Rule Of Three in INTERWEAVE Accessories

My second design for an Interweave magazine has just been published. The Rule Of Three shawl is in the Accessories issue which has just hit the shops in the US.  Looks like a gorgeous issue.

Rule of Three is a gorgeous, half hexagon shawlette knitted out of one skein of sock yarn. The original was knitted in Knit One Crochet Too Crock-o-dye which is a gorgeous merino/silk blend. This was a new yarn to me and I only got to swatch with it but I really enjoyed it and would love to use it again.

A big thank you to Pixie for knitting yet another sample for me. As always she did a fantastic job.

The modelled pics in this post are all copyright Interweave. The pics below on the dress form were taken before I sent the shawl off. I wish I'd taken it outside to get some better ones.

This is a very exciting week with another pattern, The Jurassic Coast Scarf, being published tomorrow and the Grace scarf being published on Friday/Saturday.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Guild Of Master Craftsmen in Bovey Tracey for a fashion show organised by Spin A Yarn. Debbie Bliss will be there and my designs will be show alongside Debbie Bliss designs & designs from Claire Crompton. I'm very, very excited. Mainly because I get to meet Debbie Bliss but also because this will be my first proper fashion show. I'll take my camera and try to remember to use it and ofcourse I'll tell you all about it on Friday or Saturday.

Busy Week & A Fashion Show

This week is going to be a very busy but very exciting week. I've got as fashion show, workshops, deadlines and pattern releases.

Let's talk about the Fashion Show first. Debbie Bliss is doing her second Spin A Yarn Fashion Show which is being held at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen in Bovey Tracey, Devon on Thursday 1 December. You need to contact Spin A Yarn for tickets. These fashion shows are great fun with a chance to see the designs up close and even try them on after the show. There is also good food, drink and lots of knitters.

This time my designs and the designs of Claire Crompton are being shown alongside Debbie Bliss designs. Isn't that exciting? I can't believe my designs will be sharing the cat walk with an internationally renowned designer like Debbie Bliss. Debbie Bliss herself will be attending and I will be there too.

If you're coming to the Fashion Show you'll be able to see lots of my designs including
Cornish Rhapsody:

 The Midnight Stole:

 Mountain Peaks:

 Simplicity:

 Snow Queen:

 and many, many more. I've just made a list of all the designs i need to get ready tomorrow.

I've also got 2 designs due to be published this week. You can pre-order the Jurassic Coast Scarf now. It'll be published on Thursday (same day as the fashion show) as part of The Amazing Luxury Knits Collection.

Emily modelled this scarf for me earlier today. I'll be bringing this scarf to the fashion show too.

And I'll be publishing the Grace crochet scarf on Wednesday or Friday (and yes, it'll be in the fashion show too). I've got a new Christmassy version I finished this morning. I did most of this in the car to/from Bristol/Bath yesterday:

Grace takes just two skeins of Louisa Harding Grace Hand Beaded. The red/white version takes exactly 2 skeins. The green version below is slightly longer and takes 2.5 skeins. I've written the pattern for 2 skeins so it'll be the length of the one above which is worn doubled.

And here's another Grace red/white:

These scarves are so quick to make. You can easily do one in a weekend if you do a few hours of crochet every evening. I'll be teaching a workshop on this at Spin A Yarn next term too. The workshop timetable will be out soon and I can't reveal the date till then. If you run a yarn shop or knitting group you can book me to teach the Grace workshop or any other workshop ofcourse.

The Grace Scarf is now available to pre-order. Purchase it now and you'll get the pattern automatically when it's published in a few days.

I'll be teaching at Spin A Yarn this week too. On Tuesday I'm teaching Continental Knitting. If you fancy joining us, contact the shop to book.

I did mention I've got deadlines this week too so I'd better get back to knitting.

Will I see you at the fashion show?

New Designs & New Yarn

I've been trying to find time to blog all week and my list of stuff to blog about is getting rather long but I've been snowed under with pattern writing, knitting and crocheting and putting together new designs submissions. After a very busy first half of November I'm trying to pace myself a bit better. So this will be a quickie.

 A few days ago I did put up a new pattern on Ravelry. This is the third design in The Amazing Luxury Knits Collection and will be published on 1 December. You can pre-order the pattern now. If you've signed up for Amazing Luxury Knits you'll automatically get the pattern.

 I'll tell you more about this scarf when it's published but it's knitted in Great Northern Yarns Cashmere dk. I've had 2 50gr skeins in my stash for about a year now and been desperate to use them for something and this scarf is perfect.

 Eyelet and short rows reminds me of fossils so I've called it Jurassic Coast. I am ofcourse referring to the area around Lyme Regis in the south west of England. It's not that far up the road from us but I've never been.

 Anyway I love this scarf and think I'll wear it a lot this winter. You can pre-order it here. it's a quick and easy knit with no charts. Perfect to knit for someone special for christmas.

Last week I received a couple of parcels of yarn. I've been keen to try Brooklyn Tweed's yarns for quite a while now. Below are 4 skeins of Loft which is a 4ply yarn.

 And below is 2 skeins of Shelter which is aran weight. both these yarns are proper wool yarns. They feel like good, oldfashioned, sturdy wool. I was worried they won't be soft enough and itchy. and although they are slightly lacking in softness, they don't feel itchy at all. I'm looking foward to doing some swatching with these yarns.

 I also got some Quince & Co. In the picture below is Chickadee (violet), 2 skeins of Tern and one skein of Lark (the orange). I've swatched with Chickadee and Lark and I especially LOVE Chickadee and the colour is gorgeous too. I may have to get another skein or two as i've got a design brewing for this yarn.

 Another design being published next week is a quick little crochet scarf using the gorgeous Louisa Harding Grace Hand-beaded yarn. I'll tell you more about that next week.

 I need to get to bed early tonight as we're getting up at 5am tomorrow and leaving for Bristol at 6am. Simon and Emily are walking from Bristol to Bath while Ness and I are going shopping in Street and then on to Bath.

Have a lovely weekend. Hope you get lots of knitting done. Nite x

Mystery Shawl Revealed

It's time to reveal the 2011 YarnAddict Mystery Shawl. SueMA won the 'name the shawl competition' with her suggestion: Cornish Rhapsody. I struggled to decide though. 

A big thank you to Pixie for lending me her shawl to photograph, her shawl is in the photo above and below.

The shawl features a choice of two edgings and Pixie's shawl above and top of the edgings below uses edging 1.

The shawl below is my shawl and i did edging 2. Thank you also to Sarah & Anita for test knitting the shawl for me. I appreciate it!

Cornish Rhapsody is a crescent shaped shawl worked from the top down. The optional beads are added to the edging using the crochet hook method.

Width inner crescent: 166 cm/65.5 in. Length at centre: 55 cm/22 in
Exact size will depend on how much the shawl is stretched during blocking.

Pixie's shawl, although it has the shorter edging is longer than my shawl which surprised me. I may have stretched mine more sideways. I'm thinking about re-blocking mine so I can take photos for a blocking tutorial. Blocking this type of shawl is not easy because of the curved shape. Do you fancy a blocking tutorial? I'm thinking about doing a master class series on how to block different shapes. Blocking is so important to make the most of your lace.

This shawl takes one 100gr/800m skein of lace yarn. Pixie, Sarah, Anita and I all used Twinkle Lace for our shawls. I showed mine off to the ladies in my Lace Improvers Class at Spin A Yarn today and they all loved it, especially the sparkly yarn.

You can find the pattern here and I'll be listing it on Patternfish and adding it to my LYS wholesale list soon too.

This was my first mystery KAL but it won't be the last. I really enjoyed it and I'm thinking of making it an annual event, perhaps in September and October so it won't interfere with Christmas knitting. I'm also thinking about doing a mini KAL in the new year. A small shawl knitted in sock yarn for people new to lace or who are worried about committing to a big shawl - perhaps run over 3 weeks. I've not made any firm plans but I'm definitely thinking about it. Do you fancy it?

Photoshoot

We are lucky living in Cornwall. We've got some amazing scenery and beautiful countryside here. I still struggled to decide where to go for a photoshoot this afternoon. I wanted to get some new photos of some of my older shawls and a couple of new designs. Vanessa agreed to model for me. 

Our first location was a lane near the Boconnoc estate where Simon walked the dogs with his parents a couple of days ago. He though it was an attractive area. 

 Vanessa took the photo above & below in a break. I especially love the photo above. While we were driving down this lane we saw 2 deer run across the road in front of us. We didn't get a chance to snap a pic but it was amazing to see them.

 After taking photos of the Mystery Shawl and the Trethawle mitts, we drove on and came across Braddock Church. There was noone around so we decided it was a good location to try to get some photos.

 The grave yard here is full of old grave stones like this one:

 Vanessa warming up during a break. Wearing fine shawls on a chilly winter afternoon was not her idea of fun. She kept complaining about being cold. I told her models have to get used to suffer. Not sure she agreed with me.

After photographing the Midnight Stole and Snow Queen at the church we headed up on Bodmin Moor and parked up near Sharp Tor. It was a little bit too windy and although some of the photos taken here were good, some need to be re-done. Vanessa was also running out of patience so we gave up and headed home.

All in all it was a successful photoshoot. I got some good photos. I need to do re-do a couple. I'll be sharing the photos on the blog over the next few days as I edit them a

Last show of the year

Sunday's The Big Knit Show was my last show this year. I've had a very busy show year. Done more shows than ever this year. Wonderwool in April, Woolfest in June, FibreFest in Aug, FibreFlurry in Oct and The Big Knit Show. I've decided that's too much and won't be doing that many next year.

As The Big Knit Show came just two weeks after Fibre Flurry, Simon decided he really didn't want to do another show so quickly, so The Craftie Pixie helped me instead and her lovely son came and helped us carry everything up and down the stairs to/from the car at the beginning and end of the day. Thank you to both Pixie & Taryl for their help.

Our sock section.

The show was great. There was a good variety of stalls although I didn't get around to looking at them all. I taught an Easy Lace Class in the middle of the day too and had a lovely group of ladies in my class.

The Daisy Shawl on display. I'm teaching The Daisy Shawl by the way at The Cornwall Yarn Shop on Friday (this week) and on 13 December at Spin A Yarn. Contact respective shops to book if you're interested.

Here's the lace yarn

and Snow Queen:

and yes, I did give in to temptation and bought one skein of yarn. Yes, just one! I was very good.

This is beaded silk from Debonnaire.

I also got some small scales, perfect for weighing small amounts of yarn and beads.

I've been re-stocking the shop again and a lot of the yarn is now on sale. More to be added tomorrow. Check out the bargains.

Cherish - Pattern Of The Week

We haven't had a Pattern Of The Week for a long time. I keep forgetting about it so I thought it was about time we had one again. Cherish was first published in Knitting magazine a year ago. 

 It's a sideways knitted shawl with a garter stitch body and lacy, wavy edging.

 The shawl is knitted from each end in towards the middle. The centre stitches are grafted together at the end.

The original Cherish was knitted in Artesano Inca Mist Colour: Sage. Inca Mist is a gorgeous 100% alpaca dk yarn. But this shawl can be knitted in any dk/sportsweight or 4ply/fingering weight yarn. In fact I fancy getting one knitted up in one of my sock yarns. You'll need 200gr for the size in the pattern but this shawl can be knitted out of any amount of yarn. Knit until you've used up half your yarn, then start the second half.

 The pattern has charts and written instructions.

 Thank you to Sarah for modelling this shawl. We did the photo shoot at the beach at Seaton which is the nearest beach to use. the tidy was way out and I ended up having to crop the pictures quite a lot as a fat, topless guy always seemed to walk past in the back ground. We took these pics in August on a really hot day. Bit too hot for alpaca but Sarah was a star.

You will find Cherish here and the promo code for 50% off is: cherish50. It's valid until Friday 18 November.

Happy Knitting x

New Designs

Yesterday I got very excited when I came home to a parcel slip on the door mat. I thought it might be the yarn  for a new design I'm waiting for, but when I got to the sorting office it was the new issue of Let's Knit. I can't believe it's time for Let's Knit again.  I've not finished reading last month's issue yet.

Anyway, I've got 2 designs in this issue. First up is the beautiful lacy cardigan, Lucy, knitted in Debbie Bliss Prima which is a merino/bamboo blend.

The bamboo gives the yarn a lovely sheen and a silky feel with great drape. This makes this cardigan the perfect smooth, silky cardigan to wear with your Christmas outfits and will take you into the new year and through several seasons.

The lace pattern is easy to follow with simple garter stitch edges, making it the perfect quick knit for Christmas. Start one now and you can be wearing it on Christmas Day. I wish I had time to make myself one but i have too many other deadlines. Craftie Pixie knitted this cardigan for me and did a great job as always.

My second design in this month's Let's Knit is a set of three Christmas baubles called Comfort, Joy & Tidings. This is also my first ever Christmas decorations. I don't normally do Christmas decorations but last Christmas when my Mum bought me the book, 55 Christmas Balls To Knit by Arne & Carlos (she bought me the Norwegian version - the English/American version is now out), I knew i had to design some.

I chose to make one featuring a traditional Norwegian snowflake motif:

I added some bling with this gorgeous beaded one:

And for those not keen on beads or fair isle, there is a stripey one:

All three baubles follow the same basic pattern and are knitted in the round on double pointed needles using King Cole Merino Blend 4ply. You can use any 4ply or sock yarn, so why not use up some of your stash. If you don't want to do any patterning, choose a self-striping sock yarn and let the yarn do the work for you.

I'd almost forgotten about the next 2 designs. I did these 2 designs in the early summer. They are part of Artesano's Nordic Collection and uses Artesano Superwash Merino which is a gorgeous, smooth, soft and bouncy pure merino yarn.

Craftie Pixie knitted this mini dress, Kara, with short sleeves, which was inspired by Icelandic lopi sweaters.

Wear it on it's own if you're brave or over leggings for jeans if you're slightly more shy about your legs. Whichever way you wear it, it's right on trend for this winter and will keep you toasty warm.

I think I knitted Pixie knitted Thea (or did you do it, Pixie? I can't remember). This one was inspired by traditional Norwegian ski sweaters. They are normally knitted in the round with steeked armholes which is a bit intimidating for most knitters (including me. My Mum used to do the steeking/cutting for me). So I knitted this one in the round with a ciruclar yoke instead.

Both sweaters have corrugated 1x1 ribs which is a look I love on fair isle sweaters but they are a bit slow to knit so I've kept the ribs short, which I prefer anyway. Both sweaters are worked in the round. Body & sleeves are worked separately to the armhole and are then joined and the yoke is shaped with short rows to shape the back of the neck. This means that when you've finished the knitting you only have 2 underarm seams to graft and the ends to weave in. If you're new to fair isle, these two sweaters aren't too intimidating as they only include a small amount of fair isle with most of the body and sleeves in lovely, relaxing stocking stitch and remember when you work in the round every stitch is a knit stitch. No purling (apart from when you do the back neck short rows). A lot of people forget there is no purling when they work in the round. In my sock classes, it's quite often a pleasant surprise to a lot of people. Both patterns are available as Ravelry downloads (click on the sweater names for direct links - Kara & Thea) and I assume they're also available from good yarn shops.