Learn this amazing technique to create a wonderfully squishy fabric. We’ll cover the basic two colour brioche stitch, the terminology, a brioche increase and two different decreases.
Venue: Shaz’s Shabby Chic, Buckley,
Date: 19th November 2025, 6.30pm-8.30pm
Cost: £25, including handouts and yarn.
Bring with you: 5mm circular knitting needles (60-80cm long). Needles must be circular for brioche knitting, though we will be knitting flat, not in the round.
Skills required: Cast-on, cast-off, knit & purl.
Refreshments can be bought from the shop during the workshop.
In this workshop, you’ll 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 also learn two Moebius cast on methods and create a simple headband.
Find the full workshop details on the show website.
Venue: North West Winter Wool Festival, Norbreck Castle Hotel, Blackpool
Date: Sunday 15th February 2026, 1pm-3.30pm
Skills required: knit, purl, cast off
Cost: £36, including handouts, yarn and specific knitting needles required for this technique
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
The North East Wool Show in Newcastle was a lot of fun and Angel of the North got a fair bit of attention – certainly more than usual! Everyone we spoke to during the weekend was so friendly and enthusiastic about what we were doing, even if they weren’t knitters themselves. We had time for walks in the evening and learnt a fab new phrase: ‘nae bother’. We even stopped by the actual Angel of the North on the way home and were struck by how absolutely enormous it is, but unfortunately, due to the way everything was packed in the car, we weren’t able to photograph the shawl with its namesake – I will plan ahead better next year as I really hope to come and do this show again!
If you came and said hello or bought a pattern or a kit during the weekend – thank you! We really appreciate it and we hope you enjoy your knitting! Our stand was not quite as large as the Angel of the North, but it was fairly immense at 6m x 1m and we loved filling it up! There’s a bit of overlap in the pictures here, but hopefully it gives you an idea of the fab space we had.
My brioche workshop was good fun and I’ve been impressed to see on social media that some knitters have already finished their swatches and even started on the projects they bought. From little to no brioche experience to this in just under two hours is pretty cool!
This weekend sees us at a show much closer to home. The Pop-up Wool Show in Port Sunlight was my first ever yarn show as a vendor and it holds a special place in my heart as a result. This show is held in Hulme Hall on Saturday 16th August, 10-4, and tickets are £4 on the door or online.
I can hardly believe that it’s less than 5 weeks until Yarn Gathering! Our lovely vendors are going to have some wonderful things to share with you on Sunday September 14th. We are once more in the Daniel Owen Centre from 10-4 and entry is still free! As the show does not coincide with the Mold Food and Drink Festival this year, there will be lots of free parking available around the town.
I have a new design out in the world! The latest issue of The Knitter mag has a lace wrap in called Lorelai that I designed. I hadn’t realised it was being published this month, so it was a really nice surprise to see the pic on Instagram yesterday. Here’s their instagram shot (photo credit: @theshed_photostudio):
I used Jamieson’s of Shetland Ultra Lace for this which is a gorgeous laceweight ‘toothy’ wool that I haven’t used for a while, but adore. It’s a yarn with personality and holds a stitch pattern incredibly well.
The colour is reminding me that there are lots of raspberries at the bottom of the garden that need to be picked, so I’m off to do that.
Take care this week and do some stuff that makes you happy. And if you come to the Pop-up Wool Show, do say hello! K x
We had our first homegrown raspberries this week. They’re autumn fruiting ones so it’s a little early for them to get going properly yet, but the half dozen or so that we picked were delicious.
Last week I mentioned I had some shoulder/back pain and wondered whether it was from knitting in the car. It turns out it has been building for a while and is most likely from knitting for extended periods with bad posture over a number of months or even years. So I say hurrah for osteopaths! I saw one for the first time yesterday and I can already feel some difference. I’m going again tomorrow. She’s also a crafter (a crocheter) which I think helps a lot with understanding what I do! Today is all about rolling my shoulders back, applying ice periodically, and not staying in one position for too long.
I have made a decision about which part of What Do Points Make? to work on next and it’s the third colour. Its a little gloomy outside today with the drizzle, so the pic isn’t quite as vibrant as it is in real life, but hopefully you get the idea.
I love how these colours blend into one another, keeping some of the same shades whilst adding new ones. This is part of a 5-skein gradient set from LottieKnits, bought in 2018 and while I don’t think she’s dying these colours currently, I highly recommend you have a look at her yarns. The yarn base is Little Bird Sock which Lottie does still have and it is really soft and gorgeous to work with.
I’m delighted that my two-colour brioche workshop at the North East Wool Show is now fully booked! I will be running some more Zoom workshops and in-person workshops in North Wales from the Autumn, so if this is something you’d be interested in, keep an eye on the events tab on the website (see below):
It feels as though planning for each show we exhibit at should get easier, but that isn’t always the case. Stand sizes and shape can vary a lot – at the North East Wool Show we have a 6m x 1m stand which I’m very excited about. The preparation involves considering that space and how to maximise it. Even when it’s a show with a similar layout to a previous one, there are nearly always new designs to bring with me as well. My current portfolio on Ravelry shows 72 designs and there’s one more (Crenellate published in Knit Now in March) that needs to be added there, plus a few more designs that are yet to be published. I’ve just purchased two more of the pull up display stands like those on the left below (giving me a total of 5), as it’s so much easier for folk to see the front covers of the patterns when displayed in these, rather than in the rigid plastic table top stands as shown on the right. What do you think?
So I can now show 25 patterns off to their best in these stands, with others (for smaller items) displayed on the table next to their samples. As you can see, I’m going to have to be quite ruthless about which patterns to bring with me! For example, I have two children’s cardigans, one of which tends to be more popular, so that one will come with us and the other one will have to stay at home. Patterns are almost all printed, kits are ready and samples are nearly all packed up. There’s just one mark I need to remove from Sugar Loaf Cardigan:
It’s not really obvious, but I know it’s there. I think it’s ink from a stamp that hadn’t dried. I meant to remove it straight after that event, but life got in the way and it’s still there. I’m hoping it will just need a bit of a dab with a wet cloth or a spot of Vanish soap – that stuff seems to get anything out of anything! I’ll report back next week on how successful I’ve been.
That’s all from me today. Pop back next week for updates on everything! K x
In this class you’ll 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 also learn two Moebius cast on methods and create a simple headband.
Included: Participants will receive class notes including a pattern for the headband, Aran weight yarn in 2 colours (approx. 30g of each) and a lockable stitch marker.
Bring: Participants need to bring 5mm short (9.5cm or 10cm) interchangeable tips and 80cm circular needle cable. These will be available to buy (for £6.00) if you don’t already have them.
Borrow: Tapestry needles will be available to borrow
The first Yarnies at the Flaxmill on Saturday was a great success. The organisers (Clare of Wild Field Fibre and Chantelle of Bijoux Events) did a splendid job and we had a really good day. We had the prime spot just inside the entrance and it was a great opportunity to give my new roller banner its first outing. Fortunately, once it was in a large space such as the Dye House at Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, the banner didn’t seem quite so enormous as it had done at home!
It was a surprisingly windy day on Saturday – it was the first day that the weather began to change and we were glad to have our flasks of tea with us. Not just to drink, but to weigh the legs of the roller banner down and stop it blowing over backwards! See if you can spot them in this video I took just before we opened:
Each of the samples has a new label with a little more information and positioned in a way that makes it easier for folk to access. You would not believe how long it took to do those! Each one was hand stamped with my logo and allowed to dry overnight (I made 2 batches of 50 as I ran out partway through) and then each label was handwritten. But I think it was worth it! Of course, I only did new labels for the samples I took with me on Saturday, so there are still lots more to do!
There were some fabulous vendors at the show, some of whom I see regularly at events and others who I only see occasionally. Our lovely stand neighbour on Saturday was Allium Threads who dyes yarn, fibre and embroidery threads with natural dyes. I’ve seen them at the Pop-Up Wool Show in Port
A wonderful surprise in the morning came from Deb of Dyelution who brought her finished Heart in my Hands Hat to show me. She had knitted it in some of her own hand-dyed yarns, and had it on display with the yarns during the day so visitors could see how the yarns look knitted up. It looks gorgeous!
Another lovely surprise came at the end of the day from Marianne of Penny Stitch Craft who brought over a couple of mini skeins of her 4ply Tencel yarn for me to play and experiment with. What a gift!
I’ve started developing some ideas for a design using her Tencel DK, and I can’t wait to get my current sweater design finished so I can concentrate on it properly!
Speaking of the sweater – both the sleeves now have a full complement of increases! I now ‘just’ have to:
knit both sleeves straight to the full length
cast off for the saddle shoulder
knit the saddle for each sleeve (remembering they are not the same, as half the saddle on each sleeve completes the back neck)
block all the pieces
seam the pieces together at the shoulders
knit the neckband
seam the body and sleeves
finish the written pattern
double check the pattern and the charts
and then send it off!
I’m so glad I started this in plenty of time. If anyone ever knits you a sweater, be in no doubt that they love you!
I didn’t actually do any work on the sweater yesterday as I was busy updating my samples and workshop notes for the two workshops I’m teaching tomorrow in Cheadle: Introduction to Sock Knitting and Introduction to Lace Knitting. I knitted one of my mini socks with each section in a different colour to help with understanding the anatomy of a sock, and it was surprising to see that (at this size) the largest section was the gusset (in blue)! By contrast, the heel turn (in green), which creates a lot of the magic of a top-down/heel flap sock, is really tiny!
I quite like the look of the rainbow sock – I might even knit up a full size pair!
Since the weather changed at the weekend, we’ve had lots of much-needed rain. It actually hasn’t stopped today, so I’m hoping that our water butt will be getting replenished a bit. The seedlings in trays have been moved from the garage to the patio and are loving this weather – as are the broad bean seedlings that I sowed directly into the veg patch – I’m just hoping the slugs don’t find them too soon now they are finally growing! Hopefully I will be able to take some pics of the seedlings during the week and show you next Tuesday how they are getting on.
It’s strange to think after three yarn shows in quick succession (Wonderwool, Buxton Wool Gathering and Yarnies at the Flaxmill) that our next one isn’t until August! That will be the North East Wool Show at Newcastle Racecourse. I’m teaching a brioche workshop there and ticket sales for that are made directly through me, so if you’d like to learn how to knit two-colour brioche and will be in the Newcastle area on August 10th, do get in touch!
That’s all for today. I hope you have a good week and manage to do some stuff that makes you smile. Take care, K x
I had been hoping to tell you today that I am halfway through the first sleeve of my sweater design and at 9pm last night I was. However, the sleeve has now been frogged as I realised I need a slightly wider cuff and also need to get the to full width of the sleeve sooner. So, it’s back to the drawing board (or rather, excel spreadsheet) with the sleeves today and start again. I know what I need to change. It’s now a matter of working out the maths. I’m so glad I decided to knit the sleeves one at a time rather than both together! It’s frustrating when things don’t work out as you want the first time, but I’m taking it as a learning point! At least I have enough time before the deadline to do it properly and make sure the sleeves will work.
Like much of the country this week has been hot and dry – in fact we haven’t had any significant rain in over three weeks. It tried to rain a bit yesterday, but the paths looked a lot wetter than the veg patch did. Our water butt is empty and we are having to water the seeds we finally sowed a week or so ago more often than I would like as the compost dries up very quickly for the little seed tray pots and the ground is rock hard! Left over water from ironing is going in a watering can on the back step and we even got the hose out one day. I’m hoping we will get some decent steady rain soon, but maybe not this coming weekend…
On Friday we travel to Buxton for Buxton Wool Gathering. The weather is set to continue fine and I’m sure the ice-cream stand outside the Buxton Pavilion will be doing a roaring trade.
I really like this show. It’s well organised and in a lovely setting and this year we are staying somewhere that I think is just next to the Pavilion Gardens, so getting back to the accommodation will be super easy! This year is the first time I will be teaching a workshop at Buxton, and there are still a few spaces on my moebius workshop, the price of which includes the very specific needles you need, pure wool yarn and handouts! The workshops happen in an upstairs conference room (in the same area of the building as the toilets). There is a lift as well as stairs so it is all accessible.
Hard on the heels of Buxton is the Yarnies at the Flaxmill at Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings the following Saturday. This is a one-day event, with opening hours of 11am-5pm.
I spent some time yesterday updating my website, especially the events page and made sure to add the workshops I’m due to be teaching at the end of the month at Sew Woolly in Cheadle (Stockport) there too. I’m teaching two workshops on the same day – socks in the morning and lace knitting in the afternoon.
Here’s the info about the workshops:
Introduction to Sock Knitting
Learn all the steps of knitting a top-down sock on double pointed needles: Cast-on, ribbing, leg, heel flap, heel turn, gusset, foot, toe, grafting. We will be working on a scale that means you can complete the whole sock in the workshop!
Skills required: cast on, knit, purl, k2tog, ssk.
Equipment to bring: 3mm double pointed needles (you can buy these from Sew Woolly if needed), tapestry needle. Everything else will be supplied.
2.5 hour workshop, £35, including yarn and handouts
Introduction to Lace Knitting
Learn how to use decreases and yarn overs to create deliberate patterns of stable holes in your knitting – this is lace knitting! Learn how to follow both written and charted lace instructions and see how blocking works magic on lace knitting by opening up the stitches.
Skills required: cast on, knit, purl
Equipment to bring: 4mm or 4.5mm needles (you can buy these from Sew Woolly if needed), straight or circular. Everything else will be supplied.
2.5 hour workshop, £35, including yarn and handouts.
If you want to book a place for either workshop, please ring Sew Woolly on 07905 741969 or message them on Instagram or Facebook.
I have decided to improve my Pride Flag Knitting kits by presenting them in a tin. These flag kits have currently been available separately, packaged in cardboard envelopes. The new kit for both flags in the tin is an upgrade as it looks much nicer if you’re giving it as a gift, it includes both kits in a single package, and you can re-use the tin when you’ve finished with the kit! All the yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners ColourLab DK, so it’s 100% wool and the kits are far more economical than buying 11 whole balls of wool!
I will have these kits with me at Buxton Wool Gathering this weekend and also at Shrewsbury! I may still have one or two single flags in envelope packaging left too!
Back in 2015 I attended a knitting retreat where I learnt how to dye yarn and fabric with indigo, did some colour work knitting techniques and had a go at repurposing an old shirt into a new garment. It was great fun and really nice to spend a whole weekend away with like-minded folk, immersed in making and craft. In 2023 I was invited to teach at the Knit-Tea Retreat in Cardiff and again I had a super time, surrounded by knitters and crocheters and lots of yarn, tea and cake. This October I will be teaching at another retreat, this time in High Wych in Hertfordshire. Having enjoyed knitting retreats from ‘both sides’, as an attendee and as a tutor I was quick to accept the offer to take part in this one! Woolly Away is a knitting and crochet retreat for crafters of all levels, brought to you by Diana from The Crochet Chain and Deb from Crates of Wool.
This is from the Crates of Wool website:
“What’s a retreat?
Two days of relaxation while refining your craft in the company of other knitters and crocheters. We stay in a peaceful, comfortable hotel away from the everyday hustle and bustle of life and just take time for ourselves.
On Saturday and Sunday mornings we have a choice of workshops, then lunch in the restaurant, followed by time in the afternoon to work on your projects from the morning or for any other craft work. The hosts and tutors are available throughout to help with your crafting dilemmas.
You receive a tool kit containing everything you will need for all the workshops, plus other goodies, such as patterns and special yarns. So all you need to bring are your needles, hooks and your favourite notions.”
One of the great things about this retreat is that the ‘tool kit’ you get contains the handouts etc for ALL the workshops even though you can only attend two of them (you choose one for the Saturday morning and one for the Sunday morning). So, you can look at the handouts for the two sessions you weren’t able to attend and have a go at those in your own time as well!
You can reserve your place for a £100 deposit – bookings have just opened! – and you then pay the rest by early September.
That’s all from me today. I’ll tell you how Buxton went next week. If you come to the show, please drop by my stand and say hello – we’ll be right in the middle of the octagon room. K x
Two days of relaxation while refining your craft in the company of other knitters and crocheters. We stay in a peaceful, comfortable hotel away from the everyday hustle and bustle of life and just take time for ourselves.
On Saturday and Sunday mornings we have a choice of workshops, then lunch in the restaurant, followed by time in the afternoon to work on your projects from the morning or for any other craft work. The hosts and tutors are available throughout to help with your crafting dilemmas.
You receive a tool kit containing everything you will need for all the workshops, plus other goodies, such as patterns and special yarns. So all you need to bring are your needles, hooks and your favourite notions.
I am delighted to have been invited to be one of the guest tutors at this retreat and I will be teaching a workshop on stacked stitches knitting.
