Tag: small business

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Blackpool Rocks!

We had a great time in Blackpool at the North West Winter Wool Festival last weekend. Being the first show of the season it was particularly exciting to catch up with other vendors who we haven’t seen for a few months and also meet some new ones and make new friends! Shirley and Trevor were very organised and great hosts for the event.

We didn’t venture as far as the piers or the tower as the hotel the show was held in was at the far north end of Blackpool, but we had some bracing walks along the promenade and enjoyed some great chips and mushy peas. We did, however, experience the in-hotel entertainment on Friday night which included a cabaret singer who encouraged audience participation and also bingo! We didn’t win anything, but another vendor on our table did so we shared his joy.

It was wonderful to talk to knitters about their plans and ideas for the patterns they chose. One lady was even planning on spinning the yarn she was going to use for a lace shawl design she purchased. A couple of people told me they had knitted some of my patterns in the past and really enjoyed them, which always gives me a boost. One lady was wearing her beautifully knitted Tiffany shawl in bright rainbow shades and it was delightful. Jo Knit Sew showed me her Bryn Brioche Cowl which she knitted as her first brioche project before diving into a very intricate brioche shawl (I’ve seen that in progress and it’s stunning as well).

I also met and taught some wonderful people how to knit brioche on Saturday and how to knit a moebius on Sunday. I was very impressed with all of them and with the amount of learning that went on during those hours.

Lately I haven’t bought anything while I’ve been at a yarn show, but this time I treated myself to two things. A little ‘Scoopy’ from Bowfiddle Yarns which has a magnet in the base to help you hold on to your metal stitch markers and which changes colour in the most mesmerising way.

Also, I was given three beautiful mini skeins for my birthday which came from Jo at Second City Yarns. I’ve been thinking about what to make with them and I decided I need a good neutral yarn to go with the colours. So I got four mini skeins from Jo. They really help to make the colours sing when put together!

The Seaside Winter Cosy pattern is now live on my website, payhip and Ravelry, so you can now buy the pattern! It’s knitted in the round in four colours of DK yarn and you can choose to either seam the bottom (as in the picture below) or add poppers to the bottom to make the hot water bottle removable.

Next month we have two shows back to back! TexStyle is in Manchester on 14-15th March at Manchester Central (previously known as the G-Mex centre) and East Anglia Yarn Festival is the following weekend on 21-22nd March at the Norfolk Showground Arena just outside Norwich. If you come to either of these events, please do stop by and say hello!

That’s all from me today – I’m about to crack on with a new design that the yarn arrived for last Thursday! Have a good week, stay safe and do something that makes you happy. K x

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And Then There Were Two

As if by magic – a second sock appeared! Well, not magic obviously, by spending some time knitting. It’s funny that many people experience what is known as ‘second sock syndrome’, where they they will happily zip through making the first sock of a pair, but stall on the second. I seem to have the opposite. Once one sock is made, the other wants to get done and make the socks ready for use. It’s also helpful that this past week we have been taking things a little more gently due to a nasty throat/chest virus thing that got me first and then moved on to my lovely wife. I’m much better and she is just starting to come out of it. It has meant that we’ve spent a bit more time watching Grantchester (we’re almost up to the end of Series 3) and I’ve been knitting.

I’ve also started another DK version of Into the Vortex. I know I knitted one of these a while ago, but I wasn’t in love with the colours, so it’s still sitting there waiting to be blocked. However, I decided that this time I would keep it more in line with the original. RiverKnits now have a DK version of their Chimera yarn – and it was the 4ply version of this that we used in the original design along with their Nene 4ply, both of which are British Bluefaced Leicester yarns. I’m using the Chimera DK in the colourway ‘The Fifth Element’.

I’m going to pair it with a deep purple skein of West Yorkshire Spinners Fleece, which is another Bluefaced Leicester yarn. Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) is a breed of sheep, so this means the yarn is made solely from the fleeces of that breed of sheep.

Yesterday saw me doing more maths than I have done in over 30 years! I needed to calculate how deep the front neck drop of a new design can be. You might think the depth of the front neck drop (where the fabric at the front stops for the neck) is just a matter of choice and in many designs it is, but this design has an unusual shape and this measurement will dictate whether the top falls off the shoulders or not (and I would prefer not!).

I knew the length of one side of the triangle and all three angles (courtesy of this very fancy protractor that I bought on Saturday), but I had to google how to calculate the other lengths as I couldn’t remember! I knew it was likely to be something to do with sin/cos/tan, but it’s been a very long time since I last used those things. Hurrah for BBC bitesize and other maths support websites. It was time for the calculator and the tan function! Weirdly, I also found a TAN function in Excel, but it didn’t give me anywhere near the same result (and I know the calculator version is correct as I knew the side length I was trying to work out was going to be close in length to the one I knew, and the results I was getting from my attempts using TAN in Excel were nowhere near close). So, there are obviously some hidden extras that I need to learn before I can use Excel to work those things out for me.

On Sunday I got to take some pics of Lorelai Wrap, as Jo, a friend from my church choir, had kindly agreed to model it for me. Even the weather co-operated by stopping raining for a while. I got some great shots and this is the one that is going to be the main pic on the front cover of the pattern:

Lorelai Wrap will be available in printed form at the North West Winter Wool Festival in Blackpool this coming weekend and online within the week. It was first published in The Knitter magazine six months ago. It’s knitted in one piece using 4.5mm needles (you can use straight needles) and Jamieson’s of Shetland Ultra Lace, which is a beautiful yarn with a mix of 50% Shetland wool and 50% Lambswool. I used the colourway ‘Strawberry Crush’ – there are 39 other colours in this yarn to choose from if that’s not the colour for you!

That’s everything from me today. If you’re coming to Blackpool at the weekend do stop by and say hello – our stand is right near the door (stand B9) so you can’t miss us! If you’re not coming to Blackpool for the North West Winter Wool Festival, don’t worry, I’ll tell you all about it next week. Until then, take care, K x

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Reaching the End

So, I did it. I finally finished the first sock last night. Well, almost. I still need to graft the remaining 12 stitches at the toe. This sock has a graft that is at 90 degrees to the usual one. Instead of joining the remaining stitches top and bottom along the top of the toes, this one decreases more (which is why I only have 12 stitches left rather than 24) then joins the left and right stitches together down the centre of the toes. I can’t remember where I first came across this toe shape for socks, but it works really well.

The reason it’s taken me so long to get back to this sock is that I’ve knitted the front neck of the jumper design I’ve been working on three times. I mistrusted my first calculations thinking the neck would be too low, so I ripped that out, made the neckline higher and knitted it again. It seemed fine. Joined one shoulder seam, knitted the neckband. Again it seemed ok (this is with me draping it around Sue to check fit). Joined the other shoulder seam and all of a sudden the neck looked really small. It was indeed not easy to get over the head. So! I undid one shoulder seam, ripped out the neckband, undid the other shoulder seam, ripped back the front neck to 2cm lower than the too-small one. I re-knitted it all – holding my breath and also making the neckband shorter with a looser cast-off. This time, once I’d seamed one shoulder and knitted the neckband, I joined the other shoulder seam with lockable stitch markers to check it would actually go over the head. Phew! At least there were no sleeves to worry about, so I just had armhole ribbing to knit and side seams to sew before it was finished. And I can’t even show you any pics because it’s for a design submission.

I realised today that we are already in February and I haven’t yet sent out a single newsletter. If you are a newsletter subscriber and are wondering where your newsletters have gone, don’t worry – there will be one this week!

I mentioned a while ago that I’m scaling back / rethinking my kits. I’m also looking at changing the packaging from tins to cardboard boxes. There are several reasons for this – not least of which is cost, but also the fact that the empty cardboard boxes come flat and so take up far less room in our little bungalow! I think I’ve found the right size – it’s almost the same size as the larger tins were and now I’m choosing between natural brown and white.

I’m leaning towards the brown as I think that will show off the white sticker with the kit details far better and the white looks like it could get grubby quite quickly. I had considered black cardboard boxes to match the black cloths and metal cubes I use at yarn shows, but looking at them closely the black dye seems to rub off where the box is folded and I was then worried about it rubbing off on customers hands etc!

This week my local yarn shop, Yarn O’clock, announced that, after 10 years of trading, the shop will be closing in April. This is very sad for me. Anne, who owns the shop, hired me to teach my first knitting workshops, commissioned seven mystery knit-alongs from me and has sold me the yarn for nearly all of my kits! And of course, Anne and I have brought Yarn Gathering to Mold for four years. And when things were difficult for me personally a number of years ago, Anne’s shop was just about the only place I was able to leave the house to go to – it was my safe space. Things won’t be the same without her there, but as she put in her social media announcement, all good things must come to an end. I wish her so much joy for her new adventures, but will really miss being able to pop in, even though I haven’t been there as much as I would have liked over the past year or so. If you have a chance to visit Yarn O’clock before it closes in April I highly recommend it! Natural fibres with a focus on British yarn and a lovely range of needles, patterns and other items too.

It’s not long now until my first show of the year – the North West Winter Wool Show. If you have bought an advance ticket you will have a code to download the Seaside Winter Cosy pattern for free!

I will also have printed copies of the pattern with me at the show for sale for those people who buy a show ticket on the day – or in case anyone who already has their own copy of the pattern wants to buy one as a gift for someone else. If you do have an advance show ticket you have until March 15th (one month after the end of the show) to download your free copy of the pattern.

Until next week, take care of yourselves and each other and do something that makes you happy. K x

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One Step At A Time

I went to my local yarn shop’s (Yarn O’clock) social evening last week and, as I’d hoped, made some good progress on the sock. The gusset decreases are now completed and I’m on the main part of the foot. In theory it shouldn’t take long now to finish this sock, but that only works if you actually pick it up and I haven’t done any more on it since last Wednesday!

Why not? Well, I’ve been working on my new design which should also have been nearing completion. Except I did a stitch count when I was partway through the armhole decreases only to find I was one stitch over what I should have had. One stitch?! That’s not a lot! No, but this is the sample for the design so it needs to be correct (and front and back need to match) and it turns out I’d missed the decrease from the ribbing to the main body. So back it went! Frogging with the emotional support of a cup of tea and some bourbons. I’m about two-thirds of the way back to the arm-holes now.

As a change from the historical fiction and Terry Pratchett novels I tend to listen to, I have recently been listening to a book called Tiny Habits by B J Fogg (that link takes you to the Tiny Habits website). It’s a fascinating approach to getting yourself to do things you want to do, but haven’t yet managed, by breaking your goal right down to the tiniest first step and then just doing that. There’s a lot more to it than that obviously, including a lot of celebrating yourself each time you do the thing (however tiny) you’re setting out to do, and I think I may need to listen to the book a second time in order to get the full approach clear in my head. But it’s an appealing idea – you don’t have to do ‘the thing’ (whatever it is) all at once – break it down, do the first bit until that seems easy, then add the next step.

Mum recently gave us an amaryllis plant to look after. She was given it at Christmas time and, without a window sill in her room, she was worried that it wouldn’t get enough sunlight to really grow. It’s been on our kitchen window sill and growing like mad and I’ve been photographing its progress and sharing it with Mum.

Yesterday the flower bud finally began to open!

If you’re anything like me, you might have been reading the news and social media over the past few weeks and despairing. It’s hard to know what to do or say that doesn’t seem trite or performative, but if you are in the US, please make your feelings known to your representatives. If you are in the UK, please use your votes wisely in the coming months and years to ensure we don’t end up with a similar situation. Many knitters and crafters I am in contact with online have been told to ‘stick to their knitting’ when mentioning what is going on in the outside world, but knitting has always been political.

Knitting was a way of sharing intelligence during the Second World War (for example, through code knitted into fabric by women who sat by railway lines and watched who and what was moving where, or knitters who listened in to conversations and then added useful coded intelligence into their knitting) and as a way of protesting. A number of years ago we saw a knitted sampler in a Guernsey war museum that had a ‘pretty’ textured border around the edge. It had been knitted by a prisoner of war. The textured pattern was morse code for something along the lines of “Hitler is a ****” – I don’t remember the exact phrase, but you get the idea! I think the accompanying information said that the officers in the camp had claimed the sampler to display in their offices, which was ironic, considering the hidden message!

If you are a crafter you may have seen a rising number of patterns available with protest slogans included on them or patterns that are symbolic, such as the red Norwegian knitted caps that are getting a lot of attention currently. These were a visible symbol of resistance during World War II and wearing them became banned in 1942 as the Nazi’s were intimidated by the unity and resistance they represented and they are being knitted again as a form of protest against what is happening in the US, specifically with ICE. Some folk are embracing the idea – especially where proceeds from the pattern or sales/donations of the hats are going to help those in need, others think it is pointless or that individuals are ‘trying to monetise’ the situation. Am I going to knit one? Probably not; I am not in the US and it would cost too much to post one to someone there. But as John Stuart Mill, said in 1867 (not Edmund Burke): “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”

Knitters and designers on social media are often expected to respond to causes and events with grand statements or high profile sales with money going to the relevant cause. Equally they can get told to keep politics off their posts and ‘stick to their knitting’. There’s not a lot I personally can do in practical terms – I still need to promote my designs on social media rather than posting about current events every day. But do know that although I am not continuously shouting from the rooftops about the world turning upside down, I am very aware of it. My Dad went up Sword Beach in Normandy three days after D-Day to help rid the world of fascism. I can’t imagine what he would say about seeing what is happening in the world now.

On a related note, today is Holocaust Memorial Day.

Look after one another and do something that makes you happy. Until next week, take care, K x

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Community

Progress has been made on the sock this week with the majority of the gusset decreases completed. This is less progress than you might expect in a week, but that is partly because I am just over halfway through knitting (and writing the pattern for) the design I mentioned in last week’s post.

My spreadsheet for that design is large, but the pattern is (I think) nicely concise, without including any of those phrases that annoy me so much and are often used when a publication needs to save space, such as “Work as for Left side, reversing shaping”. I know this is a common phrase, but it relies on a certain level of knowledge and skill from the knitter to be able to do that, which a less experienced knitter might not have, and therefore can potentially exclude people from making the design. It is important to me that my patterns include the full instructions required and don’t make you guess what you need to do. Inclusivity in pattern writing is about more than the size range!

Some exciting news is that my brioche workshop at the North West Winter Wool Festival in Blackpool next month (Saturday 14th Feb) has sold out! There are still 8 spaces on the moebius knitting workshop on Sunday 15th Feb, so if you are going to that event and would like to learn how to knit what looks like a totally impossible shape, you can!

Also, a reminder that if you are going to that show, please do get an advance ticket as you will then get a code to download the Seaside Winter Cosy pattern for FREE!

The floorplan for the North West Winter Wool Festival has just been released too – which makes everything seem much more real! We will be on B9 which is just by the door, so you can’t miss us! If I’m not on the stand in the afternoon it’ll be because I’m teaching, but my lovely wife Sue will be there to help you.

After two weeks of lots of extra work, complete with the novelty of having colleagues again (with the invigilation for mocks), next week will feel a little quiet I think. I do enjoy working at home, by and for myself, but there is really something to be said for that 10 minute chat in the staff room before everyone cracks on with the next part of the day. Even if it’s just about something very ordinary. Actually, during the past week or so, I have been able to enjoy that moment of time much more than when I was teaching full time as, in this role, I have no last minute planning/marking/photocopying/furniture rearrangement etc to do, and I even have an allotted starting time, which never existed in my previous school role.

Tomorrow I am going to the social evening at Yarn O’clock, which I haven’t been able to do for quite some time as it has usually clashed with other commitments. I’m really looking forward to it and am planning to take the sock, with the intention of getting onto the foot during the evening. So, hopefully there will be more progress to see next week – maybe even a completed sock, who knows?!

By the way, no one commented on last week’s post for the opportunity to win some free tickets to the new TexStyle show in Manchester, so I am extending the opportunity into this week as well with the draw now scheduled for Friday 30th January. Don’t be shy if you’d like to go and you’d like a pair of free tickets (so you can take a friend too)!

TexStyle is a fibre AND textile event with a massive range of crafts represented. Just see this list below which is taken from the TexStyle website to give you some idea:

  • Basketry
  • Crochet and hooking
  • Cross stitch
  • Demonstrations
  • Dyeing
  • Felting
  • Finished items
  • Gallery display
  • Home decor
  • Knitting
  • Lace, embroidery and blackwork
  • Macrame
  • Quilting
  • Sewing
  • Spinning
  • Stationery
  • Tufting
  • Upholstery
  • Weaving

There seems to be a bit of a community theme in what I have been thinking and writing about today – whether that is of the knitting/crafting community or a community of colleagues engaged in the same work. I hope you have a week with some positive connections in one or more of your communities, and that you get a chance to do something that makes you happy. Take care, K x

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Laying it all out

Our last yarn show of the year, Yuletide Yarnies, took place on Saturday. It was held at Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, organised by Bijoux Events and Wild Field Fibre. As well as all the amazing stalls, there were mince pies, live festive music from a range of soloists and a super a cappella choir as well as a rather good chip van! We had a good day, despite it being really chilly – we simply added more layers of woolly goodness to what we were wearing. It was great to catch up with other vendors too and have a chat about our plans for next year. Amazingly I already have 8 shows confirmed for next year, another 2 I am waiting for confirmation on and 2 more possibles.

It was lovely to talk to the visitors to the show as well – hearing from people which of my designs they’ve already made and which they’re planning to, seeing the yarn they’ve bought from other vendors for a pattern they’ve bought from me earlier in the day and hearing people express their love of knitting and crochet.

Yesterday I set up next year’s planner/journal – I use a grid dot notebook and write the months out at the front – and it made me start thinking about how I want to plan aspects of work/life next year specifically, and generally in the future. Sue and I haven’t been very good at blocking ‘time off’ for ourselves and we haven’t had a holiday in a number of years. We go away a lot for one or two nights, but it’s always for a yarn show (which is work even though it’s enjoyable!) or to visit family. Next year we will actually be having a break just for us – it’s our Christmas present to each other. We know where we want to go – now we just need to plan when it will be!

The first time I used a planner like this I put the monthly plan at the start of each month as I got to it, dotted through the journal, but that meant I couldn’t write it out until I got to the end of the previous month and with lots of shows and deadlines coming up I actually do need to see the year as a whole. This way I get a year of monthly plans all in one place, and then I can use as much or as little of the rest of the book per day/week/month as I need. I’m showing you next December as it’s one of the months that doesn’t yet have anything in it!

We had our first round robin letter of the year with a Christmas card today. I think I appreciate these more than I used to, especially when they come from friends we don’t see very often. That might have to do with not being as manically busy at this time of year as I was when I was teaching full time – reading two sides of A4 felt like just too much sometimes back then, but now it’s a pleasure.

Earlier this morning I popped back to the optician to get some new lenses put into my new glasses. The varifocals I got a few months ago were the correct prescription, but the height at which the close, medium and distance vision changed from one to another was too high, making a lot of things blurry and generally making me feel a bit seasick! Now, however, I’m able to turn my head without everything swimming and I can read music without having to bend my head right down to focus in on it. The difference a small change has made is incredible.

I think that’s going to be my aim for next year. Looking for ways to make small changes in the way I do things that will have a big impact. Like putting all my monthly planner layouts together at the front of my journal. I wonder how that will feel by the time I actually get to December 2026?

I seem to be feeling philosophical today, which is perhaps understandable at this time of year. This is my last blog post of the year – the next one will be on Jan 6th, the day we take the tree down and put all the decorations away. So, until then, take care, I hope you all have a good Christmas however you spend it, and I’ll write again next year! K x

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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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Advent – a time of waiting

On Sunday I sang at the Advent carol service at the church where I am a member of the choir. There was quite a bit of plainchant (we did the Palestrina Advent Responsory and the ‘Great O Antiphons’ as well as the much more modern The Lamb by Taverner and some good solid advent hymns. Before the service began the rector said there were some children in the congregation in Christmas jumpers and that perhaps they thought they were going to get Christmas carols rather than Advent carols. They are very different! Advent is a time of waiting and anticipation.

A tradition here is that we put our Christmas tree up on Advent Sunday, so it is now in pride of place in the lounge, complete with lots of decorations. Some are new, some are as old as I am. Some are homemade and some are bought. There are even a couple of glass baubles she and Dad bought when they were first married. Putting the tree up and decorating it (two separate things!) always takes much longer than we expect, perhaps because it also involves moving furniture to other rooms in order to make room for the tree! We now have an armchair in the kitchen and a rocking chair in the front room where I teach. The other result of having put the Christmas tree up, is that I know realise I will have to wait until it comes down again (on January 6th) to block my 4ply What Do Points Make? as there simply isn’t enough floorspace anywhere at the moment. Another example of Advent being a time of waiting and anticipation, perhaps!?

Later today I will be getting my sewing machine out as I have some mending to do. A couple of months ago we were re-arranging the front room ready for piano lessons and I caught the pocket of one of my smocks under the radiator. I have been meaning to mend it ever since.

And then in the past couple of weeks I have discovered that two of my skirts are going on a seam and one of my favourite dresses has a hole developing so I really need to get these things fixed.

Of course, these are all garments from The Slow Wardrobe and I have had them for years (I think you can tell that in the case of the purple skirt), but I want to keep them going for several more years. It’s all the more important as Linda has moved to France and isn’t currently selling any new clothes! I really can’t imagine wearing anything else on a day to day basis. I can’t decide at the moment whether to patch the dress or try to darn it. Any suggestions welcome!

Making Tracks is now out in issue 222 of The Knitter! It looks great on the model.

This is the jumper I was writing about earlier in the year where it took me three tries to get the sleeves exactly the way I wanted them. The yarn quantities are quite large because it was designed as a man’s jumper and therefore the body and sleeves are longer than might be expected in a woman’s garment. As long as you have completed all the sleeve increases you can make the sleeves the length *you* want them to be. The same goes for the body. When I republish this as an individual pattern in six months I think I will add in additional length measurements for body and sleeves for female sizing charts as well, and include yarn quantities if following these length measurements.

The knitted gnome is complete and will be delivered to his new home at the end of the week. I’m very pleased with how it turned out! I think I will make one for us to keep as well, maybe reversing the colours.

I completed my tech editing course last week!

As well as this badge I have a certificate and now I just need some people who would like me to edit their knitting patterns!

Our final yarn show of the year is happening soon! On Saturday December 13th we will be at Yuletide Yarnies at Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings. There will be mince pies and live music too! £5 for advance tickets bought online or £7.50 on the door.

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Gremlins and Gnomes

If you are a monthly newsletter subscriber you will have received an email yesterday telling you about some website issues I have been having. My contact form has been the target of spam bots and it’s been causing me a few issues that also affected my email list. Late morning yesterday I asked for assistance from the “Happiness Engineers” at WordPress, specifically asking for help from a person rather than an AI. The person who was assigned my case was amazing. They stayed online with me, ensuring they understood what my problem was, suggesting solutions, walking me through installing them and even checking to see if they’d worked in the desired way. When the original solutions didn’t work they went back to see what other options there might be. All in all this took about five hours! But I am very hopeful that these issues have been resolved. It wasn’t quite how I had been intended to spend the majority of Monday, but with any luck, it will have been worth it.

The main pic of today’s post is part of the front garden which is looking good in the cold, crisp sunshine. The fuchsia is having a major prune now we’ve had a hard frost which killed the flowers. I still find it hard to believe that the rosemary giant grew from one sprig of rosemary cut from a bush in the back garden that we just shoved into the ground. It’s looking a big ragged round the edges these days, so it may be time for a front garden refresh in the spring.

I’m glad to say Mum is out of hospital and improving. The knitted gnome from the book The Gnomes of Grimblewood that I am making for her is also coming along. Yesterday evening I finished the body and also made the arms, nose and beard. Once the beard is dry I will be able to complete it.

I am glad I asked Becci of RiverKnits exactly what she had used for the weighted stuffing in the bottom of her gnome when I saw hers on display at Stollen & Wolle (dried red lentils) and decided to use the same. It’s given the gnome a good stability without being too solid.

During the week I’ve also been playing with a ball of Zauberball yarn that I’ve had in my stash for a very long time. I decided to see how the long stripes worked with a simple moebius cowl. It’s a sized up version of what we knit in my moebius workshop, using 3mm needles and 4ply yarn over 400 sts rather than 5mm needles and aran yarn over 120 sts! The stripes in the yarn have a mirror image repeat, so using them in a moebius means you get twice as many colour changes as just knitting straight – I like it.

I’ll be teaching this technique again in February at the North West Winter Wool Festival in Blackpool on Sunday 15th February. The workshop is 2.5 hours, costs £36 and includes yarn, needles and handouts.

I’ve spoken a little about the tech editing course I’ve been taking. I’m on the final module now and I’ve learnt a lot. There are several things that will be useful for me as a designer as well, which is a double bonus. Once I’ve completed the course, the next step will be to find some people who would like me to tech edit their patterns!

On Thursday the new issue of The Knitter magazine (Issue 222) comes out and there will be a garment in it designed by me. I really enjoyed working on this garment – it’s been in the pipeline for quite some time. It was originally envisaged as a unisex item, was commissioned as a man’s jumper (and so was designed as such using male sizing charts), and finally was photographed on a female model – bringing the whole thing full circle! I’ve seen one of the photos and it looks great. When the rights return to me in six months I’ll also be asking which of my male friends has a 40″ chest and if I can photograph the jumper on them too!

That’s all from me for today. Until next week, take care and do some stuff that makes you happy. K x

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Going round in circles – or squares

Recently I have been enjoying the simplicity of crocheting a large granny square with a set sequence of colours. I can relax and as long as I can count to three it pretty much sorts itself out. Mind you, the counting bit isn’t foolproof!

It’s steadily and slowly growing which is good. I’m still not entirely convinced whether or not the two darkest shades of green are in fact the same colour – I think they might be, but as long as I keep to the sequence I’ve chosen it doesn’t actually matter.

This urge for simplicity may surprise you as I am more known for my love of knitting quite detailed and sometimes complex things. There has been a bit of that too. I’ve finished the new sample of my Prime Cowl and love this colour combo. I still haven’t got it listed on the website – apologies for that. I will get it on there soon.

It did languish in the sink for about 5 hours yesterday evening as I had forgotten I’d left it to soak. I don’t think it minded.

I also began this yesterday:

It’s a knitted gnome from the book The Gnomes of Grimblewood by Sarah Schira and it’s intended for my mum. Don’t worry, she doesn’t use the internet so she won’t see this. What you can see so far is the hat and the start of the body. The arms, nose and beard will be knitted separately and sewn on.

I’ve gradually started updating the website, beginning with events – I’ve added two more yarn shows to the listings this morning. There are several more and some workshops at the yarn shows to be added as well. The next event we are at is Stollen & Wolle at the RiverKnits studio in Weedon Bec this Sunday. It’s open from 10-4 and entry is just £5. If you are coming, please try to get an advance ticket as this greatly helps their caterers.

Also still languishing is my 4ply What Do Points Make? which is still waiting to be blocked. However, since I saw someone’s recent post that said their’s had waited two months for 15 minutes of sewing up (the two short side seams), I know I’m not alone here. It will get done. It won’t be ready by Sunday for Stollen & Wolle, but hopefully it will be ready by mid-December for Yuletide Yarnies at the Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings which is our last show of 2025.

I hope you all have a good week and if you come to Stollen & Wolle on Sunday, please say hello. K x