Confessions of a YarnAddict

Cappuccino Stripe

2012-02-01T14:54:00.001Z

I'm kind of in shock that it's already February. What happened to January? Anyway, it's time to reveal the next pattern in The Amazing Luxury Knits Collection. Here it is: Cappuccino Stripe.

Over Christmas I was looking for something to knit, something quick. I had 2 skeins of the gorgeous Quince & Co Tern which I was desperate to do something with. I felt these two colours went nicely together. I combined the idea of stripes with a new shawl construction I was keen to try out and Cappuccino Stripe was born. It's a very quick shawlette to knit. I knitted mine in just a few days over Christmas. The project fitted easily into my bag & its perfect for picking up and knitting a few rows here and there.

I used 2 50 gr skeins of Tern but you can use any 4ply/fingering weight yarn. And if you buy 2 100gr skeins of sock yarn you can make a shawl that's much bigger. In fact I do have a couple of skeins of sock yarn set aside in my studio to knit myself a bigger version. I'm thinking it may be perfect for when we go on holiday at Easter.

Cappuccino Stripe has a simple double eyelet edging along one edge of the shawl. This edging is knitted at the end of each row. The shawl starts in one corner and the shaping creates diagonal stripes, the shawl ends in a simple crochet chain edging. Even if you're not an experienced crocheter this is an easy edging. All you have to be able to do is a simple crochet chain and double crochet (single crochet if you're American). There are plenty of You Tube videos that will show you what to do if you're unsure.

Cappuccino Stripe is available as a separate pattern here and as part of The Amazing Luxury Knits Collection here. If you've already signed up to Amazing Luxury Knits, your pattern will be ready for you to download now. Next month, March, is the last month of Amazing Luxury Knits & I'm planning something special.

This was one of the designs we shot last week during out big photoshoot. Thank you to Sarah for doing a great job modelling this design. The photos were taken at Mount Edgecumbe in Cornwall, look across the Tamar to Plymouth.

Sunday Knitting!

2012-01-31T15:20:00.003Z

I'm quite proud that I managed to stick to my Sunday Knitting promise for the second Sunday in a row. I've decided this year that I'll try to take Sundays off to knit for myself (or family & friends) rather than doing deadline knitting. I can see there will be time close to deadlines when I'm behind when I'll just have to keep going with my deadline knitting but as far as I can I'm taking Sundays off.

Last week was my friend, Marianne's birthday. I quite often knit her something for her birthday. She's a knitter herself but she's not an experienced knitter, not does have have much time to knit so it takes a little while to knit stuff. But she does appreciate hand-made stuff. Not everyone appreciates how much work goes into a knitted present. Marianne suffers from cold hands a lot and likes wrist warmers or cuffs which don't have fingers or thumbs.

So I decided to use the same stitch pattern I used for my current socks (scroll down to see last week's Sunday Knitting blog post) and a skein of Twinkletoes in a really dark purple/violet/blue colour. Basically I just knitted a long tube.

Above it's shown on my hands. Photographing yourself isn't easy. I gave them to Marianne yesterday and she loved them. We met in a pub for a day of knitting, chatting & lunch and she wore them the whole time. Several people commented on how nice they were and a knitter who dropped by asked for the pattern. Yes I will make the pattern available at some point. I'm thinking of doing a cuff version (the tube) and a proper fingerless glove version and perhaps a scarf to go with it. But I've got so many deadlines it won't happen until end of February or March.

I had knitted about half of the first wrist warmer last week then finished the rest on Sunday. In the evening, I carried on with my deadline knitting as it needs to be posted by the end of this week.

I've got a whole load of deadlines in the next 3 weeks so it's going to be busy. I'm also working on my first online courses. At the moment i'm working on 2 courses as I can't quite decide what to offer first. Today I've been writing up the outline for the first class and started writing a script for the video. I'm hoping to do some video recordings this weekend. I don't want the videos to look to amateurish (like some of the ones you see on You Tube) so we'll have to see what we can do with our equipment. I may have to try to learn something about video editing too. I've also been working on the outline for another exciting project which is still in the planning stages.

And of course I'm still updating patterns. The latest pattern to get an overhaul is Sophia. The pattern has new photos, new charts & layout but most importantly it has some corrections/clarifications. If you have bought the pattern on Ravelry you'll automatically have received an update. the pattern is available on Patternfish too.

I'm also busy working on the February pattern for Amazing Luxury Knits which is due to be published tomorrow. Here's a sneak peek:

What did you knit this weekend?

More from the photoshoot

2012-01-30T18:37:00.000Z

I mentioned the other day that we spent 2 hours taking photos at Mount Edgecumbe in Cornwall. It was rather cold when we started at 10am but it did warm up a bit by the time we were done. We did have a very sunny day which is challenging when taking photos especially when the sun is as low as it is on a January morning.

One of my favourite shots from that day was this one of Lazuli. Considering that it was just me and Sarah and I was the photographer too, I think we did a great job getting this shot. Holding a shawl in one hand and camera in the other (while pressing the button) was a challenge.

This shawl was first published in The Knitter in a pure cashmere yarn which unfortunately is no longer in stock.

This pictures were taken on the beach at Mount Edgecumbe looking across to Devonport dock yard.

Lazuli is a top down triangular shawl with an easy to follow lace pattern which is charted and written out. Knitted in heavy lace (the sample is knitted in Twinkle Lace) it's perfect for a first lace yarn project.

Golitha Falls is another top down triangular shawl knitted in heavy lace weight. The edging has beads which are optional and added using the crochet hook method.

This is always a popular shawl at shows.

Ocean Waves is a very easy, little shawlette using the crest of the wave pattern. Perfect as a first lace pattern.

Unfortunately we were in the shade for this photo:

Carmen is another easy one skein shawlette. The lace pattern is both written and charted. I've been working hard in the last year to add written instructions to all my patterns and i think I'm finally getting there.

Got a special skein of luxury sock yarn, then this is the perfect pattern to show it off.

Rosebud doesn't just have new photos, I've updated the charts & pattern layout too.

This is a rectangular stole which is knitted in one piece. The stole features a lacy rosebud pattern with trellis borders. The sample is knitted in Angel Lace but any heavy lace is perfect. You can easily adjust this pattern to any amount of yarn. The sample is quite long so you can get a decent length shawl with less yarn. I used 800m/100gr.

The Celebration Stole is another pattern which has been updated with new charts, written instructions for the lace pattern, a new layout & new photos.

The Rosebud & Celebration Stoles were 2 of the first shawls we photographed & it was still quite cold so I let Sarah keep her coat on but these two stoles would look just as perfect as a cover up over a pretty summer dress or worn as a scarf in the winter. I've been wearing the Celebration Stole as a scarf in the last couple of days.

I've got a few more patterns to update with new photos, some need new charts & new layout too. There's a few former magazine designs which I now need to get ready for self-publishing. It'll take me a few weeks to gradually work my way through them but I'll keep you updated.

Yesterday i enjoyed my Sunday knitting & finished a present for a friend. I gave it to her today & she loved it. I'll share more about that tomorrow.

Thank you to everyone who gave feed back on online courses in the post below. I'm working on my first couple of courses which i'm hoping to run in February and/or March. I'll keep you informed.

Fancy taking an online course?

2012-01-28T14:14:00.000Z

I love teaching knitting workshops. I've taught regularly at local yarn shops for a few years now and I've also taught at some national shows in the UK. This year I'm expanding to teach at some yarn shops around the UK but I always get comments from knitters who say they wish I was teaching near them.

Although, I don't think online teaching is a substitute for an 'in person' workshop, it is a good alternative for some people who either don't live close enough to the venues where I teach or can't get to workshops for various reasons. Also I've got knitters all over the world who knit my patterns and although I'd be more than happy to travel abroad to teach it's not easy to fit in with a family and it's expensive.

With online courses you can go through the course at your own speed when it suits you. The downside is that I can't look at what you're doing and helping with certain problems may be more difficult.

I haven't been seriously investigating online courses before but it's been in the back of my mind for a while. My problem is that I'm slightly technologically challenged. I know enough to do the stuff I do on a day to daily basis but I've noticed I'm getting slower and more reluctant to learn to computer stuff. Don't know if that's my age or what. I've been looking for an online teaching platform that makes it easy for me to create and upload materials and easy for knitters to participate and follow the courses and think I've found the solution. I saw an online course provider on Twitter this week and I clicked on the link. They do a free course in how to teach courses through them so I'm going through that right now.

I've decided that I'll definitely have a go at teaching an online course. I'll probably set up one or two to run in February or March. Trying to decide which course to run is difficult. I offer a variety of courses (you can see the workshops i'm teaching this term here).

One of the courses I was considering was Daisy and this morning on twitter a few people said they'd like to do Continental knitting. So I've got a few questions for you and I'd really appreciate if you'd take the time to answer them. It would help me a lot in developing my online courses. Even if you would never dream of doing an online course, tell me that you wouldn't and why.

1. Would you consider doing an online course?
2. What would be the key considerations in deciding if/which course to take? Price? Topic? or something else?
3. Would you prefer a technique based workshop (continental knitting, Easy Lace, Basic Socks etc) or a project based workshop (Daisy, Grace etc)?
4. How long (weeks) would you like the course to run for (1 week, 2 weeks, longer or shorter)?
5. How many times a week would you have time to log in to look at the course? would you like new lessons to be posted daily? weekly?
6. How much time would you have available a day (or per week) to spend on practising or working through the course material?

Do you have any other comments on online courses? Have you ever taken an online class? Where in the world do you live?

than you very much for answering those questions. It's very helpful.

I'll keep you all up to date with how I get on with my online course development. When I'm ready to take sign ups I'll announce it here on the blog, on Twitter and in my newsletter so please make sure you've subscribed (you can sign up in the side bar to the right).

Today it's all about editing photos and pattern writing. I need to do some serious amount of knitting too. I'm determined to make time for Sunday knitting tomorrow as I need to finish a birthday present for a friend as I'm seeing her on Monday and her birthday was last week. but I've also got deadlines looming and I'm a bit behind. Hardly done any knitting at all for the last couple of days and not picked up the needles at all yet today which is unheard of (unless I'm ill and in bed). It's 2pm and I've not knitted yet today. I'd better do something about that. Time to switch off the lap top & do some knitting.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend x

Shawl Pins Are Back In Stock & A Photoshoot

2012-01-27T07:54:00.000Z

The shawl pins from Nicholas & Felice are back in stock and several have sold since I put them on the site last night so if you want one, get it quick. I got twice as many as before Christmas but I bet they won't last long.

I got some new styles this time including Dragonfly in brass (below), copper and aluminium. The brass & copper ones are much smaller than the aluminium one. I'm keeping a copper one for myself.

Here's the brass dragonfly photographed on a new design today (the new design will be revealed next week):

Here's the aluminium Dragonfly.

I'm keeping this copper Dragonfly for myself.

This is another of my favourites but i think they've sold out already.

The Celtic Hearts & Swirls is one I already had in my collection. The aluminium pins are quite large (check the size on each listing) but they are incredibly light weight, have no rough edges and are very easy to use to pin your knitwear.

Don't wear shawls? They'd look perfect on a cardigan too instead of a button.

The Madonna Swirl is another new one and one I used on my photoshoot today. It's the smallest of the aluminium ones.

On Wednesday my bag of shawl samples was all packed up & ready for a photoshoot but it was raining all day.

So I re-arranged it for today. I had lots of samples, most are old designs or former magazine designs that I wanted to re-photograph. We managed to get 18 samples done in 2 hours. I came home with nearly 800 photos. I've looked through all of them and started editing some.

Blossom was the first pattern to be updated with new photos.

My model is Sarah, who's modelled for me several times now. She's such a lovely girl but will be getting married & moving away in a few months but I'm planning to arrange one more photoshoot with her before her wedding.

Our location was Mount Edgecumbe which is just across the River Tamar from Plymouth. It's a fantastic country park with big park areas, formal gardens, Orangery coffeeshop (which was closed today), hidden gardens, fountains, a folly. Lots of great back drops. Our only problems was that it was a bit too sunny today and there were some very tall trees which was blocking the low sun.

There were great views across to Plymouth and Drakes Island in Plymouth Sound (and another sneak peek of the new design):

Look at that turtle, he was carrying as statue.

We had a lovely morning. But by midday it was starting to get busy & the wind was picking up a lot which makes photographing delicate lace shawls difficult. You'll see many more of the photos we took today over the coming weeks as I worked my way through them and add them to pattern. There'll be a few new or re-published patterns too (from previous magazine designs).

Have a lovely weekend x

Sunday Knitting & a BIG announcement

2012-01-23T15:36:00.002Z

I think we'll do the BIG announcement first otherwise you'll all just scroll down and miss my pretty socks.

I've decided to re-vamp the clubs. The current clubs will be finishing & I'm not taking new sign ups. If you're a current member your membership will run until it's finished. You'll get a note in this month's parcel to explain all. The January parcels will be sent out tomoro. I was planning to get them out today but don't have the car & my back isn't good enough to walk into town today. Sorry.

The new club will be called the Lace Lovers Club & will be focused on lace. You will receive a mixture of lace and sock yarn though. One month will be sock yarn & one month will be lace & one month will be either sock or lace (that'll be a surprise for you & I'll decide later - I'm also considering allowing members to choose the last month's yarn weight).

The club will start in April and the first round will run for April, May & June. If you sign up before 15 February you can take advantage of the earlybird price which is £5 off the full price. During your membership you'll get 15% off any YarnAddict yarn or pattern order.

Each month you'll receive a pattern suitable for that month's yarn. The pattern may be a new pattern or one of my existing patterns & will be lace shawls, scarves or other lace accessories, although it's mainly likely to be shawl/shawlettes.

If you're thinking this sounds great but you've never done lace before or you're not that confident with lace patterns, don't worry. I've put together a 'Lace Basics' booklet which feature detailed how to instructions and photos for everything you'll need to knit my patterns. Every member will get the booklet during the first month. As long as you're a confident or adventurous novice you should be fine.

If you're a lace expert then you can join too, the pattern will be fun for you too.

I'm looking into perhaps including some extras too but nothing's been decided yet.

We'll also run a KAL thread in my Ravelry group each month so if you're a Ravelry member (or if you're not why not join? it's free) you can knit along with other members, share your progress and finished photos and ask for help & support.

Fancy joining? Sign up now.

Sunday Knitting:

This week my Sunday knitting actually started on Friday evening. I'd decided I fancied knitting a sock or at least casting on for a sock. I'd swatched this stitch pattern for a sweater last year but it wasn't right. I couldn't get it out of my head though so I decided to try it on a sock. And guess what? it's perfect for socks. I'm using Madeline Tosh Tosh Sock which I got over a year ago on a trip to London with my Mum and a friend.

I cast on Friday night and knitted the toe (I'm doing toe up) and one pattern repeat. then on Saturday when I should have been working on my deadline projects the socks kept calling my name so I did a bit of knitting on them on and off. Probably more on than off actually. By Saturday evening I was getting close to the heel so I decided I ought get the heel turn done so I wouldn't have to worry about it when i was out and about on Sunday.

The yarn is quite a bit darker than the pic shows & is a bit of a pain to knit with in the evenings.

I didn't work exclusively on the sock on Sunday, I did a bit of knitting on my deadline sweater at church and in the evening. In the afternoon we attended Em's Chief Scout Gold Award presentation in Truro and I knitted through the long ceremony (much to Em's disgust - she sat too far away from us to complain though). And by the evening I was casting off. Wow, I was amazed I'd knitted a sock in 2 days. I've got big feet too so they're pretty long. I've done a sock in a day before but I haven't knitted socks for about a year, apart from finishing a plain sock in the autumn.

It seems my sock mojo has returned. I picked up my deadline sweater after the sock was done but I kept thinking about socks. So I picked up my Fantasy Cables socks which haven't been touched for a year. I only had half a foot left and finished that while watching 'Dancing on ice' last night. Two hours was all it took to finish it so why has it been in my knitting basket for over a year?! I'm wearing them now and they're lovely and soft and warm

The cable pattern I used for these socks is gorgeous. I love the way they twist. I'm wondering what it'll look like on a sweater? May need to look into that.

This morning I cast on for the second Tosh Sock and knit the toe. I'm not supposed to knit on it again till Sunday. I've got 2 deadline projects and I'm behind on one of them and need to finish it this week so if you see me tweeting about knitting socks tell me to stop it & get back to the deadline sweater.

What did you knit this weekend?

I mentioned Em's award ceremony. She got her Chief Gold Scout Award and here she is with her friend Kaja (Em is the one with the long hair):

And here are all the scouts who received awards yesterday.

Robyn

2012-01-20T13:50:00.001Z

'Robyn & Lily' was first published in Let's Knit a year ago and it made the front cover. I'm now making the pattern available for you all. Let's Knit called the cowl Robyn and the handwarmers Lily. As I have another design called Lily, I've decided to use Robyn for the complete set.

Lovely Sarah, who did a lot of modelling for me last year, modelled this design back in August, on one of the warmest days we had last summer. But i made her put on her wintercoat.

The lacy cowl is worked from the top down and finished off with an edging which is knitted on sideways. This pattern does have several charts (but I've included written instructions too) but don't be intimidated as the charts are all very similar and it's a very simple pattern to get into.

The cowl comes in one size and the hand warmers comes in 2 sizes and will fit a variety of sizes. You can knit the complete set out of just one skein (400m/440yds) sock yarn. I used Bambino Sock for the sample and i've just listed several Bambino Sock skeins in the shop yesterday.

The handwarmers start with a provisional cast on, you can use any provisional cast on, and the edging is knitted on at the end. The lace pattern for the cowl and handwarmers is almost identical, there is just a difference resulting from different number of stitches in the pattern repeat.

You can get the set here and until end of January you can get 50% off by using code: robyn50.

I'm sad to announce the Lace Variety Club & Sock Variety Club will be finishing soon. If you're a current member your membership will run until it's due to end, so don't worry. But I won't be accepting any new memberships. I am however launching a new club. At the moment I'm busy working out the details. The club won't start until April as I have to wait until the other clubs have finished (the last shipment for the Lace Variety Club will actually be May).

One of the details i'm working on is whether to run it as a set 3 or 4 month club where you can only join at set times, ie. April, July etc. Or whether to accept memberships every months as I did with the old clubs. The disadvantage of that for me is that I can't plan too far ahead as numbers vary each month. I'm also trying to decide whether to take payment for the complete 3 or 4 months up front or offer monthly subscription. If you have any views on this please tell me.

The big announcement and unveiling of the new club will be next week and I'm very excited about it.

Novel Knits by Ann Kingstone

2012-01-18T15:39:00.000Z

Ann Kingstone is a designer from Yorkshire in the north of England. I've met Ann on a couple of occasions and she's such a lovely person and a great designer. So when she asked if I wanted to be part of The Novel Knits Blog Tour I was happy to say yes.

I asked Ann a few questions. I must admit I'm not a literary genius. I prefer 'chick lit' and 'knit lit' but my husband and kids love books and my oldest daughter is doing A level English literature so we do have books by a lot of great authors as well as many British classics in the house and I really ought to read some of these books one day.

The designs in the bookare inspired by British authors. Who is your favourite British author and why?

AK: Mostfolk won’t have heard of him! As a child I was utterly captured by the work ofArthur Ransome, and still love to return to his books to this day. Right nowthere is a hard frost outside my window making me want to go and dig out‘Winter Holiday’ and curl up in a chair with some blankets and a hot drink fora good read...

ArthurRansome wrote his Swallows and Amazons series between the first and secondworld wars. The books beautifully present the innocence of English childhood atthat time, and show how with a child’s imagination the world around us becomesan adventure playground.

How did you choose which authors to base your designs on?

AK: It doesn’t really feel like I chose them, rather it’s almost as though the designs themselves chose the authors. Most of my designs begin as an idea for a garment with a particular stitch pattern or construction, and then as I work out the details I also begin to think up names. For me naming a design is an intuitive process; it is like I am looking to discover the name rather than decide it. I always know when I’ve got there because I feel a sense of the name being ‘right’. Of course, most of the designs end up with literary names because English literature is such a passion of mine; it’s where I go looking for the names!

About a year ago I discovered Jane Austen. Simon bought Vanessa the BBC series 'Pride & Prejudice' on DVD for Christmas 2010 and we watched it in Norway over that Christmas and New Year. I then decided I ought to read it and downloaded it to read on an e-reader on my phone. I then went on to read Mansfield Park and Sense & Sensiblity. I loved Pride & Prejudice but I think Mansfield Park is my favourite. There are several designs in the book inspired by Jane Austen's novels. Which is your favourite Jane Austen novel?

AK: Funnilyenough, my first favourite was Mansfield Park too, but that was before I hadread Pride and Prejudice. That then became my favourite, and has remained soever since. I think Jane’s gentle humour is most superbly expressed in thisbook, especially in the wonderfully comic characters of Mrs Bennett and MrCollins, and in the very clever wit of the heroine, Elizabeth Bennett.

My favourite design in this book is 'Pemberley', which is just stunning. I do like stranded colourwork.

There are several 'fair isle' designs in the book so I asked Ann for her top tips for stranded colourwork.
AK: Forspeed it really is essential to learn a method for holding both yarns at oncewithout having to let go of either at any point during knitting. I preferholding one yarn in each hand, known as the ‘two-handed’ method of strandedknitting. Alternatively, it is possible to hold both yarns for continentalknitting, using the middle finger or a yarn thimble to keep them separatedbeyond the point where they are picked. With practise these methods become veryintuitive and speedy, and I find stranded knitting almost as fast as my otherwork.

Another Jane Austen inspired design is 'Hartfield' which is inspired by 'Emma'. I saw 'Emma' on DVD over Christmas and I really enjoyed it. I'd started reading it before christmas but wasn't really getting into it. I do like this design though.

Another author featured in the book is JRR Tolkien who, I must admit, I know nothing about. I do like these 'Lady Of The Wood' fingerless mitts though. They are so pretty.

'Lissuin' is another design inspired by JRR Tolkien and is another beautiful fair isle design.

I also asked Ann a little bit about local knitting history. What is Yorkshire mostknown for in knitting terms? For example when I think of Shetland I think offair isle and Shetland lace? I know a lot of mills were situated in Yorkshirebut I’ve never been to Yorkshire and don’t know much about the knitting history ofthe region?

AK: Thereare two key strands of knitting tradition in Yorkshire; coastal gansey knitting(traditionally seamless!), and the glove and stocking knitting traditions ofthe Dales (also traditionally seamless!). I briefly described the Dalestradition to MaryJane Mucklestone in her blog interview with me last week. Boththis and the Gansey tradition are special interests of the local historian PenelopeHemingway, a knitter from East Yorkshire with a very informative blog. I knowshe is currently working on a book about ganseys, and a republication of theclassic book ‘The Old Handknitters of the Dales’.

What’s the state ofknitting in Yorkshire these days? On the increase? Thriving?

AK: Itis very much on the increase, with yarn shops and knitting groups springing upeverywhere. For example, four new yarn shops have opened within a 5-mile radiusof my home within the last few years! Ravelry has done much to bring localknitters together socially, and the Knitting and Crochet Guild continues tosupport knitters in growing their skills. Only last week I taught a class aboutfeather and fan in a lively gathering of the Leeds K&G group.

The last chapter in the book is inspired by JK Rowling who I'm sure everyone knows wrote the very popular Harry Potter books. My kids (and my husband) were big Harry Potter fans, so although I've never read an entire book, I do remember reading bits to Em when she was little and catching glimpses of the odd Harry Potter DVD. And although I'm not a big Harry Potter fan I do like these knee-high socks, 'Durmstrang'. I've always wanted knee-high socks but the thought of knitting them puts me off so anyone who knits knee-highs in a fair isle pattern is worthy of admiration in my book and that the stitch patterns are inspired by Nordic designs is another plus.

One of my favourite knitting accessories are fingerless gloves. I find them so useful as my hands are frequently cold. I can wear them while knitting or typing. And i do love the ruffle on these pretty 'Unbreakable Vow' mitts.

How do you think Britishknitting has changed over the last 50 years?

AK: MyMum has lots of old knitting patterns from the 60s and 70s, so I have to basemy understanding of how knitting was then on those, and on her continuingknitting preferences. Basically garments then were mostly knitted flat thenseamed, and rarely had waist shaping! Even fair isle was knitted back and forthby the majority of knitters, with the traditional seamless methods remainingpretty much local to Shetland knitters. I think this was because, as now,people’s knitting skills and preferences were shaped by the availability of teachingmaterial and patterns. The availability of teaching material and has beenmassively magnified by the internet, and so many more people are now learningseamless constructions and advanced knitting techniques. Also, able to selectfrom a far wider variety of patterns, knitters have shown a preference for morefitted garments. They seem to me to be less influenced by fashion, and morekeen to knit garments that will flatter their shape.

I self-published myfirst e-book last summer and then decided to have it printed as well. I foundthe whole project much scarier when I decided to have it printed than when itwas ‘just’ an e-book. Not sure why an e-book was less daunting but it was. Howdid you find the process of self-publishing a book?

AK: Itwas indeed daunting! There were so many more considerations for print than fordigital publishing, especially because in print the length of the book and theuse of colour have a significant impact on cost. In order to make the bookaffordable it was very important to manage these carefully to minimiseproduction costs. Another major consideration is that once the book is printed,any errors are irreversible, so it is imperative to have the book verycarefully proofed by a technical editor. However, I was warned by friends inthe business that even rigorous technical editing doesn’t prevent all errorsgetting through. I’ve found that to be true, and as a perfectionist I find itvery hard to take!

Onthe other hand, I loved the feeling of doing something significant with mydesign talent. Having a book in print is such a huge achievement, and I feelthat the process has done a lot for my confidence and sense of identity as adesigner.

Did you design all thegarments and accessories in the book with the book in mind or did the book cometogether afterwards?

AK: Abouthalf of the designs were already in existence when I decided to do the book.Once I knew where I was heading though, the rest of the designs were carefullyplanned to fit in with the overall scheme. The last design to be added was the UnbreakableVow mitts. Although I had plenty of Potter-themed designs in my portfolio, mostof them are socks, and I didn’t want to onlyhave socks in the Harry Potter section of the book!

Where can people buyyour book from?

AK: Atthe moment it is only available from a few yarn shops and by mail order from mywebsite. However, it will soon be distributed to a wide range of UK yarn shopsby Great British Yarns, and in the US by Cooperative Press (they are currentlyinitiating the first US print run).

Have you got any plansfor any future books?

AK: I’mcurrently working on a book featuring knits through the seasons to be publishedthis June. I do plan more Novel Knits books after that though. For a start, asI live in Bronteland I simply must do some designs with a Bronte theme as Ilive in Bronteland!

'Novel Knits' has 15 designs in total inspired by 3 different authors. There is a variety of lace, fair isle and travelling stitches, 2 garments, 3 pairs of handwarmers, a bag, 3 shalws, a blanket, a beret, a hooded scarf (the one on the front cover) and 3 pairs of socks/knee highs.

The patterns have clear charts and written instructions. The book is the same size as a paperback novel which makes it easy to pop into your knitting bag. There is a small technique section in the back of the book describing some of the unusual techniques used in the book.

You can find Ann's website here and Ravelry designer page here.

Thank you to Ann for letting me be part of The Novel Knits Blog Tour.

I'm working on a very exciting new club at the moment and I'll reveal all in a couple of days. Next on my list is a shop update and there will be more yarn added to the sale.

Sunday Knitting

2012-01-17T11:25:00.001Z

Three years ago I knitted Emily a hat from my handspun merino/bamboo. She's worn it regularly since. But this year it's getting a bit too small for her. and she wanted a new one. Emily wore her old hat on our walk on Sunday afternoon:

The light was bad last night when I took the photos and I think I had the camera on the wrong setting.

Last winter I spun this yarn from a Sweet Georgia Fiber club fibre. I think it's a blend of merino/bamboo/silk. My spinning is very uneven but Emily liked it and we decided months ago I'd knit a hat for her.

As I have decided that Sundays will be no-work knitting I decided to start this hat. I thought it might be doable in a day. I'm not good at hats. I've tried making Simon several hats and they never fit. I have knitted a hat for me and I love it and Em loved her old hat but hats aren't something I enjoy making.

I decided to cast on and knit from the top down as it was easier to get the right fit and length.

I cast on for the hat when we got home from church and knitted for an hour or so and got past the crown increases. We then went out for a walk with the dog and when we came home I carried on with the hat and finished it while we were watching Dancing on Ice. it was a really relaxing Sunday knit.

When I got the hats out yesterday to photograph them Emily pointed out that they're almost identical. The first one (on the right) was worked from the bottom up and the new one from the top down. But the yarn looks similar, has similar stripes and about the same number of rounds of 2x2 rib (that was unintentional). The first one was knitted in one day too and on a Sunday. The same day we left for Norway for our Christmas holiday 3 years ago. we left at midnight and i remember spending all day knitting on the hat and finished it just before we left. It was supposed to be my travel knitting.

This weekend we had glorious, sunny but very, very cold weather. On Sunday afternoon we decided to go for a walk on the beach. When we got there it was a freezing cold, quite strong wind so we decided to walk on a country park foot path which is opposite the beach instead. I brought my camera and although the light was starting to fail I got some good photos.

This is the beach:

It was sunny in the morning but by the time we got to the beach it was clouding over.

There is a new 'fitness train' with various gym-like instruments which we had a go at:

The view from the foot path down to the beach:

And some random pics from our walk:

There are several ponds along the foot path:

Simon and Em on a viewing platform by one of the ponds.

And I've had another design published. Klementina is designed for Artesano using Manos Silk blend. Thank you to Sarah for knitting the sample. This pattern is available on Ravelry and I expect it'll be available at yarn shops around the UK and European countries stocking Manos del Uruguay yarns.

Klementina is a very simple shrug with a simple but beautiful lace pattern. You can easily make it wider or narrower, longer or shorter. It's knitted sideways.

Perfect to give your shoulders a bit of warmth on any day of the year.

Come back tomorrow for my stop on Ann Kingstone's Novel Knits Blog Tour.

Connie in Let's Knit 51

2012-01-14T16:18:00.003Z

The new issue (issue 51) of Let's Knit arrived a couple of days ago. The postie actually delivered it to my neighbour. Luckily my neighbour isn't a knitter and dropped it off at our house the same evening.

My design in this issue is a gorgeous, soft, warm cabled sweater. The cables form a zig zag pattern on a reverse stocking stitch background. The sweater has long sleeves and a big cozy cowl collar. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Fez which is a camel and merino blend and is so soft.

'Connie' makes the perfect sweater to wear for a chilly weekend. I wish I had one to wear today as it's gotten colder here. Pixie knitted this sweater and did a great job as always.

I'm doing a lot of knitting at the moment. I have 9 design deadlines before the middle of February. Yes, that's right! 9!!!! Two are done and will be posted next week. I'm working on 2 and 2 others are underway by 2 of my wonderful knitters and yarn will be posted to another wonderful knitter on Monday. If I'm not blogging as much as normal over the next few weeks, it's because I'm buried in deadlines.

Since it's all about top secret knitting here at the moment, I can't share any of it. And yes, I know you hate that. But I can share which project bag I'm using for one of my secret projects. I may even share a bit about the yarn I'm using next week as it's GORGEOUS!!! This gorgeous bag arrived from Three Bags Full last week and I love it. I also got a Kindle bag, although I don't have a kindle, but I'm using it as a Bible bag. It's just big enough for my Bible and notebook.

I've also got a long list of patterns which were originally published in magazines and as the magazine exclusivity period runs out I want to self-publish. I'm very behind on working my way through that pile though. But this morning I did manage to finish one such pattern.

The Trethawle Fingerless Mittens are now available as a pattern download here. I'll be listing it on Patternfish too. It'll also be added to my yarn shop pattern wholesale list.

These mitts were originally knitted in Artist Palette Smoothie Sock which is a superwash merino/nylon blend and it's the same base yarn as my Merino Plus.

The mitts feature an interesting cable pattern which is easy to work. Perfect for practising cabling without a cable needle. If you want to learn to knit cables with or without a cable needle, why not book a space on my Fun & Fabulous Cables Workshop at Hulu Crafts in Modbury, Devon. You'll learn everything you want about cables.

Back to the mitts. They come in 2 sizes. Size 1 is small/medium ladies and size 2 is large ladies/medium mens. The mitts have afterthought thumbs which don't interrupt the cable pattern at all. Pattern can be found here.

And some more good news: There is a big delivery of shawl pins on it's way from the US. Let's hope the customs & Royal Mail don't hold on to it for too long this time. I've ordered more of the ones I had last time plus a few new styles.

Enjoy your weekend. Next time I'll share my spinning progress and hopefully show off Em's new handspun hat. I'm casting on for that tonite.

Wayfarer Mittens & Paloma Scarf

2012-01-09T17:19:00.000Z

About a week late but the January pattern for Amazing Luxury Knits has finally been published. This was one of my Christmas projects this year. I finished the mittens in time for the Boxing Day Hunt and I was wearing them. I'd hoped to get some pattern pictures with the horses but it was too many horses and people and too difficult.

So instead we went to the Eden project over the New Year weekend and got some great photos in the Mediterranean Biome. Doesn't the purple look great agains the while wall?

I suppose you don't really need to wear mitts to pick oranges but it makes an interesting back ground.

As you can see this pattern comes as a mitten and a fingerless mitt option. I knitted my pair in Quince & Co Chickadee which is a plump sportsweight (light dk in the UK) yarn. You can also use 4ply/fingering weight sock yarns. I'm making another pair in the small size in YarnAddict Bambino Sock and it knits to the same tension but the fabric is less dense.

The cable panel stays the same for both sizes and the rib is very stretchy. I knitted the larger size for me which will fit a large ladies hand and medium man's hand. The length is adjustable.

The Wayfarer Mittens are available as a single pattern and as part of The Amazing Luxury Knits subscription. Find out more about Amazing Luxury Knits here. Buy the pattern only here.
If you've already subscribed to Amazing Luxury Knits you should have been notified that the pattern is ready for download.

Paloma is another pattern we photographed at The Eden Project. Paloma has a long and a short version and is a crochet scarf worked in the round using some simple crochet stitches.

I used Debbie Bliss Paloma which is a chunky but very lightweight supersoft yarn, and a 12mm hook. As a result this scarf works up very, very quickly. You can easily make it in a weekend, perhaps even an evening.

I've worn my Paloma Scarf quite a few times now and it's warm & trendy. Below is the shorter version:

So whether you're into knitting or crochet, there's a new pattern for you.

Want to learn something new?

2012-01-02T21:43:00.001Z

Happy New Year to all my lovely readers. I hope you all had a lovely and relaxing Christmas and New Year break. We had a great family time this year. I'll tell you more about it later this week. I spent most of my time knitting on a secret deadline and a couple of new self-published designs. But more about that later.

I'll do a review of 2011 later this week too. But today I want to tell you about my workshop programme at Spin A Yarn in Devon. Spin A Yarn is a gorgeous shop in Bovey Tracey and is well worth a visit. I've had knitters on my workshops there who come from places quite a long way away incl South East England, Salisbury, Bristol, Cheltenham, South Wales, Cornwall & lots of places I've forgotten.

The workshop timetable at Spin A Yarn is fantastic. There is a big choice of knitting, crochet, felting, basket weaving, jewellery making & spinning. I'm teaching a record 10 workshops between February and July with several new workshops and some old favourites.

My sock knitting workshops (choose from basic socks or toe up socks) and lace knitting (easy lace and lace improvers) are always popular. And to add to those popular work shops I'm teaching Design your own socks and Design your own lace shawl this year. So if you're getting bored with knitting from other peoples patterns and would like the challenge of designing your own, this workshop is for you. You don't need to have ambitions to become a professional designer to do these workshops, although if that's your dream that's fine too. These workshops are perfect if you'd like a new challenge.

Are your hands cold? Have you seen lots of gorgeous mittens and gloves you'd love to knit but not sure how difficult they may be? I'm teaching a Mittens and Gloves class in February. We'll cover everything you need to knit fingerless handwarmers, mittens and gloves and yes, you can knit those fingers. They're not as difficult as they look, just a bit fiddly. This is the perfect class to learn how to knit in the round on double pointed needles too.

Another new class is the Grace Scarf class. You'll learn all the crochet stitches used in this pretty scarf and get some practice crocheting with beaded yarn too. You could go home with a finished (or nearly finished) scarf. Details of the workshop are here. Suitable for all abilities.

The Daisy Shawl Class was great fun last term and we're doing it again in May. The Daisy Shawl is my most popular pattern and you'll learn how to knit this fun shawl in great company.

And ofcourse there is also the very popular Continental knitting class. You'll learn how to knit continental style with Norwegian purl. With Norwegian purl you keep the yarn at the back for purling and with continental knitting you hold the yarn in your left hand. This is a much quicker way of knitting.

To book any of these workshops you need to contact Spin A Yarn. They re-open after their Christmas break on 3 January. The workshops can book up very quickly, so don't waste any time, get on the phone now.

I'm teaching workshops at other shops too. I've got an Easy Lace Class booked at Purlescence in March and Fun & Fabulous Cables at Hulu Crafts in Modbury, Devon in February.

Don't live close enough to attend any of these workshops? Why not get your local yarn shop or knitting group to book me for a workshop. I'm happy to travel anywhere in the UK & will consider workshops in Europe and North America too. Contact me.

Later this week, I'll be publishing a new mitten/fingerless mitts pattern

and a new crochet scarf, Paloma, which is still only £2 if you pre-order the pattern. I'm hoping to publish this pattern tomorrow.

Do You Love Crochet?

2011-12-28T14:33:00.001Z

If you do there is a new magazine on the market for you. Online crochet magazine, Love Crochet launched just before Christmas. I was lucky to be able to contribute 3 designs to the first issue. We were on a tight deadline and I had help from Leni and Zoe (Love Crochet's editor) who crocheted the two sweaters for me and both did an excellent job. Big thank you to both of you!

The pictures of my Love Crochet designs used in this post are all copyright Love Crochet.

Aliona is a loose-fit, relaxed lacy sweater with a wide treble hem and a big split cowl collar. Quick to crochet & cosy to wear. We used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran for this sweater and the yarn is gorgeous to work with.

Emilie is a simple top worked in two pieces with a big open diamond pattern across the yoke, sleeves and hem. The rest of the sweater is worked in treble crochet.

With half-length sleeves it's a perfect layering garment which will take you through several seasons. The yarn is Louisa Harding Ianthe which is a gorgeous merino/cotton blend.

And lastly, the Citrus Broomstick Infinity Scarf. This scarf is worked flat using 2 different knitting needle sizes to create the broomstick crochet stitch. It's easy and perfect if you've never tried broomstick crochet before. I used Fibre Harvest Knit By Numbers for this scarf. Knit By Numbers is a gorgeous dk merino spun in Devon. It has an amazing range of tonal colours and I'm totally in love with this yarn and you'll see it cropping up in a few more designs very soon.

There are lots more patterns in the first issue of Love Crochet. Take a look. All the patterns are written using American and British crochet terms. I've got a design in the spring issue too but ofcourse I can't tell you about that yet.

And as we're talking about crochet, I've got another crochet design about to be self-published. The Paloma Infinity scarf is worked in Debbie Bliss Paloma which is a gorgeous, lightweight chunky yarn. I rarely touch chunky yarns but this yarn is very different from most chunkys. It's a very light, knitted tube which makes the items you knit/crochet from it much lighter than most chunky yarns. You can pre-order Paloma now at the special price of £2. Once it's published on 1 January the price will go up to £3. There will be a cowl included in the pattern too. I need to get some better pics of Paloma. I've been wearing it all week every time we've been out. It's so lovely and warm.

Here's a pic of me and my friend Jo at the Boxing Day Hunt at Jamaica Inn. I'm wearing Paloma & my new mittens. More on those later.

it was quite windy & cold and my hair definitely looks windswept. I've been doing a lot of knitting over Christmas. I had planned not to do any deadline knitting but a last minute project crept in and I've been progressing nicely on that one. Most of my knitting this Christmas has been on a stripey shawlette and my mittens. In the pic below you can see the beginnings of fingerless mittens to go with the new mitten pattern. Most of my projects this Christmas has been knitted in Quince & Co. I've been knitting with Chickadee (for the mittens), Tern and Lark. Love the Quince & Co yarns. As far as I know the only UK stockist is Loop in London (but you can order online too).

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

2011-12-24T18:36:00.000Z

Which I suppose is good as it's Christmas Eve. It took me a while to get in the mood of Christmas this year. To be honest it always does when we have Christmas in England. Norway feels a lot more Christmassy to me, don't know why. it's not the snow as we don't always have snow for Christmas. I think it's more to do with childhood traditions and familiarity.

We always decorate late for Christmas. I don't like the idea of decorating in early December. We always have a real tree and if we get it in too early all the needles will have dropped off before the big day. This year we got a slightly smaller christmas tree than normal but I think it's still pretty.

We don't have a huge amount of Christmas decorations. I'm very fussy about decorations. I don't like tacky decorations and I think a lot of Christmas decorations are tacky. Most of ours are from Norway apart form a few from Avon. I got those a few years ago when I was an 'Avon lady'. The shelsitters and the santa on the left in the photos below are Avon decorations.

I love my plant decorations. And the little santa on the window sill next to it is from Norway.

Another decoration from Norway.

And my favourite Christmas decoration is this santa that a friend of my Grandparents made for us many years ago.

This wall hanging is another Norwegian decoration. I thin it's supposed to hang on your front door but I'm worried about getting it ruined so always hang it inside.

This is our dining room window sill with a crochet runner my Grandma made a long, long time ago. The red candle stick holders are old ones my Mum gave me when I first got married. I've no idea how long she'd had them for. The fat little santas are from Norway too.

Here's a close up of part of the crochet runner. It's filet crochet which I've not done much of but I do have a couple of ideas for filet crochet shawls which I may play with over christmas. My Grandma was amazing at crochet and did lots of very intricate lacy table cloths, runners and doilies and I've got several of them. I hope that one day I'll be as good at crochet as she was. My grandma taught me to crochet when I was a child but I preferred knitting and only made some simple pot holders. I'm glad i've re-learnt it and I'm sure my Grandma would be proud to see my latest crochet designs.

I had a lot of work to finish this week, several patterns to finish writing and a couple of samples to post. I got it all done in the end. I had planned a Christmas of non-work knitting but it hasn't quite worked out like that. I said yes to a commission I need to get in the post before new year's eve but it's a fairly easy and should be a quick thing to knit. I'm planning to cast on tonight, so I can knit on it over the weekend.

We're having Christmas at home this year. Simon's dad is joining us for lunch tomorrow. Simon's Mum was admitted to hospital again a week ago as her broken leg wasn't healing and they've decided they needed to pin it. The firs time they tried to do the op, a week ago, her leg was too swollen. She had to wait for a few days. And had to stay in hospital and wasn't even allowed out of bed. By the time they were going to try again she had a tummy bug. Then the whole ward was closed due to the tummy bug virus. She's hardly had any visitors this week, only Simon's dad been allowed in for short periods. They were hoping to operate today but they postponed it again. No idea when they'll do it now. We're just hoping we'll all be allowed to visit her tomorrow or that they'll at least let Simon visit.

Yesterday I sent out a Christmas newsletter with a special offer. If you didn't get it, you can read it here. Sign up to the newsletter in the side bar so you don't miss out in the future.

At the time of writing there is only one shawl pin left. I'm amazed at how quickly the shawl pins sold. Thank you to all who've purchased them. I'll be ordering more in January. These are definitely the best shawl pins i've ever found. Light enough to use with delicate lace and no sharp edges.

I'll be back in a couple of days with pictures from the Boxing Day hunt on Monday and my Christmas knitting. I'm working on some cabled mittens, a stripey shawlette and a secret accessory. All using Quince & Co yarn. It's pretty gorgeous and available from Loop in London in the UK. If you know of any other UK stockists please let me know.

I'd like to wish you all a wonderful, happy Christmas. Thank you for all your support in the last year. 2011 has been very exciting and 2012 is hopefully going to be even better.

God Jul x

By the way, you can see the offical photos from the Debbie Bliss Fashion Show (including my designs) here. It's a Facebook link so I hope you can all see it. It's not my album so not sure if it's a public link or not.

Pretty Things!

2011-12-19T21:38:00.001Z

Every time I do a show I get asked where I get my gorgeous shawl pins from & every time I say I ought to stock these gorgeous pins. Well, I've finally done something about it. I've got a small selection of 'Nicholas & Felice' shawl pins in stock.

I've been using Nicholas & Felice's pins for a few years now and they are gorgeous. My favourites are the light weight aluminium ones. They're very light weight and have no sharp edges. I'm also stocking one brass and one copper variety. I bought my Mum a sterling silver shawl pin from Nicholas & Felice for her birthday in November. I'd love a silver one for myself too.

The pins are hand-made in the USA by artisans Nicholas & Felice. All the pins are made of lightweight metal and are perfect for the most delicate lace shawls. They won't weigh down your shawl or snag it. I've used my shawl pins lots of times. I've also tried other metal shawl pins but most of the time they're either far too heave or have sharp pins or edges.

Want to see the shawl pins in use? I use them in almost all my photos and here is a little selection:

Snow Queen:

Forget Me Not:

The Groovy Flower Shawl pin on Cherish:

Candace:

The Groovy Flower pin shown again on Cornish Rhapsody:

I have 5 different designs and only 2 of each to start with. I've only listed 1 of each so far as I'm taking them to show a friend tomorrow. She's choosing one for her Christmas present.

You can find all the shawl pins here.

Tomorrow I'll be doing a yarn update. If you need to order things for Christmas I'll be posting on Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday this week. If you're ordering a present for someone I can post directly to them and I can even gift wrap it if you ask me to (I'm not an expert at gift wrapping though).

Stitch Heaven Salutes Barbara G Walker

2011-12-14T06:50:00.001Z

Earlier this autumn I came across this DVD and I was intrigued. A few weeks later I was asked if I was interested in reviewing it. Ofcourse I said yes. I'm a big Barbara Walker fan. Barbara is probably most famous for her knitting treasuries and her book 'Knitting from the top'. I would guess most hand knit designers have at least one, if not all, of Barbara's treasuries in their library. I bought all four a few years ago and refer to them again and again. They are amazing treasuries of stitch patterns.

Now TriCoast Entertainment have taken some of the stitches from Barbara's books and compiled them into a DVD. The DVD contains 18 stitch-alongs of clear videos showing various stitch patterns. Experienced knitters demonstrate stitch by stitch, row by row how to work a variety of stitches including lace, cables, bobbles, colourwork and slipped stitches. Written instructions and charts are also shown.

But that's not all, this Stitch Heaven DVD also contains an interview with Barbara Walker which was the highlight for me. I love Barbara's work, I think she's probably one of the most influential knitters of the 20th century and a lot of today's designers use Barbara's work as inspiration and have learnt from her books.

All in all there are over 3.5 hours of viewing on this DVD.

So what's the advantage of watching this DVD instead of learning these stitch patterns from Barbara's books? I'm a very visual learner and much prefer to be shown something rather than reading it in books. The books have written instructions for the stitches and one of the books have charts. The DVD will show you how each stitch on every row is worked. You can pause, rewind and re-play as many times as you want. It's like having a teacher in the room with you.

Why not put this DVD on your Christmas list!

I love this DVD and Stitch Heaven have other offerings too. Check out their website and their blog for more information on this DVD and the other DVDs they offer.

Shelter Infinity Scarf for Shelterbox

2011-12-10T10:28:00.001Z

My new fundraising pattern for Shelterbox is now ready. I originally designed this shawl last winter but by the time it was ready for publication it was spring and I decided to delay it. Then I completely forgot about it.

This gorgeous scarf is worked flat and the ends joined together at the end to make a long loop. The cables are worked on both right and wrong side rows making a double-sided fabric. Shelter can be worn in several different ways. Wrap it twice around your neck for a very warm cozy scarf:

Or wrap it twice around your neck:

Or wear it as one long loop:

I knitted the original Shelter Scarf in Fyberspates Scrumptous DK and used 3 skeins for a very long scarf. I made this last winter for a friend for her birthday. She loved it but unfortunately a few weeks ago she decided to wash it and washed it on the wrong cycle and felted it. She can still wear it as a cowl.

I'm very tempted to make one for myself. If I get time to do any personal knitting over Christmas this will be top of my list. I may make mine slightly shorter. You can easily substitute for different yarn weights too, just alter your needle size. The cable pattern is both charted & written out and the cables are very easy. This is the perfect project to practice cabling without a cable needle.

Below you can see how the fabric is double sided:

I love this fabric and the colour:

You can download the pattern here or here (on Ravelry) and donate to Just Giving or see how much money we've raised here.

ETA: I forgot to thank my testers who test knitted this pattern last winter/spring. Thank you very much to you all. I do rely on testers when I'm releasing a new pattern and I'm pleased that knitters are willing to donate their time to help a good cause. I'm hoping to release at least one new pattern for Shelterbox a year so this is a long term fundraising initiative.

Shelterbox do amazing work and respond to most major disasters around the world. They supply boxes containing tent and essential equipment for an extended family of up to 10 people. Check out their website to find out more of what they do.

Something for the weekend?

2011-12-09T09:40:00.001Z

The Grace Crochet Scarf is a fun, quick, little crochet project. It is very easy for a competent crocheter and perfectly doable for a novice crocheter. The pattern comes in both a British and American version. You only need to be able to do chains, double crochets and treble crochets (in American: chains, single crochets and double crochets).

The scarf starts with a picot chain then moves into a few rows of a chain mesh and ends in two rows of trebles (US: double crochet) and chains which makes the scarf spiral a little bit. Make it in a single colour or choose two colours. I love my Christmas inspired red/white one below.

I made each of these in a couple of evenings and I didn't work flat out all evening either so they are perfectly doable in a weekend. The yarn is Louisa Harding's gorgeous Grace Handbeaded which is a silk/wool blend with beads. Many other beaded yarns can also be used and I do have a couple of other beaded yarns in my studio to try out when I'm finished all my pre-Christmas deadlines.

This scarf is as little bit addictive. Once i'd made one I could have kept going and made lots of them. This is very rare for me. I don't normally like making the same things more than once but I can't wait to make more of these.

Click here to purchase the pattern.

They make perfect Christmas presents and you've still got time to make one quickly. You can ofcourse substitute the beaded yarn for a plain yarn and add beads yourself. Louisa Harding has a new Mulberry Silk beaded yarn coming out soon too and I've seen a sample of it and can't wait to make a scarf in that yarn too.

Don't know how to crochet or worried your crochet skills are not good enough? I've added a Grace Crochet Scarf workshop to my workshops on offer next year and I'm booked to teach it at Spin A Yarn in the spring. I'm not sure of the date yet but if you're interested contact Spin A Yarn & sign up to their newsletter which will be sent out soon. You'll then get a full workshop timetable for the spring term. Their workshop timetable is the most comprehensive in the south west I think.

I'm ofcourse happy to travel to other venues to teach so if you're interested contact your local LYS or knitting group and ask if they're interested in asking me to teach. All they need to do to book me to teach is to contact me and i'll send them details.

My plans for the weekend are lots of knitting, 2 garments to sew up and do finishing details, patterns to write and perhaps some crochet. I'll hopefully be starting a new design too. I'm working hard to get all my deadlines finished off in time for Christmas.

Have a lovely weekend x

Let's Knit

2011-12-08T10:44:00.001Z

'Susannah' can be found in Let's Knit issue 50 which just arrived yesterday. Susannah is gorgeous, cozy sweater with a central cable panel on a 2x2 rib back ground. The sweater has some gentle waistshaping built into the rib creating as flattering silhouette.

Susannah also has a big cowl collar and elbow length sleeves with a fold over cuff and button detail. You could not fold the cuff and have 3/4 length sleeves instead if preferred.

The yarn is Rico Essentials Soft Merino Aran and is very soft, squishy and gorgeous to knit with and being aran it knits up very quickly too. This sweater can be worn with jeans, leggings or a mini skirt as seen below. In fact I love Let's Knit's styling of this sweater. I think the outfit the model wears looks very nice.

the cables are easy and perfect for a first cable garment and the ribbing is quick and creates a lovely shape.

There are lots of gorgeous knits in this issue and if you've finished your Christmas knitting or perhaps as a treat to look forward to for yourself once your Christmas knitting is done, treat yourself!

Winding Path

2011-12-06T18:13:00.001Z

The new issue of The Knitter is out and I've got a gorgeous shawl in this issue. The Winding Path was knitted in Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply. I love the Fyberspates Scrumptious range of yarns. The silky soft yarn, stunning colours from subtle watery colours like this one to really rich bright reds and purples.

This shawl is knitted sideways with increases until you've used up half your yarn then decreases to the end. The stitch pattern is easy to memorise and knit and the edging is knitted along with the body of the shawl. I used 2 skeins for this shawl but you can easily make it smaller and use only one skein. Why not treat your self?

A big thank you to Pixie for knitting this sample for me. She's fantastic and I really can't do the amount of designing I do without her help.

For those of you waiting for the Grace Scarf to be published, I do apologise. it's not come back from tech editing and I need to finalise the pattern and will hopefully publish it tonight or first thing in the morning.

The weekend has been busy with deadline knitting. One design was posted this morning and I'm hoping to post another one tomorrow. I'm also busy charting and swatching for a very exciting new design in a brand new gorgeous lace yarn. I'll tell you more about that when things have been finalised a bit more.

We also finished most of our Christmas shopping on Saturday. On the news they keep going on about recession and spending being down but the shops were packed and people were buying as the queues were horrendous. After shopping we popped in to the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth for an hour. We've got a season ticket this year as Emily loves going there. I sat by one of the big tanks knitting while Simon and Em looked around. Then we went to visit Simon's Mum in hospital. She fell on the moors last week and broke her leg in two places. It's very serious and she's got a cast from her toes to her hip. Whole leg is in plaster. We're hoping she'll be able to come home from hospital soon but I think it'll be a long recovery.

Back to my new lace yarn and swatching. One of my favourite tasks.

About Last Night...

2011-12-02T18:12:00.001Z

Last night was Spin A Yarn's Debbie Bliss Fashion Show at the Devon Guild Of Master Craftsmen. This time my designs and Claire Crompton's designs were featured along designs from Debbie's autumn/winter collection. It was great meeting Debbie, she's such a lovely person. I was trying very hard to control myself and not do the 'fan girl' thing but I did have to pinch myself a few times. I never would have imagined this happening 5 years ago.

Before we went down to the guild for the fashion show, Debbie, Claire and I spent some time in the yarn shop being photographed by a professional photographer and chatting. We had our own little knit group.

Once we got down to the guild coffee shop we were treated to a lovely meal with even more lovely desserts. I did remember to take some photos but they're not brilliant. My camera has the flash turned off and I forgot to turn it back on.

Above is Debbie (on the left, Joyce (at the back) and Debbie's intern, Teresa, who was really lovely too. Imagine doing an internship with Debbie Bliss.

The designs were modelled by staff, customers and friends of Spin A Yarn and they did a great job. Below they're posing for the photographer in some of Debbie's designs.

Some dedicated sock knitters (who will probably kill me if they know I managed to snap a pic):

Verity, one of the dedicated and friendly Spin A Yarn staff members, modelling a shrug.

The great thing about this fashion show is that the audience has the chance to stop the models and touch the garment and look at it up close. I wish I had managed to catch a pic of the front of the pink garment below as it had a lovely cable detail.

Verity in a Norwegian inspired sweater. I love this design. Reminds me of home. A very elegant and feminine design.

The little top below was actually from Debbie's childrens collection but we thought it looked great on Verity. It's knitted in the new Angel yarn which is simply divine.

After Debbie's designs, Claire and I teamed up to show off our designs. Below is one of the models (and sorry I've forgotten her name - very embarrassing) wearing my Daisy shawlette and one of Claire's gorgeous bags.

This is a crazy combination of one of Claire's fun left over yarn bags (made by using bits of left over yarn), a skinny scarf and my Cornish Gems Wrist Warmers.

After the fashion show we brought out all the samples and knitters had the chance to try them on, look at them in detail and ask questions. I received a lot of compliments.

The Snow Queen Shawl was a particular favourite last night. It's a perfect winter shawl.

Apart from the fashion show last night, talking about design and yarn with Debbie was great. Debbie told me she has a new lace yarn coming out next year and I was given 3 balls of it in a gorgeous pink colourway. I can't wait to play with it. I've got lots of yarns waiting for swatching but I think i will definitely make time for some swatching with this yarn this weekend, having said that I've got a deadline on Monday so have still got a lot of knitting to do on that.

A big thank you to Joyce of Spin A Yarn for inviting me to this fashion show. Joyce was the first one to book me to teach knitting workshops and has always encouraged and supported me, which I really appreciate.

This morning it was back to business as normal and I started the day (after a bit of knitting) with the publication of the Jurassic Coast Scarf. This is the third design in the Amazing Luxury Knits Collection. The yarn has been in my stash for a little while and I was determined I wanted to use it for a design in this collection as I loved the colours. It's Great Northern Yarns Cashmere and I can't find it on their website so it may be discontinued but they do a mink/cashmere blend which is also gorgeous. And their mink fibre is humanely harvested.

I used two 40 gr skeins and the scarf ended up longer than I thought it would be. it measures 170cm/67in long and 20cm/8in wide. The scarf consists of several short row wedges. Each large wedge consists of 4 smaller wedges separated by a contrasting stripe. To add a bit more fun there are some eyelet rows thrown in. The eyelet rows are simple, just yarn over/yarn forward and k 2 together. The short rows are easy too. I use the wrap & turn method and instructions are included. You don't have to worry about knitting the wraps as they don't show up in the garter stitch. I carried the yarn not in use up the side to avoid having lots of ends to weave in.

The pattern is available as a single pattern or as part of the Amazing Luxury Knits Collection. If you purchase the single pattern you'll receive a code for £3 off if you decide you'd like the full collection. We're half way through Amazing Luxury Knits now. Three designs have been published and we have three left. They will be published in January, February and March. After March they'll all collated into an e-book which subscribers will be able to download in March/April. Sign up now.

Rule Of Three in INTERWEAVE Accessories

2011-11-30T21:41:00.001Z

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

2011-11-27T19:03:00.001Z

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

2011-11-25T20:52:00.001Z

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

2011-11-22T07:45:00.001Z

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

2011-11-19T16:40:00.001Z

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

2011-11-16T18:15:00.001Z

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

2011-11-12T16:25:00.001Z

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

2011-11-11T20:08:00.001Z

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.

What are you doing on Sunday?

2011-11-09T10:08:00.001Z

I'll be at The Big Knit Show at the Corn Exchange in Exeter. I've seen a list of the full line up of stalls this week and it looks like it's going to be a fab show. Some great stalls with a variety of knitterly goodies on offer.

This is my Fibre Flurry stall.

I'll be there with my yarn and patterns. The Craftie Pixie will be there helping me as I'm giving Simon the day off. He's been brilliant this year and has helped me do 4 shows. He works all week then I drag him off to work on weekends too. Then he goes back to work on Monday. But doing 2 shows in 2 weeks was too much for him,especially as he was away in Scotland last weekend. So Pixie kindly agreed to help me. She knows my yarns really well and has knitted several of my shawl samples which will be on display, so she'll probably do a better job than me.

I'm teaching an Easy Lace workshop too. It's an hour taster workshop and it's only £10, which is a bargain. We'll practice working yarn overs between different combinations of knit and purl stitches and different decreases and you'll learn how to knit from a chart. After this workshop you should have the confidence to knit a simple lace pattern like my Elegance Scarf.

There will also be a knit lounge where you can knit and chat to old and new friends. There is nothing like sitting down knitting with lots of other people who are as obsessed with knitting as you are. Even if you come to a show on your own and sit down alone there'll be someone there you can talk to.

The childrens knitting area is being run by a friend of mine, Vicky Rowan. She's an expert in fun knits for kids. Not many shows have this kind of offer on for kids so it's the perfect opportunity to encourage your kids to get knitting. There will also be spinning demos and lots of other stuff going on.

I kind of wish I wasn't having a stall and could come as a visitor and enjoy browsing all the fantastic stalls and knit with other knitters in the knit lounge but you'll find me behind the YarnAddict table.

So what are you doing on Sunday?

An Autumn Walk

2011-11-07T20:06:00.001Z

Last week is a bit of a blur, it took me most of the week to recover from our trip to Birmingham. My back was really bad again after the Fibre Flurry weekend. I had a massage last week which helped a lot but for some reason I've developed a new pain in my lower back. When I stand for a few minutes, for example when queuing in shops and post office (which I do quite often) the side of my lower back locks up and I limp for a few minutes. Not sure why this is happening and I hope it'll go away soon.

I've done very little knitting in the last week. It's mainly been all about secret crochet projects, which ofcourse I can't share. I know you hate that but I can't help it. I'm really enjoying it though. I have been working on a crochet design I can share but I keep forgetting to take photos. I'll try again tomorrow. It's a new design for a little crochet scarf & it's really pretty. Even my daughters like it.

Instead I'll share some photos from a walk Em and I took our dog, Sam, and our inlaws dog, Bracken, on last Friday. The two dogs are sisters from the same litter but they don't look anything like each other. I kep trying to get a pic of them together but neither of them like having their pic taken.

We went to a river nearby which has a wide path. I thought this would be a clean place to walk but the path was rather muddy in places. It did look beautiful with different coloured leaves though.

The river was very fast flowing and as our dog is very small I was relieved neither of them fancied a swim.

Look at all those leaves:

Later this week, I'll be publishing the Cherish Shawlette which was first published in Knitting a year ago. I have a few final little details left to add to the pattern so I'll leave you with a picture to tempt you instead.

The Cherish shawl is modelled by our friend, Sarah, and we took the photos on a local beach in August.

I've listed most of the yarns we had left from Fibre Flurry now, but there are some more sock yarn to come tomorrow. You can find all the new arrivals here. On Sunday 13th November we'll be at The Big Knit Show in Exeter where I'll also be teaching an easy lace workshop. It's only an hour long workshop but we'll cover how to knit yarn overs and various decreases and how to read lace charts. So it'll be basically all you need to knit simple lace patterns.

I've sent out a newsletter this evening. If you've not signed up to our newsletter you can do so in the side bar. It means you'll never miss out on any special offers and news. You can also read the newsletter here.

The Annabel Cowl

2011-11-02T09:00:00.000Z

The second design in the Amazing Luxury Knits collection was published yesterday. For this month I decided to go for a quick knit which is a perfect project to knit as a present or a treat for yourself. The Annabel cowl is knitted in Handmaiden Great Big Sea from Purlescence. You can use any luxurious dk yarn though.

The Annabel cowl comes in one generous size. Emily modelled this cowl for me. She's a skinny 13 year old and the cowl fitted her as well as it fits me who's not skinny and not 13. You can easier make it bigger or smaller if you prefer.

The cowl is knitted in the round with picot hems. There are two options for working the picot hems. The easy version and a more advanced version using a provisional cast on. The pattern includes instructions for both.

The pattern is available as a single pattern and as part of The Amazing Luxury Knits. If you subscribe to Amazing Luxury Knits by end of October you save £2. I've extended that to the end of today. Tomorrow, Thursday, the price will increase to £12. But if you hurry up and sign up now you'll only pay £10. If you've already subscribed to Amazing Luxury Knits then your pattern will be waiting for you on Ravelry.

Going back to Purlescence, I'm due to teach an Easy Lace workshop on 10 March. More details will follow soon. Contact Purlescence, which is based near Oxford, if you're interested.

Fibre Flurry

2011-11-01T17:58:00.000Z

I'm just about starting to recover from our weekend in Birmingham and Fibre Flurry. We drove up on Thursday afternoon. by the time we got there we didn't fancy doing anything so had a meal in the lovely pub next to our Travelodge. Great food.

On Friday we headed in to the centre of Birmingham and the Bull Ring Centre. We managed to find some cheap parking (£2.50 all day) just down the road from the shopping centre. Our main aim for the day was for Simon to buy an outfit to wear for his nephew's 21st birthday this weekend. Sounds easy enough. Well, Simon doesn't really like shopping and we couldn't find an M&S. So we ended up in Debenhams and managed to get a nice pair of trousers and shirt fairly quickly. I bought a pair of fancy trainers, those that are supposed to tone your legs when you exercise. I wore them today walking in to town and they felt weird. will take some time getting used to I think.

We had a break in the St Martins Church Cafe and sat on the patio at the front of the church. We noticed there was a wedding about to take place in the church and sat there waiting to see if we could see the bride. Eventually I went to the loo and ofcourse the bride arrived while I was away but Simon took these pics:

On Saturday it was time for Fibre Flurry. We were in the Ashford Hall:

This is our stall:

This is the lace yarn section:

And the sock yarn section:

It's always a struggle to display enough samples. I have more shawls than I can display at these event. If you see me at a show and can't see the shawl you fancy knitting, please ask me as I may have the shawl in a box behind the counter.

P/hop was present as well and raised quite a lot of money. If you've not heard of p/hop before, they raise money for Medisins Sans Frontier by providing patterns in return for a donation.

We had a great time at Fibre Flurry. The event was popular although not quite as busy as last year but still a great day. Thank you to all those who came and said hello and bought our yarn and patterns. I hope you're happy with your purchase. If you missed out, I've started listing the leftovers in the shop. More to come tomorrow. In the afternoon I taught a continental knitting class. I had a full class of excellent knitters and had a great time. It was great to meet you all.

Antony House

2011-10-25T13:41:00.004+01:00

On Sunday Simon, Em & I went to Antony House, near Torpoint. This is where they filmed the 'Alice in Wonderland' film a few years ago. It's a small house and although it's beautiful, it doesn't look that nice with scaffolding.

The grounds of the house are beautiful. With so many different areas. Big open lawns, formal gardens,

woodland areas. You can walk right down to the River Tamar. We didn't do it this time but we have done before.

Some absolutely amazing trees. In fact I think this would make a great photo shoot location for my shawls. The only problem is they shut for the winter this weekend. It's a National Trust property but the family still live there so I'm not sure if the national trust owns it or the family does. Also, I suppose to do a photo shoot somewhere like this you'd need to get permission. Wonder how easy that is to get and if they charge for it? Anyone know about stuff like that?

This huge tree was just amazing with so many unusual branches.

There were lots of different archways which would make good back drops for knits. Emily is practising for her future career as a knit wear model. I just need her to grow another inch or two.

Some beautiful walls too:

There are some interesting stuff in this garden. Like this big bell.

Play areas hidden behind trees. Emily proving she's not too old to have fun.

Some of the fun stuff is new post 'Alice in Wonderland' I think. This tree hut was funny.

I asked Emily to go and sit in it and suddenly someone started talking to her. There were flashing lights and a sound recording playing. She didn't expect it and it took her by surprise.

Definitely an 'Alice' leftover:

In front of the house there is a beautiful court yard area with these arches running down each side.

Behind where I took this photo was a coffee shop.

It was a lovely afternoon out. We've been a couple of times before but a few years ago and I'd forgotten how lovely this place is. It's not open very much and I wish we'd gone earlier in the summer as I think we would have visited several times if we had. This property shuts completely end of this week and don't re-open until March. It would make a fab photo shoot venue though? Think I'll have to plan one for next year.

Looking Back

2011-10-24T20:47:00.001+01:00

Not quite sure what happened to last week. It seemed to whizz past somehow and I don't feel like I got a whole lot done. I taught at Spin A Yarn one day followed by 2 days of a tummy bug. I seem to be getting minor tummy bugs fairly frequently this year and I'm kind of hoping it may be linked to my gall stones and that it'll clear up once my gall bladder is removed. I spent last Wednesday mainly in bed. I didn't even do much knitting. Thursday I felt slightly better and spent most of the morning trying to work myself up to driving to Plymouth in the afternoon. I had a hospital appointment to see the consultant for my gall bladder op.

After waiting for 1 hr and 15 mins (!!!) I finally got in to see the doctor. He didn't even apologise and neither did the nurse who took us in to the examining room. I can't say i liked the consultant at all. I thought he was rude and unpleasant. The actual appointment took about 2 mins and yes, I did need an op. Quite honestly, the GP had told me more than the consultant did and in a much nicer way. I'll probably have to wait till after Christmas to get my op but that's okay because it means I have to stick to a low fat diet over Christmas which may make this the first Christmas every I won't gain weight. In fact, the doctor did ask me to loose some weight before the op. As I am rather overweight, that didn't surprise me. I have lost just over a stone but the weight loss has slowed down over the last month. I also have an underactive thyroid so that may explain it. My diet is better than it's been for years and I'm even eating much more fruit.

Healthwise, the gall stones may be one of the better things that have happened to my health especially if I can get a few stones off.

The weekend before last I attended Ktog in South Brent in Devon. This is an annual gathering organised by Easy Dartmoor Tea Shop Knitters and it's always fun to meet a lot of friends I don't see very often. I had a small stall:

One of the challenges at shows is always how to display shawls. I got 4 of these earlier in the year and they're great but they are a bit graphic. I kind of feel they ought to be covered up a bit. I've put swim suits on two of them but I keep looking in charity shops for some mini dresses in plain, neutral materials. Like little shift dresses in black, purple, navy or other colours that go with my shawls. So far no luck. If anyone happens to have a suitable dress or two in the back of a cup board they don't want, I'd love it. I need a size 10.

The other stall holders were Spin A Yarn

The lovely Vicky from Hulu Crafts:

and Sara's Texture Crafts:

The aim of the event is to promote knitting and there was a big knit cafe area and some knitting, crochet and spinning workshops. The members of the group also showed off some of their knits:

After finally finished a 3 sweater deadline last week I got straight on with a crochet deadline. I have 4 crochet designs due over the next few weeks. But I also managed to cast on for the second design in 'The Amazing Luxury Knits' e-collection. The second design is due to be published on 1st November and I was ready to cast on for this design weeks ago but I ended up having to rush to finish my lace shawl and the 3 sweaters (I only knitted one sweater but had a bit of finishing to do on the other 2).

This weekend I finally decided I really ought to crack on with this design and it knitted up really quickly once I got going. It's knitted in the round and the lace pattern is easy to memorise. At the moment it's blocking and I need a dry day tomorrow and a willing model. I'm hoping Vanessa will agree to model for me. Let's hope she's in a good mood.

The yarn is Handmaiden Great Big Sea which is gorgeous to knit with and it only takes one skein. If you haven't signed up to Amazing Luxury Knits yet, do so now. it's cheaper if you sign up before end of October. This big, soft, luxurious cowl is also a perfect, quick gift knit. You could easily make several before Christmas and it only takes 100gr of dk yarn.

I'm very busy this week getting ready for Fibre Flurry. I didn't get much yarn dyeing done last week and we had another busy weekend. But this morning I dyed a big batch of Twinkletoes Sock and Twinkle Lace. tomorrow it's time for Exotic Cobweb Lace and Silky Merino Lace and a small amount of Merino Plus Twist.

I'm very organised when it comes to patterns this time and have ordered them from a professional printer. A big box arrived last week and I did order some more of other patterns last week and they're due to arrive on Thursday and we leave Thursday about 2pm so I may not get them in time. Such a relief not to be planning a mega printing session in the week before a show.

I'm teaching Continental Knitting on Saturday afternoon and it looks like there may only be one ticket left. So hurry up if you want to book. If you miss out, contact Mikayla to see if there is a waiting list. Fibre Flurry was great last time and I'm really looking forward to this year's event. We're driving up on Thursday afternoon and haven't decided what to do yet on Friday. Simon needs to do some shopping but we've not decided what to do for the rest of the day. We're staying in Redditch. Anything we should see?

Ready, Steady, GO!

2011-10-15T13:58:00.003+01:00

Today is the start of the Mystery Shawl KAL 2011 and I've just posted clue 1. If you've signed up you will receive an e-mail sent to your Paypal e-mail address and a Ravelry message. If you haven't signed up yet, there is still time. Sign up closes on 25 October.

it's challenging to photograph the beginning of the shawl without giving away the next clue.

Clue 2 will be posted on Friday 21 October.

Tomorrow I'll be at KTOG5, this is an annual event organised by the East Dartmoor Tea Shop Knitters. This year it's being held in South Brent. This event is mainly about knitters & spinners getting together to knit, spin and eat cake. But there will be a few yarny stalls too for those who want a bit of stash enhancement. It's a great afternoon out. I'll also be running a mini Continental Knitting workshop.

I forgot something...

2011-10-13T20:00:00.000+01:00

This morning when I logged into Twitter, I had a tweet from a lovely knitter who mentioned my crochet design in the new Let's Knit. I quickly grabbed my copy and flicked through it again and yes, my crochet design, Tegan, is in this issue too. That's 3 designs in this issue. Yay, Go me!

I used Rowan Lima for this design. Lima is an amazing yarn to crochet with. It's constructed like a knitted tube and it works up into a very light, incredibly soft and warm fabric. This vest is perfect to keep you warm in a chilly office, or for your weekend activities.

It's a simple shape and has an easy to learn treble cluster stitch which works up very quickly. I loved making this. You could easily make it longer or shorter.

By the way, have your heard some fantastic Crochet News? Love:Crochet is a new online crochet magazine due to be launched on 1 December. The website looks a bit basic now but it's not the final one. Just bookmark it and make sure you keep checking back. The best thing is that I've been commissioned 3 designs for the first issue. I've got another crochet design for another mag due in a few weeks too so it'll be all about crochet for me in the next few weeks.

I'm very excited about this new launch. It promises to be a modern crochet mags, which is just what we need.

Let's Knit & Gorgeous Bags!

2011-10-12T15:04:00.001+01:00

The new issue of Let's Knit popped through the letterbox this morning. I sat down and flicked through. I knew I had a design in this issue. Then I turned over and looked at the cover

and realised that's my design on the cover. I didn't recognise it first. It's amazing how different garments can look when they're styled & modelled.

Cecily is a fun and vibrant cardigan with a stripy chevron pattern which gives it a retro chic feel. The shape is cropped with short sleeves. Perfect to layer over little dresses and long-sleeved t-shirts & jeans. The cardigan is knitted in one piece with raglan shaping, so there is almost no sewing up to do (just a tiny bit at the underarm).

The yarn is the bouncy & soft Artesano Superwash Merino, which I love. Craftie Pixie knitted this cardigan and did a brilliant job as always. The cardi is finished off with garter stitch neck and button band and a big button.

My second design in this issue is one of my favourite designs this year, Mia, a fitted, classic cable sweater. Again, Craftie Pixie did the knitting for me. She's fantastic and I can't do all the designs I do without her superfast knitting.

Mia is knitted in the gorgeous Milla Mia Merino. This is my first design in this yarn and I love it! This merino is soft, bouncy and has excellent stitch definition - exactly what a merino yarn should be and the colour range is stunning. I'm hoping I'll be able to use this yarn for more designs in the future.

This cable pattern is my favorite cable pattern this year. I love it. It's fun to knit and a brilliant way to practice cabling without cable needle. If you're new to cables, I'm doing a cable workshop at The Cornwall Yarn Shop .

The cable rib pattern gives this sweater a great shape and I've added some subtle waist shaping worked in the purl column so it doesn't interrupt the cables. Very flattering!

In addition, Mia has 3/4 length sleeves and a square neckline with a garter stitch edging.

This classic cable sweater will be in style for several years.

Let's Knit is not the only exciting thing which arrived in today's post. I got 3 gorgeous project bags from Three Bags Full. Michele does amazing bags.

This one is my favourite. It's the perfect size for a lace project or even part of a sweater. Because i use circular needles for everything and tend to use thinner yarns, I can fit a sweater back or front in this bag and as I take my knitting everywhere with me, these gorgeous bags are essential.

This one is gorgeous too and the same size as the one above:

This one is slightly smaller and perfect for a sock project. I'm thinking about using it as a new notions bag. My current one is getting a bit worn and is very full. This one is slightly bigger so everything would fit in easily, although I'd probably end up stuffing even more in it. I need some more socks so perhaps I'll use it as an excuse to cast on a new sock project.

To and take a look at Michele's bags and treat yourself. you know you want to.

ETA: to add Ravelry project links.

KTOG

2011-10-10T21:23:00.000+01:00

If you're a knitter you know that ktog means knit together and that's just the aim of a yearly event being organised by The East Dartmoor Tea Shop Knitters. This is the 5th year this event has been held, which is amazing. Can't believe it's been 5 years.

The aim of this event is to get knitters together. There is a knit cafe, workshops and a few stall holders. I'll be there selling my yarns & patterns and I'll be teaching a Continental Knitting Workshop (you can sign up on the day).

The East Dartmoor Tea Shop Knitters give the profits each year to a local charity. You can read about their chosen charities on their website.

Fancy joining us for the day? It's a great day out (and it's cheap - only £1 and children free). Check out the website for full details. Spin A Yarn, Hulu Crafts and Sara's Texture Craft will also be having stalls.

The pictures are from last year's event.

Busy Weekend

2011-10-03T15:33:00.000+01:00

We've had an absolutely fantastic weekend. First, the weather was brilliant. Much better than it was for most of August. It was warm & sunny & proper summer weather. Instead of starting with what we did on Saturday, I'm going to start with Sunday afternoon.

After Vanessa's baptism in August, Emily said she'd like to be baptised. We assumed it would be next year. Then yesterday morning in the service, our pastor announced that they were having a baptism event at Looe beach in the afternoon and if anyone else wanted to be baptised to talk to him after the service. Emily told me as soon as the service finished that she wanted to be baptised that afternoon.

Looe beach was very busy for an October weekend. The tide was very far out so this picture doesn't show how busy the beach was as most people were above the high tide mark.

Lots of people from our church turned up too. I don't know if all of the people watching were from our church or if there were other people who stopped and watched. I always wonder what people think when we turn up on the beach to baptise people. It's amazing to hold baptism services on the beach though.

Here's Archie (our new pastor apprentice), Emily, Simon and our pastor John walking out. The tide was far out and it was very shallow so they had to walk a long way out until it was deep enough.

Simon helped baptise Emily:

Our friend, Carolyn, was baptised too and it was a wonderful afternoon. Afterwards Simon's parents came back here for a meal and I made Norwegian waffles for dessert as the kids love them!

On Saturday we went for a walk around Sibleyback Lake on Bodmin Moor. It was very warm and sunny. My back was very, very bad and I didn't think I could walk all the way around the lake so I walked a short bit, found a bench, listened to my e-book on my phone (Sense & Sensibility) and knitted. Here's the view in front of me:

and behind me:

I took a lot of pics as I was trying out my new camera and I'm very happy with the quality of these pics. Behind me was a large field with sheep on top of the hill:

Trust me there were sheep up among the rocks and trees but I didn't want to crop the picture.
In front of me was the view of the lake:

There is a fairly new path around this lake which has made it very popular with families, walkers, runners and cyclists. It's even wheel chair/scooter friendly and I saw a couple of people in wheel chairs going past, several kids cycling.

At one end of the lake there is a dam

In the middle of this beautiful landscape is this ugly concrete dam.

One thing that really shocked me was how low the water levels were. It feels like we've had a really rubbish summer but we obviously haven't had as much rain as it felt like. I've not seen the lake this low for a long, long time.

The water is normally right up to the green bit next to the path in the picture above.

I've got to go and get some knitting done. I'm a bit worried about some deadlines. I'll leave you with a couple of more pics of the beautiful lake:

On weekend's like this I feel really blessed to live in such a beautiful part of the country.

Interweave Knit.Wear 2011

2011-10-01T11:20:00.002+01:00

I was very lucky at the beginning of this year to have a design accepted for this new publication by Interweave. Interweave is one of the US's premiere knitting publishers. And it's a big honour to be included in one of their magazines.

Photo courtesy of Interweave Knit.Wear

I was very relived this design was in a chunky yarn as the yarn arrived after the deadline, one of the dangers of being an overseas designer I guess. So I had to knit up this design as quickly as possible.

Photo courtesy of Inteweave Knit.Wear

This design has very simple lines. The cables at the back fits in to the waist

Photo courtesy of Interweave Knit.Wear

and at the front they're worked along the front bands.

This design has built-in i-cord worked along the front edges. It was the first time I'd done a built-in i-cord and I loved the result.

Wondering where in the UK you can buy this magazine? Hulu Crafts has it in stock (as well as some other hard to get Interweave magazines). I haven't seen the actual magazine yet but I've found the preview online and it looks gorgeous.

As this is my first Interweave design I've been waiting anxiously for this all year and I'm beyond excited that it's been published. I'll be showing the magazine to everyone who'll want to see once I receive my copy.

I don't normally like photographing garments on my dress form but this cardi fitted perfectly. This cardi is designed to wear with no or negative ease.

Chunky garments can sometimes feel a bit .... well chunky ... but this cardigan is quite light and the tailored look makes it feel less chunky. But it knits up quickly. The Aslan Trends del Sur merino is gorgeous to work with. Even though I'm not normally a fan of chunky yarn I enjoyed knitting this cardi.

Fancy a Mystery KAL?

2011-09-30T07:18:00.002+01:00

No idea what a Mystery KAL is?

A Mystery KAL is a knitalong where the pattern is delivered in weekly 'clues' and you don't know what the complete shawl is going to look like until you get the last clue. This is my first Mystery KAL and I've been planning it for months and I'm very excited about it. Although I did design a Mystery Blanket for Let's Knit a couple of years ago.

We'll start on 15 October and there will be 5 weekly clues. The KAL will be run on Ravelry and there will be help and support in my Ravelry group. Each week you'll receive an e-mail with the link to download the next part of the pattern.

A few details:
The shawl is knitted in Twinkle Lace but you can use any laceweight yarn which has 800m/880yds per 100gr. You'll need 3.5mm needles. I recommend circular needles as you'll have quite a lot of stitches by the end. The edging has beads added which is optional. The beads are added using the crochet hook method. but if you don't want to add beads that's fine too.

So what do you do if you fancy joining in? Go to the pattern page on Ravelry to sign up. it's only £1.50 until 25 October. After that the sign up closes. After the KAL has finished the pattern will be available for general sale at £3. Participants can download the full pattern for free after the KAL has finished.

The KAL will be run from my Ravelry group where you can get help and support. You don't have to join the Ravelry group though.

In about a wee's time I'll publish a stitch pattern that you can use to check your tension and to see if you're happy with the fabric you get with your chose yarn and needles.

Will you join me on this exciting adventure?

20 Years!

2011-09-28T17:35:00.000+01:00

On a bright, warm, sunny day in Norway 20 years ago:

The weather was much like today in England actually as we've had a warm, sunny, beautiful summery day.
I can't believe it's 20 years ago since we got married. It has gone very quickly. Looking at that picture we looked so young and I was only 22 years old. My Mum kept telling me I was too young to get married when we went shopping for a wedding dress. My parents were 22 when they got married. I didn't think I was too young then but looking back, I think my Mum was right. I don't regret getting married though but I think I was too young and if either of my girls get married at 22 I'll be telling them the same thing (but I'd obviously support them).

Simon and I met and married within a year which is very quick compared to most people these days. But we obviously made the right decision. Our day out in Somerset for The Tour of Britain two weeks ago was our 'official' celebration. So tonight we're just having a nice family meal. I've cooked a roast beef dinner. I'm not supposed to eat red meat at the moment but I'm ignoring that tonight and just praying my gall bladder doesn't make me pay for it in the middle of the night.

To celebrate our anniversary I've got a special offer on this week. Use code: wedding20 to get 20% off yarn and patterns until Friday. Why not use the discount to sign up for the Amazing Luxury Knits? Or treat your self to some nice yarn to kick off your autumn knitting.

I'd better go and check on the roast.

Help us celebrate!

2011-09-26T13:51:00.002+01:00

On Wednesday, Simon and I celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary! I can't believe it's been 20 years, it doesn't seem that long. To celebrate I'm offering 20% off yarn and patterns until Friday 30th September. Use discount code: wedding20 to get your discount.

Why not use the discount to join one of our clubs or to sign up for the 'Amazing Luxury Knits'?

It's been a relaxing weekend. I had a very busy week last week with 2 half days and 1 full day of workshops. I taught beginner knitting, perfect finishing and toe up socks last wee at 3 different venues. This weekend my focus was on recovering after the workshops. I took it easy and did lots of knitting and watched Formula 1 Grand Prix and the World Championship in cycling. Congratulations to Mark Cavendish for becoming World Road Race Champion and for Jenson Button for coming second in the grand prix.

I got lots of knitting done. It's all secret so I'm only sharing little snippets. I knitted a swatch for a new lace design which I LOVE. It's gorgeous.

I'm working on an aran sweater in a gorgeous Rico merino yarn.

and a delicate Manos Lace design

Going from 5mm to 3.5mm needles can be challenging but I enjoy the difference these two projects present.

I've also spent time sorting out my studio. I've finally ordered new shelving, had a severe tidy up, moved my knitting machine and desk. Once my new shelving arrives and is fitted the room will be so much more organised and better to work from. Hopefully I'll have it all sorted by the end of the week.

We have a winner!

2011-09-21T17:14:00.004+01:00

I wrote this blog post last night but was too tired to edit and add photos:
I know I promised to draw the winner of the 'Shaping Shawl' e-book last Friday. But we decided to take the day off and be Tour of Britain groupies for the day. Tour of Britain is a road cycling race. Like Tour de France but much smaller and in Britain.

The winner is MaryMaryQuiteContrary. Congratulations. can you please e-mail me on ahallisATyahooDOTcoDOTuk (replace AT and DOT with @ and .) with your address and your choice of a skein of yarn from my website and your Ravelry name so Anna can send you your e-book.

On Thursday and Friday the Tour of Britain came to Devon and Somerset (which is one and two counties away from us - so fairly close). We couldn't go on Thursday although watching them on Dartmoor would have been fantastic. But I was teaching a workshop so we took Friday off instead. First we drove to Somerset to watch the start. Before the start all the riders have to go up on the stage to sign in.

A few of the British riders, including British no 1 and Tour de France Green Jersey winner, Mark Cavendish, were interviewed (I've no idea if the cyclist below is actually Mark Cavendish as I can't remember who I took photo of and it's difficult to recognise cyclists with their helmets on. All the photos were taking on my mobile and have been cropped so sorry for the bad quality.

Simon and i followed watched nearly every stage of the Tour de France this year so we were quite excited to see some of the riders close up. Norwegian no 1 cyclist and World Champion and Tour de France stage winner, Thor Hushovd was there too.

Here's the start:

Once the race started we got back in the car and drove on to Cheddar Gorge. For those who are not British, Cheddar Gorge is a big tourist attraction. We drove through the gorge and it was already lots of people ready at the road side and lots and lots of cyclists cycling up and down the hill. We drove to the top of the hill and set up camp about 100m before the 'King of the mountains' banner.

As a Norwegian, using 'King of the mountains' in a British race is kind of a laugh. Compared to the mountains we have in Norway, there are only hills here. And Cheddar Gorge is not a mountain. Although I wouldn't have wanted to cycle up it.

We thought waiting at the top of the mountain, we'd be able to see the riders more clearly as they would be slower at the top of the mountain. Well, they were unbelievably fast. They whizzed past and I barely managed to get a pic. I didn't even manage to see who was in the front. When the pelaton went past the 'air drag' was the same as when a lorry drives past you on a fast road.

The most amazing thing was the number of motorbikes that go ahead of the cyclists.

There must have been more motorbikes (police & 'race officials') than push bikes. After the cyclists there are a huge number of cars.

The Tour of Britain is a fairly small race compared to Tour de France so I can't even imagine how many motorbikes and cars are involved in that race.

After the cyclists had passed through Cheddar Gorge we jumped back in the car and raced down to Wells. It was fairly close and we had to get there before the cyclists. The race went through Wells once, then out again and did a loop and then back into Wells for the finish. Wells is a beautiful city and the smallest city in Britain. After finally finding a parking space we headed down to the main street as quickly as we could and saw the last few support cars go past. Which meant we had missed the race. We walked on to find the finish line and found a spot in the crowds a few hundred meters before the finish.

Watching the sprint to the finish was almost a waste of time as the riders were so fast I couldn't even see who it was.

After the race had finished we walked through the cathedral and popped into a couple of shops. On the way home, we stopped in Exeter for a meal.

it was a great day out and we really enjoyed it. When the girls have left home, we're planning to take a few weeks off and follow the Tour de France so this gave us a taste of what to expect.

I did knit a bit during the day. We spent about 40 mins waiting in the sunshine at the top of Cheddar Gorge and I was working on the mystery shawl.

I cast off the mystery shawl this morning and it's waiting to be blocked. That's going to have to wait till tomorrow as I'm too tired. I'm planning to run the mystery shawl in October. We'll probably start mid-October. More details soon. I can't wait to see the shawl blocked.

This week I'll mainly be swatching for new designs but I need to start a couple of deadline projects too. One is an aran sweater and one is a delicate lace shawl. it'll be fun knitting these side by side. Switching from 3.5mm to 5.5mm needles.

Have you signed up for 'Amazing Luxury Knits' yet? If not, go and do it now. You know you want to. I'll be casting on for the November design this week too.

Amazing Luxury Knits

2011-09-15T20:26:00.001+01:00

I'm pleased to announce my next e-book project. This time it'll be a 6 months subscription. Each month you will receive a pattern for an accessory using 1-2 skeins of a luxury yarn. The yarns in the picture above may or may not be used in the designs for this project. I've not decided the full line up of yarns yet but the yarns above are a selection of some of the luxury yarns in my stash and they are all possible candidates for this project.

The first pattern will be the Cross Stitch Shawl & Scarf which I designed a couple of years ago but never published. I used Alchemy Silken Straw which is a very interesting silk yarn which looks and feels like straw. It does soften a lot as you knit it and wear it. As this is an expensive yarn I wanted a one skein project and designed the scarf above.

I then wondered what it would look like as a triangular shawlette. I loved it but it was a little bit small so one of my lovely knitters, Anita, knitted it up in one of my own hand-dyed yarns.Thank you, Anita. On this version I added a different edging.

This pattern will be released on 1st October.

This is how the subscription will work:
Sign up and you will receive a new pattern for an accessory (which could be shawls, scarves, gloves/mittens/fingerless mitts, cowls or other accessories) which is designed for a gorgeous luxury yarn. I will only use 1-2 skeins for each project and I will suggest cheaper alternatives. The designs will use yarns ranging from laceweight to aranweight yarns and a variety of stitch patterns including dropped stitches, lace, cables and possibly slip stitch colourwork (which is very easy for those who aren't comfortable with stranded colourwork).

At the end of the 6 month period the patterns will be compiled as an e-book which you can download. All the patterns will be available individually too but obviously you will save money if you subscribe. Full price for all 6 patterns will be £18 but the e-book subscription is available for £12.If you sign up before end of October you will be able to take advantage of the special introductory price of £10. Click here to subscribe.

Approx two weeks before each pattern is due to be released I will put up a pattern page on Ravelry so you can see pics of the project and yarn suggestions.

'Shaping Shawls' by Anna Dalvi

2011-09-12T10:51:00.003+01:00

A few weeks ago I was asked to take part in Anna Dalvi's blog tour for her brand new book, Shaping Shawls. I've really enjoyed looking through this book for the last couple of weeks. The designs are amazing and the colours are truly stunning.

Anna is a very talented lace designer and has run some very popular mystery kals in the past. Like me, she's from Scandinavia, Sweden to be exact, but lives in Canada.

Let's get straight to the book and then afterwards I'll ask Anna some questions. Shaping Shawls is a collection of 10 stunning shawls but there is so much more to this book. Anna takes us on a detailed journey through different shawl shapes starting with a basic rectangular shape, moving on to several different ways to shape a triangular shawl and square shawls. Anna explains in detail how all these different shapes are achieved. This is a book I really wished I'd had when I first started designing shawls. I remember spending weeks, it may even have been months, working out how the basic tow down triangular shawls with the centre spine was achieved. I kept seeing all these beautiful shawls consisting of 2 triangles next to each other and could't work out how to do it. Obviously I got it eventually but this book would have saved me a lot of time.

Anna takes a mathematical approach to achieving various shapes. Now, I'm not very keen on maths. I hated maths at school and it was my weakest subject. My daughter is doing A-level maths and it's WAY beyond me. The mere mention of maths makes me panic. So it's kind of ironic that I do what I do as knit wear design is basically maths. Anna makes the maths easy as she explains how to use maths to check that your pattern is correct and to achieve the shape you want.

If you're a budding designer or a knitter who'd like to understand a bit more about how to achieve various shapes or you want to try to design a shawl for yourself or a friend, then this book is for you. If you're a knitter who likes to knit beautiful shawls then you'll love this book too.

Like me, Anna is a fan of charts and this book contains clear charts and schematics.

Shaping Shawls is available as an e-book and print book and is published by Cooperative Press.

All the photos in this post are copyright Kristin Caldwell Photography.

Let's ask Anna some questions.

1. Where do you get your inspiration for your designs from?

Design inspiration comes from everywhere, and it's hard to pinpoint the source for a particular design. I do tend to draw a lot of my inspiration from nature and my natural surroundings, but then again, I've also designed patterns based on fairy tales, mythology, music, and even gates and fences.

3. Why did you want to do a book offering a instructional aspect and not just a pattern collection?

I really wanted to share my fascination with construction and the logic inherent in shawl design. In my experience, knitters are a creative bunch and love to experiment and knit something unique. This can take many different forms, from the simple changes like picking colours and colour combinations that appeal to us, to more complex changing, like substituting a certain lace pattern for another. I wanted to give people a base on which to build upon, if they would like to design their own shawls. Or more mathematical tools for designers to build new shapes and shawls. I wanted to include a number of patterns as examples of the various shapes. But I also hope that the instructional part of the book will be used to create some new designs.

4. For how long have you been a designer? Where have your designs been published?

I've been designing as long as I've been knitting, I think. But I didn't actually start writing up any of the patterns until 2007 when I decided to submit the Burridge Lake Aran Afghan pattern to (now defunct) MagKnits, and was accepted almost immediately. Shortly after that, I launched the Mystic Waters knitalong, and the rest is history.

Despite the fact that I started with a publication for an online magazine, I have mainly focused on self-publishing my designs. I like the flexibility of self-publishing, and I love the mystery KAL format, and the direct interaction with the knitters. I have a couple of designs that have been published by others, like the Sanguine Gryphon, and the Knitting Icelander, and I have a few more in the pipeline, but the book and my self-published patterns take most of my time.

5. Have you got any plans for more books? Any other exciting plans you'd like to share?

Yes. There is a second book in the works with Cooperative Press, and it should be out sometime during the summer of 2012. I also have a couple of designs that are part of the Fresh Design series.

We've got a give away too. Leave a comment on this blog post by Friday midday (UK time) and you have the chance to win a copy of the Shaping Shawls e-book and a skein of yarn of your choice from my website. Tell me which design in this book you like the best and why. You can see all the shawls on Ravelry. Please also leave your Ravelry ID or e-mail if you're not a Ravelry member so Anna can send you your e-book. I'll contact the winner re the yarn. I'll announce the winner on Friday evening.

You can find Anna at Knit & Knag or on Ravelry. Take a look at Anna's other designs too. They're gorgeous.

Thank you Anna, for answering my questions and choosing me to be part of your blog tour. See all the tops on the tour here and the next stop is Sweet Georgia.

A Great Blog

2011-09-09T19:30:00.000+01:00

You may have noticed a different look to the blog lately. I've just added another feature: a list of the workshops and shows I'm attending this autumn. The two shows are Fibre Flurry in Birmingham in October and The Big Knit Show in Exeter in November. I'll be teaching and having a stall at both shows. See individual show's websites for details of how to book.

I'm not going to go through the whole list but I would like to highlight two workshops starting next week. On Tuesday I'm starting a 4 week course at The Cornwall Yarn Shop in Launceston, Cornwall. This course will be run over 4 Tuesday mornings. It'll be perfect if you've never knitted before or if you are returning to knitting. The first week we'll cover basics of how to cast on and off, knit and purl stitches and different combinations of knit and purl. You'll be able to work at your own pace. The second week we'll start knitting a mini sweater which will teach you how to follow a pattern and all the different elements involved in knitting a garment such as shaping, short row shoulders, three needle cast off. On the final week we'll finish the sweater and you'll learn how to block/press your sweater and sew it up before we add a neck band. So if you've knitted for a while but never tackled a garment you may enjoy this course too.

At the end of the course you should be confident enough to knit a simple sweater and to follow basic patterns. The last group who did this course back in January had a great time. Contact the shop to book.

On Thursday next week and the following week I'm teaching a class on 'Perfect Finishing For Knitters' for the Liskeard Knit & Knatter group. This workshop is open to anyone and as it's sponsored by the knitting group it's very cheap. You can see all the details here of what we'll cover over the 2 weeks. You need to e-mail or call me to book and I will then give you details of what you need to bring to the 2 classes. The classes will be held at Stuart House, Liskeard (next to the library) from 10am to 1pm on Thursdays 15 & 22 September.

I've been thinking a lot lately of what i can do to improve this blog. When I started blogging I was new to the online community. I'd just recently discovered online knitting forums and knitting blogs and I very quickly decided I want to blog. My main aim to start with was to share my knitting and my family life with the world. Since I've shared my personal knitting, my knitting and crochet design, my yarns and & my family life.

I wasn't a designer or indie dyer when I started blogging. And if you've been reading my blog since the beginning (please tell me if you have ,I'd love to know) you'll have seen my progression from a novice designer to an internationally published designer (I've got designs due to be published by Interweave and German magazine, Verena). I'm very proud of my success. I'd never imagined when I started this blog that I would end up being a published knit wear designer.

Since I'm now a knitting professional I'd like to give my blog a more professional look, which is why I changed the design. I've been looking at the blogs I enjoy reading lately and analysing what I like about them. I don't like blogs that are every only used to promote the blogger's products or business. Also, I don't like blogs that rarely show photos. What I do like is blogs that have a combination of the blogger's personal life, current knitting and work (designs or yarn) and that have lots of photos.

That's what I aim to achieve with this blog. I need to improve my photography and hopefully that may happen when my new camera arrives. I will order it tonight.

Now, it's over to you. What do you like about a blog? What do you think makes a great blog? I'm not looking for anyone to praise me and tell me how wonderful my blog is etc. Although if you do like it, I'd love to hear it. But I'd like your views on what you think makes an interesting blog?

I've just said i like blogs with lots of pictures so I can't leave this post without a picture. So I'll share these beautiful yarns with you. They're luxury yarns from my stash and I'll tell you more about them next time. No, it's not new additions to my stash but it's got something to do with a special project.

Tulips

2011-09-07T03:46:00.000+01:00

My stunning 'Tulips' Shawlette has just been published by The Knitter. Issue 36 is in the shops now. The name for this shawlette didn't dawn on me until it was hanging fully blocked on my dress form. I then realised that the stitch pattern I chose for the centre back section looked just like tulips.

I must admit I was mesmerised by this shawlette when it was hanging on my dress form. I kept looking at it from across the room. The beauty of it, the drape, the AMAZING colour. I couldn't take my eyes of it. I can't wait till the sample comes back from the magazine and I can wear it. It'll make a perfect scarf for this winter.

Artisan Yarns provided the gorgeous Teifi Silk Sock which is the same blend merino/silk blend as my Supreme Sock. I love the high silk content of this yarn which gives the shawlette amazing drape and shine. The merino adds some bounce to the shawlette. I loved the 'Rosy Posy' colourway. It's a blend of reds, fuschias and a tiny bit of orange. The different colours are very subtly blended into this yarn.

The centre panel consists of lace tulips and is flanked by lace panels of flower buds either side.

The construction of this shawlette is a cross between a half hexagon and triangular shawlette. It is worked from the top down and the shaping starts off like a half hexagon shawlette creating three triangles across the width of the shawlette. The increases for the centre section then stops but the increases for the side sections continue as a standard top down triangle. This creates a wonderful shape which sits very nice across the shoulders.

The shaping for this shawlette is the same as for my 'Frosty Diamonds Shawlette' from The Easy Lace Collection. The schematic below is for The Frosty Diamonds but apart from the measurements the other elements of the schematics (ie the cast on, cast off and shaping lines) are the same:

I'm creating a series of tutorials for my website and the first one on Top Down Triangular Shawls up now.
ETA: I've just added the tutorial for Top Down Half Hexagon Shawls and Modified Half Hexagon/Triangular Shawls .

A new obsession

2011-09-06T14:33:00.002+01:00

As a designer I spend hours every day knitting and good tools are very important. My most important tool, in addition to good yarn, is good needles. Every knitter has their preferences when it comes to needles but I like smooth needles with long, tapered, sharp point. For the last 5-ish years I've been faithfully knitting with my KnitPro interchangeables. I love the interchangeable set, which for those who are wondering what I'm talking about, is a set of circular cables and needle tips that you can mix and match. If you buy the interchangeable set you get a set of cables and tips and i've added to my set over the years and now have a very comprehensive set of various length cables and tips in every size. In fact I have several sets in most sizes. Another bonus with the Knit Pro needles is that they're made of pretty wood which is still very smooth, much smoother than most bamboo needles and they have fairly sharp points.

Recently though I tried a needle which would break my Knit Pro addiction:

It's the ChiaoGoo Red Lace circular needles. These are stainless stell needles with cables that don't kink. I was first introduced to these needles via some tweets just before Knit Nation. I bought a couple of sets to try out at the Loop booth at KN and immediately liked them. I've since added a few more sets from two of the UK stockists, Loop and Purlescense.

So why do I love these needles? Well, apart from the no-kink cables which you can wind up like I do in the photo above and then unwind to knit with and the cables are perfectly straight, they're made of smooth stainless steel with very smooth joints and long, sharp points, which is perfect for all kinds of knitting but especially lace and cable knitting.

They don't look as fancy as my Knit Pro needles which will still be my 'go-to' needles for my workshops and I still love their interchangeables set but my favourite needles for my own knitting is the ChiaoGoo Red Lace. The only thing I would improve is I wish they came in an interchangeable set. The price isn't bad either.

The only thing that could make them better? Purple cables instead of red!

New Look

2011-09-03T21:43:00.001+01:00

Notice anything different? After a new look website lately, I decided it was time to update the blog a little bit. I've only changed the template and moved some of the side bar stuff around. That's enough for now. Think it's the start of the new school year that inspired me. September is a time for new beginnings and a fresh start.

I have been considering moving the blog to Wordpress but I know Blogger and I think it's improving and learning a new 'system' is not appealing right now.

This last week was the last week of the school holidays. Vanessa enrolled for the Sixth Form College yesterday. She's starting her A levels next week and will be studying History, English Lit, Maths and Psychology. After A levels her plans are to study History and become a teacher.

Emily will be starting year 9 and will have to choose her GCSE options this year.

I'm still working away on the Mystery Shawl. I've got some deadlines coming up so I'm trying to get as far as possible on the mystery shawl before deadline knitting slows me down. I'm now on section 3. Pixie has started test knitting the shawl and has caught up with me after 2 days. She's an amazing, fast knitter. The pressure is on now to get through section 3 quickly. I thought I had enough of a head start but obviously not.

I'm also working on another exciting project starting in October. I won't reveal the full details yet but it includes a subscription, luxury yarns and lots of small projects. I've got the first project ready. And I've chosen the yarn for another couple of projects and been doing some prelimenary swatching. I'll reveal full details next week sometime.

Sarah, who modelled for me on The Easy Lace Collection, is moving away this weekend, so I managed to get her to find some time for a mega modelling session on Thursday. I packed a bag full of designs and we headed down to Seaton which is a park and beach area near us. We only had 1 hr 30 mins as I had a hospital appointment (my gall bladder scan).

We started out in the park and did some shots of a secret design which turned out great. Eventually we headed down to the beach which was full of sunbathers.

The secret design we photographed was for a submission for Knitty's winter issue. Thursday was one of the few sunny, warm days we've had this summer. It's a challenge to try and make a British summer day look like winter.

We managed to find a quiet corner of the beach, we were lucky in that the tide was out, and photographed some of my old magazine garment designs which i'm planning to selfpublish this autumn, hopefully.

Some of the garment have had their copyright revert to me for a while and some have the magazine's copyright expiring this winter.

For The Easy Lace Collection, Simon did the photos but this time I was the photographer.

These photos are unedited by the way. I came home with nearly 400 photos on the camera. My first job was to edit the pics for the Knitty sub and next week I'll start working my way through the rest.

Sarah has just gotten engaged by the way and she was wearing her engagement ring, which was designed by her fiance, Josiah, using diamonds from a relative (can't remember the details but it was from family jewellery) and very pretty it is too:

I mentioned my gall bladder scan. I've not had the official result yet but the radiographer said my 'gall bladder looked like a quarry' which means there are a lot of stones so I guess that's not good news. But I'll know more next week. In the meantime I'm still on the 'gall stones fear of pain no fat diet' which is very good for me as I've lost a stone in weight.

This & That

2011-08-31T19:10:00.000+01:00

It's been another bad weekend. I seem to be going from one health related thing to another. This time it's my teeth again. For the past 5-8 years (i really can't remember) I've had a lot of problems with my teeth. I've always been reasonably good at looking after my teeth and have check ups regularly. But I've suffered from regular abscesses. Every time I have a deep filling I seem to end up with an abscess a few weeks later. I had a deep filling after loosing a filling in July and last week my gums were a bit sore and then got very sore by Friday. I do take a lot of painkillers for my back/neck and they were probably masking something more serious. Saturday morning I woke up in agony and i knew it was a tooth abscess. Emergency dentists are a waste of time. I've seen them before. This was a long weekend in England so I had to wait till yesterday before I got to see my dentist. I need not 1 ... but 2!! root canals. I have 2 deep fillings next to each other and my dentists thinks that once he does one the other one will start playing up and need doing too. And he said it's easier to have them both done at the same time.

I was also given two lots of anti-biotics which are kicking in and the pain is slightly less today.

On to more pleasant subjects. I've finally cast on for the mystery shawl design. I'm hoping to run this in October and so far it's going really well. I love the yarn - Twinkle Lace - and the pattern. It doesn't look that great in this photo. Lace never does till it's blocked. You'll have to wait till October to see the details of this pattern though.

A lovely parcel arrived today and the main purchase was some new needles, which I'll talk more about another day. I also got this lovely skein of Handmaiden yarn. It's Great Big Sea which is a blend of wool, silk and seacell. It's a thick dk/thin aran thickness. Lovely and squishy and soft and silky and LUXURIOUS. I've got a very special project in mind for it, which I'll tell you all about in a few days. It'll need a whole blog post.

This morning the girls and I (and the dog) went up on the moors for a photo shoot. Em was in charge of Sam (the dog) and Vanessa was modelling for me. I wanted some photos of the large Daisy - pattern will be out very soon, it's with the testers now - and a secret project. We had a beautiful location: The Hurlers at Minions on Bodmin Moor.

And it was SUNNY. One of the best days we've had for weeks.

Being a model is hard work and this is what a model does after a photo session:

Sunday was another sunny day and Vanessa was baptised. Our church does baptisms in the sea if possible. About 5-6 people were baptised. Simon helped our pastor baptise her. The baptism took place at Looe Beach and as it was sunny, there were lots of people around.

Fibre Fest 2011

2011-08-27T11:04:00.000+01:00

wow, it's taken me a week to do a Fibre Fest re-cap. That's partly because I was exhausted afterwards and partly because I don't quite know what to say. I'm a bit mixed about the event.

But let's start with the positive parts. The event was set in a the beautiful grounds of Bicton College near Exeter. There was an animal area. It's always nice to show people were our wonderful yarns come from.

There were some very cute lamas:

and some gorgeous alpacas:

I especially love their haircuts:

Several different sheep breads were on display. Unfortunately they were not keen on being photographed. I ended up with a lot of sheep bottoms. Perhaps it was too early for them. But I did get a good photo of these gorgeous angora sheep:

Or I suppose that should be angora goats? Angoras are goats, not sheep, right? Or are there angora sheep too? Someone correct me please.

I chose to have a 'shell stall' this year. That means I would have 3 walls to display my shawls on but it also meant i could only afford a small stall and we were a bit cramped. all the photos are taken with my mobile phone and some are a bit blurry. Sorry.

I had a small table showing off The Easy Lace Collection booklet and a couple of other patterns. The Easy Lace Collection sold really well at the show.

My display of sock yarns:

Three of my scarves:

The Daisy Shawlette was very popular. And the larger size will be published next week. I'm finishing the cast off and blocking it today. Will also e-mail the testers today. They've been waiting patiently for me for so long.

We have 3 rather blurry shawls:

From the left we have Sophia, Lazuli and Two of a Kind.

Lace yarn and patterns:

The Midnight Stole which always gets lots of admiration from knitters and non-knitters (there were a lot of those at this show) at shows.

Ok, now for the not so nice bits about the show and I've been wondering about how honest to be but I'll be honest. Sales wise this show was a waste of time for me. I only just covered my expenses. The show was so well organised and the setting was beautiful that it was a shame that the organisers didn't bother advertising the show properly. To stall holders I felt it was promoted as a national show. I paid twice as much for my stall as I did at Woolfest and my stall was a lot smaller than my Woolfest stall.

For some reason the organisers didn't advertise in knitting mags. I can't remember seeing a single ad in knitting mags and I read a lot of them. I spoke to an editor last week who said she don't remember seeing a press release about the show either. Apparently the show was advertised in places like 'Devon Life'. 90+% of the stalls sold knitting and spinning supplies. And there were quite a few spinners there. I sold a lot of patterns to spinners. But there were very few knitters. A lot of people told me they didn't knit. I heard from one stall holder that a lot of people thought it was a gardening show.

So this is my plea to any knitting show organisers: if you want quality vendors and they sell mainly knitting supplies then please advertise your event where knitters can see it, like knitting mags, Ravelry etc. If you're charging 'national fees' for stalls then please make sure you advertise it nationally and make it a 'destination event'. For Woolfest and Wonderwool knitters come in coach loads. They make a weekend out of it. and they come from all over the country. Fibre Fest was very much a local show. it's great for those of us who live in the south west to have a good show with national vendors. But at the next Fibre Fest I think a lot of those vendors won't bother coming because most businesses can't afford to do shows if they make a loss and most people don't want to give up a weekend to only just cover their expenses. Most of us who run craft businesses rely on partners or friends to help out at shows. I picked Simon up at work on Friday and he gave up his weekend to help me out at the show and then he went straight back to work on Monday. He doesn't mind but he did feel a bit like it was a waste of time since I didn't actually make any money.

Okay, rant over. I did meet some lovely knitters. I met a lot of knitters I already knew from my workshops and knitting groups especially at Spin A Yarn but also from Cornwall. I met knitters who I'd met at Wonderwool and Woolfest. A HUGE thank you to all those who stopped by my stall and to all those who bought my yarn and patterns and The Easy Lace Collection. It was great meeting you all and you made the weekend worth it.

On a different note. There is an error in The Easy Lace Collection. It's not an error that affects the patterns. On page 10 where I show how to do the crochet cast on the last sentence above the photo in column 1 should read:....... crochet a chain a few stitches longer than the number of stitches you want to cast on.

I will update the e-book and upload a new version on Ravelry so if you've purchased the e-book on Ravelry you can download the new version. You'll get a notification to your e-mail address. If you've purchased the print version please make a note on the page so you don't forget. I'm having it corrected for the next print run.

Double Celebration

2011-08-26T17:45:00.000+01:00

This was supposed to be yesterday's post but I never got around to it. There are a lot of things I haven't gotten around to this week. I've been meaning to blog about Fibre Fest too. Will save that for next time.

Yesterday was my birthday but it was also Vanessa's GCSE result day. (For non-English readers, GCSE is the exams the English take when they leave school at 16 years old. It's the end of compulsory education). Vanessa did very, very well. She got an A* in History (she got 100% on her last history exam - clever girl), B in Additional Science (she's already got an A in Science), C in French and A in everything else including Maths, Media, Humanities, English Lit & English language and I'm sure there were some other subjects she did which I've forgotten about. She's staying on at school to attend their Sixth Form College and is planning to do English Lit, Maths and History and possibly either Psychology or Ethics & Philosophy.

As I mentioned yesterday was also my birthday. We celebrated my birthday on Wednesday with a meal out and cinema. We saw 'One Day' which is an amazing movie. I highly recommend it. Apparently it's based on a book.

I had some lovely presents for my birthday too. Simon bought me Ysolda's new book, 'Little Red In The City' at Fibre Fest

and a handbag (actually I chose and bought the handbag and pointed out the book and told him I wanted it). I haven't got a pic of the handbag but I love it but I did buy another bag in Padstow today:

Isn't it gorgeous. sorry for poor pic. Its taken with my mobile phone.

Emily gave me a little, pretty heart and book mark (both were bought at the craft stall at church a few weeks ago).

Vanessa got me a pretty necklace.

I got this very pretty handmade tea light holder from my in-laws. They bought it this summer in Scotland. Sorry I forgot to take pic.

From my parents, inlaws and sister in law and her family I got money which will be put towards buying a new camera.

My lovely knitter & friend, Pixie, gave me these beautiful stitch markers and stitch saver from Fripperies n Bibelots. Just looked at their website. Gorgeous stuff!

this is a cool little tool to use when you drop a stitch. I love it.

My friend, Marianne, who I met for lunch on Wednesday, gave me a beautiful pearl necklace but unfortunately it was too tight for my fat neck so she's going to try to change it. It was so pretty though.

This week I've mainly been trying to recover from Fibre Fest. Monday and Tuesday I was completely out of it. Horrendous headaches and neck/back/shoulder pain, which has eased a bit but has still been coming back at times this week. I had to go to bed last night because I was in too much pain.

My knitting has been a bit unfocused this week. I've been swatching and charting for some new projects, been working on some new magazine submissions. I did cast on for 2 new projects yesterday. One is the mystery shawl I've been thinking about for months.

I'm now hoping it'll go ahead in October. The other is a shawl which may be a sample for my book proposal which i'm determined to finally finish & submit somewhere. Been talking about that for far too long now. I'm just not sure about how many projects to knit up and how many to swatch and how many of the proposed final projects I need to finalise at all. Or if its best to not finalise too much so I can be more flexible.

I'm also about to cast on for a couple of deadline projects which need to be done this weekend, they're small ones though so should be quick.

Next post will be some very cute animals from Fibre Fest and maybe some knitting.

2011-08-23T21:24:00.002+01:00

I just sent out a newsletter with a big discount. Take a look here.

I'll be back soon to tell you all about Fibre Fest and knitting news but I'm too tired now.

Nite x

Want to learn something new?

2011-08-19T12:45:00.000+01:00

It's nearly September and the kids are going back to school. It's that time of year where we think about learning new things. Or at least I always think of school start as a fresh start and learning new things.

Fancy learning some new knitting techniques? Well, I've got a HUGE schedule of classes for this autumn. You can find them all here. But let me give you some highlights.

Kicking it off in September is a 4 week course for those wanting to learn to knit or who've not knitted for a while and need a refresher course. The first week you'll learn to cast on, knit, purl and various combinations of knit and purl patterns and cast off. For the remaining 3 weeks we'll knit a mini sweater teaching you various shaping techniques, basic sweater construction and how to sew up your sweater and do the neck band.

Do you know how to knit but never knitted a sweater, then come along and learn all the basics you'll need to knit a fashionable sweater for yourself.

The course is held over 4 Tuesday mornings from 10am to 1pm starting on 13 September at The Cornwall Yarn Shop in Launceston, Cornwall. Contact the shop to book. The last group who did this course in January loved it and all bought a sweater pattern and yarn to knit at the end of the course. I met one of the ladies a few weeks ago and she'd finished her sweater.

Fancy knitting lace? I'm teaching Easy Lace at both The Cornwall Yarn Shop and Spin A Yarn, Bovey Tracey, Devon this autumn. This workshop will give you the confidence to tackle easy lace patterns. You should be able to knit any of my shawlette patterns and some of my lace weight shawls too. We'll cover topics such as yarn overs, directional decreases, how to use stitch markers and lifelines, how to read charts, how to shape while keeping your lace pattern correct. At the end of the workshop I'll give you a shawelette pattern to take away. This is a popular class so make sure you don't miss out.

Already take one of my Easy Lace classes or feel ready to take it a step further? Then my Lace Improvers class at Spin A Yarn is perfect for you. You'll practice knitting from lace charts using slightly more difficult lace patterns, you'll learn provisional cast on and how to work a knitted on edging. After this workshop you'll be able to knit any of my shawls with knitted on edgings.

Seen my new Daisy Shawlette? Think the stitch patterns look difficult? I'll teach you everything you need to know to knit this shawlette. We'll practice different dropped stitches and how to add beads in the morning and in the afternoon we'll work on a swatch of the shawlette focusing on the stitch patterns used and the shaping for this crescent shawl. I'm teaching this workshop at Spin A Yarn and The Cornwal Yarn Shop.

Ever knitted cables? Cables are a fantastic way to add texture to your knitting and much easier to knit than they look. I'm teaching a Fabulous Cables workshop at The Cornwall Yarn Shop which will teach you to knit cables, simple and more complex, with and without cable needle, how to knit from cable charts & written instructions, and how to knit reversible cables, so the fabric looks good from both sides.

This is only a taster of what I'm teaching. There is basic socks, toe up socks and continental knitting as well. See them all on my workshop page. Contact the shops to book.

I'm also teaching two workshops for The Liskeard Knit & Knatter group which meets at Stuart House, Liskeard, every Thursday morning. We're doing Professional Finishing Techniques over 2 Thursday mornings starting on 15 sept. This workshop is sponsored by the knitting group and costs £20 for non-members. Please e-mail me on ahallis@yahoo.co.uk or call me on 01579 340558 to book.

I'm also teaching Basic Crochet on 10 November. You'll learn basic crochet stitches such as doubles, trebles, double trebles, clusters and more. We'll also practice shaping and crocheting various shapes such as squares and circles. This workshop is also sponsored by Liskeard Knit & Knatter and costs £15 for non-members. See above for contact details.

Dont' live in Devon or Cornwall? Then give my details to your local yarn shop or knitting group and ask them to book me for a workshop. My current list of workshop available is here. I can also do combinations of those workshops and teach a project workshop on any of my designs.

The Easy Lace Collection is published

2011-08-17T19:54:00.000+01:00

Yesterday morning I uploaded the finished version of The Easy Lace Collection e-book. Yay. I'm so happy! I started this project at the beginning of the year. Originally it was just going to be a collection of small lace patterns that could be knitted in one skein of sock yarn. As the projects developed I realised that they weren't quite as easy as I had planned and beginner lace knitters might need something extra. So I started working on a 'how to' section.

The 'how to' section is very comprehensive and covers topics such as yarn overs, directional decreases (k2tog, ssk, sk2po), how to read charts, how to use lifelines and stitch markers, how to knit top down triangular and hem up triangular shawls, how to knit half-hexagon shawls (although there are no half-hexagon shawls in this book, The Frosty Diamonds Shawlette is a triangular/half-hexagon shawl hybrid), how to add beads using a crochet hook and two different types of provisional cast ons (crochet chain cast on and invisible cast on). I've included lots of close up photos. I've used my extensive experience from teaching my Easy Lace workshops for the last 3 years when I wrote up the how to section.

There are also schematics for all the shawlettes and the scarf showing cast on, cast off, direction of knitting and increase/decrease lines if appropriate.

The book is 34 pages long. Originally I planned this as an e-book and then I decided to look into having it printed so I could sell it at shows and maybe to yarn shops. I ordered the print copies yesterday and they should be here tomorrow. I've listed print copies on the website. If you order a print copy, you'll also be able to download a pdf version of the e-book. Why would you want a pdf file too? Well, you may want to print off individual patterns to keep in your project bag to avoid having to carry your book around.

If you've already bought the e-book, you can upgrade to the printed book if you e-mail me. I'll send you a Paypal invoice for £2 (difference in price between print book and e-book) plus postage which is £1.96 for the UK, £2.39 for Europe and £3.96 for the rest of the world (which is the same as what you would pay in postage of you ordered 2 skeins of yarn). The print copies will be posted from Friday.

If you're going to Fibre Fest this weekend, you can buy a copy from our stall.

All the individual patterns are or will be for sale individually too. I've uploaded the e-book to Patternfish too but it's not gone live yet. Those who've won a copy of the e-book, I will contact you tonight or tomorrow, I promise. Life has just been very hectic recently.

Overwhelmed

2011-08-11T09:23:00.000+01:00

I keep thinking about blogging but so much has happened in the last 2 weeks I feel a bit overwhelmed trying to get it all written down. Also, i have no pics to accompany my post as I still don't have a camera and my phone still hasn't been returned. Simon's SLR is too big to carry around with me.

First, I'll have a moan about my phone. I love my new HTC mobile but I dropped it 2 weeks ago. I posted it to HTC for repairs which I had to pay for. They told me it would take 7 working days. After 4 or 5 working days i finally got a quote which i paid immediately. It's now been 10 working days and still no phone. I've run them every day this week and yesterday afternoon my phone had still not been repaired. Last week HTC said it takes 7-10 working days for non-warranty repairs. Well, time's up and where's my phone? I got very stroppy with them yesterday and I will be making another phone call very soon.

Last week was out church's annual Bible Week which was great. We had great teaching every day from our two pastors. It was a busy week and I was exhausted by the end of it.

On Wednesday last week my parents arrived. They had thursday and Friday on their own as we were still at Bible Week. But we had a great weekend with them. On Saturday we visited Castle Drogo on Dartmoor. If you scroll down a month or two you can see pics from when simon and i visited a couple of months ago.

On Sunday we went to the Eden Project. Again, photos from there in previous posts. One of my big challenges over the weekend were all the meals out we had. We had 2 lunches out and 1 evening meal out. I have to eat a no-fat (or in reality as low fat a diet as I can manage) diet because of gall stones. Two of the places we had meals the menus were full of red meat, fried food and chips with everything. I'm not allowed any of that. Even salads contain cheese (not allowed) or fried, battered chicken. At one pub I did manage to get them to make me a gorgeous chicken salad with roast chicken but it wasn't cheap.

My parents left on Monday to drive to Spain where they're spending 2 months. Lucky them!

Simon is still on holiday this week so we've had more days out. We've been to Creation Fest, which is a christian festival taking place in Wadebridge, twice this week and we're off there this morning. Vanessa is camping with her youth group this week.

Next post I promise some knitting updates and knitting pics.

Pattern Of The Week - Candace

2011-08-04T07:51:00.000+01:00

I've not done a pattern of the week for months. I kind of forgot about it for some reason. So I've decided it's time for a Pattern Of The Week. One of my latest self-published patterns is 'Candace' which was first published in Let's Knit a year ago.

This beautiful shawl is knitted in one skein of Supreme Lace but Bambino Lace, Silky BFL Lace, Twinkle Lace or any other 800m/100gr lace yarn is suitable.

You can get the pattern for half price by using code: candace before Friday 12 August.

What a week!

2011-08-02T07:30:00.000+01:00

Another long absence I didn't plan. If you follow me on Twitter you will know last that last Wednesday I was taken ill. We went to a BBQ at a friend's in the evening. We had a great evening. I had a sausage and a burger with some salad. Then I had a slice of pavlova and some apple pie. I didn't eat much as I started feeling a bit weird.

When we went to bed I felt like I had indigestion. I woke up at midnight with abdominal pain. Remember 2 weeks ago, the night before we went to London? I think I mentioned that i had severe stomach pain that night. I thought I had severe indigestion. Really, really severe indigestion. On Wednesday night i had the same kind of pain. But it quickly became much more severe. I was sick. By 2.30am the pain was so severe I wanted to pass out. I just didn't know what to do. Simon called the doctor and we were asked to go to the local hospital, which is only 2 mins drive away. I struggled in the car and i really struggled how to walk into the hospital. The doctor diagnosed gall stones and gave me a painkilling injection and an anti-sickness injection. The painkilling injection worked very quickly and by the time we got home the pain was easing. My Mum and my sister have both had gall stones so I suppose it wasn't a surprise I would get it too.

I'm now waiting for a scan on 1 September. In the meantime to avoid any further attacks I need to stay on a no-fat diet. No fat! that's easier said than done! But I'm trying really hard and haven't had chocolate, biscuits, crisps, red meat (apart from 1 table spoon of bolognaise sauce on my spaghetti on Sunday), cakes, cheese, or anything other high fat stuff since last Thursday. I'm hoping this will mean I'm loosing weight. Unfortunately our scales are not working so I don't know. I'm hoping to loose a considerable amount of weight before my scan.

This week is our church's annual Bible Week. Hundreds of people camp on our church field and there are kids clubs in the mornings, services in teh mornings and evenings. I'm in charge of running a craftstall after the morning and evening services. The stall looks great but I can't take any photos as i don't have a camera at the moment. Simon's is too big to drag around. But we have some GREAT stuff this year. Simon and the girls are camping. I don't do camping 10 mins from home. Unfortunately on Sunday Simon felt really unwell, he has a severe cold and chesty cough. He was sitting in the tent wrapped up in a thick dressing gown and shivering. It was raining and cold so we went home. simon spent yesterday in bed but is hoping to go back today and camp again tonight and for the rest of the week.

I'm working hard on The Easy Lace Collection. It's now with the first proof reader and I'm proofing it too. It'll be going off to my second proof reader later this week. It should be ready next week. My gall stones attack meant I lost 2 days of work last week and we've officially been on holiday since Saturday, so even though I've been sneaking in some work it's difficult to get too much done.

I have released another pattern though, Fairytale.

If you pre-order the e-book you can download the 3 patterns released so far while you are waiting for the e-book. The e-book also includes a big how to section with photos and will teach you how to work decreases, yarn overs, add beads using a crochet hook, use lifelines and stitch markers, how to read charts, how to shape triangular and half hexagon shawls, and how to knit on edgings.

All the patterns are available individually too.

The Easy Lace Collection Pre-Order

2011-07-26T14:00:00.000+01:00

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

2011-07-26T11:41:00.000+01:00

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.

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