The Easy Lace Collection Pre-Order

The Easy Lace Collection is now available for pre-ordering. The official publication date for the book is 15 August but I'm really hoping it'll be ready before then. At the moment I'm working my way through the pattern editing and layout. I'm waiting for a few test knitting results to come back and i've got to finish the How To section. Vanessa and I did the photos yesterday and my next job is to write a detailed description for how to do a provisional cast on. My favourite method is not the easiest one to explain.

If you pre-order the book now, you can download the single patterns as they become available. The Celtic Jewel and Frosty Diamonds patterns are already ready and the Fairytale Shawlette will be ready later this week.

I'm sure most of my regular readers have seen pics of the individual designs already but I'll show you again anyway.

The Frosty Diamond Shawlette is a cross between a triangular and half-hexagon shawlette and is worked from the top down. The pattern is easy to follow and the book includes a detailed description on how to work this type of shawl.

This is a very versatile shawl shape which sits beautifully on the shoulders and can be worn as a shoulder shawl or as a scarf.

Next up is a top down triangular shawlette with an edging along the top edge, the Forget Me Not shawlette.

The Cornish Gems is a cowl and wrist warmes combo. The cowl is worked flat  and the wrist warmers are worked in the round on double pointed needles (although you could just as easily work them on circular needles). The pattern includes beads which are added using a crochet hook.

The cowl has a button fastening and the set comes in 2 sizes. The smallest size is show in the above photo. The wrist warmers are a long tube and can easily be made longer or shorter.

The Fairytale Shawlette is a triangular shawl worked from the hem up  to the top and is shaped by working decreases on every right side row. The hem section features a beaded lace pattern and the body of the shawlette is a simple garter stitch eyelet pattern. The top edge has a pretty edging which is worked alongside the body.

The final pattern in the book is The Celtic Jewel scarf. The scarf starts with a provisional cast on and the edgings on the short ends are knitted on at the end.

Each design can be knitted in one skein of sock yarn. the book also includes a How To section teaching you everything you need to know to knit the patterns. I've also included a detailed description on each pattern making knitting each design as easy as possible.

If you were one of the winners in my names competition, I'll e-mail you this week with your download code so you can download your copy for free.

I'm also planning a blog tour for second half of August/September. Do you have a blog? Fancy doing a review of the e-book? Please leave a link to your blog and contact details in the comments and I'll be in touch. Be patient though.

Norway

I guess you've all seen the terrible news from Norway over the weekend. I was driving to Looe (a nearby town) on Friday afternoon to pick Vanessa up from work. I was listening to music and it flicked over to the traffic news, expect it wasn't traffic news i heard, it was: 'There's been a bomb explosion in Oslo city centre'. Then the music flicked back on again. I switched back over to the radio and frantically flicked from radio station to radio station trying to find the station I heard the news on. As soon as I got home I turned on News 24 and saw the awful pictures from the bomb blast in Oslo. 

My parents were staying at my sister's house just outside Oslo and my sister and her family were on holiday abroad. I knew it was unlikely my parents would have been in Oslo. After texting them I found out that they had planned to go to Olso (and would have been very ,very close to the bomb when it went off) but postponed it because of rain. My aunt and uncle and my cousins and their families all live in Oslo but they're all fine. As far as I know at the moment noone I know has been involved.

While I was watching News 24 they interviewed a Norwegian reporter when the news came through about the shooting on the island. I'm not sure what the final death toll is but how someone can shoot that many innocent people, especially teenagers, is just unbelievable. 

Although I wasn't affected by the incident, as a Norwegian it's a shock. Norway has always been such a safe country. Terrorist attacks don't happen in Norway. Politicians and the royal family in Norway have a lot less security than most countries. Having lived in England for 21 years now I've gotten used to security, armed police at airports, bags searched before going into public buildings etc. The first time I experienced a bomb threat was a shock but twice in the early 90s we were evacuated from buildings in Plymouth due to bomb threats. I'd never experienced anything like that in Norway.

I hope Norway can recover from this attack and that the openness of the Norwegian society will carry on. I saw the pictures on the news this morning from the candle lit march in Olso and the flowers outside Oslo Cathedral. The attacks seem to have united the Norwegian people.

I want to finish this post by saying my thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the two incidents.

Knit Nation & London

We had a FANTASTIC weekend in London and I took very few pics, actually I took no pics. Mainly because I lent Simon my camera on Friday & then forgot about it.

Our trip got off to a very bad start and at one point I wondered if we'd be able to leave the house at all. Just as I turned my lights off on Wednesday evening I started getting some stomach pains. They weren't too bad and I didn't think much of it. I woke up after 2 hours sleep and the pains were much, much worse. They were so bad I was too uncomfortable to stay in bed. I went downstairs. I didn't really know what to do with myself. I tried watching TV and knitting but was in too much pain. At 5 am Vanessa came downstairs. I was lying on the sofa cold and in a huge amount of pain. I was so bad I couldn't really move. Vanessa got me a big shawl but I was still cold. I eventually made it upstairs and told Simon how bad my night had been. He suggested it could be colic and that I should try moving and stretching. I did wonder if it was indigestion or constipation but if it was it was a 100 times worse than anything I've had before. After a little bit of breakfast,some gently moving around I managed to get showered, dressed and ready to go a little bit later than normal. I was still in too much pain to do any driving and struggled to walk upright. Simon decided that whatever it was walking around was good for me so on the way up we stopped at Dyrham Park National Trust property near Bath. We walked through their beautiful grounds and did a tour of the house which was disappointing compared to some of the amazing stately homes near us.

By the time we arrived in London my stomach pain was much better and by Friday morning it was gone completely.

We had an early start on Friday as I headed to Knitnation and Simon and the girls headed off for a day of sightseeing and a play at The Globe Theatre. I had a spinning class with Judith McCuin at 9am. I had heard that Judith was good but I didn't realise how good she is. I was shocked at how fine yarn I was able to spin.

Judith gave us a variety of fibres to spin with. We started with merino and went on to try merino/silk, 2 types of Tussah silk, alpaca, cashmere/silk, cotton and bison. We were also given some silk noil but I didn't get time to try that.

This shows samples of my spinning on the day:

By the way, it's so dull today the pics are turning out very, very dark and even editing them aren't helping much. I had to use the SLR camera which I don't know how to use very well as my camera is still in Simon's bag.

I was amazed at how much my spinning improved under Judith's tuition and it was all down to playing with the settings on the wheel. Last night when we go home I unpacked my wheel and spun during the Tour de France round up. Here's a comparison of the Optim fibre I spun before I left for London and last night:

Impressive isn't it?! I didn't finish spinning the second bobbin before we left but it's so uneven and I'm not sure I could finish spinning it the same so I'm going to ply what I've done and I've divided the rest of the fibre and I'm going to spin a small skein of laceweight with it instead. I'm so excited about my spinning now. If you ever get the chance to take a class with Judith go for it!

The other ladies in the class were lovely and I was especially pleased to meet Chrissie who'd come all the way from Singapore. Chrissie has been one of my regular customers for a while now and it was great meeting her. I didn't realise it was her until the end of the day when I was in a hurry as Simon and the girls were waiting for me. Sorry, Chrissie, I didn't have time to talk for longer.

I had planned to attend the evening preview of the market place but Simon and the girls were exhausted after standing up during a 3 hour Shakespeare play and were desperate for me to join them so we could get a meal and head back to the hotel.

On Saturday Vanessa and i headed off for a day of girlie shopping on Oxford Street. It was wet and buy but we had a lovely day. We walked into Liberty wet and hot and looking a bit dishevelled and a 'Trish McEvoy' consultant offered us a make up lesson so we both had make overs. I wish I'd taken some photos as we both looked so much better afterwards. I learnt a new trick or two as well. The Trish McEvoy products were lovely but unfortunately not easy to buy in the UK. I did buy 2 Rowan yarns at Liberty for some design swatching:

Sunday we went to a service at Holy Trinity Brompton which we'be been to before. As it was just around the corner from Knitnation I headed straight there after the service while Simon and the girls went to Harrods and to do some other sightseeing on their own.

The Knitnation market place was smaller than I'd expected but the quality of the stalls was excellent. Several sellers there I already knew but some I'd never heard of before. I had the chance to meet and chat to several people I've only spoken to by e-mail or online before. I only had a couple of hours there and would have loved to have spent longer looking around and chatting to people but we had plans for the afternoon.

My first stop was John Arbon. His new range Knit by Numbers is fantastic. Pure Merino yarns in amazing toning colours. They start with a colour and then add varying amounts of white to create toning shades. And it's all spun in Devon. I've got some plans for this yarn and I'll be swatching later.

Wollmeisse has had a cult following in the last few years. I did buy a skein at Loop last year. I wound it and then mislaid it before I got a chance to swatch with it. So I was keen to get another skein to try out this yarn and see what the fuss is all about. It's a pure merino yarn, dyed in saturated colours and I'm looking forward to swatching with it.

I have just recently knitted a magazine design in one of Artisan Yarns gorgeous yarns. I can't say any more about it right now but it's gorgeous. I was keen to look at the rest of their gorgeous yarns. I was especially interested in their gorgeous range of plant-dyed yarns which includes some really amazing colours. I've got a skein of Linen Lace to swatch with for a possible new design.

This is an undyed colourway but do take a look at their colours. I LOVE them and I'm wondering how this would knit up on my machine. I'd love a linen summer top.

Habu Textiles yarns are difficult to get hold of in the UK. I bought a cone of silk stainless steel at Woolfest and although I've not had time to swatch with it yet I was tempted to get a cone of their wool stainless steel. I have got some exciting plans for this yarn:

A fairly new American company I've read a lot about lately is Quince & Co. I was tempted by several of their yarns but ended up getting a skein of Tern which is a merino/silk 4ply. I've already started swatching with it for an American magazine submission. I specifically looked for some American yarns this weekend as it may increase my chance of success with American mag submissions if I use yarns easily available in the US. I did make a note of a few brands I may get in the future.

As you can see I'm already swatching with this yarn. The needles are new too. I'd been tipped off that ChiaGoo needles are amazing and as good as Signature Needle Arts which are the 'rolls royce' of needles. I'm not sure if the're quite as good as Signature but I do like them and i'd like to get a couple of more sizes. They're smooth with long tapered points and lovely cables which keep their shape apparently. I'll let you know how i get on with them.

I needed some more stitch markers for smaller needles and I prefer plain smooth ring ones and Atomic Knitting had the perfect ones. While I was browsing their range I was tempted by some cute fish ones and some flower crochet markers too.

I've been looking for a dpn case for my workshop dpns and I couldn't resist this 'love hearts' fabric by The Bothered Owl.

And finally, I got 2 new lace books. Both books look fantastic and I'm already inspired just by looking through them a couple of times. They both contain a lot of very useful info as well as stitch patterns.

After Knitnation we went to another service, at Hillsong this time. We're all fans of the Hillsong music and it's certainly a very popular church and services are held in a theatre. I wasn't impressed at all. They spent a lot of time promoting Hillsong products and the sermon had very little substance at all. The best about this service was being able to relax in fairly comfy chairs for over an hour.

We'd promised the girls we'd go on the London Eye as Vanessa has never done it. I was in agony with my back by the time we got to the London Eye and the Q was long. I decided I didn't fancy queing as I've done the London Eye several times before. So I sat relaxing with my knitting while Simon took the girls. Now, here's something that really annoys me. Vanessa is now 16 and we had to pay adult price for her. Due to the cost of the London Eye we decided to let the girls go on their own. They're 16 and 13 and very responsible, sensible, well behaved girls. Vanessa was asked about her age as they joined the Q. She admitted she was 16 and she was told Emily could only go with someone over 18. So why do we have to pay adult price for Vanessa when they're not accepting her as adult. If they're going to charge adult prices shouldn't she be allowed to take her 13 year old sister on the London Eye with her?!

We had planned to go into London again on Monday morning before driving home in the afternoon but we were all exhausted and I was in a lot of pain so we left London after a late breakfast. I was asleep before we got on the M25 (and we stayed about 5 mins away) and woke up in Bristol.

I had planned a shop update today but I need to take photos of the yarn and it's so dark today I can't get good quality pics so I'll try and get it done tomorrow instead. Well done if you're still reading this, sorry this blog post has been so long.

New KNIT designs

I do have a big of a back log of designs I've not talked about. This one is from May, issue 37 of Knit. I didn't receive a copy and picked one up at Woolfest which is why I've forgotten to mention it.

I actually saw a lovely lady (whos name I've forgotten) wearing this design at Woolfest. It looked great!

Kelly is knitted in Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk dk by Pixie.

I was so impressed with the Araucania Ruca yarn that i used it again for the Caitlin top which is another perfect design for summer from issue 39 of Knit. It's worked in the round with lacy rib edgings and a stocking stitch body. There are so many gorgeous colours to choose from in this range.

Photos are copyright St Range Photography/Knit magazine.

Sugar Sweet

The latest issue of Let's Knit arrived last week but I've forgotten to blog about it. My design, Tamara, is in the current issue which is full of gorgeous summer knits.

This is the perfect top for summer. It's knitted in 100% sugarcane yarn, Araucania Ruca, which is soft and silky and feels cool against the skin. The garment features a lacy diamond pattern and garter stitch shoulder straps and edgings.

Need a cool knit to wear on hot days? This is the perfect summer knit.

The Knitter issue 34

We're off to London today. I'll be attending Knitnation tomorrow for a spinning workshop with Judith McCuin. I'm so excited. Yesterday I got even more excited as the new issue of The Knitter arrived. My design, Jade, is on the front cover.

I wasn't expecting this at all and I'm so pleased with the photos too. They make the design look gorgeous. A bit thank you to Craftie Pixie for knitting this design. She did a great job as always.

The yarn is the gorgeous Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply. Talk about a perfect name for a truly scrumptious yarn. It comes in a range of gorgeous colours.

We're having a family wekeend in London. I'll be at Knitnation on Friday and may be able to pop in for a couple of hours on Saturday or Sunday afternoon. It depends on what else we decide to do. I've go a couple of other automatic posts planned so do visit the blog over the wekeend.

Frosty Diamonds Shawlette

I've decided to release the second pattern of The Easy Lace Collection, Frosty Diamonds.

Frosty Diamonds is a hybrid triangular shawl, a kind of cross between a triangular shawl and a half-hexagon shawl. It's worked from the top down and sits very nice across the shoulders. It can easily be made bigger. The size seen takes just one skein of sock yarn (400m).

A big thank you to Pixie for knitting this sample and to my test knitters for their hard work too.

 If you purchase this pattern and then decide to purchase the e-book when it's published you will receive a discount. Once the e-book is published I'll e-mail a discount code to all who've purchased Frosty Diamonds for £3 off the e-book.

Name chosen

I've been considering carefully the suggestion for the name for the cowl and mitts set. I'm not very keen on any suggestions directly related to colour because I do have a larger size in a different colour which i haven't photographed yet but I'm hoping to include them. I didn't get Sarah (my model) to model them as she's very petite and the other set is a large size. I ought to model them myself but I'm not keen on modelling. So I may have to try to persuade Ness to model them. She's not large but she's bigger than Sarah. The cowl may be too big for her though. But I was thinking we'd do a photoshoot in the garden with her playing her guitar like we did for the Mountain Peaks Set.

Back to names, my favourites were Diamond Elegance, Down the Garden Path, and Cornish Gems. One suggestion was Victoriana Goth and I like Victoriana but not the goth bit as I feel it's too linked to the colour.

After a lot of thought, I've decided to go for Cornish Gems. I think Leni was the one who suggested that. Leni, you win a copy of the e-book when it's ready in a few weeks, which will probably be when Leni is in Norway. Leni is a fellow Norwegian and I know she's looking forward to a trip home this summer.

I'm still considering options for The Easy Lace Collection front cover. I've taken on board everyone's suggestions and I'll reveal my choice next week. I've got tons of jobs still do to before i go to London. I've got a couple of posts planned while I'm away including one for tomorrow which i'm very, very excited about so do check back and if you see me wondering around at Knitnation please say hello.

Front Cover

I've been working on some options for the front cover of the Easy Lace Collection and I need your help again. Tell me which one you like.

This was my first option. Simon said it looked like a 'college scrap book cover'.

Cover 1:

 Cover 2:

 Cover 3:

 Cover 4:

 Cover 5: 

Simon suggested a single photo. Cover 6:

 Cover 7:

Or this one showing all the designs? cover 8:

ETA: What about the last one with a cream background?  Cover 9:

Please leave a comment with your preference, comments, opinions etc. I really value it. Some of them need some more tweaking. they're just rough ones right now.

want to win a prize?

Yesterday we headed off to Cotehele Quay to do a photo shoot for the Easy Lace Collection. Our friends' daughter, Sarah, agreed to model for me and she did a brilliant job. I'm not going to show you all the photos today but I am going to share the photos of the cowl/mitts combo as I still need a name for these. I had some suggestions before but I wasn't sure about them - sorry to those who suggested them, your suggestions were great, much better than what I came up with. So I'm giving you all another chance to suggest a name for this design and win a copy of the Easy Lace Collection e-book when it's published.

The Cowl is knitted flat and buttoned and both cowl and mitts feature a beaded diamond design. The mitts are just a tube knitted in the round without a thumb or fingers which makes it really easy to knit and versatile to wear. They are also quite long so perfect if you like wearing 3/4 length sleeves.

 The mitts have the lace pattern on one half only with a rib on the inside to improve the fit of the mitts.

 Any suggestions for names would be greatly appreciated. Leave a comment and i'll choose the winner on Wednesday.

I've already published pattern 1 of the Easy Lace Collection which was the Celtic Jewel.

I'm planning to publish pattern 2 this week before we go to London. If you purchase either pattern you will receive a discount code which will give you £3 off the full price of the Easy Lace Collection e-book when it's published. I'm really, really hoping to send it off for proof reading before we go to London but I only have 2 days left to get everything pulled together. Vanessa and I did a photo shoot for the 'how to' photos last week but the photos weren't good enough so I'm trying again tomorrow. I wish I was good at drawing as I think drawing the illustrations for things like yo, k2tog, ssk etc would be a lot easier than getting photos. i'm hoping to embed a video link too, not quite worked out how to do this yet though. If anyone reading is brilliant at drawing and would be able to draw clear, technical how to drawings showing yarn overs, k2tog, ssk, sk2po, how to add a bead, and would love to do it for the book (I will pay), please let me know. I'd need them by next week though.

It's been a busy weekend but I'll tell you more about that tomorrow. Our dinner is nearly ready and I'm hungry.

New Yarns

It's taken me a few days - quite a few days - but I've finally got a shop update. Lots of pretty yarns.

First, let's take a look at my favorites of Fairytale Sock:

I love this one in particular and kind of hope noone busy it so I can sneak it into my stash.

Joyful:

 Joyous:

 Mastermind:

 Peach Frappe:

 Berrilicious:

I had just a few skeins of Bambino Lace left after Woolfest:
Cerise:

Touch:

Clover:

This is just a taster. See all the yarns here.

I'm about to start a major re-organising of my studio. I'm getting rid of some storage units and buying new shelving and moving everything around. At the moment i have a lot of stock which makes this whole operation more difficult. So I'm having a sale. Get 15% off before 15 July by using discount code: clearout. 

If you live in Cornwall, why not come to the Liskeard Show on Saturday. The Liskeard Knit & Knatter will have a stall in the craft tent. Join us for some knitting (and nattering) and look at our display of items our members have made and have a go at knitting on a knitting machine.