Tag: Hand Knitting

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…And a Happy New Year!

Well, we’ve made it to 2023! We’re only a few days in to the year, but already the adverts on the telly are full of the seasonal ‘buy a new sofa’, ‘book a summer holiday’ etc, and social media is full of the ‘New Year/New You’ ads.

Fortunately the majority of the people I follow are, like me, more into intentions and goal setting than ‘New Year’s Resolutions’. I can’t remember exactly when I last made New Year’s Resolutions, but I know for a fact they included not doing/eating this/that and they were guaranteed to fail and make me feel as though I’d failed in the process.

Nowadays I set goals for the year, based on the framework in The Maker’s Yearbook. I bought this yearbook a couple of years ago and really liked the structure of it, but found the space for writing too specified – there seemed to be either too little or too much, never quite the sweet spot I was after. So, in January 2022 and this year I have looked back at the goal setting pages from my copy of the 2020 Maker’s Yearbook and used the questions from it in my bullet journal. It asks things like ‘What is your biggest dream for the year?’ and, perhaps more importantly, ‘What steps do you need to take to get there?’.

I’m not going to share all my goals here, but you should be seeing some new things happening during the course of the year. For example, I applied to be a vendor at another yarn show this morning – fingers crossed for that one. I won’t find out if I’m successful until the end of Feb/start of March, but I’ll be sure to let you know!

Am Byth, the latest MKAL from Yarn O’clock and myself, begins on Friday 13th January. That’s in just 10 days time! Remember we are not going to tell you what you are making until the start of Part 2 (released on 27th January). All you need to take part is 225m/100g DK yarn (we are using West Yorkshire Spinners Croft DK) and 3.5mm needles. We are beginning with a pinwheel cast-on (there will be a video for this on my website and Yarn O’clock’s youtube channel), so you’ll need double pointed needles or your favoured type of needles for a teeny-tiny starting circumference.

You can get the pattern from me on the website, Payhip, Lovecrafts or Ravelry (no link as I don’t want to spark a migraine for anyone!) and the relevant part of the pattern will be uploaded on each release date.

If you want a kit, or to have parts of the pattern emailed to you, you should contact Anne at Yarn O’clock. She is open again from Wednesday 4th January, so you can pop in or ring the shop from tomorrow!

Here is a selection of some the colours of Croft DK (photo from Yarn O’clock’s website):

The Fasten Off YAL has now come to an end and, just like last year, it was great fun. I got to know the work of some designers I hadn’t previously encountered and, just by playing along with some of the social games on Twitter and Instagram, I won two prizes!

The first prize was from Kate Atherley, from whom I chose Mackinac Mitts (I’m still pondering the yarn to use for these – there are so many splendid single skeins of 4-ply in my stash at the moment). If you haven’t come across her designs before, do have a look – they’re great!

The second prize I one was from Síle Thiels of Knit Dance Repeat Designs. From her designs I’ve chosen the Treble Jig Legwarmers.

I really like the fact that she uses music to inspire her designs (as have I in the past) and, even better, her legwarmer design fits calves up to 22″ in circumference! Mine are 19″ so I have the added excitement of a pattern that goes over the calves that I don’t need to alter to make it fit!

Fasten Off YAL covers knitting, crochet, loom knitting and Tunisian crochet, and with 109 designers taking part in the most recent one there were so many wonderful designs to choose from. If you do any of these four crafts (or design for them) I heartily recommend getting involved next year.

This morning I had to phone the dentist again. On Saturday I felt extreme pain in my gold crown whilst eating cereal of all things (toasted rice and wheat flakes) followed by a terrible crumbling sensation from the tooth behind it. It was just like you get in those dreams where all your teeth fall out. If you’ve never had that particular dream I envy you! One corner of my back molar has broken away leaving a very jagged edge and not a lot of tooth. They have been able to fit me in for their first available appointment, which is in two weeks. Fortunately I’m not in pain as long as I keep cold liquids and food away from that corner of my mouth, but these teeth of mine have been letting me down over the past twelve months – and I’ve nearly ground my way through my third or fourth mouthguard. I’m hoping they’ll be able to help!

When I was having a rummage through the freezer drawers just before Christmas I found something wonderful; two bags of blackcurrants! You may remember that I didn’t pick any last summer and so hadn’t made any jam and I’d forgotten that the crop the year before had been so plentiful that I’d only used half of it and frozen the rest. So I will be making blackcurrant jam in the next couple of weeks, staving off my need for the Seville oranges to arrive at the Farm Shop for marmalade making.

(Please note – there is no connection between my jam and marmalade-making and my dodgy teeth! I’ve just been grinding them for years and they’re literally reaching breaking point.)

That’s all for today. Next week I’m going to be telling you a bit more about my Welsh learning and the stitching I have been doing, as well as hopefully having some knitting to show you! ‘Til then, take care, stay home if you’re poorly and keep warm, K x

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Blue

Three squares of stranded knitting with celtic knot work designs are joined with dark grey garter stitch borders. The centre square has a blue background with grey pattern and the outer squares have a grey background with blue pattern.

Many of the things I’m making seem to be blue at the minute! But then it always was my favourite colour, even when I was little.

The Nevern Throw Expansion Pack is nearly there. I’ve joined as much of it together as I can until I get back home to where the final square is pinned out. It will definitely be dry by the time I get to it.

The blue doesn’t show up so well on Mum’s carpet, but I promise you it is blue and dark grey. I’m just making one of each chart for the expansion pack so folk can see what each of them look like – and to give me something lovely to put on the front cover!

Also blue is my Morph, from Woolly Wormhead’s Cuboidal collection. It’s growing well and I’m very pleased with it so far. I keep thinking that with the crown at the bottom it would also make an excellent bag…

That’s the inside of the Hat I’ve shown you there – it’s so clever how you don’t break the yarn at all until you finish a round of mitred squares, so even if you’ve got a single ridge of one colour at the start of each square like I have here, there aren’t loads of ends to deal with.

The outside looks like this:

NOT blue is the sock I started at Yarndale. This is my usual plain sock to fit me (80 stitches on 2.25mm) and it is in the RiverKnits’ Open Day Special colourway of “Ankh-Morpork” on Cormo wool. Again, I’m very pleased with how it’s turning out so far, although it has been a little neglected in the past couple of weeks. I’m hoping that by posting a pic of its progress here I will actually remember to take it out of it’s project bag and work on it!

I used the hat for background as I thought there might be a chance the sock would be completely camouflaged by the orange and brown carpet (c.1978 – wool lasts, but you knew that).

Just a short one today as I’m at Mum’s and there is a cup of tea to be made and a game of scrabble to be played.

Take care of yourselves and make something in your favourite colour, K x

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Paper

A side-on view of a large pile of printed patterns. The front cover of Into the Vortex can just be seen out of focus on the top.

There has a been a huge amount of paper in my world over the past few weeks – particularly yesterday. Which is why this morning I thought, “What day is it? Wednesday? But… I didn’t write a blog post yesterday!!”

So, what papery things have been happening? I’ve been printing copies of my patterns for the Popup Wool Show this coming Saturday. Or at least, I had been attempting to. I wanted to print most of them as A4 booklets (so, A3 paper folded in half). When I bought my last printer I was looking for this facility and yes, it printed A3 and yes, it printed duplex. However, it was not until we had it home and unpacked and I had tried every possible setting under the sun that I discovered it did not actually print A3 duplex. Argh. Grrr.

I’ve been attempting to do work arounds by manually turning the paper over, but the printer was frequently picking up several sheets at once (usually on the second pass) and smearing ink everywhere. It had got to the point where I was only inserting a single sheet of A3 into the tray at a time as I was so sick of wasting paper and ink. And then I was sick of wasting time!

The printer got sworn at on several occasions (not that that helped). Eventually at the weekend I gave in and ordered a new printer that actually does print A3 duplex (and also photocopies and scans A3 too!). It arrived yesterday afternoon and was immediately pressed into service. It’s forced a rearrange of the study that actually makes it feel more spacious, even though the new printer is slightly bigger. And the patterns? Wow, I got everything I needed printed out in three hours – which would have taken more like three solid days and lots of pleading, swearing and crying with the previous one. The patterns look fantastic and I can’t wait to show folk at the show on Saturday – I will have at least one copy of everything with me. Below is a small selection!

A selection of my printed patterns spread out on the carpet overlapping with each other.
Selection of printed patterns from Kath Andrews Designs

The new printer is a Brother MFC-J69550W – and after 24 hours or so I am incredibly happy with it. The two paper trays also make life a lot easier as I can have A4 in one and A3 in the other. It wasn’t until I got the final pattern printed out this morning (after some last minute updating to the layout) that I realised how stressful the previous printer had been to use!

Other papery things this week have been the polystyrene heads I have been covering with Décopatch paper to make them look nicer while they are modelling my hats and cowls. I’ve done a third one since taking this picture and have one left to do tomorrow.

Two head forms sit on a pale gold carpet in front of a brown sofa. The left one is covered with blue and green peacock feather paper, the right with blue and pink peacock feather paper. They are shiny.
Décopatch Heads

Also, the paper copies of Haven; Knit Lace Patterns arrived! The books look beautiful as Knit Picks books always do. As I get two copies of each book I have a pattern in, I will be doing a giveaway for one of them with my Facebook group at some point in the near future. So, if you’d like a chance of winning one, go and join!

Two copies of a knitting book are on a pale gold carpet. The front cover showing a seated woman knitting wearing jeans and a blue lace shawl is upwards on the right copy, overlapping the back cover showing on the right. There are three pics part visible on the back - all of the same woman wearing different knitted lace garments.
Haven; Knit Lace Patterns

Have I done any knitting in the meantime? Yes, a little!

The new secret project is coming on nicely, after a few little tweaks to allow for the differences between the yarn I swatched with (a really rounded and bouncy DK from Colinette) and the yarn I’m really using (West Yorkshire Spinners Fleece). As it’s secret I can’t show you yet, but I think you’ll like it when I do!

I finished one sock for my nibling and started the second one: Yarn is from The Knitting Goddess. The black yarn is hard to see in the evenings unless I’ve got a really good lamp on it; definitely more of a daytime knit.

One complete sock and a sock in progress on a pale gold carpet. The majority of the sock is semi-solid black yarn with a trans pride flag striping just below the cuff
Trans Pride Flag Sock

I’ve also got about one third of the way through the next square in the Nevern Throw Expansion Pack. I may alter the bottom of the curves in the centre a little. Yes, I did pin straight into the carpet. If I hadn’t the photo wouldn’t have shown you much – the lower image of the two is the same knitting unpinned!

'split screen' photo. The upper part shows a stranded square in progress pinned out to show the celtic knot work patterns on it, the lower square is the same knitting without pins - all rolled up.
New Nevern Throw Square in progress

This was knitted whilst watching the new Elvis film – it’s really good and I’d recommend it. I don’t consider myself a big Elvis fan, but the film certainly had me tapping my feet and having a little chair boogie every now and then!

One more head to cover with paper and shiny glue and then it’s all systems go for the show on Saturday – Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight, 10am-4pm. There’s also a heavy duty wire shelving unit to assemble tomorrow, but I’ll tell you all about that once it’s done!

Take care one and all, and I hope to see you at the Popup Wool Show on Saturday if you’re anywhere around the North West of England at the weekend. K x

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The Kits Are Alright!

Four small cream bags lined up each showing two of the four half balls of yarn they hold, a larger blue bag on each end holding two whole balls of yarn.

The past few days have been mostly about prepping for the Pop-Up Wool Show at Hulme Hall in Port Sunlight on August 20th. I’ve been checking my stocks of kits, gift tag sets, patterns etc and making lots and lots of lists! I’m quite proud of my kits. They all come with a cotton project bag, metal stitch markers (if needed and the correct number for the pattern), a printed pattern and yarn in majority natural fibres.

Today a folding 6 foot table was delivered. Not only do the legs fold away, but the whole thing folds in half so it can fit in the car!

I’ve also borrowed back lots of knitted samples from Yarn O’clock and borrowed a couple of little stands to add to my display set-up.

The Mini Socks Advent Calendar looks great on the tree!

Mini Socks Advent Calendar, Kath Andrews, on tree

I also took pics of it hung on the mantlepiece and a door, as not everyone has a tree they can hang 24 mini socks on.

Mini Socks Advent Calendar, Kath Andrews, hung on mantlepiece
Mini Socks Advent Calendar, Kath Andrews, hung on door

The kits are all made up and include stitch markers and the tags for the numbers, as well as 10cm pieces of ribbon to tie them to the hanging loops and one long piece of ribbon to hang them from.

This is what a four colour kit looks like:

Mini Socks Advent Calendar Kit Pinks

The striped sock has been test knit (by Anne at Yarn O’clock) and she made hers super stripy, as one of her yarns was variegated. Doesn’t it look cute?

Striped Sock from Mini Socks Advent Calendar

There have been a few things happening this week that are not wool show related. I finished the Morse Code Cowl! It is currently drying having had a bath this morning. I was very pleasantly surprised that no dye emerged while it was soaking, despite the yarns being such deep saturated colours – excellent yarn from The Travel Knitter.

Morse Code Cowl Front, poem by Sue Finch, knitting by Kath Andrews
Morse Code Cowl Back, poem by Sue Finch, knitting by Kath Andrews

I know the poem will be impossible to read, partly as it curves around the cowl, partly as it’s in Morse Code and partly as there is not a lot of contrast between the two yarn colours, but it’s satisfying to know that it really is Sue’s poem. This is the actual poem that I knitted into the cowl:

This Was Once a Good Poem

but it has eaten cheese and pickle rolls for a week now

and it can’t work out why the vitamins aren’t working.

It rocks in the chair until its eyes are too tired to see

and has scared itself with thoughts of Autumn spiders

under glasses in the hallway.

It is wondering if it is true that conkers in corners

keep arachnids at bay

and is now standing in the dark

sniffing last year’s horse chestnuts

desperate to find their scent.

Sue Finch

I also took delivery of some yarn for a project I won’t be able to show you for AGES, but it’s going to be a fun one. The yarn is gorgeous – Fleece from West Yorkshire Spinners in Ecru and Fellside – and I’m looking forward to casting on later today.

West Yorkshire Spinners Fleece in Ecru and Fellside

We harvested our broad beans at the weekend, along with the first two of our squashes/courgettes. The broad beans were pitiful in quantity, but tasted good. This is the entire crop in the left-hand photo!

Broad Bean Harvest
First of the Squashes

And on a slightly less healthy, but very fun, note – did you know you can now get BLUE Jammie Dodgers?! They are filled with coloured, berry-flavoured apple jam.

Blue Jammie Dodgers!

Anyway, today’s post was going to be a short one – but it doesn’t seem to have turned out that way! Take care one and all, and if you happen to be in the Port Sunlight area on August 20th it would be great to see you!

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Christmas in July

24 mini socks lie drying in two rows on white foam mats. A larger sock is at the bottom right. The socks are a mix of solid colours, stripes and colour blocks in various combinations of four yarns; purple, pink, red and multicoloured.

The Mini Socks Advent Calendar is almost complete! The socks are knitted, the ends are woven in, the hanging loops have been crocheted and sewn on (and more ends woven in) and they have all had a nice relaxing bath. The measurements and gauge have been taken, the pattern is written up and checked and I’ve decided what order I’m going to hang them in.

A close up of the mini socks drying in two rows on white foam mats. 10 are visible. A larger sock is at the bottom right. The socks are a mix of solid colours, stripes and colour blocks in various combinations of four yarns; purple, pink, red and multicoloured.
Kath Andrews Mini Socks Advent Calendar close-up

Although there are twelve pairs of socks I have decided not to hang them in pairs, but instead following the sequence: solid-striped-colour block. And overlaid on that is another sequence following the colours of the cuffs; red-pink-multi-purple up to the halfway point and then reversed. I like it, but if you make the advent calendar you can hang them in any order you prefer! You could even hang them all separately on a Christmas tree to make the hunt more of a challenge.

All I need now is for the small round kraft labels to arrive so I can tie the numbers on to the hanging loops and string the whole thing together with ribbon and hang it up for some proper photos!

The kits are prepped – I’ll have seven with me at the Pop-up Wool Show – three in the colourway shown, two in a blue/green/purple/multi combo, one in just red and cream and one in blue and cream. All using West Yorkshire Spinners ColourLab DK, with the multicoloured yarns being two of the Zandra Rhodes special colourways.

The Mini Socks Advent Calendar takes 200g of DK yarn and I was able to get the larger Day 25 bonus pattern out of that amount as well, though it might be a push if your gauge is looser.

Kits will be £20 to include the yarn, a printed copy of the pattern, stitch markers and a cotton project bag. The pattern will also be available on its own as it makes a great stash buster!

A small hand knitted sock in stripes of blue, pink and white lies on a pale gold carpet.
Kath Andrews Tipton Sock

I’ve been on a bit of a sock flurry! This is Tipton. It’s small because this version was actually a swatch for a submission, but it’s intended as an adult sized sock. While it wasn’t chosen to be part of the collection I submitted it for, I do like it and have decided to work on the pattern for self-publication. This sample swatch was knitted with CoopKnits Socks Yeah! I’ve had the colours for ages and think they’re now discontinued, so I will need to go on a yarn hunt (what a shame…!) for current yarns in these colours. I’ll tell you more about Tipton another time.

A cross-stitch in progress showing a variety of pride flags
Safe Space by Peppermint Purple in progress

My cross stitch is coming on. Safe Space by Peppermint Purple is a fab design that comes in both cross stitch and blackwork versions and includes a huge variety of pride flags. 50% of the profits from the pattern go to Stonewall as well. Can you see any similarity between one of the flags and Tipton?

An embroidery in progress re-creating a b&w photo of my mum in her twenties
Photo Embroidery of Mum in progress

My intention to complete four more colours this month is stalled – partly as I’m currently working on one of the most prevalent colours. It’s a dark grey which is almost indistinguishable from the black and it’s not easy going on the eyes. I’ve found a good solution to help me not lose my place on the chart in between stitching sessions though – a small post-it with an arrow drawn on it pointing at the last stitch I worked. Using magnetic strips wouldn’t help much with this one as the colours jump around so very much. I think I’ve done more on Safe Space instead as it can be worked without reference to the chart for every single stitch!

A close up of a stranded hand knitted cowl in progress. Main colour is dark red. Black is used for purl stitches in the corrugated ribbing and the morse code poem
Kath Andrews Morse Code Cowl 2

Do you remember the red and black yarn I purchased from The Travel Knitter at the RiverKnits Open Day? It’s halfway to becoming a stranded cowl. The Morse Code Cowl, as I have called it, has one of my lovely wife’s poems translated into Morse code and then converted into a knitting chart. That was a LOT of work, before I could even cast on! But it’s coming on. I am most pleased with the section that isn’t Morse code – the part that will say “Poem, Sue Finch“:

The other side of the hand knitted cowl in progress, showing the poet's name - Sue Finch - worked in black on a dark red background.
Kath Andrews Morse Code Cowl 1

The link on her name will take you to her publishers where you can read some reviews of her first collection, Magnifying Glass. (And you can buy it if you like what you read!).

The last pic I’m going to share with you is one of those roses I rescued last week. They still look might fine in their bowl of water! The orange has changed to a more pinkish shade now and they’ve opened up, completely filling the bowl. It was a really good way to save what otherwise looked like a bunch of flowers destined for the compost.

A glass bowl filled with nine rose heads floating in water. They are orange shading to pink in the centres.
The rescued roses – one week on!

Take care one and all, and look after the folks around you as well as yourselves. And, if you can, go knit something – maybe plan ahead a little!

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I Can Sing a Rainbow

A close-up shot of the back of a piece of knitting using a muted rainbow of colours moving from left on the red to purple on the right

These past few days I have been SO grateful to work from home. No hot and sticky commute and I can move between rooms as the sun moves round the house. (Yes, I know, technically, the sun stays put, but it’s an easier way to think of it, okay?) It has still been very hot, and doing the ironing yesterday morning just because that’s what I do on a Monday perhaps wasn’t my best choice, but I have been able to cope with it fairly well.

Today has mostly been overcast, warm and rather humid with occasional bits of rain, but definitely more comfortable. The sun is now making its first appearance of the day (at 5.30pm) and I’m writing this a little later than usual because I had a visitor! Yes, a real-life friend came to the house for a cuppa and a natter (hi Liz – thanks for the cosmos!) and before we knew it three hours had flown by.

Since the weekend I’ve been knitting like mad with the RiverKnits rainbow yarn, as my tech editor has a window next week when she can edit the pattern. I’m now on the final section, working with colour no.12 and about to bring back colours 1, 2 & 3 for a last hurrah.

Aren’t these colours just gorgeous? The knitting is deliberately scrumpled up and inside out as I’m not showing you the full design until nearer publication, but I wanted to be able to show you all the colours together.

The pattern is all written up in my bullet journal, which isn’t a lot of help to Deb, so I also need to type it up, but at least I have written it out properly and not just made a few vague notes or used some kind of shorthand that I then can’t translate. A bit of typing I can do.

Since bringing home those embroidery threads from Mum’s, I have been slightly obsessing over storage solutions. As a result of some googling I am now getting emails from Pinterest with suggestions of things I might like. They’re right – many of these cabinets are stunning.

The boxes and tins Mum’s threads were in were not big enough for both her threads and my existing ones, so I did need a coherent solution. There are two brands, DMC and Anchor. The DMC ones now have a rather splendid home:

This is the top drawer of an old small chest (also from Mum) that had been used to keep a random collection of bits and bobs. Now it’s highly organised thread storage! You see those dividers? I made those from an Aldi bran flakes box. That white line on the pic below is where the bottom flaps of the box were glued together.

When I’ve finished the next box of cereal, I’ll do another set of dividers for the next drawer and fill that with the Anchor threads!

My newsletter subscribers have had access to a special sale during the past week that finished yesterday. It gave them 25% off all patterns by using an exclusive-to-them code. I’m really pleased that some took advantage of it. One Australian knitter is clearly planning ahead as they bought SIX patterns at once! Surprise sales like this don’t happen all the time, but they are one of the benefits of being a newsletter subscriber. Other benefits include introductory discounts off new self-published patterns in their first week. If that sounds like something you’d like, why not sign up? You only get one newsletter a month (unless there’s something really exciting I need to tell you that is time sensitive), so I promise not to clog up your inbox.

With it being properly hot and likely to remain so for a little while, you’ll probably want lightweight knitting to do (if you are a knitter). Laceweight yarn is perfect for this season – and good value financially as well. And just because it is really thin does NOT mean it needs tiny thin knitting needles.

What Do Points Make? (the 2020 MKAL with Yarn O’clock) uses laceweight yarn and 4.5mm needles. Only the largest size of four needs more than 100g of yarn, so it’s cost-effective to make and light as a feather to wear. In fact, I’m wearing this one (in size three) as I type.

That’s all for today – I’m going to go and drink my fourth pint of water. Stay hydrated folks and do what makes you happy. K x

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Gathering it all Together

A close-up shot of part of my table at the pop-up shop in Feb 2020 - various yarn kits, patterns and knitted samples arrayed on the table.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that Anne at Yarn O’clock and I have been planning something for September. Well, it’s going to be happening!

We are hosting a small yarn gathering in Mold on Sunday 18th September!! We’ll be open 10-4, which will allow you plenty of time to visit us AND the Mold Food and Drink Festival which will also be happening that weekend.

There’s a dedicated page on the website that has the full details and the same page will be on Yarn O’clock’s website too.

On the subject of yarnie events, did I mention I’m going to be exhibiting at the Pop-Up Wool Show in Port Sunlight this year? It’s at Hulme Hall on Saturday 20th August. Although the exhibitor list isn’t fully up to date on their website, I will be there! It’ll be my first event of this kind since the ‘before times’ and my first proper wool show – exciting! I’ve been checking through my designs and planning which ones I will have kits for there. There will also be a completely new pattern launched at the show – with kits! Suffice to say that I came away from Yarn O’clock with bags-a-bulging this morning!

At the weekend I worked out that I’m currently working on four designs, with a fifth submitted yesterday, a sixth swatched that will be submitted next week and two others that will be worked on in the coming months. One of those will be a mystery knit-along, but it won’t be happening until October. This is probably why I’ve not had a huge amount of knitting that I can actually share with you recently…

So here is a sneak peek at my progress with the Rainbow minis from RiverKnits:

I’m loving these greens! With 20g of each colour, it’s possible to plan the design so the colour changes fit in nicely, and with 12 colours to play with I’m always keen to jump into the project bag to check out what the next one is going to be.

What else have I been up to? Well, I’ve started spinning some chunkier yarn. I’ve got 200g of undyed Polwarth that is a dream to spin with and, as I knew it wouldn’t be all knotty and misbehaved, so it seemed like the perfect choice to practice spinning thicker singles. It’s working out really well at the moment, but I’m going to have to weigh what’s left to work out when to start the second bobbin. This yarn won’t be chain plied (3-ply), so the two strands will need to be on separate bobbins, as there’s no way I’m going to wrap 200g yarn round my wrist to bracelet ply it (working from both ends of the yarn simultaneously)!

I’ve sort of found room for all the embroidery floss and other bits and bobs I came back with last week, but I’ll probably end up reorganising the study again at some point as I don’t think everything is in an entirely logical place yet. However, that will need to wait a little while!

My ‘Safe Space’ cross-stitch, designed by Peppermint Purple is making some progress. I’ve decided to do one flag at a time, rather than complete one colour at a time and it’s making it much easier. Of the 33 flags in the design, I’m on my fifth.

I’m so pleased the design includes a map identifying all the flags as there are lots I don’t know. I also didn’t realise before that the gender queer flag uses the same colours as terfs use (the suffragette colours) and which are ALSO my old college colours (purple, white, and green).

I’ve also been working on ironing out the issues with the pdf that will accompany my next Craftucation course (An Introduction to Knitting) – Graeme, the amazing tech wizard behind their website, had to do some rummaging to work out why I was unable to edit it and figure out some workarounds. I can now make it behave and get photos on the same page as their captions (I’d list that under ‘quite important’!) with a little bit of prodding. There’s one more section (5 chapters) left to do and (I’ve done 22 chapters already!) then it can be uploaded for approval and listing.

On Sunday we spotted a ripening raspberry in the garden, so very soon I hope to be able to share pics of our first harvest of the summer with you. The blackcurrants are nearly ready to pick as well!

Take care of each other and stay safe, K x

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Rounding Up

A large drift of chives with lots of purple flowers taking over one corner of the bed.

Last week I promised a round-up of the Calon Cariad shawls, didn’t I? Well, I’ve had a scour through the images posted in my Facebook group, posted on Instagram with the hashtag or sent to me and this is a good mix! I know for certain that Anne’s (top left) is finished, but I don’t have a picture of it post blocking.

Shawls knitted by: Top, L-R: Anne, Sandra, Patricia; Middle, L-R: me, me, Katrin; Bottom, L-R: Markus, Karen.

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I think you’ll agree they all did a fabulous job! I know there are some other knitters out there who also made a start on their shawl and if you are one of them and have some progress to show, please send me a pic!

Speaking of progress… things are happening in the veg plot! As well as the chives flowering profusely, the broad beans are starting to make their presence felt more and I’ve planted the edamame beans and the squash and courgette plants. The rhubarb is also finally finding its feet after we split the crown and moved it, giving various parts away and the raspberries, red and blackcurrants and apple tree all look like they’re going to be quite productive this year!

It’s not a massive garden, but it’s got a lot in it (including the ground elder which I’ve chosen not to show you)!

I made some ‘same-day’ sourdough rolls yesterday – it’s a quicker process which uses more sourdough starter than the regular recipe (100g instead of 50g) and they came out of the oven a mere 13 hours after feeding Audrey2 (my starter). My lovely wife chose her two favourite ones this morning for her lunch before I’d remembered to photograph them! They are lush.

I have been doing quite a bit of knitting this week, but sadly none of it is stuff I can show you at the moment. I’ve also been doing lots of Excel spreadsheet magic, calculating (and recalculating) the sleeves for the sweater I’m working on. It makes life so much easier when you can make the formulae do the hard work for you (and when you know the ones you need), and then also round the results up/down/to a specific multiple. I’m going to cast on the sleeve for the third time later on and hope that it will be third time lucky. Fortunately, WYS Fleece DK is a very forgiving yarn!

The workshops I mentioned last week are filling up. The Two-Colour Brioche class is full (which is good as that is the first one – next week!), Beginners’ Crochet has one or two spaces left and there are spaces on the Closed Ring Cables workshop.

And on Saturday I get to see some sheep! We are going to the Riverknits Open Day which I’m really looking forward to.

I’ll tell you all about that next week – the blog post will be on Wednesday next week and I’ll tell you about the Brioche workshop then too!

Til then, take care and make time to do some of what makes you happy. K x

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All These Things That I’ve Done

Last week I finished by telling you I had marmalade to make when I got home. And indeed I did. However, the lovely Chris from Hampton Farm Shop had popped in the last few of the Seville oranges in addition to the ones I’d asked for, so rather than 1.4kg (3lb) of oranges, I had 2kg (4.5lb)!!

Marmalade was made on Thursday AND on Friday. It’s rather gorgeous in both colour and taste and I have found a solution to the skin withering tendency of the oranges when squeezing and chopping them – wear gloves! Obvious really, but it’s taken me until now…

This coming Friday sees the launch of our latest KAL – Calon Cariad and I’m really pleased that a number of people will be knitting along with us. The invites to the Cast-on Party on Zoom have started going out and I have got my chosen yarn all balled up; three skeins of CoopKnits Socks Yeah! in Xenon, which is a truly NEON pink.

I’ve also finally done some more embroidery and I *think* I may nearly be done with the black thread.

The spinning is coming on too – the 15 minutes per colour seems to be working well!!

I’m also working on a new pattern that is due for release next month (if you’re in my Facebook group you’ll have seen a sneak peek pic of it!).

I have blocked my Water Dragon Shawl and I love it. I still have the ends to weave in, but apart from that it is done! The top left image is straight after I cast off. The next is whilst blocking and the other two are after blocking.

This month’s pattern (due at the end of the month) is the re-launch of Of Night and Light, the colourwork vest that appeared in Knit Now Issue 134 last October – the rights return to me this month and I will get the pattern formatted into my standard layout and some new photos taken over the next couple of weeks.

But it’s not all been about the new things this week.

Today I have been mending my favourite cardigan (again). It’s three and a half years old and I wear it A LOT. The repairs and re-knits it has had deserve a post all to themselves and that will be what I tell you all about next week.

Have a good one and do stuff that makes you smile. K x