![photo[8]](https://inspirationknits.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/photo8.jpg?w=300&h=300)
Maltings: cowl for the Unravel KAL
I wanted to create something I’d love to wear to a show – pretty but practical. Cowls keep us warm on a cold morning, stay neatly out of the way when we’re petting yarn, and can be folded up into a pocket as the day warms up. Perfect.
I do love to collaborate with others in my work, whether that is with yarnies, bloggers, stores, other designers or other wonderful knitterly people. To start this year in style, I have been working with the lovely team at Unravel to cook up something special for this, my favourite, yarn show.
I’m thrilled to give you this early sneak peek of a special knitalong, commissioned by Unravel. It starts next Thursday, 28th January, and runs until the show closes on Sunday 21st February. The pattern will be free to download while the knitalong runs – keep your eyes peeled on the 28th! Continue reading
Choosing yarn colours from SweetGeorgia’s palette.
If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time you know that I’m pretty passionate about yarn. I get so excited about it that my design listings on Ravelry often suggestion three, four or even five different yarns that you can use to make the project. I like knitters to have options!
Which is why I’m excited to announce that I’ll be teaching a workshop at the upcoming Unravel festival on Substituting Yarn: Picking the right yarns for your projects. The aim of the workshop is to help you find the best match of yarn to the pattern you’re knitting, with a little bit of theory and plenty of examples, and help you build your confidence to be able to make these choices on your own.
One of the reasons I include so many yarn choices with my patterns is because there are so many yarns I want to try myself! Most have been swatched in a number of different yarns or combinations, depending on what I’m going for. What if the yarn is variegated or semi-solid? What do I want the finished fabric to be like? Does it need to drape or flow or have more structure? I love experimenting, and like most things in knitting there is never only one “right” answer.
Once I’ve swatched and am happy to move forward, the knitting begins – and not just on my own needles. I have a fantastic team of supporters who test knit for me, which allows me to see how the design looks or feels in an even wider variety of yarns.
Mini skeins for swatching and a shade card for Baa Ram Ewe’s Dovestone DK for a new pattern design.
And then there’s you, dear knitter.
No sooner is a pattern released I get asked about the suitability of a different yarn. Do I think it would work? Or you’ve got something in your stash that you’ve been wanting to use but it’s not the right weight of yarn. In fact, all of your questions were the inspiration for the Play sections in Knit Play Colour and formed the beginnings of this workshop. How would the design look in this yarn, or this yarn…or even in this yarn?
The Substituting Yarn workshop takes place on Sunday, 21st February from 10:30am to 12:30pm at the Unravel festival at Farnham Maltings. Click here to buy tickets. Workshop price includes a day ticket for entry to the show on Sunday. Bring your yarn and pattern combo questions, and I look forward to seeing you there!
Or should that be #yarnstashlove?
Loving the sheen on this Kettle Yarn Co. Beyul that I stalked for ages
If you’ve been following me on Instagram you may have seen me posting a lot more photos of yarn than usual since the beginning of the New Year. Who are we kidding? Let’s call it what it is: straight-up yarn porn.
As 2015 came to a close I found myself thinking about the year ahead without a large project such as The Book to keep me occupied. Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to working on a number of different new designs that I have in the queue but it’s the getting started on them that’s the problem. Its always SO easy to be distracted by a new and covetable yarn coming home to play.
These lucky members of the stash are all contenders for new designs and are wound up and ready for swatching
Actually – if I’m being honest – it’s not just new yarn that’s distracting, but the yarns in my stash as well. You’d be right in thinking that as a designer, as well as being a lover of fabulous yarns, that I have an excellent stash. I do! I LOVE my stash! I like to think of it as a jewellery box of colourful beauties just waiting to be knit up into something that shows off how spectacular they are.
On one of my forays into the stash before Christmas I was struck by the usual thought that I have this time of year, “oh, I really must get some of this knit up before I buy anything else, cold sheep for me, etc, etc”. The problem I have with these proclamations is that they feel negative to me. As if there’s something wrong or that it’s a dirty secret that I have this much stash, or any stash at all!
If there’s one thing I love, it’s jewel tones and my stash definitely has some beauties – like this skein of BFL and baby alpaca blend from Triskelion Yarn
But while I was digging through the stash (looking for the perfect yarn for a new design, of course!), I was also struck by how much I LOVE my stash. I still remember where I bought them, the trips where they were souvenir yarn, or the indie dyers they came from. They’re all wonderful!
The sad part for me though, is how easily a yarn can be forgotten when it’s not cast on right away and tucked into the stash. Out of sight, out of mind. Then I had an idea, and I’d like to challenge you all to join me as well.
I’m declaring 2016 the Year of Yarn Stash Love. I will endeavour, every day (or as close to it as I can), to post a photo to Instagram of something from my stash. It might be the stash itself or perhaps a WIP pic of how it is turning into something and I’d love for you to do the same.
Share your photos on Instagram with the hashtag #yarnstashlove (please tag me too and follow me to see mine!). Include a note about where it was from, or what made you buy it. Do you have specific plans for it or did you just buy it because you thought it was pretty? Maybe it was a gift from your BKFF or yarn that came to you after your grandmother passed and so is all the more special. Let’s celebrate those stunning skeins in our stashes this year. No guilt. No judgment.
Don’t confuse this with cold sheeping; this is about celebrating yarn. Photos of new additions are just as welcome! Impulse buy for which you have no plans (yet) but you couldn’t let it get away? That’s #yarnstashlove too.
Can’t wait to see your pics!
INSPIRATION KNITS 