Colours are like children. You learn, for example, never to leave young Cedric alone with little Jessica, because they won't play nicely unless maybe you've also got sweet Timmy there to provide a soothing influence on both of them. That greenish colour? It's the same in both photos, but in the nearer sample it looks almost blue. But things can turn unpredictable in a heartbeat. Dear Hieronymus and Maud are usually a delightful combination, but add Bob into the mix and - WHAM! - all three Continue Reading
Booked
There's something that I've been desperately excited to tell you about, and now - at long last - I can. Stylecraft Cotton Classique. Next year, Dover Press are publishing a very colourful new book about stranded knitting. And the author is, erm, me. You could possibly make a case that I'm biased on the matter, but I think it's going to be a cool book. With a respectful nod to traditional approaches such as Fair Isle, it'll strip stranded work back to its core principles and encourage Continue Reading
Florence
Florence. You've (possibly) visited the city, you've seen the photos, now knit the cushion! But more on that in a minute. Here in southern Britain, it's been raining since... well actually I can't remember when this wretched rain began. Last month? Last decade? The Pleistocene epoch? Who knows. The landscape is grey and soggy. Gazing out of the window is not an uplifting experience, unless you're inspired by sludge. Every time I go for a run, I'm not so much running as dancing, in Continue Reading
Nuts And Bolts
Hello! Do come and sit here beside the fire. I have much yarnery to share with you. (But the latest Stylecraft Blogstars weekend shenanigans should probably wait until next post.) Meanwhile in response to a dozen or so requests, I promised a post about how I went about designing this thing:- So here goes. I've written before (five years ago! Oh, for the youthful naivety of being 41!) about designing stranded motifs. But this 123 500 - stitch behemoth made its own rules. Just as I write Continue Reading
Frogging The Frog
The other morning, I picked up my knitting (nothing unusual in that), muttered some words that aren't repeatable here (not as rare as it should be), and frogged FOURTEEN THOUSAND stitches of stranded colourwork. (Youch.) I even frogged this little diving frog. (But forgot to photograph it first, so this is the reknitted version.) I tried to film the experience in a speeded-up, time-lapsy, sort of way, but technology was against me. So then I went off to do my tax return Continue Reading
Getting To The Bottom Of The Matter
Are we all here? Yes? Well good evening, and thank you for coming at such short notice. I just thought it would be a good idea to have a blog post updating you on various bits and pieces that I've mentioned recently. It's a pretty full agenda, so assuming you're all settled with your knitting or crochet, let's get going. First on the agenda is the naming of the spinning wheel. A big thank you to all 247 people who voted. And as per the outcome, may I proudly present Monsieur Algernon Spinburne, Continue Reading
Many Things
Occasionally, life flings me a hint that the knitting/crochet thing may be getting out of hand... but I do my best to ignore such clues, and get on with choosing which WIP I can work on whilst giving birth to any future children.* The other day brought one such hint. I took the twinnage to a children's theatre group,** and when we arrived, part of the floor was covered by those bright, interlocking, floppy mats that babies and toddlers can play on. They were a bit like these:- My children's Continue Reading
Keep On Hookin’
I’m still working on the crochet version of The Hiking Reindeer cowl. It’s slow, because slow is what tends to happen when you work 4-ply (US: fingering) black yarn in a gloomy room when your previously-stupendous eyesight has suddenly remembered that you're not young any more and has gone all blurry. When the cowl is done, I’ll post the pattern here... if I can still see well enough to find my computer. Meanwhile, do please have a seat. Yes, you may indeed sit on the chair, although you may Continue Reading
Knitting A Fiery Sky
Hello. There's a stretch of motorway that I drive often. If it's dusk and there's a half-decent sunset, the view is stunning, with sharp conifers and rolling hills silhouetted against the sky. Often, I see deer. I've long wanted to show you this view because I know you like colour, but stopping on a motorway to whip out my camera would be both illegal and stupid, so it hasn't been possible. But then something happened that meant I could at last show you... in knitting! Because look what Continue Reading
The Mandala Picture: A Free Knitting Pattern
Another free pattern? Really? Well, yes. Aeons ago, I designed and knitted this large piece of craziness:- I wanted to play with the idea of the mandala, subvert the medium a wee bit, so I knitted a picture of a mandala. The idea of writing up this monster as a pattern was then filed away in Volume XII of the Great To-Do List in the bottom left corner of my brain**, between ‘learn to speak Finnish’ and ‘organize my sock drawer’. But then a nudging comment on a recent post prompted me to Continue Reading