“I’m inspired!” Heather said after reading Pattern Roll-Call: Something Gorgeous Around Your Shoulders, and she ordered a skein of Celeste in Red Brick. Last week, she showed me what she made with it. It’s a gorgeous, lacy cowl — I don’t think she could have picked a nicer pattern. And I thought you might like to see too…
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The pattern is Eclipse by Jacquelyn Ridzy — so simple and really lovely.
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It always amazes me how the colours in yarns totally transform when it’s knitted up. Look at the way the red flows into the purple! And those little flecks of gold really pop.
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And it’s got this sweet little garter-stitch border. I love it!
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I can’t tell you how much I love it when people share their projects with me. Thanks, Heather — your cowl is gorgeous!
Megan was thinking of a cardigan, something simple, with a crew neck… maybe with snowflakes. The kind of go-to cardigan that could keep her warm and cosy all winter long. She was excited to get it on her needles, and asked me to dye the colours of Frost.
It would have white, of course, and a soft silver grey, and… and… ah yes, that lovely cool blue of winter shadows. I couldn’t wait to get started!
The key was getting the balance right: the amount of white to blue to grey, and the intensity of the colours. Frost can be soft and light, or it can hard and crisp; sparkling bright in the sun, or shadowy and blue. I wanted to make sure that Megan got the Frost that she had in her mind, so I dyed it twice and let her choose.
I loved pulling the yarns out of the dyepot, seeing how the colours came together. But, better than that, Megan loved the colours — she said her yarn was exactly what she was hoping for. And I can tell you that nothing is so nice for a dyer to hear!
I am a knitter and, to me, knitting is second nature. I knit without looking, I knit whilst reading and, when I’m really tired but I just have to finish one more row, I knit with my eyes closed. And I know that this looks like magic to non-knitters but, to me, knitting is easy.
The real magic is crochet. Crochet is knitting’s mysterious twin… It amazes me, it baffles me! I tried to teach myself to crochet once — I managed a little strip of fabric (that with the addition of some knitted flowers became quite a nice choker), but I quickly realised that it’s crocheters who make the real magic happen. Here are three patterns that really inspire me to pick up a hook and try my hand at crochet again.
Here is a crochet at its most spellbinding. I love the drama of Robyn Chachula‘s unusual cowl, the way the chain-stitched edging forms a striking cobweb that can be worn gathered up around the neck or draped dramatically across the body. I’d love to see this done in SpaceCadet’s Astrid yarn in a rich, deep colourway such as Desert Wine to bring a dash of glamour to a new winter coat.
Sharon Silverman conjured up something truly special when she designed this spectacular shawl. The magic is in the changing stitch pattern that creates distinct bands of lacy texture from top to bottom. Worked in lace weight yarn, this would look fresh and light in SpaceCadet’s Luna Laceweight in Old Money, or darkly dramatic in Luna Laceweight in Plum Wine.
The magic of Brittany Tyler‘s charming little hat in is the way it gathers up the colours of varigated yarns and distributes them in little pools across the crocheted fabric. Quirky and sweet with a flower detail, it would bring out the striking colours of SpaceCadet’s Astrid yarn in Sleep Deep or look cute as a button in Sailor’s Warning.
Y’know, even though it’s still August and that usually means high temperatures and hot days, the weather has taken on a slightly cooler tinge this week, and that’s got me thinking about autumn. I’ve been day-dreaming about turning leaves, that crisp smell in the air, and lovely lovely autumn knitting. Is there anything better? And the first thing you need as the weather starts to change is something gorgeous to drape around you to keep that chill at bay.
I’m crazy about cowls. They’re so easy — there’s no tying, no arranging, no fussing or adjusting… they just pop over your head and perfectly fill up the space around the top of a jacket to keep you toasty warm. Abby by Amy Singer has a beautifully simple stitch pattern that will work perfectly with any yarn from a Semi-Solid to a Wildly Varigated. I think it would look amazing knitted up in the gentle blues and purples of Mountain Mist.
The lace pattern on Mirth is gorgeous, just gorgeous — what could look more elegant draped around your shoulders on a cool autumn day? But the real beauty of Stefanie Japel‘s pattern is that it’s written in both text and charts, and the size of the shawl can customised by completing as many chart repeats as the knitter likes. The allover lace pattern will really shine in a Gently Varigated yarn such as Pink Autumn or Desert Wine.
Now here is a pattern that makes you want to grab that crazy-gorgeous yarn that’s been calling your name and just cast on. The long criss-cross floats of Laura Nelkin‘s Eventide really showcase the colours a variegated yarn such as the cool blue/green/purples of Midnight Swim or the gentle pinks and olive-greens of Bramble Rose. And the beautiful openwork creates a pattern that is perfect for those not-too-warm, not-too-cool days that autumn brings.
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So, yeah, I know… it’s still August. And the sun in still high in the sky and we’re all still wearing our summer clothes. But one of these days, the weather is going to change suddenly and summer will be gone… And now is the perfect time to cast on so that, when that happens, you’ll have something gorgeous to see in the autumn.
It’s raining today — a nice, warm, gentle summer rain, but rain nonetheless. And I know I promised you sunshine for this week, but the reason it’s raining today is because the lovely yellows I dyed over the weekend are still drying and if they are wet, then there is no sunshine to be had and the world must be wet too.
But even if your day is rainy like mine and there’s no yellow to brighten it up, let me offer you instead something as deliciously dark and moody as the clouds above.
First, I was delighted to discover that myhideway included my Red Brick yarn in a treasury called Rosé Wine. It’s so inspiring to see all those beautiful rosy reds together.
So inspiring, in fact, that I went and filled the shop with warm colours from pink to burgundies. Have a look…
If autumn leaves turned pink instead of red, it would be this pink. If they shunned the sophisticated golds and the russets, all the subtle shades of brown, and chose instead to wear a girly hue — something wild and unpredictable — it would be this. An explosion of pink tinged with the warmth of the season, this is the colour that autumn leaves secretly wish for. This skein is over 100g of Stella, a beautiful and distinctive 2-ply fingering weight yarn in 80% Superwash Merino and 20% Nylon.
This is a bottle of burgundy wine, rich and deep and smooth, poured out on the brown of the parched desert earth, there amongst the green cacti, where the merciless sun dries it to dark, dusty stain. A waste of good wine, but worth it just to see the amazing colour.
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And a lovely new colourway, DK Weight Yarn in Superwash Merino, in Sleep Deep, that I simply cannot get my camera to capture accurately. It looks all blue-red in the pictures, but as I hold it here in my hands, it’s swirls of deep red and purple.
Here are the colours of dreams, at the moment when you slip from the dark of the room into unconciousness, surrendering to the safety of bed and the soft of pillow behind your head. These are the colours of a mind freed to wander, a psyche unencumbered, your true nature as you let yourself submerge into the deep deep of sleep. This skein is over 100g of Superwash Merino in Astrid, a beautifully smooshy 4-ply, DK (double knitting) weight yarn. There are two skeins available, sold separately.
And watch the shop for those sunshine yellows too! As soon as they appear, the weather is sure to change for the better.
This summer, a pair of robins built a nest on top of my back porch light, right outside my backdoor, and consigned me to using only the front porch for the whole month of June. And I (and you) got to watch as the eggs appeared, and the babies hatched and grew. It was magical thing to witness so close.
Also this summer, the family next door moved away. As she was in the middle of the chaos of packing up her house, my neighbour mentioned to me one day that she always collects a bird’s nest from every house that she lives in. But her husband had already started his new job on the other side of the country and she was having to pack up the house and move the (5!) kids all on her own, and I suspected that she never got a chance to collect a bird’s nest.
And I have a beautiful nest sitting empty right outside my back door…
So today, we very carefully took it down.
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It came away without too much difficulty and all in one piece. It was made from sticks and leaves, as you’d expect, but I was intrigued to see string, yarn, and bits of dried grapevines (complete with old grapes!) tucked in there as well.
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We put the nest into a bag to keep it safe.
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And then wrapped it in tissue paper… just because.
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And packed it up with all the love and care that I package my yarn. More, probably — this is precious cargo!
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And, just like that, the little nest that gave three baby robins their happy start in life was ready to travel all the way to the other end of the country.
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Where, I do believe, it will be absolutely cherished.
