I have moved

As of March 2012, this blog has moved to a new home on the web:
www.audreysteashop.co.uk
It's still a bit of a work in progress, but please come on over and take a look!

Jitterbug Boogie

Picture above copyright Knit Now Magazine

We like to boogie...here it is then, design number two for February: Jitterbug Boogie. The pattern appears in this month's issue of
Knit Now, having been chosen for the 'Designer Challenge' feature using Araucania Botany Lace.

Inspiration comes from all sorts of places and this one's heritage was a proper mish-mash. It started with some Colinette Jitterbug that I had in my stash. Now I love the idea of sock yarn- with all those gorgeous colours, that section of a yarn shop is always like the sweetie counter- but I just can't get on with knitting larger things in that weight and have chronic 'second sock syndrome' which means I've never really got on with them. In part because of this situation, I was quite attracted to the viral knitting phenomenon of
The Beekeepers Quilt, presenting as it does a chance to use up pretty lighter weight yarn. Beekeeping introduced me to knitting tubes that are joined at either end (by using Judy's Magic Cast On or similar) and then a slightly random Twitter conversation about dyeing hair pink got me thinking about cartoony, rockabilly hair and the possibilities of knitting around a hairband...and Jitterbug Boogie was born.

A small amount of sock yarn, along with a store-bought hairband and some stuffing means you can knock out a hairband in an evening, and once I'd made one, I wanted to try a larger-bow version. This time I tried a different yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze held double, which, with its fuzzy halo gave even more of a retro effect. I think you could have a lot of fun messing with the basic concept like this- use different yarns, add buttons or bits of netting to go for more of a cocktail hat effect or do full on matching by choosing a colour that's the same as your shoes, bag or gloves.

UPDATE 17th February: Okay people, seems between my dubious web abilities and the limitations of this format, my first giveaway was a bit of a non-starter. I'll run it again another time if I can sort out the technical problems.

Marvellous Mittens

Introducing my new mitten pattern- Treacle Toffee. Of the two designs I have out this month this one is a bit special. By this I'm not being self-congratulatory about the idea- they're relatively simple mittens in toddler, child and medium adult size with a thumb gusset and a stitch pattern found on a vintage pattern leaflet. It's not even because the Maya DK from Eden Cottage Yarns I used for these samples was heavenly. No, the reason they're special is down to what they're part of.

We're incredibly fortunate in that we have two lovely young children who've so far rarely given us cause to worry, healthwise. However, we are ever aware of how lucky we are in this, knowing as we do parents whose children have been suddenly and seriously ill, or whose problems have meant their little lives so far have seen far too much of hospital wards.

Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity raises money to help individuals and organisations that care for very sick children, aiming to provide quality of life no matter how ill they are. Definitely a pretty marvellous idea, which is why it's great that Knit Now has begun a campaign to raise money for the charity by asking designers to donate mitten patterns which are then published and sold for a minimum donation.

Treacle Toffee is the second design to be released as part of the Knit Now Marvellous Mittens campaign. The first was Patricia Clift Martin's beautiful Flapjack Mitts, which is still available, along with my pattern, by donating at JustGiving.com. It's worth knowing that if you buy the pattern you have the right not only to make them for yourself or as a gift, but you can also make them to sell for charity- either this one or another of your choice. Warm fingers and a warm glow of doing good, what more could you ask in the cold of February?

Starting Sheep Heid

Not for a moment would I complain about the huge good fortune that has meant me spending most of the last few months designing, knitting and writing up patterns for my own designs. As I've said here before, it's a very exciting new aspect to my knitterly life. However, now that things are just a bit quieter on that front, it's been wonderful to have a go at knitting someone else's patterns for a change.
The someone else is the humblingly fantastic Kate Davies, who inspires not only with her designs and her writing, but her whole approach to life and the particular challenges it throws at her.
One of her recent designs is Sheep Heid, a fairisle Tam which uses 9 natural sheep shades of Shetland wool to depict...sheep! It's not my first time doing fairisle as you can see, but it is my first time using proper Shetland yarn and I'm also using the opportunity to teach myself to hold one colour in each hand and 'pick' as well as 'throw' the yarn doing colour work. Considering how much colourwork I've done on other projects, it's about blooming time I did this.I've already found that I can get a decent speed up doing it, not to mention the time saved with not having to stop and unravel every row or two.
It's certainly a different feeling, having to follow a pattern rather than worry about whether I'm writing up instructions properly. This, in addition to not having a fixed time when I need it finished, has made the project quite a relaxed one so far. However, it's not been plain sailing. My initial crazy enthusiasm to get going, coupled with a fair few sessions when I should have realised I was too tired to attempt chart following, has meant rather a lot of ripping back. A couple of times the mistakes were so small that I could maybe have left them...but I knew I couldn't live with them so back I went. I guess having knit almost twice as many rounds as I've kept has all been good practise for my colourwork tensioning and that yarn-in-each-hand method. I'm actually a little further on than this picture shows, but haven't had either the time or the light to get any more recent ones. For those who know this pattern, I'm halfway up the ewes!

Summer Swatches

After the flurry of activity to meet my end of January deadlines, it's been pleasing to have a bit of a change of knitting pace. I've been able to make a start on knitting something from someone else's pattern for a change- more on that another day- and get swatches done for summer edition submissions.
I find the concept of summer knits tricky- for me it's a bit like when you try to cook vegetarian food by finding meat 'substitutes' instead of concentrating on what is intrinsically valuable in the ingredients you are using. To me, knitting is about wool and warmth and winter, even if I knit all year round. But whatever I might think, magazines keep coming out and other people who keep knitting in the summer months don't all want to stick to stocking up on woolies for the upcoming winter. I've therefore been embracing the possibilities of cotton and bamboo.
Okay, so I've been mostly embracing cotton and bamboo. The acorn motif swatch shown is, admittedly, wool. There's a legitimate reason for this, which will become apparent if one way or another the pattern comes to fruition. The seashore colour mix yarn, however, is Patons Mirage DK, a cotton/bamboo blend, while the bright colours at the top are Patons 100% Cotton DK. Now I'm not much of a fan of knitting with cotton, as I often find it stiff and/or splitty, but I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised by knitting these swatches, as I've enjoyed working with the yarns much more than I expected.
I've also, thankfully, found myself falling in love with the designs I'm working on for my proposals. It must be something to do with their being all about being outdoors enjoying the warm weather, while at the moment outdoors is a bit less hospitable. This falling in love is fortunate, as in my limited experience of successful submissions, it seems to be a vital element for success. It's as if a lack of commitment and joy in a design somehow shows through in the sketches and swatches, in the same way someone desperate to be in a relationship is somehow very unattractive.
Sketching, scanning and putting together of proposals is on the list for this weekend, then it's out of my hands- which by then will be on to other things...

Lost and Found

Today I lost a mitten. Not just any mitten, though. These were the
Ysolda Snapdragon mittens that very nearly defeated me. Several years ago, when I began them, I found the combination of knitting in the round and cabling so fiendish that after several attempts with the chart, then the written instructions, then both at the same time, I was ready to give up. In the end I struggled on and then, a year later (!) had the mental strength to struggle through the second one.
This morning I must have dropped one after I scraped the ice off the windscreen. I had that funny 'something's wrong' niggling, but was in too much of a hurry to stop and look if I'd dropped anything, so I didn't realise until I was at work. Turned out that the niggle was right. Boo!
Thankfully I didn't have enough time to grieve the loss of my handiwork before I was back at home and found the missing Snapdragon draped over the fence. You'll have seen these sad but hopeful little tributes to good citizenship before I'm sure, but in this case lost item and owner were reunited.
All's well that ends well and all that. But this, along with a conversation about C's need for new socks the other day has got me thinking about how our relationship with handmade items must have altered over the years.
When C was talking about needing new socks, I reflected that there must have been a time when, if you weren't in the income bracket that allowed you to buy socks knitted by someone else, the mother in a family (and quite possibly anyone else who could handle needles) would have had to have been knitting socks more or less constantly to keep a family's feet warm. Either that or making other garments, or mending them. With fewer clothes per person, and with time and labour needed to replace or repair them, people must have known their clothes better and forced to value and care for them more than we do.
That said, while our age is one of 'throwaway fashion', where dubious ethics in manufacturing and cheap synthetic fabrics allow us to spin through the buy/wear/bin cycle with alarming speed, handmade has retained or perhaps regained its value. With ideas of hippies crocheting waistcoats out of hemp or grannies knitting hideous acrylic Christmas jumpers now recognised by many as outdated and inaccurate ways to view handcraft, the quality, integrity and individuality of items made by hand is now valued by a growing number of people.
Time is an increasingly precious and rare resource in this world, so the time that's taken to make something by hand is part of what gives it this value. In addition, where once skills such as knitting, sewing, darning and so on would have been as normal for someone looking after a family as being able to switch on a washing machine is now, these days they are a rarer trick and that rarity gives more value.
While we may have lost a more widespread knowledge of these handcrafts, it appears to me that increasingly we are finding (or re-finding) our appreciation of them. Hurrah!

Progress

There comes a point, maybe when you see your name in a magazine you've been able to buy in your local supermarket. Maybe when you get your first cheque through for a published pattern. Maybe when you find yourself being told to 'drop an email' to someone for yarn support, someone whose enough of a knitting 'name' that you bought a stitch dictionary edited by them the previous week. Anyway, at some point you realise that the game has changed.
Anyone who does anything creative daydreams about making it their living- digging the escape tunnel from the daily grind so that one day they can drop through the trapdoor and exist in a world with fewer alarm clocks and pairs of work trousers and more cups of tea and beautiful views from that studio you'll need, of course. Depending on who you are and what you do, these might range from out and out fantasy to hard and fast plans. It's funny though, despite my love of knitting, I'd never thought I'd ever make anything from designing- owning a yarn shop was my favourite daydream, as even in the realm of make-believe I was too aware of not having the design background I felt sure was needed for writing patterns.
I imagine I'm among quite a number of newbie designers who have Ravelry to thank for getting them to venture, or in my case, pretty much stumble, into the world of pattern writing. The chance to post your pattern for free or for sale is a lot less daunting than the prospect of sending off a proposal to a magazine, all the while imagining them howling with laughter at your rank amateurism. Of course, toe dipped, and even with the sort of mediocre response my ideas got, confidence grows, a new magazine's call for submissions caught my eye, what I assumed would be a one off turned into a series of commission and suddenly I was looking at my hobby in a whole new way.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not preparing to give up my day job, especially since it took a year of tears and struggle to get one. At this moment, I'm quite happy if I've found a way to pay for my yarn habit, not to mention the fact that it's added a whole new dimension to my relationship with knitting.
It's a relationship that keeps me on my toes of course. There's the sinking feeling and subsequent sorting out if you discover an error, or worse still have it pointed out by a knitter keen to get on with making your design. There's the self-doubt about whether you've got any ideas, or whether any of your ideas are good enough, when you look at the latest moodboards of a call for submissions. There's the waiting for a response when the deadline passes. There's the pressure to get a sample and pattern complete when you're up against a deadline (or in my case this month, four samples and patterns, which is why this space has been neglected lately).
But for all that, you'll hear absolutely no complaints from me about this new phase in my knitting life. The buzz of getting a 'yes' via email? Fantastic. Justifiably saying 'I have to knit?'That's hardly a chore. Getting gorgeous yarn sent to me for free? Wonderful- I've been up to my ears in projects for the last four months and hardly bought any yarn at all. The deep satisfaction of the journey from idea to submission to making and writing? Love it. The thrill of seeing my name in print and getting nice comments about my design on Ravelry? Yes please! Getting money I can justifiably spend on knitterly things? Well, it's no bad thing really, is it?
Progress is definitely being made in my knitting life at the moment. Thankfully, that includes progress on those projects with a deadline, but also in other ventures, all of which I hope to share news of very soon. Knit on, my friends!

If it's good enough for sheep...

Wool. If it's good enough to keep sheep warm in the fells, then it should be good enough to keep me and mine warm up there too, right? On a recent quest to find enough daylight to take reasonable photographs of projects and blow the holiday cobwebs away, we found ourselves in a favourite spot- Blea Tarn, on the Wrynose Pass near the Langdales. The wind was blowing a hoolie, as it has been on and off for what seems like weeks now, and up there it was strong enough to knock a certain small boy off his feet- luckily he found it hilarious.
We had a blustery, slightly shortened walk and managed to get a few nice shots and I also took the opportunity to test out Kate Davies' exhortations to wear wool as an alternative to the usual synthetic fleeces to keep the chill out here. Her daily walks take place in Scotland, for goodness sake, so if she maintains that woollen layers are an effective way to keep warm then I believe her.
You don't just have to listen to one of my admittedly favourite designers though. A project a few years ago proved that the clothing worn by early Everest explorers, which had a strong wool element, was in many ways as effective as the 'smart' fabrics of today. You can read more here. The rising popularity among outdoor clothing companies of merino for base layers also demonstrates the recognition that nature is pretty good at creating her own 'smart' materials.
So, on a normal walking day you might have found me wearing a handknit hat, scarf and gloves at most. This time I added a pair handknit wool socks over my normal socks, a merino base layer with a cotton long sleeve t-shirt and a handknit sleeveless vest over that (my 1st-prize-at-Great-Eccleston-Show-winning Fyne Vest to be precise!), knitted wool mittens and a wool beret. Everything else was synthetic fabrics, which probably put me at about 50/50 wool to synthetics.
Without any fleece involved, it felt a lot less bulky than normal. As I didn't exert myself very much I can't comment on the breathability, but I didn't feel the need to strip off so many layers when we retired to a cafe in Ambleside for cake afterwards. As for being warm, well, the wind blew fierce and the wind blew wild, but I was just fine, and I'm a cold bones sort.
It's made me realise that despite all the knitting I do, I don't actually have that many woolly things I can wear for this sort of thing. Whether through knitting or shopping, it's something I intend to rectify this year.

New Year Blues (and Purples)

Fear not! This isn't going to be a melancholy reflection on the passing of time or the adversities we've faced this year. Matter of fact, I'm feeling incredibly positive about all that 2012 could bring, not least with all the creative opportunities already on the horizon. This makes me especially grateful to the lovely friend who gave me this Nicky McClure Journal- and sent me a text to say yes I blooming well should write in it, however beautiful the illustrations in it are. So I took a deep breath and made my first jotting in the Make section- there are also sections entitled Plan, Wish, Dream, Build, Explore, Learn, Grow, Give and Find. I feel determined to live up to them all.



True to form, my hands haven't been idle over the Christmas break. I've been revelling in the beautiful deep blue, pink and purple tones of some Bowland DK by Eden Cottage Yarns. I can't say much more about the project as it's another design destined for publication (yay!) but I can say that it was the colour that originally inspired me, and that it continues to do so.



Finally, onto the big blue. My folks just went on a big trip to South America and because they are fabulous to their yarn-obsessed daughter, they found room in their suitcase to bring back this bundle of bright blue yarn from Uraguay. There's 250g of thick and thin, bulky weight pure wool here, which has to make it one of the best holiday presents around. I haven't worked out what I'll make with it yet- all suggestions gratefully recieved. For one reason and another I'm not really into the idea of a scarf or hat, so I'm wondering about maybe some sort of shrug or vest. Ah, shucks, an excuse to wander along the by-ways of Ravlery, what a hardship!
Wishing you all a Happy New Year- here's to a creative and prosperous times ahead.

Sparkle and Shine

Hmm. Now I recently promised that this blog would be more knit-focussed. But then, I also said (to myself) that this year I wouldn't be doing Christmas knitting as I didn't have enough time and didn't want to spend the run-up frantically trying to finish projects. Read on and you'll see that a lady (ahem!) is allowed to change her mind. Be assured though, that this non-woolly diversion is a blip and that I'll be back to all things yarny soon. Fact is, I am inordinately proud of my Christmas cake and I wanted to share it here, although also slightly worried that I may have overdone 'feeding' it with sherry for the past month- it could well have quite a kick!


While I promised myself no Christmas knitting, I did persuade myself that making tutus as suggested in Oliver + S's Little Things To Sew would be a good way to take care of the half dozen little girls we need to give Christmas presents to. It was...sort of. Suffice to say, wrestling one bundle of tulle into a tutu is bearable, wrestling six is a bit more trying. Once finished and viewed with fresh eyes after a much needed night's sleep, they do have a certain seasonal magic, and I'm hoping the recipients will have lots of whirly, dancing fun in them.


And the Christmas knitting? Well, one is still a WIP- sigh!- for a little girl whom I think is a bit too small appreciate a tutu just yet. The other, shown above, is as much an indulgence for me as for my little M. I persuaded myself to buy the velvet dress by identifying at least three occasions in the coming weeks when she can wear it, and once bought it was just crying out for the sort of little fluffy white cardigan I remember from my own childhood party outfits. It's another Tiny Tealeaves, made slightly shorter and with just one button to suit the A-line of the dress. The yarn is King Cole Galaxy DK in Saturn which was on at a reduced price at Deramores. This is an acrylic wool mix with sequins that are very pretty, if slightly irritating to knit with (I like my yarn smooth). It's very soft and has a enough of a halo to give it that luxurious look. Surprisingly, when knitted up the sequins don't feel scratchy, which is a bonus despite the fact that M won't be wearing this against her skin.
With an alarming list of Christmas baking, shopping and wrapping to do, not to mention that last-minute bit of knitting, this will probably be the last of me until the other side of the festive weekend. So until then, may your holiday be full of sparkle and shine, and all your yuletide knitting be completed on time. Happy Christmas!

Make Do and Mend for Woolsack

Photograph from Knit Now magazine

UPDATED: Jan 17th Yikes! In my hurry to get this ready for Woolsack I managed to include a number of howlers in the pdf. The link below now should take you to a (hopefully) more correct version. Sorry to anyone who's been struggling with the previous version.

You may not think that there's much about the London 2012 Games that's going to have anything to do with knitters. This may be because you haven't heard of Woolsack,which has been granted the Inspire mark and is part of the Cultural Olympiad.

The aim of the project is to encourage people- from schools and colleges, community and craft groups, smallholders and farmers, British Wool yarn producers, spinners, dyers and individuals to help to make cushions using British wool, which will then be given as welcome gifts from the people of Britain to the visiting Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

It is hoped that making the cushions will help people gain craft skills and also to learn about the production of British Wool, on which the British economy and early industry were originally founded. In this way a wide range of people can be inspired by the 2012 Games, even if not everyone is able to participate directly in sports and athletics.

The cushions are all to be 40cm square, made from British wool yarn and be suitable for stuffing with more pure British sheep's wool before being sewn up- the latter part of this process will happen at 'stuffing events' which participants can either attend or send their cushions to be completed at. Special labels will be attached, along with any personal messages from the makers. The completed cushions will then be offered to the athletes, with any that are left over being donated to charities.

It's a fascinating project that can only raise the profile of the British wool industry, so I was really happy to be asked to help out by modifying my Make Do and Mend pattern so that it will work as a Woolsack cushion. It's available as a PDF for those wishing to contribute to the project, while further details and links to other pattern1s can be found at www.woolsack.org. UPDATE: 1st May 2012. This pattern is no longer available as a free download, but will shortly be available for sale as a full version in my Ravelry Shop.

PS Just to say that the original version of the pattern was published in Knit Now and the rights remain with them at the moment. They've given permission for me to reproduce it in this form to support the Woolsack project, so please only download the pattern if that's what you want to use it for. If you're keen to make one for another purpose, back issues of the magazine are available through Practical Publishing and after the Spring deadline for Woolsack, I'll be making the original version of the pattern available through Ravelry. Thanks!

Colour Pop Snood

So here it is, my second pattern to make it into print! Appearing in Issue 3 of Knit Now magazine- out later this week, and with previews on Ravelry here, this is the Colour Pop Snood.
While the design turns out to be totally on the button for the grim weather we're having just now, the inspiration for it came way back in those far off days of summer. I spent a few days down in London and found splashes of vivid colour amongst the city greys, which I wrote about here. I knew that I'd appreciate the energy and warming effect of a 'pop' of colour when the grey skies descended. This was the result.

The idea of the oversized snood came from one I made for my younger sister a few years ago, when she coveted, but couldn't afford, those on the Burberry catwalk. Being able to have great neck coverage without the weight or trailing ends of a thick scarf was a bit of a revelation for me, so I went for similar chunky cabling in this design.
It would actually make a good project to begin with if you wanted to try cabling, as there's no shaping to contend with- it's basically a long rectangle knitted flat, then grafted together to form the snood.
The yarn is Artesano Aran in Meadie, which is a gorgeous purple/blue shade hard to do justice to with either photos or words. Sometimes it looks like a real 'royal' blue, other times it's like the purple of my favourite chocolate brand wrapping. Whatever you want to call it, it's a fabulous shade and the yarn is super-warm without feeling too heavy, even in chunky cables. So far it's yet to show signs of pilling, although this sort of garment doesn't get the pill-causing friction other might I suppose, and as the pattern is knit quite a tight gauge, it doesn't seem to get saggy, maintaining its height and keeping those winter chills out.
Here's hoping that lots of people like it enough to buy the magazine, so we can enjoy colour pops all over the place this winter.

Of mittens and gussets...

Behold! You see before you my first forays into the art of mittenry (is that even a word? If not, it should be). I'd made mittens and gloves before, with varying levels of success. Ysolda Teague's Snapdragon flip top mittens nearly broke me, I found the combination of cabling, working in the round and adding the thumb in so hard. In the event I finished one on about my fifth attempt, then had to wait a whole, cold fingered year before I could face tackling the second one. I had a few other pairs of simpler gloves and mittens under my belt but had never thought about designing them.
When I did come to making up my own mitten patterns the main psychological block was the 'thumb gusset'. Just the sound of it, with its undertones of old-fashioned, no-nonsense technical efficiency filled my self-taught heart with fear. I am in no way a technician, either when it comes to knitting or design, and was sure I'd make a mess of it.
A bit of research into other patterns though and I got a handle on it- apologies if you know all this already, but here's what I learned: Essentially a thumb gusset is a few stitches you reserve between the front and the back of the mitten, from which you 'grow' your thumb. The front of the mitten needs to be slightly narrower than the back in order that your thumb gusset sits slightly forward on the mitten for a better fit. At the appropriate point you increase stitches at the start and end of your thumb gusset so that the mitten gets wider to accomodate where the lower knuckle of the thumb sticks out. When you reach the base of the thumb you separate off your gusset, knit it up to thumb length, sew it up, rejoin the front and back and carry on up the mitten, sighing with relief that you have tackled the gusset.
Anyway, once I'd done it the first time- including managing to make the ribbing on the cuff flow smoothly into the main part of the hand- I could see how much potential there was for the fun-sized spaces of the front and back of mittens, and another pair found its way onto the sketchpad.
Great Oaks From Little Acorns Grow,shown above, and Treacle Toffee, below, are sneak previews of patterns I'm hoping to tell you more about soon. The green yarn is from Blacker Yarns. It's their Pure Dyed British Wool, which was out of stock on the site last time I checked, but they have other, very similar options. I think I've mentioned the orange yarn before: Maya DK from Eden Cottage Yarns. This one was in stock last time I looked, but beware, once you visit you'll find it very hard to resist the sweetshop of heavenly colours that Vikki creates!

Pattern Development

The thing about knitting is that there are so many avenues to explore. I have only had the briefest of brushes with spinning, for example, dabbled a little with machine and wet felting but never tried dyeing. I've experimented with a number of different techniques and things to knit, but still have an extensive list of 'must try' possibilities.
The danger, with only so many hours in the day and the reality of having life and family beyond the sticks and string, is that new avenues of investigation distract you from actually knitting. This has certainly been the case for me since I caught the designing bug. I'm knitting or doing knitterly things for at least a few hours every day, but since most of the time this involves sketching, swatching, writing up submission proposals and patterns or making samples I end up with little that I can show here. In addition, I have cold feet and am perfectly capable of making the felted slippers I've been wanting for ages, but never seem to find the time for making them.
I'm not really complaining though, as having yarn support (free yarn! Even if you do have to knit it up then send it away again) dropping through the door will surely always be a joy and I love puzzling away at new ideas to fit mood boards put out by potential publishers. It's even paying off in slightly less conventional ways, as the colourwork idea here is one I'm developing for a friend in exchange for help with what will hopefully be improvements to my online presence- watch this space.
All this said, I hope to have more projects to show here soon and in the meantime I'm going to put on an extra pair of socks and enjoy the buzz of creativity.

Tiny Tea Leaves for a Growing Girl

Is it normal to envy the wardrobe of your toddler daughter? I have to admit to having wished in the past that I could do ditsy prints and stripy tights the way she does and now this Tiny Tea Leaves is bringing on the green eyed monster even more.

It wasn't as if I didn't have enough projects in progress, all of them design development or commission samples. Hell, one of them is even a sweater that's destined for little M whenever I finally get around to it- being a large 'frog and re-do' job it keeps getting bumped for smaller projects with newer and therefore more exciting yarn. But she's outgrown her summer cardigans, and a friend had given me this pattern and I had more than enough Rowan British Sheep Breeds DK in Brown BFL from an idea for a pirate design boys sweater that I have struggled with, frogged and in the end given up on (possibly for good, not least because the boy in our household is resolutely opposed to hand-knitted garments of any kind).

It's a pattern that well deserves its popularity. Easy to follow, even when picked up and put down in favour of other projects or the occasional tokenistic domestic chore, the result is lovely in its simplicity. I can see myself making further versions for her as she gets older, and different yarns could make it anything from a fluffy party dress cover-up to a sensible school cardigan.
As for the yarn, well first of all it's held up remarkably well considering the several times it's been knitted, frogged and re-knitted on its journey from pirate to tea-leaf. The small amount of frog-based kinking that could be seen on some of the stocking stitch parts of the body disappeared without trace with blocking and the finished result is soft and springy. As is so often the case with colours created by Mother Nature herself, it would be hard for a dyer to come up with something better than the warm greyish-brown. The sheep also still makes itself known in the scent, faint but comfortingly present even when the cardigan is dry.

When it came to choosing buttons I could quite easily have gone for the natural options of wood, shell or bone, which would have suited the yarn. I felt that this might make it feel just a little bit too serious for a one-and-a-half year old and that colour was needed instead. These very pale pink ones seemed to have just the right amount of delicate prettiness for a little girl.

I say little, but the smallest size on the pattern is listed as 2T, which in theory should be on the large size for M. I think the yarn used was a bit lighter than the recommended and I have to admit that rather than matching the gauge, I just knit on the right sized needles for the yarn, made the smallest size and hoped for the best. It seemed huge when on the needles and I thought it would end up with a lot of growing room, but it appears my baby has been growing up without me noticing it, and actually the size is perfect for her right this minute. Now I just have to find room on my knitting 'To-do' list to make the grown-up version for me.

Wovember- in praise of Wool

When it comes to the work of Kate Davies I have to admit to being a bit of a stalker. I love her knits- I've never had a sweater that gets me more compliments than Owls , I more or less live in Manu and a Sheep Heid is on the cards for the near future. More than that though, I love her passion for design and real wool. Is there another type of wool? The more fibre aware among you may well wonder, but as Kate's 'Wovember' campaign highlights, there is an increasing tendency on the High Street and beyond to use and abuse terms like 'wool', 'woollen', 'tweed' and so on whenever it suits the marketing aims and regardless whether the actual fabric content has ever known a sheep.
Kate's blog, which I wanted to mention before November was finished (although Wovember is an ongoing cruade), includes some fascinating, thought provoking and at times anger-inducing information about the role wool has had in the textile industry of the past as well as how it needs to be respected and cherished in the future. Whether you're a knitter or not, I would urge you to visit and read- if nothing else the beautiful photographs of gorgeous designs and Scottish landscapes will soothe and inspire.

Pattern Development

You could say that my knitting life has undertaken something of a transformation recently. This time last year I was dipping the tiniest toe in the water of coming up with and sharing my own designs. Since enjoying a small amount of success, I'm a woman possessed and I seem to have projects under development everywhere, from sketches and proposals, to swatches and samples and things that still only exist in my head. Some of them promise much then just don't work out, others change and evolve and end up completely different from the original idea, while others just seem to fly straight away. It's a fascinating and exciting new process for me.

Inspiration has to come first, of course, and it would be hard not to be influenced by the wonders of the late autumn Lake District- the leaves pictured are caught in a beck running down the side of Yewdale, near Coniston. Further inspiration arrived in the post last week, in the form of this glorious 'Autumn' coloured yarn from Eden Cottage Yarns. Eden Cottage is the new name for Wild Fire Fibres, reflecting dyer Vikki's recent move to Cumbria's Eden Valley. The baby alpaca yarn is so very soft and colours speak for themselves really.

A recent charity shop find was the great vintage Paton's design seen above, which I picked up mainly for the interesting stitch pattern. I'm not using it in a sweater as the leaflet shows (although you never know, one day we too may be a family clad in matching jumpers like the ones in the picture!) but have found that it adapts really well to the project I'm working on. I'll reveal more at a later date, I hope.

Make do and Mend cushion- in print!

Way back in the summer I started using up some odds and ends of Rowan Felted Tweed DK to make a cushion cover. I wanted the chance to try out some stitch patterns from a lovely old World War II book I had and I posted some of the pics on this blog.

Who would have thought that an idle wander through the Ravelry forums would lead me to stumble across a call for submissions for a new knitting magazine. My cushion idea seemed like the sort of thing they were after- picking up on trends (vintage/mid century interiors) and portable (the front is a patchwork of squares that make good 'take along' projects).

With nothing to lose, I drew my sketch, wrote my proposal, scanned some samples (which don't exactly look promising do they? Imagination was needed evidently!) and waited. Next thing I knew the email came to say 'yes please' and there I was with my first commission. So today I went into one of my local supermarkets (here, in the back of beyond!) and bought a copy of 'Knit Now' magazine with my very own pattern in it. More (very lovely) pics are on Ravelry here.

More Knit, less Natter

So here I am, back again. In the moments during my break when I would normally have been blogging I was thinking about what I wanted Audrey's Tea Shop to be from hereon in. When I began it I was a mother of a one-and-a-half year old, recently uprooted and relocated to Cumbria and still in a whirl of disorientation and shock at being a long way from family and friends, and suddenly without the job I loved. The blog proved a great way for me to focus on all the positives of full-time parenting and living in this lovely part of the country and probably even encouraged me to do more as I was writing about it.
Today that toddler is big enough to be at Nursery school and his little sister is now one-and-a-half. While I still don't have much in the way of work our daily routine has picked up in pace and I don't have the same time to spend doing or writing about the stuff I have before. In addition, I have to admit to finding myself at times missing the chance to be part of the moment for the sake of getting a photo to share on the blog. Meanwhile, over the last few months, I've found certain aspects of my creative work taking greater precedence- in particular knitting and knitting pattern design.
For these reasons I've decided to keep writing for Audrey's Tea Shop, but to shift the emphasis onto knitting. I hope to share what I'm designing and making, who and what is inspiring me and other knitty bits and pieces. I might not write as frequently as I have in the past but hopefully the quality will be higher. I'm also planning to post the occasional free pattern and host some giveaways.
In the meantime, I'm off to cast on...

Sabbatical

Whether it's the traditions of Samhain or Harvest Festival, this a traditional time of year for taking stock, working out what to store away for later and what to be rid of. Something of this spirit has taken hold with me as well, and I've decided that rather than keep on with what has recently rather sporadic blogging, I'm going to take a little break and decide a new and improved form in which to continue. I doubt it will be long before I'm back, but hopefully when I am it will be with renewed purpose. Bye for now!