Tag: Knitting Design

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Gremlins and Gnomes

If you are a monthly newsletter subscriber you will have received an email yesterday telling you about some website issues I have been having. My contact form has been the target of spam bots and it’s been causing me a few issues that also affected my email list. Late morning yesterday I asked for assistance from the “Happiness Engineers” at WordPress, specifically asking for help from a person rather than an AI. The person who was assigned my case was amazing. They stayed online with me, ensuring they understood what my problem was, suggesting solutions, walking me through installing them and even checking to see if they’d worked in the desired way. When the original solutions didn’t work they went back to see what other options there might be. All in all this took about five hours! But I am very hopeful that these issues have been resolved. It wasn’t quite how I had been intended to spend the majority of Monday, but with any luck, it will have been worth it.

The main pic of today’s post is part of the front garden which is looking good in the cold, crisp sunshine. The fuchsia is having a major prune now we’ve had a hard frost which killed the flowers. I still find it hard to believe that the rosemary giant grew from one sprig of rosemary cut from a bush in the back garden that we just shoved into the ground. It’s looking a big ragged round the edges these days, so it may be time for a front garden refresh in the spring.

I’m glad to say Mum is out of hospital and improving. The knitted gnome from the book The Gnomes of Grimblewood that I am making for her is also coming along. Yesterday evening I finished the body and also made the arms, nose and beard. Once the beard is dry I will be able to complete it.

I am glad I asked Becci of RiverKnits exactly what she had used for the weighted stuffing in the bottom of her gnome when I saw hers on display at Stollen & Wolle (dried red lentils) and decided to use the same. It’s given the gnome a good stability without being too solid.

During the week I’ve also been playing with a ball of Zauberball yarn that I’ve had in my stash for a very long time. I decided to see how the long stripes worked with a simple moebius cowl. It’s a sized up version of what we knit in my moebius workshop, using 3mm needles and 4ply yarn over 400 sts rather than 5mm needles and aran yarn over 120 sts! The stripes in the yarn have a mirror image repeat, so using them in a moebius means you get twice as many colour changes as just knitting straight – I like it.

I’ll be teaching this technique again in February at the North West Winter Wool Festival in Blackpool on Sunday 15th February. The workshop is 2.5 hours, costs £36 and includes yarn, needles and handouts.

I’ve spoken a little about the tech editing course I’ve been taking. I’m on the final module now and I’ve learnt a lot. There are several things that will be useful for me as a designer as well, which is a double bonus. Once I’ve completed the course, the next step will be to find some people who would like me to tech edit their patterns!

On Thursday the new issue of The Knitter magazine (Issue 222) comes out and there will be a garment in it designed by me. I really enjoyed working on this garment – it’s been in the pipeline for quite some time. It was originally envisaged as a unisex item, was commissioned as a man’s jumper (and so was designed as such using male sizing charts), and finally was photographed on a female model – bringing the whole thing full circle! I’ve seen one of the photos and it looks great. When the rights return to me in six months I’ll also be asking which of my male friends has a 40″ chest and if I can photograph the jumper on them too!

That’s all from me for today. Until next week, take care and do some stuff that makes you happy. K x

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Cake and Wool

I can hardly believe that it’s already Tuesday again. The weeks are spinning past. Sometimes I wish I had a regular structure to my blog as my wife does. She always starts with what the morning smells like, describes the photo she is using to accompany her post, writes her main section and finishes by sharing a poem. However, my blog doesn’t have that regularity of form. It’s more a ‘this is what I’ve been doing and this is what’s coming up’, which is useful for me (and hopefully for you!), but also can make it hard to know at times where to start. So, I’ll start by telling you what I’ve been doing.

Sunday was Stollen and Wolle at the RiverKnits studio in Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire. It’s a lovely venue and there were five visiting exhibitors (including us) plus RiverKnits’ own yarn for visitors to peruse. It was lovely to see the familiar and friendly faces of Ishrat (Fruitful Fusion), Christine (Rauwerk), Rachel (Skein Queen) and, of course, Becci and Markus of RiverKnits again. The chap from Yellow Bourbon was kept busy all day providing visitors with coffee, gluhwein, stollen and cake. Two of the cakes were vegan as well (carrot cake and blackcurrant and apple crumble/flapjack) which delighted us! And to top it off, Susan Crawford of Susan Crawford Vintage was there. She had a lovely stand with her yarn, books and samples and gave a 1 hour talk in the afternoon which was absolutely fascinating and included her handing knitwear round the audience for us to look at, handle and even inspect on the inside (if you’re a knitter, you’ll know this instinct!). One of the samples was the first sweater she had ever knitted which was an impressive picture knit (using intarsia technique) of a Roy Lichtenstein image worked in cotton. The re-worked sweaters made from studying samples in the Shetland museum were incredible, as were the stories that accompanied them – especially of how knitters from Shetland were ‘breaking the rules’ of Fair Isle knitting even in the 1940s. I was excited to meet and chat with her.

We had originally planned to do the whole journey in one day, but once we realised that would probably mean getting up at 3.30am, we decided to stay in Daventry the night before, giving us just a 6-mile journey to the studio to set up and get ready. The set-up was quick as we had stripped it right back, bringing only 28 patterns (a few were doubled up in the pull-up stands), the pull-up display stands and the relevant samples.

It was the first outing for the height extension on the 3-foot rail and I have to say I am very pleased with that. It doubles the hanging space and makes it easier to display the samples. The other benefit to stripping back the set-up was that it all fitted in Sue’s little Aygo! That was the first time I had been driven to a yarn show we were exhibiting at and it meant I could relax and even do some crochet in the car on the way there before it got dark. It was lovely. Despite Storm Claudia lashing large parts of Wales on Friday and Saturday we were luckily unaffected and the journey was smooth with clear weather.

Our next event will be the last one of the year – Yuletide Yarnies at the Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings on Saturday 13th December. Opening hours are 11am-4pm, tickets are £5 in advance and £7.50 on the door – so if you are coming, I recommend buying an advance ticket! As well as this I am teaching my Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche workshop tomorrow at Shaz’s Shabby Chic in Buckley (there are still spaces available if you want to come!).

There is lots of singing happening too, what with it being the run up to Advent and Christmas and I need to decide the running order for the songs at the first Christmas market that is in 11 days time!

I’m also working through the modules in the tech editing course that I’m taking – I’m enjoying it and finding it appeals very much to my sense of order and logic.

All of this sounds as though life is swinging along smoothly, but Mum has spent most of the last three weeks in hospital and so I’ve also been travelling down to the midlands much more frequently and for longer to visit her. It’s been a worrying time as you might imagine.

So, my 4ply What Do Points Make? remains unblocked, and while I’ve done some of the website updates I haven’t done them all yet. But, even if I haven’t done these things next week I will able to tell you about a new design of mine that will be in the next issue of The Knitter which is due out on Nov 27th. Until then, take care and I hope you are able to do something that makes you happy this week. K x

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Going round in circles – or squares

Recently I have been enjoying the simplicity of crocheting a large granny square with a set sequence of colours. I can relax and as long as I can count to three it pretty much sorts itself out. Mind you, the counting bit isn’t foolproof!

It’s steadily and slowly growing which is good. I’m still not entirely convinced whether or not the two darkest shades of green are in fact the same colour – I think they might be, but as long as I keep to the sequence I’ve chosen it doesn’t actually matter.

This urge for simplicity may surprise you as I am more known for my love of knitting quite detailed and sometimes complex things. There has been a bit of that too. I’ve finished the new sample of my Prime Cowl and love this colour combo. I still haven’t got it listed on the website – apologies for that. I will get it on there soon.

It did languish in the sink for about 5 hours yesterday evening as I had forgotten I’d left it to soak. I don’t think it minded.

I also began this yesterday:

It’s a knitted gnome from the book The Gnomes of Grimblewood by Sarah Schira and it’s intended for my mum. Don’t worry, she doesn’t use the internet so she won’t see this. What you can see so far is the hat and the start of the body. The arms, nose and beard will be knitted separately and sewn on.

I’ve gradually started updating the website, beginning with events – I’ve added two more yarn shows to the listings this morning. There are several more and some workshops at the yarn shows to be added as well. The next event we are at is Stollen & Wolle at the RiverKnits studio in Weedon Bec this Sunday. It’s open from 10-4 and entry is just £5. If you are coming, please try to get an advance ticket as this greatly helps their caterers.

Also still languishing is my 4ply What Do Points Make? which is still waiting to be blocked. However, since I saw someone’s recent post that said their’s had waited two months for 15 minutes of sewing up (the two short side seams), I know I’m not alone here. It will get done. It won’t be ready by Sunday for Stollen & Wolle, but hopefully it will be ready by mid-December for Yuletide Yarnies at the Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings which is our last show of 2025.

I hope you all have a good week and if you come to Stollen & Wolle on Sunday, please say hello. K x

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Remember, Remember

The main pic on today’s post is a poppy brooch I knitted a couple of years ago. Last week I saw the lovely display of knitted poppies on the railings outside my mum’s care home to which Mum contributed about four, but I wasn’t able to get a photo of that without including lots of cars in the car park behind so I will just share this single poppy here.

I had hoped to be able to show you my finished 4ply version of What Do Points Make? all blocked and gorgeous today, but life has got in the way a little this week and so it’s still waiting to be blocked, let alone have its little side seams sewn or the ends woven in. Maybe next week!

My moebius workshop was a lot of fun last week. There were two brave souls trying out this new-to-them technique and they both cracked it! Their knitting is that edged with cream.

There are some evening workshops this month as well:

Both these workshops are being held at Shaz’s Shabby Chic in Buckley and tickets are available via TicketSource (booking is essential!).

This morning I’ve been deciding which samples and patterns to take with me to Stollen & Wolle at RiverKnits on November 16th. It’s a process that gets harder the more designs I have out in the world as there is a limited number I can bring with me. Fortunately if there is something specific someone wants that I don’t have with me I can sell it to them and then either drop a digital copy in their Ravelry library (if they have one) or send it to them.

The large crochet granny square in shades of green is growing and I will show you the progress on that next week.

I’ve been making another sample of my new Prime Cowl in Poldale DK from Town End Yarns. It’s really soft and it’s the yarn I use in some of my kits (Bryn Brioche Cowl and Twisted). I’m very pleased with how this combination of colours is working out – you might even see some kits appear next year!

It’s knitted top down and inside out so what you’re looking at as you knit (left) is a bit different from how it looks when it’s finished and turned the right way out (centre and right)!

Prime Cowl is not online yet – that’s another job I still need to do, but I will get it up as soon as I can.

Take care all and I’ll hopefully be able to tell you that I’ve caught up with myself a bit next week! K x

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Making and Baking

This weekend I did some baking for the first time in absolutely ages. I made biscuits that are the simplest things ever and they are lovely. The recipe suggested dividing the mixture into three and adding chocolate chips, lemon zest and almonds to get a trio of different flavours, but we just had them plain as we didn’t have any of those extra ingredients, but we did have marg that needed using up as it was near it’s date, flour, sugar and semolina! You can find the recipe here.

I have finally finished my 4-ply version of What Do Points Make?! I decided to make the fourth colour match on each side to be consistent with what I’d done with each of the other colour changes. I used hardly any of the fourth colour, you can see it on the top outer corners – in fact that yarn still weighed over 100g once I’d finished!

The next step is blocking it and I will do that this week – it takes up quite a lot of space on the floor as I will be pinning it out in the shape in the photo above, unless I decide to fold the fronts over while it’s blocking as in the photo below, but then it has double thickness so takes longer to dry.

I had to cancel and postpone a few things last week as my cold took its course, but I’m much better now and looking forward to teaching moebius knitting tomorrow night!

I think I mentioned that I will be teaching both brioche knitting and moebius knitting at the North West Winter Wool Festival in Blackpool next February. The workshops are now available to book and the times are as follows:

  • Two-Colour Brioche Knitting: Saturday 14th February 2026, 1.30-3.30pm (2 hours), £25 including yarn and handouts
  • Moebius Knitting: Sunday 15th February 2026, 1-3.30pm (2.5 hours), £36 including needles, yarn and handouts

I will also add links to these on my Events page of the website. Do remember also that when you book an advance ticket for the North West Winter Wool Festival you will get a code to download the Seaside Winter Cosy hot water bottle cover knitting pattern for free! It can be made in four colours of DK yarn. Two different yarn brands are suggested, but you can use any brand you prefer and there are two finishing option, either to add poppers/press-studs or to seam the bottom edge closed.

When I was invited to take part in Stollen & Wolle once again this year, November 16th seemed a very long way off, but it’s happening in less than 3 weeks! The RiverKnits studio is in a lovely setting in Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire, and last year’s event was super. This year there are eight vendors and the renowned Susan Crawford is a guest speaker, which is even more exciting! If you can get to that area of the country on November 16th I would highly recommend it. Tickets are only £5 with under 16s and carers attending for free, and the lovely RiverKnits folk have requested that you book in advance if you can as it helps their caterers to know how many people to expect.

I had a chance to get right into my baskets in the lounge this week and found a crochet project that had been languishing there for about two years – using yarn that had been in my stash for far longer! I’d done three different squares, trying out a couple of patterns from a book and a pattern I’d found online and left it at that. Now I’ve chosen my favourite one and I’m using it as the centre of what should become a huge granny square. I’ve now had the sense to label the balls of yarn with numbers so I’m not squinting at them in the lamplight trying to work out which shade come next!

That’s all from me for today. What have you been making recently? Take care and I hope you get the chance to do something that makes you happy this week. K x

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Stacking the Stitches

I had such a lovely time teaching the knitting technique of Stacked Stitches at WoollyAway this past weekend. This is the technique that is used in a lot of designs by the amazing Xandy Peters.

The retreat was so well organised by Deb and Diana that for me as a tutor I didn’t need to worry about anything once I arrived – there were even pre-printed lanyards with everyone’s name on which had the schedule for the weekend on the back which is a genius idea and meant we all knew what would be happening when.

I met some fabulous knitters and crocheters and was delighted with how well they learnt to use this technique. This is what they had all achieved by lunchtime.

And then yesterday was my birthday which I also enjoyed greatly! My lovely wife made a super cake with sprinkles on it.

I am lucky to have had some lovely gifts, including a trip to see a touring production of Pride and Prejudice at Theatre Clwyd last week. It was wonderful, with many of the cast playing two roles. It took me quite a while to realise that Mr Collins and Wickham were being played by the same person as the characterisation was so very good.

Unfortunately today I have come down with a cold, so I am very glad that this is a written blog and not a video! Hopefully it will be gone soon as I am meant to be teaching again tomorrow evening (today’s teaching has been cancelled). It does mean that today’s post is likely to be shorter than usual.

I think I told you about the introduction to tech editing course that I was taking last week. It really clicked for me and I’ve signed up for the full self-study version. I’ll let you know how I get on! I’ll be tackling the first assignment soon.

As there was some social knitting time at the WoollyAway retreat I have made good progress on my 4-ply version of What Do Points Make? I’ve finished the second front to the correct length – I realised while working that front that the first side was one repeat short. So, I’ve undone the first front back to the corner, added the extra repeat and begun the final decrease section. I’ve realised that these 3 skeins of 4-ply won’t give me quite enough yarn as they are only 365m long each rather than the full 400m of most 4-ply yarns, so I’m wondering whether to make the two front corners match with the little bit of the fourth colour that I will need to use, as I matched the position of all the other colour changes. I think I will. I will also need to calculate just how many extra metres the 4-ply version took than the laceweight one. It won’t be much, but it will be because this yarn is thicker than laceweight it will use a little bit more to get around the needle for each stitch. It’s a tiny amount per stitch, but multiplied up through several thousand stitches it becomes measurable and an amount that makes a difference! I will post a picture of it next week – I think I will have finished the knitting by then.

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Turning Out

This week is turning out to be very productive. I was a bit apprehensive in the run up to this week that it would be a bit too busy and I would get overwhelmed, but so far I’m really enjoying the variety and bustle of what I’m doing. I know, it is only Tuesday, but it’s a good start!

On Saturday I started a new sample for the moebius version of Gnarly Roots. This is using one of Knit Picks‘ new yarn lines, Modish Merino, and it’s very soft with a lovely stitch definition. I was sent a couple of skeins of this yarn recently when submitting a design idea. I decided a second moebius sample would be useful. The original sample I made uses the very gorgeous Shropshire Ply 2018 Double Knitting yarn from Ewe & Ply which is a semi-solid colour on a yarn with attitude. The semi-solid colour and slightly toothy texture is wonderful and very appropriate for the pattern name, but I also wanted a sample that showed the two sides of the reversible cable very clearly – especially as the lighting can be variable at different events! This yarn seems to be doing that well and the colour is ideal for a sample for shows, light and easy to see; I would probably choose a more ‘forgiving’ colour like the rich green Lady’s Mantle of the Ewe and Ply yarn if it was going to be worn next to the skin regularly!

The joy of a moebius pattern is that you get to see the front and back of the knitting at the same time, so a pattern that looks good on both sides is ideal, and reversible cables certainly fit the bill! It’s lovely to see visitors to shows exploring both sides of the straight version of Gnarly Roots which I knitted using HeartSpun DK dyed by Woolly Chic (the design was originally commissioned by Helen of Woolly Chic), especially now its label states “I’m reversible!”.

As part of my preparation for my stacked stitches workshop at the WoollyAway retreat this coming weekend, I’ve been developing one of my workshop swatches into a full design.

Prime Cowl uses prime numbers throughout the design and there are two versions, each using three colours. One has a ‘tabbed’ edge with 13 tabs and the other has a straight edge. It’s worked with the wrong side facing you throughout and is turned out once completed. This is because it is worked in the round and all the ‘action’ in the stacked stitches technique happens on wrong side rows. Today’s main post photo shows the side you look at while knitting.

Winter Seaside Cosy is the 2026 show pattern for the North West Winter Wool Festival held at Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool on 14-15 February and the big reveal of this design happened last Friday on social media!

I was really pleased when Shirley asked me to design the show pattern once again, following on from The Imperial Cowl last year (thinking about it, the in-the-round version of that design was also worked inside out, just like Prime Cowl is!). Advance tickets for the show go on sale tomorrow, Wednesday 15th October at 8am UK time. When you buy an advance ticket you also receive a code that allows you to download the pattern for Winter Seaside Cosy for free! Currently that’s the only way you’ll be able to get this pattern, but you will also be able to buy copies at the show (if you didn’t get an advance ticket) and afterwards. This hot water bottle cosy is worked in the round from the bottom upwards. Once it is finished and washed, you turn it inside out to weave in the ends, then you have two options. You can either place the hot water bottle inside and sew up the cast-on edge with a mattress stitch seam to permanently keep the hot water bottle in place. Alternatively you can sew five press-studs/poppers along the bottom to allow the hot water bottle to be removable. This option is useful if you think you will need to wash the cover frequently.

I’ve applied to some new yarn shows for next year. Some of them are brand new and some have been running for a while, I’ve just not applied to them before. Six of the shows I’ve applied to have been confirmed already and I’m waiting to hear back on a few others. Lots of shows like you to wait until closer to the show before you tell folk you are going to be exhibiting there, but I already have ‘social media badges’ for two of the ones new to me! TexStyle is a brand new show in Manchester that will feature a whole range of textile crafts, including lace-making, embroidery, quilting, macrame and weaving as well as the usual knitting, crochet, felting and spinning. It’s being held in the Central Hall at Manchester Central on March 14-15. (Manchester Central used to be known as G-Mex.)

The Wool Monty has been running since 2019 and is now held at Magna, in Templeborough on the site of the old Templeborough steel works on June 13-14. It’s a show that has accessibility and inclusivity at its heart and I’m so thrilled to have had my application to exhibit there accepted.

The other big thing I’ve been doing this week is an introductory course on tech editing knitting patterns. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but it started on Sunday and has Zoom calls every day this week, each day focussing on a different aspect of tech editing and some days finish with a quiz to submit! I have to admit I was super confident when I pressed submit to yesterday’s quiz, but it turns out I hadn’t thought about every single step of one question so I got 9/10. I will triple check my answers today before I submit them! I am enjoying it a lot so far.

We’re in the process of gathering feedback from the vendors at Yarn Gathering. If you were a visitor to that event and would like to contribute your own feedback, please contact me via contact@kathandrewsdesigns.com and let me know what you enjoyed about the show and anything you felt could be improved!

That’s all from me for today – there’s lots to do and I’m quite impressed that I’ve managed to get this post completed before 9.30am! Take care, and do some things that make you happy this week. K x

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Autumn Days

There are a few hymns from primary school that I can still remember all the way through, and Autumn Days is one of them. It was one of those songs that I used to sing to myself as I was out cycling or picking up conkers from the big horse chestnut tree around the corner. Many people have told me they don’t enjoy autumn very much, but I do. Perhaps October being my birthday month has something to do with it, but I love the changing colours and the rich reds, greens and browns everywhere. At the weekend Sue suggested we get the autumn decorations out and our fireplace looks really seasonal now with various pumpkins, bats and other items set all around the permanent features.

I spent some of this morning taking photographs of a new design that will be revealed this coming Friday, on October 10th. I am so pleased to have once again been invited to design the pattern for advance ticket holders to the North West Winter Wool Show in Blackpool in February, and you will get to see it on social media in just three days!

As I mentioned last week, I had been hoping to share a new design with you in this month’s issue of The Knitter, but it’s been pushed back to a later issue, so I must be patient for a little longer before I can tell you all about it.

Autumn is also a time of beginnings for me and there are lots of workshops coming up where you can expand your knitting skills and knowledge with me.

Have you ever wanted to learn to do Fair Isle (stranded) knitting? Or do you need a refresher for some top tips? I will be teaching this technique on Wednesday 22nd October at Shaz’s Shabby Chic in Buckley, 6.30-8.30pm.

You will be working on this pattern, learning about colour dominance, how to manage two colours when knitting or purling, how to catch ‘floats’ of yarn on the back of your knitting and how to read a colour work chart.

All yarn and handouts are included for £25. All you need to bring are 4mm needles and a pen or pencil. You need to be able to knit, purl, cast on and off.

Book now

The following week (29th October) I will be teaching my moebius knitting workshop at the same venue. This workshop costs £31 and includes handouts, yarn and the very specific needles you need to successfully create the project with this technique. All you need to bring is a pen or pencil!

These are most of the headbands made during my last moebius workshop at Yarndale. Somehow I didn’t manage to photograph everyone’s.

In the moebius workshop you will learn how a true moebius is constructed from the centre outwards, and discover how this technique can be used to wonderful neckwear and more. You will learn 2 moebius cast on methods and create a simple headband. You need to be able to knit, purl and cast-off.

Book now

Before either of these workshops I will be teaching the technique of Stacked Stitches (as exemplified in the designs of the amazing Xandy Peters) at the WoollyAway Retreat at Manor of Groves hotel in Hertfordshire, organised by Deb of Crates of Wool and Diana of The Crochet Chain. I have been prepping some more samples and decided to experiment with scale a little – my hand in the last pic gives you a sense of the size of the largest sample!

These samples are stitch patterns I have worked out myself using the principles of the technique. The one on the left is what we start with – little increase bumps to begin with, gradually increasing in size as knitters get used to how the technique works! I’ve also been working on a new cowl design using the stacked stitches technique and this should be ready in time for the retreat which is quite exciting!

The yarn in these samples varies from 4ply cotton knitted using 3.5mm or 4mm needles, via DK wool and a wool/acrylic mix yarn on 4mm needles to chunky acrylic on 8mm or 9mm needles! I usually use just wool in my workshops, but I believe there will be some attendees at the retreat who are allergic to wool and I want everyone to be able to handle and explore the samples before they get going making their own, so I’ve made sure there are samples suitable for everyone and I’ll make sure no one touches the ones with wool in without knowing that’s what they’re made from. The yarn supplied by the organisers for attendees to use during the workshops will be acrylic too for the same reason.

I’m grateful not to have a wool allergy myself, though I do have issues with mohair. I don’t think you would call it an allergy, but the hairy fibres from the yarn go up my nose and make me sneeze and I can’t stand the way mohair feels on my skin – it itches like mad and I can’t stand it! So, if you’ve ever wondered why I’ve never done any of those designs where a strand of mohair is held double with a strand of something else – that’s why!

That’s all from me for today – I’m off to eat an apple picked from our tree this morning. I hope you have a good week, do something that makes you smile and maybe learn something new as well. K x

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Time flies when you’re having fun

Yarndale flew past! It felt like no sooner had we set our stand up than we were taking it down again! Having just one table definitely gave us more room, but there were still people waiting to be able to get in to look at the patterns, so I think we will need a double space another time.

Lots of people admired Crenellate and Lichfield among many other patterns, and about half a dozen folk signed up to my monthly newsletter. Subscribers often get special short term discounts off new releases and are also able to get 10% off all patterns and kits so it really is worth signing up.

We had many lovely conversations during the weekend with friends old and new, and we even had time to be sociable on the Saturday evening which was fabulous and is something we will be making time for again at future shows.

There were lots of mandalas around this weekend, mostly in The Gather (the main entrance part to the show), but I also spotted several on different stands. They were beautiful and made gorgeous shadows as well as looking splendid in their own right. Ronnie made friends with Dolly the sheep too.

My moebius workshop was a lot of fun and there are now more knitters out there who are able to knit moebius patterns. They thoroughly enjoyed the workshop too and several commented on how quickly the time went – and it was a two and a half hour session! I didn’t manage to photograph everyone’s headband, but these are the ones I did take pics of:

If you missed this workshop at Yarndale and would like to learn I am teaching it again in person next month as part of my Autumn series of in-person workshops!

There was almost a problem on Saturday morning as we were getting ready when I realised that I had failed to pack any tights! The Auction Mart at Skipton can be a chilly place and my DMs are not shoes that can be worn with bare feet, so it was with great relief that we discovered a nearby Asda open early that had some tights I could buy. All the same I was very very grateful to get home to my regular Snag tights. If you are a wearer of tights and have not yet tried this brand I highly recommend them! They stay put and their larger sizes are actually wider and not just longer, so they fit really well. This is not an affiliate link or anything like that, I just genuinely think they are brill.

Anyway, back to the yarn! I was very excited to see that Menai is having another moment in the spotlight, this time on the front cover of the German version of The Knitter. A friend who is honeymooning over there sent me this pic!

Next month I am teaching at Woolly Away, a knitting a crochet retreat in Hertfordshire. There may even be a few spaces left if you’d like to attend, but you’ll need to book soon if you do want to go.

I’m also teaching four workshops at Shaz’s Shabby Chic in Buckley, Flintshire, over the next two months:

  • 22nd October – Fair Isle (Stranded) Knitting
  • 29th October – Moebius Knitting
  • 19th November – Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting
  • 26th November – Introduction to Lace Knitting

All the workshops are from 6.30-8.30pm and full details are on my Events page.

In the middle of these workshops we’ll also be at Stollen & Wolle at RiverKnits’ studio in Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire which I mentioned last week! That’s on Sunday November 16th, 10am-4pm. Susan Crawford (author of A Stitch in Time and The Vintage Shetland Project) will be there a special guest speaker and I’m very excited about it.

And, last but not least, we’ll be at Yuletide Yarnies in Shrewsbury on Saturday December 13th!

Amidst all this I think Issue 220 of The Knitter that comes out on Thursday will have a new design of mine in it, and I’m playing with lots of ideas for more designs! One of the things about a big show like Yarndale is that my brain starts buzzing with ideas, partly through seeing lots of new yarns and colour combinations, partly through conversations had with visitors and fellow vendors. Also, although my lovely wife Sue is not a knitter, she will often plant a seed that it would be a really good idea if I were to design a pattern for xyz… She’s usually right too!

So, this week I will be prepping for the retreat and knitting up some new ideas as well as getting something very special photographed ready for a big reveal on October 10th!

Until next week, take care and do something that makes you smile. K x

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Licenced to Crenellate!

On Friday I will be (re-)launching Crenellate! We had lots of fun at the end of last week taking new photographs and I have been scouring through the pattern to make sure everything is listed in the abbreviations and the pattern is presented as clearly as possible. As the pattern has already been published in a magazine (this was published in Knit Now, Issue 179 in March 2025) this should be easy, but I still like to make sure everything is correct and it all fits my own ‘style’ of layout.

A friend of mine told me that in the medieval period a licence from the king was needed to be allowed to add crenellation to a property. I didn’t know this, but find it very interesting and will definitely be reading more about it, especially since I’m finding my recent audiobook listening is becoming a lot more historical fiction based.

As it happens, much of my Crenellate design is very straightforward. Sue had a look at the printed pattern and asked, “Do the charts really only use these symbols?” Yes they do, because it’s a textural pattern with no lace.

In fact, here is the chart key:

Crenellate just uses knit and purl to create the textural design, with yarn overs (yo) creating the increases for the shaping. The blue and red outlines show the sections of the chart that you repeat. That’s it. And, of course, if you’re not a fan of charts, the pattern is also written out in full.

The textural design is one of the aspects of Crenellate that make this design one of my easier patterns to knit. It’s a top-down triangular shawl with the body of the shawl simply increasing in size until the border. The border is also straightforward, even though it has a very fun shape! The border is all garter stitch, with the crenellated shaping created through casting on and off to change the length of the rows.

If you are a newer knitter there are three things in this design you may not have encountered before.

The first is the ‘garter tab’ that begins the shawl. Lots of top down shawls begin this way and I’m going to be recording a little video for my website and youtube channel to show how it works. Essentially, you cast on a few stitches (usually about 3), knit a few rows of garter stitches (often 6, giving three garter ridges) which creates a tiny garter stitch square (or tab, hence the name). You then knit one more row, but instead of turning and knitting back, you pick up some stitches down the side of your little square, then pick up some stitches along the bottom from where you cast on. This means you’re now working around three sides of the square and it becomes the centre top of a triangular or semicircular shawl!

The other two possibly less familiar things are both included in the border. One is a wrap and turn short row, which is used four times in the whole shawl and is described step by step in the abbreviations. I’m going to add a new video on my youtube channel for this as well. The last is the joining stitch to join the border to the body of the shawl as you knit it. That sounds more complicated than it is – it just means you knit the last stitch of the border together with the next stitch of the body of the shawl. As these are in different colours it’s easy to know when you’ve got to that point in the row – you’re knitting two stitches together, one of each colour.

Crenellate is worked in DK yarn so it’s ideal for the cooler weather we’ve started to experience. The original sample was knitted using West Yorkshire Spinners Elements DK which is a wool and Tencel mix, but it would work very well in other fibres too, including pure wool for a super cosy version.

Newsletter subscribers already have their exclusive discount code for Ravelry and Payhip which lasts for 48 hours from 10am on Friday until 10am on Sunday. The sample and printed copies of the pattern will also be at Yarndale this weekend. The timing is a bit of a gamble as I’ve not done an online launch at the same time as a yarn show before and I’m hoping that the two events will boost each other, rather than cancel each other out.

All the patterns are now printed and ready for the show and I now just need to plan the layout for our spot. We are in D5 this year, which is very near the Wharfdale entrance, and almost as far away from where we were last year as we could be!

think we may well be one of the first stands people come to if they come in this way to the show so we will need to make sure the stand is attention grabbing. We may well need extra woolly layers to wear as well being near the entrance, but that’s not going to be a problem!

There are still a few spaces left on my moebius knitting workshop on Saturday 10.30am-1pm. We will explore the unique structure of a true Moebius ring, where the knitting grows from the centre outwards, and discover how this technique can be used to make wonderful neckwear and more. You’ll learn two Moebius cast on methods and create a simple headband. From there you can tackle a range of moebius designs! Go to the Yarndale website to book your place if you’d like to learn this amazing technique – it’s a whole lot more than casting on and then twisting your knitting before you join it!

Who is coming to Yarndale at the weekend? Do come and say hello if you are there. Remember, we are on Stand D5.

Until next week, take care and do something that makes you smile this week in this mad, mad world. K x