Tag: Knitting blog

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What a difference six months make

A view from the top of the Little Orme towards Penrhyn Bay and Rhos-on-Sea. The sea is calm and the sky has a few hazy clouds.

Can you believe it’s six months since I launched this blog? So the website is six months and one week old! Reading back over my first post I was concerned then about the changes Ravelry had made (though I left it un-named), was excited about Craftucation (from which I received my first payment yesterday!) and showed a picture of the view from the Little Orme, one of my favourite places, and the place after which the collection I am currently working on is named. The hat pattern will be released soon by the way! Today’s picture is unashamedly the same one as from that first post.

I didn’t know then that I would be getting a spinning wheel, or bringing a sourdough starter into existence and doing lots more baking. I also didn’t know that I wouldn’t see my mum once in this whole six months. Sometimes it’s good not to be able to see into the future. Hopefully the restrictions on travel between Wales and England will be lifted soon and I’ll be able to visit her again.

Today, there are butterflies in the garden, it’s 20 degrees outside and the sun is shining. The blackcurrant bush is coming into leaf and the redcurrant is just starting to think about joining it. Last year I allowed all the redcurrants to be eaten by the birds, partly because I hadn’t pruned it and the stems were so overlapping that it I couldn’t face the tangle. Now, of course, that means we have run out of redcurrant jelly, which is a real shame and meant that on Sunday I did something I’ve never done before; I *bought* a jar of redcurrant jelly! Inspired by the weather today and Sunday’s purchase, this morning I pruned the redcurrant bush and promised to take better care of it in future.

Sunday itself was an adventure; we went to a garden centre. They were allowed to re-open in Wales just over a week ago I think. Our nearest one is exactly five miles away, though it felt further! We bought some red cowslips which I have never seen before, some cell trays for the veg seeds and a few other bits and pieces, including the redcurrant jelly. It was so strange to be out in a place where there were quite a few other people and, although our trip was quite a brief one (less than 30 mins), by the time we were through the tills I was glad to be going home again.

It feels late to be planting seeds in a way, but with the extreme winds of yesterday and the snow and sleet forecast for Easter weekend here I didn’t want to kill off delicate seedlings, so I still haven’t done it. Next week!

Following my post about Ravelry last week I had a lovely message from someone offering me an extension/theme that might help. If you’ve seen my social media posts you’ll know what happened; I stupidly compared the version of Rav showing with the theme to the actual NuRav page and got hit with a horrible headache and nausea. It slowed me down somewhat on Friday to say the least. But, at least I know the theme works! I won’t be going onto Ravelry more than I have to after tomorrow though.

Speaking of which, there is a plan to stage a three day boycott of Ravelry from 31st March to 2nd April. Why bother? Well, their main income is from the advertising that users are shown and if you’re not on there, you won’t be shown adverts and so their revenue will drop. It may not have any impact at all or change anything, but I’m happy to wait to pay my March invoice for a couple of days!

Some exciting developments happened during the week with my magazine commission. Having received the email listing the chosen yarn and colours, I expressed some concerns about the way that yarn would behave given the nature of the design. Those concerns were listened to, considered and a different (much more appropriate) yarn was proposed. There is a whole new colour scheme and a new name. Also, a new gauge as the yarn is a slightly different weight, but that just means I get to play with numbers a bit more. It’s making me want to stalk the postman for yarn deliveries, but fortunately I have plenty of other things to keep me busy in the meantime.

I hope the year is being kind to you so far and that you are benefitting from the longer daylight hours. I know I am.

Stay safe and keep knitting, gardening, baking, spinning and doing what makes you happy. K x

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Unravelling

How’s your week going? Mine’s going quite well.

I’ve done most of what I can with my design submission until I get the yarn. Hopefully that will be quite soon as I’d love to crack on with it.

I’ve made a few different sourdough recipes – the last loaf was fab and the hot cross buns were amazing! The smell of cinnamon and nutmeg in the house was divine.

A well-risen sourdough loaf on a cooling rack.
Sourdough loaf
A dozen homemade hot cross buns sitting on baking parchment.
Hot cross buns

I’ve also re-recorded a chapter of my latest Craftucation course (not yet published) where my hands kept disappearing off the screen. Most distracting!

My Little Orme Hat took on a life of its own during the week and I’ve finished the medium size, started the large one and written up the pattern. It’s quite possibly the most comfortable hat I’ve designed so far and I’m wondering whether that’s because of the brim. The folded, ribbed brim extends the knitting time considerably, but it’s so worth it! The pattern will be out soon!

A blue-haired middle-aged woman (me) looks at the camera over her glasses wearing Little Orme Hat, a stranded colourwork hat with a striped folded brim. She is sitting in front of a patchwork blanket.
Little Orme Hat
A top-down view of the crown of Little Orme Hat being worn. The wearer (me) is holding their arms up as the camera is above their head.
Little Orme Hat crown (Medium size)

Despite all this progress, something is niggling at me.

I’ve mentioned elsewhere that, although my patterns are all listed on Ravelry, I don’t recommend you visit the website if you have a tendency towards migraines or any kind of visual impairment. That includes common issues like astigmatism (which I have). The design of the site was completely overhauled in June 2020 and caused many people problems, from eye strain to migraines to seizures in some cases.

After a couple of weeks they introduced ‘Classic’ mode which was supposed to be the old version of the site that people could toggle back to if they ‘didn’t like’ or couldn’t use the new version of Ravelry (NuRav). It’s not quite the old version though. I switched to ‘Classic’ as NuRav was making me queasy after about 10 minutes, but I still need to limit the time I spend on there if I can. Which is a shame and a pain, since most of my pattern sales are made through Ravelry.

Yesterday I spent about an hour adding the Payhip link for each of my patterns and adding Lovecrafts as a clickable source and my eyes were very relieved when I was done. By adding these links I’m trying to make it easier for people to access my patterns through Payhip and Lovecrafts even if they originally found them via Ravelry. I’m not adding links to Ravelry here for what I hope are obvious reasons.

I haven’t said much about the whole Ravelry re-design previously (apart from cheering on those who have been trying to push Ravelry to hire an accessibility consultant and raise awareness of the real harm being done to some people), so why am I raising my voice now? Possibly, selfishly, it’s because at the end of this month ‘Classic’ Rav will disappear (be retired) and the only option will be NuRav. I don’t know how much I will be able to use it and that worries me. I’ve already told my (largely inactive) Ravelry group that I won’t be using it as a social forum in future and will be focussing efforts on my website/newsletter and social media instead.

As a concept Ravelry is brilliant and for over 12 years it’s been the go-to place for designers to host their knitting and crochet patterns as a selling platform, for knitters and crocheters to log all their stash, projects and notes (and for others to search them) and a social forum that was a lifeline for many. We were probably far too reliant on it in retrospect, but it was so damned convenient.

If you buy knitting or crochet patterns, from me or anyone else, and you usually get them via Ravelry, please consider buying them from other sources if they are available elsewhere.

Right, I shall now step down off my soap-box and go and transcribe some videos.

Take care folks and keep knitting, K x

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It’s a Good Day

My Little Orme Cowl was published last Friday on all the platforms I use; here/Payhip, Lovecrafts and Ravelry – be wary of Rav if you have any visual sensitivity, it’s caused lots of problems since the redesign in June. I’ve done the calculations for cast-on numbers for the three sizes of hat and the charts are also done. I don’t have a deadline for getting the hat out there, but it would be nice to finish the collection sooner rather than later. However, something rather exciting has also come up. šŸ˜Š

I had some great news yesterday. It was particularly pleasing as I had pretty much decided I wasn’t going to get a ‘yes’, but I did! I had a design submission accepted for a UK knitting magazine later in the year. It will be published in October, which sounds like ages away, but there’s so much to happen before then.

The deadline is June 1st. Between then and publication it will be checked by technical editors, the pattern will be laid out by professional magazine people and the garment will be photographed to its best advantage. Any queries will come back to me to answer and I will make any corrections to the pattern and send it back to be re-checked.

Between now and June 1st is even more exciting! I have put in my yarn support request and should get notice of what yarn I will be using (and then receive it) within a couple of weeks. See how time is ticking already? During that ‘wait’ time I can do some maths. Maths, you say? Why, yes, there are a lot of numbers involved in designing a garment in nine sizes, especially when motifs are involved. I know what size I’m required to knit and although it will be too small for me to wear afterwards, it will certainly be quicker to make than a ‘me-sized’ one. I’m sure it will fit a friend!

So, there’s writing the pattern, calculating the numbers for the different sizes (this is called grading), typing the pattern up according to the magazine’s style sheet (they all have their own particular ways of doing things), knitting the design and posting it to the magazine’s office. Suddenly June 1st seems awfully near.

This is when I become ever more grateful to have my journal. One of my tasks for today is mapping out all the different elements I need to do and to tie in all the other plates that I’m determined to keep spinning as well.

I have now successfully recorded one section of An Introduction to Lace Knitting, my third Craftucation course, (Knitting for Beginners 1 and Knitting for Beginners 2 are here) and I have finalised (and slightly simplified) my plans for the main project involved, as well as knitting a sample version of it. My initial plan was to get this published by the end of April and I would still like to achieve this, but as a self-imposed deadline, there can be flexibility.

Happy dance for being busy – especially with some of them being things that will/could pay! It’s a really good incentive to cut back on the online scrabble too.

The sourdough baking is going quite well, incidentally. There are some sesame-topped buns proving in the kitchen right now. One of the benefits of this type of baking is there are decent stretches of time in between stages so they can be used as blocks of knitting, planning, writing or recording time. And then there’s something lovely to eat at the end of it – with any luck.

I’ve only spun once in the past week, but I do intend to keep going with that as well. I think that if I can get into the habit of little and often with it there will be more improvement than doing an hour once a week.

Something will probably have to give at some point and it will undoubtedly be the dusting that goes first! I’ll let you know. šŸ˜‰

Keep knitting / doing what makes you happy and stay safe, K x

P.S. It’s a Good Day sung by Peggy Lee is a great song and is quite likely to get your feet tapping.

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Mama said there’ll be days like this

Have you ever had one of those days? You know the ones; you get a notification about a new version of an app so you switch to it, only to find it’s taking much longer than the old version and doing something basic (like replying to an email) doesn’t seem to work? I’m looking at you Microsoft Outlook! At least there was an option to toggle back. Or you record forty minutes of video only to realise that the lighting was all wrong and your hands look like they’re radioactive? (I forgot to close the curtains, among other things). This has been my day.

However, it hasn’t all been frustrating. I did have a lovely FaceTime chat with my friend Anne of Yarn O’clock, discussing yarn possibilities for my next course (it’s a more complex decision than you might think) and the one I’ve chosen is gorgeous and perfect for both projects.

Those of you who have signed up to my newsletter will know there is a new pattern coming out on Friday – Woohoo! The Little Orme Cowl is done and the pattern is very nearly ready. I’m very pleased with the finishing of it, and there are two alternatives for people who don’t want to graft the ends together. If you haven’t already signed up to the newsletter (the box is in the left hand column on the contacts page) there’s an extra incentive at the moment as subscribers get a 15% discount on the pattern for the first week (12-19th March). The code is in the March newsletter.

After I finished the cowl I allowed myself to go back to the Serenity sweater and begin the sleeves. I’m working them at the same time on two long circular needles, working one from each end of the ball of yarn. This is so I can make sure I use the same amount of each colour on each sleeve and it will help me keep track of (and match) the decreases as well. Learning about knitting both sleeves at the same time was a real game-changer for me. Although progress initially seems slower than working one at a time, once you get more than a third of the way down it suddenly speeds up. You also don’t have the issue of getting motivated to knit the second sleeve because you’ve already done it. Or the pain of not having made a note of any changes you made to the pattern on the first sleeve thinking you’d remember, which of course you don’t, but it doesn’t matter because you did them both at the same time!! Can you tell I’m a convert?

I think I’m going to need a walk and see fresh air very soon, especially if the forecast for the rest of the week is correct. It might help me record my videos properly later on.

Stay safe, keep knitting and don’t get blown away in the winds! K x

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It was red and yellow and green and brown and…

This has been a very visually stimulating week for me, so I hope you won’t mind a rather picture filled blog post.

A friend I used to work with in a former life send me a cryptic message a couple of weeks ago: “Look out for a parcel in the post”. I had no idea what to expect. What arrived was this!

Child’s hat, possibly from Peru

There was an accompanying postcard, but all it told me was that my friend was having a sort through her textiles collection and she thought I might like this and that it was ‘authentic’. It is a small hat, for a child, knitted from the top down with ear flaps and knitted to a very tight gauge. The inside shows it was made using the intarsia technique which is perfect for designs with lots of patches of different colours in the same row. However, this technique is usually worked when knitting a flat piece of fabric and I cannot find a seam anywhere on this hat. It must have been knitted in the round. This leaves me puzzled. I contacted my friend to see if she had any more information. She thinks it’s from Peru, but really has forgotten as she’s had it for about 25 years or more. The bright colours were seen as desirable as they were Western chemical dyes. It really is bright – some of the colours are neon and they contrast so strongly with the probably undyed yarn used as the background colour.

I want to do some research into this and find out more about the knitting traditions from Peru and the surrounding areas.

My own colourwork knitting of the Little Orme Cowl has progressed well this week from the tiny circle of knitting I included in my picture on the previous post. It’s going to be super warm as not only is the fabric double layered from being stranded, the cowl is actually a flattened tube so you get four layers of wool between your neck and the icy winds! Ideal for when we can walk up the Little Orme (and the Great Orme) again. It’s always cold at the top! Remember that the mitts pattern is already available – it won’t be long before the cowl is as well.

Little Orme Cowl in progress next to Little Orme Mitts.

I think I’m about halfway round here. Once the knitting is finished I must remember to weave the yarn ends in before I graft the two ends of the tube together or there will be some unsecured ends that I won’t be able to access!

I had two creative successes this week as well. I finished spinning my gorgeous yarn from Anne Murray on Saturday. After letting it sit overnight I plied the two bobbins of ‘singles’ together on Sunday. Monday was skeining and washing and today it is dry. I’m probably biased, but it is a thing of beauty. Anne told me that it would fluff up and bloom after washing and she wasn’t wrong.

The yarn now has a bounce and body that wasn’t there yesterday morning. It also looks more green in real life than I can get the images to show, but either way, I love it! I think it will be the first of my hand spun yarns that I actually knit up as I can’t wait to see how it looks. But what to make?

On the baking front, last week’s sourdough was not great, despite being an improvement on the previous loaf. Yesterday I changed a whole bunch of things at once (which I know isn’t the scientific approach). I fed my starter with rye flour, put the heating on (I know it’s late winter/early spring, but it usually has to be making me shiver before I put the heating on in the daytime), left the starter on the window sill in the sunshine. For the first time ever it doubled in size!

Then more changes: I used 100g of starter instead of 50g, I reduced the water from 350ml to 300ml (along with 500g flour and 10g salt). It was a bit scary at first as I thought the flour was never all going to mix in. But it did. The dough felt and looked just right yesterday evening. I put its shower cap on and let it rest overnight on the counter. The mistake I made was not leaving the shower cap loose as the dough had risen to the top of the bowl and was completely stuck to the underside of it this morning. I finally managed to peel it off, but was a bit concerned I might have wrecked it.

Then, the cold proof in the fridge and the bake. I am delighted! There are still some improvements to be made, but this one is looking far more like a loaf. It’s taking a lot of will power to wait before cutting it open.

Sourdough loaf number four

While I have been doing all these pursuits I have been listening to a new set of audiobooks. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness and read by Jennifer Ikeda is keeping me gripped, and I do like an audiobook that’s over 20 hours long. I’m just a few chapters into the second book of the trilogy at the moment (Shadow of Night) and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

So, I shall put the kettle on, continue knitting the cowl and listen to another chapter.

Stay safe and keep knitting, K x

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What have you done today to make you feel proud?

Things I have learned this week:

I have knitted a lot more since the start of the year than I thought I had, especially when you see it all together. The green cardigan had already been a work in progress, but both sleeves have been knitted since the New Year. Everything else has been cast on since then. The geek in me wants to calculate how many stitches it all adds up to, but the realist in me points out that it’s much more sensible to say, “Look, you know it’s likely to be in the hundreds of thousands, if not the millions, so rather than working it out, use that time to do something more useful!” So, I will. I’m going to be casting off the body of the Serenity Sweater by Joji Locatelli today and will be continuing to work on my Little Orme Cowl. The cowl is so far that small circle on the needles towards the top left of the picture – there’s quite a lot to do. Down the left hand side (as I’m sure you’re dying to know!) are some swatches for my next Craftucation course – An Introduction to Lace Knitting. Look for that in a month or so.

I quite enjoy an Instagram yarn festival/marketplace! I wasn’t sure I would like it as a set-up. Each vendor has half an hour on Instagram live to talk about their products and the processes and inspiration behind them. There’s no actual buying happening via the livestream, but I had the IG live up in one window and the website of the vendor talking in another next to it. It was a bit like being at a yarn show where you can talk to the dyers and suppliers of yarn and fibre and ask them questions, without the stress of being on camera or not knowing when it might be your turn to talk. Have a question? Great, type it in the chat. A number of skeins of yarn and a couple of plaits of fibre fell into shopping baskets. Well, it would have been rude not to! (and one of them has just arrived!! – Nene 4ply in Starry Night from Riverknits – and it’s gorgeous!! And the hand-written thank you note, written, I think, by one of the children, is a lovely touch.)

The marketplace mentioned above was the Sunday part of the virtual Knit-Tea Retreat, Nordic Edition, that took place over the weekend. I have learnt SO much about differences in knitting traditions from different countries (thanks to Karie Westermann) and in particular Swedish knitting (thanks to Estelle from Midwinter Yarns) as well as a fascinating talk on colour theory from Becci from Riverknits. I can now even identify the different Nordic countries on a map (yes, that sounds a bit pathetic that I couldn’t before, but geography was never a subject I excelled at).

HĆønsestrikk is something I want to learn more about. Stranded knitting with political/ funny/ personalised motifs in bold clashing colours and with a feminist twist is something I could really get behind!

Sourdough starter is a tricky beast. My dough this morning looked like a bowl of over-excited lava after an over-night proof. I’m hoping it comes out better than the weekend ‘loaf’ which looked more like an alien space-ship and was all ‘gummy’ inside. I have also learnt to follow the damn recipe when it’s something new, even if it seems like your dough will never pick up all the flour initially. Don’t go adding more water – or you will end up with a sticky loaf that looks like a flying saucer…

Rice flour gets everywhere and it’s really gritty under your feet.

I still get really excited and do a happy dance when someone buys a pattern and even more-so when they buy a kit or a course. You know, just in case you felt like making me want to dance šŸ˜‰.

What have you learnt this week?

Stay safe, warm and keep knitting. K x

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Learn Something New

Nature is weird, wonderful and amazing. Only a few days ago it was so cold that the water butt was frozen solid and yet today we have been out for a walk without our coats on (!) and these bright pink flowers decided to open again. They seem to close at the end of each day and after the really cold snap we had I thought they were done for because they hadn’t opened in almost a week, but here they are. I don’t know what they are, but they are the brightest thing in the border and they make me smile. There is an app to identify plants on your phone by scanning them, but I’ve done the more traditional thing to learn this plant’s name; I took a photo and have sent it to my mum. She’ll know. (She did, sort of – it’s a ‘species crocus’, but she can’t remember the exact name!).

Yesterday afternoon the thing I have been raving about for months finally happened! Craftucation.com went live!! It was a soft launch with 13 courses available in a wide variety of crafts at the moment, but there will be many, many more coming. Two of the courses are mine (as I might have mentioned once or twice) and there are courses on crafts I’ve never even heard of before – and I have a fairly broad crafting experience. Ice-dyeing, anyone? This looks really cool! Or Anglo-Saxon embroidery? Beautiful! There are also ones you are likely to be more aware of – felting, crochet, sewing, cake sculpting/decorating, and more knitting. The folks behind this venture have worked so hard and have made the website easy to navigate and friendly as well, with a range of chat forums (fora?), including ones for the students of each course to share their progress, ask questions and communicate with the tutor. So, you’re not just on your own once you’ve bought your course, which is so important when you’re learning something new.

My Heart in my Hands Collection was published in full on Sunday too (it’s been a busy few days). It seemed appropriate to get it out there on February 14th! Photographing all three sizes of hat made me realise that there has been quite a lot of knitting happening here since the New Year. There have been these three hats, the matching cowl, my Little Orme mitts in (almost) original colours – I’m halfway through the second mitt, my Llanberis hats (at least two were knitted this year) and my Serenity jumper using my Bear in Sheep’s Clothing advent mini-skeins which is coming on nicely. I’m currently on the yarn from Day 14. That’s in six weeks! Oh, and I’ve been swatching like mad for my third Craftucation course – An Introduction to Lace Knitting. During the week I’m going to gather everything together and photograph it all to share with you visually next week.

I also submitted a design to a UK mag. It’s a lovely design idea that I really want to get out there. I don’t hear back for a little while yet, but I’ll let you know how it goes.

In sourdough starter news, I have had a breakthrough today. It’s been bubbling and looking interesting, but not actually growing in size. Some friends on Facebook shared their starter tips with me, many of which included ‘throw some rye flour at it’. I don’t have any of that, but I do have wholemeal, so this morning I fed the starter with a half and half mix of strong white flour and strong wholemeal. And it’s loving it! It’s almost doubled in size for the first time and I’m getting quite excited, especially as, having named my starter (Audrey) I was beginning to worry that I was going to need to try again. But, hey, the name is ready if that does happen – Audrey 2 (from Little Shop of Horrors in case that made no sense to you at all).

I’m still enjoying my spinning very much and am trying to ensure that I spin at least twice a week. I’ve finished the first half of the wonderful fibre dyed by Anne Murray that I showed you a couple of weeks ago and started the second half last night. Mostly I’m getting an even twist and a regular thickness, but sometimes I lose my way a little and it just stops holding together. I think because I am focussing hard on not over-spinning it and making it too tight there is a tendency to go too far the other way and not put enough twist in. Perhaps it’s a hint that I need to spend a bit more time with the online course that I’m using (Spinning with a Purpose, by Katie Weston from Hilltop Cloud)?

Anyway, that’s enough from me for today – I have spinning to do!

Take care, stay safe and go explore something new, K x

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I can hardly wait!

Only six days to go until the launch of Craftucation! My kits are all put together and I’m really proud of them; pure wool yarn from Wales and Yorkshire, bamboo knitting needles, metal stitch markers and tapestry needles, ribbon, cotton project bags and notions pouches and, for the kit with stuffing, either pure wool stuffing or synthetic stuffing made from recycled plastic bottles. Some of them are going to Ewe Felty Thing which is the home of Craftucation and some of them will be listed here on my website (from Monday 15th) if people want to buy them directly from me. These kits contain almost everything you need to complete the course projects (apart from a pen to make notes and something to pin your knitting out onto for course 2). They aren’t an essential purchase if you are taking the course, but they do supply you with quality materials.

KfB1 Kit
KfB2 Kit

I’m going to tell you a little more about my courses and what they contain today. All of the online courses on Craftucation are yours for life once you have purchased them, to work through and return to at your own pace. There will be message boards for fellow students to share their progress and tips and tutors will be able to use these message boards to answer students’ questions.

So if you have ever wanted to learn to knit, but never had the opportunity or someone to teach you, now is your chance!

Knitting for Beginners 1 is a course for complete beginners to knitting, showing you how to cast on, knit, purl, cast off, seam and stuff your knitting to make a gorgeous little knitted creature in a choice of two sizes, along with many tips on solving common problems for new knitters. There are over 100 minutes of detailed videos along with downloadable pdfs that contain the text and many still images from the videos along with the pattern for future use.

Knitting for Beginners 2 builds on Knitting for Beginners 1. You will learn a second cast-on technique (did you know there are well over twenty-five?), how to knit two stitches together, make yarn overs, use stitch markers and use knit and purl stitches to create wonderful varied textures in your fabric. You will also learn how to follow knitting patterns and be introduced to the concept of charts. You will create knitted bunting triangles and two different textured mats. This course contains over two and a half hours of detailed videos and associated pdfs!

From Monday 15th February there will be links to each of these courses on my website that will take you directly to them. If you know anyone who would like to learn to knit – young or old – please point them this way!

I had a really interesting conversation last week with some of the other Craftucation tutors and the range of skills people have to share with you is amazing – I can see there will be some new crafts I will want to learn myself! I’d better get a bit better with the spinning wheel first though – speaking of which, aren’t these colours stunning? This fibre is merino d’Arles and is dyed by Anne Murray.

Merino D’Arles dyed by Anne Murray

Well, it’s starting to snow again, so I’m going to gaze out of the window for a little while. I’m still busy with lots of designing things and I’ve nearly finished the final hat size for the Heart in My Hands collection. And I did make that sourdough starter – it’s two days old and seems happy so far!!

Stay warm and keep safe, K x

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As the green blade rises

As we move into February the evenings have begun to lighten a little. I was really surprised and quite excited the other day to see that the sky was not dark at 5.15 when I looked out of the window. A sign of hope, along with the flowers that are blooming in the garden. Our garden currently has lots of hellebores, snowdrops and cyclamen in flower and it was even warm enough yesterday to get outside and cut away some of the old hellebore leaves and overgrown grasses that were trying to hide the snowdrops. The photo isn’t mine by the way – it’s from The Wildlife Trusts website and was taken by Les Binns.

Other new life is also making its presence felt. I have an urge to make sourdough bread. I know that most people jumped on this particular bandwagon last year, but I was just making standard wholemeal and seeded loaves. Now, though, the idea of sourdough made with my own homemade starter is calling.

If you follow me on social media you will have seen that yesterday Hanna Germander of Germander Cottage Crafts published her Designer of the Month blog feature for February – and it’s yours truly šŸ˜Š! I did know it was coming out this month, but it’s such a buzz nonetheless. Go and have a look – I’ll wait. And while you’re there have a look at Hanna’s Etsy shop too – it’s super.

You know that I’ve been working on a hat and cowl to go with my Heart in my Hands mitts. The cowl pattern is now live! I wasn’t sure whether to grade it for a range of sizes or just have one size, so I asked for opinions on social media. One or two people said “Just do one, if we want to change anything, we will”, but the majority of folk were in favour of some guidance, even if just to avoid a bit of maths. So, in response to this, the pattern has various options:

  • The Standard Size (24cm x 72cm) with six chart repeats, including meterage used for each colour
  • Information on making the circumference bigger in increments of 12cm, including the meterage for each colour used in that amount.
  • Options to make the cowl taller or shorter by 8.5cm with guidance on how that would change the meterage.

This approach gives *almost* limitless combinations and I think the flexibility is much better than a two or three size pattern.

The hat pattern will be published soon – in three sizes. Very happily you can make the mitts, standard size cowl and large hat all from one skein of each colour of the yarn (Erika Knight Wool Local). You could probably even make the cowl a bit bigger too.

The last crafty thing I want to tell you about today is more of a reminder – Craftucation launches this month!! In less than two weeks, in fact, and I am getting very excited about it. The materials for the optional kits to accompany the courses which will also be available to buy from Ewe Felty Thing are arriving this afternoon (thank you, Yarn O’clock!) and it’s all coming together.

My audiobooks (yes, plural) this week have been from the Shardlake series by C.J. Sansom, narrated by Stephen Crossley. At one point the events completely intersected with the book I am also reading, Six Tudor Queens No.5 Katheryn Howard by Alison Weir, which was fascinating and slightly bewildering on occasion. It meant I had to keep reminding myself which bits were murder mystery and which were historical fiction. Both brilliant though.

Have a good week and keep knitting, K x

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Twisting the night away!

When I woke up this morning there were so many things I wanted to tell you about, but now I come to sit and write they have flown out of my head. I’m sure they’ll come back to me. Is that another effect of lockdown, do you think?

One thing I have focused on a lot is my jigsaw habit. The main pic is part of the 700 piece one I finished yesterday. There are two others in the box of a similarly fiendish nature – one of chillis and one of zebras. Which should I do next? I’m leaning towards chillis as a break from the monochrome.

Anyway! I have news. My Beanstalk Throw is now available in its original format with the cable charts shown separately AND also (at NO extra cost) with a full chart (48 rows x 120 stitches) to be worked 3 and 2/3 times AND as a fully written out pattern. That should cater for everyone. I hope. There have been more than a handful of queries over the past four years as to whether the pattern was available in the last two of these formats and, as my most successful pattern in terms of projects, likes and sales, it pleases me that more people will now be able to knit it.

A cabled blanket
Beanstalk Throw – a cabled blanket

Cables are so fantastic. The fact that you can take a few knitted stitches and swap their position with a few stitches next to them, getting these incredibly varied ropes, braids and twines never ceases to amaze me. In fact, considering how much I love them, it’s just shocked me that I only have three published patterns (out of 40) that use cables! Three! I know I have designed more, so I must do something about getting them out into the world.

Speaking of getting things out into the world, my Heart in my Hands Cowl will be published later this week (and possibly the hat too). No cables in these as they are stranded knitting (often known as Fair Isle). I adore how the large size of the hat has turned out and I’ve charted up the small and medium sizes too. I think I will need to knit up a medium as well as I’ve had to change the pattern repetition to get the right size.

Woman with blue hair and coat standing in front of snowy holly bush wearing knitted Fair Isle hat
Me wearing Heart in my Hands Hat
Woman standing in front of a snowy holly bush facing away from the camera so the crown of her hat can be seen
The crown of Heart in my Hands Hat

The challenge now is to get photos of the cowl and the whole set that I am happy with as these are an important part of the pattern publishing stage.

The snow was quite impressive, wasn’t it? It’s still here, though melting more rapidly today as it has begun to rain a little. The pavements in the residential parts of our town are covered with compacted ice about an inch thick, so most people are walking in the roads.

The Llanberis MKAL is now complete and people are starting to show their completed hats on social media. I love all the different combinations of colours that were chosen. Anne at Yarn O’clock selected nine colours of Rowan Moordale for the kits and gave people a free choice about which three they used, which has resulted in great variety. Here are some of mine: The first is in Rowan Moordale and the second is in Shilasdair Yarn’s Luxury DK.

A woman standing in the snow, bending sideways to show the crown of her blue, silver and grey knitted hat (Llanberis Hat)
Llanberis MKAL
A woman standing in the snow, looking away from the camera wearing an orange, blue and green hat (Llanberis Hat).
Llanberis MKAL

So, lots happening and lots to do. Even before the hat and cowl for Little Orme that is also coming – the yarn arrived yesterday, so I’ll be able to get on to that later. All of which does help a bit to take my mind off waiting for a response from my last submission, although I must admit the waiting does make me a bit like a cat on hot coals!

Stay warm, dry and safe as best you can and if anyone has any top tips for keeping the neighbourhood cats off our veg patch and lawns it would be much appreciated.

Keep Knitting, K x