Lace Workshops & Crochet Chain Cast Off

I love teaching knitters and crocheters new skills and this month will be a particularly busy month with lots of workshops. I'm teaching lots of things and you can see them all here but I'd like to talk about my lace workshops. Friday 11th May I'm teaching Easy Lace at Hulu Crafts, Modbury, Devon.  The week after I'm teaching Lace Improvers at Spin A Yarn, Bovey Tracey, Devon on 15 May and at Purlescence, Wantage, Oxfordshire on 19 May.

Carmen

Not sure which workshop is suitable for you? If you've never knitted any lace or you lack confidence in your knitting ability (lots of knitters lack confidence in their skills but in my experience, most knitters I meet are much better knitters than they think they are) then the Easy Lace workshop may be best for you. We'll cover how to knit from charts, how to work the different stitches (yarn overs & decreases) needed for lace knitting, how to add beads using a crochet hook, how to shape within a lace pattern and how to knit a top down triangular shawl. You'll get plenty of practice during the day and I encourage knitters to work at their own pace while I give individual attention where needed. To do this workshop you need to be able to knit and purl.

Lightning Shawl

If you've done some lace knitting before or you're a more confident knitter then you may prefer the Lace Improvers workshop. In this workshop we'll review how to knit from charts (it's okay if you've never knitted from a lace chart before), the various stitches (yarn overs and decreases) need in lace knitting, how to work a provisional cast on, adding beads with a crochet hook and how to add a knitted on edging. You will be able to choose between an easier chart and a more complex chart to work from during the day and again, you'll get plenty of practice, working at your own pace with lots of individual help from me.

Midnight.

If you've done my Easy Lace workshop then you'll enjoy the Lace Improvers.

So, which workshop will you do? Live too far away from the venues mentioned to attend? Ask your local yarn shop or knitting group to contact me to book a workshop.
Having said that I've had people from all over the south of England and Wales attend my workshops in Devon and when I taught Easy Lace at Purlescence in March there were people from Sussex and Kent there.

Recently I've discovered the crochet chain cast/bind off. I used it in Cappuccino Stripe and Whitsand Bay and I've used it in several designs due to be published later this year. The two examples above have the crochet chain cast off worked along a garter stitch edging but the designs that are due to be published have the crochet chain cast off worked along a lacy edging and it's so pretty. Unfortunately I can't share any of that yet. Although I will share this little sneak peek of one new design:

 Whitsand Bay, the crochet edging can just about be seen against Em's yellow t-shirt.

 Cappuccino Stripe

and below a close up of the crochet edging.

If you're a crocheter the crochet chain edging should be easy enough to work but if you've never crocheted before or if you're fairly new to crochet you may be worried about it, so i've made a little video showing you how to do the crochet chain cast off. You can find the video here.

Those of you who've been reading my blog for a while may have read this post in which I wrote about my experience with KAL Media/All Craft Media (ACM), Yarn Forward/Knit (soon to be called Yarnwise), Inside Crochet (the company also publish Handmade Living, Simply Beautiful, Modern Quilting, Sew Hip plus a fashion mag but can't remember the name now). Yesterday I came across a tweet saying the company has been liquidated again. KAL Media was voluntary liquidated about a year ago and taken over by ACM. Kal Media was owned by Kerrie Allman and ACM was owned by her husband.  It's since come to light that this time it's not a voluntary liquidation but a forced administration. I've no idea what the difference is and to be honest, I don't really care. I stopped dealing with them after they paid me last September. And I've been telling other designers about my experience especially new designers who've told me how excited they were to have a design published by Knit or Inside Crochet. I'm surprised anyone still submit designs to them as their problems with paying designers have been so widely talked about over recent months.

This thread on Ravelry covers recent developments and this thread gives an all over history of the whole sad affair and yes, it is quite confusing. Several blog posts have been written on the subject too. You have to be a Ravelry member to access those threads but it's free to join.

Another interesting development which became known yesterday is that a new company called Handmade Living Ltd was set up by Mr Rycroft who just happens to be Kerrie's dad. Now, I'm not sure what the intentions of this new company are. I would guess they're hoping to keep the magazines going but I don't know that for sure.

It also seems that the last issue of Knit has not been released by the printers due to non-payment.

I wasn't sure whether or not to blog about this but as I've spoken out before I thought i'd just mention this again. I don't want people to loose their jobs or their livelihoods but I do think the British crafting community can do without a badly run company like this. It's caused too much upset and hurt so many people (staff, designers, other contributors, readers, subscribers, lace & sock club members, indie dyers, other companies they owe money) and I think it has to stop. I hope this is the end of this story!

Three Days In A Row

I've blogged three days in a row. What's wrong with me? You'd think I didn't have anything else to do. I do have tons of pattern work to do and making sure I fit in time to blog is probably a way of putting off the pattern writing. Test knitters are still waiting for their patterns for The Easy Lace E-book. I had planned to have this ready for Woolfest but that won't happen. Partly because I'm quickly running out of time. And also because I'm doing an online course in E-book publishing and want to complete the course before I finish the e-book. As this is my first E-book I want to do it right.

ETA:  BTW, I haven't forgotten about asking for help to name the new designs. I received some great suggestions. I'm going through them and trying to decide. I'll announce the winners very soon.

Last week I ordered some buttons. I needed some small ones to go with my new cowls. I may have gone over the top but the choice at Textile Garden is fantastic.

Some of them didn't show up that well in the photo but I'm really struggling to decide.

And a different angle:

I've been seriously side-tracked this week by my Granny Square blanket. These are my latest 2 squares which I did tonight. I LOVE these colours and could easily do an entire blanket in just these colours:

I've been working on some new crochet design ideas tonight too but I won't share those as they will be submitted to magazines.

I had a hair cut and highlights today. The hairstyle is not much different from before but I do like it. It's slightly more layered. i'm also very pleased with my highlights. Some magazines have photos of their designers on the project pages. Let's Knit  always do and The Knitter have photos of 4 designers in each issue. I'm not very happy with my old headshots. I wish I'd had the photographer do a portrait photo of me when we had our family photos done last autumn but I didn't. So as my hair was looking nice this afternoon and I had done my make up I asked Vanessa to take some photos of me.

 And another one:

I'm not happy with either to be honest. but what I'm not happy with is my double chin and weight. Looking at photos of me make me realise how much weight i've gained. I'm the heaviest I've every been. I'm even heavier than when I was pregnant and I had huge babies (10.5 and 11 pounds). I used to be happy to be photographed but I do avoid it now. I really need to do something about it but it's not easy. It's difficult to be disciplined about food when you're home all day and doing regular exercise when it aggrevates my neck/back pain is not easy and before anyone suggests walking, that actually aggrevates my back pain more than any other exercise. I've bought a new Zumba DVD as it looks like fun but I'm too unfit for a full 1 hr class. I may start the DVD next week.

Here are two silly ones:

 The shrug I'm wearing is one of my recent machine knitted shrugs - more about that in another post.

After Vanessa had finished taken my pics she took some pics of the dog. At least she photographs well:

Tomorrow is yarn dyeing day. Easy Lace Club and Not Just Socks June yarn will be dyed first. Seems like I've just done the May yarns but then I was about 3 weeks late with that one. June's parcels will be a week late and will be posted next week. I'll try and get back on track for July.

By the way, you can sign up for the next round of the Easy Lace Club starting in July now. Perfect if you want to learn how to knit lace. 3 months of luxury sock yarn and easy projects to teach you basic lace knitting skills.

Help needed!

Time has come to start finalising the Easy Lace Collection. I am working on the final design now. I had planned one more shawlette but I've decided not to include it as I really want to get this Collection ready in time for woolfest and i'm running out of time. I do need help with deciding on names though. I admit i'm not very good at choosing names for my designs. For my garments I decided a long time ago I would choose girls' names, usually names I like. Sometimes I think of a name as soon as I start working on a design, sometimes it takes forever to decide on a name.

 With shawls and accessories I tend to choose a name that feels right for the design or that has something to do with the design, taking the cue from a stitch pattern or similar things. But most of the time I struggle with choosing names. So once again I'm asking my blog readers for help. I need help naming some of the designs in the Easy Lace collection. If I choose your suggestion you will win a free copy of the E-book when it's published (which will be very soon).

The first shawlette I've been calling the Fairytale Shawlette because I worked the initial sample in Fairytale Sock. Any better suggestions would be welcome, although I do like Fairytale, perhaps I'll stick with it but do let me know what you think.

The next shawlette was knitted in Supreme Sock so I've been calling it Supreme Shawlette and I definitely need a new name for this one:

The third shawlette contains flower and vine lace patterns so I came up with the original name of 'Flower & Vine'. Any better ideas?

I had decided I would call this scarf 'Do The Twist' because of the way the centre stitch pattern twists but perhaps someone can come up with something better?

And finally the design that's currently on my needles, a cowl and handwarmer set. The only pics i have so far are the blocking pics of the cowl from the last post:

This is the larger size, the smaller size is currently blocking but no pics yet. I've knitted one of the larger handwarmers and I've started the first of the smaller pair. I've ordered some buttons to fasten this cowl this morning from my favourite button shop.  I also discovered The Textile Garden will be at Woolfest so I will be stocking up on more buttons then.

Yesterday was the warmest and sunniest day of the year so far for us. Today looks like it's going to be another cracker. My plans for today is to try to finish all the patterns for the Easy Lace Collection and the Daisy Shawlette and to deal with as many e-mails as I can cope with. I'm drowning in them! I'm also determined to enjoy the sunshine and sit out in the garden to knit for a bit. I wish I could take my laptop outside to work but I can't see the screen if I use it outside. Very annoying!

I hope your weekend is as sunny as ours. And please do leave your name suggestions in the comments together with your e-mail or Ravelry name so I can contact you if you win. Winners will be chosen & announced next week. Also, I'm hoping to have this collection printed into pattern booklets. So if you know any good British-based printers that are also affordable for small runs please let me know.

A new lace project

On Tuesday I sent off 3 designs and as I've got nothing that has to get onto the needles for a deadline I started thinking about what I wanted to knit next. I decided i needed another design for the Easy Lace E-book. I looked at the patterns I already have ear-marked and decided a cowl and handwarmer set would do nicely.

I loved this skein of BFL Twist  I dyed last week and decided I would keep one for myself.

 I considered several stitch patterns and when I started swatching I decided I wanted to add beads. I rummaged through my bead stash and decided on some lovely lilac seed beads. This is the swatch I did on Tuesday.

Tuesday evening I cast on but then yesterday morning I decided it was too big and ripped out and cast on again. I went out yesterday to do some shopping with the girls. Then I left the girls in Plymouth to do some shopping on their own while I went on to meet a friend for lunch a few hours of knitting before I headed back into Plymouth to pick the girls up. I got quite a lot of knitting done and this morning I took my cowl to knitting group to cast off. As soon as I got home I soaked it and pinned it out.

These pics are not the best. Light wasn't good in the middle of the lounge floor.

You may wonder why this cowl is knitted flat when they're usually knitted in the round. I decided this one would be closed with buttons. The problem with cowls is that you can make your hair all nice before you go out and pull a cowl on and mess your hair up - this does not apply to me as my hair is always a mess. So I decided to use buttons for this one. I know the buttons I want to use and I may have some upstairs but i'm not sure.

At lunch time I cast on for some matching handwarmers & it's progressing nicely. I've also started dreaming of my next project. I have a skein of very dark purple Merino Plus Twist which is the perfect match to BFL Twist. The bright pink/purple and the dark black purple look so good together:

I will hopefully have nearly half a skein left of the pink and I'm planning to do a different size of this cowl and handwarmers with the dark purple skein. Then with the left over of the two skeins i'm planning a new design. I've got it all planned out in my head and I'm so keen to get started on it but it probably won't happen until this weekend or next week.

Right, I'd better get on and do some pattern writing. An hour of work then I'm rewarding myself with some machine knitting. I've got half a sleeve to finish. This morning I set in one sleeve cap and seamed the underarm and side seam on a machine knit cardi on my linker and it all took about 20 mins. I've done lots of machine knitting lately. I will get some modelled pics and do a machine knitting post in a few days. I've got a couple of things in progress I want to finish first. I took my shrugs, a scarf and my half-finished cardi to knit group to day to show off and my shrugs got very good reception. I'm planning to make some for a craft fair at our church in August and I may make some to sell through my website too. I showed them to a friend this afternoon and she loved them and wants one.

Luscious Yarn!

There's been dyeing going on this week and the result is gorgeous. It's not all dry yet. I've got 1 kg of Bambino Lace which wasn't dry enough for photos today so they will come tomorrow. I do have a fabulous update tonight though. Lots of gorgeous, over dyed and semi-solid colours in Dreamy Lace, Angel Lace - which is back in stock after a long break - and a little bit of Fairytale Sock. I'm expecting a new yarn delivery tomorrow with some Twinkletoes Sock and Twinkletoes Gold and more Supreme Sock and more Dreamy Lace and Royal Lace. Find all the new yarn here.

These are the Dreamy Lace colourways.

And these two are my favorites, I want to keep one or two of these:

I haven't had Angel Lace in stock for a long, long time and I'd forgotten how gorgeous this yarn is. It's very ,very soft and squishy and bouncy with a beautiful, silk sheen. I've been looking at it all day, planning what I could knit with it. Angel Lace is a blend of merino and tencel and has 800 m which makes it suitable for Golitha Falls, Blossom, Sophia and Rosebud. Find all my patterns here.

Here are some of my favorite Angel Lace colourways from today's update:

And I've dyed up the last of the Fairytale Sock:

Yesterday the Sock Variety Club yarn and Easy Lace Club was dyed too and is now drying. The colourways are so nice. I do have one or two spares and there is still a couple of spaces left in the Sock Variety Club. I'll be posting the parcels on Saturday or Monday, depending on how long the yarn takes to dry.

Sign ups are now open for the April start of the Easy Lace Club. 

I've finished my Infinity Scarf but still not blocked it. I think I've decided to wet bock it now. I'm going to pin it out before I go to bed tonight. I'll pin it out dry and then spray it with water. I've decided that the Infinity Scarf will be the new Shelterbox pattern and I'm hoping to release it next week.

I'm tired and will be having an early night. Go and take a look at the tonights shop update. If you've signed up to my newsletter, check it for a discount code for pattern and yarn orders.

Anniversary and lots of knitting

Yesterday was our 19th wedding anniversary. I can't quite believe it's been 19 years already. In some ways it feels like we've always been married and in other ways it's gone so quickly. Surely now that I'm over 40 (just) and been married for 19 years and have a daughter who is in her last year of compulsory education, I should be feeling like a 'proper grown up'? Well I don't. LOL. I hope I'm not alone.

We decided several years ago we wouldn't do presents for wedding anniversaries. I never know what to buy Simon. But Simon bought me a beautiful lily pot plant. It's called Princess Alexa.

I love lilies although some of them don't smell than nice. I'm not all that good at keeping plans alive so let's see how long before I kill this one.

We went out for a meal last night at Liskeard Tavern which is a 'Table Table' pub so it's not too posh but it's a popular place and the only pub in time where you can go for a decent meal. It's always very busy so I called in the morning and booked a table. The guy I spoke to took my name and telephone number and confirmed the time but when we turned up they had no record of our reservation. I was not happy. We did get a table but had to wait for a few minutes. it was nice to have a meal out together, just the two of us. And nice to be able to leave the girls for a couple of hours withou having to worry about baby sitter.

I've got some knitting I can show you too. Since Friday I've been exclusively knitting on my big secret project apart from about an hour one morning earlier in the week. I did this swatch a few weeks ago:

My original plan for this 'Easy Lace' scarf was to have plain garter stitch edge and I'd knitted a few repeats but I kep thinking about it and fancied doing a nicer edging to make the scarf look a little bit more special. So  I sat down with my note book one morning and drew up some possible edging charts. Made my decision. Quickly typed it up in Knit Visualizer and frogged what I'd knitted so far, probably about 4 inches, and re-knitted two pattern repeats. this all took about an hour. I'm much happier with it now. the edging will be knitted along with the main body of the scarf.

the scarf is only roughly pinned out and will look better when finished and blocked properly.

this is one of my 'Easy Lace' designs which may be used for the first installment of the 'Easy Lace' club. I've not quite decided yet. I'm also thinking I may do a E-book collection of Easy Lace patterns. One of the reasons I chose the main stitch pattern is that it has a yarn over before and after a purl stitch as well as between two knit stitches. If you knit the English way, there is a difference in how you work the yarn overs depending on which stitch comes before or after. This was something I'd never really thought about until I used this stitch pattern for a workshop. I knit continental with Norwegian purl which means the yarn is always in the back so all yarn overs are worked the same way.

My original deadline for my big, secret project  was Friday but I've had it extended until Monday. Which gives me until Friday evening to finish it so I can post it on Saturday. It's still going to be  a push. I had to decide last night whether ot work one more pattern repeat or now. Each pattern repeat was about 40 odd rows. In the end I compromised and decided to do the equivalent of half an extra pattern repeat. I've now got about 30 rows to go and each round is over 900 sts. I thought I would get to over 1000 sts but I should have 960 sts when I'm finished. I'd like to finish this section tonight so I'd better get back to it. At least the stitch pattern is memorised by now and the rows I have left to do are very easy ones.

ETA: I forgot to mention I'm currently looking for a new printer. My current one is an old Canon and is rubbish and cartridges are expensive. I need one that will print good quality pictures  for my patterns. I popped into PC world yesterday and they recommended the HP Photosmart Plus which was also the most expensive one she showed me. It does sound good though. Anyone have this printer? If yes, can you recommend it? If no, have you got a printer that prints good qulaity photos and would be capable of printing lots and lots of patterns. I'd appreciate some recommendations. Thank you.