Tag: Online learning

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A Little Fall of Rain

This week has flown past – I can hardly believe I’m writing another blog post already!

The main image of today’s post is the Helmet hat I made for Sue from my hand spun yarn, the pattern coming from Woolly Wormhead‘s Introspection collection. I realised I hadn’t taken a photo of her wearing it since it was blocked – and this overhead shot shows the crown decreases really nicely.

Some good news – I have finished recording and editing my videos for my new Craftucation course, An Introduction to Lace Knitting. They are currently in the process of being uploaded to the website and that just leaves the final bits of transcriptions to write and the still images to capture from the videos for the pdf downloads. Hurrah!

A screenshot of the first title page for my lace knitting course. The text on the left reads "Introduction to Lace Knitting, 1.1 Welcome". On the right is a sample square of different lace stitches worked in pale blue DK yarn. The background is a wooden desk.

In a week or so I will upload one of the introductory chapters here – they are free to view before buying the course anyway, to give you a flavour of it. That’s probably better than showing you the out-takes where I end up blowing raspberries at myself for tripping over my words!

Looking back at last week’s post, I see that more knitting progress has occurred than I’d realised. The first of my Good Riddance Socks by Laur of the Blings Designs is complete and I’m just about to start the short row heel on the second one.

One complete multi-coloured hand knit sock lies on a pale gold carpet with a sock in progress on top of it. The sock in progress is being worked toe up, starting in stocking stitch with two colours held together then going to a section of 2-colour brioche. Stocking stitch returns just under the needles (dpns). The colours change randomly as each yarn runs out.

I’ve also passed the half-way mark on my ‘secret’ project, so that will be complete in the next couple of weeks which is fabulous as it gives me plenty of time before the deadline. I really wish I could show you this, but you are going to LOVE it when you do eventually get to see it – in September. The yarn was dyed especially for me to match a picture I sent the dyer. The picture relates closely to the name of the pattern. The dyer will then be making yarn kits for the pattern to coincide with publication in September!

I don’t yet have photos of everyone’s finished Calon Cariad shawls, but they are going to make a stunning collection when I do manage to bring them all together. Some people are still working on them I know. It was lovely to get feedback about including Zoom events as part of a KAL. Those who attended really appreciated them and said it gave them more of a sense that they were taking part in a group event, rather than just knitting and sharing photos of their work online. It’s something I think I will do with future KALs and MKALs – though I might need to invest in the Zoom package that stops your meeting unceremoniously ending after 40 minutes!

The embroidery of Mum has stalled a bit, although I did do a couple of hours on it yesterday for the first time in a while. I’m not sure I can see the difference yet from my previous update photo as my current colour – dark brown – is so close to the black that it’s hard to see. I have decided the next colour I choose to work will have a clear contrast with the dark brown, black and olive green there so far. I need to be able to see some progress being made. What do you think?

A piece of cream linen with patches of tiny black, dark green and dark brown stitches. The fabric is marked off in squares with fine black thread and pale blue thread marks the centre lines. The image of a laughing woman can just be made out in the emerging picture.
The same embroidery as the image on the left with more stitches worked, adding a very dark brown.

A book I pre-ordered back in August arrived recently. The Sourdough Whisperer by Elaine Boddy. It’s the second of her books that I’ve had and they are both brilliant. I love the tips and tricks and ways to revive and boost your starter and different things to try if your dough isn’t behaving the way you want it to. As you may remember I’ve had some spectacular failures in my baking adventures (total frisbees!) as well as successes and this book mentions the effect that being in a hard or soft water area can have. We have incredibly soft water, so I followed the suggestion to reduce the water content by 30g and it worked a treat. At first I wasn’t sure all the flour would mix in, but it did and we’ve been enjoying a cracking loaf for the past few days.

A round sourdough loaf sits on a cooling rack.

It had finally stopped raining and drizzling – there was even some sunshine! – so I interrupted my blog writing to grab the opportunity to go for a walk. Less than ten minutes out the door en route to the post office the rain began once more. Just a little fall of rain. It’s a shame we weren’t wearing our hats when we went out!

Take care, keep safe and keep knitting, Kx

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Wrapped in Wool

I seem to be increasingly busy lately and I can’t work out whether it’s entirely due to my increased efforts to make my small, one-woman business successful or partly a way of keeping myself away from the news. There are more deadlines certainly – I’ve been submitting designs to publications more frequently and am being accepted more regularly. I’ve even started looking at calls for submissions and thinking “No, I won’t submit to XYZ this time”!

There are self-imposed deadlines too – I mapped out a publications schedule at the beginning of the year with the aim of publishing at least one pattern per month. I’m keeping up with that currently as so far I have (re)published two patterns whose rights have returned to me and published two brand new patterns. The most recent of these was yesterday – Nos Da is now out in the world!

Next month I aim to publish my next Craftucation course (An Introduction to Lace Knitting) and, as that contains a new pattern of mine, I think that will count as my April pattern. This (and the main photo of today’s post) is a screenshot from this morning’s recording, looking at knitted-on edgings.

And June will see two patterns being published by different companies.

I’ve been baking again too. Regular yeasted bread most recently, though I will be returning to the sourdough soon! This was last weekend’s loaf:

Some knitters have recently cast off their Calon Cariad shawls and I joined them last night! It’s lovely to see other people’s shawls and how their yarn choices are working up. Have a look at #CalonCariadKAL on Instagram and Facebook if you want to see them!

Mine ‘just’ needs blocking now. I’m very lucky to have space to do this on blocking mats on the floor, I know. I know people block their shawls on the washing line and weight the lower edge with clothes pegs. Others pin their work out on the bed (I’m sure I’ve even read of the Yarn Harlot doing this on hotel beds in extremis!).

I cast on another project this week too. I know I have about seven on the go already, but the structure of this one was fascinating me and sometimes the only way to really understand something is to do it! It’s the Intro Helmet from Woolly Wormhead, part of her new Introspection collection. The idea is that you can knit any of the six hat styles (Beanie, Beret, Bonnet, Helmet, Pixie and Slouch) with any weight of yarn and in any size! There are loads of crown and brim options for each one too. I’m using some handspun yarn (Colours of Cambria in ‘Mine’, dyed by Katie Weston of Hilltop Cloud) which is working up at about an aran weight. I read through the pattern and the folded brim for the helmet seemed mind-boggling, but once I started making it, it was suddenly started to make sense. I love how the colours are working out too – though that purple band is destined to be on the inside of the hat, unless I wrangle it somehow.

And I’ve dug my colouring pencils out again. I’m playing with options for a knitting design I’m working on. I know the order I want to use the colours in and I’ve been experimenting with the way repeats of the colour sequence might work. It’s a really cool pattern and I’m very excited about it, but you’ll have to wait until September to see this one!

All this making means that some things must have slipped, right? Well, I’m not exactly on top of the dusting and I haven’t yet planted the broad bean or courgette/squash seeds we bought last month, but that’s not a total disaster. Dust only settles behind you as you do it anyway. And there’s still plenty of time for the seeds.

Just don’t ask me to listen to Les Miserables at the moment – that’s more than I can cope with right now. I played some on my laptop accidentally earlier on and had to switch it off, before the keys got wet.

Stay safe and do more of what makes you happy, K x

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Just Because I’m a Woman

Today is International Women’s Day. A good day to celebrate not only the famous women we admire, but also the real life women in our daily lives. The ones who inspire us, impress us, love us and live with us. The theme for International Women’s Day this year is “Break the Bias!” – the link takes you straight to their website where you can find out more about the work they are doing. Go and read it – I’ll still be here when you’re done.

Today’s post title is a great song by Dolly Parton, a woman who knows what it is to be strong, so of course I HAD to use the photo of when Sue and I had a Meet & Greet with the great lady in June 2014 – it would have been rude not to!

When I was born, and my mum realised I was a girl, (her first thought on seeing my long back was that I must be a boy), the first thing she said was, “Poor little thing, she’s got to go through all this.” While my “all this” hasn’t involved childbirth, there have been many things in my life I wouldn’t have had to deal with had her first guess been correct. Then again, I’m sure I’ve had a very different experience in many ways from the one my mum had – although there have been many similarities too. My mum is certainly one of the women I think of today and I have been spending some time working on the embroidery of her. You can just about begin to see the outline appearing now.

A piece of cream linen with patches of tiny black, dark green and dark brown stitches. The fabric is marked off in squares with fine black thread and pale blue thread marks the centre lines. The image of a laughing woman can just be made out in the emerging picture.

I’ve completed two colours (I think I’ve completed them anyway!) and have just started the third – of forty-five…!

I see so many amazing, creative, strong, funny and resilient women sharing their work, brilliance and selves online everyday, even though I don’t see many people in ‘real life’ on a daily basis and it’s hard not to be inspired by them.

The one woman I see more than any others is, of course, my wife. She is astonishing. I am in awe of what she does in her day job, and that she then manages to write such great poetry and be an all round fabulous human too? It’s mind-blowing really. She’s reading some of her poetry tonight actually, at an event with Gloucestershire Poetry Society. It’s online from 7pm-10pm GMT (UTC) and it’s free!

A screenshot from the Gloucestershire Poetry Society's Facebook Page Event listing. The International Women's Day logo is on the left in purple. On the right is a cartoon drawing of three diverse women in the "Break the Bias!" pose of arms crossed with hands upwards and the text "Break the Bias!" above. Under this are the details for the poetry event "'Raised Voices' online in Celebration of International Women's Day" Today from 19:00-22:00. The image is clickable.

And as for me? I have been true to my word this week and started recording again for my Introduction to Lace Knitting course. I’m all set up to record the next section tomorrow as well, all being well.

And what about the knitting, I hear you ask? That has been very busy too! I have:

  • swatched a shawl that I can’t show you
  • worked on a sweater design that I can’t show you
  • started some socks
  • recorded a short video for one section of the Calon Cariad Knitalong &
  • finalised the fancy bits of a pattern that is being released next Monday! Newsletter subscribers, you already have your discount code for this one.

Do you want some photos of the things I can show you? Go on, then.

The front page of a sock pattern lies on a pale gold carpet. On the right side is a photo of the finished socks. On top of the left side of the page lies a toe-up sock in progress on dpns. The yarn is maroon and silver held together at the toe and changing to two colour brioche after the ball of the foot. There’s only about an inch of brioche before the needles.

The socks are Good Riddance socks by Lauroftheblings Designs and I’m using up sock yarn and also other 4-ply leftovers from previous projects and designs.

A hand knitted shawl in progress in neon pink lies on a wooden desk. The bottom part of the knitting has rows of lace hearts, above which is a stocking stitch section. The tips of the needles are in the middle of the shawl (mid-row)by the two central contrasting stitch markers made from bright yellow Lego heads. At the top of the image closed captions in white text read; 'The instructions say "Work to two stitches before'.

The video was to explain and show how the two central stitch markers need to be moved before the final heart motif is worked. I’ll be working on the heart motif later on. This is a screen shot from it.

The front page of Nos Da Pattern. Text top left says "Nos Da A baby blanket" with my logo top right. Underneath is a photograph showing a hand knitted rectangular baby blanket in buttercup yellow laid on a grey weighted blanket. A small stuffed hedgehog toy sits on the bottom right corner of the blanket. The blanket has a wide moss stitch border and features four columns of diamonds outlines worked in moss stitch. Under that is the text: "Meaning ‘Goodnight’ in Welsh, Nos Da is a textured baby blanket that will keep a little one cosy and safe all night. Worked in one piece with an integral moss stitch border, the central columns of diamonds add interest for the knitter, and tactile interest for the recipient! The pattern includes both fully written and charted instructions." At the bottom is my copyright statement.

The new pattern is Nos Da and is out on March 14th. It will be available on Payhip, Lovecrafts and Ravelry AND… if you click on the buttons on my website now (on a computer at least, not yet sure if it works on mobiles) – you NOW GET A PAYHIP POP-UP WINDOW!!! This means you can buy a pattern or kit directly without having to leave my website first. So, yes, I upgraded to the ‘Business’ level plan here on my website and there are lots of new things I get to try out! Look:

A screenshot of my Nevern Throw pattern page on the website, with a Payhip pop-up window superimposed.

The world is still a complicated and confusing place and I’m not running any fund-raising efforts or giving a percentage of sales for Ukraine. Why not? Well, simply because my sales aren’t big enough to make it come to anything worthwhile. Instead, I’ve just made a simple donation to the British Red Cross who can get the money to where it needs to go and support those people who need it.

Take care and keep knitting. I’ll see you next week. K x

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Tread Softly

Today’s blog post title continues the tradition of using song titles for my posts, but it’s also the opening of the final line of the poem (He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W B Yeats) that Of Night and Light is named after; “Tread softly because you tread on my dreams”. This seems apt today.

Well, this is the first time in three weeks that I’ve actually written my blog post on a Tuesday. The previous two posts were written in advance as I was going to be at Mum’s and I knew I would be busy there.

But today? Today is Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday. It’s also St David’s Day (the patron saint of Wales). I will be making pancakes – vegan sourdough ones if you’re interested, complete with lemon and sugar. They will be the ‘afters’ to a tofu stir-fry.

Much of this morning was spent reviewing how my business was in February and planning the month ahead. I’m ever more grateful for the writing gig I have on the side now (still very much knitting based), as that is bringing in some regular money which is helping and may even fund upgrading my website, enabling me to add a shopping cart at last!

I relaunched Of Night and Light last week, as I now have the publication rights back and I’ve added in a few extra things that weren’t there when the pattern was originally published in Knit Now Issue 134 last October. The yarn I used is Rowan Felted Tweed and I wanted to make it easier for people to substitute a different yarn without them having to buy far too much of particular colours. So the relaunched pattern includes the yarn lengths required for each of the four colours in each of the nine sizes, in both metres and yards, including a 10% buffer (in case of gauge differences).

For example, the original pattern states that, for the silver grey colour (CC3), one 50g ball of Felted Tweed is needed regardless of which size is made, but the yardage used from that ball varies enormously, from 56m for XS to 130m for 5X! If you are substituting a yarn that comes in 25g balls or 100g balls, or even considering using some left-overs from your stash it is useful to know this!

I’ve also taken on board feedback that was given after I asked knitters about another sweater design, and all measurements are now shown in cm and inches and the table below is now included as one of the images on both Payhip and Ravelry so people can tell in advance whether the sizing works for them.

I have also made a commitment to myself to finish my Introduction to Lace Knitting Craftucation course and get it live on the website by the end of April. My hands are still split on the knuckles, but having recorded a short video yesterday on wrap and turn short rows, it was really encouraging to see that they did not look as bad on screen as I feared. It WILL get completed!

Speaking of short rows, our Calon Cariad KAL (which I did the video for) is going well and people are posting their progress on social media which is very exciting to see. There’s continued to be more interaction in the Facebook group too! This is my Calon Cariad with the short row section completed – can you see how the plain section above the lace border is deeper in the middle than at the edges? That’s what short rows can do. (It’s sitting on top of my Nevern Throw).

I think I’m going to have to extend the KAL for a week and rebook the Show & Tell Zoom for March 25th, instead of March 18th. Last month I broke a tooth (a back molar) and when I was given the first date available at the dentist of course I said yes, not realising it was the same day I’d planned to have our end of KAL Zoom. The last thing I want is to be trying to host a Zoom event with my face still numb from the dentist! I don’t think anyone will mind having an extra week.

I wasn’t sure I would be able to write today, as my little corner of the world seems rather insignificant compared to current world events. However, I decided it wouldn’t be helping anyone by not writing a blog post, and it might be an enjoyable distraction for someone.

Hold your loved ones close and keep knitting, and maybe eat a pancake or two. Also, if you can, please consider making a donation to one of the charities working to support Ukrainians.

‘Til next time, Kx

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Autumn Leaves

I’m sitting at my Mum’s dining table looking out at her garden in all its autumnal glory. There was a frost on the lawn this morning and it was jolly cold outside, but there is now a brilliant blue sky and a brisk walk through the town warmed me right up!

A total contrast from the weather as I left Wales yesterday morning – torrential rain and strong gusts of wind meant that my raincoat got very wet even going from the front door to the car!

I’ve finished the back of my deadline knitting garment and cast on another section last night. I am now wondering about the selvedge stitches though and so the new section was cast off this morning… I will block it when I get home to see if my slip stitch edge adds stability as I’d hoped, or just stops the pattern opening up properly! (Can’t show you pics, sorry!)

And this is why I always bring more than one knitting project with me when I go anywhere. If something crops up that means I need to press pause on one, then I’m not left knit-less. So, my Woolly Wormhead Get Garter Beret will be getting some action later.

Yesterday, I sent out my monthly newsletter to my lovely website subscribers and it contained a brand new exclusive discount code for them to use in my Payhip store. 15% off all my hat, mitts and cowl knitting patterns from now until the end of the year! If you’re not yet a subscriber, but think you like the sound of that, sign up by the end of the week and I will make sure you get the November newsletter too. There’ll be a reminder of it in the December newsletter as well.

I haven’t talked about my Craftucation courses in a while, and that’s probably because I’m feeling guilty that I still haven’t finished my ‘Introduction to Lace Knitting’ course. My hands are still in a right state and certainly not ‘camera-ready’, but I have every intention of getting it done in the next couple of months. Any encouragement gratefully received!

That’s all from me for today – I’m going to go and make some lunch happen.

Stay safe, keep knitting and doing what makes you happy, K x

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Yellow Roses

Do you like my roses and carnations? They were a gift from my lovely wife to celebrate the launch of “Of Night and Light” in Knit Now last week. After all the excitement of the magazine release last Thursday, I have been getting on with some new projects and returning to some not so new ones.

My advent sweater is dry so now I have the ends to weave in – approximately 50 of them! I might take a similar approach to the one I used to use for writing school reports; decide when I want it finished by, work out how many I need to do each day and get that day’s ‘portion’ done in the morning while the light is good in the front room. If I take next Wednesday as my deadline, then if I do about 7 each day it will be ready – that doesn’t sound half so intimidating as 50!

When I finished spinning my Merino d’Arles, dyed by Anne Murray, back in March, I knew what pattern I wanted to use it for. My Fiery Dragon Skin Cowl seemed ideal for the colours of the yarn and the fact it is very textural meant that irregularities in the yarn wouldn’t matter so much. It’s coming along really well and I am so pleased with the effect. It’s slightly thicker than the yarn I designed the pattern for originally (Painted Desert by Knitting Fever), but that’s ok. It’ll be a little warmer. This is the first time I’ve used my hand-spun yarn for a knitting project, as opposed to a swatch and it’s so satisfying.

A textural knitted cowl in progress lies on a wooden desk against a closed laptop. It is in shades of blue, green and grey-gold with a tucked slip stitch pattern. The yarn is hand-spun.

Another new project is the embroidery of Mum’s photo – I’ve actually started it! It doesn’t look like much yet and it will take a good while before the picture takes shape, but it has at least begun. The embroidery hoop is helping enormously as is the re-printed chart. The first one had 70 x 100 squares per page (4 pages) and it was just too small to keep track of with 40+ different symbols. Now the chart has 50 x 75 squares per page (9 pages) and I can actually see the symbols without them swimming about. Thumb for scale!

Cream linen fabric with red running stitches to mark the centre lines is held in a wooden embroidery hoop. There is a sprinkling of tiny dark green, brown and grey stitches on the fabric. A thumb is placed on the fabric to highlight how small the stitches are in comparison.

There are a LOT of colours involved too. I love the fact that I can use this box mum finished making recently (after starting it well over 10 years ago) to store them in:

An open dark blue fabric covered box is shown from above with a lot of skeins of embroidery thread propped inside. They are in shades of green, brown, grey and neutrals. The box is octagonal in shape and is leaning against a laptop.

The sweater design I’ve been working on for a while now has completed Back and Front sections, all written up. The sleeves have been charted with all the shaping and I’ve started writing them up. I redid the front of the round neckline with my coloured pens and graph paper and now I’m really happy with how the nine different sizes relate to each other as well as all having a pleasing curve. The really tricky part was working out the most logical way to write it out – that was yesterday’s task and fortunately was a success!

Glancing out of the window I see it is raining. Again. I’m so glad I had a walk before lunch, but it does put me off doing much in the veg patch today. Maybe it’ll be dry again later in the week. One of our tomatoes has ripened – I can see it from here! So, it was worth tying them up to get some sunlight. I think I should probably get them in soon and finish ripening them on the window sill.

Audrey2 (my sourdough starter) is getting all grown up now. I’ve made three good loaves with her (after one dodgy one and some flat-as-pancake rolls) and she’s doubling in size and then some when fed. Not wishing to be caught out with fruit flies again like I was with Audrey I have dried some starter and the shards are now safely in a jam jar should they ever be needed. When I read about drying out sourdough starter and seeing that it would take 2-3 days I thought it must be a typo since any starter left on a spoon or spatula goes rock solid so quickly, but no. It really took 3 days. Hurrah for a silicone rolling mat and pop up food cover that could be moved around as necessary.

Do you remember I said I was going to plan a new workshop last week? Well, it’s done! Great project, loads of skills and if I can complete it in one hour (taking my time and not rushing), then knitters taking the workshop will be able to complete it in two and a half. More details coming soon. It’s also given me a really rather fab idea for a kit to launch next year…!

That’s all from me for today. Stay safe and do what makes you happy, Kx

P.S. Keep your fingers crossed for me on Friday – that’s when I find out about the latest design I submitted!

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Going Backwards

Despite what you might assume from the title of today’s post, I am not in a funk. The backwards I am going is with my knitting and for something completely different I am going to post a little video today. Please excuse the state of my hands – they are actually improving a lot!

The video is now captioned!!, and what I am showing you is the technique for knitting backwards rather than turning your work to purl. This is really useful for bobbles as you increase one stitch to five, work on those five stitches repeatedly to create three mini rows and then decrease back down to one stitch.

For some reason the focus isn’t as clear as it was in iMovie – but that may be something to do with my export settings. As this is the first video I have uploaded to my blog I am accepting that it won’t be perfect (this is quite a big deal for me in itself) and remembering that this is all a learning curve. Future ones will, I’m sure, be better!

Why didn’t I have time to caption the video earlier? Well, my sister-in-law and niece are visiting from the other end of the country and we are going to spend the next few days with them. This is exciting as it is the first time my niece has been to Wales so we get to show her some of our favourite bits! I just hope the threatening grey clouds don’t do much more than threaten!

The courgettes are gorgeous, the potatoes need to be harvested, there are raspberries to be picked and roses to deadhead. So much to do and so little time! But our MKAL continues apace and I can hardly believe that the last part will be released in three days time. When we started it felt like Into the Vortex would be going on forever, but the past seven weeks have flown by. A little update showing you two versions of Part Five:

Two lots of striped slipped stitch knitting laid on top each other. The bottom half of the image is a light neutral striped with bright yellow that changes to orange by mid-screen. The top half of the image is the same pattern in solid dark blue striped with an olive green.

That’s all I have time for right now, so I will love you and leave you.

Stay safe & keep knitting, K x

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Going Out

We did it. For the first time in over 18 months we went away for the night to meet up with friends (as opposed to family) and WE ATE OUT! At a restaurant. It felt very odd to start with being out in a big room with lots of other people, but the staff all wore masks and so did we for the two metres we had to travel from the door to our table. And when we visited the loos. The food was lovely, with a good vegan menu as well as ‘regular’ ones.

One thing I had completely forgotten about eating out is how loud it is. There was music playing (quite loudly) and although we were nearest to the door and not directly near a speaker it was difficult at times to hear and be heard. So what happens? You talk louder and move nearer, both things that you’re not meant to do really in terms of minimising spread, but everyone in our little group had had negative tests recently, and fingers crossed we’re all ok still so far!

This meet up had been postponed from last summer and we hadn’t seen these friends for two years, but the lovely thing about really good friends is the ability to pick up as though that gap of time had never been.

And where did this momentous occasion take place? In Lichfield. None of us had ever been there, but it is more or less halfway from both our homes. It is a lovely little town (city). We looked around the cathedral and it is stunning. The main image on this post is part of the frontage, chronological sculptures of the kings and queens of England, each holding something that represents their reign. For example, King John (not in shot) is holding a green (copper) quill and scroll to represent the Magna Carta. Here’s most of the frontage:

The frontage of Lichfield Cathedral with a cloudy grey sky behind. The building is covered in sculptures of kings, queens, angles and saints with lots of geometric details.

While inside I failed to photograph the historically important things such as the shrine to St Chad or the Angel of Lichfield (a carving from the EIGHTH century!). Instead, I photographed things that took my eye as potential knitting inspiration. My old City & Guilds tutor would be proud of me (she was – I already put these pics on Twitter!). So, I give you the *back* of the high altar (inlaid and carved marble) and two rather beautiful floor grates which have a definite theme of diamonds and circles:

Four colours of mosaic marble form diamond hatching. In the centre of each diamond is a flower carved in relief within a circle. Each line of the diamond hatching has a different mosaic pattern and each flower is different as well.
A close up of a cast iron floor grating. Each piece is two circles wide and three high with diamonds running through the circles and decorative points like the tops of church windows all through the design.
A square cast iron floor grating with a large circle surrounded with a border of diamonds. The circle has 'spokes' spreading from the centre, with the detail near the edge of the circle taking the form almost of fleurs de lyes, similar to the tops of church windows.

Quite when I will turn these into knitting ideas I’m not sure, but there are a few possibilities kicking around in my head already.

Remember the terrible frisbee I made that was supposed to be a loaf? I tried some of the helpful suggestions from the sourdough Facebook group, reducing the water, reducing the proving time and the time in between pulls and folds and my next loaf was very much better! It tasted fabulous too.

A seeded sourdough loaf with a cross scored across the floured top sits on a metal cooling rack.

The drive to and from Lichfield enabled some further progress on the Brioche + Mystery shawl. Please note – I was the passenger!

A close up of part of a brioche knitted shawl in four colours. There are two colour brioche stripes surrounded on two sides by textural stripes, then triangle shapes in two-colour brioche, followed by garter stitch stripes in three colours with bobbles in the centre stripe.

I’m now about to start the next lot of bobbles. Knitting backwards to avoid turning your work every five stitches is an optional technique during the bobbles and I *can* do it, but my tension isn’t quite as consistent as turning it round and purling, so I’m undecided about which approach to take this time around. Thinking about it, when I’m teaching I tell other people that the only way they can improve a skill is to practise it, so I’d best take my own advice and do some knitting backwards. I’ll take some pics while I’m doing it so you can see!

There are only two more parts of Into the Vortex to be revealed and I’ll share some more of people’s progress with you next week 😊

Harvesting continues in the garden and everything seemed to grow massively over the weekend while we were away – the courgette plants that had looked so puny only a little while back gave us these beauties this morning. For reference, the shortest green courgette is nine and a half inches long.

Three large green courgettes lie on a green tablecloth with three round yellow courgettes of various sizes. In the top left corner is a woven placemat with the base of a silver candlestick just showing.

I haven’t mentioned my Craftucation courses lately, have I? I had been hoping to finish ‘An Introduction to Lace Knitting’ a few months ago, but my hands have been too dry and cracked to record anything – no-one wants to see lengthy close-ups these paws at the moment. It’s not fallen off my radar, though, and I am making great efforts to get my hands fit to be seen. Hopefully I’ll be able to return to recording in September, when it should also be cool enough to wear the same clothes as when I started recording the course! Watch this space!

I hope your week has gone well. Stay safe, do what makes you happy. K x

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Cabin Fever

In a rather unexpected twist, I currently have something in common with Prince William (!), in that my wife is self-isolating after being a contact of a positive Covid-19 case. So until next week that means separate rooms for sleeping, no hugs, staying 2m away from each other when we are in the same room and all the windows open – even when it’s teeming with rain outside. I’m rather keeping my fingers crossed that her PCR test comes back negative tomorrow otherwise I will have to isolate as well…

I have to say Sue is coping well with working from home at the moment, especially since the help of the lovely ICT chap linking her up to the school network. It is strange for me though. I’ve been self-employed now for nearly three years, and have been working from home since the pandemic began as all pop-up shops, craft fairs and workshops stopped. I’ve got used to being in the house on my own on weekdays and pottering around to my own (sometimes eccentric) timetable. I’m just not used to someone else being here between 7am and 6pm – even though that someone is my favourite person in the world. Does that make me a bad person? I really hope not.

Because of this spanner in the works to everyday life, I’ve also cancelled my trip this week to visit my mum as I can’t risk even the slightly chance of passing Covid to her. I was supposed to be making my first ever batch of chutney there today – the apples, garlic and onions are waiting patiently at Mum’s for when I can go down, and the vinegar, sugar, jars and other assorted items are sitting here.

One bonus to these changes of plan (apart from seeing my lovely wife for more hours than usual) is that I’ve had more time to get to grips with Excel. What on earth does *that* have to do with knitting design, you may think? Well, the rather excellent course on grading designs that I’m currently taking (have I told you about that?) is teaching me some whizzy Excel tricks. I now know how to use (some!) formulae, lock a particular cell into a formula and I’m gradually getting to grips with CONCATENATE, which is one of the fiddliest things I’ve come across, but which could prove to be one of the most useful. Geeking out over spreadsheets is not something I imagined myself doing as a knitting designer, but it’s so satisfying when it works! See that little line of “TRUE”s along the bottom? That means I’ve got what I was working out right, for each of the ten sizes.

There’s been a really lovely response to the launch of Into the Vortex. Lots of happy knitters, some sharing their progress on social media and some by message. The colour combinations are all beautiful and I’m really looking forward to seeing what they make of Part Two this Friday.

It’s stopped raining, so I think I might venture into the garden now and see how the courgettes are getting on. I’ll report back next week.

Stay safe and keep knitting, K x

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Needles and Pins

An overhead shot of three knitted hexiflats lying in a horizontal row

Well, the Covid jab knocked me sideways for a good few days. I had the Astra Zeneca one and side effects have been varied and wide-ranging! My arm is still sore and when I went out for my first walk five days after the jab I was so wobbly we had to cut it short and come home very gently. But I’m taking comfort in the thought that this probably means my immune system is doing what it should.

My plan of knitting some hexiflats to add to my Beekeeper’s Quilt was a good idea. The queue outside the vaccination centre was very long (but at least it was dry), so I knitted whilst waiting beforehand. I’ve made a few more since then too – it’s useful to have a small project to hand when your arms and fingers are tired. Not only can you feel like you’ve actually achieved something tangible, as one hexiflat takes about 40 minutes, but also you’re not having to wrangle large quantities of fabric.

And what news of the Grand Secret Project? Well, it’s finished! It’s blocking (has had a long soak in the sink, been rolled up gently in a towel, been laid out flat on a mat and patted into shape) and I’m now just waiting for it to dry. I’m so pleased with it and can’t wait to be able to share it with you. I also worked out a really nifty way to accurately calculate the yarn quantities for all the different sizes. The pattern and associated files all need tidying up and double checking and then it’s good to go!

What will be next once the loose ends are all tied up? Well, I’m going to talk to Anne at Yarn O’clock soon about plans for the next Mystery Knit-along and I will be able to finish recording my Introduction to Lace Knitting course for Craftucation. I also have plans for a new shawl design using Knitting Fever yarn.

The wholemeal and seeded loaf was gorgeous by the way. So much so that I’ve made a second one just the same. I do want to get more rise (also called Oven Spring) into my sourdough loaves; the dough is now a good consistency when it goes in the banneton, but the loaves do tend to grow sideways rather than upwards in the oven. Some experimenting is called for, I think.

An overhead shot of a sourdough loaf scored with five lines spiralling to the centre

Having caught a crow in the act of removing and stealing the filled half coconut from the apple tree I’m keeping an even keener eye on it than before. That was the second one that had been taken; the first had moved from the tree to the lawn one day and vanished the next. I’m sure it’s the same bird that has made a few skirmishes on the replacements too – it gets a loud ‘shoo!’ which seems to do the trick at the moment. An alternative feeding solution has been ordered from C J Wildlife which should put a stop to the thefts.

A crow caught stealing, flying in front of a camellia bush with the coconut hanging from it's beak

It’s been lovely to see the range of birds that visit the garden increase since putting the feed out. There have been robins, blackbirds, pigeons and sparrows which we’ve usually had, but also blue tits, coal tits, gold finches and even a pair of thrushes! The magpie is quite keen on it too. There was a pair of coal tits yesterday on the tree, one of which was feeding the other (as a sign of being a good provider I think) and I’m hoping we’ll get visits from any offspring they have too.

That’s all from me for today. Stay safe and keep knitting, Kx