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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 those calculations were for is coming out this Thursday (16th July) in Knitting Magazine, issue 271 – and it’s on the front cover!

To say I am delighted is an understatement – the photography and the model are both fabulous. This top is called Gwen and I did the hard maths so you don’t have to! All the shaping for every size (there are 10 sizes, UK dress size 4-42) occurs within the central lace sections which makes it simple to knit as well. I used CoopKnit’s Socks Yeah! which is a beautiful lightweight 4ply yarn, perfect for a summery (or even spring-time) top. The whole issue is packed with some gorgeous designs and you can buy the magazine in the shops or digitally from 16th July.

We spent the weekend at the first Midlands Wool Festival at Wolverhampton Racecourse. Nick and Natasha, the organisers, arranged with the racecourse staff to provide free chilled water and large fans throughout the event which were appreciated by visitors and vendors alike as it was roasting. We set up on Friday in 34 degrees – the hottest day. We were so glad that Saturday and Sunday were each a little cooler than the day before. It was too hot for me to wear any knitted samples at all though and I think that’s a first!

My students at the two intro to Two-Colour Brioche workshops did extremely well and they all tackled increasing and two types of decrease as well as nailing the straight brioche.

My next workshop for this technique (at North East Wool Show) is sold out, but at the time of writing there are spaces for this workshop at Yarndale (Sun 27th September), Stafford Wool Gathering (Sat 17th October) and at Ewe Felty Thing (5th September and 5th December).

During the show our last Meg March Shawl kit found its forever home with a knitter who was excited to make it. I have now removed that kit page from the website as it won’t be restocked. You can still buy the pattern for Meg March Shawl of course.

We have a few weeks now until our next show and then there are two on the trot. North East Wool Show is at Newcastle Racecourse August 8-9 and the Pop Up Wool Show is at Hulme Hall in Port Sunlight on Saturday 16th August.

I’m working on two new designs, one of which has several (understatement…) possible variations! Watch this space – it won’t be published until January, but I’m quite excited about it! The other design will be seen sooner than that and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you.

I don’t know if it’s the heat, but I seem to be particularly accident prone these last couple of days. Does that happen to anyone else? Yesterday I was putting some of our display set up back under the house (we have under house storage as our home is built on such a slope and it has half height doors) and walloped my head on the lintel while backing out. Then today I bashed my foot against the bronze sailor that used to hold tools for a wood or coal fire and that we are currently using to prop the kitchen door open with. I knew it hurt, but didn’t realise the damage until I saw what I thought was pink yarn on the cream carpet and realised my toe was bleeding! Oops. I can report that the cleaning liquid you buy to put in a Rug Doctor gets blood out of a cream carpet very well.

That’s all from me today. Time to re-hydrate I think! Stay cool and I hope you get to do some things that make you happy this week. K x

January is traditionally a time for starting new things and this week I have started three new things! I have begun a new design for a publication I haven’t submitted to before, I have done the majority of my first proper tech editing job and I have done my first day as an exam invigilator. I am enjoying all of them, although I am hoping I learn the layout of the school soon and don’t have to keep asking fellow invigilators where the staff toilets or staff room are! When I’m tech editing I know where everything is, as I’m working from home! By the way, if you can’t read the writing on the pencil in the main pic, it says “Knitting feeds my soul”. Very true.

The new design is for knitty.com. They are very different to other publications as you don’t send them a submission of a design proposal, you send them the finished written pattern, complete with photographs of the finished item! One benefit of this is that, if it is rejected, you have a completed pattern ready to be tech edited, rather than an idea which languishes for a couple of years before you find it again (either at the bottom of the swatch box or in a computer file marked “Submissions/Unpublished” – yes I do have a file with this name!). Fortunately the lead-times are much longer than for other publications with their submissions – with about a three month deadline rather than three weeks, in recognition of the significantly bigger task! I can’t tell you anything more about what I’m doing, or share any pics, but I’ll let you know when I find out if it’s been accepted (probably by the end of April!).

The new socks for Sue are coming on apace and I am delighted with how the self-striping yarn is behaving. By total accidental/serendipity the heel turn is red. The yarn changed colour just as I started the heel turn and finished just before I picked up the stitches to start working the gusset (foot shaping). It’s a bit like a Louboutin sock!

I bet the second sock doesn’t do this – I have no idea whereabouts during the grey section of the yarn I began the cast-on, so I can’t reliably replicate it.

I’m also gearing up to begin the new season of yarn shows, several of which are new to me this year (TexStyle in Manchester in March is a brand new show as is The Midlands Wool Festival at Wolverhampton Racecourse in July, and I’ll be doing The Wool Monty in Sheffield in June for the first time too.

The first show of the year is in just over a month! The North West Winter Wool Festival is being held at Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool this year and I am not only exhibiting there, but teaching two workshops as well. An Introduction to Brioche Knitting is on Saturday 14th February and Moebius Knitting is on Sunday 15th February. There are only two places left for the brioche workshop!

Contact me directly if you’d like to book a place on either of these workshops (you will also need to buy a ticket for the show itself – £8 for the day or £10 for the whole weekend, which includes a code for a free knitting pattern, designed by me!). There are lots of other workshops taking place at the show as well and they are all listed on the North West Winter Wool Festival’s workshops page.

March will be very busy with TexStyle in Manchester on March 14th and 15th and the East Anglia Yarn Festival in Norwich the following weekend (March 21st and 22nd)!

The organisers of TexStyle have generously allowed those of us exhibiting to run ticket give-aways and so I have five pairs of tickets up for grabs! If you and a friend would like a ticket for TexStyle at Manchester Central On March 14th/15th let me know in the comments and I will draw names from a hat on Friday 23rd January and get the relevant code to the lucky winners!

That’s all from me for today! I now need to get back to making sure Lorelai is going to be ready for her relaunch as an individual pattern in time for the show in Blackpool! This is one of the lovely photos from The Knitter:

Take care and remember to comment if you’d like to be in the draw for TexStyle tickets! K x

We currently have snow. Not anywhere near as much as we have had in previous years, but it is causing some issues in our corner of North Wales. We are ever more grateful to live on a bus route as these are the roads that get gritted, so as long as we can clear the top of the drive we should be fine to get out in the car. Side roads are more like skating rinks as we discovered on a walk yesterday. Where the snow is driven on and compacted, melts a bit and refreezes it creates a very skiddy situation! Surrounding areas have had more snow than us as well with some folk being snowed in.

And so, the weather has meant that both commitments in my diary today are off. This probably doesn’t mean I’ll be out in the garden making snow angels, but I am admiring the traditional snowman complete with scarf that has been built by a young family who live in the road behind us.

I also love the light you get when there is snow. Everything is brighter and that is just what we need right now, especially as we took the Christmas decorations and tree down yesterday. All the cheery Christmas lights in the neighbourhood have gone away for another year and so the brightness of the snow helps it not feel so dark.

I will walk up to the post office today and post a design sample that is due to arrive by the weekend, and then email the pattern and all associated files to the magazine. I will also have time to start looking at a tech editing job I have recently been asked to do and play with the numbers for a new design of my own.

While I am enjoying the current weather I am also hoping that it is all gone by the weekend so my journey to visit my mum in the midlands is straightforward. The signs are promising – keep your fingers crossed for me!

In the meantime I have actually done a bit of knitting I can share with you. I knitted some new toes for Sue’s favourite socks at the weekend as she had worn through them. I’ve already shared these on facebook and one of our friends said it was “love declared in the form of knitting” which I thought was spot on!

Also, I was given some sock yarn for Christmas (thank you Katie!) and last night I started some new socks for Sue using that. It’s West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-ply in the colourway ‘Robin’.

For those of you who like to know these things, I’m doing 80 sts on 2mm needles, 20 rnds of 2×2 ribbing, then 60 rnds of leg (I’ve done 27 so far) before a heel flap worked on half the sts. So that’s 8000 sts by the time I get to the heel turn! So, yes, if someone knits you socks (or anything!) as a gift, it means they love you.

I hope you have a good week and have had a good festive season. Until next week, take care and do some stuff that makes you happy. K X

There has been quite a lot happening here in the past few weeks and I apologise for not posting last Tuesday. My lovely wife has been re-posting her blog posts from this time last year during the past couple of weeks, so I thought I would look back and see what I was writing about then as well.

If you want to see the whole of the post from this time last year, it can be found here: https://kathandrewsdesigns.com/2024/04/16/after-the-storm/

I had been working on the shawl that would become Rhiannon, published in four parts during October-December in The Knitter magazine. I will get the rights back to self-publish this shawl at the end of June/beginning of July, so I’ll have copies with me at the August shows. This is one of the shots of it that The Knitter used on Instagram:

I was also working hard on my Persian Tiles crochet blanket, designed by Janie Crow. That blanket now lives on the back of one of the chairs in the lounge in case we need to be extra cosy in the evenings.

This time last year I was also preparing for my first Wonderwool as a vendor and I’m getting ready for Wonderwool again now! I spent most of yesterday printing more patterns – there are still a few to do – and today has been about tweaking my workshop notes (I’m teaching moebius knitting on both days to sold out classes!) and playing with different layouts of the stand space.

I’m going to be in the same place as last year; W16 in Hall 3. Looking back at last year’s sales it’s interesting to note that the patterns which did best were the ones in the ‘swing-up’ display stand (on the left in the image below). I now have two of these, but there may be a couple more by the time I get to Wonderwool. They really are great for displaying patterns. The photo below shows part of last year’s stand. There will be a few changes to the layout this year and of course a few new designs!

It was interesting to read about and remember my attempt to add a WooCommerce shopping cart to my website last year. That attempt really backfired as my whole website stopped working for a short time. That was incredibly stressful and I had to get some help from the clever folk at WordPress to get things back to looking and behaving how they had been before it all went sideways. I had intended to try again with WooCommerce, but I haven’t yet had the courage or time to dedicate to getting it sorted out. Maybe 2025 will be the year I do? Or maybe not. Payhip is working well for the process of actually selling both patterns and kits for now. We’ll have to see what else the year has in store first I think, before I brave attempting the WooCommerce option again.

And it’s now a year since my lovely wife’s second collection of poetry was published. Welcome to the Museum of a Life is still available, from all good bookshops and from Sue’s website and Payhip store – she’ll even sign it for you if you ask!

Looking back not quite as far as last year, I had a lovely day last Saturday at Yarn O’clock, when Anne hosted me for a trunk show. That’s a bit like a pop-up. I had lots of my designs and samples in the shop and was there all day, chatting to Anne and the customers. I also got some more knitting done on the border of my new sample of Elinor Hap Shawl!

As you can see I took over a large proportion of the shop! Huge thanks to Anne for inviting me to do this.

We also had the pure joy of seeing Mary Poppins on Sunday with my lovely sister-in-law. The tickets were her birthday present and it was a real treat for us too. I’ve never seen anyone tap dancing upside down at the top of a proscenium arch before!

Before I get to Wonderwool (26th and 27th April), there are a lot more things to do, including singing from up in the bell tower on Thursday! I’m the alto in the quartet for Allegri’s Miserere and we are doing a dash up the stone spiral staircase while the rest of the choir process to underneath the bell tower and sing the communion hymns. I just hope I’ve got my breath back by the time the Allegri starts! We’ll be singing through the archway circled in the pic below. Yes, it’s a long way up!:

Wish me luck! I’ll let you know how it all went next week. Until then, take care, enjoy Easter if you celebrate it in any form, and I hope you get the chance to do some stuff that makes you happy. K x

Last weekend’s event was fun. Lots of fun. The North West Winter Wool Festival was held at The Imperial Hotel in Blackpool and was a first in many ways.

It was the first time I have stayed at the same venue as the yarn show. That in itself was lovely. There was no travelling once I’d arrived and set the stand up. I could just go for a walk if I wanted to or relax in my room or the bar of the hotel. Several of the other vendors were staying there too, and it was really nice to be able to sit and chat in the evening or share a table at breakfast. Having breakfast in the morning before the show was also super. It was a buffet style and both mornings I helped myself to a plate full of mini hash browns, tomatoes, mushrooms and baked beans. Plus tea – of course.

It was also the first time I’ve done a show at the seaside! I was in the ‘overspill’ room, rather than the main room, but that was no hardship. The room was beautifully light, with amazingly high ceilings and chandeliers, and looked out over the front of the hotel to the sea. I literally had a sea view all weekend, as from my room I could see Blackpool Tower, the pier and the sea.

This show was also the first time I have been the designer for a show pattern. Lots of people came with their completed Imperial Cowls (mostly in bags or tied to bag straps as the hotel was so well heated you didn’t need to wear any woolly goodies) and it was so good to hear their enthusiasm for the pattern as well as see their finished knitting.

And, it was the first time the North West Winter Wool Festival has taken place, and it was the very first time Shirley had organised a yarn show and she did a splendid job. I really hope it happens again next year – I will definitely be signing up!

The show was super busy for most of Saturday and was almost as busy as times on Sunday. I was concentrating on talking to customers and other vendors so much that I completely failed to take photos of anyone else’s stand, but the vendors (and the lovely Bowland Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers) with whom I shared the room were all super and I highly recommend having a look at their websites: Handmade at Harcles, Why Knot Macramé who trades as Kiln and Craft on Etsy, 3 Seas Yarn, Little Likac Yarn, Farm Yarn UK, Riverside Knitting Yarns, and Super Effective Fibres.

We were only 8 of the 40 vendors present! During the weekend I gave a few mini demos of how brioche knitting works and made some connections with folk for possible future workshops and collaborations.

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I also took possession of these beauties from Penny Stitch Craft at the weekend:

This is a Tencel DK weight hand dyed yarn and I can’t wait to play with these skeins and see what they want to become! Keep your eyes peeled for a new pattern later in the year…

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It won’t be long until my second show of the year – East Anglia Yarn Festival (or EAYF) in Norwich, which will be held at the Norfolk Show Ground Arena on March 15th-16th. I will also be teaching at this show! Workshops have just gone up on the website. My Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting workshop is on Saturday 15th March, 1-3pm.

The workshop is £36 and all handouts and yarn are included. You just need to bring a 5mm circular needle (60-80cm long) and something to write with so you can annotate your handouts.

If you’re coming to EAYF and you’d like to learn to knit two-colour brioche – now is your chance! Just make sure you come on the Saturday as I’m not teaching on the Sunday.

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Shortly after that, and much more local to me, I have a trunk show at my local yarn shop!

Yarn O’clock in Mold is hosting me and my designs for the day on Saturday April 12th. The shop is open from 10am-4pm, there is no charge to come in, so why not pop over and say hello, and see what lovely yarn Anne has that you could use for one or more of my patterns?!

That’s all from me for now, apart from to let you know that my donation to Treasure Chest YGC (50% of sales of Bodelwyddan sock pattern during February) is currently standing at £33! I wonder if we can get it over £40?

Take care, and I hope you are able to do something that makes you happy this week. K x

The snow I showed you last week hung around and got added to occasionally during the week. I didn’t try moving my car until Thursday when things were just starting to melt a little, but as it had been tucked down the side of the house it still had four inches of snow on the roof! Not only that, but the snow was frozen on top and also frozen solid to the roof of the car. I am nothing if not determined however, and did get most of it off.

I had been due to travel to Welwyn Garden City on Friday for two workshops as part of the Wool-in Garden City Wool Festival on Saturday, but a lack of bookings meant the workshops were cancelled, so we gained an extra day at home and travelled on Saturday instead, leaving the snow behind and travelling into rain. (I will be running both the brioche workshops as Zoom workshops in January – and there will be in-person workshops as well in 2025, so watch this space!)

Despite Storm Bert making its entrance during our journey, we arrived safely and got set up in the lovely space that is the main hall of Oaklands College in Welwyn Garden City.

It was lovely to see Helen, the organiser of the festival, again and to catch up with a few other vendors who were setting up as well. Afterwards we were able to find our Premier Inn and relax with a rare glass of wine!

On Wool-in Garden City Wool Show day itself (Sunday) I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of footfall, as the stormy weather could well have made everyone want to stay at home, but many people did come, and it was so lovely to see some familiar faces amongst the visitors.

Here’s a quick spin around the main hall where the majority of vendors were, just before opening time:

One particular face at the show that was familiar to me, through the medium of telly, was Kellie Bright, who plays Linda Carter in EastEnders (Sue even got a selfie with her!). She was there with hundreds of crocheted squares that needed to be joined together into blankets. These blankets will be auctioned off to raise money for the charity Solving Kids’ Cancer UK, of which she is patron. The squares have been crocheted by folk from across the country who have sent them in, and what makes these blankets even more special is that each one will contain a ‘celebrity square’. I found this out when I asked Kellie why one particular plastic bag of squares had a piece of paper with the name ‘Danny Dyer’ showing through the side! Yes, Danny Dyer has crocheted a square for the charity blankets.

Kellie was there by invitation from Helen so that visitors (and vendors) could help with the mammoth task of joining the squares into blankets, either by crocheting them or sewing them. As we had a little quiet time during the afternoon, I offered to do some joining and was able to join two sections of blanket together that included a square from Tom Daley!

It was good to be able to contribute to this great cause in a practical way and it was lovely to see just how many people wanted to help. And, even if they’d never sewn or crocheted before, Kellie was giving clear instructions on what to do, so they could.

Sadly one person I was hoping to see didn’t come to the show. I still have the mitts and hat I knitted for Simon that he commissioned back in January. Maybe one day he’ll get in touch and I’ll be able to send them to him…

The journey home on Sunday night was just as wet as the journey there, if not more so at times, but we took it steadily and I was quite grateful for the roadworks on the M1 that meant everyone had to stick to a top speed of 50 (and sometimes 40), as that helped reduce the spray off the road a bit. We even treated ourselves to a proper stop with a vegan burger and chips once we got as far as Telford services – it felt almost extravagant!

Wool-in Garden City was our last show for 2024 and my next show will be in Blackpool, February 15-16, at the North West Winter Wool Festival, held at The Imperial Hotel! There will be 40 vendors including myself and the Bowland Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers will also be there. See you in Blackpool?

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All the snow had gone by the time we got home, and the morning revealed that our lovely myrtle had not entirely coped with the weight of the snow on it for so many days. Hopefully more branches will grow to fill the gap that has been created.

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With all the excitement of Wool-in Garden City, I had completely forgotten to say that I am taking part in Fasten Off Yarn-along once again this year! Over 90 designers are signed up and you can get 25% of many of their patterns by using the code FO2024 until the end of December 5th. It’s not just for hand knitters; crochet, Tunisian crochet and machine knitting is also included. This is why it’s a ‘yarn-along’, rather than a ‘knit-along’!

All of my self-published individual patterns are included in this discount period. Fasten Off Yarn-along (or Fasten Off YAL) is an off-Ravelry event, so all the patterns from all the designers can be accessed somewhere other than Ravelry. Mine are all on my Payhip store.

Fasten Off YAL is far more than just a pattern sale – there are bingo games and prizes to be won and all sorts of social stuff. Go to your favourite social media site and search for them – Instagram is particularly lively, but you can find them on other sites too and you can get all the information about the event from their website. There are also links to all the designers and their wonderful designs on the website along with great search features if there’s something specific you are looking for.

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Now seems like a good time to remind you that I write a monthly newsletter for my subscribers. Subscribers get special offers in these monthly emails that are not available *anywhere else* and I will be making a very special offer in the December newsletter which is going out on Dec 1st. So now would be a really good time to sign up!

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I have also done quite a lot of knitting on two different new designs this week. I’m hoping I’ll be able to show you some sneak peeks of at least one of them soon!

In the meantime, stay warm and dry if you can, and do something that makes you happy, even if it’s just breathing in some cool crisp late autumn air (when it’s not raining!). K x

I’ve talked about swatching before. For most knitters this usually refers to knitting the stitch pattern in a design they intend to make, using the needles stated in the pattern to check that their tension is the same as the designers, and that the finished item will have the intended measurements. Many knitters will make this swatch as small as possible, if knitting one at all, feeling that it’s a waste of time and just holding them up from getting started.

For a knitwear designer, swatching is so much more than this. For me, it’s a time to play and dive deep into knitting possibilities. Trying out different stitch patterns and combinations of stitch patterns, sometimes trying out different needle sizes to find the perfect one to give the best fabric and experimenting with combinations of colours. If I’ve been given specific yarn to use before a design is finalised, then I’ll find out how different stitch patterns behave with that yarn and what the fabric is like once blocked. This can involve swatches that are really quite big. Thanks have to go to my City & Guilds tutor, Loraine, here who always said, “Swatch big – it’ll give you better information”.

Last week I showed you the three gorgeous colours of McIntosh BFL 4ply yarn I’m using for a new design and told you that James always kindly supplies me with extra yarn for swatching. My current swatch for this design is pinned out now – and it’s over 60cm long and nearly 60cm wide at its widest point! Swatching big indeed. I want to see how the fabric behaves in the shape I’m intending to use, how it hangs and what the edges do.

With other designs when there is no set yarn, other than one or two suggested yarn weights, I might take a different approach. I’m also working on a design like this at the moment. For this design my swatches will be tried out in a variety of yarns (different fibres, different dye styles such as solid or semi-solid colours, variegated and striped) to see how the different yarns work with different stitch patterns. Some stitch patterns can be completely lost in very ‘busy’ yarn. Ideally, for this design, I’d like to choose a stitch pattern that will work with as many yarns as possible – and the only way to find this out is by swatching – knitting the same stitch patterns in different yarns to see what the results are.

And although I may try out a large number of stitch patterns for a design when I only need one or two, this is not ever wasted time or yarn. I’ll often discover a stitch pattern or combo that is great, but just doesn’t work for the design at hand and I can ‘bank’ it for a later one! I also continue to learn.

Thinking about this has led me to look back at one of (about a dozen) lever arch files from my City & Guilds course in Hand Knit Textiles. Experimentation was a key part of the learning and I loved it. I would often knit half a dozen or so swatches in the morning before driving to work. For example, knitting different stitch patterns with the same cast-on, then changing the cast-on and knitting the same set of stitch patterns with that cast-on helped me to understand which stitch patterns and cast-on techniques work well together, making notes on each one as well for future reference (and to fulfil the course requirements!). This is page one of three for this exercise!

Another early task was to knit a stocking stitch swatch with different selvedges (edge stitches) to understand how these affected the fabric.

I’ve kept all these files as they contain so much useful information and knowledge – including lots of stitch patterns I developed myself. Almost a reference library, if you like.

As well as swatching (playing) this week I’ve also made some decent progress on my new cardigan and the yarn is working much better with this design. It may not look like much yet, but this is almost two full skeins of DK yarn!

The body is worked in one piece to start with and then the construction gets really interesting. I’ll be sure to take pics once it develops further.

That’s all from me for today. I’ll tell you all about how Stollen & Wolle went next week. K x

Today is Bonfire Night in the UK. We went to watch our local firework display on Sunday (first time it hasn’t been on the 5th), and the colours were spectacular. The loud bangs still make me jump, but much less so than they used to. I’m braced for some unexpected booms outside later on. It was really good to walk up to our usual spot (out of the way of the crowds, but with a mighty fine view of the sky) and enjoy the display for the 20 minutes it lasts.

I’ve spent the past couple of days swatching for a new shawl design. This means the previous design is completed, blocked, measured and written up! All that remains is to weave in the ends, double check the pattern and get it all sent off.

The new design is giving me some challenges. I thought I had the shape fixed, but then I realised that it wouldn’t use nearly enough of the yarn (the yarn is the gorgeous BFL 4ply from McIntosh – the same yarn I used for Barragán). Don’t worry, I’m not using all six cakes of yarn in the main post photo – some of it’s for swatching as James kindly supplies me with extra! So there has been much experimenting and swatching, alongside checking yarn quantities used for different shawl shapes in some of my many knitting books and this has led me to a solution. So now I just need to finalise the stitch patterns and overall design and I’m good to get going with it!

It’s been good to immerse myself in something new and I’m enjoying playing with some joyful colours.

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There has been a lot of ‘life stuff’ going on in the background this past month (and is still going on, but it’s come down a gear) which made it hard to fully focus on design work. I was lucky with my last design as it was a re-working of something I’d developed during my City & Guilds course, so I was tweaking and refining, rather than starting from scratch. Tweaking and refining I could do!

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I’ve done a few more rows on my new sample of Elinor Hap Shawl. I think there are 14 more rows to work on the border and then the edging begins. I dug out my needle protector case recently as well after the needle tips got caught in the lace whilst in the project bag and pulled a long strand (ouch!). If you’ve not seen these before, they are very helpful and also stop stitches falling off the ends of the needles. I got mine from Yarn O’clock.

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Back in September, before Yarndale, I told you I was knitting a new Manu cardigan designed by Kate Davies using some yarn from the deep stash, but I wasn’t at all happy with how the colours were behaving together in stripes. This week it finally got ripped out and I have decided to knit a new Haori cardigan instead, using the yarn in blocks of colour. There’s not a lot exciting to see at the moment apart from a long strip of blue grey garter stitch – hopefully I will be able to make it grow and become more exciting to look at soon!

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Tomorrow I am giving a 1-to-1 knitting lesson. Did you know these were available? Depending on where you are based they can be either in-person or via Zoom and we can cover whatever knitting issue you have. It may be that you want to do a specific workshop, but on your own, or (as with tomorrow’s lesson), you have a knitting problem that you would like help with. 1-to-1 knitting lessons are currently £25 per hour and can be booked by emailing me. At some point soon, I intend to be able to get a calendar set up where you can choose from available dates and times.

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November sees my final two events of this year. I know I’ve mentioned these before and you may have seen me write about them in my social posts and newsletter, but I want to tell you a little more about each of them.

I’m delighted to have been invited to exhibit at Stollen & Wolle Winter Market and Wayzgoose at the RiverKnits studio in Weedon Bec on Sunday 17th. Becci and Markus of RiverKnits have invited some of their favourite yarn, art, and artisan craft businesses to exhibit alongside limited edition artworks and printmaking demos. It will be a great opportunity for gift buying while supporting local, creative, and sustainable businesses. And there will be stollen and glühwein (as well as non-alcoholic options). Early bird tickets are available for £5 and on the door tickets are £7.

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A week later we will be in Welwyn Garden City. Wool-in Garden City Wool Festival actually starts on Monday 18th with workshops and a pop-up shop in the Howard Centre at Welwyn Garden City, and a daily knit and natter, crochet and chat will take place by the escalators each afternoon, and finishes on Sunday 24th with a one-day wool show at Oaklands College. The pop-up shop and knit and natter/crochet and chat are free to enter. Advance tickets for the wool show at Oaklands College are £6, with on the door tickets at £7.

As well as exhibiting at the wool show, I will be teaching in the pop-up shop on Saturday 23rd, teaching both of my brioche workshops. If you want to learn to knit two-colour brioche, this is a great opportunity! Both workshops have a maximum class size of 8 giving each attendee lots of tutor time, and each costs £30 to attend, including two colours of 100% wool yarn to use and detailed handouts for you to take away. You just need to bring a 5mm circular needle (60-80cm long). If you are feeling up for a challenge you could even attend both workshops! Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting is 10am-12noon and Next Steps in Two-Colour Brioche Knitting is 1-3pm. Once you have learnt the stitches in these two workshops a whole range of brioche patterns will open up for you.

Here is the full info about the workshops from the festival website:

Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting with Kath Andrews 10 – 12 pm – £30 Brioche knitting is a distinctive knitted ribbing technique that is recognizable by its interesting texture. In this workshop you will learn how to achieve this effect by alternating columns of slipped stitches with yarnovers and knit stitches. Handouts and yarn will be provided, but participants will need to bring 5 mm circular needles (ideally 60 – 80 cm long). 

Next Steps in Two-Colour Brioche Knitting with Kath Andrews 1 – 3 pm – £30 Develop your two-colour brioche knitting skills further with increases and decreases to create wonderful geometric and curved shapes.  You need to be able to cast-on, knit & purl confidently, be able to follow a written pattern and have some experience of knitting basic two-colour brioche stitch.  Yarn and handouts are included, but participants will need to bring 5 mm circular needles (ideally 60 – 80 cm long). 

There is a wide range of workshops priced from £25 to £70 happening during the week, including knitting, crochet, drop spindle spinning, rag rug making and more! Have a look at the Wool-in Garden City Wool Festival Workshops webpage where you can book one or more workshops.

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I’ll have my ‘Flying the Shawls 2025’ calendars (as featured in Issue 208 of The Knitter magazine) with me at both events, but, if you can’t get to either, you can still get a calendar here, for £10 plus postage. They make great gifts – The Knitter says so!

That’s all from me today. I shall be watching the news across the pond with interest and crossed fingers for the next few days. Take care one and all and I hope you get the chance to do something that makes you happy this week. K x

Someone on Threads asked recently why knitwear designers post pics of unravelled knitting and rewound balls of wool. I replied that when working on a commission knit we’re not usually allowed to show the knitting itself in progress before the item is published and so showing the yarn – even when ripped out – is often the only way we can post about our current project. Also, if it has been unravelled and is about to be reworked, that shows there is design progress happening, even if not actual knitting progress!

Last week I told you I was nearly halfway through the section that used the second colour of yarn in my current commission design. I finished it midweek but knew straight away I wasn’t happy with it. The first part with the first colour had been initially designed with 5 repeats, but I’d omitted the final one, thinking the item would be big enough without it and worrying I wouldn’t have enough of the first colour of yarn. I was wrong! It wasn’t big enough without it and when I ripped the second colour out to add in that final repeat of the first colour, that I should have knitted in the first place, I did indeed have enough yarn. Silly me. I am now three quarters of the way through the second colour for the second time and fully expect to actually finish it this evening. I am enjoying using this yarn and it is working up really well – even on the second knit! And this time, it will stay finished!

Lesson learned to trust my initial designs? Maybe. Although sometimes you do need to make changes to something partway through to make it work or to make it as good as it can be. And change is ok. It’s not the end of the world if you need to pull some knitting back and redo it – as long as there is time in the schedule to allow for this! There are many other things in life where change is much harder to deal with.

Last Tuesday’s Zoom workshop, Next Steps in Two-Colour Brioche Knitting, went really well. The two knitters who were there had both attended the Introduction workshop two weeks before that, and they made brilliant progress with their brioche increases and decreases as well as deepening their understanding of how the fabric is constructed. We even managed a little step-by-step reversing and fixing of a mistake by Zoom which I think is pretty good! In an in-person workshop that side of things is easier as I can hold the knitting in question and work out exactly what has happened and help the knitter fix it. This time it was achieved just from having it held up to the computer camera and me giving verbal instructions, which were ably followed. I will be scheduling more Zoom workshops over the coming months as I think it’s a great way to attend a class without having to travel.

However, I will also be teaching both these brioche workshops at Wool-in Garden City on Saturday November 23rd! These will take place in the pop-up shop in the Howard Centre in Welwyn Garden City (near the entrance and just by the escalators up to the station). The Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting is 10am-12noon and Next Steps in Two-Colour Brioche Knitting is 1pm-3pm. You could even book on both! The following day I will have a stand at the Wool-in Garden City Wool Show at Oaklands College, also in Welwyn Garden City. (I will be sending the hat and mitts I made for Simon that he commissioned in January to the organiser to be in the pop-up shop during the week as well, in the hope that he might show up to claim them).

On Saturday I was at Ewe Felty Thing’s Designer Day in Conwy. I hadn’t been over to the shop since before it opened in its new venue and I have to say I am very impressed with what Nikki and her team have achieved. The shop used to be a bank and there are things such as the vault door and the two safes in the vault that have been made into great colourful features. The vault door is a bright blue, the room inside is equipped with comfy chairs and space to knit/crochet and relax. The two safes in the room have had their doors removed, one is now bright yellow, the other Barbie pink, they have shelves inside and are stocked with books and patterns! A fabulous idea. One other remaining vestige of the shop’s previous life as a bank was in the ladies’. A notice glued to the door was titled something along the lines of “What to do in the event of an armed robbery or bomb threat”! It took me a moment to realise it was from the shop’s time as a bank and not likely to occur in a yarn shop.

The rest of the shop is spread across two other large rooms with a huge range of yarns (commercial and hand-dyed), wheels, looms and other craft items for sale. We were in a newly renovated room that I think used to be the manager’s office. One of the designers (Tanya from The Woolly Tangle) wasn’t able to be with us, but the four of us filled the room admirably and it was like a micro-mini festival. This little video gives a sense of it:

During quieter periods we chatted with each other and made progress with our current projects, and when it got busy we chatted to the customers and made suggestions of patterns and yarn combinations! Sue was with me and made good use of being in Conwy by having a walk in ‘someone else’s town’ and discovering the ice-cream shop sold vegan sorbet. I was delighted to be surprised with an intense raspberry sorbet mid-afternoon. All in all we had a great day.

Did I show you the wonderful yarn I was given for my birthday recently by my lovely wife?

I haven’t yet decided what it will become, but hopefully I will be able to turn my attention to it soon. Maybe I’ll have some ideas to share with you next week!?

Until then, take care, and do something that makes you happy this week. K x