Sadler’s Wells

I’ve released Sadler’s Wells (from issue 3 of Knit Now) as a free Ravelry download. The new pattern includes guidelines for making the legwarmers in children’s sizes. My 5 year old, Bonnie, loves hers!

I enjoyed knitting these as they’re quite simple and repetitive but with enough added interest to make them fun.

The pair that I made for Knit Now are knit in a really gorgeous Skein Queen yarn, Opulent, hand dyed in Dove. They are soft and warm and luxurious. I also knit a pair for Bonnie using some yarn I dyed myself from Tall Yarns, a superwash merino in Plum. I think that the different yarns give quite different results but both suit the pattern very well. I’d like to knit another pair for myself in Skein Queen’s Desire (when I get the chance!)

Tawny Owl

A better-late-than-never introduction to Tawny Owl!

Here is Tawny Owl, a new buddy for Intrepid Fox, a new knitting pattern design and also available as a lovely knitting kit.

It feels great to have another kit in the BomBella Knit Kit range! I have so many ideas but perfecting the details takes time. And I think the details to Tawny Owl are perfect!

He (or she) is knit using Fyberspates Faery Wings, 67% Silk, 23% Kid Mohair, 10% Nylon, in the custom colour Owls and Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply, 45% Silk and 55% Superwash Merino, in Oyster and Slate. I can see why the Scrumptious range is so popular; it really is stunning.

Again, I’ve used 100% lambswool for the stuffing. I really love the sheepy soft stuffing. It’s heavier than polyester and can be a little lumpy but gently pulling at and manipulating the stuffing fixes that. For Tawny Owl’s eyes I’ve opted for small olive wood buttons.The kits come with a pattern booklet containing clear instructions, charts, photographs and illustrations.

You can see the kits at my etsy store here or see the pattern available on Ravelry here.

Bunty Mitt Yarn Kits

Most knitters worry about running out of yarn before the completion of their project. I often hear the concern and I suffer it myself, usually irrationally.

You can imagine how awful I felt when I heard that a knitter had ran out of the stem coloured yarn from her Bunty Mitts yarn kit just a few rows before completing that part of her final mitt. Being the one responsible for the yardage calculations, I feel entirely responsible for any knitter who bought a kit running out of yarn. And so now I’m now suffering yarn-shortage-anxiety on behalf of every knitter who bought a kit.

In the Knit Now Magazine forum on Ravelry I posted some tips on what to do when yarn shortage might be a problem for completing the Bunty Mitts design (I’ve copied the post below). I’ve now thought of another idea that might be helpful. This is a slightly more fiddly way of knitting the pattern that should eliminate any kind of yarn shortage woes.

• Using the provisional cast on method and the main colour yarn cast on 58 stitches. There is a fantastic tutorial for provisional cast ons at Knitty here. It’s one of those techniques that, once you get the hang of it, is really easy and useful.
• Bypassing the instructions for the cuff, knit the hand from the chart.
• Do the same for the second mitt.
• Now weigh the remaining stem colour yarn and split into two equal amounts for each cuff.
• Pick up the live stitches and unpick the one row of MC.
• Work the corrugated rib cuffs until you run out of yarn.

This way both cuffs should be an equal length and there is absolutely no risk of running out of yarn.

There’s also the simpler option of knitting the cuff slightly shorter. I’m going to try out a 4cm cuff when I cast on my Bunty Mitt kit. I can’t wait to try out the different colour combination.

My post from the Knit Now Magazine forum on Ravelry:

We have had feedback from one knitter that the stem coloured yarn from her Bunty Mitt kit ran out a few rows before the end of completing the second mitt. We hope that this is just a one-off but thought it only fair to let everyone know and also to hopefully get some feedback from other knitters as they finish their mitts.

We did calculate the amount of yarn needed as carefully as we could and I know that skeinqueen added a healthy extra quantity to the weights that I gave her. For most knitters there should be enough yarn to complete both mitts.

I’ve put together a few suggestions for if knitters are worried about running out of yarn:

• please unravel and reuse yarn from swatches
• try not to leave very long ends with the stem colour
• don’t carry the stem colour behind the flower colour when knitting those parts
• it’s possible to make the cuffs slightly shorter

If anyone has already knit the first mitt, it might be a good idea to weigh the remaining yarn to check that there is half or more left for the second mitt.

I do hope that no one else experiences this problem and apologise for any inconvenience.

Bunty Mitts -fun with colour!

I was always looking forward to the release of my Bunty Mitts design in Knit Now magazine because I was so happy with how they turned out. They’re a a really fun, quirky knit with an eye catching retro print.

I didn’t anticipate being on the cover of the magazine -it was a fantastic surprise. I was stupidly delighted and even my non-knitting facebook friends were kind and encouraging when I had to show off the photo on my profile.

I doubt the non knitting friends would ‘get’ my added excitement at the mitts being shown alongside Wooly Wormhead‘s gorgeous new hat design!

As if this wasn’t all wonderful enough the lovely Skein Queen has been dying up exclusive Bunty mits yarn kits at an absolute bargainous price of £10. As well as the original Chestnut and Carotene colour there are options to purchase the yarn kits in Moss and Cranberry and Pewter and Teal -so much fun with colour! There’s currently a competition at the Knit Now Ravelry group page to find a fourth kit colour option. I can’t wait to see how these combinations knit up!

Wonderful Unravel

Not last weekend but the one before I joined many knitter/fibery friends at Unravel, a truly lovely event at Farnham Maltings. This was my first year attending and I was lucky to get a lift on the Sunday with my friend Nicky.

I went to a yarn dyeing workshop ran by tallyarns and I bought some of their undyed yarn and a pot of dye to try at home. If you’ve never tried dyeing before I recommend having a look at their website. The workshop was a great experience and dyeing yarn myself was exciting and rewarding and much easier than I thought it would be. I’m now very jealous of the knitters attending the Skein Queen yarn dyeing retreat in France (like I wasn’t already jealous!)

I was really proud of my 3 hand dyed mini skeins that I made on the workshop but when I looked around the professional dyers stalls I saw how much proper experience shows in the kind of colours and affects they achieve.

I had a shopping list from my mum and had a good look around the Skein Queen and Fyberspates stalls for her purchases. She’s pleased now that my sister Evie has delivered them back to France for her. My mum also kindly added a budget for my birthday treat to the shopping list! There was so much choice that I nearly got too overwhelmed to make a decision but in the end I settled on two beautiful skeins from Nimu and Easy Knits, both very talented dyers that I’ve been wanting to try out.

As well as enjoying the workshops and and the shopping I enjoyed simply meeting up with friends and having a lovely time in a wonderful place -what a fantastic day out!

Fox Love and other news

I’ve been quiet on the blog lately but busy with the knitty dreams of new knitting kits and other designs.

The Intrepid Fox knit kits have had a great reception so far. I still haven’t had much feedback in my Etsy shop but I have had sales.

The kit was featured in Knit Now magazine’s issue 4 in a really lovely piece which also menti0ned the leg warmers I designed in issue 3, Saddler’s Wells. Knit Now have been great to work with and I hope to have more designs in the magazine soon.

I was also delighted when I read this tweet from Ysolda!

So all in all I’ve been feeling very encouraged and am working on a new kit with an independent yarn dyer just as talented as the wonderful Skein Queen. More news to follow soon!

Fox Puff

I knit my first two hexipuffs for the  uk handmade Bee Keeper’s Quilt charity prize competition here. As I have quite a few scraps of foxy coloured yarn I decided to duplicate stitch one of the puffs with an Intrepid Fox design. I think this an ideal use for left-over yarn from your Intrepid Fox knit kit!

You can see the fox puff in action here.