Sabine

£3

Knitted from one skein of Fyberspates Rural Charm, Sabine is a cosy cowl with beads, cables and lace detail designed to be looped round the neck.

Skills needed:

• provisional cast on
• cables
• place bead
• Kitchener stitch
• yarn over increase
• mirrored decreases

Additional materials needed:

• waste yarn
• crochet hook
• cable needle
• 288 size 8 seed beads
• tapestry needle

This yarn was an absolute pleasure to knit with, the BFL, silk and cashmere content make it so soft to wear next to the skin and the grey verdegris colourway is a beautifully rich mix of greys, greens and coppery tones which look earthy and gorgeous setting off the clear beads perfectly. Sabine is designed to be wrapped round the neck twice, but for a scarf that’s more like a collar than a cowl reduce the number of pattern repeats.

Ravelry Group

You wait weeks for an entry then two come along at once, a rather lovely friend has set up a Ravelry group dedicated to my designs. It’s rather quiet over there at the moment but I’m hoping things will start to liven up soon. If you’d like to join the link is here I’m hoping to be able to keep the group informed of some of the discounts and special offers I’ve got planned for later in the year as well as chatting about my latest designs and helping people out with a bit of pattern support when needed.

Camille

£2

It feels like I haven’t uploaded a new design in so long, I’ve been keeping very busy working on a variety of new projects which are all in varying states of readiness for publication including: two sweaters, a double knit scarf, a cowl and another pair of socks. I’m starting with Camille, a woman’s knee sock knitted in three balls of Cygnet’s Truly Wool Rich 4ply. It has a simple cable pattern but in order to keep symmetry over the foot it only works over the stitch count given, of course if you’re not bothered about your feet looking symmetrical feel free to play with the stitch count to get a better fit, otherwise I’d recommend using a smaller or larger needle to make a smaller/larger sock. Sized to fit an 8 inch foot circumference/13 inch calf circumference it could potentially be sized down to fit a small child by removing one pattern repeat from the top of the foot and the equivalent number of stitches from the sole. Camille is knitted from the toe up and makes use of Judy’s magic cast on and a stretchy sewn cast off so it might be worth brushing up on these techniques if you’re unfamiliar with them.

With this pattern I wanted to make a pair of knee socks that were elegant enough to show off yet not too flashy to wear every day. Plus even under trousers knee length socks are so much warmer than their ankle length counterparts.

Mab – A new design

£3

I designed Mab as a rather fun feminine shoulder shawl, named after the Shakespearean fairy queen it has a sweet lace edging which I thinks works rather nicely in the handpainted I Knit or Dye yarn. Designed as a small shoulder shawl/triangular scarf it could be enlarged by working extra rows in the stocking stitch section ensuring that the finished stitch count before working the edging is a multiple of 10 + 7 stitches.

The photos were taken on location in Farnley Park, ironically given my vampire like paleness with the local church and graveyard in the background.

A knitted Hanukkah, part 7

Tonight’s gift was the sample knit of Invasion which nearly didn’t end up as a Hanukkah gift as my model took quite a shine to the scarf. Invasion was great fun to knit and made use of one of my current favourite staple yarns King Cole merino blend DK. It comes in lots of bright colours, is superwash and best of all is anti tickle making it a great choice for children’s knits or for anyone with delicate skin.

A knitted Hanukkah, part 6

Tonight’s present was a pair of simple 2×2 ribbed socks knitted in Regia tweed. This was my first time knitting with this yarn and I quite enjoyed it, the base colour is a very dark grey making it perfect for men’s socks with small nups of orangey brown for that tweed effect. Some of them aren’t attached to the yarn particularly securely so quite easily come away in your hands as you’re knitting but over all it’s quite a nice yarn and the tweedy bits add some extra interest to the finished article.

A knitted Hanukkah, part 5

Tonight’s gift was Bob Cap by Woolly Wormhead, knitted in crazy zauberball. I’d wanted to design a hat pattern in zauberball knitted sideways to show off the self striping properties of the yarn but found that actually Woolly Wormhead had got there first, which makes my gift knitting so much easier. It’s quite a quick and simple knit and after a couple of repeats of the short row pattern everything just falls into place and it starts to look like a hat. I’ve done a few hats from the book Going Straight now and I think it’s a really interesting way of constructing a hat. The recipient seems quite pleased with it too which is obviously the point.

A knitted Hannukah, part 4

Tonight’s present was a pair of Longitudinal knitted in crazy zauberball, which is one of my all time favourite sock weight yarns. It’s terrible for knitting socks though as the colour repeats are so long conventional top down/toe up socks don’t show the yarn off to its full potential. Longitudinal, knitted sideways however seems to be the perfect sock pattern for the zauberball yarns. One thing I will say though is to make sure to allow for plenty of negative ease as the garter stitch stretches a lot so I’d advise knitting a couple of sizes smaller than your foot length to try and keep it snug to the foot. Easier said than done when you’re knitting a surprise gift for someone else.

A knitted Hanukkah, part 3

Tonight’s present was a pair of Ebony gloves knitted in Cygnet DK a 100% acrylic yarn, I’m not normally a fan of acrylic but this is far from your grandmother’s acrylic. It’s deceptively soft and comes in a variety of lovely colours, the fact that it’s non felting makes it a brilliant choice for items that need to be washed frequently or like these gloves stand up to some wear and tear. At the moment it’s my go to yarn for blankets and coats for dogs.

A knitted Hanukkah, part 2

Tonight’s present was Woolly Wormhead’s Flappy Cabler in a lovely bright red shade of Lambs Pride worsted. This was one of the surprise presents that I’ve had to work on at times when my husband’s not around. He’s a keen walker and so I thought flappy cabler with its extra long ear flaps would make the perfect walking hat.