Tag: Honeybun

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After the Storm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Try, try again

Before writing a new blog post I like to re-read the one from the previous week. This gives me a sense of what I’ve actually accomplished in the intervening 7 days – and it’s often a surprise!

For example, last week I had just made the first of nine Persian granny squares for my Persian Tiles Blanket, designed by Jane Crowfoot. By Friday evening I had these…!

The other eight are nearly complete! In her talk at Wool-in Garden City, Jane Crowfoot recommended taking a ‘production line’ approach when making several motifs that are the same and I can see why – it really is a lot quicker and easier to do, and you don’t have to keep changing yarn colour or hook size so often either! The double treble stitches that cross over and attach onto stitches three rounds in are quite tricky and the number of times I have to restart those is quite amusing!

After posting photos of the sleeves of my adult Honeybun cardigan blocking last Tuesday, there has been a lot of work and change with this design. I realised, after I’d seamed the sleeves and started to pin them to the body, that I’d forgotten to include the main underarm cast-off from the body into the sleeve shaping. This meant I wouldn’t be able to successfully seam the sleeves to the body at all, and the whole sleeve cap for both sleeves would need to be ripped out. It also meant I had to completely recalculate the sleeve cap decreases and the shoulder shaping.

It was a bit galling having to go backwards quite so much, but at least I only needed to undo about an inch of the sleeve seam in order to get the stitches back on the needle.

From there I was able to reknit both sleeve caps and seam the sleeves to the body.

Having popped to Yarn O’clock on Saturday afternoon to get a 120cm 2.5mm needle, I picked up stitches all around the body for the button band – somewhere around 900 sts. By Sunday evening I had worked the 14-row button band, calculating the position of the buttonholes to my satisfaction and included an extra bit of shaping near the neck from my Caramel Slice design. I cast off almost half of the stitches and got my lovely wife Sue to try it on. It’s not her style of thing at all, but she will model almost anything to help me out! Once it was on an actual person I could see the extra neck shaping did not work in this design. It was an increase worked every other row, starting in the row after the pick-up…

So, guess what? The button band got ripped back to the pick-up (no way I was going to pick up all those stitches from scratch again if I could help it) and off we went again. I’m now back on the cast-off for the second time, without the extra neck shaping. It looks much better and I really do think that by tonight it will be finished.

Then I just have to weave in the rest of the ends, calculate the button band pick-ups and buttonholes for the other 19 sizes and check the pattern through. Oh, and choose, buy and sew on the buttons. I think I might wash and block the whole completed cardigan as well. I’ve booked the pattern in with my tech editor – fingers crossed it will be ready for Wonderwool Wales in April!

There isn’t a lot else I have to show you this week – although I have updated my “Where I’ll Be” page, so do have a look at that.

My sister-in-law has been visiting for the past few days and, as well as all of us having fun and laughter here, she and Sue greatly enjoyed the snooker semi-final at Llandudno. I stayed home and knitted – snooker isn’t really my thing and it’s good for them to have some proper ‘sister-time’ too.

I’ve got quite a range of other designs coming up soon – hopefully I will be able to tease you with a few sneak peeks at some swatches for new ideas next week. Hint – there will be slip stitches and cables involved in some of them, as well as lace and brioche in others!

Until then, take care and stay warm. K x

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Housiversary

Part of a crocheted octagon motif from the Persian Tiles blanket by Janie Crow. It is in orange, red, dark blue, teal, yellow, light blue and cream.

Twenty years ago today we moved into our bungalow. Moving from our little flat we thought that we’d never run out of space again. How naive we were!

Regular clear outs and de-clutters have to happen to help us still fit into our home that has become more and more ‘us’ over the years. During the time we’ve been here, pretty much the only things that haven’t been changed are the walls and the bathroom (apart from the basin which had to be replaced). The garden has grown along with us too: the daffodils we planted in the lawn last year are starting to come up, the roses and fruit bushes are ready for pruning and the hellebores and snowdrops look beautiful.

It’s made me think about how things can change over time so that even though technically you’re in the same place, in other ways you’re definitely not.

When we moved in I was 30, teaching music (still part-time then) and singing as a regular alto dep at the cathedral. Now I’m 50, I’ve been out of the classroom for 5 1/2 years, I’m working with yarn full time, designing, teaching knitting, exhibiting at yarn shows and I’m singing again.

Back in the day I had made a couple of (quite simple) crochet jumpers and I loved them. I made a couple of granny square blankets too. Then I didn’t do any crochet for years, apart from the odd edging to a piece of knitting or an amigurumi, such as the unicorn I made for my sister-in-law and the Pikachu I made for Sue.

Then last year I started the Mystical Lanterns blanket designed by Janie Crow and loved it. I’ve not yet finished it, but it’s coming on. And last week I began my most challenging crochet project yet – the Persian Tiles blanket, again designed by Janie Crow. I’ve completed one octagon motif which was very successful and tried a small granny triangle which is a little lopsided at the moment.

Persian Tiles octagon motif

It’s so good to learn new things, especially when you teach – getting yourself into the place of ‘not knowing’ is really valuable to understand what it feels like for your students!

I mentioned exhibiting at yarn shows. I’ve already publicised that I’ll be at East Anglia Yarn Festival (EAYF) in Norwich next month and Buxton Wool Gathering in May.

I can now let you know that I’ll also be at Wonderwool Wales in April! This is held at the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth Wells and has always been my favourite show to visit, so I’m thrilled to be exhibiting there.

I’ll be back at the Pop-Up Wool Show in Port Sunlight too in August. And there may be more shows to tell you about in the coming months as well!!

In terms of designing, I’m juggling a couple of things at the moment. The sleeves for the adult Honeybun are nearly complete – I just need to work out how to add the extra shoulder shaping into the pattern writing.

Then the button band and it’s off to the tech editor! Fingers crossed it will be ready for Wonderwool.

I’m also working on a lovely reversible cowl which I hope will be out quite soon (no pics of that yet).

I bought some fab yarn at Ewe & Ply on Saturday and it’s already being used!

Caramel Slice was first published in The Knitter in August last year and the rights have now returned to me. The pattern is now in my own format and I’ve taken some new photos with Shelby modelling the cardigan. Once these have been fully edited and added to the pattern it will be ready to be published and I will have printed copies of the pattern with me at EAYF!

I’m at my mum’s until tomorrow – Cleo the cat says hello:

And I’ll say goodbye until next week!

Take care all and have a good week, K x

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I Feel Good!

We got home from Bath this afternoon, after a few days there to celebrate my turning 50. It’s where I went for my 40th and I had such a good time (coupled with the fact that two of my old school friends lived there at the time, and one of them still does), that I wanted to go back!

Different things were done during this visit from the previous one. I had hoped to visit the Fashion Museum, but had somehow missed the fact that the Assembly Rooms, in whose basement the museum was housed, has been taken over by the National Trust and is being restored. All the clothes went into storage last December before they move to a new home! However, as part of our 12.6km walk yesterday (!), we happened across a small textile exhibition taking place in a building on Queen’s Square and enjoyed visiting that instead.

I remember visiting Wool 10 years ago. We went there again and this time we also visited A Yarn Story, at the top of Walcot Street.

Also on Walcot Street was The Yellow Shop, outside which I did my ‘lego princess’ impression.

It was a long walk between the two wool shops, but definitely worth the effort. And of course, I bagged some goodies in both shops!

1 ball of Zauberball from Wool

My old school friend who lives in Bath plays violin in the Pump Room Trio. She very kindly booked us in for Afternoon Tea (thank you Lucy!), and we got to enjoy the splendour of the Pump Room and an extraordinary vegan afternoon tea, all whilst the piano trio (piano, violin and cello – not as I once thought, three pianos) played beautiful music. There was a massive range of styles – elegant classical era pieces, the theme tune from Desert Island discs, a lovely piece of Fauré, ‘Maria’ from West Side Story, Mad World, and a rendition of Happy Birthday as two extra mini cakes were brought out – one for me and one for the other person celebrating their birthday during that sitting. We should have photographed the full spread, but we were so busy in the moment that we forgot, so I just snapped the extra (also vegan) cake:

I have to say that with spending lots of quality time with my lovely wife since Friday, our trip away to Bath (we stayed at Dorian House, which I highly recommend) and all the wonderful messages from everyone on social media, I am thoroughly enjoying being fifty. I feel good! Ronnie says he feels good too – but I’m not quite up to his level of acrobatics. This shot was taken in front of the Royal Crescent:

You may have seen that I have finished Part One of Barragán Shawl – the Knitalong being published in The Knitter.

You can still get the yarn kit as a subscription gift with the mag or order one from McIntosh (that’s an affiliate link) if you’d like to! Now, of course I do have the whole pattern already, but as I’m ‘knitting along’ I’m not going to start Part Two until the next issue of the magazine (issue 195) comes out. That should be around November 1st I think.

I’ve also been doing more sock knitting, finally returning to the sock I began for Sue a while back on the tiny tiny circular needle. I’ve decided that it’s not the best needle type for me after all, and having switched to magic loop (which I mentioned a few weeks ago) I’m now making much better progress. During the drive home I even got to the heel flap! I can’t remember what the yarn is – I bought it eons ago on eBay. I can tell you that I’m using 2mm needles, 80 sts and my usual plain top down style with a reinforced slip stitch heel.

The other knitting you might be interested in seeing this week is the progress I’ve made on the adult version of Honeybun. I’ve extended the colour work section at the bottom, so that proportionally it fills a similar amount of the body to the child’s cardigan, and I’m now heading up to the armpits. I will need another name for this pattern as it will be published separately from the original Honeybun for children, but I need them to be clearly linked by their names. Have you got any ideas? Suggestions in the comments, please!

Finally, there are still spaces available on Twisted, the two-part workshop being held at Yarn O’clock on November 2nd and 16th. Come and learn how to knit two-colour brioche in a moebius ring! £50 for the two sessions (6.30-9pm both Thursdays), including yarn to knit this cowl and the pattern which includes a larger version as well – book your place with Anne at Yarn O’clock – 01352 – 218082.