We are delighted to be exhibiting at Wonderwool Wales again this year. 2026 is the 20th Anniversary year of Wonderwool Wales and it promises to be a truly special event. You will find us in Hall 3, stand W16 (our usual spot!).
We will have a wide variety of printed patterns with us, along with their samples as well as knitting kits for some designs as well.
I am teaching my Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting workshop both days. These workshops are already sold out!
The show is open Saturday 10am-5pm and Sunday 10am-4.30pm.
Tickets are £16, with weekend tickets at £30. Under-16s are free of charge and carers get half-price entry.
We got home from the East Anglia Yarn Festival yesterday, successfully completing the third yarn show of the year. As always at EAYF it was a lot of fun, and we saw some old friends who we only see at this show, both visitors and other vendors. This included Victoria who I first met in person at EAYF in 2024 after knowing each other on social media beforehand and have been delighted to catch up with each year since. This year she brought her completed Am Byth hat to show me – knitted in a yarn containing camel fibre, it was super soft and silky and a very different beast fabric-wise to the original sample in WYS Croft DK – which is on display just behind her head!
One visitor wore her Meg March Shawl on the Saturday, to great admiration – and then returned on the Sunday wearing her Tiffany shawl!
If you’re on social media you may well have seen these pics already (apologies for the overlap!), but I know that several readers of this blog aren’t, and I didn’t want them to miss out!
I was most impressed by the knitting and greatly honoured too that she was wearing my shawl designs on both days of the show, especially as this was a show where Stephen West was present (sharing the same space two weekends on the trot!? Goodness!) and so there were a huge number of Stephen West shawls in attendance as folk queued for selfies. I was also highly delighted that he admired my Meg March Shawl and asked if I’d designed it on Sunday morning before opening when the vendors get a chance to wander around and chat with each other. I heard him say to Eddie of Madrigal Yarns while they were behind me that people at the show just had ‘mad technical skills’ and then realised they were talking about my shawl, so of course we had to chat!
Sue and I shared the most outrageously gorgeous vegan cinnamon bun on Saturday morning from Swirl of Norwich, who did very good business, selling out of most of their buns both days.
Since we got home we’ve been busy, catching up on the house and washing, and I’ve been weaving in the ends of the design commission that has a deadline of this coming Friday. Final checks of everything were completed this morning, the sample has been posted and the pattern and ‘all associated files’ – charts and schematic – have been emailed! Completed, done and dusted well before the deadline. I’m very pleased – I just hope they like it!
Now I’ve emailed the pattern I really need to sort out my desk. It hasn’t quite got to archeological strata levels, but it’s not far off – large working drawings, printed schematics, draft print outs of the pattern, inter-spliced with other paperwork. I know where everything is, but I also know that my brain will function more smoothly on the next things when it’s all tidied away.
The next things for me are to update the website with workshops and shows that are coming up and to start putting kits together in the new boxes ready for Wonderwool. I know there are technically four and a half weeks until Wonderwool, but that time will go by fast. We have nine more shows this year, six or seven of which I am teaching at (yay!), so there is a fair bit to update!
I’m also looking forward to my next workshops which are in less than two weeks at Ewe Felty Thing. I’ll be teaching an Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting and Stranded Knitting there on April 4th. The brioche workshop has sold out, but there are spaces on the stranded knitting workshop (10.30-12.30, 4th April)!
Closer to home, there are just 10 days left before Anne closes Yarn O’clock for good! Everything is now 20% off, so now would be a very good time to make a final visit (or two) while you still have the chance! I still can’t quite believe that very soon she’s not going to be there as she’s just celebrated the shop’s 10th birthday. However, all good things must come to an end one day and this particular ‘one day’ is April 4th. Don’t miss your chance.
I’ve also been knitting this.
It’s a Bryn Brioche Cowl, in a new-to-me (and new-to-everyone as it made its debut at East Anglia Yarn Festival!) yarn from Weku Yarn. If you watched Game of Wool, that’s Lydia’s and her sister Hannah’s company. Watch this space.
Until next week, take care and I hope you get a chance to do some stuff that makes you happy. Goodness knows we all need that! K x
P.S. If you don’t know the Queen song ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, I highly recommend a listen!
This week feels very short and in a way it is – we have just four days in between returning from one big show – TexStyle in Manchester – and going to another one – East Anglia Yarn Festival just outside Norwich. Unsurprisingly therefore, my printer is working overtime as I type and I’m awaiting a delivery of A3 paper today as I may be about to run out!
TexStyle was a lot of fun as you’ll know if you’ve seen my social media posts. The hardest part was finding the loading bay for the venue when we arrived as the pictures with arrows on supplied by the venue were the kind that only make any sense when you already know where to go! I ended up in a lay-by of a side street ringing one of the organisers and saying: “Please help – I’m lost!” Michelle was a superstar and, having experienced the same issues herself the day before, was able to direct me exactly where to go. Once we arrived the system worked like clockwork: our booking code for unloading was scanned and we were shown where to park and unload from. There were venue staff on hand for those who needed help unloading and each stand already had a little ‘bus-stop’ style name attached to it so it was easy to find where we were positioned in the hall. I moved the car to the car-park underneath the venue once it was empty and returned to get set up with Sue.
Being in Manchester meant we were able to commute which we’ve never done for a weekend show before and I have to say it was lovely to fall back into our own bed at the end of the day!
Travelling into Manchester on Saturday morning was fairly quiet on the roads, apart from when one of the warning lights came on in my car – along with its associated ‘ping’! It was a ‘headlamp low’ warning and sure enough, once we were ensconced in our favourite parking spot and able to check, one of my main headlights had blown. This led to a large number of phone calls between Sue and Quickfit, then Halfords and between me and Lookers (the nearest Kia dealership). We finally discovered that Halfords in Trafford would probably have the correct bulb in stock and would be able to fit it, but they closed at 6pm and the show was open until 5pm… As you can imagine this was all a little distracting and worrying, especially as the show was incredibly busy on Saturday. However, at 2pm when it got a little calmer, I let the organisers know that I was popping out and why and left Sue in charge of the stand while I ventured to Halfords. They were so helpful and kind – got my headlight fixed really quickly and I was back at the show just after 3pm, feeling much happier – and I think my relief showed!
I even got the confidence up to go and say hello to Stephen West (and I got a hug!) after Sue and Ronnie set the example of being brave. If you’re a knitter you have probably heard of Stephen West, he’s a ‘big name’ in the knitting world and had a stand at the show.
However, back to the show itself. It was lovely to meet some of the people who follow me here and elsewhere online, including Anthony who brought his gorgeous Fiery Dragon Skin Cowl to show me in person. I’d seen a photo, but the actual knitting had so much colour and texture in it – and was knitted really well too! I also saw the finished version of Stitches and Jack‘s Imperial Cowl that she was wearing, and Jenny from the Bowland Guild was wearing her Tiffany Shawl too! Both beautifully knitted and worn with style. Because it was so busy and I didn’t think of it until later I didn’t get any pics of these lovely projects, but I know that Stitches and Jacks is likely to be podcasting about it soon – she did get a pic of us! She has talked about the process of knitting The Imperial Cowl in Episode 106 of her podcast (starting at about 22 minutes in).
Saturday was so busy that we barely stopped all day and so it was a bit of a relief that Sunday was quieter. I think the combination of Mothers’ Day, a St Patrick’s Day parade and a football match all taking place on Sunday had meant that most people had decided to come on the Saturday. It actually gave us a chance to have a proper chat to lots of the other vendors and start to plan the design of our stand for next weekend at EAYF as well as have a little dance in the empty space opposite us.
Although both of these shows are ‘patterns only’ for me, everything still takes up quite a lot of space as folk like/need to see the samples before they buy the pattern and next weekend our stand will be smaller, so we’re going for a slightly different approach. No table, just the pull up pattern stands, the double height rail and the cage to display samples that don’t hang well. We’ll have 32 of our most popular and newest designs with us rather than the 50 we brought to Manchester, but the layout should mean folk can still get in to the smaller space and have a look at everything fairly easily.
Looks impressive, don’t you think!?
On a related note, if you bought a copy of Nevern Lap Blanket (probably on Sunday) or a Heart in my Hands Hat (on Saturday – it was purchased alongside the Little Orme Hat) and find you only have the outermost pages of the pattern, please do get in touch and we’ll fix that for you.
One of the downsides of not using staples in our patterns is that sometimes the inner pages get left behind when a pattern is picked out of the display. The benefits of not using staples are tangible though – by not using staples it keeps the cost of producing the patterns down (partly as I would have to outsource the printing of patterns if they were stapled which would likely require a price rise), and staples are a ‘snag-risk’ for yarn when knitting.
That’s all from me today – I am heading to the dentist very soon for my annual check-up, and then it’s back to prepping for next weekend as well as finishing seaming my current commission (it’s blocked beautifully). I also need to update my website so you can see all the shows we’ll be at and where I’ll be teaching as more events have now published their vendor lists.
See you all next week! Until then, take care and do something that makes you happy. K x
Knitted ones at any rate! I designed Ice Diamond Mitts five and a half years ago and I’ve been knitting a new sample from the pattern this week. I’ve just reached the point where the stitches for the thumb are divided away from the rest of the stitches. Diamond patterns are a common feature of lace knitting as they are easy to create with correctly placed decreases and yarn overs and create clear and pleasing shapes in your knitting.
I find it fascinating that, while the design and pattern are clearly mine and my style of pattern writing has changed little since 2020, in some ways following the pattern is almost like knitting someone else’s pattern – it feels quite distant. I suppose that’s hardly surprising as I’ve only knitted these mitts once before and I’ve created 44 other designs since then (I’m also including the ones I’ve designed and made and are due to be published soon)! That’s an average of 8 designs per year – which may not sound like a lot, but it’s quite a chunk of work.
Last weekend was very much a musical one. Saturday was the Spring Market in our local shopping precinct where Shelby’s Singers performed 14 (yes!) songs to the shoppers and I bounced around in front of them waving my arms, sorry, conducted them. Then on Sunday it was choral evensong at the church where I sing in the choir. From Erasure, Alex Warren and the Great Showman to Stanford in Bb and Purcell! Quite a mix.
This weekend sees our second show of the year (of 12!) at TexStyle in Manchester, followed by East Anglia Yarn Festival in Norwich the next weekend. Both are patterns only, so no kits, but we will still have all the samples for the designs we are bringing with us so folk can see in person what they will be creating.
I’ve finished knitting my current commission and I now need to block the pieces and seam it (and make any tweaks to the pattern’s other sizes if necessary at that point – I’m looking at you, neckline!). It feels good to be at this stage 17 days before the deadline – especially with two shows added to the mix!
Now that I’ve finished the knitting of this design I can really get cracking with knitting the mitts, and finishing my DK Into the Vortex as well.
The brown boxes have arrived for my kits – being made of cardboard and arriving ‘flat’ means they take up far less room in the house than 100 tins would have done! In fact, I don’t think I would ever have ordered 100 tins at a time precisely for this reason. Yes, that really is 100 boxes. Or will be, when I make them up.
I’m considering adding needles to some of my kits, specifically Twisted which needs special short interchangeable needle tips plus an 80cm cable to make the smaller version and not everyone has these. Do you think this would be useful – a kit that includes the needles where the needles required are ‘non-standard’?
If you bought an advance ticket to the North West Winter Wool Festival and have not yet downloaded your free hot water bottle cover pattern, now is the time to do it! The download code will stop working at the end of the day on Sunday 15th March. 158 people have taken advantage of this offer which is an increase on those who downloaded The Imperial Cowl last year (125).
We are almost ready for Friday – the parking has been booked, the unloading time-slot at Manchester Central has been booked, the patterns printed, the samples checked, float made ready and the snacks bought! Now I just need to refresh the blue of my hair, and keep all the other plates spinning.
That’s all from me for today. Keep your heads up and I hope you are able to do something that makes you happy this week. K x
Having finally blocked my size four 4ply sample of What Do Points Make? I have sewn some very small side seams and woven in all the ends. It’s come out larger than the laceweight version in both length and width, but not ridiculously so. This 4ply yarn (Little Bird Sock from LottieKnits) is a gorgeously bouncy yarn with 365m to 100g so it’s slightly thicker than most 4ply yarns which tend to be 400m to 100g so this might be partly it’s come out a little bigger than expected. I absolutely love it. As a contrast with the laceweight size 4 sample, with this one I matched the colour changes on each side. I’ll get a photo of me wearing it soon, but for now, here it is on a hanger.
I also have chosen the yarn for my size three 4ply sample of What Do Points Make? and in a complete change from all my other versions of this design, I have chosen a neutral solid colour – grey! It is classic and the finished garment will go with everything. And this one is slightly thinner than many 4ply yarns with 440m per 100g, so it should be closer to the original measurements.
I’ve started a new sample of Ice Diamond Mitts using Cambrian Wool DK in Welsh Red. Their DK weight yarn is more towards the heavy DK/worsted weight end with 200m per 100g so these will be just as cosy as the originals that were knit in worsted weight yarn and in a more practical colour for mitts!
Lorelai Wrap is now live on my website, Payhip and Ravelry stores!
Newsletter subscribers will be getting an email in the next day or so with a time-limited discount code for the pattern, so if you think that sounds good and you’re not already a subscriber, why not sign up?
I can hardly believe that TexStyle is happening in less than two weeks and East Anglia Yarn Festival is the weekend after! If you are coming to either of these shows, please do come and say hello. I will be on stand H6 at TexStyle, pretty much in the middle of the hall. I don’t yet know the floor plan for EAYF, but we are all in one space so it shouldn’t be too hard to find me! I have designer stands at both of these events, so I will only be selling printed patterns.
It’s impossible to know what to say about what is happening in the world at the moment. All I can hope is that you and your loved ones are safe and as happy as you can be. These little narcissi have opened up this week in our front lawn (sorry, front moss) and are giving me hope that nature is pressing on regardless of what us silly humans are doing to the planet and each other.
Until next week, take care and do something that makes you happy. K x
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
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
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
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
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
