Shout Out to Designers

While I am hoping to help support small businesses the focus has been on indie dyers. However, there are knitwear designers out there who make a living on their creativity too. I know it will come as a shock to some but I am primarily a sock knitter. This year I was hoping to challenge myself to move beyond that and I still hope to do that. It’s just on hold for now. While I was making these plans I started collecting some patterns and I have come across a few favourite designers thanks to watching podcasts. I thought I would share some of the patterns I have bought recently. I apologise that the photographs above only give you a partial view of the pattern but these images aren’t mine. I thought the collage would give you a hint and you can follow the links to each pattern to better see it.

1. Waterscapes pullover by Katerina C. Rieckel. I came across this gorgeous jumper through instagram. The designer was offering it for free for people during our current social distancing. This offer is no longer available and she did ask that those who could pay did. Which I did. I thought it was a lovely offer and I can’t wait to knit this.

2. City Limits by Tanis Fibre Arts. I do like Tanis Fibre Arts. I’ve became a fan thanks to watching the Grocery Girls. I’m not sure if I cam across this pattern on the podcast (although they sisters have talked about it) or instagram. I love a fade pattern although have yet to knit one. This was free too for a while. I like the fact that it is reversible too.

3. Summer Long by Sosu. Another I came across on Instagram. I loved this cardigan because it looked so comfortable. I can picture wearing this while lounging around the flat. Perfect since I get to do that on my days off. It looks like something I could do as a beginner too.

4. Common Ground by Elizabeth Smith Knits. Yet another Instagram find. The designer posted a photo of her newly published pattern and I knew instantly I had to knit it in the future. A cardigan with a hood! It’s pretty too.

Of course I couldn’t leave out socks entirely. I have been trying to stick to mainly garments when buying patterns as I have so many sock knitting books. Easier said than done though.

1. Knit Like It’s 1999 by Tricot & Stitch. I don’t remember where I first saw this pattern. I have seen it so many times though being knitted up by fellow sock knitters and I felt left out. Such a pretty pattern and I love the fact that it is different for each foot.

2. Sweet & Tartan by Tracie Millar. These gorgeous socks were designed by Tracie of the Grocery Girls and I definitely came across it thanks to their podcast. I have been rather impatiently waiting for it to be published. I now have the yarn to knit them too which I will show off in next months yarn. I am intrigued by how the pattern will read as it uses slip stitches rather than colour work. Looking forward to it.

I am also taking part in another knit along. This will be my FIRST garment for myself. I can’t wait to try it. I will be posting more on that early next week.

I hope you are all safe and well and please feel free to share some of your favourite patterns from indie knitwear designers.

Three Pairs for Nurses!

I feel like I have been a knitting machine the last few weeks. Since I decided to put aside all projects and knit socks for my fellow nurses I have knitted up five pairs. Three of those have already found a new home. You have already seen the first two pairs I finished so thought I would show the latest. I decided to put them together in one post rather than one each as I imagine this could get boring very quickly.

So the third pair I finished were these. Like all of the socks I plan to knit just now it’s a basic pattern. The yarn is from my stash and was hand dyed by For the Love of Yarn. It’s a sparkle sock yarn although you can’t see that in the photo. The colourway is called camp fire and I honestly can’t tell you when I purchased it. I absolutely love it. The striping is very short so there is no pooling of the colour at all. Trust me, I was looking for it. This is the only pair from this lot that has been given away. The recipient was chuffed and is already an owner of some hand knit socks which she inherited from her gran. So she knows the work that went into them. She did have to explain to one of our consultants that I did not change the colour of the yarn every two stitches. I most definitely can’t take credit for all those lovely colours in there.

The second pair I finished knitting was these ones. As yet I haven’t decided who these are going to. Perhaps because I feel that these are a little more special. This was another yarn by For the Love of Yarn but is part of her cherub collection. This is called Comic Con and was hand dyed by her oldest son with money going to charity. I think in this case it was the Glasgow Children’s hospital. I am so very tempted to keep these for myself as both the name and the colours speak to me. I won’t though. I just need to find the right nurse to give them to. I think I might have an idea who that is. Oh, and again there was no colour pooling. Thank you Callum for the beautiful yarn!

These socks I actually finished today. Again by For the Love of Yarn but a little different from the others. Instead of Merino/nylon or stellina. It’s merino bamboo! It’s a beautiful yarn to knit with and I highly recommend it. The texture isn’t quite as smooth as the merino/nylon but this makes it perfect for socks to wear with boots because they are definitely more durable. If you are looking to knit a pair of hiking socks I would recommend this type of yarn base. I love the colours too. The colour is called Midnight Fun and I am sorry, again this was from deep in my stash with no clue as to when it joined it. Let’s just say the chances are it was waiting to long to be knitted up.

Here is all three skeins of yarn in their glory before I wound them. I always like to show them in their skeins as I do think they always look very different when wound or knitted up. The vast majority of my knitting stash is by For the Love of Yarn. However, the next three pairs will be knitted with yarn dyed by other dyers. Well two of them will be. If I go at the same rate you will be seeing those in another couple of weeks.

In the meantime I hope you are all staying home and staying safe. A huge shout out to all key workers out there. That includes those working in shops, Royal Mail, public transport and refuse. You are all appreciated.

Supporting Small Business

As an NHS worker I have been overwhelmed by the kindness of others. Last week received bread, chocolate and pizza. More importantly I also received lots of warm words and messages of support as have my colleagues. I hope that other key workers are receiving the same thanks as they put themselves out there. However, as I said to a friend recently, at the end of the day I will be paid regardless. I will still have a job when we come out through the tunnel. I understand that there are nurses out there who are literally living month to month but I as I don’t have a family to support I am not one of them. Instead, I worry about my friends who are running their own business. Who rely on income from these businesses to feed their families. So I urge you all to continue to support them if you can.

My plan is to support my friends and favourite small business through buying from one of them once a month. I know it is not essential to my needs which is why I am going to try to limit my ordering to once a month. This month is my favourite hand dyer Lisa of For the Love of Yarn. I have to admit I was planning this order anyway for other reasons. If you are a fellow Instagramer who follows various hand dyers you will have heard about operation SJW. Many dyers are submitting yarn under this and donating to various charities. Lisa took part in this as she and her son had been the recipient of some trolling recently. Her son dyed this yarn and it’s called Respect is for Everyone and is part of the anti bullying campaign RespectMe. Callum designed the yarn and came up with the name himself with all money going to SAMH. They have raised over £1000 already. I can’t wait to knit with this. Those colours!

This is another dyed by one of the cherubs. This time Isabella. It’s called Silver Slubby. If you remember to my last yarn haul post I had received the teal slubby and I was planning a pattern for it. All my pattern planning is on hold just now as I am knitting socks for my work colleagues. However, I will get back to it and I plan to use this yarn for the same pattern as the teal. I do love a semi-solid yarn colour and I think this will be perfect for the pattern I have planned.

I realised that I had used the last donegal base I had in my stash. Which is why I ordered this beautiful yarn. It’s called blush and I am loving the colours. I might keep this one for myself. It is my favourite base after all.

I hope that you are all staying safe. If you are struggling speak to someone. And please don’t feel you have to be productive while staying at home. It’s okay to stay in your jammies and watch rubbish on tv. I’ve had days like that too as I am sure everyone has. Yesterday I did very little. Today I’m feeling slightly more energised with banana bread in the oven and I’m about to wind some yarn. Take care of yourselves everyone.

Checking In

I just wanted to check in to see how everyone has been doing. I know a few are struggling with the isolation and the fear. I have been off work this week (planned not due to illness) and have struggled to do anything productive. The vast majority of my week has been rediscovering my Supernatural Sims game. Very little knitting got done and a whole lot of crap on tv got watched. I think there has been a lot of people feeling guilty over how unproductive they have been. There has been a lot of tweets today from various writers who have either said that they are just now feeling creative. Or have highlighted that it’s okay to spend your time processing things.

So yesterday I got my mojo back. I have been knitting away and my sister is back to doing her art as a distraction. While I have been trying to avoid the news and social media I haven’t always managed it. I love Instagram because me feed is filled with so many creative types and I have been watching them get back in their groove. Even before I could lose time looking at everyone’s knitting. It was also helped by joining a knit n natter via zoom. This was hosted by Michelle of The Loveliest Yarn Company. I didn’t say much as it was my first time using zoom. It takes a little getting used to. It was nice though and I would definitely take part again.

As for my own Instagram feed I am trying to keep it positive. I have been posting my own daily distractions. I plan to do that at least on my days off (back to work tomorrow). In the meantime I continue to knit socks and I have managed to get flour to bake banana bread for my team tomorrow. On that note I have finished another pair of socks for my nurse friends. I have no one in mind for this particular pair. I think it will be a case of who needs them the most. I am in love with this pair and it will be hard to part with them. I’m not normally a green person but I am in love with these colours and I am glad I stuck with a basic pattern in order to highlight them.

The yarn has been in my stash for quite some time. I pulled it out when I tidied out my yarn cupboard a month or two ago.  It’s by Mothy and the Squid and is part of her sky series. This one is called Forest Moon and the name couldn’t be any more perfect. The base is merino/nylon/stellina which makes the socks nice and sturdy and gives them that sparkle. You can’t really see it in the socks but the flecks in the image of the yarn is actually the sparkle. So pretty!

I hope you are all keeping safe and looking after your mental health. Remember it’s okay to just sit and watch crap tv in your pyjamas. We are all going to have days like that in the weeks ahead.

Change of Plans!

Most of you will probably know that I am a nurse working for the NHS. I always try to keep my social media and blog separate from what I do although it’s not always easy. Especially right now. There is a lot of fear in the community. Some of it is due to lots of wrong information out there and some of it is being caused by others who either are paying no attention to social distancing or restricting their shopping to what they need. As a nurse I fear for my patients and my family and friends. Not just their physical wellbeing but their mental too.

The problem with fear is that it escalates very quickly. I have seen it in social media and in person. It’s easy to give in to it. I know because I have felt it myself and have had to consciously tell myself not to give in to it. On that note I have decided that I want my blog to continue and to continue as a place of positivity. Instead of giving in to fear I want to be able to do something about it. Therefore I plan to use my craft skills to put a smile on someone’s face. That’s the hope anyway.

I will be postponing my 2020 challenge. In its place I will have a new challenge. That is to knit as many pairs of socks as I can. The reason being that I plan to give a pair to my colleagues when they need it most in the hopes that it will bring them a little light. I also plan to bake when I can and ensure that my team have good coffee and tea to keep them going (something I do anyway).

So this is pair number one. I happened to be talking about knitted socks with the person that these are for before I came up with this plan. She has had a tough week and I hope that these will help. They are knitted in a slip stitch pattern which I have used a few times already. Much like previous I have had to add a few extra rounds as again they came out shorter than I would expect. I usually know how many rounds to knit for length from years of knitting them. This is a pattern that I should really measure as I go instead. After having to unpick a toe and frog back for the second time I have learned my lesson. Worth it though.

I used this beautiful yarn from For the Love of Yarn. I love these colours. I did have this earmarked for myself as I both love the yarn base and the colourway but I have plenty. It’s Donegal nep which is my favourite base. It’s beautiful to knit with and has a tweedy effect. Beautiful in both solid and variegated colourways. If you are a sock knitter and haven’t knitted with this base you haven’t lived (in my humble opinion). I don’t mind admitting that I have ordered more.

So I challenge you fellow crafters. Look after your mental health as well as your physical. Create that something for yourself that you have always wanted to. If you have friends or loved ones that are struggling create something for them that will let them know they are in your thoughts.

With that I am off to wash my hands then make some cookies. Stay safe everyone.

Knotted Roses KAL

I follow Pink Girl Knits on Instagram. Recently she came out with a pattern for a beautiful hat called Knotted Roses. I couldn’t resist and used stash busting as an excuse to join in. It’s been a long time since I joined a KAL. I did finish it pretty quickly. Mainly because I loved how it was knitting up and couldn’t put it down. Bobbles are addictive! It’s very easy to get into and knits up fast. I did the medium sized beanie which is a perfect fit.

I wish the close up of the pattern gave justice to it. It’s so pretty and the twisted stitches really make those bobbles pop. If you are looking to knit this pattern yourself I highly recommend it.

I decided to use yarn from my stash. Mainly because I wanted to start it on time and it gave me an excuse to start up another knit as I could say that I was stash busting. I actually have very little in the way of DK in my stash. I was hoping that I would have a solid colour but as I didn’t I picked out this one from For the Love of Yarn. This came from one of Lisa’s yarn club boxes from 2015 and I had two skeins of this. The first was knitted up into a pair of socks and so now I have a matching hat. I love the striping effect on the hat and I have worn it to work already.

March Haul

I have purchased some sock yarn this month. I needed yarn for some of the patterns I am writing up and I had always planned that I would buy that now. What I didn’t plan was buying some yarn ‘just because’. Actually, it’s not entirely for selfish reasons. As all of you will know I am a huge fan of my talented friend Lisa of For the Love of Yarn. What you may not know is that I am also a HUGE fan of her three very talented children. Lisa’s children have always been creative and inquisitive about what she does and they are crafty themselves. One day they asked Lisa if they could try dying yarn and they love it. It’s a creative outlet where they get to pick colours, names and be part of the process. They also choose the charity the money goes to for any of the yarns that sell. Lisa makes no money from these and her children have always been keen to help out others. This goes back from before even her eldest was unwell. If you follow Lisa you will see that she is coming up with new colour ways herself and Callum (her eldest) has picked an anti-bullying charity Respect Me and a mental health charity SAMH to be the recipients of her upcoming colourways. For someone who has had so much going on in her life. So much has been taken from her I can only admire her strength and her passion on continuing to give to others.

Now to the yarn. The first is a sock yarn and the colourway is called Comic Con designed and named by Callum. I don’t know how he did it but he picked the perfect colours and name for me (being a self proclaimed geek). I had planned to knit up socks for myself but actually I think I might use it to knit socks for one of my nurse friends. The second is a slubby sock yarn. It was dyed teal by the youngest of the cherubs, Isabella. This is my favourite colour and so I couldn’t resist it. I have never tried knitting socks with this yarn before and I’m excited to try. I have plans for a lace design and will use a little of it to knit up a swatch. You can find more of these beautiful yarns under the cherubs collection in Lisa’s shop. Please remember that these children do this for fun and to raise money for charities that they have chosen. So even if you are unable to buy any of these yarns please at least remember this years motto ‘Be Kind’.

I have a collection of patterns that I hope to bring out at the end of this month although it may be April. It’s called my Birthday Diamonds collection. The first sock pattern I designed was for myself as a challenge and to cheer myself up. I always meant to publish it but things got in the way. I then did a pattern for my sister and I planned on creating one for my dad. My dad’s is still in my head and partially on paper although never been on the pins. He is quite fussy with the socks I knit him. He prefers dark colours and plain knitting. I did the plain black socks once and I swore never again. This time though I will give him the dark socks but there will be a pattern. Has to be otherwise there goes my collection. I chose a DK yarn for him and a charcoal colour which is as close to knitting with black as I like to get. The yarn is Roslyn by Cascade yarns which has a beautiful tweed effect. I think he will like it and I can’t wait to knit with it myself. I ordered two 100g balls of this because he has large feet but it also means I will have enough to knit up a swatch. Who knew I would become a swatcher.

For my socks and my sister’s I went with Heritage also by Cascade yarns. I picked out a cream for myself and a rose for my sister since she loves pink. I’m looking forward to knitting these up and finally sharing the patterns with you. My mum is missing from this collection. She passed away before I started trying out my own designs. While I won’t be designing a Birthday Diamonds pattern for her I do have something else planned to honour her. This possibly won’t happen until next year but I have a sock design planned out for her and once I publish it all money made from the sales of it will go directly to Cancer Research UK. This is a very important charity to me as they tried to give my mum a little more time through their trials. Sadly she was never fit enough to start but they wanted to help and their work is important. I’ve seen that since becoming an oncology nurse myself (I don’t work for Cancer Research so my choice is purely in honour of my mum). Any socks that I design in the future which are inspired by mum will go to this charity. As I said this won’t happen for quite a while but I wanted to highlight why my mum wouldn’t be included in the collection.