Tag: lace knitting

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What a weekend!

We arrived early at Skipton auction mart. This was a first for us and gave us time to relax after the drive, eat our lunch (and be chased by a wasp) and chat to fellow vendors who were also there early before the roller shutters went up.

We always forget just how big the building is, but you soon remember when you’re wheeling the trolley up and down the aisles! It took us an hour to get everything unloaded out of the cars.

And then set up began! The roll of black fabric we’d bought having seen someone else use it last year was brilliant for covering the sides of the pens and giving us a backdrop – and was much easier to put up than trying to pin sheets to the rails! It’s the same stuff that is used for the underneath of furniture and also as weed suppressant. We could cable tie it to the rails – and used gaffer tape on the section without rails.

As you can see getting the backdrop up was just the start!

But by 6.15pm we were done! The next photo was actually taken on Saturday as we had chosen to leave the patterns in the cases overnight to avoid them getting spoiled by any rain that might come in or condensation dripping from the metal rafters.

Having a double stand was definitely the right decision – loads of room meant that lots of people could browse and that helped sales too.

Lots of fun was had during the weekend with various vendors joining in the “swish or waft?” game with Meg March Shawl – there are some cracking videos on Sue’s socials. It was also lovely that so many people stopped by to say hello – friends, people who have been on previous workshops, returning customers, fellow tech editors and readers of this blog. If you were one of them – thank you.

My workshops were both fully booked and went well. Neither photo below includes everyone’s progress as some folk had to leave before the photos were taken, but there are now more knitters in the world who can do stacked stitches and two-colour brioche!

I’m teaching brioche again at the Montgomery Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers in a couple of weeks and then again at Stafford Wool Gathering – that workshop is now sold out too!

The best selling patterns at the show were the usual suspects: Nevern Throw, Lichfield and Tiffany. It was good to see Ice Diamond Mitts getting plenty of attention too.

Not for the first time, several people asked if there was an adult version of Caramel Slice and there isn’t.

This has made me decide that now is the time to remedy this! The original child’s version was knitted using West Yorkshire Spinners Elements DK (a blend of Tencel and Falklands wool), but, as WYS is in the process of being sold to new buyers, I decided to use a different DK yarn for the adult version. I’ve chosen Yarnsmiths Superwash Merino DK and selected some gorgeous colours this morning. I’ve gone for ‘Copper’ as the main colour which is a deep rich colour like Parkin or gingerbread, paired with ‘Carrot’ and ‘Vanilla Fudge’. I’ve recently used the ‘tweeds’ version of this yarn for another design and really liked it, so I’m hoping this non-tweedy one will be just as soft and lovely. As this design isn’t a commission I’ll be able to share the process and my progress with you which is quite exciting!

I’m sitting on my chair in the lounge writing this on my phone today for a couple of reasons. It’s warmer in here and I’m a feeling bit under the weather (probably my body’s reaction to knowing that the 3 deadlines and 3 events of this month have now all happened!) and also there is a big box on the floor in the study that needs sorting out and if I write my blog in another room I won’t be distracted by that.

When we were about to start packing up on Sunday when the rain came down with such ferocity that it even came through the wooden slats that made up the upper part of the wall above our stand. All the samples that were near the wall got a bit damp and so they were packed in a separate bag from everything else and are now spread out around the bungalow to air and dry properly – I don’t want musty smelling samples!

On Thursday Part One of Autumn Dahlia knit-along will be released in issue 233 of The Knitter!

You may have seen the special subscription offer they have been promoting on social media with it. It’s a three part knit-along using LangYarns Naturalis. This is a yarn dyed using natural dyes and is a very lightly spun single ply yarn. It’s listed as an aran/worsted weight yarn although I thought it felt more substantial than that while was using it. The shawl is worked on a 7mm needle. I’ll be sharing lots of pics of this with you next week.

What have you been up to this week? Did any of you come to Yarndale? I’d love to hear about it in the comments! K x

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Tide’s Out!

Tickets are now on sale for the North West Winter Wool Festival 2027! And that means my show design is also available. When you purchase an advance ticket for the show you get a download code (it works on both Ravelry and Payhip) so you can download a copy of the show pattern for free! What a bargain!

Tide’s Out is a single skein 4ply shawl pattern with a lovely lace border reminiscent of the patterns that the receding tide leaves in the sand. The variegated sample shown here was knitted using LottieKnits Little Bird Sock (360m/100g) and the gradient/fade sample was knitted using a brown fade set from The Knitting Goddess (400m/100g in 20g mini skeins) – this yarn is now discontinued.

I am very pleased to be able to report that last weekend went well! When I was looking at my diary recently and trying to work out how I would squeeze two events in different places into one weekend when I was organising the second one and needed to set up for it on the same day as the first, I wasn’t entirely convinced I would manage – but we did!

Saturday was Ewe & Ply‘s 10th birthday and I was so honoured to be invited to go and ‘showcase my talents’ that I was determined to be able to fit it in. Becca, Teri and their staff are so friendly and welcoming as were the other four small businesses who were there. Most of us were set up at the end of St Mary’s Parade just outside the shop, which was the ideal spot as I would have to leave early.

Lots of people came to say hello and celebrate Ewe & Ply’s journey from the market stall in Shrewsbury to a large shop and another shop in Oswestry. I had a bit of a challenge with the fact that St Mary’s Parade in Shrewsbury is at the top of quite a steep hill and the car parks are all at the bottom, but once I got my breath back I was able to chat to people!

I left there at 2.30 and managed to get to Mold just before 4pm to set up the venue for Yarn Gathering. We spent an hour marking out everyone’s spaces on the floor with masking tape, putting up signs and bunting and moving lots of tables and chairs around. I was very grateful to have Sue and Anne helping with this!

Then on Sunday morning the alarm went off at 5.15 and we were at the venue by 7.10. Outside posters were put up before the venue was unlocked and then we were able to get most of my stand set up before the rest of the vendors started to arrive from 8am. Many thanks to Sue, Anne and Joshua for being incredibly helpful with getting folk unloaded and moving boxes to the correct stand space. Especially for going up and down those stairs so much!

Everyone’s stands looked lovely and there was a good range of crafts on display – knitting, crochet, weaving (both modern and iron age!), embroideries, hand spun yarn, hand dyed yarn (both naturally dyed and chemically dyed) and fibre to spin your own yarn, award-winning locks from fleece, needle 3D felted sheep and 2D landscapes, info from Tecstiliau about the courses they run and kits they sell and plenty of other items.

People started to arrive just before 10am and there was a steady stream of visitors throughout the day, with a lull during the traditional British lunchtime and towards the end of the day. It was lovely to see familiar faces returning to support the event as well as people who had heard about us on social media for the first time this year. Our collective efforts online must have done some good!

One of the lovely things about in-person events is when someone brings their finished project (or project in progress) to show me. At Yarn Gathering I saw a lovely completed but not yet blocked Twisted cowl and a fabulous Tiffany shawl as well as the first two parts of a Branwen shawl that I forgot to photograph. I love seeing what people have knitted from my designs!

Everyone seemed to have a good day and then, just like that, it was over, and we had an empty and tidy venue by 5pm! That was thanks to all the vendors for being so efficient in their packing up and also to Sue, Anne and Joshua for tirelessly fetching and carrying items back to vendors’ vehicles.

This week I am preparing for Yarndale this coming weekend and checking all the numbers for my final deadline design and I hope to get it sent off this week before we head north.

We are back on the Lairage side of the auction mart this year in M23-24 (a double stand!) and I am fully intending to remember to bring my tights with me this time – I forgot last year which led to a very early morning dash to Asda so I didn’t freeze.

Because we are having a double stand here for the first time – the stand is even a little bigger than our Wonderwool space! – I can bring lots of patterns (60 designs!) and there will be room for people to browse. We will be next to the amazing Jo.Knit.Sew too, so we know already that there will be lots of laughs during the weekend.

I have even been able to do some knitting that I can show you! The left front of the short version of Leaf & Vine was cast off last night and the right front begun. It’s quite a quick knit when you’re making the shorter version!

With all these events and deadlines, as you might imagine, I haven’t exactly been pulling my weight on the housework or gardening front, but I did help with trimming the hedge last week and got some impressive scratches when deadheading the big rose bush in the front garden. After this coming week life should become more balanced! The rest of 2026 contains three more shows, a workshop for the Montgomery Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers and, hopefully, a workshop day at Ewe Felty Thing.

What have you been up to in the past week? I’m looking forward to telling you all about Yarndale next Tuesday. K x

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Tempus Fugit

Time is a funny thing. It doesn’t seem like a whole week has passed since I was at the dentist with my mum, and yet, at the same time, it feels like ages ago!

On Friday night I went to see The Wonder Stuff in my own home town. They were phenomenal, but the fact that I didn’t know any of the first 9 songs they played (out of a set list of 22!) made me realise that I’d only really listened to the same albums I had when I was a student in the 1990s, and yet they’ve released decades of music since then. I think I will have to explore some of their other albums.

I also realised it’s nearly four years since Tiffany and Agnes were launched on the RiverKnits stand at Yarndale 2022. The reason I was thinking about this is that Becci and Markus have announced that they are closing RiverKnits. They have a sale on with their last remaining yarn, so go and grab what you can, while it lasts! Tiffany and Agnes were specifically designed for RiverKnits yarns and Tiffany has proved to be one of my best-selling patterns. Four years have gone by so quickly since these patterns were launched into the world and, while I am pleased for Becci and Markus that they both have new adventures ahead of them, I am sad that their wonderful yarn won’t be available in the future. If you have a rainbow set of minis from them that you are wondering what to do with, it’s ideal for knitting Tiffany!

This week I’ve been doing lots of design work/knitting – none of which I can show you, but I can tell you a little about it:

I’ve submitted an idea for a new design to a magazine (this process also involves knitting and blocking a swatch to photograph and include in the submission).

I’m three quarters of the way through knitting the second of three samples for a design for a different magazine. Why three samples? You’ll have to wait until January to find out!

I also blocked a finished shawl design that I wasn’t at all sure about, wondering if blocking it would sort out the weird bulges in a few places, but no. It didn’t. I do know what I did wrong though (maths again!) and I spent an hour or so last night knitting tiny versions of different shapes to see what would be the best solution to the problem. I’m now on the right track and can get cracking with that properly – fortunately this particular design isn’t for a magazine, so I can use yarn I have (which is why I could block the first version – I’m just knitting the next version in a different yarn of the same weight), experiment and try out ideas as I go. I do have a brief for what is required and the first version in theory met it, but in practice it didn’t and I wasn’t at all happy with it. Sometimes part of designing is saying, “No, that doesn’t work. Let’s do it a different way.”

This morning I took a good look at my desk and thought that I really need to find a way to actually keep it tidy. I would show you, but there’s so much stuff on there I can’t show you (design stuff etc) that I’d actually have to tidy it up first! “Tidy desk” is a frequent item on my list of jobs for the day, but I never seem to manage to get it fully sorted. I know what’s there and where it all is in the strata, but it doesn’t make for an uncluttered working environment when I’m working at the computer. There are even some Christmas cards at the bottom of a pile on the right hand side of my desk from people I fully intended to write to. Except now it’s July – and nearly August. There’s time playing games with me again. Maybe I need to take everything off the desk and only put back the things I need currently, but I do find that difficult. The rest would probably end up in a pile next to the desk instead… Does anyone else have this problem?

Last Sunday was the final sung service at church until September. The choir gets August off. So, I have brought my cassock and surplice home to wash and to move the neck buttons on the cassock so it feels less like it’s trying to strangle me as I sing! It was made for me, but the only measurements that were asked for were length from nape to ankle and chest. I think that either my neck is wider than ‘standard’ or (more likely) I don’t tolerate non-stretchy things too close to my throat very well.

We are looking forward to our two shows in August, The North East Wool Show in Newcastle and Pop Up Wool Show in Port Sunlight. If you are at either of these two events, please do come and say hello. I’ll be teaching on Sunday afternoon at North East Wool Show and Sue will be looking after the stand during that time.

That’s all from me for today. Have a good week and I’ll aim to have some knitting on the needles next week that I can share. And it will be August by then! Time flies… K x

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Travelling

We spend quite a lot of time travelling these days – either to yarn shows (14 this year!) or to visit family. Can you guess which chain hotel I am staying in at the moment?

Today I am down in the midlands to accompany my mum to the dentist. This means I’m writing this post on my phone which doesn’t seem to allow me to add links. I did bring my iPad too in case that would, but I began drafting this post on my phone yesterday and my iPad can’t find it. So a post without links it will have to be. Until tomorrow – once I am home again I can edit the post and add the links in.

I am really pleased with the social media response to Gwen. It was published in (and on the cover of) Knitting magazine issue 271 last Thursday. I’m going to be knitting at least two more of these – one for Sue in a rich deep blue (Lapis in CoopKnit’s Socks Yeah!) and one for me in dark purple (Sugilite). I quite fancy one in bright green (Peridot) as well! What colour would you choose? The sample on the cover is knitted using CoopKnit’s Socks Yeah! In Topaz.

Cover of Knitting magazine issue 271

I also saw a copy of the magazine in a Tesco down in the midlands last night which gave me a real buzz!

I have a new brioche knitting workshop – brioche in the round! It is happening at Ewe Felty Thing, 7th November, 10.30am-12.30pm. Places cost £45 and include drinks, biscuits and cake. Advance booking is essential as without enough bookings the shop will cancel/postpone the workshop.

Brioche in the round wristwarmer
Three variations on brioche in the round wristwarmer

Attendees need to bring 6mm circular needles (long enough for magic loop) or 6mm dpns and 2 contrasting colours of aran weight yarn.

This workshop is ideal for knitters who can:

  • Cast on and cast off
  • Knit and purl confidently
  • knit small circumferences in the round using either magic loop technique or dpns.
  • Work basic two‑colour brioche stitch (this one is useful, but not essential).

Remember you can also book one-to-one tuition/knitting help with me via zoom. The price has increased a little to £30 per hour. You can book any one-to-one workshop with me that is listed on the Knitting Tuition page (these usually last two hours), or if there’s something specific you need help with, such as how to seam a jumper or cardigan, just let me know!

Yarn Gathering plans continue and everyone who is exhibiting is looking forward to showing you their wonderful fibre based products! Put Sunday 20th September in your diaries. The show is still at the same venue, the Daniel Owen Centre in Mold, held over two floors and entry is still free.

Yarn Gathering 2026 poster

That’s all from me today. I hope you are coping with the ongoing heat and get to do something you enjoy this week. K x

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Growing Fast

I finished the back of my short Leaf & Vine cardigan!

It’s going to grow quite a bit when it’s blocked and now the two front pieces need to be knitted. The clever thing about the construction of this garment is that the (very) short sleeves are integral to the body – you just cast on an extra 11 sts at the side.

The neckband is also integral to the main design rather than being added on afterwards. Once you get to the shoulders on the front you cast off all the stitches apart from those used for the neck band and keep knitting them, leaving them on a stitch holder at the end of the first front so you can graft the two pieces together once the second front is complete. This avoids having a seam in the centre back of the neck. This is how I blocked the full length version:

I had to measure carefully to ensure the front and back were exactly the same size. For the short version I am considering blocking the back in the same way and then pinning the front on top of the back to avoid a second lot of measuring. Although, now I think about it, the pins will already be in place so that might actually be more effort than simply measuring twice…

I’m very excited about a new design coming out in Knitting Magazine, issue 271. It’s due out on 16th July and I’ll be able to share some photos with you from it next week. I have to admit that when I opened the pictures I was emailed I gasped! Sue even asked me what was wrong! Nothing at all – the photos are simply stunning and I can’t wait to share them with you.

This year we didn’t plant any veg – time just got away from me. We did plant about six or seven chunks of rhubarb that had been in next door’s garden (the overall plant was over a metre across and it had to be cut up into lots of smaller sections to get it out of the ground). Some of those plants are thriving despite the lack of regular rain, but the veg plot is mostly looking like a borage and deep red oriental poppy field at the moment which the bees are loving – we’ll have to be brave explorers to get in there and harvest some of that rhubarb! The pigeons have been at the redcurrants again. I swear they just sit on the fence waiting for individual currants to turn slightly pink and then eat them. I might be able to get enough for a couple of jars of redcurrant jelly this year if I’m quick. At least they haven’t been at the blackcurrants – I think there will be another bumper crop of these. The gooseberries are almost ready to pick as well.

I had been worried that the new taller fence between us and next door (it’s about 2 feet taller in most places and almost three feet taller for a short stretch!) would cut the light and hamper growth, but the plants just seem to have grown taller than ever this year. I don’t know whether that is because of the heat and sunshine or whether the fence has bounced extra heat to the plants and given them wind protection to enable taller growth. It’s a mystery. I want to get out there and harvest some fruit and deadhead the roses, but I find I can only do shorter chunks of gardening in this weather, so I shall have to be specific about what I want to achieve when I go out there so I can complete at least one thing, rather than ‘tickle’ several tasks without actually completing any.

I’m working on a new design and finding it’s a perfect match with a skein of yarn from Mothy and the Squid that I bought a number of years ago, but hadn’t found the right project for. This is going to be a design for 100g/400m of 4ply yarn. I can’t tell you much more about it yet, but I can show you a little close up of how this yarn looks in garter stitch on 4mm needles. It’s really soft and squishy.

I am going to be doing quite a few workshops in the second half of this year. I have a few spaces left this weekend on my Intro to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting workshops at the Midlands Wool Festival and there are spaces for the same brioche workshop at Yarndale in September and at Stafford Wool Gathering in October. AND I’m teaching Stacked Stitches at Yarndale in September as well!

Most of the workshops I am due to be teaching in the autumn at Ewe Felty Thing are now listed on their website – in September, November and December. I’ll be adding those to my website soon as well. If you’d like to learn how to do stranded knitted, brioche knitting or intarsia at Ewe Felty Thing in Conwy and you’re not coming to one of the yarn shows where I’m teaching, head over to their website and book a place.

This coming weekend is Midlands Wool Festival. It’s a brand new show being held at Wolverhampton Racecourse and we’re looking forward to it immensely. Nearly everything is ready – patterns are printed and kits are boxed. Workshop materials are prepped and the layout is decided. I just need to make sure we can get everything we want to take (including ourselves) into the car…

And here is an amazing offer from the organisers – if you are coming to the Christmas Wool Show in Birmingham in November and have an advance ticket, you can use your ticket for that to also gain free entry to this weekend’s show!

That’s everything from me today. Stay cool this week and I hope you get to do something that makes you smile. K x

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Rain!

A brief catch up with some old friends this afternoon talking about our gardens reminded me that we never did plant any vegetable seeds this year. However, the rhubarb, raspberries and other fruit bushes will no doubt be extremely grateful for the rain we have had today, especially after the extreme heatwave last week. The cooler weather has been very welcome to me certainly.

I had thought I might have been able to show you a completed back of the short version of Leaf & Vine cardigan, but my needles have been busy with something else. A call for submissions came in last Tuesday evening with a very interesting concept, but with only a week until the deadline which is tomorrow I’ve been busy knitting up different samples and working out how best to present my ideas. The swatches dried really quickly on Sunday afternoon, helped by the fact that I took the blocking mat outside and weighted it down on the patio table – it’s a good job I didn’t try doing that today! Of course, as it’s a submission for a possible publication I can’t share any photos with you at this stage, but I’m quite excited about the idea. If it doesn’t get accepted, I’ll definitely self-publish this one!

I have done a little more on the cardigan, even though I haven’t finished the back. There are only about 16 rows left to work on the back now. It’s going to grow quite a lot when it’s blocked.

I also did a tiny bit more on the small Spring Breeze Hat yesterday as Sue drove us down to the Midlands to visit my Mum. It was only a tiny bit as I discovered that it’s quite difficult knitting on a smaller circular needle (3.25mm and 40cm long) when the roads are quite bumpy!

Speaking of the Midlands – it’s not long now until the Midlands Wool Festival! This is a brand new yarn show being held at Wolverhampton Racecourse on July 11th and 12th. You can buy tickets in advance or on the door and it would be lovely to see you if you are local to the area. Our stand will be in the Ringside Suite. I’m teaching both afternoons as well and there are just three places left on each day’s workshop, so if you’d like to learn to knit two-colour brioche, get in touch to book a place!

Next week I’ll tell you more about the other shows coming up this summer and, who knows, maybe I will have finished the back of Leaf & Vine this time?!

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Juggling

Today’s post photo is one of the flying shawls – Into the Vortex spinning through the air, which feels appropriate for this week’s post! The past few weeks have felt a little bit like a juggling act . I’ve been working on a design commission (and exploring possibilities for another), relaunched Ice Diamond Mitts, launched Making Tracks as an individual pattern, been preparing for The Wool Monty and for an online talk I’m giving the day after The Wool Monty about my design process, started to promote Yarn Gathering, have been invigilating A-level and GCSE exams, teaching piano, singing in the church choir, visiting my Mum, celebrating my lovely wife’s birthday and accompanying her to some appointments. It’s been quite busy! There are a couple of things I haven’t done in as timely a fashion as I’d intended, but my trusty bullet journal usually helps me keep track of what I should be doing – as long as I remember to write things in there in the first place! I suppose this is what is meant by a ‘portfolio career’? Doing lots of different jobs at the same time.

To help with my preparation for the show at the weekend (and for all yarn shows in the future) I’ve made myself a list of things that will always need doing/planning beforehand. This kind of thing is helpful for me so I don’t end up in a situation where, for example, I’m at a show and then realise I haven’t brought the workshop samples with me. It’s too late to go home and fetch them at that point! I’m definitely a list person – are you?

With all this recent busy-ness I don’t have any modelled photos of my grey 4-ply sample of What Do Points Make? yet. I have taken a few photos this morning on the mannequin and on a hanger and I’m sure I’ll get some modelled shots during The Wool Monty.

I haven’t written this month’s newsletter yet either, but I’m assuming that as I’d sent out a short one about the launch of Making Tracks on May 27th, people wouldn’t mind not hearing from me again immediately! If you’ve been waiting for the June Newsletter and wondering where it’s got to, that’s why.

I have made some progress with my short version of Leaf & Vine and reached the point where you cast on for the integral (very short) sleeves. It looks as though the stitch pattern on the left is taller than that on the right hand side, but that’s due to how it behaves before blocking. Once blocked it’s all the same height – and quite a bit longer than it looks at present! What you can see is most of the left side of the back. This is one of the things that continues to fascinate me about lace knitting – how different stitch patterns can behave before and after blocking – and that’s another reason why blocking lace knitting is so important!

Have you put Sunday 20th September in your diaries? Yarn Gathering will take place once again at the Daniel Owen Centre in Mold (Ch7 1AP), 10am – 4pm and entrance is still free! I’m not sure free entry will always be possible in future years, so do make the most of it this year. We have 13 vendors for you to enjoy, spread across three spaces. See the webpage for more Yarn Gathering info. Thanks to Laura for updating our logo once more.

Writing about Yarn Gathering has reminded me that I need to make the flyers and social badges for the vendors to share with their customers and followers – another thing to add to the journal list!

It’s going to be a short one today as there are lots of things to do – including the less fun stuff like ironing some clothes! Have a good week and next week I’ll tell you all about how The Wool Monty was for us. I’m really looking forward to this show, please do come and say hello if you come to the show – we’re on stand 2! I’ll also tell you how my talk about my design progress went next time. K x

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Drawing a Line

Making Tracks was launched last week as an individual pattern as the rights returned to me six months after it was first published in The Knitter magazine. I have to admit that a heatwave (and one that was the UK’s hottest May on record) was probably not the best time to launch a cabled jumper, because although the pattern pages have had lots of views, no-one was in a jumper knitting mood and no copies have yet been sold!

Mind you, with the sudden change back to ‘more appropriate’ weather for the time of year – along with thunder storms and some very heavy showers – you never know! It’s cool enough now to start knitting a jumper and it would certainly be ready to wear by autumn.

I have been blocking something that I cannot show you – you’ll get to see it in October – but I’m pleased with how it’s come out and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you. I’ve just taken the pins out and left it to relax on the blocking mats as I want to see how much it pulls back in when no longer under tension.

I’ve already been promising myself (and customers at yarn shows) that I would knit a sample of the short version of Leaf & Vine and I cast on this week. Because the short version still has quite deep armholes, I’m already halfway through the length of the body before I do the sleeve cast-on! Having been knitting longer garments recently, this seems really short, but I must remember that the length will grow when the lace is blocked and the overall measurements are good. I’m knitting it using a lovely light 4 ply yarn that I bought from Jo at Second City Yarns. It’s an undyed yarn in light grey.

I’ve been getting everything ready for our next show, which is The Wool Monty. This is held at Magna in Sheffield and is famous for being super inclusive. We received our lanyards, set-up info (including directions on how to get to the room I’m teaching in on Sunday morning!) and a copy of the show brochure through the post yesterday and I think it’s going to be an impressive event.

I’ve sorted out the kits, so I can bring a good range of kits in one big box, rather than bring absolutely everything in two! I’ve decided on the pattern inventory and printed anything that was needed, and I know that everything we are bringing will fit in the car. I’ve even ironed the black cotton double sheet that goes on the table. Now all I need to do is sort the sample bags out, so that the new patterns are in them and any samples of designs not going with us aren’t!

The weekend after The Wool Monty I am due to be teaching at Ewe Felty Thing once more. The last workshop (on Steeking) had to be postponed as not enough people had booked to make it viable for the shop to run, so I’m really hoping that some lovely knitters will want to expand their brioche knitting skills and/or learned how to use the stacked stitches technique, which is exemplified in the designs of Xandy Peters. If either of these workshops sound like fun to you – please do book a place and come along! There’s cake, drinks, biscuits and laughs as well as lots of knitting and top tips.

Here are just two designs you could knit with these techniques:

Meg March

On the left is Meg March Shawl designed by me, and on the right is Fox Paws designed by Xandy Peters. Pictured is the scarf I knitted using this pattern (photographed before I wove the ends in!).

Brioche designs can be either very geometric or organic in their lines, but the key feature is how the main colour creates lines that can draw shapes. You’re using two colours, but one colour at a time, working each row once with the main colour (the light colour here), then once again with the background colour (the dark colour here).

Stacked stitches is a fabulous technique where, again, you only use only colour at a time. No stranding or bobbins of little colours, just a whole row of one colour that take wonderful twists and turns by working increases and decreases on top of each other – hence the ‘stacked’ in the name!

It’s struck me that all the pictures I’ve shared with you today have clear lines in the designs, just formed in different ways; through cables, lace, brioche and stacked stitches. It never ceases to amaze me how versatile knitting is and how we can create beautiful and detailed fabrics with just yarn and needles!

That’s all from me today. I’m hoping that I’ll have some photos of my grey 4 ply What Do Points Make? to share with you next week. I didn’t want to get ‘official’ pics taken until I’d refreshed the blue of my hair, but that is now done, so we are good to go (in between the rain showers!).

Take care and have a good week. I hope you get to do something you enjoy. K x

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Ready, Set, Go!

If you are a newsletter subscriber you may wish to check your inbox – there is a cheeky discount waiting exclusively for you to celebrate the relaunch of Ice Diamond Mitts. I’ve changed the yarn used to the gorgeous Welsh Cambrian Wool and knitted new samples in each size. The pattern has been re-written to make it clear and easier to follow and the lengths for each size have been slightly shortened, making the mitts easier to wear and also ensuring that even the largest size uses only 90m/45g yarn for a pair! You can seem from the photos that the smallest size still needs its ends weaving in and also that it looks really cool if you knit the ribbing in a contrasting colour! I did this partly to see how it would look and also because I didn’t have enough yarn of one colour that wasn’t red for a small mitt.

The photos on the wooden table are of the large size, the ones on the black background are medium and small.

Following hard on the heels of Ice Diamond Mitts will be my own self-published version of Making Tracks, which was first published last November in The Knitter. I just need to insert the charts into my own format of the pattern and add some of my new photos. The rights for this jumper return to me towards the end of this month and so I will have printed copies with me at The Wool Monty in June!

Making Tracks is a cabled men’s jumper with saddle shoulders and a round neck, knitted in pieces and seamed. The jumper is designed in 8 sizes (S-5X), with 10-12.5cm positive ease. Positive ease might sound ‘fancy’ but that just means how much bigger a garment is than your actual body measurements. If you had no ease on something it would be your exact body measurements. (If you have negative ease then the piece is smaller than you are, but hopefully stretchy enough so that it can be put on and then cling to the contours of your body). Positive ease on a garment means you can move in a garment and probably wear layers under it and approx 10cm (4″) is the amount of positive ease for a ‘standard’ fit to a jumper/top.

You may remember my mentioning that this jumper was modelled on a female model when published in The Knitter. It’s the same jumper and it was designed as a man’s jumper, but they didn’t have a male model available for the photoshoot. What those photos do show is that Making Tracks also looks good when worn by a woman. It gives more of a ‘boyfriend fit’ feel, and the sleeves are a bit longer than you might expect on a woman’s jumper, but it still works well!

If you want to knit this sweater for a woman you may wish to check the underarm length of the intended wearer. You can reduce the length of the sleeve easily as there is plenty of straight sleeve knitting between the increases and the point where the sleeve joins the body.

We had a day out yesterday, meeting up with some friends in Coventry. It was a super day. We visited the cathedral (both the bombed ruins of the old cathedral and the new cathedral next to it), walked, feasted and chatted lots. I recall going to Coventry Cathedral once on a school trip when I was quite young – and definitely too young too appreciate the beauty of the modern design when I had grown up going to churches that were hundreds of years old.

It finally occurred to me yesterday why concrete was a good idea for parts of the design of the new cathedral in Coventry. As well as being entirely fitting for the brutalist design, it was probably the only way to get the cathedral built quickly. Entirely stone built cathedrals can take more than a century to build. For example, Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is finally structurally complete with the final piece of the central tower being put into position in February this year (building work began in 1882 and Gaudi took over as chief architect in 1883!), but construction will continue for another decade. The design for Coventry Cathedral was chosen in 1952 by competition, the foundation stone was laid by Queen Elizabeth II in 1956 and the finished building was consecrated in 1962. So there were just 10 years from “this one please” to it being opened. That’s incredible. The building is also full of modern art on the floor, walls, windows and in sculpture. Even the way the organ pipes are positioned looks like a work of art. The 23m x 8m tapestry behind the altar is mind-blowing, not just in how it looks, but in how it was made – in one piece! That must have been one enormous loom!

The ruins of the old cathedral, bombed in 1940, are also a very powerful place. “Father Forgive” was ordered to be carved behind the altar by the bishop of the time. It’s amazing that so much of the outer walls, as well as the tower and the spire survived. The cross has been made with some of the burnt remains of the original building.

It was a visit to Lichfield (including visiting the cathedral) with these same friends that inspired my Lichfield cardigan. So, who knows, perhaps yesterday’s trip to Coventry will result in a new design?

That’s all for today. Have a good week, and I hope you get to do something you enjoy. Perhaps it will be casting on some Ice Diamond Mitts? K x

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Don’t Stop Me Now

We got home from the East Anglia Yarn Festival yesterday, successfully completing the third yarn show of the year. As always at EAYF it was a lot of fun, and we saw some old friends who we only see at this show, both visitors and other vendors. This included Victoria who I first met in person at EAYF in 2024 after knowing each other on social media beforehand and have been delighted to catch up with each year since. This year she brought her completed Am Byth hat to show me – knitted in a yarn containing camel fibre, it was super soft and silky and a very different beast fabric-wise to the original sample in WYS Croft DK – which is on display just behind her head!

One visitor wore her Meg March Shawl on the Saturday, to great admiration – and then returned on the Sunday wearing her Tiffany shawl!

If you’re on social media you may well have seen these pics already (apologies for the overlap!), but I know that several readers of this blog aren’t, and I didn’t want them to miss out!

I was most impressed by the knitting and greatly honoured too that she was wearing my shawl designs on both days of the show, especially as this was a show where Stephen West was present (sharing the same space two weekends on the trot!? Goodness!) and so there were a huge number of Stephen West shawls in attendance as folk queued for selfies. I was also highly delighted that he admired my Meg March Shawl and asked if I’d designed it on Sunday morning before opening when the vendors get a chance to wander around and chat with each other. I heard him say to Eddie of Madrigal Yarns while they were behind me that people at the show just had ‘mad technical skills’ and then realised they were talking about my shawl, so of course we had to chat!

Sue and I shared the most outrageously gorgeous vegan cinnamon bun on Saturday morning from Swirl of Norwich, who did very good business, selling out of most of their buns both days.

Since we got home we’ve been busy, catching up on the house and washing, and I’ve been weaving in the ends of the design commission that has a deadline of this coming Friday. Final checks of everything were completed this morning, the sample has been posted and the pattern and ‘all associated files’ – charts and schematic – have been emailed! Completed, done and dusted well before the deadline. I’m very pleased – I just hope they like it!

Now I’ve emailed the pattern I really need to sort out my desk. It hasn’t quite got to archeological strata levels, but it’s not far off – large working drawings, printed schematics, draft print outs of the pattern, inter-spliced with other paperwork. I know where everything is, but I also know that my brain will function more smoothly on the next things when it’s all tidied away.

The next things for me are to update the website with workshops and shows that are coming up and to start putting kits together in the new boxes ready for Wonderwool. I know there are technically four and a half weeks until Wonderwool, but that time will go by fast. We have nine more shows this year, six or seven of which I am teaching at (yay!), so there is a fair bit to update!

I’m also looking forward to my next workshops which are in less than two weeks at Ewe Felty Thing. I’ll be teaching an Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting and Stranded Knitting there on April 4th. The brioche workshop has sold out, but there are spaces on the stranded knitting workshop (10.30-12.30, 4th April)!

Closer to home, there are just 10 days left before Anne closes Yarn O’clock for good! Everything is now 20% off, so now would be a very good time to make a final visit (or two) while you still have the chance! I still can’t quite believe that very soon she’s not going to be there as she’s just celebrated the shop’s 10th birthday. However, all good things must come to an end one day and this particular ‘one day’ is April 4th. Don’t miss your chance.

I’ve also been knitting this.

It’s a Bryn Brioche Cowl, in a new-to-me (and new-to-everyone as it made its debut at East Anglia Yarn Festival!) yarn from Weku Yarn. If you watched Game of Wool, that’s Lydia’s and her sister Hannah’s company. Watch this space.

Until next week, take care and I hope you get a chance to do some stuff that makes you happy. Goodness knows we all need that! K x

P.S. If you don’t know the Queen song ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, I highly recommend a listen!