If you saw my newsletter yesterday, you will have seen that it is ten years (almost – it was June 2012) since my first pattern was published in a magazine and it made the front cover. That was Knit Now, Issue 11, with New York Nights.
On Thursday 12th May, the Issue 176 of The Knitter will hit the shops and the pattern on the front cover is one of mine!! It’s the first pattern I’ve had published in this magazine and this is something that has been a goal of mine for a little while. The styling is beautiful and it suits the model so well.
As you can imagine I’ve been very excited about this design and to finally see it yesterday when the magazine came through my door was a bit of a dream! I’ll be writing more about this and the wonderful yarn I got to knit it with from Thursday.
To celebrate, I treated myself to a pair of earrings from a local shop. Shaz’s Shabby Chic has recently moved to new, bigger premises, and it was my first time visiting the new shop yesterday. I found these gorgeous silver earrings with a Celtic knot engraved into them, made by a local jewellery maker, and I love them.
The cold has very nearly gone by the way – it was ‘just’ a cold, thank goodness, but it was still a bit grotty. I am very glad to be able to go about my day again without having to cough or blow my nose every few minutes!
I promised you a round-up of the finished Calon Cariad shawls from our KAL, and I am aware that I have not yet delivered – this is something I definitely will include next week. If you were taking part in the #CalonCariadKAL, please do send me a pic of your finished shawl (or as far as you’ve got with it) as I’d love to show them all together.
New workshops are now available to book via Anne at Yarn O’clock! Spaces are limited, so if you want to come, book a place soon.
May 24th, 6.30-9pm – Two-Colour Brioche Knitting, £35
June 7th, 7-9pm – Beginners Crochet, £30
June 7th, 7-9pm – Beginners Crochet, £30
June 21st, 6.30-9pm – Closed Ring Cables, £35
The workshops will be held in the Cafe of the Daniel Owen Centre, Mold. Full details are on the Yarn O’clock website.
Yesterday afternoon I was bemoaning the fact that I had a dentist appointment for one (maybe two) fillings this morning. One was the large molar I broke back in February, the other an upper tooth with fractures that were discovered during an X-ray at my last appointment.
I didn’t want to go to the dentist today as I was nervous. I have limited movement in my jaw so holding my mouth open for long is painful (and it was a 40 minute appointment!) – that was worrying me more than the injection and more than the fillings themselves.
And then yesterday evening I began to feel ropey. During the night and this morning I could barely swallow – my throat feels like it’s full of razorblades. I’m now sneezing very loudly and repeatedly. Bugger. It seems I have my wife’s cold. I say ‘cold’ and not Covid as we’ve both tested negative recently, though I will check again tomorrow.
So, I rang the dentist first thing and croaked that I would not be able to make my appointment. It’s been rebooked to mid-June. I promise not to wish I didn’t have to go next time!
On the positive side of things I have only one chapter (16 minutes) left to capture still pics from for my Introduction to Lace Knitting Course and I’ve been swatching for my next two in-person knitting workshops – closed ring cables and 2-colour brioche. The first isn’t for another couple of weeks, fortunately.
I cast on Mum’s new bed socks last night – for some reason I had to do it three times as things kept going amiss. That should probably have been a sign that I wasn’t well, shouldn’t it!? I used the alternate cable cast-on that I learnt knitting a Woolly Wormhead hat as it gives a lovely smooth edge to a ribbed cast-on. I also went up a couple of needle sizes for the cast-on to ensure they stretch enough that Mum will be able to use them even when her legs are bad.
So, it’s a short one from me today. Stay safe, keep well, wear a mask when you can and keep knitting! K x
If you follow me on social media (Twitter, Instagram or Facebook), you will have seen my post yesterday explaining that this week’s blog post would be delayed a day. If you’ve been waiting and didn’t know, I’m sorry. It will be worth the wait though, promise!
On Sunday I went to Wonderwool at the Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells. It has long been my favourite yarn show, partly because the scale of the buildings means you can move about freely and there are plenty of areas of seating as well as a HUGE number of vendors exhibiting their wares.
It was wonderful and slightly overwhelming to be back at a real live yarn show. It’s the first one I’ve been to since Yarndale in September 2019, in the ‘before times’ and I haven’t seen this many human beings in one day since then. There were people who I’ve only communicated with online before, via Zoom or social media, that I was able to talk to face to face for the first time. I think it says something about how effective Zoom and FaceTime are that it didn’t feel as though I hadn’t ‘met’ some of these people ‘in the flesh’ before.
So, as you can see from the main image, I came back with quite a haul of goodies. Let’s have a look at them, shall we?
Fibre for spinning first!
This is a wonderful braid of British Bluefaced Leicester dyed by Sealy MacWheely. It was my first purchase of the day and the colours and softness just made me grin. That and the lovely Katie who dyed it was so great to chat to. 😊 I’m thinking a chain ply would give me a great striped yarn, but I might just do a 2-ply and go for some funky barber-pole stripes.
This little beauty is a Merino gradient dyed by Cassiopeia Yarns. Again, it’s utterly soft and I’m going to adore spinning it. This one is definitely going to be chain plied as I want to maintain the gorgeous gradient effect from one end to the other. Maybe superfine for a lace shawl?
Rachael from Cat and Sparrow sold me this wonderful braid of Polwarth. The colourway is called ‘Ar Lan y Môr’ which is Welsh for ‘Beside the Sea’ and it is also the name of a traditional Welsh folk song. It was only today that I realised this is the same colourway I bought from her before via the online version of the Knit-Tea Retreat last year, which is now a yarn that Mum is gradually knitting into a cowl! Rachael is one of the people it was hard to believe I’d never met ‘in real life’ before as we’ve chatted online quite a bit and it was super to chat face to face on Sunday.
I’d not come across Velvet Sixpence before, but this braid told me it was definitely coming home with me! Another Polwarth (SO soft and a delight to spin), I think this one is going to become something for my lovely wife, as orange is very much her colour.
So, that was the fibre – now on to the yarn!
The first ball of yarn that came into my possession on Sunday was free!! I went up to the Simply Knitting / The Knitter stand and was offered the opportunity to spin the wheel. Whichever colour the arrow landed on indicated the basket from which I could select a ball of yarn. Cool, eh? I was delighted to find this ball of self-striping Novita yarn. It’s an aran weight 75% wool, 25% polyamide which will make either some chunky bedsocks or a hat. The yarn is actually striped with three distinct shades of blue and a green, although at first glance you might think the palest blue is white. And I had a chat with Kirstie and the ladies too!
Now this yarn is something special. Northampton Shear laceweight yarn from Riverknits. It was lovely to meet Becci and Markus in person and chat away. Again, I encountered them first through the Knit-Tea Retreat and then followed them on social media (that sounds a bit like stalking, doesn’t it? I promise it wasn’t!). Markus joined in with our most recent KAL – Calon Cariad – and he knit his from this very yarn. The shawl was on display as part of their stall which was very exciting to see and I wish I’d taken a photo – though you can see it if you look at the Riverknits Instagram page. Northampton Shear is a single ply yarn that is 100% Shetland wool from Braunston, Northamptonshire that is spun & hand dyed in the UK. The way the dye is picked up over the natural colours of the wool is stunning, giving a really, rich layered effect.
This skein of ‘Dark Forest’ from Mothy and the Squid was one of the later purchases of the day. I love the range of greens in the yarn and also the black that stripes through it in places. Being a Superwash Merino / nylon mix this will make long lasting socks, but it is also soft and silky enough for something close to your neck.
I’d not heard of The Crafty Bird before, but the range of colours she had were lovely. This is ‘Crisp Autumn Day’. It’s another Superwash Merino / Nylon mix, but it’s a different base from the green above. It’s also slightly thinner as 100g brings a very generous 425m.
I love Kauni yarns with the really long colour shifts, though I’ve only used their 4-ply so far. SKD Yarns sell this and it’s really quite funny to have travelled nearly 100 miles to buy a ball of yarn from people who are based less than five miles from where I live! The colours are really me. It was my cheapest wool purchase of the day, at £8.42 for 800m laceweight – an absolute bargain!
I’ve made a pair of Raggsocks from a kit from Midwinter Yarns before and they are my mum’s favourite bedsocks, guaranteed to fit no matter what her ankles are up to. So, I thought I would make another pair and this colourway is just right for her. Mr Midwinter looked very dashing in his kilt and I spoke to a lovely lady (not Estelle, but possibly her mum) who almost got me buying a sweater’s worth of their Ulligen Recycled Yarn (made from scraps of wool from the textiles industry that would otherwise go to waste) for a ‘Confetti’ sweater by Veera Valimaki. I resisted the urge (just about), but I’m sure it’s a yarn I will be using at some point – it was fab.
Finally, there were some non-wool purchases – apart from the cup of tea and vegan fruit cake that were very much appreciated!
First off all, I bought a pattern from Anniken Allis and had a nice chat with her. I know I design lace shawls myself, but this is a shape I’ve neither knitted nor used myself before and it really intrigues me. The lace patterns in it are beautiful too. I think the wedge shape in the centre makes it a Faroese style shawl. Maybe I will use some of the laceweight yarn I bought on Sunday for it and make a double Wonderwool momento!
As I was travelling from Wonderwool to Mum’s on Sunday afternoon, and it was her birthday on Monday, I really wanted to be able to find her a little gift from the show as part of her birthday present. These hand coiled coasters from Lilliputwight were perfect! They’re in the centre of the picture here. Unfortunately I didn’t take a separate photo of them before I left Mum’s yesterday. She is very happy with them – particularly as they go very well with her quilted placemats and the coiled rope means they have a much more ‘grabby’ surface than the glossy picture coasters she has, making them practical as well as beautiful.
You couldn’t miss the amazing hand-turned pot in the picture above, could you? It’s stunning and the blue/green is from two resin inserts that were sandwiched into the wood before turning. This was a gift for Sue, my lovely wife. It was given immediate pride of place among her pen pots (which is what I thought she would use it for), though I’ve yet to show her the magic that occurs when you place a light inside the pot – it glows through the resin! The pot was from Turning Amber Woodcraft, the husband to All Wool that Ends Wool who were right at the end of Hall 2.
What a haul, eh? As well as talking to lots of stallholders, one of the lovely things about a show like this is striking up conversation with likeminded people when you sit down for a cup of tea. I encountered several friends during the day as well which was great – it’s always good to see some familiar faces in a crowd!
Yarn shows are also a place where you can wear your hand-knits knowing they’ll be appreciated by others for the work that has gone into it as well as the colour of the yarn or pretty shape.
I chose to wear my Meg March shawl and got so many compliments on it. I know that knitters always want to know the pattern name of pieces they admire, so I went prepared by taking some of my Moo business cards. I’m glad I did as I ended up handing out quite a few and even sold two copies of the pattern during the day to people I’d spoken to! (Thanks Sealy MacWheely and Roy!).
It was quite a day – a real grand day out. Wearing a mask for the whole day was no problem – though I did nearly forget I was wearing it at one point when I went to sip my water – that could have been messy.
So, you can see why after that and a couple of days at Mum’s I was not really capable of writing this post when I got home yesterday evening – it’s taken two and a half hours as it is!!
The rest of today will be spent catching up with stuff, patting yarn and fibre and continuing to work on the still photos for my new online course.
Take care, stay safe and do what makes you happy, K x
Today has been good – despite the apparent chaos of my desk!
I got an email this morning that made me VERY excited and I can’t wait to share the news with you – soon I hope!
Also, after several days pondering the front neck shaping and the armhole depth on my current sweater design I was able to spend some serious time crunching numbers and playing with the coloured pens again. It’s taken several hours comparing lots of different size charts and sweater designs of similar construction, but I now have something I’m really happy with. (There will be a saddle shoulder above this, so knitters please don’t worry if it looks a little short to you!)
It does mean there’s a knock-on effect on the numbers for the sleeves – and my spreadsheet for the sleeve increases was a thing of beauty, but there’s no reason the new and improved one can’t be too!
My secret knitting is all finished and blocked and I love it. Just the ends to weave in now – and because it’s structured with the stripes going along the length, rather than the width, that means there are only 34 ends! My latest socks had more than that!
I also got out into the garden this afternoon and FINALLY sowed the courgette, squash and broad bean seeds. The broad beans have gone straight in the ground, while the courgette and squash seeds have gone into multi-cell trays in the mini-greenhouse. I even dug its plastic cover out of the garage. The cover has to come off in autumn and winter as, living in what we still believe to be one of the windiest towns ever as we do, it does try to make the whole structure take off or blow over. And that’s with the bottom shelf weighted down with every heavy stone and brick we can find! It was good to get outside in the sunshine and do something that will hopefully bring us some food in a few months!
Speaking of the sunshine – we did get our trip to Prestatyn. In fact we went twice and had a lovely time. We had a very chilly paddle on the second visit (having been more organised and brought a towel that time), Ronnie (our Rhino) practised his gymnastics and dancing and we really enjoyed the peace and the sea air. We also discovered Rhuddlan Castle – though sadly it was closed to visitors. I also completed a lot of my hat and I am still pinching myself that I made this yarn!
And here is the top of the finished hat. That is the beauty of a 12-point right-leaning spiral as designed by Woolly Wormhead. I love how the stripes gradually get wider as the number of stitches reduces.
On Sunday I am going to Wonderwool at the Royal Welsh Showground in mid-Wales. I am both excited and a little nervous about this as I haven’t been to an event with so many people attending since ‘the before times’, but I was pleased to see the organisers saying they would appreciate it if people wore masks in the exhibition halls. The great thing about Wonderwool is that the halls are so big there is always a good sense of space – not something that can be said about all the yarn shows I’ve been to, as some are really constrained by the limits of the building. I hope to have lots to show you and tell you all about next week!
I should have saved last week’s blog post title (A Little Fall of Rain) for today. We were going to have a day trip to Prestatyn and have lunch on the beach. Except it’s been raining. All day. Fingers crossed for drier weather in the next few days. 🤞
Today’s title is just as fitting though (Check out Waiting for the Phone by Jeff Ronay)!
We had planned to have a seaside day yesterday, but ended up waiting for a plumber for the second day in a row. On Day 1 (Sunday) we had a leak from the pipe into the toilet, so I rang the Home Emergency line of our house insurance. Yes, it was covered if I paid a £25 excess charge, yes, they could get someone to us – he was with us and done within four hours of my first phone call. Though the number of times I had to explain on the phone that no, we didn’t have another toilet, it is our only toilet would make you laugh if it wasn’t true!
However, it seemed we had merely swapped a big leak for some new piping and a smaller, slower leak. We hoped it might just be condensation on the new copper pipe, but it wasn’t. So, on Day 2 (yesterday, Monday) I rang again at 8.45am. Same procedure (except no queries about the number of loos this time) – the contractors would ring within two hours and tell us when the engineer would be there. But… Three hours came and went and no phone call.
I rang the insurers again. Got put through to the ongoing claims line to find out what was happening only to have a phone line so distorted I could barely make out what the chap was saying. I’m pretty sure he said to hang up and he’d ring me back. Except he didn’t. So, 40 minutes later, I rang again (bear in mind I’m not a massive fan of official phone calls). This time I got Tracy, who put me on hold while SHE rang the contractors and then connected me directly to them. Brilliant – thank you Tracy! Our plumber (Ben – a different chap from the day before) arrived at 3.30 and was able to fix the problem quickly, having agreed that the new nut shouldn’t be wet and dripping water on to the floor.
In theory this was all good knitting time, and in fairness I did get quite a bit of my secret project done (10 very long rows), but being in ‘waiting mode’ for that long? It’s exhausting and for some reason it stops me from being able to settle properly to other tasks. It’s been such a relief to get up today knowing we won’t have to have an another day of waiting for the phone – or keep checking the floor for puddles (they’re all gone!).
Today I plied the sparkly yarn that I’ve been working on for a while. I did include the clump of multicoloured long curly locks that came attached to the fibre batt in one of the singles, though I’m not sure I handled them very well. Looking at Hairy Dog Crafts‘ website, who prepared and dyed the fibre, I think they must be Valais Blacknose – they certainly had a longest staple (length of fibre) I’ve yet experienced. So, I now have some ‘fluffy unicorn’ style yarn sitting on my lazy Kate – the main fibre was a mix of Merino, Corriedale, ‘glitter’ (Angellina?) and Rose Fibre. It will be really interesting to see how it looks once it’s been skeined and washed.
As it’s that time of year I made hot cross buns – a week early, but never mind. They were (and still are) delicious. There’s something about the smell of mixed spice laced dough baking as well that just makes me smile. In case you’d like to try them, this was the recipe, ‘Easy No-Knead Sourdough Hot Cross Buns’. I used all white bread flour and vegan butter (Flora Plant B+tter) in these ones.
And I finished my Good Riddance socks by Lauren Rose (Laur_oftheBlings Designs) – since I hadn’t even turned the heel of the second one when I last wrote I’m quite impressed with myself on this. The ends are still waiting to be woven in though.
These did use a goodly amount of my leftover 4-ply yarns, but I still have a huge amount remaining – a full bag of little bits, as well as several bigger part-balls in one of my yarn storage boxes. I may have to make a second pair. And make more hexiflats (I prefer not to stuff them, so I call them hexiflats rather than hexipuffs!) to continue expanding my Beekeeper’s Quilt.
The transcription of my Introduction to Lace Knitting course is nearly done. Of course, this is the stage where I’m looking at the videos at my most critical and half wishing I could re-do some of them – especially the wet-blocking. Unfortunately, once a lace item has been blocked it never returns to that pre-blocked state, so it’s possible I’d have to re-knit the whole project just to block it again… I think I need to get a more objective pair of eyes on it!
If you want to see the Nos Da baby blanket in the real world and are in the North Wales area, I am glad to say it will be taking up residence at Yarn O’clock in Mold very soon! The hedgehog will be staying at home though.
That’s all from me for today. It’s time for a cuppa and to finish off those transcriptions!
Whatever you do this week, hold your loved ones close (whether human, fur-babies or stuffed hedgehogs!) and do what makes you happy. K x
This week has flown past – I can hardly believe I’m writing another blog post already!
The main image of today’s post is the Helmet hat I made for Sue from my hand spun yarn, the pattern coming from Woolly Wormhead‘s Introspection collection. I realised I hadn’t taken a photo of her wearing it since it was blocked – and this overhead shot shows the crown decreases really nicely.
Some good news – I have finished recording and editing my videos for my new Craftucation course, An Introduction to Lace Knitting. They are currently in the process of being uploaded to the website and that just leaves the final bits of transcriptions to write and the still images to capture from the videos for the pdf downloads. Hurrah!
In a week or so I will upload one of the introductory chapters here – they are free to view before buying the course anyway, to give you a flavour of it. That’s probably better than showing you the out-takes where I end up blowing raspberries at myself for tripping over my words!
Looking back at last week’s post, I see that more knitting progress has occurred than I’d realised. The first of my Good Riddance Socks by Laur of the Blings Designs is complete and I’m just about to start the short row heel on the second one.
I’ve also passed the half-way mark on my ‘secret’ project, so that will be complete in the next couple of weeks which is fabulous as it gives me plenty of time before the deadline. I really wish I could show you this, but you are going to LOVE it when you do eventually get to see it – in September. The yarn was dyed especially for me to match a picture I sent the dyer. The picture relates closely to the name of the pattern. The dyer will then be making yarn kits for the pattern to coincide with publication in September!
I don’t yet have photos of everyone’s finished Calon Cariad shawls, but they are going to make a stunning collection when I do manage to bring them all together. Some people are still working on them I know. It was lovely to get feedback about including Zoom events as part of a KAL. Those who attended really appreciated them and said it gave them more of a sense that they were taking part in a group event, rather than just knitting and sharing photos of their work online. It’s something I think I will do with future KALs and MKALs – though I might need to invest in the Zoom package that stops your meeting unceremoniously ending after 40 minutes!
The embroidery of Mum has stalled a bit, although I did do a couple of hours on it yesterday for the first time in a while. I’m not sure I can see the difference yet from my previous update photo as my current colour – dark brown – is so close to the black that it’s hard to see. I have decided the next colour I choose to work will have a clear contrast with the dark brown, black and olive green there so far. I need to be able to see some progress being made. What do you think?
A book I pre-ordered back in August arrived recently. The Sourdough Whisperer by Elaine Boddy. It’s the second of her books that I’ve had and they are both brilliant. I love the tips and tricks and ways to revive and boost your starter and different things to try if your dough isn’t behaving the way you want it to. As you may remember I’ve had some spectacular failures in my baking adventures (total frisbees!) as well as successes and this book mentions the effect that being in a hard or soft water area can have. We have incredibly soft water, so I followed the suggestion to reduce the water content by 30g and it worked a treat. At first I wasn’t sure all the flour would mix in, but it did and we’ve been enjoying a cracking loaf for the past few days.
It had finally stopped raining and drizzling – there was even some sunshine! – so I interrupted my blog writing to grab the opportunity to go for a walk. Less than ten minutes out the door en route to the post office the rain began once more. Just a little fall of rain. It’s a shame we weren’t wearing our hats when we went out!
This Friday is the Show & Tell Zoom for our Calon Cariad Knit-along! It seems to have come around really quickly, even though I moved this final event back a week. There are prizes for contributions on social media and anyone who has completed their shawl gets the chance of winning a fabulous book of shawls; Nordic Shawls by Karen Skriver Lauger. If you click on the photo, you get taken to yesterday’s social media post which has more info.
Yesterday, for the first time in I don’t know how long, I went to a friend’s house for lunch. It seems like such a small thing but, apart from eating at my Mum’s house and my in-laws’, I don’t think I’ve had a meal at someone else’s house since the start of the pandemic. It was lovely! Homemade carrot and spinach soup with sourdough bread and a homemade vegan pear and date crumble.
Another thing that happened yesterday was that I took delivery of a VERY large Kaffe Fassett blanket that needed to have the centre seamed with the four pieces of the border. This was not knitted by me, but by a lovely chap whose hand-knitted, but *literally* moth-eaten, jumpers I rescued a few years ago. I’ve already seamed the four edge pieces together and now just need to insert the middle. That’s about six metres of mattress stitch, possibly more. We couldn’t lay it out flat on my lounge floor as it is just too big, so I may end up spreading it on the bed to line up the edges and secure them with lockable stitch markers before bundling it back up again and just having the area I’m working on over my knees. I’ll get a photograph of it somehow once it’s all sewn together and share it with you all as long as Chris (the knitter and owner of the blanket) doesn’t mind.
There has been some progress on my Gridlock Mitts by Karen Butler. I’ve nearly finished the second one!! Some knitting was done at the dentist last Friday and some this morning. I got a temporary filling at the dentist – my first instinct had been correct and pretty much the entire filling had come out. That led to discovery of another tooth with fractures through it and X-rays which showed a few other things. So, a permanent filling and fixing of the fractures is scheduled for the next available appointment – in May! This seems to be a recurrent theme at present – one thing gets investigated and something else gets picked up along the way. Hurrah for the NHS!
Spring is definitely making its presence felt this week – the bumble bees are giant and the spring flowers are really getting going. I’m even typing this outside in the garden. We planted some red cowslips last year that I’d completely forgotten about until this week when I saw them in flower again. Aren’t they fab?
Do you remember the colour repeats I was trying out with coloured pencils in my journal last week? I thought I had chosen exactly the right one, but 32 rows in I had to admit that it just wasn’t working for me. That meant pulling out (frogging) 24 rows and picking the stitches back up, then returning to my original plan, which (guess what?) actually works. That doesn’t sound too bad does it? 24 rows. Now, think about the fact that each of those rows has 673 stitches in it. Can you see why I stayed in denial for so long, before I admitted I wasn’t happy with how the design was looking?
The rows are very long, but there are several good reasons for that. This is a design that has a lot of stitches in one pattern repeat and it creates a zig-zag effect, so those stitches take up far less width than they would on a straight row. Also, being a zig-zag means that you need fewer rows overall to get the height of the finished item AND by working the pattern along the long edge there are fewer colour changes and therefore fewer ends to weave in. So, whilst it might seem like a silly number of stitches, it will be worth it. And I’ve already re-worked four of the rows I had to rip out. It will be a while until I can share this design with you, but I do love it. Which is why I had to get the colour order/depth exactly right.
Sitting here on the patio I’m looking at the veg patch and thinking it really needs hoeing. That will be one of tomorrow’s jobs I think, as I can’t actually plant the veg seed until the forget-me-nots have made room!
Take care, get out in the sunshine if you can and keep knitting. K x
I seem to be increasingly busy lately and I can’t work out whether it’s entirely due to my increased efforts to make my small, one-woman business successful or partly a way of keeping myself away from the news. There are more deadlines certainly – I’ve been submitting designs to publications more frequently and am being accepted more regularly. I’ve even started looking at calls for submissions and thinking “No, I won’t submit to XYZ this time”!
There are self-imposed deadlines too – I mapped out a publications schedule at the beginning of the year with the aim of publishing at least one pattern per month. I’m keeping up with that currently as so far I have (re)published two patterns whose rights have returned to me and published two brand new patterns. The most recent of these was yesterday – Nos Da is now out in the world!
Next month I aim to publish my next Craftucation course (An Introduction to Lace Knitting) and, as that contains a new pattern of mine, I think that will count as my April pattern. This (and the main photo of today’s post) is a screenshot from this morning’s recording, looking at knitted-on edgings.
And June will see two patterns being published by different companies.
I’ve been baking again too. Regular yeasted bread most recently, though I will be returning to the sourdough soon! This was last weekend’s loaf:
Some knitters have recently cast off their Calon Cariad shawls and I joined them last night! It’s lovely to see other people’s shawls and how their yarn choices are working up. Have a look at #CalonCariadKAL on Instagram and Facebook if you want to see them!
Mine ‘just’ needs blocking now. I’m very lucky to have space to do this on blocking mats on the floor, I know. I know people block their shawls on the washing line and weight the lower edge with clothes pegs. Others pin their work out on the bed (I’m sure I’ve even read of the Yarn Harlot doing this on hotel beds in extremis!).
I cast on another project this week too. I know I have about seven on the go already, but the structure of this one was fascinating me and sometimes the only way to really understand something is to do it! It’s the Intro Helmet from Woolly Wormhead, part of her new Introspection collection. The idea is that you can knit any of the six hat styles (Beanie, Beret, Bonnet, Helmet, Pixie and Slouch) with any weight of yarn and in any size! There are loads of crown and brim options for each one too. I’m using some handspun yarn (Colours of Cambria in ‘Mine’, dyed by Katie Weston of Hilltop Cloud) which is working up at about an aran weight. I read through the pattern and the folded brim for the helmet seemed mind-boggling, but once I started making it, it was suddenly started to make sense. I love how the colours are working out too – though that purple band is destined to be on the inside of the hat, unless I wrangle it somehow.
And I’ve dug my colouring pencils out again. I’m playing with options for a knitting design I’m working on. I know the order I want to use the colours in and I’ve been experimenting with the way repeats of the colour sequence might work. It’s a really cool pattern and I’m very excited about it, but you’ll have to wait until September to see this one!
All this making means that some things must have slipped, right? Well, I’m not exactly on top of the dusting and I haven’t yet planted the broad bean or courgette/squash seeds we bought last month, but that’s not a total disaster. Dust only settles behind you as you do it anyway. And there’s still plenty of time for the seeds.
Just don’t ask me to listen to Les Miserables at the moment – that’s more than I can cope with right now. I played some on my laptop accidentally earlier on and had to switch it off, before the keys got wet.
Stay safe and do more of what makes you happy, K x
Today is International Women’s Day. A good day to celebrate not only the famous women we admire, but also the real life women in our daily lives. The ones who inspire us, impress us, love us and live with us. The theme for International Women’s Day this year is “Break the Bias!” – the link takes you straight to their website where you can find out more about the work they are doing. Go and read it – I’ll still be here when you’re done.
Today’s post title is a great song by Dolly Parton, a woman who knows what it is to be strong, so of course I HAD to use the photo of when Sue and I had a Meet & Greet with the great lady in June 2014 – it would have been rude not to!
When I was born, and my mum realised I was a girl, (her first thought on seeing my long back was that I must be a boy), the first thing she said was, “Poor little thing, she’s got to go through all this.” While my “all this” hasn’t involved childbirth, there have been many things in my life I wouldn’t have had to deal with had her first guess been correct. Then again, I’m sure I’ve had a very different experience in many ways from the one my mum had – although there have been many similarities too. My mum is certainly one of the women I think of today and I have been spending some time working on the embroidery of her. You can just about begin to see the outline appearing now.
I’ve completed two colours (I think I’ve completed them anyway!) and have just started the third – of forty-five…!
I see so many amazing, creative, strong, funny and resilient women sharing their work, brilliance and selves online everyday, even though I don’t see many people in ‘real life’ on a daily basis and it’s hard not to be inspired by them.
The one woman I see more than any others is, of course, my wife. She is astonishing. I am in awe of what she does in her day job, and that she then manages to write such great poetry and be an all round fabulous human too? It’s mind-blowing really. She’s reading some of her poetry tonight actually, at an event with Gloucestershire Poetry Society. It’s online from 7pm-10pm GMT (UTC) and it’s free!
And as for me? I have been true to my word this week and started recording again for my Introduction to Lace Knitting course. I’m all set up to record the next section tomorrow as well, all being well.
And what about the knitting, I hear you ask? That has been very busy too! I have:
swatched a shawl that I can’t show you
worked on a sweater design that I can’t show you
started some socks
recorded a short video for one section of the Calon Cariad Knitalong &
finalised the fancy bits of a pattern that is being released next Monday! Newsletter subscribers, you already have your discount code for this one.
Do you want some photos of the things I can show you? Go on, then.
The socks are Good Riddance socks by Lauroftheblings Designs and I’m using up sock yarn and also other 4-ply leftovers from previous projects and designs.
The video was to explain and show how the two central stitch markers need to be moved before the final heart motif is worked. I’ll be working on the heart motif later on. This is a screen shot from it.
The new pattern is Nos Da and is out on March 14th. It will be available on Payhip, Lovecrafts and Ravelry AND… if you click on the buttons on my website now (on a computer at least, not yet sure if it works on mobiles) – you NOW GET A PAYHIP POP-UP WINDOW!!! This means you can buy a pattern or kit directly without having to leave my website first. So, yes, I upgraded to the ‘Business’ level plan here on my website and there are lots of new things I get to try out! Look:
The world is still a complicated and confusing place and I’m not running any fund-raising efforts or giving a percentage of sales for Ukraine. Why not? Well, simply because my sales aren’t big enough to make it come to anything worthwhile. Instead, I’ve just made a simple donation to the British Red Cross who can get the money to where it needs to go and support those people who need it.
Take care and keep knitting. I’ll see you next week. K x
Today’s blog post title continues the tradition of using song titles for my posts, but it’s also the opening of the final line of the poem (He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W B Yeats) that Of Night and Light is named after; “Tread softly because you tread on my dreams”. This seems apt today.
Well, this is the first time in three weeks that I’ve actually written my blog post on a Tuesday. The previous two posts were written in advance as I was going to be at Mum’s and I knew I would be busy there.
But today? Today is Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday. It’s also St David’s Day (the patron saint of Wales). I will be making pancakes – vegan sourdough ones if you’re interested, complete with lemon and sugar. They will be the ‘afters’ to a tofu stir-fry.
Much of this morning was spent reviewing how my business was in February and planning the month ahead. I’m ever more grateful for the writing gig I have on the side now (still very much knitting based), as that is bringing in some regular money which is helping and may even fund upgrading my website, enabling me to add a shopping cart at last!
I relaunched Of Night and Lightlast week, as I now have the publication rights back and I’ve added in a few extra things that weren’t there when the pattern was originally published in Knit Now Issue 134 last October. The yarn I used is Rowan Felted Tweed and I wanted to make it easier for people to substitute a different yarn without them having to buy far too much of particular colours. So the relaunched pattern includes the yarn lengths required for each of the four colours in each of the nine sizes, in both metres and yards, including a 10% buffer (in case of gauge differences).
For example, the original pattern states that, for the silver grey colour (CC3), one 50g ball of Felted Tweed is needed regardless of which size is made, but the yardage used from that ball varies enormously, from 56m for XS to 130m for 5X! If you are substituting a yarn that comes in 25g balls or 100g balls, or even considering using some left-overs from your stash it is useful to know this!
I’ve also taken on board feedback that was given after I asked knitters about another sweater design, and all measurements are now shown in cm and inches and the table below is now included as one of the images on both Payhip and Ravelry so people can tell in advance whether the sizing works for them.
I have also made a commitment to myself to finish my Introduction to Lace Knitting Craftucation course and get it live on the website by the end of April. My hands are still split on the knuckles, but having recorded a short video yesterday on wrap and turn short rows, it was really encouraging to see that they did not look as bad on screen as I feared. It WILL get completed!
Speaking of short rows, our Calon Cariad KAL (which I did the video for) is going well and people are posting their progress on social media which is very exciting to see. There’s continued to be more interaction in the Facebook group too! This is my Calon Cariad with the short row section completed – can you see how the plain section above the lace border is deeper in the middle than at the edges? That’s what short rows can do. (It’s sitting on top of my Nevern Throw).
I think I’m going to have to extend the KAL for a week and rebook the Show & Tell Zoom for March 25th, instead of March 18th. Last month I broke a tooth (a back molar) and when I was given the first date available at the dentist of course I said yes, not realising it was the same day I’d planned to have our end of KAL Zoom. The last thing I want is to be trying to host a Zoom event with my face still numb from the dentist! I don’t think anyone will mind having an extra week.
I wasn’t sure I would be able to write today, as my little corner of the world seems rather insignificant compared to current world events. However, I decided it wouldn’t be helping anyone by not writing a blog post, and it might be an enjoyable distraction for someone.
Hold your loved ones close and keep knitting, and maybe eat a pancake or two. Also, if you can, please consider making a donation to one of the charities working to support Ukrainians.
