8 for the whole weekend, which is brilliant value. There will be over 50 exhibitors there alongside me, so lots to enjoy as well as the beautiful town of Buxton to explore.

I’ve paid for my table, booked the accommodation, but somehow when the leaflets came through the post that was what made it feel totally real.

As well as all this I’ve been selecting a few more patterns from the #FastenOffYAL pattern sale (which finishes at midnight on 8th December Eastern Standard Time – that’s 5am on the 9th GMT), and this morning I wound the yarn for the next design I’m going to cast on. It’s Confluence Cowl by Mary W Martin and it’s a new technique to me as well as being a pattern from a new-to-me designer. Two yarns are held together and knitted together for the main fabric and then some magic is worked so that there are different cables on each side of the fabric! I’m using two colours of Amble from The Fibre Co. It’s a sport weight rather than fingering weight yarn, but it’s so soft and I think it will work really well.

All in all, the rest of the week is quite a busy one, but in a very good way. The Christmas presents are mostly posted (or wrapped if they’re not going in the post) and the cards are written, so I can tick the most pressing aspects of home Christmas prep off the list, which is a great feeling at this stage. I even remembered to feed the Christmas cake with brandy at the weekend – you should have seen my lovely wife’s face when she walked into the kitchen at 11am to see me putting the brandy bottle back on the shelf…!

That’s all from me today – quite enough, I hear you say – so I will leave you with this: Mae smygu’n ofnadwy, dw i’n hoffi cerddoriaeth a dw i eisiau paned a bisgedi! (Translation: Smoking is terrible, I like music and I want a cup of tea and some biscuits!)

Take care one and all, K x

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Turning The Lights On

It’s just turned 4pm, I need the main light on to see what I’m doing and it’s getting really foggy outside. This morning there was bright sunshine and a pale blue sky as I walked up to town for an appointment. For myself, I’m glad the fog waited until now, but I’m sure those driving in it as it gets even darker won’t be thinking that way. (The photo for today’s blog was taken at 5pm – very dark and still foggy. Yes, it seems it does take me an hour to write this!)

I have good news! I went with the concept of the Nevern Lap Blanket with full joining instructions, rather than just a set of six charts as an expansion pack for Nevern Throw, and today the pattern has gone live on KnitPicks‘ website! You can find the pattern here.

As it’s been published as part of the KnitPicks’ Independent Designer Program(me), there is no exclusivity period before I can also publish it here on my website, and on Payhip, Ravelry and Lovecrafts. It will be going live on my platforms on December 9th – and newsletter subscribers will be hearing from me next Monday with details of their special new pattern discount code.

I’m waiting until December 9th as that is just after the Fasten Off Yarn-a-long sale period ends and I can a proper ‘launch’ with the bells and whistles.

And shortly after this, likely around December 16th, Ceridwen will be launched as an individual pattern!

There will be a subscriber code for this too, so if you’re not a newsletter subscriber, but you’d like discount on either of these patterns, now is definitely the time to sign up!

Speaking of the Fasten Off YAL, I cast on and completed my first purchased pattern from the yarn-a-long today! It’s a mosaic stitch coaster called Jasmine Tea Coaster by Arella Seaton, a designer I’ve not come across before. Mosaic stitch is a technique I’d never tried previously and once I understood the concept it was quite straightforward and very satisfying and the pattern was really well written and clear. I think this coaster will definitely be getting some friends.

One of the brilliant things about the database that has been put together for Fasten Off YAL is that it is fully searchable. You can search by designer, by type of pattern, by yarn, by technique and so on. You can also search by inclusivity features such as patterns for low vision. There are 109 designers taking part this year and ALL their available patterns are in the database, not just the ones they’ve included in the 25% discount period; that’s well over 4300 patterns for knitting, crochet, loom knitting and Tunisian crochet, with over 3500 eligible for a discount using the code FO2022!

Several designers are putting together collages of some of their designs, such as this one I posted yesterday. The globe/yarn ball in the centre with the crochet hook and knitting needle through it is the Fasten Off YAL logo.

Even if you don’t want to get involved with the games and social media side of the YAL, it’s a great resource and a wonderful way to find ‘new to you’ designers. AND the databases for 2021 and 2020 are still available to search as well.

I’ve joined seven extra rows of hexiflats on to my Beekeeper Quilt. That’s 161 hexagons added in total, all with the yarn ends from the joins at each corner hidden inside them. I don’t even want to think about how many ends of yarn that adds up to, but it is looking really good. I haven’t got a photo of the ‘updated version’ yet, but I’ll be sure to take one to show you next week.

At the beginning November when I set my monthly goals I wrote that (among many other things) I wanted to finish my socks, finish the Safe Space embroidery, spin at least three times a week and go out for a walk daily. I’ve achieved the spinning goal and the walking goal has been partly achieved. I’ve walked 20 days out of 29 so far. I’m not sure you’ll see much difference in the amount of yarn on the bobbin since the last photo of my spinning wheel – the photo on the right is from today.

The socks are still very much in the singular (and I haven’t finished that one yet…), so a definite fail on that goal and, while the Safe Space embroidery won’t be finished either, there has been a lot of progress! It now looks like this:

I think that when I go December’s monthly goals in a couple of days I will need to be a touch more realistic about what can be achieved. And remember that these things are in addition to my work goals!

Take care out there folks. K x

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Something New

Three sets of stitch markers from Yarnistry lie side by side on a wooden desk. Each set is on a wire loop attached to a rectangular white card. From left: 6 acrylic sweater shaped markers with different types of glitter embedded, 8 wooden Christmas themed markers, 8 acrylic circular markers with snowflake designs.

These beautiful stitch markers arrived today. The postman was a little concerned as the corner of the box was a bit squashed and water damaged, but I checked and everything inside was untouched! They are made by Yarnistry and they are super – I highly recommend having a look at her Etsy shop. There are lots of different items on offer – including glow in the dark stitch markers!

Last night’s workshop at Yarn O’clock went well. There were five lovely people there learning new ways to cast on and cast off and which ones work particularly well for different stitches or different purposes.

We covered four of the six samples on the notes I’d prepared for them: Garter stitch with a crocheted cast-on and a basic knitted cast-off, stocking stitch with a cable cast-on and a graft, ribbing with an alternate cable cast-on and sewn cast-off and lace with a long-tail cast-on and a Russian cast-off. We didn’t have time for the pinwheel cast-on and picot cast-off or the two-colour braided cast-on and cast-off – but we did only have two and a half hours!

They sound like simple things, but pairing up the right techniques with the right stitches makes such a difference to the finished piece of knitting and it never fails to delight me when something ‘clicks’ for someone or they learn a technique they then really want to use in a specific project.

It was the first workshop I’ve given in the shop itself since the before times and it was nice to be back, surrounded by yarn. In the early part of the year we were in the very chilly church hall, all spaced out and masked. Later in the year we moved to the Daniel Owen Centre cafe space and now we are back in the shop. We have smaller groups in the shop than in the cafe or the church hall, partly as a result of the lovely new arrangement of the shop and the beautiful new wooden counter that Anne has, but also to avoid overcrowding the space.

We were all so engrossed in what we were doing that once again I forgot to take photos of the event!

The next workshop I am giving is an Introduction to Two Colour Brioche Knitting on Thursday December 8th and I am determined to remember to get some pics then. This workshop will also be at Yarn O’clock in Mold, and there are a couple of spaces available if you would like to join us! Ring Anne at Yarn O’clock to book a place (01352 218082).

Fasten Off Yarn-a-long begins this Friday and I am delighted to be one of the participating designers again this year – and it begins with a pattern sale! Fasten Off YAL is an off-Ravelry event with a focus on patterns that are accessible (size-inclusive, colour-blindness friendly etc), and all designers have to have their patterns available on at least one platform other than Ravelry.

From November 25th until December 8th all my available individual patterns will have a 25% discount ON PAYHIP when you use the code “FO2022”. I am only putting the discount code onto Payhip, but as my website is linked to my Payhip store you can still use this discount code if you buy a pattern via my website. The only patterns it won’t work for are ‘Leaf & Vine’ cardigan as you can only buy that through KnitPicks until 2024 and the three eBook collections.

Have a look at the Fasten Off Yarn-a-long website – there is lots of info there about how you can get involved. There are games and prizes and all sorts of fun to be had. And because it’s a ‘yarn-a-long’ and not just a ‘knit-a-long’, many of the designers will be offering crochet designs, and maybe even loom knitting or Tunisian crochet designs!

You may have seen that Ceridwen has come home from The Knitter. I’m busy putting the pattern into my own house style and taking, editing and adding new photographs. It will be available as soon after the 8th December as I can manage, and there will be a new pattern discount exclusive to newsletter subscribers!

I’m also in the last stages of getting the new charts for Nevern ready to publish. Following some photography requests from KnitPicks, it occurred to me that the six squares all joined up make a jolly good lap blanket, so my plans are having a mini re-jig.

Rather than publishing the charts simply as an extension pack to Nevern Throw with the joining information only in the original pattern, I’m now thinking of publishing it as Nevern Lap Blanket (a little sibling to Nevern Throw), with all joining instructions included and highlighting the fact that the charts between the two patterns are completely interchangeable and all come from the Nevern Cross. What do you think?

There are several other things in the pipeline too and some exciting news about something I’m doing next March that I’m looking forward to sharing with you very soon!

Til next week then, take care out there, K x

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Roses in November

“Another unseasonable season” – a line from the song Roses in November by Tret Fure on her album Roses in November. The song is from 2018, but it sounds very current. We do have roses still – and having deadheaded the rose bushes last week some flower buds are getting ready to burst. It’s a very odd feeling going out for a walk in only a cardigan at this time of year.

There are at least three designs that I’m working on at the moment, and it’s so frustrating that I can’t share pics of these with you. But I can tell you that they are going well. I’m also hoping to get the Nevern Throw Expansion Pack up by the end of the month!

Back in 2013 I started a Beekeeper’s Quilt. This is a design by Tiny Owl Knits. Each of the hexagons is intended to be stuffed and I did indeed stuff them to start with, but I didn’t like the overall effect, so I created lots of ‘hexiflats’ instead of ‘hexipuffs’.

The idea of this blanket was to use up leftover sock yarn. I ‘finished’ the blanket in April 2014, but of course you never really run out of sock yarn leftovers, so I carried on making hexiflats and kept them in the bottom of my leftovers bag.

Last weekend we were moving the furniture around, doing a bit more of a deep clean in one corner of the lounge, partly in preparation for the great rearrangement of furniture that will come in two weeks’ time (hint: we put the tree up on Advent Sunday. Yes, it is that soon!). Having moved the bag of leftover sock yarn I thought it would be a good idea to check on the hexiflats. There were quite a lot more than I thought – 173! These hexagons are more than ready to be joined onto the blanket. The joining process is really straightforward and my plan is to get them added on this week.

Llandudno Promenade, one of my shawl designs, is having a make-over. There’s nothing wrong with the pattern, but it currently uses a yarn that is 450m/100g and the minis are 90m/20g. This isn’t the most common length for 4ply mini skeins (which is 80m/20g), so I’m re-knitting it on slightly smaller needles and will adjust the pattern where necessary so that it will work with more widely available mini skeins. I also really like the colours of the new yarn – I’m using RiverKnits’ Nene Minis Turquoise Gradient and Garthenor Organic Presseli. I think these colours match Llandudno Promenade far better as well!

My fine spinning is definitely getting more consistent – it’s not completely the same all the way through, but when it’s plied it will be a really nice yarn to knit with. This is blue faced Leicester wool dyed by Sealy MacWheely, that I bought at Wonderwool in April.

This afternoon I signed up as a designer for the Fasten Off Yarn-a-long 2022. Last year’s event was a lot of fun and I hope that this year will be even more so! FOYAL runs from 25th November until the end of December and involves lots of independent knitting and crochet designers offering 25% discount on some or all of their Off-Ravelry designs as well as lots of online social interaction. You can find out more on the Fasten Off Yarn-a-long website.

The Safe Space cross stitch is really coming along now. It’s amazing how much progress you can make when you do a bit each day (shock, horror!). There are another 9 blocks/flags to do and then the ‘Welcome’ sign in the middle with the blackwork section.

Do you remember me telling you about my embroidery floss storage? I tried to do the second drawer for my Anchor threads, but I had to re-do it last week. There were two reasons for this. Firstly this drawer is deeper than the top one and the dividers needed to be taller. I hadn’t noticed this before I made them and the fuller sections were trying to overflow onto their neighbours. Secondly, the cereal box I used just wasn’t the same quality cardboard and the dividers were floppy. It seems trivial, but it made a big difference. If you are going to try making similar drawer dividers I highly recommend the boxes that Harvest Morn Bran Flakes from Aldi come in. (The bran flakes are fantastic too and one third the price of Kellogg’s!). I used the fronts and backs only. One box was enough for the shallower top drawer but I needed three pieces of card for the deeper middle one. It’s a lovely little old chest of drawers that Mum has passed on to me and I really enjoy using it for my embroidery threads.

That’s all from me for today. The Welsh learning is continuing on Duolingo and I’m trying to use it a bit, but the thought of actually speaking to someone is scary in case they then launch into a whole conversation that I can’t follow! Anyway, here’s a true sentence about me in Welsh: Dw i ddim yn bwyta cig, ond dw i mwynhau llysiau. – I do not eat meat, but I do enjoy vegetables.

Take care one and all. Until next week, K x

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Slowly Does It

A flatfish sourdough loaf is held in the right hand above the bread board. It has been cut and the crumb (cut side) is held up to show the camera.

I’ve done three hours of knitting today and I can’t show it to you (it’s for the next MKAL!), but there are some other things making some (albeit slow) progress that I can share with you.

Over the past couple of days I’ve made my first sourdough loaf in quite a while. The dough was still very soft when it went into the fridge overnight and spread a lot when I tipped it out of the banneton this morning. It’s a little on the flat side, but nothing like the frisbees that I have been known to create in the past. And, regardless of how it looks, it tastes amazing.

I’m pleased with the crumb – not too many large holes. Next time I will try reducing the quantity of water as I think in the past that has helped create a dough that holds together more before baking. Lots of sourdough bakers keep a journal of all their bakes with details of temperature, timings and quantities of everything. I could do that, but I’m not sure I’d remember!

My sock is growing. If you remember I’m using RiverKnits Open Day 2022 Show yarn in 100% Cormo wool. It’s not a breed I’ve come across before, but it’s knitting up really nicely. I paused a little with this over the weekend as I wasn’t sure if I’d made the leg too long. I knew the answer was to try it on and if the top of the cuff was tight on my calf I would need to rip out the foot, gusset, heel turn and heel flap and a little of the leg. You can probably tell from that list that I was not keen on this option, but I knew that if the socks were tight at the top they would either sag down my legs or stay in the drawer unworn. So, I was putting off the moment of finding out. Eventually I plucked up the courage and tried it on – it fits! Phew!

I don’t often knit ‘regular’ socks for myself, but when I do I knit them top down with 80 stitches on 2.25mm needles. I do a slip stitch heel flap and reduce the foot down to either 72 or 68 stitches over the gusset. I’m hoping to finish the pair by the end of the month, but then I’ve also challenged myself to finish my ‘Safe Space’ embroidery this month as well, so we shall see – I may have been somewhat over optimistic when I set my monthly goals as I do actually need to do some work as well!

Speaking of which! The Safe Space embroidery is coming on – the big flag at the bottom left that I posted about yesterday is now more than half finished.

I was able to do some of it in front of the telly last night with the aid of my little Serious Readers lamp that came as a freebie (!) with my desk lamp. They are both great and the little one is charged by USB which has proved handy in power cuts (while the battery lasts!).

I’m going to set up a new page on the website of “Where I’ll be” as I’m doing more workshops and other events now. In the meantime, there is an Introduction to Two Colour Brioche Knitting workshop coming up on December 8th (Thursday) at Yarn O’clock that has a couple of spaces remaining. Contact Anne at Yarn O’clock if you would like to book a place.

I’m trying out Mastodon as a new social media platform and am gently finding my way around. If you are on there you can find me as @KathAndrews@toot.wales – it’s also encouraged me to have a go at learning Welsh and I’m on Day 3 of my adventures with Duolingo. So I now know how to say “Noswaith dda, Kath dw i. Sut dych chi? Dw i wedi blino!” That’s “Good evening, I’m Kath. How are you? I’m tired!”

So, as ‘dw i wedi blino’, I’m going to stop here, make dinner (bread plus curry made yesterday!), have a cup of tea and put my feet up for a little while before watching ‘quiz night’ on BBC2. Take care one and all. Hwyl! K x

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Finishing the Hat

It’s dark outside and has been for a while now – the rain and wild windiness that was promised for our part of North Wales arrived with a vengeance. Fortunately the rain part of it didn’t really get going until I had finished driving back from Mum’s (although the wind on the M54 and A5 was getting very determined!), so I was able to get my stuff out of the car without getting too soaked! That’s why this week’s post is a day late – sorry!

This week I’m going to show you some finished things – and only one is knitting (as the other two things I’ve been working on are secret…!)

Incidentally, the title of today’s blog is the name of one of the songs from ‘Sunday in the Park with George‘ by Sondheim. It’s totally recognisable as Sondheim as soon as it starts – definitely worth a listen. Yes, I’m still aiming to give the vast majority of my blog posts song titles – it’s quite a fun challenge to find something that fits each week.

My Morph hat is done!! I’ve shared quite a lot of the progress of this hat, designed by Woolly Wormhead, with you. It’s part of their new Cuboidal collection of 8 hats that are all created from mitred squares. My first photo was from October 11th, with just the crown complete and the first round of the body started. The body grew and the brim was added and so the knitting part of it was complete. At this stage I wasn’t wholly convinced about it as a hat as it seemed so enormous – but I could see great potential in it as a bag if I just added a strap! And then I followed Woolly’s instructions to complete the envelope of the crown and all of a sudden it made sense.

I can see myself wearing this in the house this winter while I’m working – it can get chilly in the study as there is an under house cupboard below it running the full length of the room – this hat will keep the warmth in on my head very nicely!

And I’ve been doing more spinning. This was something I committed myself to doing in October. I didn’t manage every day, but I did spin on more days than not and I now have some gorgeous yarn to show for it. I started spinning this fibre in July. It was 200g of undyed Polwarth that I had bought at Fibrehut, just outside Evesham. Being 200g (so double a ‘standard’ amount) makes me feel less bad about it taking so long! I love the way the fibre changes as it’s spun into singles, then plied, skeined, washed and twisted up as the final yarn. This particular yarn fairly exploded into fluffiness after having a wash.

The last finished thing I’m going to share with you today is our pumpkin. You may have seen it already on social media already. It’s the first time I’ve tried this ‘surface carving’ rather than trying to go all the way through the pumpkin and I do like the detail that’s possible, but I think a better tool than a blunt paring knife would be a good idea. I’ve seen people online talking about using lino cutting tools and that seems ideal, so maybe I’ll try that out next year!

It would probably have been a good idea to draw an outline first, but I went straight to the pumpkin with the tip of the knife and then realised that whatever I’d cut was staying cut! The candle didn’t shine through very well initially, so I used a spoon to make the wall of the pumpkin thinner where the picture was by scraping layers of pumpkin out. The final lit result was quite pleasing and it certainly encouraged the trick or treaters to knock on our door!

Actually, there is one more thing I want to tell you about today.

I have been donating a digital pattern of choice to the raffles being held by Treasure Chest YGC (that’s Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, or Glad Clwyd Hospital). The charity’s aim is to support and raise funds for patients had/having surgery or treatment for Breast Cancer in Glan Clwyd Hospital, Denbighshire. The raffles are open on Sundays for 23 hours. They also have a JustGiving page that is not related to the raffles.

Next Sunday (Nov 6th) is the Christmas raffle and my contribution to the prizes this time is the Mini Socks Advent Calendar pattern. Visit Treasure Chest YGC’s instagram page or their Linktree, to find out more. I think the link for the raffle itself is only there on Sundays.

On that note, check yourselves regularly, and make something that makes you smile. Take care, K x

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Home again, home again

A collection of stacked stitches knitted swatches all in different 3-colour combinations grouped together on a white table

Market (and retreat) are done.

The Knit-Tea Retreat at Insole Court in Llandaff, Cardiff, was wonderful. The organisers, Zoë and Jennie, were so kind and helpful (and organised!) and the attendees were such a great bunch of people that it made the weekend feel like a real pleasure even though I was working. It doesn’t get much better than that, does it?

Everyone did so well in both workshops, learning new and unusual knitting techniques. Here are some pictures of what they achieved in the Stacked Stitches and Moebius Knitting workshops.

Two days before the retreat started (on my birthday) I decided to design a new stacked stitches sample to include in the class. (This is a very *me* thing to do). I like it – it’s similar to Hungarian Point Bargello tapestry stitch and also reminds me of geometric 60s wallpaper! I also like the fact you can work the 12-row repeat as often as you want until you decide to cast off.

Zigzag Stacked Stitches

This swatch was knitted using leftover ColourLab DK. While I was at the Sunday afternoon marketplace I had a look at the Cartref Yarn stand (run by Zoë and Jennie, the retreat organisers) and bought these three skeins of gorgeous 4-ply:

Cartref Yarn in purple, yellow and orange

The plan is to develop the zigzag swatch into a design that can be made using either 4-ply or DK (there will be two versions of the pattern depending on the yarn used). The DK version will be made using three very beautiful skeins of Black and Blue Welsh Wool from Midwinter Yarns – so it will be a design fully created in Wales with Welsh materials.

The zigzag swatch replaced the little mat/coaster in the workshop – the sample on the right of the picture below – that had been based on a section of Xandy Peters’ Ribbon Candy Scarf.

Stacked Stitches Swatches

The scarf is fabulous by the way and the pattern can be found at knitty.com.

Ribbon Candy Scarf by Xandy Peters

As well as the two workshops on Saturday, there was a social evening with a bring-and-take table, a raffle and a great mass ordering of take-aways – the combined aromas of pizza, Chinese and curry was surprisingly lovely!

Even though I hadn’t taken anything for the bring-and-take table because I hadn’t known about it, I was encouraged to have a look and found this little gem of sock yarn. It’s a 50g skein from Pixel Atlantis, a dyer from Edinburgh. 50g is enough for 1 sock, and I plan to find another 50g skein in one of the colours from this variegated one and combine them to make a ‘same but different’ not quite matching pair! The colourway is called “The Ghost of Christmas Past”.

Pixel Atlantis sock yarn

Then there was the raffle – there were some amazing prizes on offer here. I had donated a printed copy of The Little Orme Collection (hat, mitts and cowl) and there was also a whole yarn advent calendar, a project bag and lots of wonderful yarn. When my number was called I chose a skein of yarn that reminds me of raspberry sorbet. It was dyed by Owl About Yarn (that’s Jennie’s other yarn business!) for one of the past retreats. Isn’t it lush?!

Owl About Yarn skein

You may think that after lots of workshops folk would have had enough of knitting, but no! In each tea and cake break in the middle of the workshops we returned to the Carriage House Hall where refreshments were had and where everyone picked up their own knitting again for half an hour. The same was true at lunchtime and in the evening. I made quite a bit of progress on my sock using RiverKnits’ Open Day Special yarn.

Sock using RiverKnits’ yarn

I even worked on a jumper (I cast on at the Travelodge on Friday night) with yarn I had bought back in March or April!

Umbriel 1

For me Sunday was all about the marketplace. Retreat attendees mostly spent the morning either lino printing or doing yoga for crafters. I was very grateful the weather was not stormy as forecast and was able to bring the contents of my Yaris into the hall without getting soaked, ready to set up just before lunch. (Packing up was another story as the rain had begun again by then. I was VERY grateful to have lots of help taking everything back to the car).

The 6 foot clothes rail works really well and I was so relieved that I could remember how it fitted together!

Knit-Tea Retreat Marketplace Stand Kath Andrews Designs

I had *everything* with me and put out just over half of it. It was particularly wonderful seeing several of the knitters who had been in my moebius knitting workshop the day before buying moebius patterns!

Since getting home I have been taking it easy and yesterday I caught up with the Doctor Who special whilst continuing with my Morph hat by Woolly Wormhead. I really like the construction and I’m interested to see how the brim decreases work on the next/final round of squares – it’ll reduce the circumference by a third.

Morph body nearly complete

What have you been up to over the past couple of days?

Take care one and all, K x