Tag: Spinning

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Peek At You!

I said it might be finished by this week, didn’t I? The individual pieces were all complete by the weekend, but it took until today for me to sit down and sew it all together. One of the hardest things, strangely enough, was cutting out the felt pieces and glueing them into position. That right eye (the white part) had to be stuck on four times before it decided to stay put!

If you play Pokemon Go you might appreciate Pikachu’s pose in the featured image above – for those of you who don’t, sometimes they pop up in the corner of photographs!

Pikachu Front
Pikachu Back

There’s actually enough yarn and stuffing to make at least one more, although I used all the felt supplied. I won’t be making another one yet though – a 2.5mm crochet hook can be quite hard on the hands.

Buxton Wool Gathering is just under four weeks away now! I love the new social media images that have been shared with the exhibitors by the organisers. That crown on the sheep is very jaunty and a nicely subtle nod to the yarn show now being on the Coronation weekend. The show itself is on Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday – do come!

An important point to note is that the 10am opening is for folk who have bought their ticket in advance – if you want to buy a ticket at Buxton Pavilion on the day, you’ll be able to from 11am on both days.

I finished my current spinning this week. I think it’s come out at about an aran weight, which is what I was aiming for. I’ll check it soon against my yarn gauge. The colours are not ones I usually go for, but I really love how it’s turned out. ‘Faded Blooms’ is a really good name for it, don’t you think? The fibre came from FibreHut and it’s 100% Bluefaced Leicester Wool, which is brilliant to spin with.

Last week we had a lovely trip to Bodnant Garden – making use of our National Trust membership. We walked nearly all the way down to the bottom of the gardens and I felt very brave crossing the water on a set of stepping stones. I’m not sure I’d have been brave enough without the handrail there too though! The magnolias, rhododendrons and camellias were absolutely beautiful – and some of them are VAST!

The swathes of daffodils (or should that be ‘hosts’?) across the meadows were also gorgeous and very varied and it inspired me to photograph all of ours once we got back home.

This is one of my favourite new daffodils. It’s got real ‘attitude’ and is quite large too so we can see it clearly from the kitchen even though it’s at the bottom of the garden. I think it’s ‘Boscoppa‘.

The knitting is coming along well. Re-reading last week’s blog post I saw that I was just about to cast on the body of my latest design last Tuesday. Well, I’ve knitted the whole body now (some of it twice) and today I’ve written the pattern for the sleeves, so they will be started next! It’s been quite a number of years since I’ve knitted a child’s garment and I’d forgotten just how quickly they grow.

This coming Thursday (13th April) sees Issue 188 of The Knitter hit the newsstands which includes Part Four of Branwen Knit-along Shawl. Subscribers probably have their copy of the mag already! If you’re knitting this shawl, do share your progress on social media – or even by email! On social media, add the tag #KathAndrewsDesigns and I’ll be sure to see it. There’s one final part left to be published after this one. If the weather continues as it is today for much longer (cold, wet, very windy) knitters making this cosy DK shawl will be very glad of the growing shawl on their knees as they knit!

By the way, my sourdough starter is behaving a bit more reliably, but it’s still taking nearly 24 hours to not quite double in size. It needs a bit more TLC, but we’ll get there.

That’s all for today. I hope you stay warm and dry, and get to do some things that make you happy this week. K x

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Spring is Here

I’m so glad I took photos of the snow last week as it’s quite hard to believe how much the weather has changed in just a few days! More daffodils have started to bend their necks and open their flowers and there has even been warmth in the air, which the bees have been enjoying as well.

The dentist was able to sort me out last week too – such a relief and they had this magic blue light that set the filling instantly. No injection and no numbness either. Amazing! All the same, I’m hoping not to go back until September!

The cardigan is coming on a treat. I still can’t show you it, but I’m partway through the second sleeve and then I just need to do the border that goes up the edge of one side of the front, round the back of the neck and down the other side.

Knitting this sample has really got me thinking about the difference in knitting for different sizes. The sample is a size 10. I’m not. (No, really? What a surprise!) It’s been so quick to knit the sections of this garment and has used far less yarn than making the garment in my own size would have done. The volume of yarn required also affects the cost (and viability) of making the garment for a knitter. If a ‘big and beautiful’ (as Maggie Righetti gorgeously describes us in her brilliant book “Sweater Design in Plain English“) knitter wants to make a garment, it’s a much bigger (pun intended) investment than for someone working at the other end of the sizing table. The design therefore needs to be appealing, enjoyable to knit, flattering and to FIT properly. This cardigan includes 10 sizes – but these cover TWENTY dress sizes, to fit busts from 28-66” and I’m making very good use of what I learnt during the “A Masterclass on Grading” course to ensure that the garment works properly at each size. Grading truly is a cross between a science and an art.

Anyway, on to things I CAN show you!

I’ve been spinning again. This is the second braid of this luscious fibre, in a colourway called “Faded Blooms” from Fibrehut. The first is all spun up into singles and once this one is done I shall ply the two together. I’m really enjoying creating something a bit more substantial – although I do have to remind myself every now and then not to allow the fibre to draft too finely!

I’ve also been putting some yarn on eBay. I know, it sounds like selling your children, doesn’t it?

There’s been quite a bit of interest already, including some very cheeky offers, but the bidding has begun which is very encouraging with another 5 days left to run on the listings. This very lovely yarn is discontinued and has been for a long time. That means I can’t design with it and the one pattern I have used it for (and why I bought more, in two colours) is one of mine that has not been published. You can tell from the pics that it was made a while ago, while I was studying for my City and Guilds in Hand Knit Textiles (so, about 10 or 11 years ago!). It was one of my assessment pieces. I loved the sweater and I still love the design, but I’ll need to rework it in a different yarn if I want to publish it.

I’d like to publish it, but it will be quite an undertaking. The original single size, designed specifically to fit me, had some quite complex shaping in the bust (dart increases AND short rows) and I’d need to think very carefully about how to handle that in a multi-size pattern. I think going with different shaping options will probably be what I end up doing – I might have that as a goal to complete by the end of next year.

We took more photos at the weekend of knitting (and some of it was airborne!). I’ll be sending my third shawl to RiverKnits in the next day or two and wanted to get some shots of it of my own so I can start to share sneak peeks in the lead up to the release (intended to be in May). Here’s a close-up of one of the pics. I love the way the Chimera yarn (the lighter, more variegated one) works with the Nene 4-ply. This photo gives you a sense of the fabric, but not of the shape!

I started using my ChiaGoo shorties knitting needles for the first time at the end of last week too – I’m beginning a new pair of socks for my lovely wife. I’ll share progress and thoughts on the needles with you next week. I think they might take a bit of getting used to.

Have a good week, stay safe and do something that makes you happy, K x

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Everything Happens at Once

It’s been a productive week and one that got busier as it went along! It seems as though my work is building momentum currently and that’s really quite exciting. This wouldn’t have been possible while I was a full-time school teacher as I just wasn’t able to put the time in to yarn-based stuff to get things happening.

The socks are finished as I intended and, as you can see, they fit me really well. I can’t wear them ‘properly’ yet as I want to use them as a teaching aid at my sock workshops at Yarn O’clock on Thursday and there wouldn’t be time to wash and dry them between now and Thursday evening. The yarn is from RiverKnits – it’s the cormo wool 4-ply version of their 2022 Open Day Special yarn, dyed with Lola from Third Vault Yarns, and the colourway is called ‘Ankh Morpork’. The pattern is the basic sock pattern I always use for me; 2.25mm needles, 80 stitches to cast on, rib for a while, stocking stitch for a while, heel flap, heel turn, gusset decreases to 68 or 72 sts (68 in this case), work foot straight for a bit, toe decreases, graft. What some people call a ‘vanilla’ sock.

Yesterday’s beginner knitting class went well. It was still just the one lady attending and she got on really well. I forgot to take a photo of her bunting triangle, so instead, here’s a pic of the one I made. She did some extra eyelet rows in hers too! I rather like the extra eyelets – it keeps it interesting and add extra practice of yarn overs too! Our next class will be in two weeks, with the focus on using knit and purl stitches to create texture. I’ll be adding it as an event to Facebook to see if that helps encourage folk to book a place.

I chose my next fibre and started spinning it. I’ve got 200g of this lovely Bluefaced Leicester wool. It’s dyed by FibreHut and the colourway is called ‘Faded Blooms’ which I think suits it well. As I’ve got more fibre to play with, I decided to spin this one a little thicker. The singles are (mostly) coming out around a DK weight and I’m hoping the plied yarn will be somewhere between an aran and a chunky weight. I do need to concentrate to avoid drifting back to spinning finely though. It’s certainly eating up the fibre more quickly spinning this way!

The final section of our mystery knit-along, Am Byth, was published on Friday and I’ve done two videos to help folk with certain technical aspects. One was for the 5 stitches to 1 stitch decrease and I’ve been absolutely astounded at how many views it has had on Twitter – at the time of writing, over 1700! I will add this one to the website as well. The other video I recorded was for one of the cast-off options. it’s a sewn cast-off that gives a fabulous finish to a ribbed fabric, but it’s not one that everyone knows.

Also, now the larger cables are complete, can you see why I called it ‘Am Byth’? Am byth is Welsh for ‘forever’, and these closed cables look like the eternity symbol (when you hold the knitting on its side!).

I’ve also started getting ready for Buxton Wool Gathering – which is now less than four weeks away!! These are the filing cases I transport and store my printed patterns in and I’ve been going through my patterns spreadsheet, deciding which patterns I need more copies of, and I started printing more out today. The next thing to do is to go through the kits and see what I’ve got and what I could do with replenishing. Although, at a pretty big yarn show (there will be 54 vendors) it’s not as if folk won’t be able to get some gorgeous yarns from the other stalls to knit my designs with.

Part Two of Branwen is in the new issue of The Knitter that is in the shops from Thursday. It’s a knit-along shawl (but not a mystery) using West Yorkshire Spinners Fleece. It’s a lovely DK yarn made with Bluefaced Leicester wool. There are three more parts to the pattern after this one, and I will of course be publishing the whole pattern once I receive the rights back. This also means that if you want to read the interview with me in Issue 185 you have one day left to visit WHSmith and buy a copy!

Yesterday I had two more design submissions accepted which is lovely and very exciting, and one of the reasons for added busying! I set up the Excel spreadsheet for the first one that’s due and started working on that this afternoon. I bet you didn’t know designing knitting patterns was so glamorous, eh?! Seriously though, it’s amazing how much easier the process is with a few formulae up my sleeve – it helps turns one set of numbers into ten far more quickly than I could ever do on my own. Afterwards, I go through it all and make sure it’s still elegant and all the sizes represent the design concept ‘authentically’. Wow, that sounds a bit pretentious, but it basically means if you have a sweater with a design where, for example, a cable hits the shoulder just by the neckline in one size, it needs to be positioned so that it hits the shoulder in the same place in all the sizes. The geek in me loves playing with the numbers to make it all work.

There have been one or two less fabulous things that have happened this week too – but that’s the way of the world, isn’t it? One of the things was that I broke ANOTHER tooth this morning whilst eating my breakfast. At least I already have a dentist appointment in two weeks… I think I need to go back to porridge oats stirred through plant-based yoghurt, it’s far less hazardous than a bowl of cereal!

Anyway, take care one and all and don’t go clicking any links in your notifications until you’re absolutely certain you know who it’s from! And do something that makes you happy this week. K x

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Winter Winds

A middle aged white woman with vibrant blue hair and a purple coat stands on Llandudno Pier with the Great Orme and the sea in the background. Round her neck is a hand knitted shawl, wrapped like a scarf, in bands of gradient turquoise garter stitch and cream garter stitch lace. Her hair is being blown all around by the wind.

We went to Llandudno on Sunday. Our main mission was to photograph Llandudno Promenade. on the pier and also on the promenade. Sue even lay down on the slipway to photograph the shawl flying as I threw it in the air above her. We hadn’t banked on it being *quite* so windy and cold, but we had a lot of fun. We also managed to get lunch at The Cottage Loaf which warmed us up a treat afterwards!

The shaw pattern is now with my tech editor and it should be having a relaunch in the second half of February.

Part Two of Am Byth MKAL was released on Friday and the photo below shows you Part One and a little bit more. I even did a little video to help folk with the 1-5 increase that is used during Part Two. If you are joining in with the MKAL and want some help with that, head to my Free Video Tutorials pages.

Two typos were discovered in the Special Stitches section (not the pattern itself, just the explanation of two of the cables) of Am Byth MKAL Part Two. It’s really annoying when these slip through, but it’s been corrected and the new version has been sent out to all those who signed up for email updates. If you missed it, the instructions affected are 2/2 RPC and 2/1 RPC which had the knits and purls the wrong way round (doh!). They should read as follows:

  • 2/2 RPC          Sl 2 sts to CN and hold at back, k2, p2 from CN
  • 2/1 RPC          Sl 1 st to CN and hold at back, k2, p1 from CN

Do keep sharing progress if you are knitting along with us using the hashtags #AmBythMKAL and #Yomkal.

Yesterday afternoon I spent a couple of hours at Caffi isa, having a cup of tea (which turned into two!) and working on one of my current projects. The time spent away from other distractions was clearly helpful as last night I cast the shawl off and I blocked it this morning! This is Petulia, the third of my shawl designs for RiverKnits. As you can see it’s two colour brioche knitting and it has THE best shape – it’s just SO funky. The lighter coloured yarn is Chimera and the darker yarn is Nene 4-ply – both of which are fabulous yarns to work with.

I’m working on the chart now – brioche charts are always fun – and I’m thinking of including the sketch I used to work from as well as the chart and the written pattern. It’s a little bit like the idea of Stitchmaps, but simplified even more to give just the details of the movement of lines on the right side/light coloured rows (increases, decreases etc).

Keep an eye out for Petulia, as this shawl will hopefully be coming out in the next few months (once the charts, pattern, tech editing and photography are done).

The reason for my being at Caffi isa yesterday was so that anyone who was interested in Knitting for Beginners classes could come and have a chat with me or even have a mini taster session to see if they were interested. Actually, the one person who did come (hi Bev!) wanted to ask advice about picking up for thumbs on mitts and gloves. She’d seen my announcement that I’d be there on social media and thought she’d see if I had a spare five minutes. Well, I certainly did! Hence the second cup of tea and a lovely chat. I’m hoping to get some bookings in the next couple of days, otherwise I’ll probably need to postpone. Anyone can book a place by emailing me at kathandrewsdesigns@icloud.com or sending me a message on Facebook or Instagram.

My Sealy MacWheely fibre is now fully fledged yarn, skeined, washed and dried. I think it looks fantastic, even though there are occasional places in the yarn where the ply isn’t quite as even as you might wish for – but it is hand-spun, so it’s not meant to look the same as commercially spun yarn, is it?

Now I just need to decide which fibre I’m going to spin next!

I know I showed you this embroidery last week, but I’ve actually managed to make quite a lot of progress with it and have found the right angle for the photograph to show the stitches I’ve been doing! I’ve been working on the white and very pale beige stitches (beige currently on the needle here). If it wasn’t for the daylight magnifying lamp I wouldn’t have a hope, but these colours are (whisper it) nearly done and it *should* be a little bit easier with darker/brighter threads.

I shall be taking this with me tomorrow to Mum’s so she can see it in person, along with the current issue of The Knitter (my design is on the cover, did I mention that!?), and my Am Byth. I should probably take my socks in progress too as they are not going to finish themselves! I’m only there until Friday and there will be a lot of other things to do, but I don’t want to get caught out again like I was that other time, when I only took one project and finished it the first evening I was there!

I also made blackcurrant jam this week – but I forgot to photograph it. It’s VERY good, even though the blackcurrants had been in the freezer since July 2021…

Anyway, that’s all from me for now. Take care, stay warm and do some stuff that makes you happy this week. K x

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Ta-da!

The most exciting news for me this week has to be the publication of The Knitter, issue 185 last Thursday. See that shawl on the cover? That’s Branwen, my design, and it’s a five part knit-along that is begin run during this and the next four issues! Part One is in this month’s magazine. It’s the top centre section of the shawl (in green). It’s a DK weight shawl, using West Yorkshire Spinners Fleece (2 skeins of cream and 3 skeins of green) and it’s sooo soft and cosy! Once I’d bought my copy of the mag in WHSmith’s I wanted to go round the town showing it to everyone and saying – look! I made that!

But not only that, this video shows you a glimpse of the (three page!) interview with lots of pics of my designs and lots about me, my designing, inspiration etc. If you ever wanted to know where it all began, this article will tell you!

Speaking of knit-alongs, this is the completed Part One of Am Byth MKAL. Also, a DK weight project, this one only uses one skein. You can see the design taking shape now, but can you work out what the project is going to be yet? All will be revealed on Friday, when Part Two is released.

I’ve had a burst of activity with my spinning in the past week. I finished spinning the braid into singles on Sunday, and today I chain plied the whole lot! The thing about chain plying is that as you are making a big loop in one hand to catch and pull the strand of yarn from the bobbin through (to form the next big loop – it’s like really fast giant finger knitting), you’re using the other hand to control the twist and your feet are working the treadles. I tend to find that the singles yarn tries to turn and twist back on itself when I’m getting going, until I get a regular rhythm going, at which point I don’t want to stop and have it all tangle up again!. This is partly because the singles are spun (twisted) in one direction and this makes the yarn unbalanced. Plying twists the yarn in the opposite direction which balances the twist and gives you a yarn that doesn’t want to turn into nightmare corkscrews.

I’m pleased with how the chain plied yarn has come out. The clear shift from one colour to the next has been maintained which I wanted, with a subtle blending of colours in places. It’s a little thicker than I was hoping for, but considering it is a 3-ply structure it’s pretty good. About a sock weight I think, but I’ll check it later once it’s been washed. I absolutely love the colours – the fibre was dyed by Sealy MacWheely.

Finally, there is some progress on mum’s picture embroidery that you can actually see! I’ve done (nearly) all of the column on the right hand side which was half a page wide (20 stitches) and three and a bit pages long (190 stitches) and I’ve made a start on the next full page width to the left. The sections where there are more colours, such as the bottom right corner, are much more interesting, but take so much more concentration – and there are about 40 different colours in that section, so it’s quite hard to keep track of as well.

I baked my first sourdough loaf of the year today as well. Audrey 2 (my starter), was living up to her name after going into semi-hibernation over Christmas, and it took a lot of feeding to get her active again! It’s a good loaf, although I dived into it for lunch before I took any pics (don’t worry, it isn’t all gone!). I shall have to remember to photograph the next one before slicing it.

There are still spaces available on my Knitting for Beginners workshops!

These are due to start on Feb 6th 1-3pm at Caffi Isa in Mynydd Isa, near Mold, Flintshire. If you or anyone you know fancies learning to knit in a small group, in a relaxed setting with access to tea/coffee and cake, contact me to book a space!

This is what we’ll be making (these are Knitting for Beginners workshops 1, 2 & 3 on my Group Workshops Tuition page):

There are also some spaces on the workshops I am giving at Yarn O’clock, but they are booking up fast! In brief they are:

  • Introduction to Socking Knitting, 16th February, 6.30-9pm
  • Stranded Colourwork, 7th March, 6.30-9pm
  • Finishing Techniques, 18th April, 6.30-9pm
  • Moebius Knitting, 18th May, 6.30-9pm

Full details are on my “Where I’ll Be” page and also on Yarn O’clock‘s website. Contact Anne to book a space on one of these.

Just before I sign off I want to tell you that I am sitting here typing this in the dark, running the laptop from the battery. There’s no problem; we’ve signed up to take part in the energy reduction trials that are happening. There was one from 5-6pm yesterday, today is 4.30-6pm. It’s amazing how many things are on or on standby all the time even when we only use them for a small part of the day. Or rather, I should say how many things were on or on standby. They’re not now – I’ve been going round unplugging stuff or switching it off at the wall! (Just like my dad – but then he used to unplug the tv aerial every night as well) The multi-sockets that each have their own switch are proving handy too. It’s also striking how much quieter the house is, which is interesting as I never really considered ‘things plugged in’ to have a noise, but I suppose they must!

Anyway, take care, stay warm. Dw i eisiau un deg un paned! (I want eleven cups of tea). Tell me what you’ve been making lately. K x

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Turning The Lights On

It’s just turned 4pm, I need the main light on to see what I’m doing and it’s getting really foggy outside. This morning there was bright sunshine and a pale blue sky as I walked up to town for an appointment. For myself, I’m glad the fog waited until now, but I’m sure those driving in it as it gets even darker won’t be thinking that way. (The photo for today’s blog was taken at 5pm – very dark and still foggy. Yes, it seems it does take me an hour to write this!)

I have good news! I went with the concept of the Nevern Lap Blanket with full joining instructions, rather than just a set of six charts as an expansion pack for Nevern Throw, and today the pattern has gone live on KnitPicks‘ website! You can find the pattern here.

As it’s been published as part of the KnitPicks’ Independent Designer Program(me), there is no exclusivity period before I can also publish it here on my website, and on Payhip, Ravelry and Lovecrafts. It will be going live on my platforms on December 9th – and newsletter subscribers will be hearing from me next Monday with details of their special new pattern discount code.

I’m waiting until December 9th as that is just after the Fasten Off Yarn-a-long sale period ends and I can a proper ‘launch’ with the bells and whistles.

And shortly after this, likely around December 16th, Ceridwen will be launched as an individual pattern!

There will be a subscriber code for this too, so if you’re not a newsletter subscriber, but you’d like discount on either of these patterns, now is definitely the time to sign up!

Speaking of the Fasten Off YAL, I cast on and completed my first purchased pattern from the yarn-a-long today! It’s a mosaic stitch coaster called Jasmine Tea Coaster by Arella Seaton, a designer I’ve not come across before. Mosaic stitch is a technique I’d never tried previously and once I understood the concept it was quite straightforward and very satisfying and the pattern was really well written and clear. I think this coaster will definitely be getting some friends.

One of the brilliant things about the database that has been put together for Fasten Off YAL is that it is fully searchable. You can search by designer, by type of pattern, by yarn, by technique and so on. You can also search by inclusivity features such as patterns for low vision. There are 109 designers taking part this year and ALL their available patterns are in the database, not just the ones they’ve included in the 25% discount period; that’s well over 4300 patterns for knitting, crochet, loom knitting and Tunisian crochet, with over 3500 eligible for a discount using the code FO2022!

Several designers are putting together collages of some of their designs, such as this one I posted yesterday. The globe/yarn ball in the centre with the crochet hook and knitting needle through it is the Fasten Off YAL logo.

Even if you don’t want to get involved with the games and social media side of the YAL, it’s a great resource and a wonderful way to find ‘new to you’ designers. AND the databases for 2021 and 2020 are still available to search as well.

I’ve joined seven extra rows of hexiflats on to my Beekeeper Quilt. That’s 161 hexagons added in total, all with the yarn ends from the joins at each corner hidden inside them. I don’t even want to think about how many ends of yarn that adds up to, but it is looking really good. I haven’t got a photo of the ‘updated version’ yet, but I’ll be sure to take one to show you next week.

At the beginning November when I set my monthly goals I wrote that (among many other things) I wanted to finish my socks, finish the Safe Space embroidery, spin at least three times a week and go out for a walk daily. I’ve achieved the spinning goal and the walking goal has been partly achieved. I’ve walked 20 days out of 29 so far. I’m not sure you’ll see much difference in the amount of yarn on the bobbin since the last photo of my spinning wheel – the photo on the right is from today.

The socks are still very much in the singular (and I haven’t finished that one yet…), so a definite fail on that goal and, while the Safe Space embroidery won’t be finished either, there has been a lot of progress! It now looks like this:

I think that when I go December’s monthly goals in a couple of days I will need to be a touch more realistic about what can be achieved. And remember that these things are in addition to my work goals!

Take care out there folks. K x

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Roses in November

“Another unseasonable season” – a line from the song Roses in November by Tret Fure on her album Roses in November. The song is from 2018, but it sounds very current. We do have roses still – and having deadheaded the rose bushes last week some flower buds are getting ready to burst. It’s a very odd feeling going out for a walk in only a cardigan at this time of year.

There are at least three designs that I’m working on at the moment, and it’s so frustrating that I can’t share pics of these with you. But I can tell you that they are going well. I’m also hoping to get the Nevern Throw Expansion Pack up by the end of the month!

Back in 2013 I started a Beekeeper’s Quilt. This is a design by Tiny Owl Knits. Each of the hexagons is intended to be stuffed and I did indeed stuff them to start with, but I didn’t like the overall effect, so I created lots of ‘hexiflats’ instead of ‘hexipuffs’.

The idea of this blanket was to use up leftover sock yarn. I ‘finished’ the blanket in April 2014, but of course you never really run out of sock yarn leftovers, so I carried on making hexiflats and kept them in the bottom of my leftovers bag.

Last weekend we were moving the furniture around, doing a bit more of a deep clean in one corner of the lounge, partly in preparation for the great rearrangement of furniture that will come in two weeks’ time (hint: we put the tree up on Advent Sunday. Yes, it is that soon!). Having moved the bag of leftover sock yarn I thought it would be a good idea to check on the hexiflats. There were quite a lot more than I thought – 173! These hexagons are more than ready to be joined onto the blanket. The joining process is really straightforward and my plan is to get them added on this week.

Llandudno Promenade, one of my shawl designs, is having a make-over. There’s nothing wrong with the pattern, but it currently uses a yarn that is 450m/100g and the minis are 90m/20g. This isn’t the most common length for 4ply mini skeins (which is 80m/20g), so I’m re-knitting it on slightly smaller needles and will adjust the pattern where necessary so that it will work with more widely available mini skeins. I also really like the colours of the new yarn – I’m using RiverKnits’ Nene Minis Turquoise Gradient and Garthenor Organic Presseli. I think these colours match Llandudno Promenade far better as well!

My fine spinning is definitely getting more consistent – it’s not completely the same all the way through, but when it’s plied it will be a really nice yarn to knit with. This is blue faced Leicester wool dyed by Sealy MacWheely, that I bought at Wonderwool in April.

This afternoon I signed up as a designer for the Fasten Off Yarn-a-long 2022. Last year’s event was a lot of fun and I hope that this year will be even more so! FOYAL runs from 25th November until the end of December and involves lots of independent knitting and crochet designers offering 25% discount on some or all of their Off-Ravelry designs as well as lots of online social interaction. You can find out more on the Fasten Off Yarn-a-long website.

The Safe Space cross stitch is really coming along now. It’s amazing how much progress you can make when you do a bit each day (shock, horror!). There are another 9 blocks/flags to do and then the ‘Welcome’ sign in the middle with the blackwork section.

Do you remember me telling you about my embroidery floss storage? I tried to do the second drawer for my Anchor threads, but I had to re-do it last week. There were two reasons for this. Firstly this drawer is deeper than the top one and the dividers needed to be taller. I hadn’t noticed this before I made them and the fuller sections were trying to overflow onto their neighbours. Secondly, the cereal box I used just wasn’t the same quality cardboard and the dividers were floppy. It seems trivial, but it made a big difference. If you are going to try making similar drawer dividers I highly recommend the boxes that Harvest Morn Bran Flakes from Aldi come in. (The bran flakes are fantastic too and one third the price of Kellogg’s!). I used the fronts and backs only. One box was enough for the shallower top drawer but I needed three pieces of card for the deeper middle one. It’s a lovely little old chest of drawers that Mum has passed on to me and I really enjoy using it for my embroidery threads.

That’s all from me for today. The Welsh learning is continuing on Duolingo and I’m trying to use it a bit, but the thought of actually speaking to someone is scary in case they then launch into a whole conversation that I can’t follow! Anyway, here’s a true sentence about me in Welsh: Dw i ddim yn bwyta cig, ond dw i mwynhau llysiau. – I do not eat meat, but I do enjoy vegetables.

Take care one and all. Until next week, K x

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Finishing the Hat

It’s dark outside and has been for a while now – the rain and wild windiness that was promised for our part of North Wales arrived with a vengeance. Fortunately the rain part of it didn’t really get going until I had finished driving back from Mum’s (although the wind on the M54 and A5 was getting very determined!), so I was able to get my stuff out of the car without getting too soaked! That’s why this week’s post is a day late – sorry!

This week I’m going to show you some finished things – and only one is knitting (as the other two things I’ve been working on are secret…!)

Incidentally, the title of today’s blog is the name of one of the songs from ‘Sunday in the Park with George‘ by Sondheim. It’s totally recognisable as Sondheim as soon as it starts – definitely worth a listen. Yes, I’m still aiming to give the vast majority of my blog posts song titles – it’s quite a fun challenge to find something that fits each week.

My Morph hat is done!! I’ve shared quite a lot of the progress of this hat, designed by Woolly Wormhead, with you. It’s part of their new Cuboidal collection of 8 hats that are all created from mitred squares. My first photo was from October 11th, with just the crown complete and the first round of the body started. The body grew and the brim was added and so the knitting part of it was complete. At this stage I wasn’t wholly convinced about it as a hat as it seemed so enormous – but I could see great potential in it as a bag if I just added a strap! And then I followed Woolly’s instructions to complete the envelope of the crown and all of a sudden it made sense.

I can see myself wearing this in the house this winter while I’m working – it can get chilly in the study as there is an under house cupboard below it running the full length of the room – this hat will keep the warmth in on my head very nicely!

And I’ve been doing more spinning. This was something I committed myself to doing in October. I didn’t manage every day, but I did spin on more days than not and I now have some gorgeous yarn to show for it. I started spinning this fibre in July. It was 200g of undyed Polwarth that I had bought at Fibrehut, just outside Evesham. Being 200g (so double a ‘standard’ amount) makes me feel less bad about it taking so long! I love the way the fibre changes as it’s spun into singles, then plied, skeined, washed and twisted up as the final yarn. This particular yarn fairly exploded into fluffiness after having a wash.

The last finished thing I’m going to share with you today is our pumpkin. You may have seen it already on social media already. It’s the first time I’ve tried this ‘surface carving’ rather than trying to go all the way through the pumpkin and I do like the detail that’s possible, but I think a better tool than a blunt paring knife would be a good idea. I’ve seen people online talking about using lino cutting tools and that seems ideal, so maybe I’ll try that out next year!

It would probably have been a good idea to draw an outline first, but I went straight to the pumpkin with the tip of the knife and then realised that whatever I’d cut was staying cut! The candle didn’t shine through very well initially, so I used a spoon to make the wall of the pumpkin thinner where the picture was by scraping layers of pumpkin out. The final lit result was quite pleasing and it certainly encouraged the trick or treaters to knock on our door!

Actually, there is one more thing I want to tell you about today.

I have been donating a digital pattern of choice to the raffles being held by Treasure Chest YGC (that’s Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, or Glad Clwyd Hospital). The charity’s aim is to support and raise funds for patients had/having surgery or treatment for Breast Cancer in Glan Clwyd Hospital, Denbighshire. The raffles are open on Sundays for 23 hours. They also have a JustGiving page that is not related to the raffles.

Next Sunday (Nov 6th) is the Christmas raffle and my contribution to the prizes this time is the Mini Socks Advent Calendar pattern. Visit Treasure Chest YGC’s instagram page or their Linktree, to find out more. I think the link for the raffle itself is only there on Sundays.

On that note, check yourselves regularly, and make something that makes you smile. Take care, K x

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Showtime!

We did it!

The PopUp Wool Show on Saturday was definitely a success. The organisers were great and there were even some people on hand to help haul heavy things up the steps when we arrived. I am incredibly grateful to Sue for being such an amazing assistant – and for bringing all the stuff in her car that wouldn’t fit in mine. We were both a little tired when the alarm went at 5am on Saturday morning, having had an interrupted night driving to check Sue’s workplace after the alarm went off at 12.30am… However! We survived and I would bet that none of the lovely people who stopped by the stand would have guessed we were each running on two chunks of less than three hours sleep.

So, today I’m going to show you a few pics from my stand and show you the one thing I bought myself – yes, even though I was running a stand I still managed to buy something!

All these pics were taken early in the morning just as we were finishing setting up (we arrived just after 7.30am and were set up by about 9am), so there will be other folk in the background setting up their stands, and lots of bags and boxes around.

A few vendors were unable to attend due to illness which meant there were some spaces. I ‘cheekily’ offered to take a larger space if it would help fill a gap and surprised myself by filling up a lot more room than I’d anticipated!

From left to right, this was my stand:

With ‘Daisy’ on the left, modelling West Country Gothic and the single colour version of Marianne Half Hap:

The classic bunting across the front of the stand and Calon Cariad at the end in Wool Local. Other designs on this table were Beth March Shawl (which was a lot more popular than I’d anticipated and I ran out of printed copies), Little Orme Hat and Mitts and Heart in my Hands Collection. I love how the covered heads look – so much better!

Nubble Mitts on the top of the mini table were also popular – I sold two kits of that design. They were the first Mystery Knit-along that I did with Yarn O’clock! Next to the mitts is a head wearing Nubble Hat (which you can’t really see) and Mirror Mirror Möbius. At the end of the table is Maid Marion Shawl with another sample of West Country Gothic overlapping it.

Propped up against the second (!) table is a framed set of sheep photos taken and edited by Sue. Aren’t they cute? This table has Anne’s Jubilee bunting across the front and some bunting kits on the end of the table, along with Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary lavender bag kits. Much of this table was used for patterns and for my portfolio, showing the requirements for each of my (50+) designs.

Just in front of Sue is another head form wearing Llanberis and Fiery Dragon Skin Cowl.

The right hand side of the second table has our bare stem tree behind it with the Mini Socks Advent Calendar displayed on it, along with my hand burnt wooden hanging hearts and some beautiful hand turned light pulls that were made by a friend’s dad. In front of the tree are the Advent Calendar kits, coasters and some more stitch marker pots. And, of course, a bottle of hand sanitiser just in shot.

Another sample of Calon Cariad is at the end of the second table (this one in Socks Yeah! that I made during the KAL in February) and in front of that is a folding table I borrowed from Anne. Drifting Leaves is tied on the left and Nos Da is draped over the top. Yarns for these designs fill the ‘shelves’. And what is that to the right…?!?!

This, my friends, is a very Heath Robinson set-up. A small side table with an old-fashioned folding sweater blocker on top of it. This was held securely in place with four bungee cords (cunningly hidden by the knitting). Draped across the arms of the sweater blocker are (L-R): Into the Vortex, Amy March Shawl, Diamonds in the Breeze, Helena Rose Stole, Jo March Scarf and Angel of the North. Below on the table is Croeso Baby Blanket.

It may look a bit as though wash-day has become very fancy, but I wanted to display as many shawls as I could and, without wall space (or any ‘gridwall’), this was my solution – and it worked! (In my defence I did see another stand which was using a clothes airer for the same purpose.) There was a lot of interest as people rounded the corner – they would stop and pick up the corner of a shawl or turn over the brioche scarf to see the reverse side – and often enough that interest turned into a lovely conversation and sometimes even a sale. It was a huge boost to my confidence to hear people’s comments as they looked at my designs too.

My purchase was some incredibly vibrant Bluefaced Leicester fibre to spin. I bought this braid of gorgeous neon green from Wild Field Fibre – do look them up!

I can hardly believe there have only been three days since Saturday! I’ve launched the Mini Socks Advent Calendar pattern online, written a newsletter for subscribers with a discount code, completed an application form for NEXT year’s Pop Up Wool Show, re-printed patterns, reorganised stock, been to IKEA and got some boxes to help create clearly defined kits and allow me to exhibit almost the same amount of items with one table instead of two, reorganised stock again in light of new boxes and knitted some more of nibling’s sock (finished the heel gusset now!).

Tomorrow I have to crack on with my secret knitting project and double check / correct some patterns that have just come back from my tech editor!

And can I remind you about Yarn Gathering?

Social media posts are going to focus quite a lot on this in the next couple of weeks, in particular showcasing each of our vendors in turn – today it’s Trevor Blackburn’s turn. We’d love to see you there.

That’s all for today – it was quite a lot, wasn’t it! And it was quite a show. Take care, K x

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Christmas in July

24 mini socks lie drying in two rows on white foam mats. A larger sock is at the bottom right. The socks are a mix of solid colours, stripes and colour blocks in various combinations of four yarns; purple, pink, red and multicoloured.

The Mini Socks Advent Calendar is almost complete! The socks are knitted, the ends are woven in, the hanging loops have been crocheted and sewn on (and more ends woven in) and they have all had a nice relaxing bath. The measurements and gauge have been taken, the pattern is written up and checked and I’ve decided what order I’m going to hang them in.

A close up of the mini socks drying in two rows on white foam mats. 10 are visible. A larger sock is at the bottom right. The socks are a mix of solid colours, stripes and colour blocks in various combinations of four yarns; purple, pink, red and multicoloured.
Kath Andrews Mini Socks Advent Calendar close-up

Although there are twelve pairs of socks I have decided not to hang them in pairs, but instead following the sequence: solid-striped-colour block. And overlaid on that is another sequence following the colours of the cuffs; red-pink-multi-purple up to the halfway point and then reversed. I like it, but if you make the advent calendar you can hang them in any order you prefer! You could even hang them all separately on a Christmas tree to make the hunt more of a challenge.

All I need now is for the small round kraft labels to arrive so I can tie the numbers on to the hanging loops and string the whole thing together with ribbon and hang it up for some proper photos!

The kits are prepped – I’ll have seven with me at the Pop-up Wool Show – three in the colourway shown, two in a blue/green/purple/multi combo, one in just red and cream and one in blue and cream. All using West Yorkshire Spinners ColourLab DK, with the multicoloured yarns being two of the Zandra Rhodes special colourways.

The Mini Socks Advent Calendar takes 200g of DK yarn and I was able to get the larger Day 25 bonus pattern out of that amount as well, though it might be a push if your gauge is looser.

Kits will be £20 to include the yarn, a printed copy of the pattern, stitch markers and a cotton project bag. The pattern will also be available on its own as it makes a great stash buster!

A small hand knitted sock in stripes of blue, pink and white lies on a pale gold carpet.
Kath Andrews Tipton Sock

I’ve been on a bit of a sock flurry! This is Tipton. It’s small because this version was actually a swatch for a submission, but it’s intended as an adult sized sock. While it wasn’t chosen to be part of the collection I submitted it for, I do like it and have decided to work on the pattern for self-publication. This sample swatch was knitted with CoopKnits Socks Yeah! I’ve had the colours for ages and think they’re now discontinued, so I will need to go on a yarn hunt (what a shame…!) for current yarns in these colours. I’ll tell you more about Tipton another time.

A cross-stitch in progress showing a variety of pride flags
Safe Space by Peppermint Purple in progress

My cross stitch is coming on. Safe Space by Peppermint Purple is a fab design that comes in both cross stitch and blackwork versions and includes a huge variety of pride flags. 50% of the profits from the pattern go to Stonewall as well. Can you see any similarity between one of the flags and Tipton?

An embroidery in progress re-creating a b&w photo of my mum in her twenties
Photo Embroidery of Mum in progress

My intention to complete four more colours this month is stalled – partly as I’m currently working on one of the most prevalent colours. It’s a dark grey which is almost indistinguishable from the black and it’s not easy going on the eyes. I’ve found a good solution to help me not lose my place on the chart in between stitching sessions though – a small post-it with an arrow drawn on it pointing at the last stitch I worked. Using magnetic strips wouldn’t help much with this one as the colours jump around so very much. I think I’ve done more on Safe Space instead as it can be worked without reference to the chart for every single stitch!

A close up of a stranded hand knitted cowl in progress. Main colour is dark red. Black is used for purl stitches in the corrugated ribbing and the morse code poem
Kath Andrews Morse Code Cowl 2

Do you remember the red and black yarn I purchased from The Travel Knitter at the RiverKnits Open Day? It’s halfway to becoming a stranded cowl. The Morse Code Cowl, as I have called it, has one of my lovely wife’s poems translated into Morse code and then converted into a knitting chart. That was a LOT of work, before I could even cast on! But it’s coming on. I am most pleased with the section that isn’t Morse code – the part that will say “Poem, Sue Finch“:

The other side of the hand knitted cowl in progress, showing the poet's name - Sue Finch - worked in black on a dark red background.
Kath Andrews Morse Code Cowl 1

The link on her name will take you to her publishers where you can read some reviews of her first collection, Magnifying Glass. (And you can buy it if you like what you read!).

The last pic I’m going to share with you is one of those roses I rescued last week. They still look might fine in their bowl of water! The orange has changed to a more pinkish shade now and they’ve opened up, completely filling the bowl. It was a really good way to save what otherwise looked like a bunch of flowers destined for the compost.

A glass bowl filled with nine rose heads floating in water. They are orange shading to pink in the centres.
The rescued roses – one week on!

Take care one and all, and look after the folks around you as well as yourselves. And, if you can, go knit something – maybe plan ahead a little!