Putting my tea on a tray was a practical choice, the alternatives being multiple trips between kitchen and studio or a precarious balancing act likely to result in splashed toes. It also makes the everyday seem a little more special, especially when there’s room on the tray for a couple of birthday chocolates. Gudrun’s son taught me that it’s always worth getting out the milk jug, even just for yourself, smart kid! And now I have the perfect little milk jug thanks to my mum’s pottery experiment.

The chaos on my desk surrounding the tea tray is a good indicator of the many and varied things on my to do list, but this little break seemed the perfect time to reflect on a few happy things.

Happy thing the first - I’m going to Iceland and you can join me!

Writing a longer post about it is on the to do list, but I didn’t want to wait to mention it. Visiting mills, geysers, museums, geothermal baths and exploring a rich yarny heritage in a country I’ve wanted to visit for a very long time – this definitely seems worth getting excited about. We’ll visit a mill, select yarn and make our own traditional Lopi sweaters with workshops including lopi knitting, traditional Icelandic sweaters, Icelandic intarsia, drop spindle spinning. I’m coming along to teach fitting and shaping techniques and how you can apply those to your Lopi sweater so you can combine the traditional techniques with a more modern fit. Of course that knowledge can then be carried over into your other garment projects.

Happy thing the second – you can share the magic of Squam from home

Excited about one crafty trip and nostalgic for another I was delighted to find out that the wonderful people behind the Squam Art Workshops have produced what I’m sure will be a beautiful and inspiring journal. You can read more about it here. I’m looking forward to slowly leafing through my copy.

Happy thing the third – Miriam Felton is having a sale

My friend, fellow tea lover, and brilliant lace designer Miriam is having a sale, this is a great chance to purchase 2 of her patterns and get a 3rd free. If you’re already a big fan with an extensive collection you can purchase 2 patterns as gifts for friends and get a 3rd as a gift for yourself. The sale is to raise the money that will allow her to fund a larger initial print run of her new book Twist and Knit. Anyone who’s ever printed anything knows that a huge part of the cost is in the setup so the more copies you can have printed at once the cheaper the cost per copy will be.

I got a chance to see an advance copy at Tnna and it’s really special, so if you haven’t already had a look at what’s included in the book it’s definitely worth checking out. If you’re only interested in some of the patterns the individual pdfs are included in the sale, and they’re also gathered into 3 bundled collections – you could buy 2 collections and get the 3rd free! The designs and photography are stunning but my geeky side really loves all the extra technical details that are included – there’s a tutorial for a cast on method I’d never even seen before! I never really spin or knit from patterns, but Sarah does and I know she’s excited about the fact that the patterns are written to work at any gauge and to use all of your yarn. That seems so perfect for stash busting as well as spinners and I really like the idea of giving knitters the tools to make their own creative choices.

I’m afraid I distracted her with sample knitting, but Sarah’s working on Lune,the shawl pictured above, in this lovely cloudy alpaca silk laceweight from Old Maiden Aunt.

Happy thing the fourth – we’re getting ready for Knit Nation

At the end of this month we’ll be in London taking part in the Knit Nation marketplace, the booth will be a bit like the one we did at TNNA but since this is an actual market rather than a trade fair I wanted to have some fun things to sell alongside the samples to play with. I hadn’t really had a chance to even think about this until a few days ago, but thanks to some very special people I think we’ll have some pretty special things. I’ve got my talented little brother working on some silly but adorable illustrations.

Happy thing the fifth – I bought myself a birthday present

A very shiny, very fancy new sewing machine, a Bernina 830. The aforementioned to do list means I haven’t spent a lot of time exploring it, but I did make this dress. As soon as I cut the fabric several days of extremely gloomy weather began and I worried that I’d jinxed myself, but now that I’m wearing it it seems to have brought out the sunshine. This is a terrible webcam photo because I really ought to get back to work rather than setting up a tripod, but it definitely belongs on this list of happy things.

And now, my tea is done and the to do list is calling, but I’d love to know what’s making you happy today?

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It’s my birthday and to celebrate I’m holding a special sale for 1 day only! Between midnight and midnight GMT all patterns sold on Ravelry will have 25% off. Thank you for helping me celebrate my first quarter century, I almost feel like an actual grown up now!

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I wanted to use the booth at TNNA to show our many, many samples (and a few from my friends) of course, but also to create a fun space to experience.

I certainly had fun although I always feel a little dazed after events and TNNA was like an extreme version of that. However, for the benefit for those of us who either weren’t there, didn’t get to talk as much as we’d like, or who can’t really remember much (that might just be me!), Cat and Eric from Let’s Knit 2gether put together a video interview with me, where you can see more of the booth and the designs in the new book.

One of my very favourite parts of the booth, and one I’ll be bringing to every event ever from now on because it was awesome, was the photobooth. It was very, very diy but with Casey’s help I got it working and now I actually have the photos I didn’t have time to take. You can see the whole set here.

I know, since I did it last year, how exhausting and overstimulating walking the show floor (so many amazing things to see!) can be, so I wanted to do something to help people relax. And so we held a tea party, with charity shop china, loose tea and cakes.

It was a LOT of work getting ready for this and Sarah deserves a million rounds of applause, but I’m so glad we did it.

We pretty much bought Ikea, and then had to figure out how to get everything in the van for our long drive from Gudrun’s (who is also deserving of applause for her help) to Ohio.

The sun had been replaced with rain as soon as I started blocking these sweaters, so I had to block them on the way. This worked surprisingly well, if you ever find yourself in a similar situation!

At least the journey resulted in a lot of knitting time, more so for me than the 2 who actually can drive.

I spent the time working on some hats to demonstrate a technique for Knitting Daily TV. The show won’t be out for a while but here’s a behind the scenes sneak peek.

I really love working in this industry and have made a lot of friends, most of whom are horribly scattered so it’s so much fun to actually see them in person. It was also a great chance to talk more with yarn store owners and make some fun plans. If you have a yarn store and would like to know what we’re up to you can sign up for the new newsletter here. I promise not to pester you too much! Can’t let the stores have all the fun though, so if you’re not a yarn store but like the idea of being the first to know about new things and exclusive promotions there’s also a newsletter for you!

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I’m saddened to announce that we’ve been unable to reach an agreement regarding the contract and as a result I’ve unfortunately had to pull out of knit camp. If you were booked onto my classes you should receive an email from the organisers offering a substitute or refund, please contact them if you have any problems. I was looking forward to teaching these, so I’m terribly sorry it’s come to this, thank you for understanding.

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Much as I’m enjoying being back at home – good food with dear friends, organising, sewing, pottering about – if there was anywhere else I could be I think it would be back at the Squam Art Workshops, where Sarah and I found ourselves a few weeks ago.

Our time in New England was wonderfully relaxing, on our first night we met up with Jess and Casey from Ravelry for dinner in a neighbourhood full of beautiful old houses. The following morning I did just a little work before we headed north to Squam.

We stopped on the way at the Yarn and Fiber Company in Derry, where Sarah discovered a book she found very appealing.

We had some glorious weather and I swam in the lake frequently, including late at night under a magical star filled sky. But even in the rain this is a beautiful place.

We spent a lot of time in the dining hall, where we came together to eat lots of delicious food (even ice cream for breakfast was an option) and share what we’d made in our different classes.

Of course lots of my friends, being knit designers, were teaching classes, but I choose just to go for fun as a student. In keeping with this not working idea I picked classes that had nothing to do with work. 2 different fabric printing classes and one about making mobiles.

Apparently, even when I’m trying, it’s hard for me to avoid doing something knitting related! In the block printing class I found myself carving knitting tools into my lino – oops.

Although I’ve done some block printing before, I still learned a lot from our teacher, the talented fabric designer Lizzy House. You can see some of her prints on the wall behind her and she also designs super cute commercially printed fabric – I love these downloadable bookplates based on her current collection.

In the evenings we gathered together in the large playhouse, listening to music, stories and tales from the funniest knitter of all. Jess and Casey shared the story of Ravelry, and although I know them personally it was still fascinating to hear more about how it grew.

On Saturday night we did a little work and took part in the art fair, thanks to everyone who came and said hello!

I found a few souvenirs like this adorable little cup which says “I am a Thriving Artist” from Creative Thursday.

Along with this mobile I made in class they’re reminders of so many wonderful memories that I can’t help but smile when I see them dotted around my home. I’m already planning next year’s return to Squam.

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Sarah and I made it to Boston yesterday, and after crazy weeks of getting ready for this trip I finally have time to catch up with you here. If you’ve been reading for a while you’ll know that including large size ranges in my garment patterns is important to me.

One thing that’s always bothered me is that it’s great to find a pattern that includes your size but if you’re not close to the size of the model it can be hard to visualise how it’s actually going to look on you.

No matter what grading decisions the designer makes, the same pattern is always going to look different with different proportions. When I first thought of doing a book of garment patterns I knew immediately that I wanted to show everything on at least two different models, with different sizes and body shapes.

Last year at Tnna I happened to mention this plan and that I wanted to find a model who was actually plus size (as opposed to the modeling world’s idea of plus which is about a 38″ bust) to my friend Amanda who works for Lorna’s Laces and she immediately offered to model.

Amanda, as you’ve already seen, is absolutely gorgeous so of course I said yes. The fact that she lives so far away presented a few practical issues but I’m so glad we worked them out. I really hope that you agree that these designs look equally good on both of us and I hope it helps you envision how they’ll look on you.

It would be wonderful to show them in every size, but for that I’ll just have to wait for you to upload your projects to Ravelry. Once I get the book to you of course, which will be a little while longer – thank you for being patient! I’ll be back soon to show you a little more of what will be included and our adventures at Squam and Tnna.

If you’re near New Hampshire this weekend please do come see us at the Squam Art fair on Saturday night!

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The first took place in Chicago and on Friday we followed that with a second, with me on the other side of the camera.

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Last weekend’s trip to Chicago was ridiculously brief for such a far flung destination, but since I got home on Tuesday I’ve found it rather hard to get back into a regular schedule. Not helped by the fact that I stayed up much too late on election night. In an effort to ground myself and not go completely crazy meeting my self-imposed deadlines I took some time this weekend to settle in back at home, despite the fact that it seems silly to need to when I was only away for 5 nights. Brunch with friends, buying delicious local produce and cookbooks and prettying up my little indoor garden. I have a terribly black thumb, but it seems like such a shame not to grow things in the wonderful light in my studio. So far it seems to be going surprisingly well, I think the trick for me is to have enough plants that it’s impossible to forget about them and neglect them!

This tomato seems to be thriving, it had doubled in size when I got home from my trip. Even more excitingly, the strawberries in the same planter are flowering – cute little baby berries.

With all this greenery the top of the windows were looking a little bare and I remembered the stack of vintage doilies I’d been planning on using to embellish sheer curtains. Curtains might be a bit tricky right now, but I could still decorate the window with a few of the doilies.

Selecting a few of the lightest weight ones in the collection I sprayed them with starch and when they were fully saturated smoothed them into place on the windows.

A couple were a little reluctant to stick, but spraying more starch directly onto the window helped. Once they’d dried vinegar in a spray bottle helped get rid of the starch drips.

I’ll be back soon to explain exactly why I ended up going all the way to Chicago for a weekend, but here’s a hint.

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A long time ago, almost exactly a year ago now, I found myself in Chicago where I visited the lovely people at Lorna’s Laces. They let me play with their colours and I came home with several skeins of totally unique yarn. The last year has been busy for both of us, but I finally settled on my favourite colour “recipe” and started working on a design using it. Once again, I’m in Chicago, and they invited me to visit again. When I got there, I felt like I’d taken over their workspace – my favourite colour was everywhere.

I got to see the whole process that goes into making their vibrant colourways and even help a little (although I think they had to re-do the skein I twisted up!) Although the colour red and subtle semi-solid hand dyes are two of the things I love the best I’m usually disappointed in them. Most semi-solid red yarns use just one shade of red dye and the variation comes from the yarn absorbing more or less dye. I wanted a semi-solid red that didn’t have pale patches, that actually had different shades of red – and I am so pleased with the results.

Each skein has several different dyes poured on in short sections (less chance of pooling) and massaged in.

This was fun, and the gory appearance was entertaining but the part Beth did was perfectly neat – the part I did probably had the pale patches I wanted to avoid. Somehow I think I’ll be leaving the dyeing to the experts, fortunately their happy to let me do the fun part of choosing the colour while they do all the work.

And of course, applying the colour is only a small part of the work involved. The skeins are hung to dry, carefully labeled with batch numbers, there will always be some variation between individual hand dyed skeins but keeping track of which skeins were dyed together from the time the dye goes on to when it’s sitting on the shelf in your yarn store helps avoid bad surprises when you’re knitting. If you are working with a hand dyed yarn on a large project it can be helpful to alternate between two skeins every two rows.

Once the skeins are dry, Amanda and the other staff deftly form them into pretty little twists. Sometimes people ask why the yarn isn’t sold ready wound in balls, leaving you to do that work for yourself. There are a few reasons. Balling the yarn in a way that doesn’t fall apart while you’re knitting means doing it tightly which puts stress on the yarn, if you knit with it right away it will happily bounce back, but if it’s going to sit on a shelf for a while it won’t. I prefer to buy hand dyed yarns in skeins because it’s easier to see the colours, in the skein you can tell that there are different shades, in the ball you really have to squint to see that because they’re all jumbled up. Visiting the workshop of a hand dyed yarn company also made me realise that selling the yarn in balls would also create more work for the people making it, which would obviously increase the price.

I’m having a wonderful time knitting up my perfect Ysolda Red into a design for the new book. If you’d like to try knitting with it ask your store about ordering it, the colour is part of the Colour Commentary series and it’s really gorgeous in all of their base yarns. I’m so excited to for you to complete this collaboration and use it in your projects.

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