It's done. The new cowl pattern is complete in all four of its seasonal connotations, and the pattern is HERE. Not that you're likely to wear a cowl all year round, but each of the above palettes has been inspired by a season, so that you can for example bring bold summer cheerfulness to your grey Monday in February as you run for the bus in the rain. I'm sure that those joyful pinks and purples will lift your mood as you watch the bus leave your stop when you're almost there, passing as it Continue Reading
Nearly There
So in this little journey through the four seasons via my new cowl design, I've finally alighted on spring. There's no daffodil-yellow in the Highland Heathers range as yet (hint hint, Stylecraft!) so I couldn't fully convey the blue-yellow-white palette of spring shades. Yeah, yeah, I need to weed this little patio that I built in the photo above. It'll happen soon. But still, I hope you get the hints of optimistic greenery and flowers against a background of endless grey rain and the Continue Reading
Weirdly Wintering In August
I've just completed winter. Not actual winter, since it's August and we're in the northern hemisphere, but the chilliest colourway of the four-season cowl design that I'll be publishing shortly. But as I said in my last post, this is a British winter, so discard any notions of sparkly white snow against a blue sky, and instead embrace the dank and soggy undertones of sludgy reality. They're quite pretty once you get used to them. The yarn is Stylecraft Highland Heathers DK. Next up on my Continue Reading
Colour Me Seasonal
Ah hello, my Fine Fibrous Friends. It's good to see you. Yes, you. A confession: I was worried. My previously unquenchable need to knit and to design went AWOL for a while. Seriously, you could have dumped me beside the most magical motifs that Mother Nature has to offer, and instead of thinking I CAN WORK THE INTRICACIES OF THIS SLIME MOULD INTO THE PATTERN FOR A STRANDED DRESS, I'd have shrugged and taken another sip of green tea... or wine, depending on the time of day. Also, I've been Continue Reading
Blogstars On The Beach: A New Pattern
Oh, hello summer. So that's where you were hiding, you sneaky blighter. It feels as though there was scarcely time to take off a cardigan or two between the l-o-n-g cold grey spring we suffered and the sudden onset of superheated summer. But wa-hey sunny weather, look at the isobars on you! And it's a good thing that the sunshine has finally pitched up, because we Stylecraft Blogstars are thinking about heading to the coast. Today sees the launch of Blogstars At The Beach, a celebration of Continue Reading
Redesigning
Hello, my Fine Fibrous Friends. Perhaps that should include my Fine Furry Friends, too:- Lately I've been working on a design for a Stylecraft Blogstars promotion that'll hit a yarn shop or a screen and perhaps even some knitting needles near you this summer. The knitted version is nearly done, and if possible, I'll create a crocheted version too. I'm not allowed to say much about the work in progress, so in the meantime please can we all just indulge my delusions of genius and assume that Continue Reading
Craft With Style(craft)
Hello again, my Fine Fibrous Friends. Speaking of fibrous, it's been a blissfully yarny time of late. For the first time since covid trampled on everyone's plans with all the malevolent energy of an overtired toddler, we've had a proper face-to-face meet-up of the Stylecraft Blogstars. Stylecraft did their utmost to keep things Zooming along during the pandemic, but... it wasn't the same. Absolutely not Stylecraft's fault at all. They did their very best. Stoopid covid. Anyway, the weekend Continue Reading
Babies!
Ah-ha, I realize now why Robyn-the-robin and I have a special bond. She figured it out way before I did. It seems that we have something in common. You see, we're both twin-mums. That would explain our shared under-eye baggage, at least. (Yes I know, other sources of chronic exhaustion are available. Parents - even twin parents - don't have a monopoly on tired, etc etc, etc.) But sometimes it feels good to hang out with a fellow mum-of-multiples. Look! Here are her babies! Twice this Continue Reading
Comfort Knitting
There's nothing like being halfway through a simple project to make me want to knit something complicated, and there's nothing like swearing my way through designing a complicated skirt to make me want to create something really simple. Here's the skirt in two different colourways. It's for the book, so I can't show you any more detail just now. I've been picking at the details of this stranded skirt design for so many weeks that I'm starting to see the world around me in terms of how best Continue Reading
New Crochet Pattern! Marrakech Lantern Bunting
Here at Twisted Towers, we like to help you prepare for all sorts of predicaments. Possibly, this urge is the result of my upbringing by the Twisted Seniors, who insisted that I master two life skills before my childhood could be considered complete. (They're forward-thinking people, my parents.) Specifically, my mother taught me to remove my bra whilst still wearing my top, and my father taught me to gargle the William Tell Overture. Yeah, there was also half-hearted reference to other Continue Reading