Tag: Makers gonna make

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Getting Organised

Yesterday I woke up with a light bulb idea. My study (smallest bedroom) has been more and more difficult to keep tidy, partly because some of the boxes I need fairly regular access to were awkwardly positioned and so was some of the shelving.

I thought that if I swapped one of the wooden bookcases with one of the sets of metal shelving many of these issues would be solved. And they were, but getting to that point took a lot of shifting of ‘stuff’; moving everything off one set of shelves and then moving the shelves (all to elsewhere in our bungalow). Then taking everything off the bookcase I was moving (including unplugging and relocating the wifi hub), moving that bookcase, cleaning and hoovering all the spaces revealed in the process and finally, putting everything back together in its new positions.

I’ve only permanently moved one thing elsewhere and disposed of two other smaller items, but it feels much better and I can actually get to my swatches box and all my yarn boxes without having to shift a ton of other stuff first!

It’s not my most ‘instagrammable’ photo, but it’s organised and will really help me keep the rest of the room tidier. The metal shelving on the left was where the wooden bookcase on the right now is.

I was also very grateful that my lovely wife refrained from reminding me she had suggested this set-up when I first bought the second set of metal shelving, until after all the moving, cleaning and reloading of shelves was finished.

We’re halfway through November now, and I took a look at my ‘want to do’ list for the month this morning. It seems that nothing has been checked off! Two of the things are ongoing daily ones (stay hydrated and walk 3km per day), so they won’t be ticked until the end of the month, but I was surprised that nothing else has been either. But then I remembered that I started the month with a terrible cold that lingered to the end of the first week, and I also checked my other list of ‘need to do’ things and saw that the majority of those have been achieved.

I have had to add an item to the ‘need to do’ list as well – get the front passenger car door fixed. Last Friday it decided to stop opening, even though the car was not locked. And, of course, it was raining. Sue is now having to travel in the back until next week when I have an appointment to see if the clever car people can fix it. Perhaps I should start practising ‘taxi’ style conversations?

On the knitting side I have nearly completed the magazine piece I am working on – it will be published in May next year (so I can’t show it to you, but it’s very pretty and in three colours of cotton).

Part 2 of Barragán Shawl – the knitalong shawl being published by The Knitter – will be finished tomorrow. Part 3 will be out in the next issue on November 29th. The stitches on the bottom left are live stitches on a silicon stitch holder cord – Part 3 will be worked off both sides of the shawl, just as Part 2 has been.

I am knitting another pair of Bodelwyddan socks. These are a Zauberball yarn, but have a much longer colour repeat than others I’ve used. I rather like it! I’m hoping I’ll be able to work it so the second sock matches the first more or less in colour, starting with grey to teal and ending with pink on the foot.

…and Sue’s socks have seen a little progress too – these are on my ‘want to do’ list. The trouble is “Knit Sue’s socks” is rather vague. I should have carried on with the SMART targets and specified something like ‘Complete one sock’.

I haven’t done any more on my adult version of Honeybun in the past week or so, but I’ll return to that tomorrow.

For the past several months my embroidery of Mum’s photo has been on my list of things to do, but it has lain untouched. I’m trying to work out why. I know I will be pleased with it when it is finally done – I just need to work out what is stopping me and how to get past it. I’ve put so much time into the embroidery that I don’t want to just abandon it, but it is incredibly tiny and I think I used too many colours when I converted the photo into a chart, so it’s quite hard to follow. I might ask Sue to practice her coaching skills on me for this one!

On Sunday I sang in a service for the first time in years. I really enjoyed it and everyone was really friendly and welcoming – and we all coped well with the semi darkness as there was a total power cut of half the street just before the service! I’ll be singing in their advent carol service as well on Sunday 3rd December. It’s at 6.30pm at St Mary Without-the-Walls, Handbridge, Chester, if anyone fancies coming. The ‘Without-the-Walls’ part of the name doesn’t mean the church has no walls, just that it’s outside (without as opposed to within) the city walls.

There are still a couple of spaces available in the Twisted workshop at Yarn O’clock. Part One is this Thursday (16th) and Part Two is November 30th. Full details can be found here. You can see all three versions of the cowl layered up on Dolly the dress form in the picture of the ‘great reorganisation’.

That’s all from me today. Stay warm and dry and out of the wind if you can, and I hope you can do some stuff that makes you happy. Kx

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Thriller!

Four small pumpkins of different colours and shapes have googly eyes stuck on and mouths drawn with black pen sit on a wooden cabinet. Behind them is an acrylic painting in shades of orange and red.

Sometimes as an independent designer you get no feedback from customers, especially if a pattern is bought online and you never see their finished project.

At other times though, there is lots – and it can be thrilling! I’ve had really useful feedback from people who’ve asked questions because something wasn’t clear to them, and it’s helped me tweak the instructions or notes in a pattern to avoid that confusion arising again for someone else.

Sometimes knitters need more help and I try to break the instructions in the pattern down further for them. In some cases, of course, the help they need goes beyond what I can provide by email, so I might recommend a book on a particular technique or even suggest they book a 1-to-1 online or in-person tutorial session with me.

(Occasionally I do get emails from folk who expect a bit too much and can be rather ‘direct’ in requesting it – the one with “It doesn’t make sense. Write this pattern out line by line in my size” without even mentioning what size they were trying to make – was a particular highlight. You can guarantee the emails stop immediately when they’ve understood and they rarely acknowledge the help or say thanks…Thankfully these are rare!)

The feedback I love best is when a knitter proudly shows me their finished item, especially in person, but a photo and message can be just as exciting.

Three days ago I had a lovely message from a knitter showing me their finished Meg March brioche shawl – and it was their FIRST EVER brioche! It’s stunning, even before being blocked to size. It’s quite a thrill to see other knitters take your instructions and follow them, to create exactly the piece they wanted. And to be thanked for “such a beautiful and well written pattern” made me really happy.

The same day I also got an email from a knitter who had made Marianne Half Hap Shawl. The edging had initially caused her a few issues, but she cracked it and finished the shawl quickly from there. This was the shot of it blocking:

I knew that Ella had wanted to enter the finished shawl in her local show (Berwickshire Scottish Women’s Institute) and this weekend she won first prize in the Half Hap class! It’s the one on the bottom right – the colours look different from the pic above in different light and with the shawl folded up. That red sticker? That’s the First Prize label! I’m so delighted for Ella.

Something beautiful arrived in the post today. I had a RiverKnits voucher from one of my friends for my birthday (thanks Julie!) and, perhaps surprisingly, I chose something that wasn’t yarn! It’s an item I’ve had my eye on for a while, calling to me every time I see the RiverKnits stand, but it had always felt too much of a ‘treat’ before. Now though, with a voucher? That’s exactly the time for treats!

This is a handmade pencil case / notions bag, made with hand-woven fabric using RiverKnits’ hand-dyed yarn. It’s gorgeous and I can’t wait to use it!

There’s not a lot of my knitting to show you this week, for two reasons.

The dull reason is that I’ve had a bit of a cold (no, not Covid – I tested twice) and I haven’t done a huge amount. I am definitely on the mend and expect to be fighting fit by Thursday evening when I have the first part of the Twisted workshop.

The more exciting reason is that much of the knitting I have been doing is swatching for a submission and I can’t show you that!

Speaking of Twisted – the moebius brioche cowl workshop, here is the front page of the pattern:

We’ll be making the small DK version (top left pic) in the workshop, but the pattern folk get as part of the workshop includes all the options. Once the second part of the workshop is over (on 16th November) I’ll be publishing the pattern on all my usual platforms. If you want to book a space on the workshop, it’s not too late – ring Anne at Yarn O’clock on 01352 218082.

Tomorrow sees Part Two of Barragán Shawl being published in Issue 195 of The Knitter. I’ll be knitting along and sharing my progress on here and on social media as I did with Part One. Part Two contains the stripy borders and buff coloured sections of the lace shawl.

And next week (Monday 6th) I’ll be self-publishing the whole Branwen pattern.

Sign up to the newsletter if you’d like a lovely discount code to use for that!

Today is Hallowe’en and my lovely wife, Sue, is hosting Top Tweet Tuesday all day on Twitter. She’s getting to read lots and lots of spooky poems – it’s well worth having a look.

We may or may not get many trick or treaters as the weather is very changeable at the moment – the rain keeps suddenly starting and then stopping again – but we are prepared with sweets if we do. We haven’t carved any pumpkins this year. Instead, we have a range of cute small pumpkins and the googly eyes and sharpie pen came out to play! This way we get to eat the pumpkins as well as display them on the windowsill – no waste!

That’s all from me today. Stay safe, and do some stuff that makes you happy. K x

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I Feel Good!

We got home from Bath this afternoon, after a few days there to celebrate my turning 50. It’s where I went for my 40th and I had such a good time (coupled with the fact that two of my old school friends lived there at the time, and one of them still does), that I wanted to go back!

Different things were done during this visit from the previous one. I had hoped to visit the Fashion Museum, but had somehow missed the fact that the Assembly Rooms, in whose basement the museum was housed, has been taken over by the National Trust and is being restored. All the clothes went into storage last December before they move to a new home! However, as part of our 12.6km walk yesterday (!), we happened across a small textile exhibition taking place in a building on Queen’s Square and enjoyed visiting that instead.

I remember visiting Wool 10 years ago. We went there again and this time we also visited A Yarn Story, at the top of Walcot Street.

Also on Walcot Street was The Yellow Shop, outside which I did my ‘lego princess’ impression.

It was a long walk between the two wool shops, but definitely worth the effort. And of course, I bagged some goodies in both shops!

1 ball of Zauberball from Wool

My old school friend who lives in Bath plays violin in the Pump Room Trio. She very kindly booked us in for Afternoon Tea (thank you Lucy!), and we got to enjoy the splendour of the Pump Room and an extraordinary vegan afternoon tea, all whilst the piano trio (piano, violin and cello – not as I once thought, three pianos) played beautiful music. There was a massive range of styles – elegant classical era pieces, the theme tune from Desert Island discs, a lovely piece of Fauré, ‘Maria’ from West Side Story, Mad World, and a rendition of Happy Birthday as two extra mini cakes were brought out – one for me and one for the other person celebrating their birthday during that sitting. We should have photographed the full spread, but we were so busy in the moment that we forgot, so I just snapped the extra (also vegan) cake:

I have to say that with spending lots of quality time with my lovely wife since Friday, our trip away to Bath (we stayed at Dorian House, which I highly recommend) and all the wonderful messages from everyone on social media, I am thoroughly enjoying being fifty. I feel good! Ronnie says he feels good too – but I’m not quite up to his level of acrobatics. This shot was taken in front of the Royal Crescent:

You may have seen that I have finished Part One of Barragán Shawl – the Knitalong being published in The Knitter.

You can still get the yarn kit as a subscription gift with the mag or order one from McIntosh (that’s an affiliate link) if you’d like to! Now, of course I do have the whole pattern already, but as I’m ‘knitting along’ I’m not going to start Part Two until the next issue of the magazine (issue 195) comes out. That should be around November 1st I think.

I’ve also been doing more sock knitting, finally returning to the sock I began for Sue a while back on the tiny tiny circular needle. I’ve decided that it’s not the best needle type for me after all, and having switched to magic loop (which I mentioned a few weeks ago) I’m now making much better progress. During the drive home I even got to the heel flap! I can’t remember what the yarn is – I bought it eons ago on eBay. I can tell you that I’m using 2mm needles, 80 sts and my usual plain top down style with a reinforced slip stitch heel.

The other knitting you might be interested in seeing this week is the progress I’ve made on the adult version of Honeybun. I’ve extended the colour work section at the bottom, so that proportionally it fills a similar amount of the body to the child’s cardigan, and I’m now heading up to the armpits. I will need another name for this pattern as it will be published separately from the original Honeybun for children, but I need them to be clearly linked by their names. Have you got any ideas? Suggestions in the comments, please!

Finally, there are still spaces available on Twisted, the two-part workshop being held at Yarn O’clock on November 2nd and 16th. Come and learn how to knit two-colour brioche in a moebius ring! £50 for the two sessions (6.30-9pm both Thursdays), including yarn to knit this cowl and the pattern which includes a larger version as well – book your place with Anne at Yarn O’clock – 01352 – 218082.

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Twisting the Night Away

‘Twisted – a workshop with a twist!’ is being held at Yarn O’clock over 2 sessions: 2nd and 16th November, 6.30-9pm. It’s £50 for the two sessions and includes the yarn to make the cowl.

Contact Anne at Yarn O’clock (01352 – 218082) to book a space on the workshops – please note her shop will be closed from 14th to 24th October!

Skills needed: Ability to use a circular needle, knit, purl and cast off.

Equipment to bring: 80cm circular cable with SHORT 5mm tips – these can be bought at the shop if you don’t have them. 1 x 5.5mm or 6mm needle or double pointed needle (for Twisted 2 only).

Twisted 1 (2nd November)
Understand and learn to create the unique structure of a true moebius ring and how this technique can be used for wonderful neckwear and more. Learn the Moebius cast on. Learn the basic brioche stitches (brk and brp) and how to work brioche in the round. Discover the magic that happens when you work brioche in a moebius ring! This part of the workshop ends with learning a brioche increase.

Twisted 2 (16th November)
Continue the cowl, learn a brioche decrease and repeat the main pattern once more, revising the brioche increase and sharing your progress with the group. Discover what happens as you cast off!

Bodelwyddan, my sock pattern to raise funds for Treasure Chest YGC has sold 7 copies so far. That’s £17.50 raised for the charity, which is a start. I’m hoping it will go above £30 by the end of the month, so do spread the word if you know any sock knitters. The pattern is available on all my platforms. If you can support this good cause, please do!

Progress on Umbriel (the sweater I was knitting in the pub) has gone even better than I anticipated – I’ve finished it! Completely finished, as in all ends woven in and it’s been washed and is now drying. As the design by Sylvia Watts-Cherry was done in the round with sleeves that were picked up from the armholes and worked down to the cuffs, there was not even any sewing up to do. The neckline is particularly lovely.

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I’m knitting 10 rows a day on my Barragán Shawl, my design which is The Knitter‘s current knit-along. If you’re knitting it too, please share your progress with the hashtag #BarragánKAL when posting on social media. You can still order a yarn kit from McIntosh too if you want to use MY Serenity and MY Joy (the same colours I designed the shawl in) in his hand-dyed Bluefaced Leicester 4ply – or subscribe to The Knitter and get the yarn kit as a free gift!

It’s a completely different experience knitting along with everyone else, with only one section to complete per month, rather than the experience of writing the pattern and knitting it to a much shorter deadline. Some folk will think I’m a bit mad knitting the shawl a second time (in the same yarn no less!), but I wanted to be there along with other knitters, able to help out in case of any problems, show them how it should be looking and generally join in the fun. And, as I say, just doing 10 rows per day and photographing the progress for my Instagram and Facebook Stories is really chilled. This is how it looks today, after 70 rows (1 week):

I’ve also started knitting Mum some more bedsocks that she requested.

The pattern is Bob (Friend of Dave) by Rachel Coopey, which I’m glad I printed out as I cannot for the life of me find a link to it anymore, and I’m using CoopKnits Socks Yeah! DK. Having been at Mum’s last week it would have been clever if I’d remembered I was going to be knitting more of these socks soon, and checked the stitch count on her current socks, but no. Fortunately I was able to ask Mum to count the groups of knit stitches around the cuff and tell me over the phone so I could work it out! I have now finally made a note of the stitch count to cast on – 64 on 3mm needles.

I had some very good news yesterday – a submission was accepted, which was lovely. It won’t be out until May next year, and I’ve got until January to complete the sample and write up the pattern. It’s a design on a smaller scale this time, which will make a nice change as many of my recent designs have been on the very large side! There’s also another submission I sent out at the weekend which I’m keeping my fingers crossed for and four (!) yarn shows I’ve applied to (not all in the past week I hasten to add) that I’m waiting to hear back about as well.

Speaking of scale, did I tell you that I’d started working on the pattern for the adult version of Honeybun? This will be published separately from the child’s version and will have 20 sizes, none of which overlap with the child’s version, which only goes up to Age 8. The sizes are UK 4 – 42 and the spreadsheet is quite something. The construction is the same as the child’s one with the body worked in one piece and I’ve got as far with the numbers as the division of the fronts and back and underarm cast-off. I’m currently undecided whether to crunch the numbers for the raglan armhole and neck decreases, or to cast-on for the adult sample (I’m going to make an 18 as that’s the size of my dress-form/mannequin) and knit as far as I’ve got to. I might do a bit of both.

We’ve got a jaunt at the weekend as Sue is reading at the Gloucester Poetry Festival. I’ve not been to Gloucester for decades and I’m really looking forward to it.

With this oddly warm weather, we’ve been out in the garden quite a bit over the past few days, cutting back and tidying the veg patch and deadheading the many roses. Some of the nasturtiums are making a bid for freedom across the patio! If I remember I’ll try to grab a photo of them to show you next week.

That’s all from me for today. You’ll probably have noticed I haven’t mentioned the events in the wider world. That’s because I’m having trouble processing how some people can behave the way they do to other humans. Have a good week if you can and be safe out there. K x

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Friendship

We have a couple of dear friends who we see about once a year. We meet up in a different place each year, stay overnight somewhere, eat out, explore the local area and generally have a great time. A couple of years ago we went to Lichfield – which led to the cardigan of the same name! Even though we don’t see each other very often, it never feels as though a year has passed since the last time.

(Speaking of Lichfield the cardigan, I was right about the sleeve cap length after all: the added rows didn’t work once I seamed the pieces together. There were other errors that had crept in to the pattern during the editing process too, so if you are knitting Lichfield, please check out the errata page!)

Last weekend we met up with our friends in Leek. None of us had been there before and we didn’t know it was the same weekend as the Leek Blues and Americana Festival, so the town was pretty full. It was nice to hear live music coming from lots of venues while we were there. We stayed at The Fountain Inn, which had a really cosy and friendly atmosphere, and the room was very well appointed. Before we went out to dinner at The Napoli (awesome vegan options!), we had drinks in the snug and I was able to just nip upstairs to grab my knitting! I find I’m able to follow conversations and relax more when I have my knitting in hand.

The photo I took was of an almost completed first sleeve of my Umbriel.

That sleeve is now done and the second sleeve is well on the way, with the short row sleeve cap nearly completed.

Whilst in Leek we had a good mooch around the shops. Naturally I found the yarn shop, Love My Socks, which is also called Moorlands Wool and Crafts. I had a lovely chat with Amanda, the lady who owns the shop, while I was buying a gorgeous skein of &KnitCo sock yarn, and it turned out that we’d met and nattered at the Buxton Wool Gathering in May!

I popped back on Sunday and got a few more little treats as well: a Chiaogoo 2mm 80cm circular needle (I’m embracing Magic Loop for socks), an Emma Ball tin for my larger stitch markers and a little tin of stitch holder cables from Ducky Darlings.

These are the same type of cords I got from All Wool That Ends Wool and I’m very pleased to say they all fit in the same tin!

Sue (my lovely wife) has quite a collection of googly eyes and every now and then they come out to play – she got some cracking shots on Saturday evening.

My version was a little more sedate, but the pizza box looks quite happy!

This was another brilliant feature of The Napoli – although our sharing starter was so huge (and delicious) that we couldn’t finish our pizzas, they were very happy to box up the rest for us to take away.

All in all we had a fabulous trip to Leek, despite the weather – it rained most of the time. We also very much enjoyed the craft/flea market in the town on Sunday morning.

This morning I got my new lenses fitted into my glasses frame. I can see brilliantly at distance (trees have leaves even when they’re far off – who knew?!?) and close up reading again, but you should see me at the moment; I keep shifting position trying to get the right distance between me and the laptop screen for optimum focus whilst experimenting with which part of the lenses to look through! The joy of varifocal lenses – I will work it out fairly soon, I’m sure.

As promised, my Bodelwyddan sock pattern was released on October 1st (after we got back from Leek!) and 50% of all sales throughout October will be going to Treasure Chest YGC. If you are a sock knitter or know someone who is, please consider buying this pattern and helping to support a great cause. Truly Hooked also has a wonderful colour way that she’s dyed especially for Treasure Chest and 50% of proceeds from that will also be donated. So you could knit Bodelwyddan using the Treasure Chest sock colour way and even store them in the limited edition project bag made by The Woolly Tangle! £10 from the sale of each of these bags will be going to Treasure Chest YGC during October. And they’re sweater sized project bags too.

I am very excited about Barragán Shawl Knitalong beginning in The Knitter. The shawl is going on some adventures this evening that I should be able to tell you all about next week!

Issue 194 is out tomorrow containing Part One of the pattern! I have wound my yarn and am ready to cast on with everyone. The 150g skeins are huge when wound – and they actually weigh about 160g. You even get a woven fabric label if you get a McIntosh yarn kit.

Remember you can still sign up to subscribe to The Knitter and get the yarn kit as a free gift (although there are limited quantities of the yarn for the subscription offer, so check carefully! Your first issue would be Issue 195, so you’d still need to buy Issue 194).If you don’t want to subscribe to the mag (or already do), but really like this yarn – and who wouldn’t as it’s hand-dyed 100% British Bluefaced Leicester – you can buy a yarn kit direct from James McIntosh.

I’m going to leave you with this little teaser.

It’s called Twisted and it’s a brioche moebius cowl. There is a two-part workshop next month (2nd and 16th November) at Yarn O’clock where you can learn how to knit it! I’ll tell you more next week.

Until then, take care and do stuff that makes you happy. K x

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Launch

There have been some lovely comments about Petulia on social media that was launched with RiverKnits at Yarndale last weekend. I wasn’t there, but I know Becci was wearing the shawl at Yarndale on the Saturday, and she said it was super cosy.

This photograph of Petulia was taken by Anne from Yarn O’clock when she visited Yarndale on Sunday:

Hopefully some knitters now have the means to make their own version of Petulia! I’m itching to knit the smaller version of the shawl myself – and that thought led me to choose some lovely skeins of RiverKnits Chimera and Nene 4Ply this afternoon (at Yarn O’clock)! These skeins are Pumpkin (Chimera) and Zwergpflaume (Nene 4ply) – photographed in evening artificial light so they’re showing up a bit darker than they really are.

The release date for Part One of Barragán shawl (4th October) is drawing closer and there is still just about time to order a yarn kit from McIntosh if you’d like one to arrive by then.

It’s been really interesting seeing people’s reactions to the shawl and the kit on social media – MY Joy and MY Serenity are high contrast colours, with MY Serenity being a vibrant pink/plum colour. Lots of people love it, (even if they don’t usually like pink!) which is wonderful. Sometimes it can be hard to imagine a design in a different colour-way from what is shown, but one of the great things about knitting is that we can take a knitting pattern and make it our own through our colour choices. Someone suggested using two tones of the same shade and I think that could be really beautiful too.

If you love the McIntosh BFL in the colours I used for Barragán, there are a couple of ways you can get a yarn kit:

You can subscribe to The Knitter magazine and select the yarn kit as a free gift (How awesome is that as a free gift!?). There are limited quantities available for this offer so don’t wait around if this appeals to you. You would also need to buy the magazine on October 4th to get Part One as the subscription would start on Nov 1st.

You can order the yarn kit directly from McIntosh (there are four options here; you can also add pattern/needles/both to the yarn/tote bag). (Note – this is an affiliate link; I get a small commission if you order the yarn via this link).

If you don’t love the colours, or already have 150g/600m in each of two colours of 4ply yarn that you’d love to use for Barragán, just buy the magazine each month for the next four months! The first part is in Issue 194 out on October 4th.

I can’t wait to see what combinations people choose to knit this shawl in. Share progress on social media using the hashtag #BarraganKAL

Before Barragán gets going, there’s another pattern being launched! Designs are a bit like buses sometimes…

Bodelwyddan is my new sock design for Treasure Chest YGC – a charity that aims to support and raise funds for patients who have had or are having surgery or treatment for breast cancer in Glan Clywd Hospital, Denbighshire.

Bodelwyddan is a top-down textured design in five sizes with a heel flap and gusset, worked on 2.25mm needles.

I’m donating 50% of the pattern price (that’s £2.50) of every copy sold throughout October to the charity..

I finally have photographs of all five sizes – the largest two sizes are modelled – and the pattern is ready to go live on October 1st. It will be available via my website, Payhip, Lovecrafts and Ravelry.

Bodelwyddan is the village in Denbighshire where Ysbyty Glan Clwyd (Glan Clwyd Hospital) is based and this is the reason for the pattern name.

I’ve now taught three workshops at Shaz’s Shabby Chic now and I’m really enjoying them. This is what my two students last week achieved in just two hours! Three swatches each – impressive!

Tomorrow is Knitting in the Round and there are a few places left. Three more workshops are booked in at Shaz’s Shabby Chic next month, including another Absolute Beginners’ Knitting Workshop. So, if you were thinking about coming to learn to knit and missed out last time, now’s your chance! All workshops are detailed on the “Where I’ll Be” page.

I’m delighted to announce that I’m teaching at The Knit-Tea Retreat again this year. The Retreat takes place at Insole Court in Cardiff on October 28-29 with a social evening in the pub on the Friday night (27th). Booking is open now!

It was great fun last year. There are lots of workshops to choose from – felted landscapes, ‘fun with fibre’ and drop spindling as well as three knitting workshops from me: intarsia, slipped stitches and ‘not basic lace’. There’s a wonderful atmosphere at the retreat, lots of cake, a fab social evening on Saturday and a mini market on Sunday afternoon. I highly recommend it!

In other news, I’ve finally returned to knitting the sleeves of my Umbriel sweater! I hope to have some photos to share with you next week. It will be finished before the end of the year.

Until next week then, take care and I hope you get a chance to do some stuff that makes you happy this week. K x

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Harvest Time

The past week has been so busy, and my intention of picking raspberries every couple of days has gone slightly sideways. The high winds today have done some other harvesting for us and there are quite a few windfalls on the grass waiting to be picked up tomorrow. The last two tomatoes are ripening on the kitchen window sill – they are tigerella tomatoes and their stripes are emerging nicely as they change colour.

Various projects I have been working on have also come to fruition and are ready to harvest this week! Partly as a result of these I have been updating my homepage of the website and I have to say I’m pleased with how it’s looking.

You may have seen on my newsletter or social media posts that I have something very exciting happening with The Knitter. Barragán Shawl is The Knitter’s Autumn 2023 knit-along, designed by me in McIntosh’s BFL (Bluefaced Leicester) yarn. It’s a gorgeous British wool and the colours I chose, MY Serenity and MY Joy, are stunning.

The shawl is called Barragán, named after the Mexican architect, Louis Barragán (1902 – 1988) who is quoted as saying, “A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy”. With serenity and joy being the names of the colourways I chose it seemed absolute serendipity when I came across this quote and I had to name the shawl after him.

You can pre-order a yarn kit direct from McIntosh. (By using this link, if you decide to buy a kit, I get a little commission!). Part One of the KAL is out in Issue 194 of The Knitter on October 4th, so in order to receive your yarn kit in time, pre-order by September 29th.

Another piece of exciting design release news relates to my Petulia shawl which I designed for RiverKnits. It is going to be launched at Yarndale, this coming weekend (September 23rd and 24th)!

There are still some tickets available for timed entry to Yarndale on the Sunday if you haven’t got one yet. The pattern is a big one; there are two shawl shapes within the one pattern. Both versions use the same two-colour brioche leaf motif as a structural building block. The smaller version of Petulia is symmetrical and uses 2 x 50g skeins of Chimera and 1 x 100g skein of Nene 4ply, the other is larger, asymmetrical and flamboyant and uses 3 x 50g skeins of Chimera and 2 x 100g skeins of Nene 4ply. If you’re going to Yarndale look out for my large Petulia shawl on the RiverKnits stand – they’re on stand F1!

Just as with Tiffany and Agnes, Petulia will be available exclusively from RiverKnits for the first six months, after which I will be selling the pattern as well.

I finished sewing the zipped project bags on Thursday and was really pleased with how they turned out. I even discovered that my sewing machine has a thread cutter on the side, which I had no idea about, despite having had my sewing machine for over 6 years – doh!

Sewing the tabs on the side was the trickiest part – 12 layers of fabric, 2 layers of fusible fleece and a zip to keep lined up! I’ll be adding them to the website later this week.

Yarn Gathering on Sunday was fantastic. We had a dozen wonderful vendors and over 160 visitors. I really loved seeing all the people in The Daniel Owen Centre having a good time, chatting about yarn, weaving, crochet, knitting and dyeing.

Some of the best moments of the day for me were when knitters came to show me their finished projects, either on a photo or in real life – I wish I’d thought to take some pics of them, but it only occurred to me afterwards…

There have been some great posts on social media, with folk showing off their purchases. The day ran smoothly, after the slightly scary moment when we opened the fire doors to the car park and the alarm went off! Fortunately one of the lovely people from the venue arrived a few minutes later, turned it off and all was quiet again!

My workshops at Shaz’s Shabby Chic are going well and I’ve booked some more dates in for October – more details to follow very soon. Working with Colour – Slip Stitch Knitting is tomorrow (you can still book a place!) and I’ve had fun digging out samples of my designs that use slip stitches to create colour patterns.

If you want to expand (or begin) your knitting skills why not sign up for a workshop? The October workshops will be available to book by the end of week.

Yet again, the day is running away from me and I need to get this posted. I will tell you all about how tomorrow’s workshop goes next week and hopefully I’ll have some news about how Petulia was received at Yarndale.

Until then, take care one and all, K x

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Finishing Touches

I finally heard back from the car insurance people today and I managed to get them to reduce the renewal quote by £75, mostly by saying to each new (lower) figure I was given; “Well, that’s better, but it’s still a lot higher than last year’s premium”, and finishing with “Is there any way it can be less than £400?”. The answer was yes – phew! The final price is *still* over £80 more than last year, but I feel like we at least split the difference.

I have much more fun admin in sight for tomorrow – an application for a yarn show I’ve not done before, and would really love to be accepted for. I’m not going to jinx it by telling you which one, but if you could just generally keep your fingers crossed for me, I’d really appreciate it!

This week has been very productive. After deciding I needed to redo the neckband of my Lichfield cardigan (do you remember, the stitches I’d picked up on one front corner didn’t match the other, and was making it pull in too much?), I ripped it out and re-knitted it. I also followed my plan for the top of the sleeve caps and knitted one to my original length and one with the additional four rows added by the tech editor. I pinned them both to the body of the cardigan (unblocked, but that was the best I could do at the time) to see which looked and felt best when worn. The extra four rows helped with the fit on the shoulder, so they stayed and I added them to the other sleeve as well. I’ve now blocked the whole cardigan (on Saturday – and I am STILL aching from those 90 minutes kneeling on the ground…) and it’s nearly dry and ready for seaming. Blocking is often thought of as one of the ‘finishing touches’ that can be done (or not), but I maintain it is an integral part of the knitting process as it makes such a difference.

I think the extremely high humidity with this heatwave slowed the drying process as I would not have expected it to take this long as this time of year. The part that is still damp is the shoulder shaping and collar on the body as the fabric is doubled at that point. By the way, that cardboard box in the background is not a moving box – though it looks like one! We’re not going anywhere, it’s just useful storage.

Once the cardigan was cast off, I knitted one final sock sample for Bodelwyddan (that’ll be 8 socks I’ve made in total, across the five sizes). I gave them all a wash this morning and one pair got the treat of going on the sock blockers! They’ll be photographed by next week and I’ll share them with you in all their glory.

Bodelwyddan will be launched at the start of October with 50% of the pattern price throughout the month going to Treasure Chest YGC, a charity that aims to support and raise funds for patients who have had/are having surgery or treatment for Breast Cancer in Glan Clwyd Hospital (Ysbyty Glan Clwyd in Welsh, hence ‘YGC’), Denbighshire. I will post a weekly tally of the total raised through sales of Bodelwyddan during October and hope you can all help get the word out about the pattern and other fundraising that will be taking place at the same time.

I’ve also knitted something else, which I’m not going to tell you about yet, but it’s very very cool! And there is something else extremely exciting happening in early October that I should be able to tell you at least a little about next week.

There are now only four days until Yarn Gathering and I’m very excited to see it all come together again. We have such a lovely selection of vendors joining us and they are all based within an hour or so of Mold!:

Do join us if you have the chance. Sunday 17th September, 10am – 4pm, The Daniel Owen Centre, Mold, CH7 1AP. Free Entry.

I’ve been making some things today on my sewing machine in readiness for Yarn Gathering on Sunday: four zipped box pouches. The first pic is of the two I’ve made before (the first in a workshop with the lovely Jo Paloma Makes) so you can see what they’ll be like. Today’s pouches are all half made so far, as I decided it was far easier to do them on a mini production line, rather than work on one at a time. They’ll be finished tomorrow – I’ve even left the sewing machine out on the kitchen table!

Speaking of workshops, I had a great time last Wednesday teaching my “Absolute Beginners’ Knitting” workshop.

Tomorrow is the follow-on workshop, “Next Steps Beginners’ Knitting” and the same two ladies are currently booked on it. If you have some experience of the knit stitch and you’d like to learn more, there’s still time to book a place!

Next Wednesday (20th) is “Working with Colour – Slip Stitch Knitting“. This one is loads of fun and the results look far more complicated than they actually are to do and you’re only using one colour at a time!

I’m sure there’s more to share, but if I don’t press ‘publish’ soon, it’ll be tomorrow! Take care, have a good week, and get yourselves over to Mold on Sunday if you can. Kx

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Follow Your Arrow

View of Llandudno pier and the Great Orme as seen from the Promenade. The sky is blue and so is the sea!

The song ‘Follow Your Arrow‘ by Kacey Musgraves has been a proper ear-worm for me this week. I’ve even been singing it in the shower! If you’ve never heard it, I highly recommend a listen.

There are changes are afoot in our household, with my lovely wife moving on from primary school headship to a new pathway of her own devising, and I may be doing some musical stuff in our local community in the near future as well as continuing to knit up a storm. I’ve even been brave and set foot on a big wheel – the one pictured in the main image of Llandudno pier! Once we got moving (after sitting at the top for far too long) it was quite spectacular.

In the meantime, I am preparing for four knitting workshops this month and for Yarn Gathering on Sunday 17th! As part of this, there has been a lot of printing happening today. As you might expect, some of the printing has been patterns, but there have also been posters, risk assessments, pattern spreadsheets and public liability insurance certificates!

A slightly less fun part of today has been trying to find out why my car insurance renewal quote for this year is 50% higher than last year’s premium. That’s without any changes to the policy (and no claims) at all! Fortunately I got to speak to a really helpful woman on the phone, explained the changes I do need to make, and she is going to ring me back on Friday when she’s heard back from the underwriters and then we’ll look at possible discounts. Argh. At least I know I’ll be speaking to the same person, so I won’t have to go through everything again from the beginning.

Admin is one of those things that has to be done and it’s something I generally don’t mind. Having had a week of visitors and then visiting Kent, the only work I’ve been doing is social media and knitting, so I’ve had to catch up with myself a bit today, which means I’m noticing the admin more than usual!

But the knitting? Well! I thought I might have moved on to the sleeves of Lichfield by today, didn’t I? Haha! I’ve done both the sleeves (apart from the very tops of them – I need to decide whether or not to knit the extra four rows added by the tech editor just before the final cast off rows) AND I only have two rows and the cast-off left to do on the neckband.

That means the shoulder seams are already done as well. Although, now I’ve seen the photos of it lying flat I think I might redo the neckband to shift the stitch pick up a little on the left hand front (right side of image). This will get rid of the little ‘pull-up’ I can see at the bottom of the neck band.

Do you see how the stitch pattern in the back panel lines up perfectly with that of the neckband? It does that for every size. That type of detail is important to me as it makes a design (and a garment knitted from it) look really finished and precise.

Once I’ve re-done the neckband and done the last little bits at the tops of the sleeve caps (I’ll probably add the extra rows in one sleeve, leave the balls of yarn attached, pin them to the body of the cardigan and decide which fit I like best, then redo the top of the other sleeve cap to match), that’s ALL the knitting done. Then it’s blocking time, seaming and weaving in the ends. With any luck (and if the weather isn’t too hot) I’ll be wearing it at Yarn Gathering, although I can’t sell the pattern myself until next January.

It’s been an eye-opener knitting a waist-length garment in my size. It’s so much quicker than something long that supposedly ‘hides’ your hips/bum, but in reality does nothing of the sort. That sounds pretty obvious when you think about it, but the full circumference of knitting happens at the bottom of a garment, so to take off 6-9 inches of fabric is a lot of knitting removed from the equation. This might make it sound as though I don’t enjoy knitting. I do – I love it. But I also know (and have been told by other knitters) that it can get very frustrating when it can literally take months to complete a garment when making a larger size. I also seem to be using slightly less yarn than I’d calculated which is interesting. I started each section with a new ball, but I only used 3 on the back, 2 on each sleeve and 1 on each front. It’s 1 so far on the neckband, but that might become 2. Add in a 10% buffer and we’re looking at 12 x 50g balls rather than 13 for size 7. Another saving! I can see potentially more waist-length garments (or ones with a waist-length option) in future designs…!

Anyway, I hope Yarn O’clock doesn’t mind my ‘borrowing’ this photo, but I thought this was an excellent placement of a diversion sign – and a great example of ‘follow your arrow’ too! Why not divert into a yarn shop (though ideally not while still in a car)? On the day of Yarn Gathering (September 17th, 10-4), Yarn O’clock will also be open from 1-2pm.

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An Abundance

Two small metal colanders sit on a bamboo worktop, filled with raspberries. There are a few borage flowers in the one on the left as well.

Yarn Gathering is in less than three weeks! I am excited to tell you that Anne and I did the floor plan at the weekend and there’s going to be a really lovely mix of vendors for you to visit. There will be nine stands in the main hall of the Daniel Owen Centre and three in the cafe space. The cafe itself won’t be open, but you can get refreshments from a variety of places in Mold on a Sunday – or even better, why not visit the Mold Food & Drink Festival while you’re here? There’s a map of the town showing the venue and car parks on the Yarn Gathering page.

One word of caution, especially for the folk who are not from Wales and may be less aware of the upcoming changes in the traffic laws. From 17th September, (nearly) all roads in Wales that were previously 30mph will be 20mph. There will be 30mph signs for any roads that are exceptions to the 20, but the general intention is ‘see street lights, think 20’. I don’t know if traffic police will be issuing fines from ‘Day 1’, but we would hate anyone to get caught out. My town has been one of the 8 trial areas for the 20mph speed limit and there have been very mixed responses from the local community, but it will be happening, starting from Yarn Gathering day, so take it steady on your way to inhale the yarn fumes!

I’ve been baking again!

These are vegan sourdough chocolate brownies and they are truly delicious – especially with vanilla ice-cream and homegrown raspberries. My sister-in-law is coming to visit today, and it seemed an excellent reason to get the baking going again.

Update – Katie loves the brownies and helped pick today’s raspberry harvest.

We’re getting this many every day or two at the moment. Even though they’re autumn fruiting, the canes are really going for it!

Last week when I wrote I was getting to the end of the medium sized sock for my upcoming sock pattern, Bodelwyddan. As you can see, that sock has been finished and the small (second size) sock has also been made! The dark (medium) sock is in RiverKnits Nene 4ply (100% British Bluefaced Leicester Wool) and the light variegated (small) sock is in The Yarn Artist Sock 4ply (75% Superwash Merino, 25% Nylon). Both of these socks were knitted using leftovers from other projects – there wouldn’t be enough for two of each, but who says your socks have to match?!

I’ve also been storming ahead with my own version of Lichfield. This is size 7 and I have finished the back and the left front, and made a start on the right front. As we have a couple of long car trips this week, I may even have finished a sleeve by the time I write next!

Something I forgot to share with you last week was my one purchase at the Pop Up Wool Show.

I bought these two beautiful skeins of 4ply wool from Doulton Border Leicester Yarn. The yarn comes from their own flock and all the sheep live out their full lives, even after their fleeces stop being suitable for use – they have an oap/retired sheep field! I really like their philosophy and the yarn looks and feels very high quality. I don’t know what I’m going to make with it yet, but I have a few ideas up my sleeve!

I’ve been doing a little more crochet recently – what, two crochet projects on the go? Shocking! To the right is my first attempt at puff stitch. Those are the stitches that form the heart in the centre of the granny square. I’m not sure I’ve got it quite right in terms of tension, but I think it’s pretty good for a first attempt! I also decided to treat myself to a crochet blocking board.

This was one of the Amazon images for this crochet blocking board. Can you see what is wrong with it?! 😂

It almost put me off buying it, but at least I could see the pics were of actual crocheted items actually held in place with the metal pins. This was a big improvement on some listings which showed a similar board with badly cropped pictures of crochet overlaid and photoshopped images of the pins floating in mid-air in front of them!

I’m glad I did get it though, it’s decent quality bamboo and metal pins and I like the idea of being able to block several squares at once stacked above each other – guaranteed to be blocked to the same size!

Anyway, that’s all from me for today. Take care of yourselves and I hope you get to do some stuff you enjoy this week. Keep your fingers crossed on the cardigan progress for me! K x