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reasons to be cheerful

Published by louise

This is the very last day I am going to languish with this cold (are you reading this, cold?!), so while I am sitting here with ear-ache and sinus pain – feeling like there is a steel bar through my head – I though I could cheer myself a little bit by sharing with you some exciting things I have seen that are starting this week!

The first pattern in Clare Devine’s Head to Toe collection, featuring the hand-dyed yarn from Ginger Twist Studio. The Montrose hat is lace beret, which has been knit in Splendor – a stunning, sumptuous merino-silk 4ply dyed by Jess James. There is a slouch version ans a fitted version, and there is a real vintage feel.

A contemporary slouch with a vintage feel Photo: Clare Devine (used with kind permission)

Clare will be launching a Montrose KAL in her group later today and if you are in or around Edinburgh there will be a workshop on the Montrose pattern at GTS on the 10th and 17th of August, from 11.30-1pm and there will be more details on the GTS blog later today.

KnitBritishers can get a 25% discount in the Head to Toe ebook – which normally costs £10 – until 13th July by using discount code KNITBRITISH25

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I spied on twitter this morning that Kirsty from Wharfedale Wool Works is extending her sign ups for her British sock yarn club til tomorrow. The Flora Sock Yarn Club costs £44.89 and from July to September you will receive 3 x 110g of British BFL sock yarn, dyed by Kirsty; you can also choose from variegated or semi solid. Kirsty is a big fan of using British wool and the wool for this club is sourced just a few miles from her home in Yorkshire.

If you think your stash needs some summery sock yarns then join up in her etsy shop before tomorrow!

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I was delighted to see that West Yorkshire Spinners have brought out some new colours in their Aire Valley DK. They have chosen some of the most popular colours from their spice and sweet Signature ranges and don’t they look beautiful?

The yarn is 75% British wool and 25% Nylon – there is 230m per 100g ball and at £4,75 the yarn is fantastic value. WYS also have a new pattern book called Quintessential DK, should you need inspiration. You might want to buy some for a Lush KAL that I discussed on the podcast, which casts on on the 20th July for 8 weeks. Another post and a rav group sign up thread coming very soon.

Right, I think I might do what the Blockheads say and “get back into bed” – but more soon!

episode 8.5: collaborations

Published by louise

UPDATE: Due to space I can no longer host the audio files on the blog, please use your favourite podcatcher, or right click the podgen link to open the podcast episode in a new window: Podgen

Preview on Spotify

Welcome to a special extra episode of KnitBritish

You might be surprised – as was I – given that when I went along to meet Jess James, Ginger Twist Studio owner and dyer, and designer Clare Devine I had no idea what they were going to tell me, or that it warranted a super special unscheduled episode!

Listen in for the exciting news and for a special gift for KnitBritish listeners from them to celebrate. Check out the Ravelry page for Head to Toe and you lucky KnitBritish listeners can use KnitBritish25 discount code!

Music: Fortune by Great Big Sea – via musicalley.com

: : Sneaky Peek Head to Toe Pics : :

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: : More collaborating : :

I have some news of an upcoming KAL. Shiny Bee’s Jo, Knit Spin Cake’s Aimee, Caithness Craft Collective’s Louise and I are co-hosting a Lush-along! We are currently ironing out the details, but cast on will be 20th July – So get your Tin Can Knit Lush pattern and choose your wool now – it’ll be roughly 8 weeks and there will be a wee prize. We will also hope to be going on blog and podcast safari (Jo’s fab description) during the KAL and sharing our progress. I don’t think there has been a shared podcaster knitalong before, but seeing as we are always telling our listeners to listen to each others podcasts and that some of our audiences are shared, we think it’ll be a good, fun KAL!

More details will follow, but if you are interested then drop a comment here with your rav name and I will earburn you when we have news. Definitely watch this space!

Look at this, not even a regular show notes page…not your usual podcast! I will be back with episode 9 in the regular date spot with all the things I was promising you two podcasts ago!

Glasgow: #girlsgowildforwoolontour

Published by louise

Last Saturday – while many were heading to Cockermouth for Woolfest – I was boarding a train to Glasgow with lovely lass & wonderfully talented designer, Clare Devine and the equally lovely Siobha. Not content with this happy, excited bunch we picked up Shiny Bees’ Jo Milmine at Haymarket and we knit and excitedly chattered as we choo-chooed to Glasgow. It was the first time I met Jo and she is just as warm and funny as I suspected she would be, with a healthy dose of sensible too (as would become apparent when she successful in de-enabling unnecessary yarn buying!)

After an amount of comparing kids to cats (have a cat, not a kid!) we arrived in Glasgow and met Karie Westermann, our delightful tour guide for the day and enabled our path to cake and wool!

First hit was The Queen of Purls, located in the Saltmarket. I gave QOP a wool shop shout out in episode 8 of the podcast and I am pleased to report the welcome was just as warm on the return.

The yarn fumes got a little much for Clare, she was almost overcome by a hank of Corriedale roving and a neon skein, but settled on some Eucalan (although we almost had to take it away from her later!) and some Drops cotton/linen.

When the need for cake began to overtake the fumes we repaired to Once Upon a Tart, King Street, for a sugar fix, a knit and a good old chinwag.

Apart from the knit nights our library runs during the winter months, I don’t have a regular knit with pals, so this was fantastic. There were lots of ideas, inspiration and future plans bouncing about the table.

Karie had an afternoon with spreadsheets ahead, so departed but the rest of us began to need the yarn again and hopped on the subway to go to The Yarn Cake. Clare got a little drunk on her new Eucalan during the journey!

There was a street festival on Queen Margaret Drive, so making our way past owls (yes, owls. No pics, it cost £2) and great handicraft stalls we arrived at The Yarn Cake to see a grateful audience watching a spinning demonstration! As always, there was a fantastic selection of sweet eats and, although I am not sure how we managed it, we ate again!
It never fails to surprise me how much wool can be fit into the small, but perfectly formed shop – there is Drops, New Lanark Aran, Jamieson & Smith, Malabrigo, Abstract Cat and plenty of needles and notions.

Sunglasses on, we were off again and before heading back to Edinburgh we had a cool drink and a little knit in the Hillhead Book Club, a favourite pub of mine.

There was a lot of chatter on the way back as to where the next tour could go, New Lanark, Dundee, maybe Newscastle and a trip to Seaham to Harbour Yarns? Watch this space.

Saturday was a lovely day, with really great company and I look forward to the next tour! Thank you, lovely ladies!

secret city knitting place in Edinburgh

Published by louise

There is a little secluded place in Edinburgh that I have always liked to go – to walk, to sit and knit and to take stock.
I will tell you, but don’t run and tell everyone, or it won’t be secluded any more!

Dunbar’s Close Gardens, squirrelled away down the Canongate, is a Burghal garden, created by Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) and kept by City of Edinburgh Council.

The garden – standing on the site of an oyster cellar, once upon a time – was given a face lift in the late 70s to look fittingly like a how a 17th c close garden would’ve been landscaped.

I love that it’s so secret, many locals have never heard of it, though will have probably walked passed it many times.
Most times I have visited I have been lucky to have the place to myself. It’s just a little gem of Edinburgh off the tourist track.

If you do drop in for a spot of city seclusion also pop into the Canongate Kirkyard and seek out some of the famous inhabitants, such as Adam Smith, Robert Fergusson and Davis Rizzio, the lover of Mary, Queen of Scots!
There are great views too.

episode 8 and all of the woolly people are so so lovely

Published by louise

UPDATE: Due to space I can no longer host the audio files on the blog, please use your favourite podcatcher, or right click the podgen link to open the podcast episode in a new window: Podgen

Yes, this month’s podcast is a little early, but my holiday falls on the broadcast day!

In this episode there is not the yarn reviews I promised last time – given time restraints in bringing the podcast forward – or any cast off/cast ons, but I am bringing you lovely content, if I do say so myself!

(Apologies for rough-around-edges editing – I edited for coughs, but only lightly edited for “umms”)

This episode will be available on iTunes soon

WoolFest is next Friday & Saturday (27-28th) and if you haven’t been before I have a tip or two for you.

If you are at Woolfest, you’ll be lucky to see a whole host of stalls, but seek out Yarn Garden for their new British base yarns in Teeswater and BFL – listen to my interview with George. The Teesdale yarns – Teeswater fingerling lace100g and BFL 4ply 100g cost £20 each and will wow Woolfest (meterage tbc). Do check out their website for more astonishing colours and lovely yarns.

News: Fellow podcaster and British wool lover KnitSpinCake is opening a wool shop!

Wool Shop Shout Out: The Queen of Purls, 91 Saltmarket, Glasgow.

Woolly people are so so lovely

Winner of the Artesano Blue Face Blend is announced and the random generator selected Charly, well done!#

The music is Djangoarias by John Gilliat and you can find it at musicalley.com

Delightful Teeswater from Yarn Garden. but click on pic for more from their shop!)

: Jamiesons, Garthenor, Drops, drops and more drops

: The Queen of Purls and all the squishy yarn

The Podcat is back this time too, but was too lazy to be helpful

On your marks, get set, crawl!

Published by louise

Just a reminder that tomorrow is Edinburgh’s first ever yarn crawl, have you got your yarn passports?

The crawl was organised by Jess from Ginger Twist Studios, Kathy from Kathy’s Knits and Mei from Be Inspired Fibres and it is so exciting that it is the first of its kind in Edinburgh.

Get your Yarn Passport from the participating wool shops and get it validated at each shop on your journey through the city. There is a secret selection or goodies and discounts available at each shop for all participants, just flash your yarn passport. Do you accept the challenge?

I guarantee that you will have a fantastic time in these shops and meeting these lovely ladies and to top it all off there will be a designer in residence at the crawl! Susan Crawford will be at GTS with her fantastic new yarn Fenella (I have my hands on some lovely skeins and will be shouting about it on KnitBritish soon) and Susan will be signing books too.

There is even an after crawl party at the Safari Lounge, Cadzow Place, where you can win the Indie burgh raffle!

I will be with you lot in spirit and can’t wait to see what you all buy! Have a fantastic day out.

kept in the loop

Published by louise

I was really pleased to hear this week that there will be another In The Loop conference next year. I attended INL 3.5 last year in Shetland and it was hugely enjoyable and immensely inspirational.

For those of you who are not aware of In The Loop then you also may be unaware of the Knitting Reference Library at the University of Southhampton, who organise the conferences. The events offer an opportunity to look at knitting and crochet from a wide amount of approaches and many of the speakers – artists, knitters, academics, designers, etc – have conduted their research using the amazing collections at the Knitting Reference Library.

Deryn Relph at INL3.5, Shetland Museum and Archives.

The library’s catalogue includes the published collections of Richard Rutt, Montse Stanley and Jane Waller – which take the form of books, exhibition catalogues, knitting patterns, journals and magazines – as well as knitted items. The library also holds copies of contemporary knitting pattern books, designs and stich dicitonaries.

The earliest items in the collection are from the 1840s and comprise of Victorian knitting manuals from the collection of Richard Rutt. These are available to view online and I must admit I can fall into a bit of a hole looking at them. If you haven’t seen them before, do have a look at them; in particular Jane Gaugain’s Lady’s Assistant and other knitting manuals. Mrs Jane Gaugain was an Edinburgh knitter, who owned a haberdashery on George Street. She was writing and working at a time where knitting was beginning to move away from necessity for income, to something one did for pleasure. Kate Davies wrote a brilliant essay on her for Twist Collective and you should read to find out more about this fascinating knit pioneer.

Instructions in the knitting manuals can range from the very simple, written out in sentence form, while in later manuals patterns take more of a familiar shape – I urge you to have a wee look if you are interested at all in knitting history. My favourite thing about these books are not really the patterns, but the prefaces and the ideas surrounding knitting and textile work of the time.

Untitled

In The Loop 4 is proposed for August 2o15 in Glasgow and you can be sure I will be eager to attend! Do sign up for the Knitting Reference Library mailing list to keep yourselves in the loop.

episode 7: twitterpation

Published by louise

This episode should be subtitled,” ….but I digress!”

UPDATE: Due to space I can no longer host the audio files on the blog, please use your favourite podcatcher, or right click the podgen link to open the podcast episode in a new window: Podgen

Welcome along on episode 7 of the Knit British podcast.

You can also listen on iTunes!

What does the Shetland knitting term rissie geng mean? Are there any knitting terms that have regional/dialect variations where you live? I’d love to hear them and we can have a regular feature

Yarn give away: Sadly Artesano have discontinued the British range. I have 2 skeins of British Blue faced blend, in Beryl, to give away. Leave a comment on this post telling me which discontinued yarn you miss and I will announce the winner next episode.

Highland Wool Festival: where I met Louise from Caithness Craft Podcast and Helen from Ripplescrafts. I also shopped with the Shilasdair stand, Sky Blue Pink Designs and I chatted with Louise & George from Yarn Garden!

Cast on/Cast off – Lush cardigan by TinCanKnits in Brigantia – Maile Cardigan by Nikki Van Der Carr in Blacker Swan Falkland Merino (and why that is British to me) and Vivid Squares by TinCanKnits in WYS Aire Valley

Yarn Review: Oosie by Skein Queen Scottish Down Cross base hand dyed by Debbie Orr. A great Great British yarn! check out Skein Queen website and sign up to shop updates.