I haven’t been able to blog for a while because I am busy developing some very exciting new patterns for you. The good news is that the shoot is this weekend, the bad news is we don’t know what the weather has in store for us – although you can probably imagine!
Today I had a chat with Juliet Bernard who is editor of The Knitter but is also starting a new venture called Planet Handmade which is a new site aimed at designer-makers and retailers. Juliet told me, “There are so many designer-makers out there that are truly creative and innovative and would love to run their own business. We hope to give them the skills they need and promote them to a much wider audience.” The site will start with knitting and crochet crafters but hopes to expand to all crafts in the future.
Right now Planet Handmade needs your help. If you are a retailer or designer-maker please go to www.planethandmade.net and answer one of the questionnaires on the homepage. Even if you aren’t running your own business yet but you would like to in the future, your opinion counts. As Juliet says, “Everyone’s input is important to make sure we are offering the best service we can.”
So what are you waiting for?
I’m very happy to have received another lovely book from fellow designer and friend, Carol Feller. Her ‘Scrumptious Knits’ features 7 patterns worked in ‘Scrumptious’ yarns from ‘Fyberspates’, a lovely independent yarnie in the UK. Although Fyberpates is a hand-dyer, her Scrumptious yarn range is in fact commercially dyed in. It is widely available from yarn shops in the UK, and is now available in the US too where it is distributed by Lantern Moon.
Like Carol, I love Scrumptious. In fact I have recently knitted a couple of pieces with it for my own forthcoming book (‘A Time To Knit’ — more details soon!). So I have focused on the yarn itself in my interview with Carol for her Scrumptious Knits blog tour:
You have used Scrumptious for a lot of your patterns, so clearly you love it! What attracts you to silk-based yarns?
In general, when silk is added to a yarn, the extra sheen, drape, weight and definition make it just lovely to work with. On top of that, the Scrumptious yarn range comes in a very wide range of weights that makes it easy to find the best match for a particular design project. Finally, the amazing range of colours makes them pretty hard to resist.
Which stitch patterns/ techniques do you think are particularly well-suited to these yarns?
The sheen of silk yarn gives great stitch definition, and I actually like creating large expanses of stocking/stockinette and garter stitch, just to allow the sheer beauty of the silk to shine through.
The heavier weight of silk yarn can also work to your advantage – when you pick up a hank of the thicker yarns you can really feel that weight. In Taupo, the short sleeve cardigan in Scrumptious Knits, I have knitted it sideways to allow the weight of the yarn to create the drape in the a-line body, and when blocking I allow the length to stretch out.
Taupo
I always try to make a pattern take advantage of the distinctive behaviours and characteristics of the yarn. Swatching is great for this purpose. By working a few inches in the yarn you can quickly learn so much about it: how does it drape? is the yarn enhanced or detracted from when a stitch pattern is added? With silk, it can also help to add a little weight like a clothes peg and hang the swatch the way it will be worn to get an idea of how the weight of the fabric behaves.
What special considerations knitters should have when selecting patterns for silk-based yarns?
The Scrumptious range is not 100% silk, it is 45% silk and the rest is merino. This does make a difference to the working of the yarn. Silk is very heavy and doesn’t have any elasticity so the wool blended with it gives it a small amount of bounce and lightens it somewhat.
Due to these factors you do need to be careful when using silk based yarns. If it is a very large garment in a thicker yarn you need to make sure that you will have some ‘anchor’ points on the body.
Ignus
A good example of this in Scrumptious Knits is the tunic length ‘Ignus’ that is knit in Aran weight scrumptious. When you pick it up you can feel that it is really heavy! To help the garment hold its shape when it is worn it is ‘anchored’ at the bottom with a wide band of ribbing. This ribbing helps it grip to the body which will help reduce the stretching. Fortunately, if it does stretch, I think the slightly longer style still works well.
Are there special precautions knitters should take when knitting with silk, and why?
I know a lot of knitters who recommend hand moisturizing to avoid pulls when working with silk based yarns, although this has never been an issue for me personally. Having said that, the dk and chunky weights I designed with in the book are both singles yarns and are very loosely spun. So I did have to watch for snagging with these as snags are very hard to correct afterwards and make the stitches look rather uneven.
This wasn’t a problem at all with the aran, lace and sports weight/4 ply which are all plied yarns rather than singles (the several plies twisted around each other give the yarn more cohesion). While these are a lot easier to work with, it does change the nature of the yarn and the stitches definitely look different.
The different make up of the yarn influences what I use the yarn for. The singles yarn looks just wonderful in simple stitches, especially garter. Due to the nature of singles though it is going to be a little more prone to wear and tear so I tend towards designing smaller projects with it.
I love the depth of colour in the Scrumptious yarns. Which is your favourite, and why?
I don’t know a great deal about dyeing yarn but I believe that silk takes dye very readily. This means that with silk in a yarn the colours can be very vibrant and rich. The Scrumptious colour palette, with a big range of jewel tones, really shows this up, and the vibrant, rich colour tones are exactly the colours I’m drawn to. Asking me my favourite colour is a bit like asking me who my favourite child is – I like them all but in many different ways! For a subtle colour I love slate best of all, with olive and oyster close behind. For an everyday knit that still has a splash of colour I like the teal blue. And, I’ve got a really soft spot for bright vibrant colours so the goldwould have to be my hands down favourite in that category!
Bakersville
As you can see, the only colours I tend not to use very much are pastels. Nothing against the colours — I’ve just never been a pastel kind of person!
How do you decide which colour to use for a particular design?
I think my descriptions of the colours above gives a basic idea of how I choose my colours for different designs. When you start designing, you have a picture in your head of both the finished piece and of the style and use of the piece. The colour choice reflects a combination of these.
For example, for a dramatic statement piece I’d be more likely to choose a brighter more vibrant colour. For everyday, more “useful” garments, my colour choice will be more subtle (so that knitters can see how easily it would fit into their everyday life). These same decisions also influence how you style and photograph the knits, as you try to share your overall vision for the finished design.
Thanks to Carol for her being so informative about knitting with silk!
Scrumptious Knits is available in print from Fyberspates (here), or as an ebook from Carol herself (here).
The next post in the Scrumptious Knits blog tour will be by Stefanie Japel early next week. Enjoy!
For a number of years now one of the most used items in my knitting toolkit has been my nostepinne:
It’s a very beautiful piece of wood designed for winding centre-pull balls of yarn. As a lot of the yarn I use arrives in skeins I find my nostepinne invaluable. I do have a mechanical ball winder — the kind that clamps to a ledge and has a winding handle. Although with this I can create yarn balls much more quickly than with my nostepinne, I much prefer the balls I wind with my nostepinne. Because they are wound around a much narrower object they are much less prone to collapse as the yarn gets used up.
Centre-pull yarn balls are wonderful! Typically I sit and knit with my yarn ball gently clamped between my knees, giving me a steady supply of yarn with no tugging or rolling around getting dirty on the floor. They make knitting much more portable too - with a centre-pull ball nestling next to me in my project bag, I can knit almost anywhere. This is ancient wisdom by the way; for maximum portability Nordic knitters of old used to fasten their centre-pull balls to their shoulder with a gilli-hook, and the knitters of Yorkshire’s past used to fasten their ‘bump’ (yarn) to their belt in a ‘clue’.
Nostepinnes come in lots of different woods and designs. A simple search in Google Images brings up a delightful feast for the eyes of beautifully crafted nostepinnes, here. There are also many common objects in a knitter’s environment that can be substituted for a properly fashioned nostepinne. Here are a few items from around my house. From bottom to top they include a DPN tube (contains double-pointed sock needles), a fat pencil, a wooden spoon (hold the bowl end in your hand and wind onto the handle), and five weaving pirns from some of the historic textile mills in my native West Riding of Yorkshire.
Of course, a nostepinne is only any good once you’ve learned how to use it. I learned this from the wonderful Freyalyn during a twined knitting workshop she taught a few years ago. As you may not have access in person to similarly skilled friends, I’ve recorded a little demo for you. Though I wind left-handed, I’ve flipped the video to show the right-handed method. If you’re left-handed you’ll find the original video here in my YouTube channel.
Apologies for the misleading silence here. I should have been posting links to the various blogs of fellow designers and friends who have been participating in the ‘Novel Knits’ blog tour.
The tour commenced in Early December with a post from my good friend and travel companion, Woolly, whose own book ‘Bambeanies’ featured in a blog post here a couple of months back. Woolly interviewed me about my design process. You can read her post here.
Then The Knitting Goddess posted an interview with me about choosing yarns for handknits. Joy kindly provided some of the yarns used for samples in Novel Knits. Her post is here.
MaryJane Mucklestone, an American designer with a fellow interest in stranded colourwork, posted an interview with me about hand knitting traditions in Yorkshire.
Another designer friend, Carol Feller, posted an interview with me that has a focus on designing and knitting stranded colour work.
The latest post in the tour comes from Anniken Allis, a fellow British designer who does lots of designing for magazines both here and in the US. She posted an interview with me about the literary associations of my designs.
And there’s more to come! I’m particularly excited about meeting Dolores, the rather rambunctious sheep that lives with Franklin Habit. Stay tuned!
Meanwhile, a sneak peek of the fingerless mittens I intend to publish sometime this week:
It was a fabulous month! I find such tremendous reward from teaching, and October was full of it!
I finally launched the curriculum for the Knitting School at my website, focusing on the techniques required for the Tess slippers. This engendered lots of fun with my dear twin-sister, Marie, who assisted in producing the videos. They took an inordinate amount of time to film as we spent so much time laughing, just like the actors on the out-takes television companies sometimes share with viewers. Please visit the Knitting School and see what it has to offer you. The tutorials are all free, and are planned to build into a comprehensive overview of the categories in which I have placed them.
October also saw me travelling as far afield as Glasgow and London to undertake some very exciting teaching engagements. Firstly I was honoured to be invited to teach at ‘The Glasgow School of Yarn’. This was a special celebratory event for the marvellous Glasgow yarn shop, The Yarn Cake. The event was hosted in the beautiful ‘Queen’s Cross Church’, a building that was designed, built and furnished by ‘Art Nouveau’ architect and designer, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. I taught classes in ‘St(eek!)ing’ and ‘Bavarian Cables’, and much fun was had by all!
A wonderful aspect of The Glasgow School of Yarn was the opportunity to meet up once again with fellow designer and friend, Carol Feller. I’m sure many of you are familiar with Carol’s work; I recently reviewed her book ‘Contemporary Irish Knits’ at my blog. I also briefly met Amy Singer again (I first met her in June at TNNA), and had the immense pleasure of spending a considerable amount of time with fellow designer Stephen West. He, Carol and I spent some hours talking design, and in particular discussing how a designer’s voice becomes so recognisable in their own particular style of work. So, although The Glasgow School of Yarn was principally a teaching and shopping event, it was also for me very much about design.
Finally I visited London, to teach at an event organised by another world-famous shop, ‘I Knit’! I stayed and taught in the nearby Union Jack Club, a lovely club, hotel and conference centre which caters specifically to members of the armed forces. Here I got to spend much more time with the illustrious Amy Singer, who generously gave me some very welcome advice about how to proceed with my next book. Yes, I am already working on another! I hope to be able to give you more details and pre-order options very soon.
In other October news, the digital edition of Jane Austen Knits was published. This is an Interweave publication featuring 35 designs inspired by the works of Jane Austen, including the Marianne Dashwood Stockings by yours truly! The print edition will be available from all the best yarn shops and bookstores on November 8th.
I am honoured to be a stopping off point in the blog tour for ‘Contemporary Irish Knits’, a wonderful book by my fellow designer and friend, Carol Feller.
I first met Carol last summer at an infamous knitting event in Scotland where the European contingent of tutors enjoyed some, um, ‘downtime’ together between classes and in the evenings. (If you wish to interpret ‘downtime’ as indicating drinking parties then that would not be far from the truth!) Then this summer it was my pleasure yet again to spend much time in Carol and Woollywormhead’s company when we shared a room together at TNNA. I checked with Carol then if it was ok for me to enrol in her classes at Knit Nation in London this July. She was teaching classes in short rows and in seamless knits, both of which were things I wished to work on for my own designs (watch this space!). Happily she was flattered rather than distressed by this request, and so I got to work on these techniques under the guidance of a great teacher. If you ever get the chance to do these classes with Carol yourself then I can highly recommend them.
Having had these classes with Carol, and knowing that Contemporary Irish Knits is a collection of seamless designs (Carol’s preferred style) I immediately knew when Carol invited me to participate in her blog tour that I wanted to focus on the subject of seamless knitting in my post. Now the book is not especially about seamless knitting, rather it is about knitting in Ireland, both in the past and now, with a wonderful focus on Irish yarns. It is a gorgeously presented book, as you can see from the images in this post that appear in the book, all of which were taken by Carol’s husband, Joseph Feller. Nevertheless, the book would be a great purchase for anybody with a particular interest in seamless knitting, and indeed for anybody interested in the Irish knitting scene, and for anyone who loves great handknit designs.
And so, here is what Carol had to say in answer to my questions about the book:
I love the very Irish-sounding names of the designs in CIK. How did you choose them?
Each mill or hand-dyer has a collection of patterns using yarn that they produce. I liked the idea of naming the patterns in the collection after the towns and villages in the counties the mills and dyers were located in. This made naming a large group of patterns much easier; it is normally a surprisingly difficult part of the job!
Which of the names is your favourite, and why?
Probably my favourite names would be Ardara and Killybegs. Last summer when we went to visit Donegal and Donegal Yarns the whole family came with us. Ardara and Killybegs were two of the villages that we spent a lot of time in, and it brings back happy memories of our few days in Donegal.
There’s a wonderful variety of knitwear in the book. How did you determine what to design?
Starting out I knew I wanted this book to be more than just women’s designs. It actually felt a little ‘retro’ to me as most pattern books now seem to have a very narrow focus so I just wanted to go and break the mould. Beyond this initial decision, I just let the yarn and stitch patterns do the talking. I usually started by swatching different stitches and built my ideas from there. The interplay of increases and decreases within a stitch pattern can dramatically change how it behaves and can change a well known stitch into something entirely new. Many of the finished pieces (such as the Rathcooney set and Killybegs) grew from the stitches.
I love the seamless construction of the designs in CIK. What led you to design for seamless knitting?
I started working most of my designs seamlessly in the last few years. It was not a deliberate decision, it happened quite organically and before I noticed it most of my designs were seamless. The huge advantage to handknitting is that you are not constrained by a machine and seamless designs allow you to take full advantage of the flexibility of the knitted fabric.
What are the advantages of seamless constructions?
As a designer (and a knitter) you can redesign and perfect the fit much more easily if you work seamlessly. There are no last minute surprises and you can make adjustments as you knit. A seamless garment is almost finished when you cast off the final stitch so you won’t have unfinished pieces sitting in your knitting basket for months waiting to be seamed! They fit very comfortably as well, as they have no seams to irritate. This is especially useful when knitting baby and child garments, as it takes very little for them to find clothing uncomfortable.
Many designers only create seamed designs. Why do you think this is?
There are many, many reasons that designers work garments in pieces. One may be that this is how they have learned to design. Seamed garments have a focus on tailoring and they treat the knitted fabric the same as if it has been cut from material and sewn together. If you learn knitting within a design school then this approach fits much more comfortably within the curriculum.
Pattern writing is also easier for pieced knitting. Decreases and increases can be worked at the seam line so it isn’t always necessary to give the same level of detail.
Finally a lot of designers prefer the way seamed garments work, as you are only ever working on a single smaller piece at a time. Plus, many designers like the stability and structure provided by seams.
What knitting techniques do you think are most essential for seamless knitting?
Well the first is to be able to use circular needles and knit in the round! After that, you should know a variety of mirrored increases and decreases. Without seams to hide them these usually become a more important feature of the design.
Short rows are useful but not essential for raising the back of the neck and bust shaping if you need it. If you are working set-in sleeves from the top down you will also use short rows to shape the sleeve cap.
There are no seams to hide ends in with seamless knitting so learning some good yarn joining techniques make for a better finish in your work.
Finally, flexible cast off methods are essential to know. I didn’t realise this the first time I finished a seamless design from the top down and it made life really hard putting that top on and getting it off!
When you design a seamless garment what elements need the most careful consideration and why?
When designing a seamless garment you have to view it as a whole and pay close attention to how each transition fits together. Changes in the shape (shoulders, sleeve caps and waist shaping) all need to be thought through in the context of the design so that the entire pattern makes sense as a whole.
A good example of this would be in a seamless raglan design. If it is worked from the top down, the size of the neck and the depth of the armhole have a direct impact on the size of the bust and sleeve. As a designer to get all of these different measurements to work together requires a large amount of number crunching but this means that the knitter ends up with a better fitting garment and a more enjoyable knitting experience.
What (if any) particular difficulties do seamless knits present for pattern-writing?
Pattern writing for a seamless design often takes more time and requires more detailed instructions. I find that to write a pattern for a seamless design I also need to knit it, as what you initially write on paper doesn’t always translate correctly to the knitting.
I begin by swatching, writing a rough pattern and then knit from this pattern. A huge amount of rewriting happens at this point until I feel that the pattern is as straightforward for the knitter as possible.
Finally, what resources would you most recommend for knitters who wish to convert patterns for seamed knits to a seamless construction?
With all garment knitting, but especially seamless knitting, finishing is very important. A good finishing book (Nancie Wiseman ‘The Knitter’s Book of Finishing Techniques’ is a good one) can really help you get the most out of seamless knitting.
For knitters who want to read a bit more about construction Barbara Walker’s ‘Knitting From the Top’ is excellent and many of Elizabeth Zimmerman’s books use seamless construction and give great details on how they are put together.
Not all garments work as well when converted to seamless, sometimes the yarn used works better with seams or different techniques can only be achieved by working in pieces. So always examine the garment as a whole to see if you would gain anything by converting it to a seamless design.
Thank you Carol!
I’m going to end this post with an image of one of my favourite designs in the book. Straboy is a wonderful cabled hoodie for men. I must make this for my Dave!
It is my great pleasure to be a host on the ‘blog tour’ for WoollyWormhead’s new book, ‘Bambeanies’. The book is a wonderful collection of 20 patterns for childrens’ Hats designed by Woolly, available for sale from her website, from Amazon, and from all the best yarn shops!
In June Woolly was a fun companion on our trip to the US for TNNA, and I benefitted then from a sneak peek of the lovely photos she took of the Hats, many of which were modelled by her very cute son. The Hats are all in Woolly’s distinctive quirky style, fun to knit and fun to wear. Indeed, when I received my copy of the book I immediately wanted to cast on ‘Nupkin’ a sweet bobbled hat for girls that would be ideal for the lovely multi-coloured Malabrigo sock yarn I was given during that unforgettable trip. I’m going to make it for my new niece, Katie.
One of the things I love about Woolly is her very particular passion for Hat design, wonderfully expressed in her reverential use of an initial capital whenever she writes the word ‘Hat’. When I received her answers to the questions I sent about the book, I was delighted to find that she had edited all my references to Hats accordingly! Here’s what she had to say:
I love the quirky names of the book and the patterns in it. Can you tell us how you chose them?
Some of them are made up names, designed to be playful and fun and reminiscent of the theme. Some we made up based on the patterns – be it a technique or shape – and others were named by blog readers when I ran a playful competition on my blog. Readers were asked to comment with as many silly words as they could think of, and we then matched the Hats without a name to comments, and it worked really well!
Which is your favourite Hat name?
Nupkin. I love the sound of it as it rolls off the tongue! And Rocketeer, too, as it’s playful & descriptive.
Which is your favourite pattern in Bambeanies, and why?
Possibly Rocketeer or Quynn, for their simplicity and shape – I can’t resist pointy Hats! I guess that’s why I had to produce a book for children’s Hats eventually
What funny/interesting stories can you tell us about the making of Bambeanies?
I had a lot of fun designing and knitting the Hats, and throughout the project I kept extending the number of Hats that were to be included – initially it was to be 10 Hats, then 14, then 16 and then I thought I may as well go for it, and include the full 20. Which meant that in the last week of sample knitting I knitted 7 Hats in 3 days, so that I was fully prepared for the photo shoots!
I also have lots of terrible photos of Aran wearing some of the girlier Hats, as I needed a photo to send to my test knitters in the absence of a final modelled shot. When he hits his teenage years, he may not be so impressed by those photos…
I’m very interested in sizing issues. Can you tell us a little about how you grade your Hat patterns for different sizes?
The grading really does depend on the pattern. Some patterns require smaller increments between sizes, whereas some are naturally stretchier and are fine with 2 inches, or even 3, between sizes. It’s no different to grading other, larger garments, in that sense.
Proportion of the elements, is key, too. Quatra and Beamish are good examples of that, as I needed to ensure, as best as I possibly could, that the relationship between the brim and the body remained fairly constant.
How do you get your data for creating a size range?
I started an online survey a number of years ago, and based my data on the measurements I received. Any gaps were filled by ‘standards’ from growth charts and other resources.
My reasons for collecting my own data were pretty simple – the ‘standard’ sizing charts for head sizes and Hats didn’t cover a full range of sizes. They stopped at a 22 inch head which is a bit daft, as I myself have a head size much larger than that! And coming from a family of large-headed people, I knew the ‘one size fits all’ thing was a bit of a myth.
It’s always been a mission of mine to provide a decent range of sizes, and push the boundaries of the ‘standards’ to include those outside of the range, like myself. I know knitters come back to my patterns time and time again because of the size range.
What kind of difficulties do you find arise in grading?
I tend to work out how a Hat can/will be graded before I delve too deeply into the design, so I tend not to hit any major difficulties. If a design isn’t gradable, it ceases before it’s even begun. That may sound drastic, but it saves me a lot of trouble later on!
The only real issue that comes up is long or complex stitch pattern repeats, as a Hat is a relatively small area, and some stitch patterns don’t really grade that well.
What help does Bambeanies include for knitters to select which size to knit?
A detailed chart is included, giving approximate sizes to age groups. There is also a section on how to check gauge, and how this affects fit.
The one thing I didn’t want to do with this book was to size the patterns according to a generic sizing method used by clothing manufacturers. They tend to use age as a sizing factor, and each country presents this information differently. In Europe, for instance, the common method is to use height as an indicator of the age to size aspect, and in the UK they use age in years, similar to the system in the US. Not only does each country present the information differently, making it problematic to include a system that everyone understands, but we all know that those sizes are only a guide and children rarely fit the standard, especially when it comes to head sizes!
And so I felt it was important to teach people how to measure themselves, and their children. All measurements are included in metric and imperial, throughout every aspect of the book, allowing every reader to be able to use the patterns comfortably.
The Hats in Bambeanies are so, so cute! If I wanted to knit one of the Hats for myself, how would I go about adapting it for an adult size?
Many, if not most of the Hats in Bambeanies include adult sizes! They may not include the largest adult sizes, but they are not at all difficult to scale up, should you wish for a larger size.
The simplest way of adjusting the size is to either use a larger needle size than given for subtle changes – this can add an extra inch or so to the circumference – or to use a slightly thicker yarn, which will take a design up an two inches or more, depending on how much thicker the yarn is. Designs like Rocketeer or Damsel, that are dependant on row gauge and stitch gauge would change proportionally with thicker yarn, whereas a design that asks you to knit for a certain length, like Pootle, would need a little more thought.
Finally, what advice would you give to knitters who wish to substitute yarns other than those you used for the samples? How might this affect sizing?
Substituting yarns is a fairly common practice, and provided a knitter substitutes the recommended yarn with one of the same gauge, ply and fibre content, they’re not going to hit any snags. Unless you are confident with different fibres and yarn types, I wouldn’t go too far when subbing yarns – it’s always wisest to stick with something similar.
If a yarn varies even slightly when gauge is checked, then yes, it could affect the sizing. Some Hats are more forgiving than others, but it is important to check your gauge first. And then you can use it to your advantage, because it may mean you need to knit a different size to get the fit you want!
Thank you Woolly!
I’m going to finish up today’s post with a gratuitously large photo of my other top favourite design from Woolly’s book, which I have a feeling will one day adorn at least one of my boys’ heads, ‘Tricable’ (I love it!). The next stop on the Bambeanies blog tour is at theblog of Shannon Okey, owner of US publishing firm Cooperative Press (soon-to-be American publisher/distributor for Novel Knits!) — so please go visit her next week to read more about Woolly’s wonderful book of gloriously quirky childrens’ Hats!
Observant regulars at my blog may have noticed some changes on the tabs menu above, including a tab called ‘Knitting School’. I’ve added this following discussion inour Ravelry group concerning my suggestion for a new KAL starting mid-September. As with my previous KALs I intend to use this one to guide fellow knitters into developing those advanced knitting techniques that they would be loath to attempt without support. I firmly believe that all knitters are capable of developing even the most advanced knitting skills. The truth is that nothing in knitting is ever as hard as first learning to knit, and so I want to encourage fellow knitters to dare to try techniques they haven’t dared try before. Thus the first lessons in my new Knitting School will focus on the much-feared techniques of ‘stranded knitting’, of which fair isle (which uses many colours) is a form many of you will be familiar with.
These first lessons will support the KAL for a stranded slipper (which I’ve named ‘Tess’) I have recently designed. Tess features a ‘Magic cast-on’ for the toe, Scandinavian style stranded colourwork (two colours), mirrored increases and decreases, a steek, three-needle bind-off, and an applied i-cord edging. That’s a lot of advanced techniques in one small project, so it is an ideal learning piece.
Shibui Knits in Portland, Oregon, are very kindly providing yarn for the pattern sample. It is a heavy fingering weight sock yarn called ‘Staccato’, a gorgeous combination of merino wool and silk in a smooth yarn that will give good stitch definition in stranded knitting. I’ll be using the ‘Rain’ and ‘Redwood’ shades, and ‘Chrome’ and ‘Raspberry’ (i.e. I’m trying out two different colourways). For those joining the KAL please be assured that you may use any smooth 4ply/fingering weight yarn in two colours of your choice. Many of you should be able to find something appropriate in your stash (especially as most knitters seem to have rather extensive stashes!).
A daunting thing in colourwork is choosing what colours to use, so I’m going to blog about this next week with a basic guide on using the ‘colour wheel’ to choose colour combinations that work well .
The KAL pattern will specify a tension/stitch gauge of 8 sts per inch (row gauge is not important), and I strongly recommend swatching to find what needle size you need to get this in stranded knitting worked in the round. I will be using a 2.75mm/US 2 circular needle for the magic loop method. Please choose needles for your own preferred method of small diameter circular knitting.
I have already worked one prototype slipper to test out my design idea. Here it is modelled by my wonderful twin-sister. The photos were taken in the evening in poor light, so please forgive the poor quality of the images. This prototype was worked in some Shetland yarn from my stash, and as you can see there isn’t a significant enough level of contrast between the two to show off the pattern very well. Nevertheless, they were on hand, and they did the job I needed.
I am delighted to announce that Novel Knits is now out! The ebook is available via Ravelry, with an automatic discount for those of you who have previously bought PDF verisons of any of the patterns in the book. Then tomorrow I release the print version with a special launch party atI Knit in London. The party will kick off at 1pm, and French TV channel, Canal+ will be there to film it! Please come along - I would love to see you there!
Novel Knits is fundamentally a pattern collection, featuring 15 of my designs themed on the work of 3 authors; Jane Austen, JRR Tolkien, and JK Rowling. I’ve worked to give the book some of the aesthetic of a novel itself, so it is a neat little A5 format (very convenient for popping into your project bag/handbag!), and it features beautiful hand-drawn illustrations by professional artist and illustrator, Steve Plummer. The book is divided into 3 ‘parts’, one for each author featured, and also includes a foreword, techniques section, abbreviations and symbols list, and yarn and sources inventories.
Early next week I will add a page to the website where you can order a copy. The UK price is £15 + P&P.
So, I’m sure you all want a sneak peek at the book? Here’s the front cover:
And here’s the back cover (please note that the ISBN shown is for the ebook — the printed book ISBN is 978–0-9569405–0-6 ) :
Things have been very busy with Ann Kingstone Designs since the KAL for Where’s My Cow? finished. The main reason was that we were pulling together my book, Novel Knits, which is now finished and will be published for sale within two — three weeks now. Another reason was all the work involved in preparing for my visit to America to attend the TNNA show in Columbus, Ohio from the 9th — 13th June. TNNA is a trade organisation for the yarn and needlework industries, so I knew this show would be an ideal opportunity to find American distributors, and create a network for myself of industry contacts in America.
This was my first ever visit to America, so a complete adventure from start to finish. The fun of the adventure was wonderfully enhanced by my companions, fellow-Brit WoollyWormhead and our Irish friend Carol Feller. We designated our shared hotel room ‘The Eurozone’ and had an absolute blast together, despite insomnia (not helped by my snoring!) and extreme business around the show.
One of the most exciting things about the show was that very shortly before it Ravelry announced that they were going to have a booth to promote their In-Store Pattern Sales programme to yarn shop owners. I was honoured to be invited to host a trunk show at the booth on the Monday of the show. Woolly and Carol also had trunk shows at the booth, so these were discussed at length in our hotel room. They taught me how to put together a slideshow on my laptop (so simple!), and advised on which two garments to put on the rack that was in the booth all weekend. Here’s a picture of me at my trunk show, taken by the lovelyMary-Heather (Rainydaygoods) of the Ravelry team:
Ann’s Trunk Show
Another wonderful element of the show was meeting in person so many people who I have come to know online, both fellow designers and fellow knitters. On the Friday of the show I was delighted to meet Sarah Vendel, who I got to know through the first ever swap I participated in when I first joined Ravelry (The Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap). She has become a rep for a variety of yarn and fibre companies, and for Jordana Paige. She is so lovely and friendly that I immediately felt at home with her! Here’s a photo of us together in the Hyatt bar one evening:
See the lime-coloured elements on my top? They perfectly match the colour of the Namaste Monroe bag that I was given during the Designers Dinner that Yarn Thinghosted on Friday evening of the show. Marly of Yarn Thing had arranged some amazing sponsorship for the event, and we were overwhelmed by the abundance of the goody bags that every designer got. There were 65 designers at the dinner, and each received a Red Heart shopper tote full of goodies, and a Namaste bag full of goodies. It was so incredible that I was in shock for hours after! A list of the sponsors will follow this post, and I send my heartiest thanks to them all. I will soon be hosting some giveaways via this blog for much of the stuff I received, and more besides, so watch this space!
The exhibition hall containing the booths was enormous — there were 388 exhibitors in total! Needless to say, I didn’t get to visit them all over the course of the show, especially as I had deadline knitting with me (for ‘Jane Austen Knits’ — an Interweave publication coming out this autumn). Nevertheless I spent most of each day of the show on my feet wandering from one booth to another, checking out yarn in particular, and meeting many knitting celebrities along the way. I cannot list them all here, so here’s a select handful of name drops: Debbie Bliss, Martin Storey, Norah Gaughan, Ysolda Teague, Kristi Porter, Shannon Okey, Kate Oates (TotToppers),Anne Kuo Lukito(Crafty Diversions), Beth Brown-Rheinsel, Mary Beth Temple, Andi Smith, Miriam Felton, Sarah Wilson(‘TheSexyKnitter’, and oh my she is!), Heather Dixon(Army of Knit, ers), Anna Dalvi(check out her amazing shawls), Jaala Spiro(of Knit Circus magazine), Amy Singer (of Knitty), Clara Parkes(of Knitters Review).
There were many lovely less famous folk there, knitters and crafters who work in the industry. I particularly hit it off with Denise, ‘neesespieces’on Ravelry. She is a very lovely, fun, and natural lady. We yarn bombed the Hyatt bar together on the Friday evening!
As well as all this meeting and greeting I managed to meet some very exciting goals! One major outcome from the show is that Shannon Okey of Cooperative Press(some of you may remember her as the one-time editor of British magazine, Yarn Forward) offered to publish Novel Knits for me in the US. So I am happy to say that it will be widely available in the US as well as the UK. I’ll post more about Novel Knits very soon as I know that this will be the first time that many of my readers have heard of it!
Another great outcome was that Deep South Fibers offered to distribute my patterns in the US. They are the most significant distributor in the US working with independent designers. I am very happy to join my friends WoollyWormhead, Carol Feller, Kate Oates, Crafty Diversions, Grace Akhrem, Heather Dixon, and Ysolda Teague as a Deep South Fibers designer!
So, yes, I spent much time with some very infamous knitters, including a very cosy dinner at a Greek restaurant on the Monday evening with WoollyWormhead, Anne Kuo Lukito, Kate Oates, Grace Akhrem, Ysolda Teague, and her lovely staff, Sarah and Rebecca (alas, Carol flew home on Monday morning). After this I handed in the project for Jane Austen Knits to Joaana, who was waiting in the Hyatt bar for it, having received various updates via Twitter from Kate Oates about my progress (I was knitting the whole time I wasn’t eating!). Phew!!
A few pictures from round and about Columbus that I took whilst walking out with Woolly the following day before heading to the airport:
Part of the Convention Centre!
North Market — we had lunch here most days
Bizarre two-wheeled vehicles!
A bit of Columbus history
This man kindly stopped especially for this photo
The Yarn Thing Dinner sponsors. Thank you guys, your generosity blew me away!
Della, JHB, Soak, Bijou Basin, Kraemer, Simplicity Creative, Knitter’s Magazine, Namaste, Julie |& Co, Skacel, Coats & Clark, The Crochet Dude, The Knit Kit, The Buffalo Wool Company, Quince & Co, Random House Audio, The Fibersphere, Dublin Gift Company, Vickie Howell, Universal yarn, Malabrigo, Polar Knit, Lorna’s Laces, Eucalan, Craftsy.
