Tag: Moebius Knitting

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Third Time Lucky

I started working on a hat design yesterday and cast on what I had calculated to be the correct number of stitches for the medium size. After about four rounds on the brim it was looking very small (admittedly it was on a 40cm circular needle, but it looked barely larger than a sock cuff), so I ripped it out, changed my numbers about and cast on again with more stitches. This seemed better. I finished the brim, changed needle size and worked two and a half repeats of the pattern on the main part of the hat. Wishing to check again, this time I put the stitches onto a rubber cord/stitch keeper. These are brilliant as they are hollow so you just poke the end of the needle inside the cord then slide the stitches off the needle onto the cord, enabling you to try on your knitting as you go. I tried the hat on. It felt good. But my head is 58cm, a large rather than a medium (which is up to 56cm), so I got Sue to try it on (her head is 54cm). Too loose.

So I ripped it out, returned the numbers to what I had originally started with and began again. Third time lucky! I can’t show it to you as it’s going to be published next year, but do know that when a hat design by me comes out next, there has been a lot of consideration on the sizing! The yarn in the main post pic is from the cast-on edge as I decided that it had been through enough having been cast on twice already. For some reason yarn used in a cast-on tends to get a little bit more ‘rough around the edges’ and stick to itself when being ripped out more than once than yarn used in the actual knitting does. There’s probably a scientific explanation for it.

The moral of this story is perhaps two-fold. I should have trusted the maths I did in the first place that gave me the original numbers to cast on, which were in fact right even though it looked too small all squashed up on the needle. Also, it’s never too late to admit something isn’t working and do something to fix it.

The reason for my initially doubting my numbers is a thing called negative ease. Most knitting that we wear has positive ease, that is, the fabric measures more than the body part it’s going to cover. However, with certain hat styles (and a few other things) you need negative ease – the fabric needs to be smaller than your head, at least on the brim. This makes the fabric stretch and grip your head while you’re wearing it so it doesn’t fall off!

This week I have been updating my website with more workshops and yarn shows that are happening next year! I am teaching a lot of brioche workshops in various places, including the North West Winter Wool Show on February 14th where there are just 2 places left! Other places I will be teaching my Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting class next year include the Midlands Wool Festival in July (bookings are open) and the North East Wool Show in August (bookings open in the new year) and there will be more!

I am also teaching moebius knitting at The North West Winter Wool Festival on Sunday Feb 15th and there are plenty of places available on that. It’s a great technique and includes a sized up version of the headband we make in the workshop so you can knit moebius cowls.

Mum loved the knitted gnome I made for her. She has named it Gnu.

That’s all from me today. I’m off to do my neck stretches which I have sadly neglected for the past week and knit some more hat! Take care, and I hope you get a chance to do stuff that makes you happy this week. K x

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Turning Out

This week is turning out to be very productive. I was a bit apprehensive in the run up to this week that it would be a bit too busy and I would get overwhelmed, but so far I’m really enjoying the variety and bustle of what I’m doing. I know, it is only Tuesday, but it’s a good start!

On Saturday I started a new sample for the moebius version of Gnarly Roots. This is using one of Knit Picks‘ new yarn lines, Modish Merino, and it’s very soft with a lovely stitch definition. I was sent a couple of skeins of this yarn recently when submitting a design idea. I decided a second moebius sample would be useful. The original sample I made uses the very gorgeous Shropshire Ply 2018 Double Knitting yarn from Ewe & Ply which is a semi-solid colour on a yarn with attitude. The semi-solid colour and slightly toothy texture is wonderful and very appropriate for the pattern name, but I also wanted a sample that showed the two sides of the reversible cable very clearly – especially as the lighting can be variable at different events! This yarn seems to be doing that well and the colour is ideal for a sample for shows, light and easy to see; I would probably choose a more ‘forgiving’ colour like the rich green Lady’s Mantle of the Ewe and Ply yarn if it was going to be worn next to the skin regularly!

The joy of a moebius pattern is that you get to see the front and back of the knitting at the same time, so a pattern that looks good on both sides is ideal, and reversible cables certainly fit the bill! It’s lovely to see visitors to shows exploring both sides of the straight version of Gnarly Roots which I knitted using HeartSpun DK dyed by Woolly Chic (the design was originally commissioned by Helen of Woolly Chic), especially now its label states “I’m reversible!”.

As part of my preparation for my stacked stitches workshop at the WoollyAway retreat this coming weekend, I’ve been developing one of my workshop swatches into a full design.

Prime Cowl uses prime numbers throughout the design and there are two versions, each using three colours. One has a ‘tabbed’ edge with 13 tabs and the other has a straight edge. It’s worked with the wrong side facing you throughout and is turned out once completed. This is because it is worked in the round and all the ‘action’ in the stacked stitches technique happens on wrong side rows. Today’s main post photo shows the side you look at while knitting.

Winter Seaside Cosy is the 2026 show pattern for the North West Winter Wool Festival held at Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool on 14-15 February and the big reveal of this design happened last Friday on social media!

I was really pleased when Shirley asked me to design the show pattern once again, following on from The Imperial Cowl last year (thinking about it, the in-the-round version of that design was also worked inside out, just like Prime Cowl is!). Advance tickets for the show go on sale tomorrow, Wednesday 15th October at 8am UK time. When you buy an advance ticket you also receive a code that allows you to download the pattern for Winter Seaside Cosy for free! Currently that’s the only way you’ll be able to get this pattern, but you will also be able to buy copies at the show (if you didn’t get an advance ticket) and afterwards. This hot water bottle cosy is worked in the round from the bottom upwards. Once it is finished and washed, you turn it inside out to weave in the ends, then you have two options. You can either place the hot water bottle inside and sew up the cast-on edge with a mattress stitch seam to permanently keep the hot water bottle in place. Alternatively you can sew five press-studs/poppers along the bottom to allow the hot water bottle to be removable. This option is useful if you think you will need to wash the cover frequently.

I’ve applied to some new yarn shows for next year. Some of them are brand new and some have been running for a while, I’ve just not applied to them before. Six of the shows I’ve applied to have been confirmed already and I’m waiting to hear back on a few others. Lots of shows like you to wait until closer to the show before you tell folk you are going to be exhibiting there, but I already have ‘social media badges’ for two of the ones new to me! TexStyle is a brand new show in Manchester that will feature a whole range of textile crafts, including lace-making, embroidery, quilting, macrame and weaving as well as the usual knitting, crochet, felting and spinning. It’s being held in the Central Hall at Manchester Central on March 14-15. (Manchester Central used to be known as G-Mex.)

The Wool Monty has been running since 2019 and is now held at Magna, in Templeborough on the site of the old Templeborough steel works on June 13-14. It’s a show that has accessibility and inclusivity at its heart and I’m so thrilled to have had my application to exhibit there accepted.

The other big thing I’ve been doing this week is an introductory course on tech editing knitting patterns. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but it started on Sunday and has Zoom calls every day this week, each day focussing on a different aspect of tech editing and some days finish with a quiz to submit! I have to admit I was super confident when I pressed submit to yesterday’s quiz, but it turns out I hadn’t thought about every single step of one question so I got 9/10. I will triple check my answers today before I submit them! I am enjoying it a lot so far.

We’re in the process of gathering feedback from the vendors at Yarn Gathering. If you were a visitor to that event and would like to contribute your own feedback, please contact me via contact@kathandrewsdesigns.com and let me know what you enjoyed about the show and anything you felt could be improved!

That’s all from me for today – there’s lots to do and I’m quite impressed that I’ve managed to get this post completed before 9.30am! Take care, and do some things that make you happy this week. K x

Moebius Knitting Workshop at North West Winter Wool Festival, 15th Feb 2026

In this workshop, you’ll explore the unique structure of a true Moebius ring, where the knitting grows from the centre outwards, and discover how this technique can be used to make wonderful neckwear and more. You’ll also learn two Moebius cast on methods and create a simple headband.

Find the full workshop details on the show website.

Venue: North West Winter Wool Festival, Norbreck Castle Hotel, Blackpool

Date: Sunday 15th February 2026, 1pm-3.30pm

Skills required: knit, purl, cast off

Cost: £36, including handouts, yarn and specific knitting needles required for this technique

Bring with you: pen or pencil

You will also need a Sunday ticket for the wool festival. (Buy an advance ticket here).

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Licenced to Crenellate!

On Friday I will be (re-)launching Crenellate! We had lots of fun at the end of last week taking new photographs and I have been scouring through the pattern to make sure everything is listed in the abbreviations and the pattern is presented as clearly as possible. As the pattern has already been published in a magazine (this was published in Knit Now, Issue 179 in March 2025) this should be easy, but I still like to make sure everything is correct and it all fits my own ‘style’ of layout.

A friend of mine told me that in the medieval period a licence from the king was needed to be allowed to add crenellation to a property. I didn’t know this, but find it very interesting and will definitely be reading more about it, especially since I’m finding my recent audiobook listening is becoming a lot more historical fiction based.

As it happens, much of my Crenellate design is very straightforward. Sue had a look at the printed pattern and asked, “Do the charts really only use these symbols?” Yes they do, because it’s a textural pattern with no lace.

In fact, here is the chart key:

Crenellate just uses knit and purl to create the textural design, with yarn overs (yo) creating the increases for the shaping. The blue and red outlines show the sections of the chart that you repeat. That’s it. And, of course, if you’re not a fan of charts, the pattern is also written out in full.

The textural design is one of the aspects of Crenellate that make this design one of my easier patterns to knit. It’s a top-down triangular shawl with the body of the shawl simply increasing in size until the border. The border is also straightforward, even though it has a very fun shape! The border is all garter stitch, with the crenellated shaping created through casting on and off to change the length of the rows.

If you are a newer knitter there are three things in this design you may not have encountered before.

The first is the ‘garter tab’ that begins the shawl. Lots of top down shawls begin this way and I’m going to be recording a little video for my website and youtube channel to show how it works. Essentially, you cast on a few stitches (usually about 3), knit a few rows of garter stitches (often 6, giving three garter ridges) which creates a tiny garter stitch square (or tab, hence the name). You then knit one more row, but instead of turning and knitting back, you pick up some stitches down the side of your little square, then pick up some stitches along the bottom from where you cast on. This means you’re now working around three sides of the square and it becomes the centre top of a triangular or semicircular shawl!

The other two possibly less familiar things are both included in the border. One is a wrap and turn short row, which is used four times in the whole shawl and is described step by step in the abbreviations. I’m going to add a new video on my youtube channel for this as well. The last is the joining stitch to join the border to the body of the shawl as you knit it. That sounds more complicated than it is – it just means you knit the last stitch of the border together with the next stitch of the body of the shawl. As these are in different colours it’s easy to know when you’ve got to that point in the row – you’re knitting two stitches together, one of each colour.

Crenellate is worked in DK yarn so it’s ideal for the cooler weather we’ve started to experience. The original sample was knitted using West Yorkshire Spinners Elements DK which is a wool and Tencel mix, but it would work very well in other fibres too, including pure wool for a super cosy version.

Newsletter subscribers already have their exclusive discount code for Ravelry and Payhip which lasts for 48 hours from 10am on Friday until 10am on Sunday. The sample and printed copies of the pattern will also be at Yarndale this weekend. The timing is a bit of a gamble as I’ve not done an online launch at the same time as a yarn show before and I’m hoping that the two events will boost each other, rather than cancel each other out.

All the patterns are now printed and ready for the show and I now just need to plan the layout for our spot. We are in D5 this year, which is very near the Wharfdale entrance, and almost as far away from where we were last year as we could be!

think we may well be one of the first stands people come to if they come in this way to the show so we will need to make sure the stand is attention grabbing. We may well need extra woolly layers to wear as well being near the entrance, but that’s not going to be a problem!

There are still a few spaces left on my moebius knitting workshop on Saturday 10.30am-1pm. We will explore the unique structure of a true Moebius ring, where the knitting grows from the centre outwards, and discover how this technique can be used to make wonderful neckwear and more. You’ll learn two Moebius cast on methods and create a simple headband. From there you can tackle a range of moebius designs! Go to the Yarndale website to book your place if you’d like to learn this amazing technique – it’s a whole lot more than casting on and then twisting your knitting before you join it!

Who is coming to Yarndale at the weekend? Do come and say hello if you are there. Remember, we are on Stand D5.

Until next week, take care and do something that makes you smile this week in this mad, mad world. K x

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And I think to myself, what a Wonderwool World…

Wonderwool was fantastic! If you are on social media then you may have seen some of my posts from during the weekend already. If you came and had a chat, or bought a pattern or a kit, thank you so much! We enjoyed talking to so many people over the weekend and hearing about their knitting plans and ideas. I didn’t take lots of photos as it was very busy (yay!) and I was teaching on both days as well. Some of the highlights were:

Having a lovely big space to use and set up (and it being such a well-organised show that it makes this process easier). This space is 10′ x 14′ (approx 3m x 4.25m) and these photos were taken when we’d just finished setting up on the Friday afternoon, which is why there are the inevitable extra bags by the chair! I promise it was tidier when the show was open.

Seeing people’s projects that they had made (or were making) from my patterns. Below are three Tiffany shawls – one in Riverknits yarn, one in the knitter’s own hand-spun yarn, and one in Deby of Dyelution‘s own hand-dyed yarns, a Jo March scarf in the most glorious colours and a Meg March shawl knitted by Katie of Sealy MacWheely knitted in her own hand-dyed yarns modelled alongside me in mine!

I had fun teaching two groups of knitters how to knit a moebius and they all had success! There was even one intrepid soul who had never knitted before!!

These were from Saturday’s workshop (or Woolschool as Wonderwool Wales calls them!) My big teaching example moebius is the photo in the centre:

And these were from the Sunday group. Many in this group chose to make their headbands into a cosy cowl by knitting extra rounds. The first time knitter’s work is top left – isn’t it amazing?!

We got home safely, if a little tired on Sunday evening, and I spent much of yesterday analysing sales and checking inventory. I was delighted to discover that patterns for 44 different designs had been bought during the weekend (with a total of 168 patterns sold) – which is a big increase in variety on the 34 different designs bought in 2024. I had taken 56 different patterns with me and had worried it was way too much, but the visitors to the show obviously appreciated the range of choice! We didn’t run out of Nevern Throw as we had done last year, but we did run out of Tiffany!

In less than three week’s time it will be Buxton Wool Gathering on May 17-18th! This year we’ve gone for a slightly larger stand than before at 2m x 4m, and I’m hoping this helps folk get in to see things more easily. There are still spaces on the moebius workshop at Buxton which is on Sunday 10.30am-1pm. It’s a 2.5 hour workshop with all materials (yarn, needles and handouts) included, so good value at £40. There are five workshops happening each day, so there’s a lot to choose from and it’s such a lovely event.

The weekend after Buxton Wool Gathering, a new show, Yarnies at the Flaxmill is happening. Taking place on Saturday May 24th from 11am-5pm (note the slightly later timing from the majority of shows), this is happening at Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, a location which has recently been acquired by English Heritage! Tickets are £5 either in advance or on the door, with under 16s and carers going free. There will be just under exhibitors (of which I am one) and should be a lovely day out. Do come and say hello if you visit this event!

The workshops I told you about last week at Sew Woolly in Cheadle are happening in May too – on Wednesday 28th. If you want to learn how to knit socks (this workshop is for cuff down socks) or how to knit lace, do get in touch with Elizabeth at the Sew Woolly shop! All yarn is included in the workshop fee.

August seems like a long way off at the moment, but I’m sure it will swing round really quickly. We’re exhibiting at the North East Wool Show for the first time which is exciting. It’s the furthest north we’ll have been for a yarn show yet! I will be teaching my Two-Colour Brioche workshop there on the Sunday. The show is held at Newcastle Racecourse on August 9-10th and my workshop is 12.30-2.30pm on the 10th. If you want to book a place, just email me and I can send you an invoice for the places you want. There are currently 6 more places available on the workshop.

As someone said at Wonderwool this weekend when they saw the flyers on the table for the different events we’re at: “You’re getting about a bit, aren’t you!”

Yarn Gathering will be happening again this year and Anne and I are in the midst of finalising who is coming to this year’s show. This year Yarn Gathering is not on the same weekend as the Mold Food and Drink Festival. Instead it will be taking place the weekend before, on Sunday September 14th. There will still be some shops and plenty of food outlets open in Mold that day and parking will be easier too! We will have more information about this year’s show very soon.

Alongside all these shows and workshops I am still designing! This morning I emailed a new pattern off to the magazine editor and I will be entrusting the sample (the actual knitted item) to the postal system later on. That part is always a little terrifying, so I often end up sending them by special delivery – after weeks or even months of work (and sometimes a design has been bubbling away in my head for years before it finally takes shape) the last thing you want is for the sample to get out in the post!

As I write today’s blog post I am looking out of the window at the back garden. The apple tree is in full blossom and looks beautiful and my lovely wife is tackling the vegetable plot, which has been neglected for several months, in readiness for some optimistic sowing of seeds. I do hope that this year’s plants aren’t all eaten before they get big enough to actually produce some food for us! That was what happened last year and it was a little disappointing. I have spotted that the currant bushes and gooseberries seem on track for bumper crops – they seem to have appreciated their prune!

It seems I’ve had a lot to tell you today! If you’ve read this far, thank you. I hope you have a good week that includes some things that make you happy and I’ll write again next week. Until then, take care, K x

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Twist and Shout

I’ve got to an exciting point in the sweater design I’m working on. I recalculated various points:

  • the cast-on and full stitch counts for all sizes
  • the underarm cast-off numbers
  • the length up to the underarm
  • the length from the underarm cast-off to the shoulders

And I’ve knitted up to nearly the shoulders of the back in the sample size.

This afternoon I re-calculated the shoulder cast-off numbers for all the sizes. So, later on today I will be able to finish the back and start the front.

When I say ‘all the sizes’, there are eight sizes to fit chests from 34-64″, so it’s quite a bit of maths, but not as much as in Sugar Loaf Cardigan where there are 20 sizes and two length options! I am eternally grateful to past me for learning how to crunch some of the numbers in Excel.

I wish I could share photos with you, but I can’t yet, not until the design has been published. So you’ll just have to trust me that it’s looking good!

I’ve recently updated my moebius knitting workshop notes and changed the way I’m going to teach it. I’m looking forward to leading this workshop at Wonderwool Wales this coming weekend (both days – both sold out!) and also next month at Buxton Wool Gathering. There are spaces on the Buxton moebius workshop if you’d like to learn this fascinating construction method.

Knitting a ‘true’ moebius is a lot more than knitting a thin rectangle and putting a twist in before seaming the short ends together. It’s all to do with how you cast on, to create a piece with one side and one edge and one cast-off: mind-boggling for a three-dimensional piece of fabric!

These are pictures of my four designs that use a moebius cast-on (Mirror Mirror Moebius, Forest Ferns Moebius, Twisted and Gnarly Roots which includes both a moebius and a ‘straight’ version in the pattern), plus the headband we will knit in the workshop and also the striped cowl that was my first foray into the wonderful world of moebius knitting. I started with the blue, changed to purple, then green, then black, then cast off. The same colours also magically appear below the central colour where I started! And, because you see the back of the knitting on the lower half and the front of the knitting on the top half, with Twisted, my brioche moebius cowl, you get to see both wonderful sides of brioche at the same time!

If you’d like to attend a workshop that isn’t about moebius knitting, I’m also teaching an introduction to sock knitting and an introduction to lace knitting, both at Sew Woolly in Cheadle, both on Wednesday May 28th. The sock workshop is in the morning (10-12.30) and the lace workshop is in the afternoon (1.30-4pm). To book, message the shop through their facebook or instagram pages. This screenshot of their Facebook page also includes a phone number if you’re not on either platform:

Another part of my preparations for Wonderwool Wales this year has been deciding which samples I’m going to offer for sale. This is not something I’ve done before! These are all designs for which I have other samples that I use on display. Some of them have been used as display samples, some haven’t, but none of them have been worn. The prices range from £30 to £90. That might sound expensive, so let me tell you how I calculated them. First I took the price of the yarn, as it cost when I bought it, not what it would cost now – for example £20 per skein for 100g hand-dyed 4ply yarn. Then I took the meterage of the yarn and multiplied that by 17.5p. So, 17.5 pence per metre. That’s the labour charge – it’s not the cheapest price per metre for sample knitting (which tends to vary from 12-20p/m), but these are mostly lace or brioche samples, so not the easiest knitting. I used the full meterage of the skeins as most of the designs had very little left over and it was a lot easier than weighing the samples (and you’re about to see another good reason for not worrying about the exact meterage!). Add that to the cost of the yarn. And then? I halved the number. That’s right – in half. So, if £90 for a hand-knitted brioche shawl in hand-dyed yarn seems a lot to you, remember it *should* have been nearer £180!

There’s a Drifting Leaves, a Beth March shawl, an Amy March shawl, a Llandudno Promenade shawl, a Calon Cariad shawl and a Croeso Baby Blanket to choose from. The samples pictured on the website in the links aren’t the ones for sale as those are my new samples. There are of course, only one of each of these, so when they are gone, they are gone. It’ll be really interesting to see if folk want to buy these samples – I always get one or two people asking if samples are for sale at events.

I made a vegan fruit cake at the weekend – the same recipe I usually use for Christmas cake, except we didn’t have one this year. It’s for Mum’s birthday and was specifically requested and I’m so glad I re-checked the recipe in advance. I always seem to forget that the fruit has to be soaked overnight before making the actual cake! Maybe if I made it more frequently I would remember this. Actually that’s not a bad idea. I had to buy a packet of xanthan gum specially for this recipe (and it only uses 1/4 tsp!), so I may as well make the most of it!

By the way, the singing from the bell tower last Thursday went really well! We had to go up twice, once in rehearsal and once in the service, with strategically placed bags for life at the bottom of the spiral staircase to put our cassocks and surplices in. There was no way that going up the steep and tight spiral staircase would have been remotely safe whilst wearing our choir robes!

If you celebrated Easter in any way I hope you had a good one and if you didn’t I hope you had a lovely weekend doing whatever you did. Will I see you at Wonderwool this coming weekend? If not, I’ll tell you all about it next week. K x

Moebius Knitting Workshop at Buxton, 18th May 2025

I am teaching at Buxton Wool Gathering!

Understand & learn to create the unique structure of a true moebius ring. Discover how this technique can be used to wonderful neckwear and more. Learn 2 moebius cast on methods and create a simple headband. This is an intermediate class.

Don’t forget to book your ticket for the show as well!

Tutor: Kath Andrews

Date: Sunday 18th May

Time: 10.30am – 1pm

Length of Workshop: 2 hours 30 minutes

Level of Experience: Intermediate

Suitable for Age: 16 plus

Included: All tools and materials – including needles.

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Let’s Twist Again

Last week I introduced you to Gnarly Roots (Gary…) and yesterday I received photos of the moebius version knitted in HeartSpun DK (the yarn I knitted the regular cowl in) and it looks glorious!

Helen from Woolly Chic Designs will have this sample and some printed copies of the pattern with her at The Sodbury Yarn Over! If you’re visiting the show, which takes place in Chipping Sodbury April 6th-7th, be sure to have a look and say hello from me!

You may also remember that last week I asked for name suggestions for the adult version of Honeybun and my wonderful wife has come up with a fantastic suggestion – Sugar Loaf Cardigan! Not only is a loaf larger than a bun, and honey is linked to sugar, but there is also a Sugar Loaf mountain in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire! (As well as the other ones with a single word name in Brazil and Maine). So, Sugar Loaf Cardigan it will be.

I’ve been knitting a lot of brioche this week. One item is for publication in July, and today I’ve been typing up the pattern and making the chart. I even created a stitch symbol in Stitchmastery that wasn’t there before – although it is a known brioche stitch. Brpyobrp (brioche purl 1, yo, brioche purl 1 all into the same stitch) is the purl version of brkyobrk. It’s very satisfying when you remember how to edit your stitch library in this programme. This is what the new stitch looks like, compared with the knit version above it:

On Sunday I knitted another Twisted Cowl. Twisted is my moebius brioche cowl that has two sizes and two yarn weight options. I’ve knitted quite a few of these now, so why did I make another? Well, one reason was that I wanted to have samples of both colour combinations that I’m going to have as kits with me at WonderWool Wales and the other reason was that I wanted to triple check the yarn usage in the small version. The new one is one the left in Soft Pink and Rust – it’s not even been blocked yet or had it’s ends sewn in. I have already made one in these colours, but it’s visiting Anne at Yarn O’clock currently.

There will be large and small versions of the kit in both of the colour combinations. The yarn is Town End Yarns Poldale DK which is a 100% Falklands wool and it’s so soft and squishy whilst still having enough body to hold the shape of the stitches really well.

The small version shown uses 24g of each colour and the kits include 26g of each. How did I manage to get 26g when the yarn comes in 50g balls? Well, there’s always a little bit of variation in the weight of balls of wool, so I weighed each of the balls I had, took the ones that were 52g or even 53g and split those to make the small kits! You can see soft pink and rust balls on the top of their piles are already part balls, as I’d used those ones to make the sample.

My kitchen scales have been getting a good work out today.

It may seem as though I’m being very organised and ahead of myself for a show that is a month away, but I need to be. I’m likely to be travelling down to Mum’s more frequently in the coming months as she is intending to make a big move this year (although nothing is finalised), and that will inevitably mean lots of time sorting stuff out. So, while I can, I’m getting my own things ready!

Caramel Slice is now available to buy online as an individual pattern! I uploaded this yesterday to my website, Payhip, Lovecrafts and Ravelry. The pattern was launched in printed form at East Anglia Yarn Festival, and I’d intended to put it online straight away after that, but then I came down with that cold and forgot all about it until reviewing my plans for March at the weekend! It’s a really cute child’s cardigan for ages 1 to 8. It’s knitted flat, with the body worked in one piece and the sleeves knitted separately. The colour-work on the body and sleeves is a slip stitch pattern, so you only use one colour at a time. And no matter which size you make you only need 1x 50g ball of each of the two contrast colours. One lady spotted the sample of Caramel Slice on display at EAYF and recognised it, having knitted it from The Knitter when it came out last August. This prompted her to buy two more of my patterns, Honeybun and Nos Da, on the basis that she knew she could trust my pattern writing as Caramel Slice ‘worked’. That was such a great thing to hear and has stayed with me (in fact, I may have told you about it before!) – a crafter’s appreciation for the pattern writing and being able to successfully use the pattern.

That’s all from me for today. Next week I’m hoping to show you some more progress on my small version of Petulia and on my crocheted Persian Tiles blanket, which is designed by the brilliant Jane Crowfoot. If you like crochet, have a look at her patterns – they are beautiful and they work.

Have a lovely Easter if you celebrate it and take care, K x

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What’s in a Name?

This morning I finally got the buttons sewn on to the adult version of Honeybun! I still need to choose a new, but related, name for this pattern. ‘Adult Honeybun’ is way too clunky, but the name does need to be close enough to Honeybun so folk realise it’s the sized up version of the original child’s cardigan pattern that was published back in 2018. My original name for the design had been ‘Joseph’s Jacket’ as I had designed it for a little boy called Joseph as part of my City & Guilds design qualification, but the magazine gave it the name Honeybun. ‘Honeyloaf’ (?), since a loaf is a large version of a bun? That sounds strange. Any thoughts or suggestions will be warmly welcomed and considered!

Why did it take me over a week to get the buttons on since getting home from EAYF? Because I picked up a cold virus (not covid, I did check) and ended up feeling somewhat grotty for a large chunk of the week. However, I’m all better now, and the cardigan is complete (as is the shawl I was working on before I went to Norfolk)!

Positioning buttons for a cardigan can feel like a tricky business, so I thought I’d share the process I use, in case it’s helpful. The buttonholes are already there, worked into the button band as it was made. I line up the two sides of the button band with the buttonholes on top and use locking stitch markers to dip down through the buttonholes into the band below. I do this for all the buttonholes so I can check it’s lined up properly with no stretched or baggy areas.

Once these are all in place you can ease the buttonholes over the stitch markers, leaving the positions to sew the buttons in nice and obvious! I sew the buttons on with sewing thread that closely matches the main colour, even though the stripes I’m sewing into are contrast colours. Apart from anything else it makes it easier for me to see where I’ve sewn!

There are 9 buttonholes, so I bought 10 buttons – I thought it made sense to have a spare just in case. I’ll get some proper photos of the whole garment taken soon to add to the pattern.

By Saturday my cold was improved enough for me to be able to lead Shelby’s Singers, our local community choir, as we sang at Buckley’s Easter Market. It was really well received by all the shoppers, with eight songs ranging from ‘Consider Yourself’ from Oliver!, through Rivers of Babylon by Boney M to This is Me from The Greatest Showman! I’m so proud of how far the choir has come since we started last autumn – and rehearsals continue on, starting some brand new songs tomorrow.

Do you remember I showed you a sneak peek of a new design with cables in it a couple of weeks ago? Well, the design is a cowl called Gnarly Roots and it will be launched next month! There are lots of great features and options in this design. First of all, it’s a DK design that only uses 100g. The cables are reversible, and they’re different on each side. So, knitting one cowl gives you two options for wear!

Sue is modelling the cowl here and it’s knitted in 100g of HeartSpun DK by Woolly Chic, which is a gorgeous soft and silky yarn with 70% Bluefaced Leicester wool and 30% Tercel. The Tencel is what gives the yarn a wonderful sheen and silky feel. You can tell why this colour is called Marmalade!

Now, you know how I love a double sided design and the fact that a moebius construction means you get to see both sides of the fabric at the same time. So, Gnarly Roots also includes a moebius option!

This sample is knitted in 100g of Ewe & Ply’s Shropshire Ply 2018 Double Knitting in the colour Lady’s Mantle. It’s a completely different type of yarn from the HeartSpun DK, being a woollen spun yarn with lots of personality and body, whilst still being soft enough for a cowl. It’s made from 34% Welsh mule, 28% Shropshire, 20% Sherino (Shetland x merino) and 18% Bluefaced Leicester.

So, keep an eye out for Gnarly Roots coming out next month (auto-correct keeps trying to change the pattern name “Gary Roots” which is quite funny, but I think I’ll stick to Gnarly). There will hopefully be HeartSpun kits for it at WonderWool too!

I’m going to keep today’s post a little shorter than usual, partly as it’s already gone 8pm, so I’ll catch up with you next week with more knitting news. Until then, take care and enjoy the warmth of the sunshine when you can! K x

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It’s All Happening

The Honeybun sleeves are cast-on and growing!

I finally cast them on yesterday, having decided that the calculations are now good, certainly up to the armholes. I’ve decided to knit them both at the same time, which creates a bit of a yarn tangle at times when the contrast colours are being used, but it should be much more manageable once I get the last one of those done, and I’m back to just one ball of yarn per sleeve. If you knit garments, how do you approach sleeves? Do you knit them one at a time or tackle them both together?

The second half of our Twisted workshop last Thursday went really well – and at least one of the knitters has a completed moebius brioche cowl!

Many thanks as always to Anne at Yarn O’clock for hosting us and keeping everyone well supplied with hot drinks and biscuits.The pattern for Twisted will be available next Monday – yay! – and that means there will be discount heading its way to newsletter subscribers. If you’re not yet a newsletter subscriber but you’d like a 25% discount code for this pattern, you can sign up here:

The pattern will include a link to a really excellent video of a moebius cast-on by the amazing Cat Bordhi, which will be a great help to those unfamiliar with this technique.

The latest issue of The Knitter (196) came out last Wednesday and Part 3 of Barragán, my KAL shawl design, is in it. I’ve been keeping up with my daily progress on this and posting pics on my Instagram and Facebook stories, but for those of you not on those platforms, it’s currently looking like this (with a few extra rows worked since this photo was taken):

Once I finish the “Diamond Fantasia” pattern on this side of the shawl I cast off, rotate the shawl and work the same section again at the other end. This is how I managed to keep the shawl symmetrical, even though it was a rectangle with 4 parts to the pattern, each of which needed to be different!

I’ve finished the first sock of this pair of Bodelwyddan socks and I’m enjoying how the colours change in the yarn.

I thought it would just be a long repeating stripe, but it seems to slowly bounce back and forth between the two main shades of purple and teal. It’s a Zauberball yarn with the colour way name of “Smoking Area”. I’m not 100% convinced the length is correct, so I won’t weave the toe yarn end in yet until it’s been tried on for size by its recipient.

The Fasten Off Yarn-along is going well – there are posts and activities on most social media platforms and bingo cards you can complete, with a choice depending on whether you want to try out lots of different patterns or focus on one:

This is the third year I’ve taken part and there’s such a lovely atmosphere of folk supporting and raising up other designers and sharing gems they find. There are 96 designers taking part this year, all of whom have patterns available somewhere other than Ravelry and while the event as a whole goes on until New Year’s Even, the pattern sale continues until the end of Friday 8th December (American Eastern Time – which is pretty much Saturday morning here in the UK). You can get 25% off a vast swathe of the designers’ patterns by using the event code “FO2023”. For me that code works on Payhip and on Ravelry and it applies to all my self-published single patterns. Head to the Fasten Off YAL website to check out all the details – the patterns are even searchable this year.

There’s been some more embroidery happening too. Can you see a difference in the bottom left part?

The next few days have quite a few events taking place – I’m teaching a workshop on cable knitting tomorrow at Shaz’s Shabby Chic in Buckley, then my lovely wife and I have a stall at a school Christmas Fair on Thursday.

On Saturday it’s the Buckley Christmas Market in the shopping precinct where I shall be wearing two (metaphorical) hats! I shall have a stall, where my lovely wife will also have her cards, calendars and poetry collection, AND I shall be leading our little community choir in singing Christmas songs. Do come along if you can – the event runs from 9am until 4pm. Buckley Town Band will be playing too – and they are great!

So, as you can see there is a lot happening. And on Sunday just gone (Advent Sunday) I sang at the Advent carol service at St Mary Without-the-Walls Handbridge. It’s been so good to get back to singing again, and to feel that I can trust my voice once more. It really can be a case of ‘use it or lose it’ and I’m going to be singing there as much as my other commitments allow. There were some other additional people drafted in for this service and it was good to see some friendly faces from my previous life as a music teacher – some of whom I haven’t seen since I left the classroom in 2018!

And as it’s now Advent, the tree is up!

That’s all for now. I’ll be updating my “Where I’ll Be” page later on so you can see some of the exciting things lined up for 2024! Take care one and all, K x