For those of you breathless with anticipation for another chunk of my boring family history, sorry - that will have to be next week. Too hot. Too tired. Also, I want to write about my latest design!
Simply Knitting came out this week, featuring my strapless ribbed top with ribbon detail. They've called it 'Summer Dreams', which I like. The pictures are super, which is very cheering after my breakdown over the poncho picture :)
I originally designed this top with straps, but as the knitting progressed, I realised it was going to hold up on its own and ditched the straps. Now, I have had a lot of compliments about the top this week (squeak!), but also several requests about larger people wanting to use straps. Listen, people - have you seen my photo? I would need not only straps but buttresses. If you want to make straps, make straps. I would always rather my clothes were worn and enjoyed :)
The yarn is Cotton Fields from Elle, whose yarns I love (and no, I'm not on commission!). I'm not a big fan of cotton because of the splittiness and lack of elasticity, but I have to say that this was quite an easy one to work with - not too hard on the hands, drapes nicely, doesn't split too much.
The ribbon is organza, from a website called Craft Online (again, no affiliation, etc). It supplies craft materials for, among other things, wedding favours. That's the section which has the organza ribbon in it. I love the way that the organza is sheer, whch makes the colour more subtle, and also that it has a sheen to it, offsetting the matte surface of the cotton.
Of course, the other exciting thing for me was the interview :) Richard (the Beamish Boy) provided the photo, and the actual interview was done over the phone. Sharon Thomas is very easy to talk to, and had some interesting questions. I think she pulled the bones out of our conversation really well - it made me sound quite coherent!
I'd also like to pop in a few words here about the whole design-to-print process, because some readers seem to have odd ideas about how things are done.
The first step is the idea. Either I come up with something, or an editor will request a type of garment. Sometimes they want to highlight a particular yarn, so I get sent some to play with and have to design around that. Magazines are usually looking to the issue three or four months ahead, so I often find myself knitting heavy jumpers in August and skimpy tops in February!
The design usually evolves over a few days, so I rarely go with my first idea - I let it stew for a little while first. If I haven't been sent a sample ball of the yarn, I order one online.
Next step is swatching. This is essential, because I might find out at this point that the yarn I want doesn't do what I want it to - the fabric comes out too dense, or textured stitches don't look right.
Once I have my swatch, I can write the first draft of the pattern. I start with sketches of the pattern pieces, and then label these with measurements in cm and inches. Magazines prefer cm - I still think in inches :)
I check and recheck all the numbers here, to make sure that everything adds up as it should. It's no good my deciding that a side seam should be 30cm overall if I've already labelled the ribbing as 10cm and the rest of the seam as 22cm! These measurements also help me work out how much yarn to order.
With these numbers, and my swatch details, I can now write the first draft of the pattern. I usually have to design for about 5 sizes, and the actual garment will be the smallest size.
Once I have a good idea of how much yarn I will need, I request it from the distributors. I have a lot of very helpful contacts with different companies, who appreciate that I need the stuff as soon as possible. I've only once had to wait more than a couple of days for yarn. Of course, this is in their best interest, too - my designs exist to advertise their yarns!
The yarn arrives, and I start work. All this time my subconscious has been muttering away to itself, refining and polishing the design, so it is at this point that I make any final major alterations to the drawings and pattern.
Finally, I start knitting - usually to a deadline. I tweak the written pattern as the garment grows, altering things like the depth of ribbing or the shape of a neckline.
Once the garment is finished, seamed and blocked, I check through my written copy of the pattern to make sure it reads clearly, and then type it up in Word. I have templates for each magazine, as everyone sets their patterns out slightly differently. Then the garment, a sample of the yarn, and a covering letter go off in the post to the Editor, and I email her the pattern and my schematic of the pattern pieces.
I have no more input once the garment has been sent off, and just have to wait until the magazine comes out. Sometimes I will be asked for a few comments on the garment, but not every time.
After the piece has been photographed, it is returned to me, and I store it with my other designs - meanwhile, it's on to the next one!
The most common questions I seem to get about designing are 'Do you use a computer program?' (nope, just good old pencils, paper and a calculator); 'Do you get the things back once the magazine finishes with them?' (yes, but none of them fits me!); and 'Does the magazine have people who knit your patterns up?' (not the ones I work for, although I think you have that choice with Interweave Knits).
So there you go. Everything you never really wanted to know about my design process.....
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Sunday, July 16, 2006
My Family and Other Knitters - pt 1
Someone asked me recently if I came from a creative background. I didn't think my family was any more creative than normal until I started to think about it.
For example, my great-grandmother on my mother's side was a professional cook. This seems to have been passed on through the family - one of my aunts, the second daughter of my grandmother's six surviving children, was the cook at Harrow School for years. My mother, sister and I are enthusiastic cooks, who love to throw dinner parties, although Mum and I aren't up to the elaborate stuff any more.
Mum makes and decorates great cakes. She can do the traditional royal icing types (my wedding cake, baskets of roses and so on) as well as the Jane Asher type - she does a lovely butterfly.
She's also very good at pickles and preserves, although she deosn't produce as much as she did when we were at home to eat them. I can still smell the eye-watering combination of boiling vinegar and pickling spice from the making of pickled onions :)
My maternal grandmother was a talented dressmaker - just as well, when she had six children to bring up, and a husband who was away at sea more than he was at home. (He retired from sailing a year before my mother was born, when he lost a leg in a wreck.) She not only clothed the family, she took in dressmaking too. Mum can clearly remember her sewing into the small hours, to finish a party dress for the family or an order for someone else.
My maternal grandfather, as I say, was a sailor, and so was proficient at netting and sailmaking. Because of the netting, he also knew how to cast on with the thumb method - something he taught Mum, which she then passed on to me and my sister. He also loved to whittle wood, and carve toy boats, which Mum, her brother and their cousins used to sail on the local pond.
My mother's brother inherited Grandad's abilities with wood, and became a time-served carpenter, making furniture which is still in use in the family. (His wife, although not a blood relative, also deserves a mention - she was a trained tailor and upholsterer, and I remember her work as being amazingly neat and accurate.)
Mum and another of her sisters both trained in the workroom attached to a big upholstery/curtains/loose covers shop in Southampton. It was almost a rite of passage there to have the needle of the sewing machine go through your finger - Mum still has a rough section on the side of one nail, where the needle went in between her nail and her finger, while my aunt had it actually go through the middle of her nail.
Mum was also a great dressmaker, and could be amazingly inventive. After the war, when money was short and clothing was hard to get, she made my brother a pair of shorts and two plaid shirts from my father's old raincoat.
We all had handmade clothes as children, although we didn't always appreciate it! One of my favourite outfits was the sailor top and navy miniskirt she made for my twelfth birthday - I felt like a million dollars in that :)
She was also a prodigious knitter, and loved Fair Isle especially. She used to say that, if we won the Pools, she would sit and knit Fair Isle all day. She was also particularly inventive with her allowance of clothing coupons in the Second World War - she used short lengths of tapestry wool (for which no coupons were needed) for Fair Isle tops, and even knitted her own nylons, complete with seam, from the little cards of nylon darning thread!
(I'm using the past tense here, not because she has died, but because the other family legacy - arthritis - has curtailed a lot of her activities.)
My father, like Mum's brother, was a time-served carpenter, and made some lovely furniture. He could be very inventive - my sister still uses a long, low table which he made from the top of a piano! Although he eventually qualified as a chartered quantity surveyor, he never lost his DIY enthusiasms, and I can never remember anyone else coming to the house to do odd jobs. He's the only man I have ever known who could wallpaper a ceiling....
He also used to make hooked rugs, and could embroider beautifully. He was stuck in quarantine in a military hospital for a whole winter while he was in the Army in WWII (carrying, but not suffering from, diphtheria), and he passed the time by embroidering tray cloths and making a pink elephant for the Sister. He presented it to her when he left, explaining that, when it turned grey, she would know she had had enough to drink!
My brother is creative with words. He has written several series of stories for children, as well as a children's novel and several collections of humorous verse. He can compose long rhyming poems for any family occasion, and we all treasure the poems he has written for each of us!
My sister is a proficient knitter and a wonderful cross-stitcher. She especially used to like the big intarsia picture sweaters of the 80s, and used to add extra sections onto the charts to keep herself interested - more sheep, or more flowers. She made me a wonderful sweater with a country landscape on it - but she thought the back would be boring for her just done plain, so she adapted the chart from the front, and created the same scene by night for the back!
She can make clothes - she's just made a beautiful christening robe for her new granddaughter.
She's been a keen cross stitcher for several years now, and has designed lots of her own works. I particularly like the pair of samplers she made depicting events from the years in which she and her husband were born.
She doesn't knit much now, but I still treasure the memory of waking up one birthday to find that she had knitted an entire wardrobe of beautiful clothes for my Tiny Tears! Come to think of it, I still have the pattern she used :) And I really regret losing the green rabbit she made me....
Like me, she has dabbled in a ot of other things - macrame, plasticraft paperweights, jewellery making, tatting.
Ever since I was little, I've been making things: knitting, crochet (yarn, thread and filet), tatting, cross stitch, embroidery, blackwork, tapestry, bobbin lace, Ruskin lace, spinning, paper crafts, macrame, Fimo modelling, modelling with paper straws, watercolour painting, basketry, dressmaking..... But I keep coming back to knitting and crochet. I guess they're my thing.
Next week: Our amazing neighbour. Have a good one!
For example, my great-grandmother on my mother's side was a professional cook. This seems to have been passed on through the family - one of my aunts, the second daughter of my grandmother's six surviving children, was the cook at Harrow School for years. My mother, sister and I are enthusiastic cooks, who love to throw dinner parties, although Mum and I aren't up to the elaborate stuff any more.
Mum makes and decorates great cakes. She can do the traditional royal icing types (my wedding cake, baskets of roses and so on) as well as the Jane Asher type - she does a lovely butterfly.
She's also very good at pickles and preserves, although she deosn't produce as much as she did when we were at home to eat them. I can still smell the eye-watering combination of boiling vinegar and pickling spice from the making of pickled onions :)
My maternal grandmother was a talented dressmaker - just as well, when she had six children to bring up, and a husband who was away at sea more than he was at home. (He retired from sailing a year before my mother was born, when he lost a leg in a wreck.) She not only clothed the family, she took in dressmaking too. Mum can clearly remember her sewing into the small hours, to finish a party dress for the family or an order for someone else.
My maternal grandfather, as I say, was a sailor, and so was proficient at netting and sailmaking. Because of the netting, he also knew how to cast on with the thumb method - something he taught Mum, which she then passed on to me and my sister. He also loved to whittle wood, and carve toy boats, which Mum, her brother and their cousins used to sail on the local pond.
My mother's brother inherited Grandad's abilities with wood, and became a time-served carpenter, making furniture which is still in use in the family. (His wife, although not a blood relative, also deserves a mention - she was a trained tailor and upholsterer, and I remember her work as being amazingly neat and accurate.)
Mum and another of her sisters both trained in the workroom attached to a big upholstery/curtains/loose covers shop in Southampton. It was almost a rite of passage there to have the needle of the sewing machine go through your finger - Mum still has a rough section on the side of one nail, where the needle went in between her nail and her finger, while my aunt had it actually go through the middle of her nail.
Mum was also a great dressmaker, and could be amazingly inventive. After the war, when money was short and clothing was hard to get, she made my brother a pair of shorts and two plaid shirts from my father's old raincoat.
We all had handmade clothes as children, although we didn't always appreciate it! One of my favourite outfits was the sailor top and navy miniskirt she made for my twelfth birthday - I felt like a million dollars in that :)
She was also a prodigious knitter, and loved Fair Isle especially. She used to say that, if we won the Pools, she would sit and knit Fair Isle all day. She was also particularly inventive with her allowance of clothing coupons in the Second World War - she used short lengths of tapestry wool (for which no coupons were needed) for Fair Isle tops, and even knitted her own nylons, complete with seam, from the little cards of nylon darning thread!
(I'm using the past tense here, not because she has died, but because the other family legacy - arthritis - has curtailed a lot of her activities.)
My father, like Mum's brother, was a time-served carpenter, and made some lovely furniture. He could be very inventive - my sister still uses a long, low table which he made from the top of a piano! Although he eventually qualified as a chartered quantity surveyor, he never lost his DIY enthusiasms, and I can never remember anyone else coming to the house to do odd jobs. He's the only man I have ever known who could wallpaper a ceiling....
He also used to make hooked rugs, and could embroider beautifully. He was stuck in quarantine in a military hospital for a whole winter while he was in the Army in WWII (carrying, but not suffering from, diphtheria), and he passed the time by embroidering tray cloths and making a pink elephant for the Sister. He presented it to her when he left, explaining that, when it turned grey, she would know she had had enough to drink!
My brother is creative with words. He has written several series of stories for children, as well as a children's novel and several collections of humorous verse. He can compose long rhyming poems for any family occasion, and we all treasure the poems he has written for each of us!
My sister is a proficient knitter and a wonderful cross-stitcher. She especially used to like the big intarsia picture sweaters of the 80s, and used to add extra sections onto the charts to keep herself interested - more sheep, or more flowers. She made me a wonderful sweater with a country landscape on it - but she thought the back would be boring for her just done plain, so she adapted the chart from the front, and created the same scene by night for the back!
She can make clothes - she's just made a beautiful christening robe for her new granddaughter.
She's been a keen cross stitcher for several years now, and has designed lots of her own works. I particularly like the pair of samplers she made depicting events from the years in which she and her husband were born.
She doesn't knit much now, but I still treasure the memory of waking up one birthday to find that she had knitted an entire wardrobe of beautiful clothes for my Tiny Tears! Come to think of it, I still have the pattern she used :) And I really regret losing the green rabbit she made me....
Like me, she has dabbled in a ot of other things - macrame, plasticraft paperweights, jewellery making, tatting.
Ever since I was little, I've been making things: knitting, crochet (yarn, thread and filet), tatting, cross stitch, embroidery, blackwork, tapestry, bobbin lace, Ruskin lace, spinning, paper crafts, macrame, Fimo modelling, modelling with paper straws, watercolour painting, basketry, dressmaking..... But I keep coming back to knitting and crochet. I guess they're my thing.
Next week: Our amazing neighbour. Have a good one!
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Too hot :(
I received my August copy of Knitting magazine yesterday, with my final piece for them in it.
OK, that was terrible sentence construction, but I am too hot and tired to care :)
It's a camisole worked in Louisa Harding Kimono Silk Ribbon, which has to be one of the prettiest yarns I've used recently. I love variegated yarns anyway, because the changing colours keep me amused - yes, I am easily amused! Sometimes variegated yarn has very badly conceived colourways, and sudden changes in colour. This yarn, however, changes subtly from one colour to another, and also has a lovely sheen to it which is not immediately obvious in pictures.
It's also very easy to work with, so long as you don't use mega-sharp needles, as these would tend to pierce the yarn. It slides smoothly along the needle without slipping off the tip, and it's surprisingly stretchy.
No affiliation, by the way - just my own thoughts!
I was also very pleased with the way that the camisole itself was photographed - good front and back shots. It really annoys me when I open knitting magazines and see photographers trying to be arty - sorry, people, but we need good, clear photographs of the garment. No colour filters, no long-distance misty shots, and nothing distracting from the knit.....
OK, that's it for this week. Sorry I'm not at my sparkling best, but I hate heat. And please don't mention 'Doctor Who....'
OK, that was terrible sentence construction, but I am too hot and tired to care :)
It's a camisole worked in Louisa Harding Kimono Silk Ribbon, which has to be one of the prettiest yarns I've used recently. I love variegated yarns anyway, because the changing colours keep me amused - yes, I am easily amused! Sometimes variegated yarn has very badly conceived colourways, and sudden changes in colour. This yarn, however, changes subtly from one colour to another, and also has a lovely sheen to it which is not immediately obvious in pictures.
It's also very easy to work with, so long as you don't use mega-sharp needles, as these would tend to pierce the yarn. It slides smoothly along the needle without slipping off the tip, and it's surprisingly stretchy.
No affiliation, by the way - just my own thoughts!
I was also very pleased with the way that the camisole itself was photographed - good front and back shots. It really annoys me when I open knitting magazines and see photographers trying to be arty - sorry, people, but we need good, clear photographs of the garment. No colour filters, no long-distance misty shots, and nothing distracting from the knit.....
OK, that's it for this week. Sorry I'm not at my sparkling best, but I hate heat. And please don't mention 'Doctor Who....'
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Slight error of judgement
Today was the hottest day in rural County Durham so far this summer. So what did I do?
Did I sit under the shower?
Did I go to the leafy, shady forest down the road?
Did I find a spa with a cool jacuzzi?
Nothing so obvious.
I got my whole family together - from Southampton, Luton, York and Durham - and took them to a restaurant with no air-conditioning, to eat a roast dinner.
It says a lot about my family that no one gave in to Heat Rage and tried to disembowel their neighbour with a dessert fork.
We were actually gathered together to celebrate both Richard's 21st and his graduation. We worked out that the last time we were all together, including Richard's paternal grandparents, was at his christening - although the last time my side of the family met up without them was only three years ago, at a joint birthday party for Mum and my brother.
We don't go in for big reunions much :)
Anyhoo, I am hanging on by my last nail, so I think it's time I went and crashed. I may be back next Sunday.....
Did I sit under the shower?
Did I go to the leafy, shady forest down the road?
Did I find a spa with a cool jacuzzi?
Nothing so obvious.
I got my whole family together - from Southampton, Luton, York and Durham - and took them to a restaurant with no air-conditioning, to eat a roast dinner.
It says a lot about my family that no one gave in to Heat Rage and tried to disembowel their neighbour with a dessert fork.
We were actually gathered together to celebrate both Richard's 21st and his graduation. We worked out that the last time we were all together, including Richard's paternal grandparents, was at his christening - although the last time my side of the family met up without them was only three years ago, at a joint birthday party for Mum and my brother.
We don't go in for big reunions much :)
Anyhoo, I am hanging on by my last nail, so I think it's time I went and crashed. I may be back next Sunday.....
Sunday, June 25, 2006
A star is born
I was interviewed this week!
I've answered the odd question for Simply Knitting blurbs before, but this was a proper interview, conducted by a proper writer, for a proper 500-word article. Real proper stuff :)
I may have mentioned it in passing to the odd person since it happened. The fact that one of my carers greeted me today with, 'Yes, you told me' is entirely coincidental...
The interviewer, whose name, I am sorry to say, I was far too excited to take in, made it a really enjoyable experience. She asked interesting questions, not just the predictable ones for which I had already planned my answers. She had read my blog, and knew about my designs and interests. She was also really easy to talk to, and we discovered a mutual admiration for the very talented and twinkly David Tennant !
So, the article will be in the August issue of Simply Knitting, due out on July 20. There is also a design of mine for a cotton top with organza ribbon in the same issue.
Maybe my ambition to be on 'Desert Island Discs' is not so far-fetched after all.... Since the age of 10, I have regularly updated my mental list of eight records, one book and one luxury. Just in case Sue Lawley is reading this, and wondering what I would choose, here is today's selection.
Tomorrow's may be different ;)
Discs:
Time Out - Dave Brubeck
My Funny Valentine - Miles Davis
Birds In Your Garden - Pulp
Jokerman - Bob Dylan
Hearts and Bones - Paul Simon
God Give Me Strength - Alison Moyet
My Home Town - Bruce Springsteen
Who Knows Where The Time Goes - Sandy Denny
Book:
The Opinionated Knitter - Elizabeth Zimmermann
Luxury:
Need you ask? Lots and lots of yarn and needles. I promise not to knit an escape boat :)
I've answered the odd question for Simply Knitting blurbs before, but this was a proper interview, conducted by a proper writer, for a proper 500-word article. Real proper stuff :)
I may have mentioned it in passing to the odd person since it happened. The fact that one of my carers greeted me today with, 'Yes, you told me' is entirely coincidental...
The interviewer, whose name, I am sorry to say, I was far too excited to take in, made it a really enjoyable experience. She asked interesting questions, not just the predictable ones for which I had already planned my answers. She had read my blog, and knew about my designs and interests. She was also really easy to talk to, and we discovered a mutual admiration for the very talented and twinkly David Tennant !
So, the article will be in the August issue of Simply Knitting, due out on July 20. There is also a design of mine for a cotton top with organza ribbon in the same issue.
Maybe my ambition to be on 'Desert Island Discs' is not so far-fetched after all.... Since the age of 10, I have regularly updated my mental list of eight records, one book and one luxury. Just in case Sue Lawley is reading this, and wondering what I would choose, here is today's selection.
Tomorrow's may be different ;)
Discs:
Time Out - Dave Brubeck
My Funny Valentine - Miles Davis
Birds In Your Garden - Pulp
Jokerman - Bob Dylan
Hearts and Bones - Paul Simon
God Give Me Strength - Alison Moyet
My Home Town - Bruce Springsteen
Who Knows Where The Time Goes - Sandy Denny
Book:
The Opinionated Knitter - Elizabeth Zimmermann
Luxury:
Need you ask? Lots and lots of yarn and needles. I promise not to knit an escape boat :)
Thursday, June 22, 2006
News Flash!
Richard, the Beamish Boy, is now the proud possessor of a B Sc in Physics from Warwick University!
Feel free to raise a virtual (or real!) glass of bubbly :)
Feel free to raise a virtual (or real!) glass of bubbly :)
Sunday, June 18, 2006
First, the good news
Well, it might not seem like good news, announcing that my second submission has been rejected by Vogue Knitting, but read on.
My first submission was accompanied by a letter that basically said, 'Thanks, but it's not for us.'
The second, which they kept much longer, came back with this letter:
'Thank you for your design submissions. We were unable to use them at this time, but we encourage you to continue submitting to our publications in the future.
Thank you again for thinking of us. We look forward to seeing more of your work!'
beam
I do feel chuffed :)
However, as one door opens, another door shuts. I am sorry to announce that I will no longer be submitting designs to Knitting magazine, as I am not happy with the way they have handled the error on the 'Magic!' hat pattern.
The Beamish Boy currently has the correct chart on his machine, but I expect it (and the other two I submitted) will be back on my PC soon, so if anyone would like a copy of the correct chart for the lightning bolt hat, do let me know. Don't expect instant answers, as I'm not managing to get online every day - but, if nothing else, I should be online every Sunday.
I still have a camisole in the the works at Knitting, but that will be the last one. It's sad, but I felt I had no other choice.
My first submission was accompanied by a letter that basically said, 'Thanks, but it's not for us.'
The second, which they kept much longer, came back with this letter:
'Thank you for your design submissions. We were unable to use them at this time, but we encourage you to continue submitting to our publications in the future.
Thank you again for thinking of us. We look forward to seeing more of your work!'
beam
I do feel chuffed :)
However, as one door opens, another door shuts. I am sorry to announce that I will no longer be submitting designs to Knitting magazine, as I am not happy with the way they have handled the error on the 'Magic!' hat pattern.
The Beamish Boy currently has the correct chart on his machine, but I expect it (and the other two I submitted) will be back on my PC soon, so if anyone would like a copy of the correct chart for the lightning bolt hat, do let me know. Don't expect instant answers, as I'm not managing to get online every day - but, if nothing else, I should be online every Sunday.
I still have a camisole in the the works at Knitting, but that will be the last one. It's sad, but I felt I had no other choice.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Phew!
Well, the four worries that have kept me away from my post here have all now been resolved. The two projects with insane deadlines have been completed (early, in both cases!), my brother is out of hospital, and I'm on new lung medication which is allowing me to breathe. Always a bonus :)
(My brother, for those of you who know him, has had a prolonged stay in hospital and in a rest home because his diabetes got out of whack and he ended up with kidney failure. He is well on the way to recovery now, having worried us all sick for weeks...)
I think I may have to take a leaf out of Mary Anne's book, and designate a day for blog entries. I'll probably pick Sunday, so I hope that, next Sunday, I'll be posting again.
In the mean time, it has been suggested to me that I reprint here an article that I wrote for SlipKnot, the journal of the Knitting and Crochet Guild. The issue in which it appeared was dedicated to bags, but the information on blending yarns applies to any project.
Stash Bags
This is not an article about storage solutions – it’s about how to make bags without spending money on yarn! As I am writing this around Christmastime, saving money on yarn seems like a very good idea….
(My brother, for those of you who know him, has had a prolonged stay in hospital and in a rest home because his diabetes got out of whack and he ended up with kidney failure. He is well on the way to recovery now, having worried us all sick for weeks...)
I think I may have to take a leaf out of Mary Anne's book, and designate a day for blog entries. I'll probably pick Sunday, so I hope that, next Sunday, I'll be posting again.
In the mean time, it has been suggested to me that I reprint here an article that I wrote for SlipKnot, the journal of the Knitting and Crochet Guild. The issue in which it appeared was dedicated to bags, but the information on blending yarns applies to any project.
Stash Bags
This is not an article about storage solutions – it’s about how to make bags without spending money on yarn! As I am writing this around Christmastime, saving money on yarn seems like a very good idea….
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Things are bad. Send chocolate.
Still coughing. Had a week off the antibiotics and then had to admit defeat and go back onto a new set. Vague rumblings are being made about my going into hospital, which I am strenuously resisting - I have enough problems without that :)
OK, well, now that Blogger has condescended to work, and my computer has stopped sulking and working at half speed, let's see what kind of a post I can cobble together for you. I can't believe it's nearly a month since my last effort....
Two new patterns published: a baby poncho called 'Angel Delight' in the current 'Simply Knitting', and a top in the new issue of 'Knitting'. (No info yet on the reprinting of the correct chart for the Magic hat, by the way.)
I'm sure Debora, who edits SK, won't mind me saying here that I wasn't totally happy with the photo for the poncho - we have discussed it at length ;) You get a better idea of the whole garment on the following page, where it is laid out flat. The baby model was a bit large for it - but VERY cute!
That reminds me - talking of cute babies in SK, my sister has just returned to knitting to make the doggy babygro from a previous issue. She's making it for her granddaughter, in the same colours as the family dog..... although, as my niece is a vet, I have no worries about her confusing the two!
Anyway, as I was saying - the poncho is made in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, which is one of my very favourite yarns as it's so soft and pliable. The gorgeous buttons are from a huge and lovely selection at Laughing Hens, and I've used several different designs from there in the past.
The Honeybee top is one of my most enjoyable past projects. It's made by working random stripes of four different yarns, along with a length of Lurex, and it creates almost a brocade-like fabric. The stripes are more pronounced in the final item than they were in the swatch, as I had to replace a Rowan yarn, which was being discontinued. This seems to happen with monotonous regularity :(
It was a fun project to do, as you can swap a colour as soon as you get bored of it. The best thing of all is that it's worked top-down, in the round - no sewing up!!
Two other bits of news - sadly, Alice Weir (Flossie Knits) didn't win Knitter of the Year, but stll needs sponsors for th Race for Life. Please visit her site if you can.
Secondly, as well as luring my sister back to knitting by showing her the doggy babygro, I have persuaded Richard's grandmothers to start knitting again. My ex-mother-in-law is knitting for charity, and my mother is about to start knitting my baby poncho. I am beginning to feel like Patient Zero for a knitting virus :)
OK, well, now that Blogger has condescended to work, and my computer has stopped sulking and working at half speed, let's see what kind of a post I can cobble together for you. I can't believe it's nearly a month since my last effort....
Two new patterns published: a baby poncho called 'Angel Delight' in the current 'Simply Knitting', and a top in the new issue of 'Knitting'. (No info yet on the reprinting of the correct chart for the Magic hat, by the way.)
I'm sure Debora, who edits SK, won't mind me saying here that I wasn't totally happy with the photo for the poncho - we have discussed it at length ;) You get a better idea of the whole garment on the following page, where it is laid out flat. The baby model was a bit large for it - but VERY cute!
That reminds me - talking of cute babies in SK, my sister has just returned to knitting to make the doggy babygro from a previous issue. She's making it for her granddaughter, in the same colours as the family dog..... although, as my niece is a vet, I have no worries about her confusing the two!
Anyway, as I was saying - the poncho is made in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, which is one of my very favourite yarns as it's so soft and pliable. The gorgeous buttons are from a huge and lovely selection at Laughing Hens, and I've used several different designs from there in the past.
The Honeybee top is one of my most enjoyable past projects. It's made by working random stripes of four different yarns, along with a length of Lurex, and it creates almost a brocade-like fabric. The stripes are more pronounced in the final item than they were in the swatch, as I had to replace a Rowan yarn, which was being discontinued. This seems to happen with monotonous regularity :(
It was a fun project to do, as you can swap a colour as soon as you get bored of it. The best thing of all is that it's worked top-down, in the round - no sewing up!!
Two other bits of news - sadly, Alice Weir (Flossie Knits) didn't win Knitter of the Year, but stll needs sponsors for th Race for Life. Please visit her site if you can.
Secondly, as well as luring my sister back to knitting by showing her the doggy babygro, I have persuaded Richard's grandmothers to start knitting again. My ex-mother-in-law is knitting for charity, and my mother is about to start knitting my baby poncho. I am beginning to feel like Patient Zero for a knitting virus :)
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Aha!
It let me upload it at last :)
This deserves inclusion in my collection of ghastly patterns for so many reasons. The fact that it's designed for Jimmy Savile; the clumsy 'OoOoOo'motif; the fact that said motif is swiss darned (what a cop-out by the designer!).....
For any of the non-British readers who don't know why this is funny - Jimmy Savile is a British DJ with an unpleasantly unctuous manner, whose trademark is a weird ululating yodel - hence the motif. He does loads of stuff for charity, but he still gives me the creeps :(
The new issue of Knitting magazine is now out, with not two, but THREE of my patterns in it, AND an article (photos courtesy of the Beamish Boy). They've done a great job on the article, adding extra illustrations for me and setting it out well on the page.
I'm not totally happy about the way they've styled the Springtime shawl, although it looks good - I would have preferred it twisted as I suggested in the pattern. I have to say, though, that the Blue Sky Alpaca Silk that I used for it is just the most gorgeous yarn I've ever had the pleasure of fondling. It is soft and smooth to knit with, and blooms on washing into the most amazingly even fabric.
I love the way the Hollyhock gilet has been styled and photographed, and it really shows up well. The Twilleys Freedom wool is incredibly light and airy for a chunky wool, and so soft that you would never know it was a pure wool yarn. I love the colour, too!
The Magic hat looks OK - it's difficult to photograph shadow knitting. Big problem with the chart, though - they've printed the wrong one. As soon as I can get hold of the editor, I know she'll arrrange an erratum notice, but I'd rather it was right first time.
Oh, and one of my swatches has come back from Vogue Knitting, with a nice letter saying, 'Thanks, but no thanks.' I'm not really surprised - I don't think anyone gets in first time. However, they still have the other swatch, so - who knows?? Watch this space....
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