'Toni' from Let's Knit

Magazines are arriving regularly at the moment and today it's the turn of the new Let's Knit. My contribution to this issue is Toni which is knitted in Rowan Pure Wool DK. The stitch pattern looks like a cable but it's not, it uses a combination of increases and decreases to create the mock cable pattern.

To add a bit of interest I decided to go for an off centre front opening which i really like. It would be easy to add more button holes and buttons if you'd like to be able to button the cardigan further down. The buttons are very cheerful and I really like these buttons which are from The Textile Garden. I got them at Woolfest but their website is great too.

This sample was knitted by the lovely Craftie Pixie who did a great job as always. I do really appreciate my sample knitters. I couldn't do what I do without them. You may wonder if I knit anything myself and I do but for every design idea I submit to a magazine there's several hours or sometimes days of swatching  - a lot of them get ripped out again and again - and that does cut into your sample knitting time. 

Toni is a great cardigan which will take you through the whole autumn and winter. It's warm without being too thick. I'll be back soon with another magazine design, probably over the weekend sometime as tomorrow I'm off to Coastal Yarns in Bude to teach Easy Lace. It's my first time teaching at Coastal Yarns and I'm really looking forward to it.

Take a look at my workshop schedule for this autumn. I'll be teaching in a number of locations. There is still one or two more workshops due to be announced including one at Iknit in London on Wednesday 10th October which is the same week as the Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace (which I'll be attending on Thursday and maybe Friday). I'm not quite sure exactly what I'll be teaching at Iknit yet but I'll let you know as soon as I have the details. In the meantime, if you're interested contact them for more info.

The online Continental Knitting with Norwegian Purl starts on Monday and there's still time to sign up. We've already got a nice group for this class and I'd love for more to join us. It's always a good idea to learn more than one way to knit as it reduces the risk of repetitive strain injuries. Also, once you get the hang of it continental knitting is faster than most English styles of knitting and that's got to be good. If you're not sure, take a look at my promo video.

Now, I'm going to pack my bag for tomorrow's workshop & spin for an hour before having a very early night. I didn't sleep very well last night and have a long drive ahead of me tomorrow. I'm still spinning my sparkly merino/silk/stellina fibre but I'm close to finishing it and I've got a beautiful braid calling my name when this current one is finished.

 There'll be more details about this soon too. The 2012 YarnAddict Mystery KAL is coming in October and there'll be 3 different options this year plus a bit of a twist which I hope you'll like. More news about that soon. Make sure you're signed up to my newsletter (look in the right hand side bar).