Tag: Stacked Stitches

Stacked Stitches at Wonderwool Wales, 25th April 2027

You will learn about Stacked Stitches, which is a great technique invented by Xandy Peters. Knitting with stacked stitches, (staking increases or decreases on top of each other within the same row), creates amazing shapes and patterns to your knitting whilst still only using one colour at a time. Fabulous textures can also be achieved.

You will knit a swatch that gradually builds these techniques through repetition and increasing size of stacking and understand how the fabric is constructed.

Date: 25th April

Time: 1pm – 3pm

Level of experience required: Students need to be able to confidently knit, purl, cast on and off and follow a written pattern.

Provided: Yarn and handouts

Cost: £50

Bring with you: 4mm or 4.5mm needles (straight or circular – bring 4.5mm if a tight knitter) and a pen or pencil.

Places available: 8

Stacked Stitches at Wonderwool Wales, 24th April 2027

You will learn about Stacked Stitches, which is a great technique invented by Xandy Peters. Knitting with stacked stitches, (staking increases or decreases on top of each other within the same row), creates amazing shapes and patterns to your knitting whilst still only using one colour at a time. Fabulous textures can also be achieved.

You will knit a swatch that gradually builds these techniques through repetition and increasing size of stacking and understand how the fabric is constructed.

Date: 24th April

Time: 1pm – 3pm

Level of experience required: Students need to be able to confidently knit, purl, cast on and off and follow a written pattern.

Provided: Yarn and handouts

Cost: £50

Bring with you: 4mm or 4.5mm needles (straight or circular – bring 4.5mm if a tight knitter) and a pen or pencil.

Places available: 8

Stacked Stitches at TexStyle, 6th March 2027

Learn about Stacked Stitches, which is a great technique invented by Xandy Peters. Knitting with stacked stitches (stacking increases or decreases on top of each other within the same row) creates amazing shapes and patterns to your knitting whilst still only using one colour at a time. Fabulous textures can also be achieved.

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

Date: Saturday 6th March 2027

Time: 11am – 1pm

Length of Workshop: 2 hours

Cost: £30

Level of Experience: Intermediate

Included: Instructions.

Need to know: cast on, cast off, knit and purl.

Need to bring: 4mm or 4.5mm needles (any type, but non slippy ones are best!), 3-5 colours of DK yarn (small amounts, 5-10g of each is plenty), pen or pencil.

Suitable for Age: 16 years plus.

Stacked Stitches at the North West Winter Wool Festival, 21st February 2027

You will learn about Stacked Stitches, which is a great technique invented by Xandy Peters. Knitting with stacked stitches (stacking increases or decreases on top of each other within the same row) creates amazing shapes and patterns to your knitting whilst still only using one colour at a time. Fabulous textures can also be achieved.

You will also need a ticket for entry to the show on Sunday.

Date: Sunday 21st February 2027

Time: 1.30pm – 3.30pm

Length of Workshop: 2 hours

Cost: £25

Level of Experience: Intermediate

Suitable for Age: 16 plus

Included: Handouts.

Bring with you:  4mm or 4.5mm needles (any type), 3-5 colours of DK yarn (only 5-10g of each colour is needed).

Places currently available: 8

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Twisting

If you follow my social media posts you will know that I drew a winner for a free pair of weekend tickets for the Christmas Wool Show on Saturday and the lucky winner was Barbara. She is very pleased and looking forward to the show. Are you coming to the Christmas Wool Show? It’s at the National Conference Centre, just off Junction 6 of the M42 and is next door to the Motorcycle Museum.

I’ve made up 18 kits using the new Bukom DK from Weku Yarn; 9 of Twisted and 9 of Bryn, with 3 kits in each of the 3 colourways for each design. I’ve even worked out how it’s all going to fit in the car! I’ve also knitted a large Twisted using the cream and Burnt Orange, partly as the small sample used slightly more than the old Poldale DK did (26g rather than 23g) so I wanted to make sure you can make a large one with 50g of each colour. Result – you can! There is just a little left over.

Because of the small quantity of leftovers, I’ve added a little note in with the kits and to the patterns that if your tension is looser than that stated in the pattern, and you are starting to run short of yarn when you get to the garter stitch border, simply miss out the last three rounds and cast off with the light colour. It’ll just mean the border doesn’t have a stripe and is a little narrower.

I took pictures of the new natural/single colour of Tiffany on Sunday morning while the weather was behaving and I love how it’s come out. I used 222g of McIntosh’s BFL 4ply in My Innocence. This new sample of Tiffany and the original rainbow version knitted using 12 mini skeins from RiverKnits will both be with me at the Christmas Wool Show at the weekend.

I have two workshops scheduled at Ewe Felty Thing on Saturday 5th December – Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting 10.30am-12.30pm, Stranded Knitting 1.30pm-3.30pm. If you want to come, please book a place by contacting the shop soon as the shop will only run each workshop if a minimum of four people have booked!

Workshops and tickets for next year’s shows are also available! I need to update my website, but in the meantime, this is what I’m doing in the first part of the year:

North West Winter Wool Show (Blackpool), 20-21st February. Workshops: Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche (Sat 20th Feb, 1.30-3.30pm), Stacked Stitches (Sun 21st Feb, 1.30-3.30pm). Book workshop places by emailing me. Remember you can get a code for a free knitting or crochet pattern when you buy an advance ticket for the show!

TexStyle (Manchester), 5-6th March (Yes, that’s Friday-Saturday). Workshop: Stacked Stitches (Sat 6th March, 11am-1pm). Book workshops on the show website.

Spring Into Wool (Leeds), 3-4th April. No workshop

Wonderwool Wales (Builth Wells), 24-25th April, Workshops: Stacked Stitches, both days, 1-3pm. Book workshops on the show website.

I’m also taking part in the Fasten Off Yarnalong again this year! This is a great event with 77 participating designers, and covers knitting, crochet, Tunisian crochet and loom knitting. There is a 25% discount off selected patterns from all designers between 20th November (that’s in 10 days!) and 3rd December and there will be games (the bingo is great!), interviews with participating designers and stitch and chat events throughout the Yarnalong. Have a look at their website for all the different ways you can join in.

I’ve been busy with my knitting needles again this week (as well as knitting the large Twisted in less than 24 hours!):

Gingerbread is growing. I think the slip stitch pattern is the right length now. The next thing to do is to double check all the maths for the next part of the pattern!

Gwen is growing. I’ve cast on the sleeves and begun the central lace triangle which is where all the shaping in this top occurs!

The pink gnome is nearly finished. I just need to add the dried lentils to weight it properly, finish the stuffing and knit the last few rounds of the base. The beard has been made and I need to knit the nose and attach them both. Pics to follow later on this one!

I also need to mend Sue’s mitts! I can’t find any of the grey yarn I used for the main colour, but I have found the dark red, so the top ribbing is going to be replaced with all dark red yarn I think.

What have you been up to this week? Did you do a little happy dance when you saw the news on Wednesday? (I did!). I hope you get to do something that makes you happy this week. Take care, K x

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What a weekend!

We arrived early at Skipton auction mart. This was a first for us and gave us time to relax after the drive, eat our lunch (and be chased by a wasp) and chat to fellow vendors who were also there early before the roller shutters went up.

We always forget just how big the building is, but you soon remember when you’re wheeling the trolley up and down the aisles! It took us an hour to get everything unloaded out of the cars.

And then set up began! The roll of black fabric we’d bought having seen someone else use it last year was brilliant for covering the sides of the pens and giving us a backdrop – and was much easier to put up than trying to pin sheets to the rails! It’s the same stuff that is used for the underneath of furniture and also as weed suppressant. We could cable tie it to the rails – and used gaffer tape on the section without rails.

As you can see getting the backdrop up was just the start!

But by 6.15pm we were done! The next photo was actually taken on Saturday as we had chosen to leave the patterns in the cases overnight to avoid them getting spoiled by any rain that might come in or condensation dripping from the metal rafters.

Having a double stand was definitely the right decision – loads of room meant that lots of people could browse and that helped sales too.

Lots of fun was had during the weekend with various vendors joining in the “swish or waft?” game with Meg March Shawl – there are some cracking videos on Sue’s socials. It was also lovely that so many people stopped by to say hello – friends, people who have been on previous workshops, returning customers, fellow tech editors and readers of this blog. If you were one of them – thank you.

My workshops were both fully booked and went well. Neither photo below includes everyone’s progress as some folk had to leave before the photos were taken, but there are now more knitters in the world who can do stacked stitches and two-colour brioche!

I’m teaching brioche again at the Montgomery Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers in a couple of weeks and then again at Stafford Wool Gathering – that workshop is now sold out too!

The best selling patterns at the show were the usual suspects: Nevern Throw, Lichfield and Tiffany. It was good to see Ice Diamond Mitts getting plenty of attention too.

Not for the first time, several people asked if there was an adult version of Caramel Slice and there isn’t.

This has made me decide that now is the time to remedy this! The original child’s version was knitted using West Yorkshire Spinners Elements DK (a blend of Tencel and Falklands wool), but, as WYS is in the process of being sold to new buyers, I decided to use a different DK yarn for the adult version. I’ve chosen Yarnsmiths Superwash Merino DK and selected some gorgeous colours this morning. I’ve gone for ‘Copper’ as the main colour which is a deep rich colour like Parkin or gingerbread, paired with ‘Carrot’ and ‘Vanilla Fudge’. I’ve recently used the ‘tweeds’ version of this yarn for another design and really liked it, so I’m hoping this non-tweedy one will be just as soft and lovely. As this design isn’t a commission I’ll be able to share the process and my progress with you which is quite exciting!

I’m sitting on my chair in the lounge writing this on my phone today for a couple of reasons. It’s warmer in here and I’m a feeling bit under the weather (probably my body’s reaction to knowing that the 3 deadlines and 3 events of this month have now all happened!) and also there is a big box on the floor in the study that needs sorting out and if I write my blog in another room I won’t be distracted by that.

When we were about to start packing up on Sunday when the rain came down with such ferocity that it even came through the wooden slats that made up the upper part of the wall above our stand. All the samples that were near the wall got a bit damp and so they were packed in a separate bag from everything else and are now spread out around the bungalow to air and dry properly – I don’t want musty smelling samples!

On Thursday Part One of Autumn Dahlia knit-along will be released in issue 233 of The Knitter!

You may have seen the special subscription offer they have been promoting on social media with it. It’s a three part knit-along using LangYarns Naturalis. This is a yarn dyed using natural dyes and is a very lightly spun single ply yarn. It’s listed as an aran/worsted weight yarn although I thought it felt more substantial than that while was using it. The shawl is worked on a 7mm needle. I’ll be sharing lots of pics of this with you next week.

What have you been up to this week? Did any of you come to Yarndale? I’d love to hear about it in the comments! K x

Stacked Stitches at Yarndale, 26th September 2026 – SOLD OUT

You will learn about Stacked Stitches, which is a great technique invented by Xandy Peters. Knitting with stacked stitches (stacking increases or decreases on top of each other within the same row) creates amazing shapes and patterns to your knitting whilst still only using one colour at a time. Fabulous textures can also be achieved.

Book a place on the Yarndale website. You will also need a ticket for entry to the show on Sunday.

Venue: Yarndale, Skipton Auction Mart

Dates: 26th September, 3.30pm-5.30pm

Cost: £42, including handouts and yarn.

Skills needed: Cast-on, cast-off, knit & purl.

Bring with you:  4mm or 4.5mm needles (any type).

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Drawing a Line

Making Tracks was launched last week as an individual pattern as the rights returned to me six months after it was first published in The Knitter magazine. I have to admit that a heatwave (and one that was the UK’s hottest May on record) was probably not the best time to launch a cabled jumper, because although the pattern pages have had lots of views, no-one was in a jumper knitting mood and no copies have yet been sold!

Mind you, with the sudden change back to ‘more appropriate’ weather for the time of year – along with thunder storms and some very heavy showers – you never know! It’s cool enough now to start knitting a jumper and it would certainly be ready to wear by autumn.

I have been blocking something that I cannot show you – you’ll get to see it in October – but I’m pleased with how it’s come out and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you. I’ve just taken the pins out and left it to relax on the blocking mats as I want to see how much it pulls back in when no longer under tension.

I’ve already been promising myself (and customers at yarn shows) that I would knit a sample of the short version of Leaf & Vine and I cast on this week. Because the short version still has quite deep armholes, I’m already halfway through the length of the body before I do the sleeve cast-on! Having been knitting longer garments recently, this seems really short, but I must remember that the length will grow when the lace is blocked and the overall measurements are good. I’m knitting it using a lovely light 4 ply yarn that I bought from Jo at Second City Yarns. It’s an undyed yarn in light grey.

I’ve been getting everything ready for our next show, which is The Wool Monty. This is held at Magna in Sheffield and is famous for being super inclusive. We received our lanyards, set-up info (including directions on how to get to the room I’m teaching in on Sunday morning!) and a copy of the show brochure through the post yesterday and I think it’s going to be an impressive event.

I’ve sorted out the kits, so I can bring a good range of kits in one big box, rather than bring absolutely everything in two! I’ve decided on the pattern inventory and printed anything that was needed, and I know that everything we are bringing will fit in the car. I’ve even ironed the black cotton double sheet that goes on the table. Now all I need to do is sort the sample bags out, so that the new patterns are in them and any samples of designs not going with us aren’t!

The weekend after The Wool Monty I am due to be teaching at Ewe Felty Thing once more. The last workshop (on Steeking) had to be postponed as not enough people had booked to make it viable for the shop to run, so I’m really hoping that some lovely knitters will want to expand their brioche knitting skills and/or learned how to use the stacked stitches technique, which is exemplified in the designs of Xandy Peters. If either of these workshops sound like fun to you – please do book a place and come along! There’s cake, drinks, biscuits and laughs as well as lots of knitting and top tips.

Here are just two designs you could knit with these techniques:

Meg March

On the left is Meg March Shawl designed by me, and on the right is Fox Paws designed by Xandy Peters. Pictured is the scarf I knitted using this pattern (photographed before I wove the ends in!).

Brioche designs can be either very geometric or organic in their lines, but the key feature is how the main colour creates lines that can draw shapes. You’re using two colours, but one colour at a time, working each row once with the main colour (the light colour here), then once again with the background colour (the dark colour here).

Stacked stitches is a fabulous technique where, again, you only use only colour at a time. No stranding or bobbins of little colours, just a whole row of one colour that take wonderful twists and turns by working increases and decreases on top of each other – hence the ‘stacked’ in the name!

It’s struck me that all the pictures I’ve shared with you today have clear lines in the designs, just formed in different ways; through cables, lace, brioche and stacked stitches. It never ceases to amaze me how versatile knitting is and how we can create beautiful and detailed fabrics with just yarn and needles!

That’s all from me today. I’m hoping that I’ll have some photos of my grey 4 ply What Do Points Make? to share with you next week. I didn’t want to get ‘official’ pics taken until I’d refreshed the blue of my hair, but that is now done, so we are good to go (in between the rain showers!).

Take care and have a good week. I hope you get to do something you enjoy. K x

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Turning Out

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Home again, home again

A collection of stacked stitches knitted swatches all in different 3-colour combinations grouped together on a white table

Market (and retreat) are done.

The Knit-Tea Retreat at Insole Court in Llandaff, Cardiff, was wonderful. The organisers, Zoë and Jennie, were so kind and helpful (and organised!) and the attendees were such a great bunch of people that it made the weekend feel like a real pleasure even though I was working. It doesn’t get much better than that, does it?

Everyone did so well in both workshops, learning new and unusual knitting techniques. Here are some pictures of what they achieved in the Stacked Stitches and Moebius Knitting workshops.

Two days before the retreat started (on my birthday) I decided to design a new stacked stitches sample to include in the class. (This is a very *me* thing to do). I like it – it’s similar to Hungarian Point Bargello tapestry stitch and also reminds me of geometric 60s wallpaper! I also like the fact you can work the 12-row repeat as often as you want until you decide to cast off.

Zigzag Stacked Stitches

This swatch was knitted using leftover ColourLab DK. While I was at the Sunday afternoon marketplace I had a look at the Cartref Yarn stand (run by Zoë and Jennie, the retreat organisers) and bought these three skeins of gorgeous 4-ply:

Cartref Yarn in purple, yellow and orange

The plan is to develop the zigzag swatch into a design that can be made using either 4-ply or DK (there will be two versions of the pattern depending on the yarn used). The DK version will be made using three very beautiful skeins of Black and Blue Welsh Wool from Midwinter Yarns – so it will be a design fully created in Wales with Welsh materials.

The zigzag swatch replaced the little mat/coaster in the workshop – the sample on the right of the picture below – that had been based on a section of Xandy Peters’ Ribbon Candy Scarf.

Stacked Stitches Swatches

The scarf is fabulous by the way and the pattern can be found at knitty.com.

Ribbon Candy Scarf by Xandy Peters

As well as the two workshops on Saturday, there was a social evening with a bring-and-take table, a raffle and a great mass ordering of take-aways – the combined aromas of pizza, Chinese and curry was surprisingly lovely!

Even though I hadn’t taken anything for the bring-and-take table because I hadn’t known about it, I was encouraged to have a look and found this little gem of sock yarn. It’s a 50g skein from Pixel Atlantis, a dyer from Edinburgh. 50g is enough for 1 sock, and I plan to find another 50g skein in one of the colours from this variegated one and combine them to make a ‘same but different’ not quite matching pair! The colourway is called “The Ghost of Christmas Past”.

Pixel Atlantis sock yarn

Then there was the raffle – there were some amazing prizes on offer here. I had donated a printed copy of The Little Orme Collection (hat, mitts and cowl) and there was also a whole yarn advent calendar, a project bag and lots of wonderful yarn. When my number was called I chose a skein of yarn that reminds me of raspberry sorbet. It was dyed by Owl About Yarn (that’s Jennie’s other yarn business!) for one of the past retreats. Isn’t it lush?!

Owl About Yarn skein

You may think that after lots of workshops folk would have had enough of knitting, but no! In each tea and cake break in the middle of the workshops we returned to the Carriage House Hall where refreshments were had and where everyone picked up their own knitting again for half an hour. The same was true at lunchtime and in the evening. I made quite a bit of progress on my sock using RiverKnits’ Open Day Special yarn.

Sock using RiverKnits’ yarn

I even worked on a jumper (I cast on at the Travelodge on Friday night) with yarn I had bought back in March or April!

Umbriel 1

For me Sunday was all about the marketplace. Retreat attendees mostly spent the morning either lino printing or doing yoga for crafters. I was very grateful the weather was not stormy as forecast and was able to bring the contents of my Yaris into the hall without getting soaked, ready to set up just before lunch. (Packing up was another story as the rain had begun again by then. I was VERY grateful to have lots of help taking everything back to the car).

The 6 foot clothes rail works really well and I was so relieved that I could remember how it fitted together!

Knit-Tea Retreat Marketplace Stand Kath Andrews Designs

I had *everything* with me and put out just over half of it. It was particularly wonderful seeing several of the knitters who had been in my moebius knitting workshop the day before buying moebius patterns!

Since getting home I have been taking it easy and yesterday I caught up with the Doctor Who special whilst continuing with my Morph hat by Woolly Wormhead. I really like the construction and I’m interested to see how the brim decreases work on the next/final round of squares – it’ll reduce the circumference by a third.

Morph body nearly complete

What have you been up to over the past couple of days?

Take care one and all, K x