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It’s raining again…

The North Wales Wool & Fibre Festival is this coming Saturday, June 1st. It’s being held in the Deiniol Shopping Centre in Bangor, with some vendors being in empty shop units and some being in the shopping mall itself. I’m going to be in what was the BrightHouse store, along with a wide variety of other woolly artists and creatives. Entry to the event is free, so if you’re in the North Wales area on Saturday between 10am and 4pm, come and say hello! Considering the current weather, it’s also a bonus that the whole event is under cover!

I’ve been swatching for a new brioche cowl design, specifically for knitters who might not have done two colour brioche knitting before. It will be simple, attractive and include some increases and decreases to build the knitter’s skills. Interestingly, the more I simplified the idea, the more I liked it!

Although it’s a cowl, it does not have to be knit in the round. I will include knitting in the round instructions, but I will actually be recommending folk knit it flat and seam it as this will help them learn the rhythm of the different stitches and colours when working each side of two-colour brioche. This decision comes after demonstrating brioche knitting to folk at yarn shows and seeing them have lightbulb moments in understanding, often having tried brioche in the round previously and found it confusing. It will also stand someone in good stead for when they come to knit something larger, such a shawl, that will be knitted flat.

Following on from some conversations I’ve had at the past couple of yarn shows we’ve been at, I’m also going to be running an Introduction to Brioche Knitting workshop on Zoom in the next couple of months! There will be a couple of date and time options and numbers will be limited to maintain a true workshop feel.

If a brioche knitting workshop via Zoom sounds like something you’d be interested in, make sure you sign up for my monthly newsletter and keep an eye out on the website.

I usually send out one email per month at the start of the month so your inbox won’t be bombarded! You can sign up from my homepage (scroll to the bottom).

If you happen to see the latest copy of Knit Now (issue 168) in your local newsagent, there’s a design from me inside! A set of lacy circular coasters and placemats knit from the centre outwards using a Pi shawl construction (albeit on a much smaller scale). I knit them using mercerised cotton for the magazine, although you could definitely use wool. Pleasingly, the design is included in the little inset pics on the cover around the main cover image. I named the set Prynhawn Da, which means ‘Good afternoon’ in Welsh, and relates to the brief of Afternoon Tea that was sent out to designers when the magazine asked for submissions last year.

Sue’s socks are coming on well. I’ve completed the leg, heel flap and gusset on the first one and now I’m heading down the foot towards the toe.

It’s amazing how quickly projects seem to grow after you’ve been working on a really big design for a long time.

Last autumn I began singing again after a break of several years. Singing was always ‘my thing’, and my main instrument when I did my music degree and while teaching music. I was quite rusty to start with, but I feel like I’ve got my voice ‘back’ now along with regaining a greater level of confidence. That may be linked with how I’ve really gone for it with the yarn shows this year: I think the grand total is something like 9 or 10!

I’m singing in a church choir who do concerts as well as services with some really uplifting music, and I’m also leading our local community choir who sing a range of songs from pop, show songs and children’s classics. Last week for example included Nellie the Elephant, This is Me from The Greatest Showman, Zadok the Priest by Handel and Rutter’s For the Beauty of the Earth! Quite an eclectic mix! Also, if you’ve never heard ‘Insanae et vanae curae’ by Haydn, do yourself a favour and have a listen. It’s bonkers and highly invigorating! I first sang it years ago, but I still don’t know what the words mean. I must look it up one day!

Right, that’s all from me today. I’ll let you know how Saturday goes next week and I may have a complete sock to show you! Take care one and all, and remember to do something that brings you joy this week if you can. K x

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…And a Happy New Year!

Well, we’ve made it to 2023! We’re only a few days in to the year, but already the adverts on the telly are full of the seasonal ‘buy a new sofa’, ‘book a summer holiday’ etc, and social media is full of the ‘New Year/New You’ ads.

Fortunately the majority of the people I follow are, like me, more into intentions and goal setting than ‘New Year’s Resolutions’. I can’t remember exactly when I last made New Year’s Resolutions, but I know for a fact they included not doing/eating this/that and they were guaranteed to fail and make me feel as though I’d failed in the process.

Nowadays I set goals for the year, based on the framework in The Maker’s Yearbook. I bought this yearbook a couple of years ago and really liked the structure of it, but found the space for writing too specified – there seemed to be either too little or too much, never quite the sweet spot I was after. So, in January 2022 and this year I have looked back at the goal setting pages from my copy of the 2020 Maker’s Yearbook and used the questions from it in my bullet journal. It asks things like ‘What is your biggest dream for the year?’ and, perhaps more importantly, ‘What steps do you need to take to get there?’.

I’m not going to share all my goals here, but you should be seeing some new things happening during the course of the year. For example, I applied to be a vendor at another yarn show this morning – fingers crossed for that one. I won’t find out if I’m successful until the end of Feb/start of March, but I’ll be sure to let you know!

Am Byth, the latest MKAL from Yarn O’clock and myself, begins on Friday 13th January. That’s in just 10 days time! Remember we are not going to tell you what you are making until the start of Part 2 (released on 27th January). All you need to take part is 225m/100g DK yarn (we are using West Yorkshire Spinners Croft DK) and 3.5mm needles. We are beginning with a pinwheel cast-on (there will be a video for this on my website and Yarn O’clock’s youtube channel), so you’ll need double pointed needles or your favoured type of needles for a teeny-tiny starting circumference.

You can get the pattern from me on the website, Payhip, Lovecrafts or Ravelry (no link as I don’t want to spark a migraine for anyone!) and the relevant part of the pattern will be uploaded on each release date.

If you want a kit, or to have parts of the pattern emailed to you, you should contact Anne at Yarn O’clock. She is open again from Wednesday 4th January, so you can pop in or ring the shop from tomorrow!

Here is a selection of some the colours of Croft DK (photo from Yarn O’clock’s website):

The Fasten Off YAL has now come to an end and, just like last year, it was great fun. I got to know the work of some designers I hadn’t previously encountered and, just by playing along with some of the social games on Twitter and Instagram, I won two prizes!

The first prize was from Kate Atherley, from whom I chose Mackinac Mitts (I’m still pondering the yarn to use for these – there are so many splendid single skeins of 4-ply in my stash at the moment). If you haven’t come across her designs before, do have a look – they’re great!

The second prize I one was from Síle Thiels of Knit Dance Repeat Designs. From her designs I’ve chosen the Treble Jig Legwarmers.

I really like the fact that she uses music to inspire her designs (as have I in the past) and, even better, her legwarmer design fits calves up to 22″ in circumference! Mine are 19″ so I have the added excitement of a pattern that goes over the calves that I don’t need to alter to make it fit!

Fasten Off YAL covers knitting, crochet, loom knitting and Tunisian crochet, and with 109 designers taking part in the most recent one there were so many wonderful designs to choose from. If you do any of these four crafts (or design for them) I heartily recommend getting involved next year.

This morning I had to phone the dentist again. On Saturday I felt extreme pain in my gold crown whilst eating cereal of all things (toasted rice and wheat flakes) followed by a terrible crumbling sensation from the tooth behind it. It was just like you get in those dreams where all your teeth fall out. If you’ve never had that particular dream I envy you! One corner of my back molar has broken away leaving a very jagged edge and not a lot of tooth. They have been able to fit me in for their first available appointment, which is in two weeks. Fortunately I’m not in pain as long as I keep cold liquids and food away from that corner of my mouth, but these teeth of mine have been letting me down over the past twelve months – and I’ve nearly ground my way through my third or fourth mouthguard. I’m hoping they’ll be able to help!

When I was having a rummage through the freezer drawers just before Christmas I found something wonderful; two bags of blackcurrants! You may remember that I didn’t pick any last summer and so hadn’t made any jam and I’d forgotten that the crop the year before had been so plentiful that I’d only used half of it and frozen the rest. So I will be making blackcurrant jam in the next couple of weeks, staving off my need for the Seville oranges to arrive at the Farm Shop for marmalade making.

(Please note – there is no connection between my jam and marmalade-making and my dodgy teeth! I’ve just been grinding them for years and they’re literally reaching breaking point.)

That’s all for today. Next week I’m going to be telling you a bit more about my Welsh learning and the stitching I have been doing, as well as hopefully having some knitting to show you! ‘Til then, take care, stay home if you’re poorly and keep warm, K x

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Antici…pation!

I’ve got to that stage of preparing for an event where I’m both excited and impatient for it to start whilst also wanting just that extra bit of time to go over everything once more.

I’m talking about The Knit-Tea Retreat happening this weekend at Insole Court, Llandaff, Cardiff. I’ll be teaching two workshops on Saturday; Stacked Stitches in the morning and Moebius Knitting in the afternoon. Then on Sunday afternoon it’s the Marketplace! My workshop notes are complete and printed out (which is designed to stop me ‘tweaking’ the workshops any further), my patterns are all printed and most things are ready to go in the car on Friday, although the study does look a little too full right now!

The Stacked Stitches workshop is really cool and I’m pleased with the new sample I’ve devised for knitters to develop their understanding and use of the technique (on the right). Following that we move on to knitting a small coaster/mat that is based on a small part of the Ribbon Candy Scarf by Xandy Peters (on the left).

Stacked Stitches Samples

Once knitters are confident with the technique they will be able to put it into practice in full size projects. This is a close-up of part of the Fox Paws scarf, designed by Xandy Peters, that I made as my first ever piece of stacked stitches knitting. It was a real challenge and so satisfying to see the patterns come together as the extreme increases and decreases were completed.

Fox Paws close-up (design by Xandy Peters)

The Moebius Knitting workshop shows two ways to create this mind-bending 3D impossibility without having to simply knit a flat strip and add a twist before seaming it. I have two designs so far that are Moebius cowls and I’m hoping that knitters who take this workshop may want to try one of them after Saturday afternoon!

This is what they will be making:

Moebius Headband

which on a larger scale can become this cowl:

Striped Moebius Cowl

These two Moebius cowl designs include lace. Mirror Mirror Moebius is on the left and Forest Ferns Moebius is on the right. Both pictures show them laid flat as for blocking.

Mirror Mirror Moebius by Kath Andrews
Forest Ferns Moebius by Kath Andrews, blocking

But in use they look like this!

Mirror Mirror Moebius by Kath Andrews, photo © KnitPicks
Forest Ferns Moebius by Kath Andrews

Last week I showed you the progress being made on the Nevern Throw Expansion Pack and my Morph hat from Woolly Wormhead’s new collection, Cuboidal. What I forgot to show you was Cleo, in full attention seeking mode. She doesn’t like it if I sit on Mum’s sofa without being available for cuddles and she had the perfect way to stop me knitting – by sitting on it!

Cleo on the Nevern Throw Expansion Pack

It is now complete and I am very pleased with the overall result. All that now needs to be done is for me to put the charts and main basic info together in a single file. As it is the expansion pack, you will need the main Nevern Throw pattern as well for the information about putting the squares together. I hope to get this up on all my platforms in the next couple of weeks.

Nevern Throw Expansion Pack sampler by Kath Andrews
Nevern Throw Expansion Pack by Kath Andrews folded to show back as well as front

The light must be very different at my house to Mum’s as the colours of this have come out very differently from last week’s photos!

And Morph has grown a lot – but there is still quite a way to go. It is one BIG hat!! The top corners will be folded in once finished as it is an envelope slouch – I’ve tried to give a sense of how that works in the right hand image below. Being made entirely from mitred squares I had been concerned there would be lots of ends to weave in, but as you can see from the inside of the hat in the right hand photo that isn’t the case at all. You only break the yarn when moving from one round of squares to the next.

Morph Hat in progress (design by Woolly Wormhead)
Inside of Morph Hat in progress (design by Woolly Wormhead)

I also finally got back to my Safe Space embroidery by Peppermint Purple this morning. This is growing more slowly, probably because I chose to make the cross-stitch version rather than the blackwork version, but I wanted it to be bold and vibrant and I think it is definitely that.

Safe Space cross stitch in progress (design by Peppermint Purple)

I’m looking forward to being amongst knitters all weekend and I’m really honoured to have been invited by Zoë and Jennie who organise The Knit-Tea Retreats to be one of their tutors this time around and to share my knowledge of two slightly less well known knitting techniques. I also feel the responsibility to ensure the knitters attending my workshops have a good time as well as learn new things. I’ll never forget a workshop I attended at Knit Camp in Stirling where one tutor told us off for talking and helping each other! Apparently she was the only one qualified to give advice, even though there were so many of us she couldn’t get round us all… Some things stay with you, don’t they?

If you are near Cardiff on Sunday afternoon – do pop over to the marketplace at Insole Court and say hello. It’s open to the public and entry is free! And I’ll tell you all about how it went next week.

Take care one and all, K x

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We Made It Happen!

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

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

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

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

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

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

And Tiffany:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Coming Together

The Yarn Gathering Logo centred on a white background. A white yarn bowl is drawn with skeins and hand wound balls of yarn in red, yellow, green and blue. The word 'Yarn' curves over the top and the word 'Gathering' curves around the bottom of the bowl. The yarn and bowl are hand drawn.

By this time next week Yarn Gathering will have been and gone! It’s such a strange thought; all these months of planning are essentially leading up to six hours (10am – 4pm). But what a six hours they will be: joining with other enthusiasts in the yarn community, sharing stories and buying from our wonderful vendors.

We are glad that the Mold Food & Drink Festival is still going ahead (like us, until the date of the Queen’s funeral was announced, they were a little uncertain about potential clashes). Do go and visit them as well as coming to see us in the Daniel Owen Centre. The Food Festival is always worth a visit, with live music to entertain you as well.

As a reminder, our vendors at Yarn Gathering will be:

Ewe & Ply

Felinrhyd Spinning

Gwennol Designer Handknits

Soggy Kookaburra Crafts

It’s going to be a very busy couple of months for me now and the forward planning section of my bullet journal is really starting to come into its own.

There are the final few things to organise for Yarn Gathering, such as taking posters to the Food Festival during their set-up period. They’ve kindly agreed to display our posters at their entrance and exit.

I finished my secret knitting on Sunday (much to the shock, amusement and sympathy of Twitter as I admitted I had taken ONLY that project away with me during the past couple of days – I got home at lunchtime today). The written pattern now needs to be finished and checked and the knitting needs to be blocked and posted to its final destination. I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out and can’t wait to see how it looks when blocked.

The two shawls I have designed for RiverKnits are being launched at Yarndale on September 24th-25th! I am very excited about this, and the photography (done by Becci) is amazing. You may well see me around during the weekend as well…!

Here are sneak peeks of both of the RiverKnits’ shawls:

Tomorrow I have two meetings in one day. That’s something that hasn’t happened since I left the classroom! And one of them is going to have part of it recorded, so now – of course – I’m wondering whether my hair is blue enough…! I’m hoping to be able to tell you more about both of these meetings in next week’s blog post.

And on top of all these things, I am starting to work on the next Mystery Knit-along (MKAL) to be run with Yarn O’clock, think about when I might schedule some beginners’ knitting classes and get back to completing the Nevern Throw Expansion Pack which had been moved to the back burner during the past month or so. Oh, and I’m starting to plan which yarn shows I might apply to as a vendor next year…

But, first things first: Yarn Gathering is THIS SUNDAY, 18th September. Please do come – entry is free!

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It’s A Kind Of Magic

Five balls of yarn curve around a photo of the Northern Lights. The yarn matches the colours in the picture - dark blue, blue-green, grey, acid aqua and apple green. The background is a pale gold carpet

Back in February I had a design submission accepted. I was asked if I would be interested in using a particular dyer’s yarn and I jumped at the chance. The dyer in question is Rachael of Cat and Sparrow. We had some communication about the project and she asked if I had particular colours in mind. I replied with “Something like this?” and sent the picture that had inspired the design.

When the yarns arrived I was utterly stunned. “Something like this?” – it was exactly like that!! Rachael had worked absolute magic. The yarn is Singular BFL, a Bluefaced Leicester fingering weight singles yarn. ‘Singles’ just means it only has one ply. It was a joy to work with and I am SO pleased with the results.

When you are sent a specially dyed set of yarn that’s all there is – you can’t just go and buy some more to experiment with – so, although I’d swatched my idea thoroughly in completely different yarns and was clear on how the pattern would work, there wasn’t a lot of wriggle room for playing with and checking the best order of colours. So, I turned back to a technique from my City & Guilds in Hand Knit Design (thanks Loraine!). A great way to try ideas out and compare them without using up lots of time or yarn:

Trying out colour order options

The finished pattern – Bargello Aurora Wrap – is being published this Thursday (September 1st) in The Knitter, Issue 180 (that link should update to be Issue 180 on Thursday). Rachael is selling kits of the yarn on her website, dyed exactly the same as the yarn I knit the sample in, for you to knit this lovely wrap. And the finished design and kit has a 10+% meterage buffer for each colour, so it won’t be a disaster if your tension is a little looser than mine. You shouldn’t end up playing yarn chicken!

5 Skeins of yarn in a pile. Dark Blue, grey, blue-green, apple green and jade
Bargello Aurora Yarn Kit from Cat and Sparrow UK

The wrap is worked lengthwise in order to get the maximum effect from the angled stripes (you’ll see…!), which has the added benefit of minimising the number of yarn ends to weave in once you are finished!.

Here’s a very sneaky peek from when it first came off the needles, before being blocked:

Bargello Aurora unblocked

This yarn has no problem being blocked firmly despite being a single ply construction – it was surprisingly strong and has great stitch memory. I’m not showing you the finished item though – you’ll have to wait until Thursday for the big reveal on that one!

Whilst the news of this design is very current, the wrap was knitted many months ago (in March). This week I have been working on two knitting projects, one of which I can show you. The latest secret knitting is coming on well and I’m now on the fourth section of five. I had got as far as halfway through section three before (did I tell you?) when I had to admit some aspects were not pleasing me, so I cast off, blocked it and reconsidered. That was definitely worthwhile as it looks FAR better now – tiny tweaks but they’ve had a big impact. Of course, I can’t show you that one.

The other knitting project I cast on for on Thursday. I finished it last night and it is now blocking on a balloon.

Rachis Blocking 1
Rachis Blocking 2

That’s the joy of a hat – it’s small and quick and this one was good telly knitting (apart from when I missed a couple of yarn overs and had to fix it a couple of rounds later), especially as the yarn was a DK weight and light in colour. The pattern is Rachis from Woolly Wormhead and the yarn is from The Midnight Dyery (dyed when she was The Project Bag). I highly recommend the pattern (and the yarn)! I made the fourth size of six (21″) and there was plenty of yarn left from a single skein.

The other piece of big news is that Yarn Gathering is now less than three weeks away! When Anne at Yarn O’clock and I first started talking about and planning this event, September seemed such a long time away. And now it’s so close!

It’s very exciting for us that, since we first circulated the idea amongst yarnie friends/possible vendors, there has been such a positive response. We’ve even had some local fibre artists we didn’t know about contact us and ask if there might be room for them to have a stand.

Hopefully you’ve seen the posts that I’ve been publishing on Instagram and Facebook in the past week or so, each one spotlighting a different vendor. Yarn Gathering even has its own Instagram page now (@yarn_gathering_nwales) which should make it even easier for people to get details about the vendors they can come and meet. And, of course, I’m updating the webpage whenever I get additional info.

Yarn Gathering will be a small event (only a dozen or so stands), but since the Mold Food & Drink Festival is also on, it’s a great opportunity to make a day of a trip to our lovely corner of North East Wales!

I think that’s all I have time to tell you about today – I’m now going to help my lovely wife attempt to straighten up the washing line with the use of potting grit down the side of the post… Wish me luck! K x

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The Kits Are Alright!

Four small cream bags lined up each showing two of the four half balls of yarn they hold, a larger blue bag on each end holding two whole balls of yarn.

The past few days have been mostly about prepping for the Pop-Up Wool Show at Hulme Hall in Port Sunlight on August 20th. I’ve been checking my stocks of kits, gift tag sets, patterns etc and making lots and lots of lists! I’m quite proud of my kits. They all come with a cotton project bag, metal stitch markers (if needed and the correct number for the pattern), a printed pattern and yarn in majority natural fibres.

Today a folding 6 foot table was delivered. Not only do the legs fold away, but the whole thing folds in half so it can fit in the car!

I’ve also borrowed back lots of knitted samples from Yarn O’clock and borrowed a couple of little stands to add to my display set-up.

The Mini Socks Advent Calendar looks great on the tree!

Mini Socks Advent Calendar, Kath Andrews, on tree

I also took pics of it hung on the mantlepiece and a door, as not everyone has a tree they can hang 24 mini socks on.

Mini Socks Advent Calendar, Kath Andrews, hung on mantlepiece
Mini Socks Advent Calendar, Kath Andrews, hung on door

The kits are all made up and include stitch markers and the tags for the numbers, as well as 10cm pieces of ribbon to tie them to the hanging loops and one long piece of ribbon to hang them from.

This is what a four colour kit looks like:

Mini Socks Advent Calendar Kit Pinks

The striped sock has been test knit (by Anne at Yarn O’clock) and she made hers super stripy, as one of her yarns was variegated. Doesn’t it look cute?

Striped Sock from Mini Socks Advent Calendar

There have been a few things happening this week that are not wool show related. I finished the Morse Code Cowl! It is currently drying having had a bath this morning. I was very pleasantly surprised that no dye emerged while it was soaking, despite the yarns being such deep saturated colours – excellent yarn from The Travel Knitter.

Morse Code Cowl Front, poem by Sue Finch, knitting by Kath Andrews
Morse Code Cowl Back, poem by Sue Finch, knitting by Kath Andrews

I know the poem will be impossible to read, partly as it curves around the cowl, partly as it’s in Morse Code and partly as there is not a lot of contrast between the two yarn colours, but it’s satisfying to know that it really is Sue’s poem. This is the actual poem that I knitted into the cowl:

This Was Once a Good Poem

but it has eaten cheese and pickle rolls for a week now

and it can’t work out why the vitamins aren’t working.

It rocks in the chair until its eyes are too tired to see

and has scared itself with thoughts of Autumn spiders

under glasses in the hallway.

It is wondering if it is true that conkers in corners

keep arachnids at bay

and is now standing in the dark

sniffing last year’s horse chestnuts

desperate to find their scent.

Sue Finch

I also took delivery of some yarn for a project I won’t be able to show you for AGES, but it’s going to be a fun one. The yarn is gorgeous – Fleece from West Yorkshire Spinners in Ecru and Fellside – and I’m looking forward to casting on later today.

West Yorkshire Spinners Fleece in Ecru and Fellside

We harvested our broad beans at the weekend, along with the first two of our squashes/courgettes. The broad beans were pitiful in quantity, but tasted good. This is the entire crop in the left-hand photo!

Broad Bean Harvest
First of the Squashes

And on a slightly less healthy, but very fun, note – did you know you can now get BLUE Jammie Dodgers?! They are filled with coloured, berry-flavoured apple jam.

Blue Jammie Dodgers!

Anyway, today’s post was going to be a short one – but it doesn’t seem to have turned out that way! Take care one and all, and if you happen to be in the Port Sunlight area on August 20th it would be great to see you!

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Summer Rain

A blue knitted lace swatch pinned out on a purple foam mat.

The past couple of days have been something else weather-wise and I’ve been hunkered down in the house with the curtains and windows closed. I did walk to the new bakers on Monday morning. I was out of the house for 15 minutes around 9am. By late Monday afternoon, my forearm was hot and red – I could hardly believe I’d been sunburnt at that time in the morning in such a short space of time, but I had!

The wind starting getting up yesterday afternoon, but it was still around 34 Celsius outside and 27 in the house. This morning was a different matter though. There was a lively breeze still and the air was cool and more breathable than it has been for days. And then – it rained! Good steady rain that lasted for over an hour. It might even help our courgettes grow.

All of this is a long way of saying, ‘this week’s blog post is a day late because it was too hot yesterday to think/write’. If you follow me on social media you will have seen my little post giving a heads up on it, along with the rescued roses. The roses were gifted to my lovely wife, but with the heat they had all drooped within less than 24 hours. Mum’s wonderful suggestion was to cut the stems off and float them in a bowl of water. It works beautifully.

Lots of woolly things have been coming to fruition this week (as well as the gooseberries being harvested and the red and blackcurrants being ready to be harvested).

My new online course, Introduction to Lace Knitting, is now live on Craftucation! The course is £40, for which you get lifetime access to the four hours of course videos, downloadable materials, including a pdf of the full video transcripts with still photos and access to the student forums (where you can ask questions of me and other students). There’s lots more information on the course when you click on the link or the image above.

I have finished and cast off the second RiverKnits shawl, the one using the rainbow minis of Nene 4-ply. This yarn is gorgeous; it’s 100% Bluefaced Leicester Wool, the colours are mesmerising and it blocks like a dream! The pattern is all typed up and has gone to the tech editor. So, there should be two new designs coming out in September with RiverKnits yarns! RiverKnits will have a 6-month exclusivity period on them, so you’ll be able to buy the pattern (or kit!) directly from them only to start with. After this initial period I’ll be selling the pattern as well.

I’ve also finished knitting and typing up the pattern that will be launched at the Pop-Up Wool Show in Port Sunlight on August 20th.

It’s an advent calendar of 24 mini socks (12 pairs) made with WYS ColourLab DK, using a mix of their solid and Zandra Rhodes shades and the pattern also includes a bonus Day 25 larger sock pattern – if you’re feeling particularly generous to the recipient! It would also be a great stash busting pattern.

I will have kits in two different colourways as well as the pattern on its own. The mini socks are big enough to hold all sorts of little treats – even those small little skeins of yarn that many dyers or yarn shops create now!

Why sell an advent calendar pattern in August? Well, with 24 little socks to knit before Dec 1st, I need to allow knitters plenty of time to create the calendar so it can be filled! There are 14 weeks between August 20th and December 1st, so you could knit one or two socks per week and you’ll be on schedule. (I knitted six on Monday…!)

There are many ends now to weave in and hanging loops to sew on, but I held off from doing that until they were all complete so I knew how much yarn the pattern needed. Once I’ve got all the ends woven in, the loops attached and the socks hanging on their ribbon, I’ll show you the finished article again in all its glory.

I definitely couldn’t have concentrated long enough yesterday to tell you about all of these things coherently! I hope the weather is bearable where you are. Take care and stay hydrated. K x

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Let’s start (again) from the very beginning…

A piece of stranded knitting in progress. The background colour is dark grey and the pattern colour is blue. It shows the beginnings of a Celtic knot and is pinned onto a pale gold carpet.

At the weekend I had one of those moments that most knitters have had at some point. I’d completed something, washed and blocked it, photographed it and THEN I noticed an error.

If this was just going to be a thing for me it wouldn’t have mattered so much, but it is a sample of one of the squares from the Nevern Throw Expansion Pack (coming soon!). And the error was fairly significant – I’d knitted the square from an old version of the chart. I mean, I could have decided to just go with that version of the chart and forget about the new version, but there was a reason I’d altered it and I wanted it to be correct. So, now it’s all been frogged and reskeined and is dry yarn again, ready to be used once more. I found a little more of the same yarn and so have been able to start again – this time definitely working from the correct chart! The first third of it is in the main blog picture.

I remember the Yarn Harlot writing on her blog (possibly more than once) that the thing about being a fast knitter was that she was able to make bigger mistakes more quickly – it certainly felt a bit like that for me! The lesson I need to learn is to throw out old print outs once I make updates – or at least label them as not being the most recent version!

I’ve been doing some other stranded knitting as well. When we were at the RiverKnits Open Day last month, Sue chose some yarn from the Travel Knitter for me to use knitting up her poem that I’d translated into morse code. It has begun! Her name will certainly be nice and clear. I’m hoping the morse code will become clearer as I go on. It’s quite odd to think that I’m quite literally knitting the poem backwards as each round (line) goes from right to left and from the bottom to the top, so I will knit the first word of the title last!

The spinning is slowly making progress. This is (still) the gradient yarn from Cassiopeia Yarns that I bought at Wonderwool in April. It’s not until I look back at the photos of its progress that I realise just how much the colour has changed – it’s so gradual and subtle that you hardly notice at the time. I’m hoping to finish and ply this by the end of the month.

This was the view I had the other afternoon when I was doing some work in the study. That pigeon looked really comfortable on Medium’s head and sat there for quite some time! He’s called Medium, because when Sue bought him he had a label on his underside that said “Medium Lion”. The rose is The Poet’s Wife and it’s settling in nicely with lots of buds ready to bloom.

The shawl in Aysgarth yarn from RiverKnits is complete! Like, really complete. Washed, blocked, ends woven in, gauge measured etc. The pattern is written up and with the tech editor! Isn’t the Sloe Gin colour gorgeous?

That means that I’m on to the Nene rainbow minis – yay! I’m so excited with these colours and I love that I get to knit in a rainbow in June, Pride month.

Leaf & Vine Cardigan is out!! The physical book is not out for another week or so, but you can see (and buy) the individual pattern and the whole Haven: Knit Lace Patterns eBook of 13 lovely lace designs on KnitPicks.

This afternoon I had a very productive meeting with Anne at Yarn O’clock. We are planning something exciting and yarnified to take place in Mold during the weekend of the Mold Food Festival – there will be more details coming soon! (I’ve linked to the food festival’s picture gallery page, just because the home page is very meaty).

Random observation of the day: “The Humming Chorus” from Madame Butterfly sounds awfully like “Bring Him Home” from Les Mis!

Take care one and all, and remember the sunscreen and water. K x

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Cover Story

The upper part of the front cover of the new issue of The Knitter. There is text around the model detailing some of the things in the magazine. The model is wearing a lace wrap which is held in place with a wooden shawl pin. She has short Afro hair and is looking directly into the camera.

If you saw my newsletter yesterday, you will have seen that it is ten years (almost – it was June 2012) since my first pattern was published in a magazine and it made the front cover. That was Knit Now, Issue 11, with New York Nights.

On Thursday 12th May, the Issue 176 of The Knitter will hit the shops and the pattern on the front cover is one of mine!! It’s the first pattern I’ve had published in this magazine and this is something that has been a goal of mine for a little while. The styling is beautiful and it suits the model so well.

As you can imagine I’ve been very excited about this design and to finally see it yesterday when the magazine came through my door was a bit of a dream! I’ll be writing more about this and the wonderful yarn I got to knit it with from Thursday.

To celebrate, I treated myself to a pair of earrings from a local shop. Shaz’s Shabby Chic has recently moved to new, bigger premises, and it was my first time visiting the new shop yesterday. I found these gorgeous silver earrings with a Celtic knot engraved into them, made by a local jewellery maker, and I love them.

The cold has very nearly gone by the way – it was ‘just’ a cold, thank goodness, but it was still a bit grotty. I am very glad to be able to go about my day again without having to cough or blow my nose every few minutes!

I promised you a round-up of the finished Calon Cariad shawls from our KAL, and I am aware that I have not yet delivered – this is something I definitely will include next week. If you were taking part in the #CalonCariadKAL, please do send me a pic of your finished shawl (or as far as you’ve got with it) as I’d love to show them all together.

New workshops are now available to book via Anne at Yarn O’clock! Spaces are limited, so if you want to come, book a place soon.

May 24th, 6.30-9pm – Two-Colour Brioche Knitting, £35

June 7th, 7-9pm – Beginners Crochet, £30

June 7th, 7-9pm – Beginners Crochet, £30

June 21st, 6.30-9pm – Closed Ring Cables, £35

The workshops will be held in the Cafe of the Daniel Owen Centre, Mold. Full details are on the Yarn O’clock website.