Knitting and More

More Christmas presents, Knitting DVDs

2012-01-25T13:46:00.000Z

I have been collecting the Knitting Daily DVDs and this Christmas as well as getting lots of books I was also lucky enough to get series 4 and 5 of Knitting Daily from my brother and sister-in-law. They live in the States so can get me knitting related presents from places in the States that either don't ship outside the USA or cost a fortune to get shipped.

Having done a bit of demonstrating on film for Knit1.tv I am always interested to see how other people approach demonstrating on film. Knitting Daily is a bit different from demonstrating for Knit1.tv as it is a Public Broadcast program in America. Each programme runs for about 20 to 25 minutes and covers a number of topics so each topic is only about 5 minutes long. They do lots of interesting things and invite different designers and yarn companies to talk about their work/products but they don't have time to show anything in great detail.

I still enjoy watching the programmes. I haven't quite finished watching all of both series as there are 4 DVDs in each series but at least I can knit while watching.

I've now got series 1 to 5 but Knitting Daily are on series 8 now so I'm hoping for another one for my birthday if I'm lucky!!

Knitting Christmas Presents

2012-01-24T18:40:00.000Z

Time is flying past already this year but I thought I would still share some of my knitting Christmas presents - books as usual. I did receive lots of books on knitting and crochet this Christmas but I still haven';t had time to do more than have a quick look through each book.

I already have a number of Alice Starmore books (her Fair Isle and Aran books to name just 2) and I like the way she puts stranded colour patterns together so it was great to get this book to add to my collection.

I'm currently working on a couple of sock designs so both these sock books are interesting. The Ann Budd book covers a variety of ways of designing and knitting socks as well as having patterns from well known sock designers. The 'Knitted Socks East and West' book has some very interesting stitch patterns which are unusual constructions rather than the socks themselves being unusual. I need to find time to try out some of these stitch patterns!

Lots more interesting stranded stitch patterns and information about constructing Norwegian style sweaters; I've only had a very quick look at this book so far.

When I first saw this book on Amazon I thought it would be an OK techniques book. I was in my local Waterstones before Christmas and the book happened to be in there so i had a look through it. I was pleasantly surprised to find lots of information and different/more advanced techniques and stitches as well as the basics so I added it to my Christmas list and DH got it for me.

I also saw this book in Waterstones at the same time and was very impressed. It does cover knitting from all parts of the world so if you are interested in different knitting traditions this would be a great book to get. I've only had time to have a quick look so far, I just need a few years of nothing else to do to read all these books.

I didn't get any yarn at Christmas but we were in Devon with friends at New Year and visited Totnes (the home of the hippies and flairs!!). At the top of the main shopping street was a shop called Greenfibre (I think). It sold organic cotton fabrics and cloths, lotions, soaps etc but as I pasted the window I noticed some skeins of yarn - alpaca yarn at half price. Those of you who know me will know I don't need any more yarn but it was too good a bargain to pass so in I went and bought several skeins. I don't know what I will do with them yet, I may mix them with the chunky baby alpaca I got from Bev Beattie at Knitting4fun, I'm sure I'll think of something!

At the beginning of January DH and I went up to London as our kids gave us tickets to see Jersey Boys on the first Saturday in January.We met Frances up in London in the afternoon and after getting another ticket for her we were walking around and saw Foyles book shop. I like books shops almost as much as yarn shops so we went in and I found this book which covers the Unravel exhibition in Belgium last year. The book is in English and again looks very interesting hence why I bought it. It wasn't cheap as it has been imported from the States but has lots of intere3sting information about current knitting artists etc.

Well i think I did OK... just need a few years of time to devote to reading.

Rosie's Slippers Pattern

2011-12-02T05:10:00.001Z

At the end of last year I posted pictures of some slippers I made but I never got around to posting the pattern although it has been available as a free pattern from me. Anyway for those of you who may be interested here is the pattern.

Size Foot Length
Child 16.5cm

Small 18cm
Medium 20.5cm
Large 23cm

Materials
1x100gm skein Colinette Skye and 1x 100gm skein Colinette Graffiti (large size may need a 2nd skein)
Or approx 100gms each of a combination of 2 Chunky Yarns or an Aran and a Super Chunky (at least 90 meters per 100gms per yarn)
8mm needles

Tension
11sts and 11 ridges to 10 cm in garter stitch using 8mm needles
(1 ridge = 2 knit rows)

Knitting Notes
The slippers are knitted in a garter slip stitch pattern; the slip stitch is used to define the edges of the slipper sole.

Chain selvedge A chain selvedge is used throughout as follows;
Beginning of every row: k1 through back of loop (k1tbl)
End of every row: knit to last stitch, yarn forward, slip stitch purlwise.

Knit pick-up Put the tip of the right needle through the knitting just below the outside loop of the chain selvedge stitch and make a loop around the needle as if to knit. Pull the loop through to make a new stitch.

Cast off very loosely. If you have a problem casting off loosely use a needle 2 sizes larger to knit the cast off row.

Abbreviations
k2tog - knit 2 together; s1 k1 psso - slip 1 knit 1 pass slip stitch over; s1 - slip 1 purlwise; k1tbl - knit 1 through back of loop; yfwd - yarn forward to the front of the knitting; yb – yarn back

Slipper
Using one strand of each yarn and 8mm needles cast on 15[19, 21, 23]sts
Increase for heel: k1tbl, k6[8, 9, 10], -
Child & Small k1, p1, k1, p1 into next stitch
Medium k1, p1, k1, p1, k1 into next stitch
Large k1, yo, p1, k1,yo, k1 into next stitch
- K6[8, 9, 10], yfwd, s1 - 18[22, 25, 28]sts.

Row 1: (WS) k1tbl, k4[6, 7, 8], yfwd, s1, yb, k6[6, 7, 8], yfwd, s1, yb, k4[6, 7, 8], yfwd, s1.
Row 2: (RS) k1tbl, k to last stitch, yfwd, s1.
Repeat Rows 1 and 2 until 16[18, 20, 23] ridges are complete finishing after a WS row.

Shape Toe
Row 1: k1tbl, k2[4, 5, 6], k2tog, k1, k6[6, 7, 8], k1, k2tog, k2[4, 5, 6], yfwd, s1. – 16[20, 23 26]sts.

Row 2: k1tbl, k1[3, 4, 5], k2tog, yfwd, s1, yb, s1 k1 psso, k2[2, 3, 4], k2tog, yfwd, s1, yb, s1 k1 psso, k1[3, 4, 5], yfwd, s1. – 12[16, 19, 22]sts.

Row 3: Child k1tbl, k2tog, k1, s1 k1 psso, k2tog, k1, s1 k1 psso, k1, pull yarn end through these last 8sts, pull up toe and fasten off tightly.
Small, Medium & Large: k1tbl, k[3, 3, 4], k2tog, k1, k[4, 5, 6], k1, s1 k1 psso, k[2, 3, 4], yfwd, s1. – [14, 17, 20]sts.
Row 4: k1tbl, k[1, 2, 3], k2tog, yfdw, s1, yb, s1 k1 psso, k[0, 1, 2], k2tog, yfwd, s1, yb, s1 k1 psso, k[1, 2, 3], yfwd, s1. – [10, 13, 16]sts.
Small pull yarn end through these last 10sts, pull up toe and fasten off tightly.
Row 5: Medium k1tbl, k1, k2tog, k1, k3, k1, s1 k1 psso, k2, pull yarn end through these last 11sts, pull up toe and fasten off tightly.
Large k1tbl, k2, k2tog, k1, s1 k1 psso, k2tog, k1, s1 k1 psso, k3, pull yarn end through these last 12sts, pull up toe and fasten off tightly.
To join the centre seam
With RS together and starting at the toe, sew the centre seam by over sewing the selvedge edge half chains together (the other half of the selvedge chain should be left as a raised detail on the RS). Sew the centre seam for approx. half the length of the slipper.
Trim
Using main yarn (or 3 strands of fur yarn e.g. Silky Chic) and 8mm needles, knit pick up 1 stitch for every selvedge chain, knitting through the outside half of the chain only, and pick up 1 stitch at the centre seam. Knit 2 rows. Cast off very loosely.

Alternative trim – using main yarn (or 3 strands fur yarn) and large size crochet hook (size 7mm or 8mm) work a double crochet for every selvedge chain. Work 1 more row of double crochet or a row of crab stitch if you prefer.
To sew up heel
With RS together, over sew the cast on edge from heel increase to the top of the slipper.

Knitted Christmas Decorations

2011-12-01T23:11:00.000Z

A couple of weeks ago I taught a workshop on making knitted Christmas decorations using up left over yarns. One of the items was a 'gift bag' which could be used as a way of 'wrapping' a small gift or it could be used as a purse/bag although it would need a fabric lining.

The original pattern was designed to be knitted in the round. During the day a couple of ladies decided to knit the bag but found it quite challenging working in the round from the centre of the base outwards so I decided to re-design the bag so it could be knitted flat. I had a ball of King Cole Galaxy with me so started to knit the new bag shown in the photo above. The pattern worked quite well and the yarn gives a Chrismassy feel.

I previously designed and knitted some Christmas baubles using up left over sock yarn.

The baubles are knitted flat and sewn around a foam ball or ping pong ball (depending on the size). You could also use polyester stuffing but the bauble doesn't keep its shape as well if it is just stuffed. As I still had quite a bit of the Galaxy yarn left I also knitted a Christmas bauble. As I knitted it I made sure the sequins were pushed to the knit side of the fabric. As Galaxy is a DK yarn rather than 4ply as used for the other baubles I did have to adjust the pattern.

The Galaxy yarn does work very well and you could probably get several baubles out of one ball.

Previously I also knitted a little angel again using up left over yarn. The angel is based on a simple finger puppet pattern so it could be used as a finger puppet or as a decoration for the Christmas tree

The angel in the picture was knitted using 4ply yarns. If knitted in DK yarns it will come out bigger but still works well as a decoration. It was fun to design these items for the workshop. I now need to knit some to add to my Christmas tree when we put it up. We don't usually put our decorations up until about a week before Christmas so I've still got time..!!

More design development

2011-11-06T17:29:00.000Z

There were some interesting cloisters at the Abbey which I used to inspire a couple of stitch patterns. I was teaching cables as one of my workshops on the knitting week in France and used the cloisters pictures to inspire some cable designs.

I used a filter in Photoshop to turn the photo into an outline image (at the top of the page above) and then traced over this image. This helped me to understand how the arches work with each other and interlink.

I traced off a section of arches and then payed around with the tracing to see how they could be linked. I liked the images on the double page image above but felt this was quite complicated so decided to use the simpler image above to translate into a cable pattern. I like Bavarian Twisted Stitch patterns so decided to try to produce this type of cable.

This was the first graph I tried drawing but was not happy with the way the cables were linking.

This was the next chart I drew but was still not very happy with the way the cables linked together. The chart wasn't giving me the type of pattern I wanted.

This 3rd chart did seem to give the the arch shapes I was trying to produce so I knitted this graph.

I did quite like the pattern this produced and I think it would work as an all over pattern on a larger scale as I think the repeats would link in quite well.

As well as developing the stitch pattern above I also had a look through the stitch pattern books to see if I could find any cable patterns that resemble arches. These 2 samples both worked quite well.

Having knitted these 2 samples from charts I though I could develop my own version combining elements from both samples. The resulting chart and sample are shown below.

I like the way the cables work into a point with moss (seed) stitch and reverse stocking stitch filling in the other areas. I haven't thought how I would use this sample yet beyond making the basic sample for the workshop.

Designs for French Treats Holiday based on tree bark

2011-11-06T17:00:00.000Z

This next knitted sample was developed from a picture of tree bark taken on a visit to an Abbey. I used a filter in Photoshop to generate the image on the left and then traced it onto tracing paper (the image on the right).

I found a pattern in one of my stitch library books that looked a bit like the tree bark.

This gave me the idea that I could develop a knit and purl pattern to look like the bark. I copied the tracing onto stitch related graph paper and in fact generated 2 graphs as shown below.

One graph had more variation between the knit and purl stitches than the other but I ended up knitting the lower graph. When I knitted the sample I decided that I would use the side that was mostly stocking stitch (the knit stitch showing) as the right side.

This was the resulting sample which has been knitted with a cable edging. However after knitting it I think the reverse side would have worked better, so here is the sample with the reverse side showing.

Knit and purl patterns can be viewed from either side but often the purl or reverse stocking stitch side can look more interesting as the purl stitches visually push forward and vertical runs of knit stitches. Putting the cable edging onto the sample stops it from being completely reversible.

Developing ideas for the French Treats holiday, Part 4

2011-08-30T18:37:00.000+01:00

Back in May I wrote 3 posts about developing design ideas for the French Treats Holiday in June based on photographs I took on the holiday last year. The posts showed some of the drawings I did but that was all. I did develop these drawings into knitted pieces before the holiday but did not have time to post more details until now.

These are some developments I made based on the poppies pictures. I had several poppies pictures but I particularly like the one that focused on the stalks and seed heads.

The seed head drawing looked OK so I traced the drawing onto tracing paper.

I traced both images but I didn't draw the seed heads in detail as I wasn't sure at this point how I was going to interpret them in knitting. The stalks where easier to interpret as I could see them knitted as a twisted knit stitch on a purl background.

I was looking through my Japanese stitch pattern books and came across a chart to knit this pattern below (with some adjustments as i was knitted the sample).

I particularly liked the way the popcorn/bobbles where made and thought this would be a good way to knit the seed heads in my picture.

The next step was to transfer the traced image onto stitch related graph paper. I prefer to use stitch related graph paper even if it is not the exact rows and stitches combination rather than squared paper as stitches are a rectangular shape not square.

This was the chart I made from the tracing. I have drawn in the twisted knit stitch showing how it travels across the purl background but I have not added any symbols for the purl stitches as this would make the chart very busy. I did indicate on the chart whether to increase 3 stitches or 5 stitches for the seed heads but it isn't very clear on the chart. At this point the chart is for my own use rather than to be published so it doesn't matter too much how the chart is drawn as long as I understand it. If I every publish the chart I will have to redraw it using suitable symbols.

And here is the finished knitted piece. It has been knitted in the 'Knitting by Numbers' yarn from John Arbon and I worked a cable at each edge as I was thinking of joining different pieces together by lacing through the cables.

I haven't done much development with the original image but I was quite pleased with the finished piece of knitting.

I hope to post about one of the other pieces of work in the next few days.

French Treats Day 6

2011-08-11T16:52:00.000+01:00

Saturday was our last full day. The morning was organised as a trip to Saites and the wool shop. Everyone agreed to have breakfast a bit early so we could go to the wool shop first and then into Saites for the market before everything closed for lunch.

Once we got to Saites I think the ladies went off to the market but I wanted to visit a few of the tourist sites to see if they would provide inspiration for the knitters attending the week in September. I had about 11/2 hours to look around so I went to visit the Abbaye aux Dames first as this was on the same side of the river as the place we get dropped.

The Abbaye was a very interesting place. There is quite a lot of decorative carving around the entrance door and windows of the Abbaye but when I went inside I discovered a series of modern tapestries illustrating the book of Genesis. I only took a couple of photos as i wasn't sure if photography was allowed in the Abbaye. There is a gift shop there with postcards of all the tapestries and some of the building.

From the Abbaye I went back across the river to look at the Cathedral Sainte-Pierre which had a lot of ornate carving and some very interesting stain glass windows.

From there I walked up to the Law Courts, stopping at the wool shop in town on the way to buy some very expensive (as it turned out) yarn. I liked the flower display in front of the building.

I then walked back down to the river and took a photo of the 'Arc de Germanicus'

before crossing back over the river and visiting the public gardens

before we all had to meet up again.

I did go back to Saintes the following week when I was on holiday to revisit some of these places and also some other sites I didn't have time to visit on the Saturday. It turns out Saites has quite a few interesting places that could be used to inspire designs.

In the afternoon everyone more or less finished their pieces of knitting and put them up for display before the certificate presentation at the end of the week.

I very much enjoyed teaching the week and I hope those who attended enjoyed it as well.

French Treats Day 5

2011-08-11T16:03:00.000+01:00

Friday was a day of workshops at Le Vieux Monastere again. Sasha covered crochet trims in the morning and then most of the afternoon was spent helping everyone to put their knitting project together. Below are pictures of some of the projects being assembled.

French Treats Day 4

2011-08-11T15:57:00.000+01:00

Thursday was a day of workshops with Sasha teaching a workshop on colour and I taught a workshop on Embellishments including Swiss darning, embroidery and knitted applique.

We also went out for our evening meal to St Jean d'Angely and as you can see I particularly enjoyed my dessert!!

French Treats Day 3

2011-08-11T15:50:00.000+01:00

On the Wednesday we had a day out to La Rochelle. We arrived in time to go and find a nice cafe for lunch and then spent a few hours in the afternoon looking around the shops and harbour area.

A group of 6 of us had lunch together and then five of us had a little wonder around the town. This is the group outside the knitting and needlecraft shop. The shop had some interesting Bergere de France yarns as well as buttons and other craft stuff. One of the other ladies told me (after we got back) that there is also a Phildar shop in the next road up from this one.

As well as stopping for some yarn shopping we also visited the perfume museum. It was really more of a perfume shop that had a collection of old and rare perfume bottles in a room upstairs but there was quite a bit of information about these perfumes and bottles many of which seem to have been designed or inspired by various artists.

This is the clock tower near the harbour and as you can see we did have a lovely day with clear blue skies.

French Treats Day 2

2011-08-11T15:33:00.000+01:00

I've been very busy since getting back from France so have only now got time to upload the rest of the pictures taken during then French Treats Knitting Holiday in June. On day 2, in the morning we visited the Abbey Fonduce again. It was interesting to see if things had changed much since last year and I took some photos from the same view points so I could compare them at a later date.

I took another picture of this wrought iron window with even more Virginia creeper growing over it but this year we were also able to get into the room behind the window so I took a photo from the other side as well.

There weren't a lot of flowers out when we visited as the weather had been very dry, no rain since February, but that all changed when we arrived for the Knitting week!!

I noticed some more carved stones this year as well. The picture below was taken in the garden area but there where lots more broken pieces like this in the room behind the wrought iron window and also around the back of the Abbey.

The cloisters where the same but without a choir this year.

There was another art exhibition inside the Abbey again this year with some interesting pieces including some paintings with hand made frames. The picture below shows a detail of the frame around one of these paintings.

In the afternoon I taught a workshop on cables covering basic cables, travelling and twisted stitch patterns. Below are pictures of some of the samples made during the first 2 days.

French Treats Knitting Holiday Year 2

2011-06-06T15:24:00.000+01:00

I'm back in France for a second year teaching on the French Treats Knitting holiday. We all arrived at various times yesterday. It is a smaller group this year but as usuual a very nice group of ladies.

It was a bit grey this morning first thing but the weather has been very dry out here in France since February. It brightened up a bit later.

After breakfast everyone got settled in in the workroom to start the week. After introductions Sasha and I covered knitting Intarsia with the weaving in techniques i.e. carrying the background colour across the back of the motif. We also spent a bit of the morning rewinding the skeins of John Arbon Knitting by Numbers yarn that was sent out to use during the week.

It is a very nice yarn to knit with but comes in 100gm skeins so they needed to be re-wound into a number of small balls for everyone to have as wide a choice of colours as possible.

After lunch and a few spots of rain the knitters went for a walk to look for wild flowers, grasses etc to work from for the design workshop this afternoon.

As you can see from this last photo the fields around 'Le Vieux' are very dry but everyone found something to work with and take back for the afternoon workshop. I've left them busy drawing motifs with Sasha. I'm off to have a bit of a break and do some knitting by the pool while they all work!!

Developing ideas for the French Treats holiday, Part 3

2011-05-12T18:06:00.000+01:00

I am teaching at Le Vieux Monastere again this year in June and September. On the June holiday I will be teaching alongside Sasha Kegan and this year we are working on 'Designing from Nature'. I am specifically covering Cables and Embellishments as well as helping in the general design workshop. The design work I have shown has been developed with this year's holiday in mind.

In this last group of pictures from my sketchbook I was working from photos of the pillars and ceiling in the cloisters at the Abbey with the idea of developing these into cable type patterns.

One of the ladies on the holiday kindly sent me this and another photo as I didn't take any photos of the pillars myself.

PhotoShop can be a very useful tools when developing design work. I used a filter on the photo shown on the previous page to just show the edges giving an image that looks very like a pencil drawing. I'm not that good at drawing so I then traced over this printed image to produce the image below it on the other page. Doing this tracing gave me a better understanding of how the arches fit together.

I then isolated and traced some lines which I used to produce the drawings on these 2 pages.

I did some more work with tracing the arches along similar lines to the picture opposite (a line edge print of another photo in the cloisters) I am now playing around with how to translate these arches into knitted cables - more samples to come.

I did also take photos of an old tree at the Abbey and this is a close up image of the tree bark which I thought might work well as a knit and purl pattern.

so there is plenty of work for me to be getting on with!!

Developing ideas for the French Treats holiday, Part 2

2011-05-12T17:42:00.000+01:00

This second group of design work is based on some of the flowers at the 'Abbey' we visited on the Sunday. I took some close up shots of flowers in a pot. I'm not a gardener so I don't know what they are called but I liked the colours. Each flower is fairly simple to draw as the petals are quite open and each flower has 5 petals.

On this page from my sketchbook I am showing a cropped picture of the flowers, a watercolour drawing and a couple of coloured pencil drawings of groups of flowers. I will trace some of these images onto stitch related graph paper so I can knit or Swiss darn the flowers. When I have made some samples I will upload the images.

As well as drawing from the photo of the flowers I also used it as a colour source for yarn wrappings as shown in the picture below.

The yarn wrapping at the top left has been worked using a mix of yarns from my stash. The yarn wrapping at top right has been worked using the Knitting By Numbers yarn. In the second wrapping I added more green to the wrapping as there is quite a lot of green in the picture. The wrapping at the bottom is still using the same KBN yarn colours but rather than working the stripes based on the colour proportions in the picture I have wrapped stripes based on a random stripes generator.

The yarn wrappings on this 3rd page are also based on the random stripes generator but using the same range of yarn colours from KBN. The random stripes generator I used is from the website http://www.biscuitsandjam.com/index.php or you can try googling random stripes generator. You can select as many colours as you want from their grid of colours and also select the widths of various stripes e.g. using the Fibonacci sequence and then press the go button. If you don't like the combination offered you can press the refresh button to get a new selection. It is very addictive and you can spend hours playing with the colour sequences!!

As I said I'll post some samples once they have been knitted.

Developing ideas for the French Treats holiday, Part 1

2011-05-12T17:15:00.000+01:00

Last June I was invited to teach on the French Treats Knitting Holiday at Le Vieux Monastere. While there I took quite a few photographs, but I have only just recently got around to doing some drawing from these photos. I've looked at several different aspects so I will post each group of pictures together in several posts.

The property is in the middle of fields so when we were waiting to get into the buses for an excursion on one of the days I took some photos of the poppies and wild flowers at the edge of the field. Below is a closeup print of one of the photos with a colour pencil drawing opposite it.

I made several drawings using similar pictures.

On this next page I used watercolours rather than pencils and I also made a yarn wrapping trying to match the colours in the photo. The yarns used for the yarn wrapping are 'Knitting By Numbers' 100% merino wool DK from Fibre Harvest. It is a very nice yarn to work with and each colour comes in a range of tones from light to dark. Although I haven't included the wild flowers on the right of the photo in my watercolour drawing I have included their colour in the yarn wrapping.

While making these drawings I realised that I was particularly interested in the plant stems and seed heads of the poppies and how they cross over each other.

On this last page I have concentrated on drawing the poppy seed heads and stems rather than the flowers. I can see these drawings being worked in a raised twisted knit stitch on a purl background and the seed heads as a cluster stitch.

When I have knitted up some samples I will post the images of the knitted samples.

Knitted Slippers Pattern

2011-04-12T11:44:00.000+01:00

I posted in December about some slippers I made which are great for wearing around the house particularly in the cold weather we've had this winter. At the time I said I would post the pattern when it was properly typed up. I know it is a bit late for this winter but here is the pattern anyway - you could always add them to your knitted Christmas gifts list of items for next Christmas!!

To fit foot length - child 16.5cm; small 18cm; medium 20.5cm; large 23cm

Materials - 1 x 100gm skein Colinette Skye and 1 x 100gm skein Colinette Graffiti (large size may need a second skein) or a combination of 2 Aran yarns or an Aran and a Chunky. 8mm needles

Tension gauge - 11sts and 11 ridges to 10cm in garter stitch using 8mm needles. (I ridge = 2 rows).

Knitting Notes - The slippers are knitted in a garter slip stitch pattern; the slip stitch is used to define the edges of the slipper sole.

Chain Selvedge - a chain selvedge is used throughout as follows; Beginning of every row: k1 through back of loop (k1tbl). End of every row: knit to last stitch, yarn forward, slip stitch purlwise.

Knit pick up - put the tip of the right needle through the knitting just below the outside loop of the chain selvedge stitch and make a loop around the needle as if to knit. Pull the loop through to makea new stitch.

Cast off very loosely - if you have a problem casting off loosely use a needle 2 sizes larger to knit the cast off row.

Abbreviations; k2tog - knit 2 together; skpo - slip 1 knit 1 pass slip stitch over; s1 - slip 1 purlwise; k1tbl - knit 1 through back loop; yf - yarn forward between the needles; yb - yarn back between the needles.

Slipper Using one strand of each yarn and 8mm needles cast on 15[19 21 23]sts. Increase for heel - k1tbl, k6[8 9 10], in the next stitch for child and small (k1, p1, k1, p1) and for medium and large (k1, p1, k1, p1, k1), k6[8 9 10] yf, s1 - 18[22 25 28]sts

Row 1: (WS) k1tbl, k4[6 7 8] yf, s1, yb, k6[6 7 8], yf, s1, yb, k4[6 7 8] yf, s1. Row 2: (RS) k1tbl, k to last stitch yf, s1. Repeat Rows 1 and 2 until 16[18 20 23] ridges are completed finishing after a WS row.

Shape Toe - Row 1: k1tbl, k2[4 5 6], k2tog, k1, k6[6 7 8] k1, k2tog, k2[4 5 6] yf, s1 - 16[20 23 26]sts. Row 2: k1tbl, k1[3 4 5] k2tog, yf, s1, yb, skpo, k2[2 3 4] k2tog, yf, s1, yb, skpo, k1[3 4 5] yf, s1 - 12[16 19 22]sts. Row 3 for child size: k1tbl, k2tog, k1, skpo, k2tog, k1, skpo, k1 pull yarn edn through these 8sts, pull up toe and fasten off tightly. Row 3: k1tbl, k[3 3 4], k2tog, k1 k[4 5 6] k1, skpo, k[2 3 4] yf, s1 - [14 17 20]sts. Row 4:k1tbl, k[1 2 3] k2tog, yf, s1, yb skpo, k[0 1 2] k2tog, yf, s1, yb, skpo, k[1 2 3] yf, s1 - [10 13 16]sts. Small pull yarn end through 10sts, pull up toe and fasten off tightly. Row 5 medium: k1tbl, k2tog, k1, k3, k1, skpo, k2, pull yarn end through 11sts, pull up toe and fasten off tightly. Row 5 large: k1tbl, k2, k2tog, k1, skpo, k2tog, k1, skpo, k3, pull yarn edn through 12sts, pull up toe and fasten off tightly.

To join the centre seam - with RS together and starting at the toe, sew the centre seam by over sewing the selvedge edge half chains together (the other half of the selvedge chain should be left as a raised detail on the RS). Sew the centre seam approx. half the length of the slipper.

Trim - using both yarns (or 3 strands of a furn yarn) and 8mm needles, knit pick up 1 stitch for every selvedge chain, knitting through the outside half of the chain only, and pick up 1 stitch at the centre seam. Knit 2 rows. Cast off loosely.

To sew up the heel - with RS together oversew the cast on edge from the heel increase to the top of the slipper.

Unravel Show at Farnham

2011-02-27T06:57:00.000Z

Unravel at Farnham Maltings is running this weekend. Yesterday was a good day at the show. There seemed to be a lot of people but not so many that you couldn't move or get tot eh various stalls. There was a steady flow of people to my stand and I spent a lot of the day helping knitters with their knitting problems at the knitting surgery

These are some pictures of my stand at the beginning of the day. I knitted a second version of the Anna Shawl pattern in in a Lace weight alpaca, the plain coloured shawl to the left which shows off the leaf lace pattern much better than the original shawl knitted in a sock yarn.

The newest pattern is for the patchwork waistcoat on the mannequin. My original waistcoat was knitted in my handspun so I re-worked the pattern in Lang Mille Colori which is the version I've used for the pattern.

Lets hope the show is as popular today as it was yesterday.

Shrug design in February issue of Knitting

2011-02-10T16:29:00.000Z

I recently designed a shrug with a reversible cable rib pattern which was published in the February issue of Knitting magazine. The magazine only showed the cable pattern on one side, (the simpler cable pattern at that) so I thought I would upload some pictures to show both sides of the shrug.

This is the shrug on my maniquine work with the more complicated cable showing. Photographed from the front it doesn't show the pattern very well but the picture below taken of the back shows the pattern much better.

As you can see from the pictures one side of the shrug has a large diamond cable pattern whereas the other side of the shrug (the side pictured in the magazine) has columns of cables, see below.

The shrug was contsrtucted as a large rectangle with a buttonhole/button band along each of the long edges. The idea behind this was that the shrug could be worn in a number of ways. The most obvious way to wear it is to button the 2 sides to make the rectagle into a tub to wear as shown above. However it can also be worn by buttoning the right and left edges at the front so it is more of a stole or cape as shown below.

The third way of wearing the shrug is to button the left and right edge at the back so the shrug becomes more of a bolero shape. Unfortunately the magazine didn't show these alternative ideas but I hope you like them anyway.

In the original pattern I did also include some information about the casting on and casting off methods I used for the shrug. The rectangle starts and finishes with a knit 1 purl 1 rib so I used the knit 1, purl 1 invisible cast on and the sewn knit 1 purl 1 cast off.

I will try to post instructions for both these techniques in the next day or so but in the meantime I think you can see a demonstration of both the cast on and cast off on www.knit1.tv or I expect there are other demos on YouTube.

Knitted Slippers

2010-12-07T16:21:00.000Z

I was putting some of my teaching samples away the other day and came across this pair of knitted slippers which I made about 5 or 6 years ago. They were knitted in 2 strands of a Colinette yarn for the main part of the slipper and then I added Silky Chic around the top (fur yarns were in at the time).

I worked out a pattern from the slippers because a friend had asked me if I could work out how to make them as the lady who used to make them for the charity show was no-longer doing so. I worked out a pattern and made this pair but never used them.

With the snow coming and my feet being cold I found the slippers again and have been wearing them every since. Both the yarns I used for the slippers are wool so they do keep my feet pretty warm in this cold weather.

I thought I would make another pair as they are very useful. With the second pair I knitted them using 1 strand of Artisano Hummingbird DK and 1 strand of Lang Soft Shetland Aran. Alpaca is warmer than wool so I thought a combination of alpaca and wool would work well.

This is the new pair of slippers I made. The combination of yarns was a bit thinner than the original pattern so I used a 7mm needle instead of an 8mm and work the largest size from the pattern I wrote. They worked out fine but were not as thick as my original pair so I gave them to my daughter who was only to happy to have them, and started working on another pair.

In this 3rd pair (which I am still knitting) I'm using the Artesano and Lang yarns again but I have added 1 strand of Rico Superba Poems sock wool to give them a bit more body. I'm using 8mm needles and working the medium size pattern this time. Once I've finished knitting this pair and checking the pattern I will post a picture of the finished slippers and the pattern. It is a very simple and quick pattern worked in garter stitch and it is quite easy to make a pair in an evening.

The Knitting and Stitching Show

2010-10-25T11:49:00.001+01:00

I ran the Knitting Surgery at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally again this year. This year the exhibition organisers decided I should be in the same area at the 'Knit 1 Pass it on' UK Handknitters Assocciation stand so that meant my stand was in the Palm Court rather than in one of the exhibition halls. The stand was to the left hand side of the Palm Court, in front of the Tea Room and by one of the cafes.

My DH came to help me put up the stand which is just as well as the stand area and board was not what I was expecting. It was good to have a white backing to the stand but this did cause some problems as I has expected the grey fabric covered panels but I think we managed to put a a pretty good display.

These are some pictures of putting things together on the Wednesday - the table was very useful!

As you can see my stand was more or less in the cafe area which did make it difficult at times for people to get to the stand.

Despite some of the problems with the position of my stand quite a few people did manage to find me even if it was on their way out and i was able to help quite a few people with their knitting problems.

I will be running the Knitting Surgery at the Stitch and Creative Craft Show, Sandown Park, in January and at Unravel in Farnham in February.

Just Catching up

2010-09-18T09:22:00.001+01:00

I suddenly seem to have got very busy again. The autumn is always pretty busy as the weather is not so nice for being in the garden and knitters get back to their knitting.

I have been booked to teach quite a few workshops and give talks on both hand and machine knitting over the next few months. If anyone is interested in where I'm teaching there is a full list on my website. In fact today I'm off to Birmingham to teach a workshop on Patchwork/Domino knitting to the Middland Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers. I'm sure it will be a good day as I always enjoy teaching the Patchwork knitting workshops; everyone's work is so different!

After a 2 month break over the summer we are also back to filming for Knit1.TV. This last week I filmed two demos of knitting Christmas Decorations. I know its only September but I'm teaching a workshop on Christmas Knitting at the InterKnit Cafe in Farnham at the beginning of October so I thought I would film knitting a couple of the samples I've designed for the workshops. When the films are up the patterns for the 2 samples - a knitted bauble and a knitted angel - will be available to download from the Knit1.TV website.

That's it for now as I need to go to Birmingham now!!

Doing some machine knitting

2010-09-07T19:48:00.000+01:00

I'm a member of the Guild of Machine Knitters as well as the Knitting and Crochet Guild and the Weavers Spinners and Dyers Online Guild. Having been a member of the WSD Online Guild for several years I've run a couple of knitting workshops for them so I suggested doing the same for the Guild of Machine Knitters.

So this month I am running the first machine knitting workshop for the Guild. The choice of subject was left to me so I decided to take this opportunity to explore one punchcard and knit it in as many variations as I can think of. I've started with Fair Isle as this is the stitch pattern most people use on their machines. I posted the first few files on the Yahoo groups website last week.

I've been busy knitting tuck stitch and slip stitch samples over the last few days, trying lost of variations with solid colours and with 2 or more colours. I've still got to write up the notes so i better get back to work as I'll need to upload these files later this week, but its been good to do some machine knitting again even if it is only samples!!

Talk to Taunton Machine Knitting Club

2010-08-17T08:01:00.000+01:00

I'm off to Taunton today to do two talks to Taunton Machine Knitting Club. This afternoon I'm talking about using beads with knitting and other ways to embellish your knitting. Although it is a machine knitting club I will also be talking about using beads with hand knitting as the techniques vary between the 2 knitting methods. The embellishments part of the talk is the same however the knitted fabric has been made.

This evening I will be talking about 'Don't Throw it, Fix it', it is a talk that covers ways of altering or updating finished items so you are happy to wear (or use) the garment rather than throwing it away.

I'llhave to make a fairly early start to get there for 1.30!

Teaching a new workshop today

2010-08-16T07:53:00.001+01:00

I'm off to the Interknit Cafe in Farnham to teach a workshop on Embellishing your Knitting. In the workshop I'm focusing on embroidery and applique as there isn't time to do all the different ways of embellishing your knitting e.g. painting, crochet, needlefelting, machine embroidery to mention just a few other techniques.

The workshop has a sort of floral/nature theme as I wrote an article for Knitting Magazine on Swiss Darning (published in the August 2010 issue I think) and used a floral image in the article. I showed three versions of the same image in the article. The first version below was worked from a chart drawn on graph paper with larger squares so the finished piece comes out smaller and has less detail.

The second sample, stitches on a piece of knitting worked in the same yarn as above was stitched from a chart drawn on graph paper with smaller rectangles therefore giving a larger finished design with more detail.

The 3rd sample was worked from a chart drawn on the same scale graph paper as sample 2 but the image has been flipped and rotated so it is drawn landscape style rather than portrait style. Knitting is not square so it was necessary to re-draw the chart.

Having started with a flora theme I decided to continue with this influence for the other 2 samples I've made for the workshop. I designed them as cushion fronts. The sample below is applique and I've gone for an autumn leaves theme. I worked several different leaf shapes and some acorns. A couple of the leaf patterns and the acorns where from the Nicky Epstein book 'Knitting Embellishments'.

The last sample which is another cushion front uses embroidery stitches in various ways. The top left and bottom right squares are embroidered based on a knitted stitch pattern to help with the placement of the embroidery. Montse Stanley's book 'Knitting Plus' has lots of ideas of using a stitch pattern to base the embroidery on.

The top left square is a number of embroidery stitches based on backstitch or running stitch with a second colour emboidered on top and the bottom left square was freehand embroidery using lazy daisy stitch, feather stitch, chain stitch and French knots.

As with most of my knitting workshops I like to give the knitters a choice (within limits) of what they want to do as everyone is different. Lets hope the knitters enjoy there day!

Knit Nation

2010-08-02T13:19:00.000+01:00

A month or so ago I decided as I was free I would attend some classes at Knit Nation, the knitting event at Imperial College. I've just got back from the event and enjoyed it very much. Although I am a knitting teacher it is quite nice sometimes to just go and be a student myself and as the tutors at Knit Nation where mainly over from the USA I thought it would be a great opportunity to do classes with people I'm not likely to see again.

The first class I did was on Thursday and was Baltic Braids and Bobbles with Nancy Bush. We knitted the sampler below which included a special braid cast on, several different braids and some nupps. I worked out a 2-colour cast off with one of the braids to finish the sample. Most of the braids where taken from Estonian knitting but one was from Latvia.

During the day Nancy talked about her research in to Etonian knitting which was very interesting. She had quite a few samples of mittens, gloves and socks although she wasn't able to bring the number of samples she usually has with her. As a result of the class I decided to buy her book 'Folk Knitting in Estonia'

On Friday I booked to do just a morning class to give me time to look around the marketplace in the afternoon. I booked to do 'Fiendishly Difficult Stitches' with Merike Saarnitt. Below is the sample we knitted in class. At the beginning of the class Merike said students don't usually finish the sample in the class time - so there was my first challenge. I did finish my sample as did the lady next to me but most of the students completed 3 out of the 4 stitch samples.

I wouldn't have said they where 'fiendishly' difficult but the stitches where more complicated than some and as I hadn't tried most of them before it was an interesting class.

The shell pattern above (called Alsacian Scallop border' in the handout) is also in one of the Barbara Walker books. Merike is originally from Estonia so the remaining 3 stitches are Estonian.

This detail above is called Estonian Embrace Cable and involves manipulating long stitches to create the cable look.

This next sample was Estonian Butterfly on open ground and is very similar to a sample I recently knitted called 'moth stitch'. In this sample the long loops are made by dropping 2 stitches and knitting around all the dropped loops.

The last stitch pattern in the sample was Berry Kisses. The charts for both this and the stitch pattern above where drawn to be knitted as each row is seen i.e. on a wrong side row a horizontal bar for a purl stitch on RS and knit stitch on WS did mean purl on the WS. This was a bit confusing to start with if you are used to the convention of drawing charts to show the stitch pattern as it is viewed from the right side. After starting to the knit the butterfly pattern I realised after a few rows that the chart was different from normal. That's what comes of getting ahead of the rest of the class instead of being a 'good student'!!!

There where quite a few stands in the market place. There where a lot of indy dyers so lots of sock yarn and lace weight yarn. I decided I didn't need any more sock or lace yarn so I didn't buy any yarn but I did buy 2 books. The Nancy Bush book mentioned above and 'The Intentional Spinner' by Judith MacKenzie McCuin. This book has a lot of information about fibres and methods of spinning so I thought it would be very useful.

The workshop on Saturday was 'Top down Aran Cardigan' with Beth Brown-Reinsel and again I really enjoyed this class. Beth was very knowledgeable about her subject and provided lots of information during the day. She also provided a very comprehensive handout for us to take home.

There wasn't time to knit the complete cardigan in the 6 hour class but I did knit the saddle shoulder pieces, most of the back, the 2 fronts and the neckband. There where different cable patterns on each piece so we were able to try out quite a few variations. Beth explained how to finish of the sleeves for the sample and pick up stitches for the button and buttonhole bands.

I wasn't able to stay for the Ravelry party on Saturday evening but I'm sure everyone had a good time. This was a very enjoyable and well organised event so I hope it becomes a regular event.

Alpaca Shawl

2010-07-12T15:39:00.000+01:00

Before going to France to teach on the French Treats Holiday I started to knit a triangular shawl using the same lace patterns as I used in the scarf project and the lace weight alpaca yarn from Fibre Harvest. I knitted quite a bit of the shawl while I was in France but didn't manage to finish it until I got back home.

I hadn't planned out the shawl beyond the basic idea of starting at the centre and increasing out in 2 triangles using the diamond pattern to start with and then changing to the pillars pattern. I wanted another variation of the pattern to finish the shawl. The first version I tried didn't look right as the lace pattern became to 'heavy' i.e. too much stocking stitch, so i undid that part and tried again finishing with the pillar patterns being drawn into points. (see the detail further down this post).

I persuaded my daughter to model the shawl for me!! which she does very well.

These are some photos of the shawl as it was blocked out to dry. I bought some large rubberised floor mats which slot together and if you use them on the 'wrong' side you can pin into the surface quite well. 4 mats joined together gave me a large enough surface to pin out the shawl. It does make a big difference to the finished piece to wash it and block it out to shape as it opens out the lace as well as giving the decorative edge detail.

Detail of the diamond lace pattern,

Detail of the pillar and edge lace pattern.

Having knitted the shawl I now need to write the pattern properly. It will be interesting to write as it is mostly charts and I haven't written this type of pattern before. Sometimes it is much easier to just knit something and then write the pattern although you do need to keep good notes!

Designs for French Treats Holiday

2010-07-08T11:38:00.000+01:00

I was asked to teach 2 specific workshops on the French Treats holiday, one on lace knitting and one on knitting with beads. We agreed to use the yarn from Fibre Harvest/John Arbon Textiles so I visited their stand at the Unravel Show in Farnham in February. They spin a variety of yarns including a number of Alpaca and Alpaca mix yarns.

For the workshops I felt it would be a good idea to design a couple of project that could be started on the holiday and completed at home. Lace knitting using fine lace eight yarn has become quite popular so I decided I would use the UK Alpaca Superfine 2/12nm 3ply yarn for the projects I would design. This 90% alpaca yarn from Fibre Harvest comes in a small selection of colours.

I designed the scarf first. It uses 2 lace patterns, one called diamonds and the other called pillars. The pillars pattern is an extension of the diamond pattern so they are linked. The scarf I knitted uses both patterns but you could knit it in one or other pattern throughout.

The diamond pattern

The pillars pattern.

This alpaca yarn comes in a 100gm skein so there was plenty of yarn to make the scarf and a pair of beaded mittens. The scarf I knitted took about 45gms of yarn.

The other workshop I taught was beaded knitting so I designed these mittens. I ended up making 2 versions, one using one strand of yarn and the other using 2 strands of the lace weight yarn. They are both knitted to the same pattern but the single strand mitten comes out finer and a bit smaller than the 2 strand version.

The single strand version need to be knitted on 2.5mm needles and as the knitters attending the holiday had not been told to bring such small needles I designed the 2 strand version to be knitted on 3mm needles.

The picture above is the 2 strand version of the mitten and the picture blow is the single strand version. I also used a picot cast on to make the mitten look more decorative and in the single strand version I used a picot cast off as well.

From the feedback I go both designs were very well received by those attending the holiday even though they would have to complete both projects at home.

More from French Treats

2010-07-08T10:52:00.000+01:00

I've been very busy recently so have only just got around to uploading the rest of the photos from France. Wednesday morning was a workshop on knitted and crocheted flowers with Sasha.

In the afternoon we had an impromptu workshop on spinning using drop spindles provided by Sandra who is a spinner and lives near Le Veiux Monastere. There was some alpaca/blue faced Leicester tops included in the goody bags, hence the spinning workshop.

That evening we all went out to a lovely restaurant in the local town for a very good meal. The divers took a group photo for us.

Thursday morning was my workshop on beaded knitting. I designed a mitten as the project to make which could be made with the same yarn as I used for the lace scarf project. There was plenty of yarn to complete both projects from the one skein of yarn.

You can see some of the beaded knitted samples I brought with me.

In the afternoon we went to the Roman town of Sainte for a look around and to visit a couple of yarn shops. There was a small yarn shop in town which didn't have a big selection but did have some interesting yarn. It also had a great selection of buttons although some were very pricey.

The other yarn shop was out of town so we took a detour on our way back to visit this shop. It had a wide range of basic yarn, mainly Berge de France which did include their new Origins range. There weren't any specialist or hand dyed yarns but the French do seem to stick to fairly basic yarns.

Friday was our last full day. After chatting with everyone on the previous evening we changed the Friday workshop to being a 'design a garment to incorporate what you have learnt this week' This workshop went very well and rounded of the week as everyone was able to go away with an idea of something they could make once they got home.

We continued the design workshop after lunch and then towards the end of the afternoon we asked everyone to pin up what they had done over the week. It is always great to see what everyone has done and to realise we did cover quite a bit.

These photos show quite a bit of the work completed by everyone over the holiday.

It was a very enjoyable week of teaching. The ladies who attended the week made it a very enjoyable and fun week.

I have been invited to teach on the French Treats Holiday in June next year so put 4th June 2011 in your diaries as the date of the next holiday.

French Treats Day 3 and 4

2010-06-11T16:21:00.000+01:00

Monday was a busy day with knitting workshops in the morning and afternoon. Sasha started off the day with a workshop on Pockets and Pleats and in the afternoon I taught a workshop on Lace knitting with a straight scarf pattern.

The workshops went well with several people continuing to work on their pieces in the evening but most just relaxing after a long but enjoyable day.

On Tuesday we had a 'day off'. People could continue with their projects from the day before in the morning and then at 11.30 we met at the buses for an excursion to Mornac sur Seudre, a fishing and artisan village south of La Rochelle near the Ile D'Oleron. We arrived about 12.30 to 1.00 and had lunch in a very nice restaurant (the middle building in the picture below)

After lunch we had a wonder around the village. It was very picturesque, lots of photo opportunities and inspiration. The shops didn't open till after 3.00pm so we spent most of the time looking around.

There where some lovely hollyhocks growing by various buildings

Looking at the angel of some of the pillars it was amazing the old market place was still standing!

Some of the pieces in one of the art shops.

and a very pretty passion flower.

Some members of the group were tempted to buy cloths and other bits and pieces but I just settled for a coffee and crepe before returning to the bus at about 4.30.

French Treats Day 2

2010-06-09T10:26:00.000+01:00

Sunday started with the first workshop, a joint workshop with 'Face cloths' as the theme. A number of different textured stitches were offered and the students started to work on the stitch pattern they preferred.

Later in the morning students where asked to choose the yarn colour and beads for the lace and mittens project. The yarn for these 2 projects was one skein of lace weight alpaca yarn from Coldharbour Mills in Devon so this meant the skein needed to be re-wound. The tutors then found their true calling acting as skein swifts!!

After lunch we were taken on a trip to The Abbey of Fontdouce (Gentle Fountain) to look around and possibly find some design inspiration. There was also a music festival going on at the Abbey and during the afternoon a local chamber choir was singing at various places around the Abbey.

The Abbey was built in the 11th or 12th century as a monastery for Benediction monks. At one point it became a Royal Abbey but much of it was destroyed during the Wars of Religion and again during the French Revolution. It stopped being a religious centre a couple of centuries ago and became a private residence. It is still a private residence but they are trying to restore some of the old parts.

The Abbey was well known for its garden, a formally laid out garden but there weren't many flowers in bloom when we visited but I did manage to find some interesting flowers and images. When we got back to Le Vieux Monastere I also took some pictures of the poppies in the field by the property.

French Treats Knitting Holiday

2010-06-06T16:38:00.000+01:00

My job can be very enjoyable, I'm currently sitting in the sun in France and teaching knitting. I'm at Le Vieux Monastere in south west France. When I arrived I took some photos of the site which includes a number of cottages and a swimmingpool.

I'm staying in the cottage above the workroom with 3 very nice ladies so its not far to go to work! The workroom is very nice, light and spacious.

It didn't take long to settle in and start knitting while waiting for everyone to arrive.

Once everyone arrived we were welcomed with drinks and dinner. What better way to start a working holiday.

Patchwork Jacket in Knitting Magazine January 2010

2010-05-24T12:11:00.000+01:00

Over the years I have had a number of designs and articles published by Knitting Magazine. This Patchwork Jacket was published in the January 2010 issue along with an article about how to work the seam joins which are an important feature of the design.

The garment in the pattern was knitted in 2 strands of Drops Fine Alpaca. The Fine Alpaca is about a 3 to 4ply thickness so when it is knitted double it is about Aran weight. A number of people have asked about an alternative yarn for this design so I knitted swatches in a number of Aran weight yarns to see if I could match the tension.

These are the swatches I knitted. They are all knitted with 4.5mm needles. The light pink swatch is the original yarn i.e. 2 strands of Drops Fine Alpaca and the gauge was 36 rows and 19.5sts to 10cm. The dark pink swatch is Debbie Bliss Fez and it knitted up as 36 rows and 21sts. The black swatch is Rowan Kid Classic which knitted up as 36 rows and 21sts to 10cm.
The dusky pink swatch is Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk and it knitted up to 36 rows and 20sts to 10cm. The first green swatch is Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed which knitted to 34 rows and 19.5sts. The second green swatch was Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton and this knitted to 32 rows and 19.5sts. The cream swatch was Wendy Serenity and knitted up as 32 rows and 19.5sts and the last swatch was Rowan Felted Tweed Aran which knitted up as 32 rows and 19.5sts to 10cm.

None of the swatches exactly matched the original tension but the ones that matched the stitch tension would probably be a better match than the ones that matched the row tension.

Substituting yarns and matching gauge is an age old problem with knitting because each individual person will knit to a slightly different gauge from the next person. someone else may take some of these alternative yarns and find they match the original gauge exactly. I offer this information as a guide to possible alternatives.

When people ask me about substituting alternative yarns I always suggest that they buy one ball of the substitute yarn to start with and knit a large gauge swatch to

check the gauge they knit against the gauge given in the pattern
get a feel for the yarn and how it knits i.e. if they like the way it feels when knitting with it. if you are going to knit a large garment you want to enjoy the experience.
practice the stitch pattern used in the garment. This garment has a very simple stitch pattern but if you were knitting a lace or cables pattern it is a good idea to practice it first . If you find you don't enjoy knitting the stitch pattern you have spent out a lot of money at this point if you decide not to knit the garment.

As well as people asking about alternative yarns for this pattern some people have had problems following the construction of the jacket so I will knit a small sample garment and post images of each stage if you want to follow how this garment is made.

Fairground Craft and Design Centre

2010-04-25T14:29:00.000+01:00

Last weekend on our way back from a wedding in Gloucestershire we called in at the Fairground Craft and Design Centre at Weyhill. I have driven past the Craft Centre on several occasions and seen the signs to the Craft Village but never stopped there before. we weren't in any hurry to get home so decided to stop and were very glad we did so.

The Craft Centre consists of a number of small shops/studios covering a variety of crafts from card making/paper crafts to bespoke jewellery, hand made furniture and a chocolate shop, to mention a few of the businesses. There is also a cafe if you want some refreshments.

We visited all the shops that were open and were made to feel welcome even though we were only browsing. The last shop we visited was Fabricraft, a fabric shop that specialises in hand made bow ties where we had a long chat with the owner Lianne. As well as telling us a bit about her bow tie business and how she got started she also told us a bit about the Craft Centre.

The Centre is open 10am till 4pm Wednesday to Sunday and they also run a couple of event weekends every year. The Garden and Vintage Fair is on May 15th and 16th and the Michaelmas Fair will be 25th and 26th September. If you are in the area call in as I'm sure they will make you welcome.

Where do you knit?

2010-03-13T17:08:00.001Z

I recently got back from a great holiday going from LA to Vegas via Death Valley and back again. Before going on holiday one of the lads at the film studio (Knit1 TV) suggested I should take some photos of 'extreme knitting' while I was away.

OK these photos aren't exactly extreme knitting but they do show me knitting in lots of different places that most people don't knit. The knitting I took along with me was a new project for Knitting Magazine as I needed to get started on it. It is a lace cardigan in Drops Kidsilk and Sirdar Flirt but I was just knitting the start of the lace pattern. You may be able to tell it has grown over the 8 days or so we were way.

We started the holiday in Santa Monica but I didn't get any photos there. Unfortunately we also didn't have time to go and visit Wild Fibres which is a yarn store in Santa Monica. (I'll have to do a trip of yarns stores next time I go to LA!!).

On the second day we drove to Lone Pine in the Sierra Nevadas. (The knitting and map picture was on the way to Lone Pine). The film industry used to make lots of B movie Westerns in and around Lone Pine and they have an interesting Film Museum there. There are no yarn shops but I happened to go into Elevations, a climbing and hiking shop and the shop owner turned out to be a keen knitter, particularly felted knitted bags.

The next day we left Lone Pine and headed off to Death Valley. This picture is looking towards Paramint Valley at Father Crowley's Point on the way to Death Valley. We are about 4000ft here.

Having crossed various mountain ranges and Paramint Valley here I am knitting at the top of one of the sand dunes in Death Valley. The picture is not at all staged!! That night we stayed at Furnace Creek in Death Valley.

Next day, having got up at 6am to see the sunrise at Zabriskie Point (famous film and song apparently) we drove on through Death Valley.

Another not at all posed photo of me in Golden Canyon on the way to Badwater as we drove through Death Valley.

Having been at over 4000ft the previous day I'm now knitting at 282ft below sea level at Badwater.

From here we drove on to Las Vegas.

We stayed at the Flamingo so this is me doing some knitting by the pool (which was closed for swimming) after breakfast out here before setting off for some sightseeing. We don't do gambling but we did spend $4 on the penny slots and no we didn't win anything.

We did go and see quite a few of the hotels as they are something else. We had a very nice lunch at a restaurant in The Venician with part of an opera being performed in the 'St Marks Square' where we where and then watched the gondolas for a bit!!!

The next day we drove to Hoover Dam stopping on the way to see out first glimpse of Lake Mead (and another opportunity to knit). We also called in at a yarn store called Woolly Wonders in East Las Vegas. (I would include a photo here except I can't get blogger to put the photo where I want) The shop had lost of interesting yarns and the member of staff there that day was very friendly and helpful, so if you are in Vegas it is worth going to visit.

We did the Hoover Dam tour and nearly got stuck 500ft underground as the lifts decided they didn't want to work for a while!! Luckily they did work again as it would have been a long climb back up to the top of the dam.

They are building a new freeway and the bridge is still being build as you can see. When it is finished the view from the freeway bridge will be quite spectacular.

We spent one more day in Las Vegas and then drove back to LA. We spent the last night of the holiday in Hollywood and flew home the next day. Again unfortunately we had very little time in LA so I didn't manage to get to any of the yarn stores in the Hollywood area as most of them didn't open until midday when we were on our way back to the airport.

I might get around to posting some of my other photos soon.

Stitch and Creative Craft Show at Sandown Park

2010-01-25T16:30:00.000Z

I was going to write something about going to the show before the show last weekend but was too busy getting ready!! so here are some pictures of my stand at the show.

I was given a well positioned space as I was running the knitting surgery again. I also ended up with a larger space than originally planned as unfortunately another stall holder was not able to attend the show. This gave us a small 'knit and relax' area next to where I was running the knitting surgery which worked well.

My stand was in the raised area at the left hand end of the main hall which meant we had some daylight and a larger open area in front of us. The other stands in this area included the Guild of Machine Knitters, The East Surrey Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, the Lace Guild and the FLEWs Group which is a group of feltmakers. Although we weren't in with the main trade stands people did find us fairly easily as the knitting surgery was marked on all the maps and the show was not as big as in past years.

There where a lot of card making and other 'stuff' stands but there where a few knitting stands. Toft Aplacas where there with their yarn, knitting kits and finished items. I had quite a long chat with Kerry as I wanted to arrange for her to come to the studio to film for knit1.tv. Hopefully we will arrange something in the next few months. She will be able to bring fleece, yarn etc but not the alpacas so no cute animals in this film!

I also chatted to Erica on her stand Debonnaire and again asked if she would be interested in coming to film as well as she had some interesting yarns and garments on her stand

As well as having some new patterns on my stand quite a few people did pick up information about knit1.tv and the various workshops I am teaching throughout the year which was all to the good as well. Quite a few people also took information about 'Unravel' which is at the Farnham Malting on 27th and 28th February. I'm there running the knitting surgery again so hopefully this event will be as well attended as it was last year, or possibly with more people as it is over 2 days this year.

Unravel is the next big event I'm attending and I've got to get my chevron waistcoat pattern written by then so I better get back to work....

Snow and Christmas presents

2010-01-10T16:44:00.000Z

We had an unusually large amount of snow this week, 5 or 6 inches, and most of it is still there making life a little difficult to get around. We did manage to get the car out of the drive to take DD back to college in Cardiff but I wasn't doing the driving!

As a result of the snowy weather I wasn't able to go to Arundel to do some more filming for knit1.tv. I'm supposed to be going again this week but I'll wait to see if the roads improve. The main roads are fine it's just getting out of our road that is a little interesting!

Anyway all this snow has given me some time to look through my Christmas presents. As usual I got quite a few knitting books (as you can see from the pictures). The 'Reversible Knitting' book wasn't quite what I expected. The stitch patterns are interesting viewed from either side but are not necessarily what I would have called reversible. They do give a lot of food for thought and when I have some time I will try out some of the stitches. The garments themselves are interesting (although not my personal style) but use some interesting styling techniques.

'Haiku Knits' is a pattern book but it does have some interesting details. 'Knits from the North Sea' has a variety of lace patterns to play with. They are used in scarf and shawl patterns but most of the patterns have charts so you can work the stitch patterns in your own design if you want. 'Noro' has information about the development of Noro yarns and some very wearable patterns. 'Swing, Swagger, Drape' also has some very wearable patterns and like many XRX books is beautifully photographed by Alexis Xenakis.

'Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys and Arans' has lots of information and traditional stitch patterns to try out. I asked for the last book 'No Idle Hands' after it was recommended by Joyce Meader (historical knitter) who said it was a great read and although I have only read the introduction it is very readable, I just need more time and fewer magazines to catch up on, then I can get on with reading it properly.

Nearly Christmas already and new job

2009-12-14T20:19:00.000Z

The time seems to have flown by this autumn. It is always a busy time with teaching and knitting shows but this year seems to have been busier than usual. At least that is my excuse for not writing anything for ages.

This year for the first time I had a stand at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace.I offered to run a knitting surgery. The show went very well (apart from a disaster with my lap top and a cup of coffee) and I was kept busy with answering peoples' questions but quite a few people didn't realise I was there to help.

I also sold my patterns from the stand so I had a number of very good (and long suffering) friends who came to help me man the stand each day. these are a few pictures of the stand with my friend Ilana helping.

Well we all survived the show so I am now set to do a knitting surgery all over again but this time at the Stitch and Creative Craft Show at Sandown Park in January.

The stress and hassle of doing a show is a bit like childbirth. At the time you think 'I'm never going to do this again' but a month or so on you start thinking 'it wasn't that bad'! I will probably contact Twisted Threads to ask them if they would like me to run the surgery again next year.

Life has also been very busy as I have a new knitting job. I am the editor for knit1.tv a new hobby website which has videos of knitting techniques and interviews with people involved in different aspects of knitting. I have been doing most of the technique demonstrations so there is rather a lot of me but we have filmed interviews with a number of people including Woolly Wormhead, and Alison Murray of the Gingerbread House among other things. It has been great to meet these people and I now need to plan who to ask next year!

Knitting shops in France

2009-08-27T17:37:00.000+01:00

On my holiday in France I did manage to find some yarn shops although most of them are also cloths shops. We were staying in the Charente region of France

We found a Phildar shop in Cognac so I bought some 100% bamboo yarn and some 75% cotton 25% seacell to try. I'm always interested to see if the know manufacturers are producing yarns using new fibres. Most do have a bamboo yarn now but I haven't seen much in the way of seacell mix yarns.

There was also a Phildar shop in the Intermarche Hyper market at Chalais. We also found two yarn shops in Riberac (in the Dordogne region). One shop was also a fabric, patchwork and tapestry shop with Katia yarns. The other shop (which was also a cloths shop) sold Berger de France, some Katia and another French brand I hadn't seen before called Cheval Blanc. They did a cotton bamboo mix so I got some balls of this as well.

When I get around to knitting samples I will post some pictures.

Top Down Jumper competed

2009-08-04T07:07:00.000+01:00

So much for thinking I could access and update my old blog. It seems that as I now have a google account I have to sign in with this account and can no longer sign in to my old blog with my other email address. Someone who knows more about blogger could probably tell me how to change this or at least combine the 2 blogs but I don't have the time or energy at the moment to try and work it out myself! Bloody computers!!!!

Anyway to get onto pleasanter things i have finished my top down jumper so am posting pics of the finished garment. I'm not totally happy with the way the colour pools but it does look as though it is a part of the design, almost as if there was one pattern for the yoke and another for the lower part of the jumper.

I knitted the body section of the jumper and then went back and knitted the sleeves and neckband. I tried it on again after finishing the sleeves and neckband and decided that the jumper wasn't long enough so unpicked the cast off and border and knitted the body section till it was the longer length I wanted.

I've used moss stitch (seed stitch) for the borders but with garter stitch either side of the moss stitch to make the edging look more like a braid. I think it works quite well. I also used a 'make 1' increase for the raglan seam lines as I wanted to create the look of a classic fully fashioned raglan seam. On the whole I am happy with the finished garment and it fits well which is the main point of knitting from the top.

I've just started a cardigan from the top which is a variation on my design published in the July '09 issue of Knitting magazine. The cardigan in the magazine was knitted in Garn Studio cotton viscose 4ply but I am knitting the new cardigan in a cotton linen mix from Knitting4fun which is a DK weight. I am also making it with longer sleeves although I haven't decided yet whether they will be long sleeves or 3/4 length, but I don't have to make that decision yet. I'll try and get around to posting pictures of this garment in progress as well.

The vagaries of Blogger and Dyeing Yarns

2009-07-27T20:00:00.000+01:00

Having spent ages trying to access my old blog (I now have a google account so can't seem to access my old blog linked to my old email) I've decided to give in and start a new blog with the same name as the old one but with a different URL!!

Sometimes I hate computers!!!!

Anyway after all that I wanted to post about the yarns I dyed a few weeks ago. In the workshop I was showing how to rainbow dye with both acid and fibre reactive dyes and also how to paint dye with acid dyes and how to use the plastic bag method with fibre reactive dyes.

This first group of 3 yarns where all dyed with acid dyes using the rainbow dyeing method i.e. the wet skeins where put in a pan with a small amount of water and the dye powders sprinkled over them. Although alt the time the dye seemed quite strong the finished colours are quite muted. The large skein at the top was Norfork Horn wool, the middle skein was 100% soya yarn, Just Soya from Sirdar which was already a stone colour and the bottom skein was 100% smooth mohair.

These next 2 yarns are both bamboo, one tape yarn and one plyed yarn, both have been dyed with Fibre Reactive dyes. The skeins where soaked in water first and then the dyes where painted on with a sponge brush.

These 2 yarns are also dyed with Fibre reactive dyes. The top skein was bamboo and the bottom skein is Just Soya, from Sirdar in a stone colour. I didn't make sure the dye was pushed all the way through the fibres so there are areas of undyed yarn.

It was interesting to compare the 2 skeins of soya yarn as one was dyed with acid dyes (for protein) and one was dyed with Fibre Reactive dyes (for cellulose fibres). Neither of the colours where particularly strong but that might also be due to the fact the yarn has already been dyed once.

These 2 skeins of green yarn are bamboo and cotton soya mix dyed with Fibre Reactive dyes using the plastic bag method. The wet skeins where put in a plastic bag with the dye and chemicals already added. The skeins where 'mashed' for about 5 minutes or so until all the liquid was absorbed into the yarn and then left for about 30 minutes before being rinsed. Both skeins took the colour well.

This skein is cashgora yarn dyed with acid dyes which where painted on. Once the dye was applied the skein was wrapped in clingfilm and steamed for 30 minutes. Cashgora which is a variation of angora goat takes dye in a similar way to mohair i.e. good depth of colour and also has a sheen.

This last picture is of some milk fibre tops which has been painted with acid dyes and then steamed to fix the dye. I haven't tried to spin the top yet so I don't know if the dye process has had any effect on the spinning handling of the fibre. I'll post something about this if I ever get around to spinning it.

It was a good day on the whole and I think the students enjoyed the dat as well.