Tag: Knitting Tutor

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We Made It Happen!

I can hardly believe it’s just two days since Yarn Gathering. It was a wonderful day and everyone who came as both vendors and customers were really enthusiastic about the event. We’ve already had people asking when the next one will be! To which we gently reply – next year. Once a year is enough, especially as there are so many other yarn shows around the UK to which people have commitments.

I was really busy on my stand throughout much of the day, which is my way of saying, “I’m sorry, but I didn’t take any photos”! There are some photos and videos of the day taken by Anne on the Yarn Gathering North Wales Instagram page and if you search the #YarnGatheringNorthWales or #YarnGatheringMold hashtag you’ll see some other posts too!

I popped into Yarn O’clock this morning to see Anne, and we both said, “We did it! Was it real?!” There is such a sense of relief that it all came together, everything worked, everyone turned up and no one had to pull out through illness. Add to that the sense of accomplishment at making something really happen and the tiredness of having run a stand myself as well and it starts to feel a bit dreamlike!

A special thank you has to go to The Daniel Owen Centre for hiring the building out to us and allowing us to move furniture around to suit our needs. Also to Rick from The Gathering cafe in Mold for his AMAZING vegan blueberry muffins that kept the vendors topped up with sugar and blueberry goodness through the day (great call on that one, Anne!). And, also to Mold Town Council, the Mold Food and Drink Festival, and all the shopkeepers in Mold and Buckley who all put posters up for us!

So, that’s done, and it’s on to the next adventures. I promised you some exciting news this week and I am indeed able to share two big things with you.

The two shawls I have designed for RiverKnits are going to be launched this weekend at Yarndale in Skipton! Here they are in all their glory; Agnes:

And Tiffany:

I will be there, on the RiverKnits stand (K10) during the weekend (10-12 and 2.30-4.30 both days), so please come and say hello if you’re going to Yarndale. I will also have a selection of my other designs with me there, both the samples and printed patterns, all of which can be made using RiverKnits yarns!

The second piece of exciting news I have is that I am one of the tutors at the Knit-Tea Retreat at Insole Court in Cardiff next month, October 22nd-23rd! I was really pleased to be invited to teach at this event – I went to one of their online retreats during lockdown and really enjoyed it. There are three other tutors and we will be offering a wide range of workshops. There are interviews with each of us on the Knit-Tea Retreat website so you can find out more about us and what we are offering, but in brief:

I will be teaching Möbius Knitting, Stacked Stitches and Cast-on/Cast-off. There will also be workshops on Beginner Crochet Amigurumi, Fun with Fibre and Intro to Drop Spinning with Angela Hart, Lino Printing with Bethan of Joy House Creations and Yoga for Crafters with Lisa Hassan-Scott! There will be a marketplace on the Sunday afternoon (where I’ll have a stand), and lots of tea and cake and opportunities for socialising with other knitters and crafters.

If this sounds like your cup of tea (see what I did there? 😉), have a look at the Knit-Tea Retreat website. Places are limited and you don’t want to miss out!

In the meantime, I need to finish printing out copies of patterns to take with me to Yarndale (I’ve just run out of A3 paper, so that’s something I’ll need to tackle first thing tomorrow), finish writing up the pattern for my secret knitting – it’s blocked out beautifully and I’m so pleased with it – and get it posted off to it’s destination and, at some point, finish the ironing. Have you noticed the word ‘finish’ is cropping up a lot here?! I’ve done most of the printing, about 85% of the writing up of the pattern and half of the ironing, but none of these jobs are done until they’re done – and finished!

Yesterday, as you can’t have failed to notice in the UK, was the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth. Even though I’ve found the media coverage of the past ten days somewhat overwhelming, we did watch the procession and the services on the tv. The precision and hours that went into making that happen were breathtaking, and the music was exceptional. It was wonderful to hear so many pieces that I know well and have sung myself over the years. There was a lot more of the events of the day covered than I was anticipating (though the previous days’ coverage should have given me a heads up!), but I could at least knit on the comfort of our sofa whilst dipping in and out.

Take care one and all, hold those you love close when you can, and come and say hi in Skipton if you’re there at the weekend! K x

P.S. I’m currently enjoying my use of the Oxford comma – if you know, you know!

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A Little Fall of Rain

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!

A screenshot of the first title page for my lace knitting course. The text on the left reads "Introduction to Lace Knitting, 1.1 Welcome". On the right is a sample square of different lace stitches worked in pale blue DK yarn. The background is a wooden desk.

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.

One complete multi-coloured hand knit sock lies on a pale gold carpet with a sock in progress on top of it. The sock in progress is being worked toe up, starting in stocking stitch with two colours held together then going to a section of 2-colour brioche. Stocking stitch returns just under the needles (dpns). The colours change randomly as each yarn runs out.

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 piece of cream linen with patches of tiny black, dark green and dark brown stitches. The fabric is marked off in squares with fine black thread and pale blue thread marks the centre lines. The image of a laughing woman can just be made out in the emerging picture.
The same embroidery as the image on the left with more stitches worked, adding a very dark brown.

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.

A round sourdough loaf sits on a cooling rack.

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!

Take care, keep safe and keep knitting, Kx