Tag: lace knitting

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A Slice of Lime?

I’ve been working on an updated version of Elinor Hap Shawl (one of the reasons I’ve been knitting a new sample of it) and it was fascinating to see how I used to write things. It’s funny how when you go to update an old pattern you suddenly notice how your standard ‘house style’ has gradually changed over the past six years! I’m now so used to writing patterns with capital letters for a lot of the instructions (for example: K2, K2tog, yo, K3, yo, SSK), that seeing it all in lower case apart from the first instruction feels strange (that previous example would be: K2, k2tog, yo, k3, yo, ssk). It’s a fairly niche thing to be interested in, but that might be why I’ve signed up for an introduction to tech editing in October!

We took lots of photos of Elinor Hap Shawl yesterday and I’ve added some of those to the updated version of the pattern, as well as tweaking a few things that needed to be phrased better. The updated version of the pattern will be live very soon – probably tomorrow! By the way, isn’t the colour incredible?! The colour is called A Slice of Lime and it’s dyed by Ripples Crafts. It’s the finest yarn I’ve ever used at 1200m per 100g and the shawl uses approx 2000m (yes, 2km!) of yarn, yet it only weighs about 165g!

Over the weekend we also made a video of the process of blocking the shawl on the hap stretcher and also one of putting the hap stretcher together. The versions of the videos on social media came out really small for some reason. I sped them up in iMovie so they each last just over 1 minute. In reality it was about 20 minutes for each part of the process. I figured no-one wanted to see that! I had to remove the sound anyway as there was a lot of background noise and I wasn’t saying anything particularly useful! It was more along the lines of “Oh heck, we’ve put this piece on upside down…” or other words to that effect!

Here are the videos in case you missed them:

We also took lots of photos of Draig y mor (that’s Sea Dragon in Welsh, there should be a circumflex on the ‘o’, but I can’t work out how to do that in WordPress), including one of it flying in the air and it really does look like a flying dragon!! This new design is currently with my tech editor and I’m hoping to get it ready to launch at one of the shows I’m attending in August. The yarn is a gorgeous 100% Tencel DK dyed by Penny Stitch Craft.

See that photo in the middle of the top row? See the big black dot on my head? That’s a massive bumblebee that was playing around. I’ve got a zoomed in shot of it where it seems to be looking right at the camera!

I’ve realised that even with my reactive glasses I find it hard not to close my eyes outside when I’m having my photo taken!

We’ve had rain for the most of today and I am so grateful that I finally picked the blackcurrants yesterday. To be honest, nearly half of them were already on the ground when I got to them and they were so ripe they were falling from the bush as I touched them. So they got picked, picked over, washed, washed again, dried a bit and then frozen. I realised they were so ripe that they would just go off if I didn’t either immediately freeze them or make jam. It was way too hot for jam making, so into the freezer they went. If I’d delayed picking them any longer and left them out in today’s rain they would have been ruined! So, yay to yesterday morning getting up early and picking them before it got too hot. Boo to waking up this morning with a really stiff and sore back… Must be getting old!

I’ve finally started a 4-ply version of What Do Points Make?! I’ve been thinking about doing this for a couple of years now and it’s coming on a treat. I’ll get proper pics to you next week, but for now, here’s the start of it, doing a very good impression of a top-down triangular shawl. I’m using three skeins from a five skein set of gorgeous yarn from LottieKnits. I’ve had it for seven years, so I doubt she’s making the same colourway now, but she still has lots of lovely stuff! Go and have a look!

Right, that’s all from me for this week. Take care, stay cool and do something that makes you happy this week. K x

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Show Me

Last week I shared a video with you on how to create a provisional cast-on using a crochet foundation chain. I showed you how to work the chain, pick up your knitted stitches from it and how easily it comes undone when you want to get rid of it. I also explained why you end up with one fewer stitch than you cast on when you’re picking up from a provisional cast-on.

That video is now on my YouTube channel as Provisional Cast-on Part 1 of 3, along with Part 2 which is a short video showing you how to crochet the provisional cast-on directly onto the knitting needle, thus avoiding the step of picking up the stitches from the foundation chain.

Provisional Cast-on Part 3 of 3 is a how-not-to video! This shows you why it’s a bad idea to just work a regular knitted cast-on in waste yarn and then change to your main yarn. Basically, it’s a right royal pain to undo when you come to free your stitches from the provisional cast-on! In my video I have to unpick the waste yarn bit by bit and even snip it with scissors to get it out (I did put my knitting needle into the stitches I wanted first before doing this).

I’m really surprised to see that even though these videos only made it onto my Youtube channel yesterday (there was a delay because my caption software decided to sulk and not work for a few days), they’ve already had some views!

Why did I do three videos on the same thing – especially since one of them was “don’t do it this way”?

Well, I’ve been talking about Rhiannon Hap Shawl being relaunched recently and last week I talked about it starting with a provisional cast-on and how to do it. I remembered that one time a number of years ago I was making something that needed a provisional cast-on, but I hadn’t done one in ages. I thought I just needed to cast on in my usual way with the waste yarn and it wasn’t until I came to undo the waste yarn (after knitting quite a lot!) that I remembered this wasn’t the way to do it. I had a lot of stitches to deal with and I wasn’t as experienced as I am now, so wasn’t able to get around the issue as I did in the Part 3 video, by putting the stitches I wanted on the knitting needle first, then slowly unpicking and snipping the waste yarn to get rid of it. So what did I end up doing back then? I ripped the whole thing out, went to look up how to do a provisional cast-on properly and started again from the beginning. If you’re going to knit Rhiannon or any other pattern with a provisional cast-on, I want you to be able to avoid this stress! I’ve added a link for Part 1 of the video to my pattern pages as well for this reason.

If there’s a knitting technique or stitch you would like to see a video of, let me know! Sometimes seeing something done and being talked through it at the same time can make all the difference. By the way, did you know ‘Show Me‘ is a brilliant song from My Fair Lady? If you didn’t, have a listen, it’s great!

Do you remember me telling you about Elinor Hap Shawl, that I’ve been knitting a new sample for? I finished the edging! Quite a lot of that was down to my lovely wife doing the driving for a couple of long distance trips this week which enabled me to knit in the car. Though I have to say the concrete on the M54 is not a lovely surface when you’re knitting lace!! I’m going to share an unblocked photo of it here, and video the blocking process using my hap stretcher so you can see how it works. With any luck I’ll get that recorded for next week. The actual colour is somewhere in-between these two photos!

Elizabeth from Sew Woolly sent me a lovely thing she’d read in a book last night and it’s perfect to share with you while we’re talking about lace knitting:

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”. Marie Curie

This is surely the motto of designers who work in knitted lace. It can only be faith alone that drives them, because before it is stretched and blocked, lace in progress often resembles Chinese noodles.

I will reserve judgement on my lace in progress until the magic of blocking has worked its charms.

I have no idea which book this comes from, but it’s very true. Lace knitting only reveals its beauty when it’s been blocked. This is partly why I start my lace knitting workshop with a demonstration of blocking a knitted lace swatch: it’s dry by the end of the workshop and it’s really clear to folk how different it looks at the end than it did at the start!

I’ll also let you into a secret regarding designing with lace: that’s why designers swatch a lot! We’ll knit a small sample of a stitch pattern (though not too small!) and block it to see what it will really look like. It also helps us try out different yarns and needle sizes to see what is the best combination of stitch/yarn/needle for what we’re trying to achieve.

The new design I’m working on now isn’t lace and it isn’t a hap shawl! It’s stranded knitting (often called Fair Isle) which I haven’t used in a design for a while and I’m really enjoying playing with the charts and planning it. It’s an accessory for the home rather than a garment and it’s small enough to be a good piece for people trying out stranded knitting for the first time. I’m looking forward to sharing it with you in a couple of months time!

I made an exciting discovery in the garden the other day. As well as the one nibbled broad bean plant that is hanging on for dear life in the veg patch, there are two French bean plants on the other side of the currant bushes. (Please excuse the weeds!)

I had forgotten we had planted the seeds near canes that are permanently in place to stop us treading on our rhubarb while it tries to establish itself, and the beans have grown, twisting round each other before finding one of the canes (how do they do that?!) and making their way up it! I’m hopeful that they’ll survive long enough that we’ll get flowers and some beans from these. I still need to pick the blackcurrants and redcurrants and the rest of the gooseberries, but I haven’t been able to find time to do it yet. I think we may need a small chest freezer for all this fruit if I can’t turn it into jam, jelly or crumbles quickly enough!

That’s all from me today. Take care and, if you get a chance, do something that makes you happy this week. K x

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Making Movies!

Today whilst awaiting a UPS collection I have been making videos on how to do a provisional cast-on. I also recorded a bit on how not to do one as well!

When I first encountered a pattern that used a provisional cast-on, I thought I just needed to use a different yarn, cast on in my usual way and then change yarn and possibly needle size. Wrong! It’s called provisional because it has to be undone and removed and it’s really hard to remove a regular cast-on. See part two of the video for evidence of this!

Why did I make a video? Because it occurred to me that there are bound to be other knitters who are encountering a provisional cast-on for the first time. Especially if they are knitting Rhiannon Hap Shawl which launched as a single pattern last Friday and it would be helpful for them to see how it works!

I’m only going to upload Part 1 here, because it takes ages to upload and I don’t want to slow down your ability to load the blog page. Both parts of the video will be on my youtube channel later on.

Because it’s taken a while to get the video recorded, add captions and uploaded, today’s blog will be a little shorter!

I have sad news on the broad bean front. I planted six really happy looking plants into the veg patch last week and now there is just one half eaten plant left. The others have been munched away. I have however picked a lot of gooseberries and the blackcurrants and remaining redcurrants are ready to pick as well.

These gooseberries have been top and tailed and are now in the freezer ready for when it is cool enough to enjoy crumble again. There are more gooseberries on the bushes too – I’m just waiting for them to full ripen before picking them.

Maybe spiky plants are the way forward? Something that the slugs and snails won’t dare approach? Although, having said that, the two newest gooseberry bushes had very few leaves left by the time I got to them – caterpillars I think.

It was a busy knitting week last week. I got the rights back to Rhiannon Hap Shawl and launched that on Friday. Thank you to everyone who has bought a copy of the pattern so far!

I posted off the big jumper and emailed the pattern and all ‘associated files’ to the publisher! (Also on Friday!).

I finished the gorgeous Tencel shawl I’ve been working on using yarn dyed by Penny Stitch Craft. I’m going to call it Draig y Môr which is Welsh for ‘Sea Dragon’. I love how the edging shaping works at the point of the shawl and it reminds me of dragon wings and I also love how the stitch pattern of the edging looks like waves and the main yarn colour (although called “Oil Slick” which you perhaps wouldn’t want to find in the sea) looks like the complex colours of the sea. Proper photos will follow soon! As will the pattern, once it’s been formatted and checked thoroughly – note to self: contact tech editor!

And… because I finished all those things I have been able to return to knitting the edging on my new sample of Elinor – another hap shawl! I turned the final corner yesterday and I’m on the final side. Only 40 reps of the edging left to do!!

What have you been up to this week? K x

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Feedback

I’ve had some lovely feedback recently. Two instances were messages showing me finished knitted items made from my patterns and both knitters were very pleased with what they had created.

The Fiery Dragon Skin Cowl was this knitter’s first knitting in the round. He has said that I can share that he is 62 and has been knitting for 2 years, taught by his 91-year-old Mum and that knitting has helped with his PTSD. I think this is going to be lovely and cosy when autumn comes around.

Menai on was knitted and modelled by Enid and she loves it. She has done a fabulous job with her two-colour brioche knitting and I love how her yarn choices match so well with the rest of her outfit too!

It’s so good to get feedback from customers and I treasure it when they’ve enjoyed a pattern. It gives me a real buzz at a yarn show whenever someone says “I bought this pattern from you last year and I loved it/it was really easy to follow/I learnt something new and now I’m going to buy another pattern”. This is what my lovely wife calls “Know, like, trust”.

Often, in the world we find ourselves in, people are quick to let you know if something isn’t right for them, or they can’t make it work, but they can be less quick to let you know when you are doing it right. I know I can be just as guilty of this as anyone else, so it’s especially touching when folk do take the trouble to get in touch with a success or a thanks.

Occasionally people have even left reviews on Payhip when it’s something they’ve bought from there and that’s really valuable to me as this feedback is visible to anyone who looks at that product page and will hopefully encourage others to make the purchase. Some examples of these are in the featured photo at the top of the post.

There are even whole designs that only exist due to customer feedback!

Sugar Loaf came about when knitters were disappointed that Honeybun cardigan was only sized up to Age 8. Sugar Loaf is the adult version and is sized to fit UK4 to UK42.

Heart in my Hands and Little Orme were originally only mitt designs. The matching hat and cowl to complete each set came about after a couple of customers wanting them – and now the hats are more popular than the mitts!

You may know that I always respond to emails and if it is an email expressing difficulty or confusion with a pattern I aim to respond quickly. I know it’s horrible when you’re working on something and become stuck with it and know you can’t do anything until the person you’ve reached out to for help responds.

I know that not all designers provide pattern support, but I do. This help can involve explaining something in a different way in an email, sending sketches or videos to show a technique, either specially recorded or a link to a video already on my youtube channel. If I’ve recorded something specifically for someone I usually then pop it on my youtube channel as well, as they may not be the only person to need that bit of help.

Some folk are really clear about what they’re finding tricky, others are less so and it can take a couple of emails before I understand what they’re actually asking, but we usually get there. Mostly, the final email from a knitter will then say something like “Yes! I get it now, thank you.” Sometimes I get complete radio silence after what I think was the reply that would really solve their problem. On these occasions I just have to tell myself that this probably means they’re now knitting away merrily.

There is, of course, a limit to how much help I can give. Once, a knitter wanted me to rewrite a whole garment pattern to include only their size! I had to politely decline, but I did do the first line of the pattern for them, to show how they could do this for themselves.

The other lovely feedback I’ve had this week was related to the music side of my life, one indirect and one direct, but both heart-warming. A positive comment on Facebook about the great sound made by the community choir I lead (last week’s rehearsal was in the centre of the shopping precinct so it was very public!), and a personal thanks from the music teacher of someone I’m working with.

On another note, the broad beans are hanging in there, just. They didn’t like the heat wave, but perked up after some watering. We need to get them planted out soon, but I’m not sure how long they’ll last in the ‘bad lands’ of the veg patch. I think the slugs and snails will find them quickly. I think I’ll be picking gooseberries and blackcurrants this week as well. Crumble and jam making season again!

You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned the utter madness going on in the world. This isn’t because I don’t care, but because I don’t know where to begin and feel somewhat helpless in the face of it all. Small businesses are getting criticised on social media for continuing to sell and promote their products at this time, but, as others have said there, we still need to pay the bills and no-one is criticising the big companies for advertising!

So, I’ll continue to promote that Rhiannon Hap Shawl is launching on Friday as a single pattern (you can still buy the four issues of The Knitter it was originally published in).

And if you want a tasty introductory discount code for it, sign up to my newsletter before tomorrow at 8am (British Summer Time)!

That’s all from me for today. Until next week, take care, keep knitting and share some feedback with people! K x

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Rhiannon

I am getting ready to launch Rhiannon Hap Shawl as a single self-published pattern later this month. Rhiannon was a great queen from Welsh mythology and this dramatic hap shawl is named in her honour.

Rhiannon Hap Shawl was first published in four parts as a Knit-along in The Knitter Magazine in the latter months of last year. As always occurs when a pattern is published in this way, I received emails from knitters eager to get their hands on a copy of the full pattern and in October I was explaining that folk had two options; to buy all four issues of the magazine as they came out to get each section of the pattern, or wait until late June 2025 when the rights would return to me and I would be publishing the shawl as a single pattern. And no, sorry, I couldn’t just email a pdf of the whole pattern there and then.

Last October, June 2025 seemed like such a long way off, but here we are! I am on the final checks of the layout of the pattern in my own house style and new photos have been taken. Next week I will be sending out an email to my newsletter subscribers with an exclusive introductory discount code to use on Ravelry, Payhip or my website, so make sure you’re on the list if you’d like one of those.

I thought I’d spend today’s blog post answering a few of the questions people have asked me about lace shawls and hap shawls in particular when we’ve been at yarn shows.

  1. What is a hap shawl? This is a great question and one I was asked at Yarnies at the Flaxmills in Shrewsbury last month. A hap shawl is a traditional structure for a shawl. It is square (and a half hap is a triangle on the diagonal of the square) and it is worked in a particular way. The central square is knitted first, then stitches are picked up all the way around the four sides of the square. These stitches are then knitted to form a border. In Rhiannon’s case there are two border patterns! Some hap shawls stop at this point and cast off, but you can also knit an edging. Rhiannon’s edging is a knitted-on edging that uses up one stitch from the border with every other row and works its way around all four sides with some fancy footwork to get around the corners. Once the edging is complete you cast off 16 stitches and seam the diagonal edges of the edging and border sections together.
  2. Is it hard to knit? Not really! All of the lace is created through yarn overs and just three types of decrease: K2tog (knit two together), SSK (slip 2 sts one after the other to the right needle then knit them together – which can also be worked as slip 1, knit 1, pass the slipped stitch over), and Sk2po (slip 1 st, knit the next two together, then pass the slipped stitch over). I agree with Woolly Wormhead that definitions of whether a pattern is difficult are very subjective, but I think if you can do these stitches, and want to make the shawl you will be able to! The central square has a straightforward repeated lace pattern that is a traditional stitch pattern. You do need to count your stitches carefully when you pick up around the edge for the border sections, but again, it’s a straightforward lace pattern that doesn’t involve any stitches that are too complex and there are lots of repeats! You do need to use a circular needle as there’s no way you’d get all those stitches on a straight knitting needle – and it wouldn’t work when you’ve got stitches that go around all sides of the square. The knitted-on edging is the only section that uses some lace stitches on the wrong side of the knitting as well as on the right side, but again there are no difficult stitches. It’s a 12 row pattern repeat so it’s easy to remember after a few times through! When you get to the corners, there are some short rows, but the pattern takes you through them step by step and explains which type of short row to use where.
  3. Do I have to be able to read lace charts? No! Everything in the pattern is written out as well as charted. If you are using the charts you do need to read the written pattern as well as there are a few ‘uncharted areas’ such as garter stitch sections between the stitch patterns.
  4. How do I block it? This is where you wash the shawl (gently), and pin it out to dry to stretch and open up the lace stitches. A shawl can grow dramatically during this process. I’m lucky enough to have a hap stretcher, pictured below (a traditional frame with nails around the edge that you can adjust to different sizes), but you can also pin the shawl out on a spare mattress or on the floor, if it’s covered in carpet. Don’t try pinning it out on a laminate or wooden floor! Another method folk use if they are short of space is to fold the shawl in half and pin it out as a double layer or even hang it on the washing line with pegs on the points. The washing line method doesn’t give as precise a finish, but it is a good back-up option.
  5. Do I have to use the same yarn as you did? No, you don’t. I knitted Rhiannon in laceweight 100% Alpaca yarn, but you can use laceweight wool or other fibres. In fact, this was the first time I had knitted lace with alpaca and I was holding my breath when swatching and blocking to see if the yarn would hold the stitch patterns – it does! My shawl used 220g/1760m of laceweight yarn on 3.75mm needles. You could use 4-ply yarn if you prefer, but remember you will need at least double the weight of the yarn to get the same meterage – and you might need slightly more length as well as weight. The fabric would be less gossamery, and more substantial, but you can still use the same size needles.

I’m sure there are lots of other questions I’ve been asked at yarn shows and events that I’ve forgotten about for the moment. If you have any other questions about knitting lace shawls, pop them in the comments and I’ll answer them!

I’ll update you on the progress of the veg seedlings next week. Until then, take care and remember to sign up for the monthly newsletter! K x

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Time Blind

The past couple of days have been prime examples of my forgetting, or not realising, how long certain tasks take.

I genuinely thought I would breeze through yesterday’s to-do list, but there were two and a half things on there that didn’t even get a look-in! Seaming a sweater takes time and I forget this, partly because I get so completely engrossed in the task I lose all sense of time. I thought I would have done the first set of seams ready for the neckband by mid-morning. Nope. It was lunchtime and I still wasn’t quite there. But, hey, those seams are done, the neckband is now knitted (finished at 11pm…) and the side seams were done this morning. I am so nearly there!!

Today I tackled some of the non-completed tasks from yesterday. One of which was to put my set of Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians onto eBay. This is a hardback, 20-volume monster of a resource that got me through my Music degree when I was living away from campus. We didn’t have such easy access to the internet back then. I still remember sending my first email in my final year at uni and being puzzled about how it could go anywhere without a stamp! I spent my entire first year student loan (plus a top up loan from my parents) buying it!

Anyway, it takes up over a shelf in the study and I don’t remember the last time I used it. Most students these days have online access through their school or uni libraries, so the real, physical version of the dictionary is less in demand from the younger generation. But if you think you might know anyone who would be interested please send them in this direction!

The next task of today was to list six ex-display samples for sale on the website. In itself, that doesn’t sound like a lot. Of course, in order to do that, I first had to list them all on Payhip.

Duly done, I returned to my own website and set about duplicating the relevant pattern pages as ‘sample for sale’ pages. I’d done half of them before I discovered the pages hadn’t duplicated in the way I wanted, but had put the original pages into draft format, linked the sample for sale pages to the main shawl pattern page and everything was topsy turvy!

I have now fixed those three pages and put the others up with less nail-biting going on. They now look rather splendid!

There has been a good amount of knitting happening this week as well as sewing up. I have begun in earnest on the Tencel shawl. I say ‘begun’, but I’m already on the second skein of the main colour, and I’ve started to plan out the stitch pattern for the deep edging in the contrasting colour. It’s such a gorgeous yarn to work with – and I get to enjoy a plant-based yarn with amazing sheen!

We inspected the seedlings this morning and I was really hoping to be able to show you lots of happy baby courgette plants. However, something in our garden loves courgettes and squash even more than we do, as nearly all the plants have been munched down to soil level! There are about 3 left! We still have some very small tomato plants that are giving it a shot and several broad bean seedlings in the pots. There are also a couple of French bean plants doing their best by the canes. The two rows of broad beans that I sowed directly into the veg patch, though? There’s one left. The rest are gone. Eaten. It’s a bit pitiful really.

Did I tell you about my car door? How I have been waiting for a replacement lock mechanism since March? I rang again Friday before last (10 weeks in) to ask if there was any news: no, it’s on back order from South Korea, we have no idea when it will be arriving, no eta, etc etc. Then, on Thursday, a text: your part is in stock, please contact us to book an appointment. Hurrah!! I rang straight away and, by some miracle, there was an appointment slot the next day (otherwise, the next possible time was June 30…!) So I booked it in and it has been fixed and I can once again open all four doors on my car. Such a relief.

I hope you have something in your week that gives you pleasure – whether it is an enjoyable knitting project or a car door that opens, or a seedling that hasn’t been eaten. Until next week, take care. K x

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A Windy Day

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

Introduction to Lace Knitting at Sew Woolly, Cheadle, 28th May 2025

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.

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April Already

Menai is being launched as an individual pattern on Friday 4th April – sign up to the newsletter before then for an exclusive subscriber discount code!

It seems very appropriate that the launch of this design as an individual pattern happens in the spring as it is covered in growing leaf shapes!

With everything being quite busy lately, I completely missed that my latest design for Knit Now, Crenellate Shawl came out over a week ago! Knit Now Issue 179 is the one to look for.

Crenellate is a textured top down triangular shawl that uses just knit and purl stitches with yarn overs placed at the edges and centre spine for the shaping. It’s knitted using West Yorkshire Spinners Elements DK which catches the light beautifully.

This photo shows the textured pattern really well. I took this shot while the shawl was blocking and drying so the colours are a little darker as the yarn is damp here.

The camellias are starting to look good as I had hoped. The pink one flowers before the red one with larger flowers. The red one certainly knows which side the sun hits it as that side is becoming covered in blooms and the other side is still very much green.

The daffodils and front borders are looking good too! The red cowslips always surprise me as I forget they are there. Do excuse the weeds and grass in the border – there hasn’t been any time for gardening this week.

Very soon I need to get the veg patches into use, which will mean deciding which veg we want to grow this year. There hasn’t been a lot of time to think about growing our own veg lately, but it would be nice to get that part of the garden up and running properly. Everything was a bit of a disappointment last year as most of the plants got eaten, so we’ll probably try for different crops this time.

There were some more long car journeys this week, down to the midlands to visit my Mum, then further down to Kent to help my lovely mother-in-law celebrate her birthday and then back home again. I tend to listen to unabridged audiobooks when I’m driving and I’ve been expanding my eras of historical fiction.

On the way down I listened to The Bookseller of Inverness by S. G. MacLean, set in the wake of the 1746 battle of Culloden, and on the way home I started listening to The Forbidden Queen by Anne O’Brien, telling the story of Katherine de Valois who becomes the wife of Henry V and mother of Henry VI. Both are hugely enjoyable and I recommend them, in whatever form you enjoy a book. Usually the historical fiction I listen to is Tudor or Elizabethan, so it’s nice to fill in some of the gaps on either side!

Anne at Yarn O’clock is busy getting ready for my trunk show there on April 12th! This window display is full of my designs!

Pictured are Into the Vortex, Nubble Slip Stitch Mitts, Llanberis, Twisted, Ice Diamond Mitts, What Do Points Make? and Calon Cariad. I’ll have paper copies of all these designs and many more with me on the day, and also lots more samples for you to see in person. I’ll be there all day from 10am -4pm and I hope folk will find time to pop in and say hello! The shop is on Earl Road in Mold and there is lots of parking in the town. As it’s being held on a Saturday, you’ll also be able to enjoy Mold’s street market.

I told you that I have two design commissions that I’m working on. One is a lace pattern that needed to have a small rejig in terms of size to make it a little narrower, but since then it’s been coming on a treat. I’m nearly at the end of the fifth pattern repeat of seven. Once all seven are complete, there’s just the final part of the chart to work and the top border and it’s done bar the blocking.

I’m using Jamieson’s of Shetland Ultra Lace for this design and I’m really enjoying it. It’s a yarn with a lot of personality and is able to withstand being pulled out and re-knitted quite happily, despite being a laceweight yarn. It’s the same yarn I used for the original three colour version of Maid Marion, my Pi shawl. If you come to my workshop on lace knitting next month (May 28th) at Sew Woolly in Cheadle, you’ll be using this yarn too! I’ll tell you more about my workshops there next week.

Until then, take care and remember to sign up for the newsletter if you’d like a discount for Menai! K x

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500 Miles

The East Anglia Yarn Festival was fabulous and I think I enjoyed it even more than last year. I think it’s so nice when you can do an event more than once, as things are more familiar the second time round. I had forgotten quite how far away Norwich is from North Wales – the journey was 250 miles each way, but it was absolutely worth it.

Laura, who organises the show, and her team make the event run really smoothly and the layout makes it easy to find everything you need. It even felt quicker setting up despite doing it on my own. My lovely wife was in a different part of the country on Friday, but made it to Norfolk on Friday evening, ready to help. I even had extra help on hand from an old uni friend who came to the show to support what we’re doing, and quickly said yes to the tentative email of “Would you be able/willing to man the stand during my workshop and be my booth bade if Sue doesn’t make it here by then?”. It was definitely the prospect of being a booth babe that got his attention – he said as much! We had a great chat catching up when I wasn’t teaching, and he and Sue had a little competition while I was teaching over who could be the most successful pattern seller – I think they drew.

It was so lovely to see some of my designs in the wild during the show. Our first customer of the weekend was wearing her Into The Vortex which she had bought the pattern and yarn for at the show last year – and she bought two more patterns on Saturday! I also saw a Tiffany being worn. It’s so lovely when people come back after knitting a design and say, “I loved it and it was easy to follow.” And it’s also really nice when they follow it up with “and now I’m going to buy another/more of your designs”! It makes me feel trusted.

The workshop itself was super. The meeting rooms of the main event space are well lit and really warm. I even had to turn one of the heaters off! I had four students in the class, none of whom had tried two-colour brioche knitting before and they all did really well. This is what they created in two hours – as well as learning lots of new concepts, terminology and tricks to help them get it right!

We had hoped to be wearing our spangly new badges at EAYF, but they didn’t arrive in time. Boo. But they arrived today – hurrah! – so they will get their first outing next month at Wonderwool Wales on April 26-27th. I may even wear mine at the trunk show at Yarn O’clock on Saturday April 12th! Please note that one of the badges does indeed have the job description of ‘Booth Babe’.

One of my plans for March was to finish knitting the border of Elinor Hap Shawl – and I have! I’ve even started the edging and I have done nearly half of one side.

There are a lot of repeats of the edging (208 in total I think), but it is only a 10-row pattern repeat, so it’s quite easy to chalk up half a dozen in an evening. I don’t think I’ll finish the edging this month though, as there was an exciting delivery just before we left for EAYF and there’s another parcel attempting to make it’s way to me as well (which, if it’s what I think it is, is something scrummy from Shetland!) and should be at the local post office for me to collect on Thursday.

It occurred to me that it would be a good idea to remind folk that I also give individual online knitting tuition as well as group workshops. This can be useful if there’s a technique you want to learn and you don’t want to wait until a workshop is advertised or if you think you would fare better in a one-to-one setting than a group one. Individual tuition is currently £25 per hour and can be booked by simply emailing me. I haven’t got as far as setting up an online calendar where you can choose a time slot yet, but it’s on the way.

The Imperial Cowl had a good reception at the weekend. People liked the fact that you could knit it flat or in the round and that there are video links included the pattern too. We sold six copies of the pattern at the show and one online (using the exclusive subscriber discount – did you know I do those for newsletter subscribers?), which may not sound like a lot, but as the pattern had already been downloaded by 127 people from the North West Winter Wool Festival, I think that’s pretty good! That’s over 130 copies of the pattern out in the world and hopefully being used!

This afternoon I had my annual dentist check-up. This involves driving into Chester, which I don’t do nearly as much as I used to when I was teaching full time. All was well and as I walked back to the car park I went past a shop that had a window painted with three words I couldn’t ignore: We Sell Yarn. Despite having been surrounded by yarn all weekend I had to go in, didn’t I? I had a lovely chat to the owner, who explained that it had been a plant shop, hence the name The Green Rooms, and she had recently shifted to selling yarn. They also host lots of workshops, particularly for crochet. I bought a ball of self-striping sock yarn that contains 50% wool and 25% bamboo as well as the 25% nylon that will make the socks hardwearing. The bamboo makes the yarn feel quite silky and I’ll be interested to see how it knits up.

It was a long drive home yesterday – over five and a half hours – and I’ve deliberately taken today at a slightly slower pace. Later this week I will hopefully be getting my rear passenger door fixed so it opens again. I have been able to rejig the way I pack the car for shows to allow for this irritation, but it will be so much easier when all doors function as intended once more! On Saturday Shelby’s Singers will be singing at the Buckley Spring Market in the shopping precinct in town at 1pm, for about an hour. We have our final rehearsal for that tomorrow! I’ll tell you all about that next week. Until then, take care. K x