Category: Uncategorized

a yarn show appeared!

Yarn Gathering took place on Sunday at the Daniel Owen Centre in Mold. It was our third time organising this show and we had 17 vendors (including myself) which is the most we have ever had. This meant we needed to hire the large room upstairs as well as using the hall and cafe spaces.

As always, when Anne, Sue and I arrived on Saturday afternoon to set out the rooms, it didn’t seem possible that in a few short hours the empty rooms would be bursting with colour, woolly goodness and lively conversations. But that is exactly what happened. Each of the vendors worked their magic to make their space look gorgeous and by 10am we were ready to open to the public – some of whom had arrived at 9.40 eager to get there before it got too busy! They were encouraged to go and have a cuppa somewhere warm as the weather wasn’t great and returned shortly after 10.

The day was amazing and flew by – it was our busiest Yarn Gathering to date as well as our biggest! There are some videos of vendors stands over on the Yarn Gathering North Wales Instagram page (particularly the upstairs stands, in case anyone couldn’t make it up the stairs). I clearly need to learn more about reels as the ones I put on the Facebook page seem to have vanished – another magic trick perhaps? However, Yarn O’clock made a super video of the setting up process, which is on her facebook and Instagram pages, the Yarn Gathering facebook page and my own facebook page. Anne was able to share the video with me! Here it is:

And then by 5pm, just an hour after we closed, the building was nearly empty once more and most things were back in their original spaces. People really do bring places to life – especially when they bring yarn and fleeces and fibre and weaving!

As you can imagine, yesterday was a bit blurry for me. The post-adrenaline come down probably. But I am back on all my cylinders today and have updated my notes for the sock workshop I am running tomorrow, analysed my sales of all my patterns everywhere – online and at each show I’ve done, and made a plan for how much printing I need to do in preparation for Yarndale at the end of the month!

I’m very excited about Yarndale. Our stand is L14 and my workshop (which is sold out!) is being held in Workshop Theatre 2. If you’ve never been, it’s a BIG show with 201 exhibitors, all based in the Auction Mart at Skipton, so our stands are defined by the metal rungs that mark out the animal stalls for the auctions. They do hose it down well before we arrive, but the floor is functional for an animal auction venue so is made of ridged concrete which can get very cold to stand on.

My summery shoes broke completely after Yarn Gathering on Sunday. I ground the plastic grid inside of the heels away by (shock, horror) standing and walking on them, and the insoles (and my heels…) collapsed into the void left behind, so they have had to go. I am rapidly breaking in some more shoes ready for Yarndale!

I’m also getting ready to re-release Prynhawn Da as an individual pattern soon. It was published in Knit Now in May and the rights have now returned to me. It’s an unusual little pattern, being a lacy coaster and placemat set, perfect for an afternoon tea where you want to go all out, but maybe not something for everyday use. The great thing about the design is that it’s a good way to learn the Pi Shawl construction on a small scale. The Pi Shawl is a way of knitting a perfectly circular shawl from the centre outwards without having to worry too much about the maths. I don’t know if it was invented or ‘unvented’ by the legendary Elizabeth Zimmermann – a knitter whose patterns were chatty in a way that would be really frowned upon now – and it is quite brilliant and works a treat. My Maid Marion Shawl is a Pi Shawl and Tiffany is a half Pi shawl.

Currently I’m re-blocking the samples as they were very crumpled by the time they got back to me, and I’m going to video the process as it’s so easy. The coasters and placemats were knitted in mercerised cotton and soak up water instantly, so you only really need to run them under the tap thoroughly to get them properly wet, rather than the usual 10-20 minute soak that wool can need.

Here is one of the coasters as it arrived back to me in the post, and another after re-blocking:

I have more workshops and shows coming up after Yarndale. I now have three more events before Christmas and six workshops, and I will start promoting the events just as soon as I have the official info! Most of the workshops are already on my Events page on my website – including some opportunities to learn two-colour brioche knitting or Fair Isle / Stranded knitting from the comfort of your own home if you can’t make it to an in-person workshop.

That’s all from me today. I must be more tired than I thought, as I started writing this at 5pm! Take care one and all. Thank you if you came to Yarn Gathering on Sunday, and do something that makes you happy this week. K x

I feel as though I have spent most of the day at the garage, but that’s not entirely true. I was there for just under 3 hours this morning while my car was being serviced and during that time I completed the penultimate repeat of my Bargello Aurora Scarf! I can also confirm that the sofas and chairs at Lookers / Kia in Chester are very comfortable.

There are now only 40 rows left to knit!

Unfortunately, on the way home from the garage the car started to judder and wasn’t accelerating properly. One of the warning lights came on briefly too. I got home, we had lunch and then I took Sue out in the car to see if it would behave any better after a run on one of the bigger roads, but no. There was lots of judder, little power and no ability to overtake, so we limped our way back to the garage.

After an explanation of the problem (and the fact that it hadn’t been doing it previous to the service…) the car was taken out by a technician to assess what was going on. Cue another wait on the very comfortable chairs, but I didn’t have my knitting with me this time (I did have my lovely wife for company and moral support though, which in all truth was better!). It was an hour that time, but the problem was identified, the spark plugs all changed and we were able to go on our way home, minus judder and with acceleration! Result!

All this is by way of some explanation as to why today’s blog post is a little later in the day than usual.

But I am so pleased to be nearly there with the scarf. There are a lot of yarn ends aren’t there? Have you noticed that? The pattern will contain a very strong suggestion to weave the ends in as you go. Here I’ve woven each end in on the first seven stitches.

Not only will this shorten the final finishing time, but it add important structural integrity to the scarf as well. Do you remember how firmly I blocked the cowl, so that it went from a corrugated mess to a thing of beauty?

The same intense vertical blocking will happen with the scarf. Not only did I weave in each yarn end separately, I also knotted the new colour on to the old colour. This is to stop the right hand side of the scarf pinging apart and unravelling when under the tension of blocking. Knots can be good! Scroll up to see the wrong side picture of the scarf again – can you see any knots looking massively out of place and awkward? No! It is ok to knot your yarn now and again, and in this case, it’s pretty much essential!

I’m hoping to have the updated version of Bargello Aurora online by the end of July, and I will definitely have printed copies with me at the rest of the shows I’m doing this year. The next show is the Pop Up Wool Show in Port Sunlight on August 18th. If you happen to buy a digital copy of Bargello Aurora before the end of July, you will get the original version of the pattern with just the wrap. Ravelry customers will get an email when the new version of the pattern comes out with a link to the updated pattern. Payhip customers need to ensure they click the ‘please keep me updated’ button when they purchase the original pattern so that I can send you the link to the new version. Or, you could wait until the updated pattern is released and get it all in one go.

I’m knitting all the Bargello Aurora samples in the same yarn. This is BFL Singles (100% Bluefaced Leicester wool – the sheep breed, spun as a single plied yarn) dyed by the amazing Rachael of Cat and Sparrow UK. She has yarn kits for the wrap for £50, which includes 100g of the dark blue and 50g of each of the other four colours. You might be interested to know that this same yarn kit could instead be used to knit both the cowl AND the scarf!

The Bargello Aurora Scarf isn’t the only thing that’s grown massively during the week. My crocheted Persian Tiles blanket, designed by Janie Crow, is now nearly all pieced together!

On Saturday I posted about this blanket’s progress, when there were five octagons joined with their interlocking squares and triangles, and it got a lot of love on Twitter and quite a bit on Facebook and Instagram too. It looks so much more ‘real’ now and I think the pieces may well all be joined together by the end of the evening, which will just leave the 5 or 6 rounds of border to complete.

I have a new pattern coming out on Thursday in the next issue of The Knitter! All I can tell you at the moment is that it’s a cowl, it uses brioche and it has a very ‘organic’ feel to the design. I’ll be able to tell you more about it next week – and you might even have seen it in the magazine by then! Update – the pattern isn’t actually in this month’s issue after all, so the big reveal will have to wait a little longer. I hope to know more about when it will be released soon.

I seem to have a thing for patterns beginning with B. Last week I told you about Bryn, my brioche cowl designed for knitters new to two-colour brioche and its kit that comes in a tin. I’ve just been telling you all about the update to Bargello Aurora and I’m also currently putting the finishing touches on the pattern for Barragán.

Barragán was a wrap that was published in The Knitter last autumn as a four part knit-along, and they were including 300g sets of yarn for the pattern (150g in each colour), hand-dyed by James McIntosh, as a subscription gift.

The rights for the pattern have returned to me now and I’m putting the pattern into a single document in my house style, ready to publish online and have as printed patterns at events. I’m delighted to be allowed to use some of the photographs taken by The Knitter as their photography is so good.

Again, I’m intending to have this pattern ready to go live by the end of the month – it may even be sooner!

By the way – I did make jam! The blackcurrants were picked yesterday afternoon and by 7pm the jam was in the jars! 12 jars, plus one very full bowl which is now in the fridge! The bees did a cracking good job fertilising this many currants on the blackcurrant bush this year – and there are still quite a lot left!

I’m not sure I’ll get to the redcurrants before the pair of thrushes that have taken to hanging out in our garden finish them off, but to be honest, I can’t remember the last time I saw a pair of thrushes, so I might let them enjoy the redcurrants and just use the ones from the freezer that I didn’t have time/jars for last summer.

That’s all for this week. Have a good week, and do some stuff that makes you happy. K x

Tomorrow is the (re-)launch day for the new version of Llandudno Promenade! I’m really glad that I’ve done this as it will work with a much greater range of yarn now that the yarns I’m using are the more standard 400m/100g than the previous version. The undyed yarn is 100g (1 skein) of Preseli (Rigging) from Garthenor Organic (100% British organic wool) and the turquoise is a Gradient Mini Skein Set of 5 x 20g minis on Nene 4-ply from RiverKnits (100% British Bluefaced Leicester). Deb Bramham has done a fabulous job on the tech edit, and my lovely wife Sue kept my laughing throughout one of the windiest photoshoots I’ve ever experienced.

If you’re a newsletter subscriber you’ll receive an email tomorrow morning containing a 25% discount code valid for a week. If you’re not a newsletter subscriber – there’s still time to sign up before tomorrow!

Last week was half-term and, although I no longer work in a school, my lovely wife does. This meant that we had a slightly different routine from usual and even had a couple of mid-week outings!

Midweek was a day trip visit to Mum; games of scrabble, combined with take-away pizza and setting up new phones were combined with lots of chatting. My mum is a big fan of snowdrops – we have quite a few different varieties that she’s shared with us, but I hadn’t seen this one before – it’s especially splendid:

Snowdrops always seem so unassuming, keeping their heads down and getting on with things, but they are tough – they have their own built-in anti-freeze to withstand frost and snow – and utterly beautiful. I’m sure there’s a metaphor in there somewhere.

As we were able to travel together to visit Mum, I got to do some travel knitting and my new sweater, Umbriel by Sylvia Watts-Cherry, has come on in leaps and bounds! I’ve reached the underarms and divided for the front and back, with the back being worked first.

On the left is the pic I shared with you last week and on the right is from this morning! The colour looks so different, doesn’t it? Both pics were taken in the same part of the same room, but at different times of day. Last week was late afternoon, today was about 9am and the sun rises on that side of the house. I promise it’s the same sweater though!

I also seamed up the amazing Confluence Cowl, designed by Mary W Martin Knits. I used Amble Sock Yarn (another yarn from The Fibre Co!) to make it and it’s really soft and cosy against my neck.

The design adds a lot to the cosy factor as the yarn is held double (for most of the time) and the cowl folds over when worn, but if the yarn had been at all prickly that would just have created extra skin irritation. Amble makes it feel like a hug! I really like the fact you get to see both sides of the design simultaneously too.

One of our other outings during last week was to Powis Castle. We rejoined the National Trust while we were there and got to the see the Kaffe Fassett exhibition that is being hosted there. It’s on until September and I highly recommend it. Try to go on a sunny day if you can, as the lighting is quite low to protect everything. Patchwork quilts, knitted shawls and tapestry cushions have been placed throughout the castle. One of the guides told us that Kaffe Fassett decided on the precise placement of each item himself to best complement each room and it does work well. I also treated myself to a new book in the gift shop!

It’s an interesting book that shows how the different designs were inspired by different rooms or features of Powis castle as well as including the patterns to make the quilts yourself. I’m not a quilter (yet), but I’m fascinated by the construction of these pieced designs and the combination of colour and pattern.

I’ve also done a LOT of work on a new cardigan/jacket design, but I can’t show you anything of it yet. It’s nearly done up to the armhole shaping (back, fronts and sleeves). This is not the knitting as the yarn hasn’t arrived yet, but the calculations and pattern writing in ten sizes. It’s to fit a range of people from 28 – 66″ chests! That’s a lot of calculations – you should see my spreadsheet, it’s quite mind-boggling!

I can hardly believe that Buxton Wool Gathering is now less than two weeks away. In fact, in ten days I will be packing up the car and driving everything over there to set up my stand. The show is open 10am-4pm on both Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th March, and there will be over 50 different stands in Buxton Pavilion Gardens. I’ve got nearly everything ready – I just have two more patterns to print out; Am Byth and Bargello Aurora.

That’s everything from me for today. Stay safe, stay warm and do something that makes you happy this week. K x

There’s an awful lot to tell you about this week and I’m not sure I’ve got time to write about it all properly. So let’s have lots of photos instead!

I’m currently at mum’s and her daffodils are something to behold (see post pic). I’m borrowing her daffodil bulb catalogue for a bit, so there could be some additions to our garden soon too! Daffins is one of the Scots word for Daffodils and is the name of one of the pieces in the song cycle “A Suite O’ Bairnsangs” by Thea Musgrave (1953). I sang ‘Daffins’ and ‘The Man in the Mune’ as part of one of my later singing exams back in 1992 and still remember most of the words!

The Calon Cariad KAL Show & Tell Zoom was a jolly affair – small and select, but we had a good giggle and the winner of the Nordic Shawls book was drawn from those who had finished. Congratulations to Patricia Gilbert! This is her finished shawl blocking. I’m going to do a big photo feature once everyone has got theirs complete.

I had to send a short bio and headshot to a magazine that I will be published in for the first time this June, so I thought it would be an ideal chance to update my profile photo across all my social media. This was taken in January just before the launch of Small Acts.

I finished seaming the Kaffe Fassett blanket for Chris! I shared a photo of the completed piece on my socials and it quickly became my most liked and re-tweeted post on Twitter ever! (713 likes and counting). Isn’t it fantastic?

I’ve done some more on my Good Riddance socks by Lauroftheblings Designs and I’m loving them. The shadow wraps on the short row heel is a new technique for me and it’s definitely one I’ll use again.

My Gridlock Mitts by Karen Butler are finished and blocked (ie washed and dried flat). I’m very happy with them.

I am getting to the nitty gritty parts of editing An Introduction to Lace Knitting. Only the short to-camera bits at the start and end left to record and then a whole chunk of transcription for the PDF.

See? I said it was a lot. And that’s not counting the ‘secret’ knitting project that I’ve spent MANY hours on – all the ripped out rows have been replaced and I’m much happier with it now – I should have stuck with my original plan from the start. Can’t wait to show you pics of this one!

Take care, do what makes you happy and hold your favourite people and animals close. I’m off to play scrabble with Mum. K x