This has actually been finished for a couple of months and although I wear it constantly photographic evidence has remained elusive.

You might remember that I visited the wonderful (and adorable – check out her new Audrey in Unst cardigan) Gudrun in October before Rhinebeck. In the run up to my trip I was busily finishing off Whimsical Little Knits 2 and hadn’t had a chance to knit anything large for ages, apart from the original Vine Yoke sample. It seemed like everyone attending Rhinebeck was chattering excitedly about trying to finish their Rhinebeck sweaters and I was a little sad that I didn’t have one. Vine Yoke is a pretty fast knit, I had lots of time to relax at Gudrun’s, and we happened to visit WEBS.

Enter Melissa, who had just started working there, and who I was teasing by testing her knowledge of the stock and ability to answer silly questions. “So, if you were going to make Vine Yoke, what would you use?” She made a beeline for Classic Elite’s Kumara, and I’m ashamed to admit that I took some convincing. It was soft and had an interesting composition (baby camel!), but it was sort of, unexciting and flat. But I couldn’t find anything else and the soft red was nice, so I decided to play along and make Melissa’s sweater.

I cast on, and it grew quickly, and then I decided to make Bobsolda and dragged the very tolerant Gudrun and her kids back to WEBS and around several other stores to gather the necessary supplies. And much to everyone’s amusement, I spent the rest of my visit knitting, painting, gluing, stuffing and wiring. My poor Vine Yoke lay neglected, only receiving brief attention in Boston when I was hiding my surprise from the Ravelry team. And it was absolutely worth it, because the whole Bosolda thing was a lot of fun, and I think it made a lot of other people pretty happy too.

But I do kind of wish that I’d finished Vine Yoke earlier, because it turns out that listening to Melissa is a very good way to get a sweater that you love. Plus, she might be psychic, because she picked the perfect colour to go with some of my favourite buttons from Jennie the Potter. I’m seriously considering leaving all future yarn decisions to Melissa.

A note about the fit: I know some people have been disappointed that their Vine Yokes turned out too big. Although Twist Collective’s photos are great, they did photograph it with a little more ease than I intended – something that’s sometimes unavoidable when you’re photographing lots of sweaters on a single model. If you’re thinking of making this, I’d go with a little bit of negative ease rather than the 3″ of positive ease shown in the magazine. I’m wearing the 32 and my bust measurement is about 34.5″.

And a note about the yarn: we’re used to seeing photos taken before a knit has been worn much. In this case, I’ve been wearing this pretty heavily and you can tell. However on the whole, I’m really happy with how this is wearing. The yarn is very soft and fuzzy and although there is some pilling, the fabric remains cohesive with good stitch definition and the pills come of easily – I’m just too lazy to remove them!

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For helping to raise a grand total of £15,397.58 (about US $24500) for Médecins Sans Frontières for their terribly challenging work in Haiti. I’m incredibly overawed and humbled by the response to this campaign, thank you.

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A couple of days ago, inspired by some other designers on Ravelry, I pledged to donate 50% of my sales to Médecins Sans Frontières to help with their work in Haiti. When I did that I thought that I was donating 50% of my usual income and felt incredibly fortunate to be in a position to be able to do that. What I wasn’t expecting was the response from knitters, which has been frankly overwhelming and humbling. Knitters have been buying up any patterns they like now, instead of waiting until they’re ready to cast on, they’ve been searching the wishlists of their friends and buying patterns as gifts, they’ve been spreading the word, designers whose businesses are much smaller than mine (and who are consequently taking a much greater financial risk) have been pledging donations, and altogether this has turned into a much larger fund-raising campaign than I’d envisioned.

Consequently I feel honoured to be able to increase my original pledge and to be able to make the kind of donation that I would never personally have been able to give. I will now be donating 80% of the sale price of all individual patterns and 50% of the sale price of all books (digital, print and wholesale) ordered through my own site or on Ravelry between the 16th and 31st of January to MSF. In addition, if you purchase one of my Twist Collective patterns please forward proof of purchase to mail@ysolda.com and I’ll add 50% of the sale price to my donation total.

It’s difficult to feel anything but small and helpless in response to such disaster as the earthquake in Haiti and the scale of the help that’s needed is truly hard to imagine, but to borrow a metaphor from the Yarn Harlot, just like knitting the small acts build, stitch by stitch into something bigger. And that’s what you have shown me, thank you.

Please, please don’t feel like you should buy patterns you don’t really want or that you weren’t going to buy anyway, but if you aren’t interested in any of mine, consider taking a look at the enormous list of patterns on Ravelry who’s designers have pledged to donate a percentage of their sales. Ravelry have done such a wonderful job of supporting this, Casey’s even made it easy to browse patterns in the list that you’ve already queued or favourited. I’ve also got a few more fundraising ideas that I’ll let you know about soon and the response of the wider craft community has been staggering, there are too many things going on for me to list, but if you know of something please do add it in the comments.

My thoughts are with the people of Haiti and with the workers on the ground who need as much support as we can give them. Thank you for helping me to help far more than I could have without you – I just donated £3766.60, that’s over $6000. Thank you for making that possible.

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My studio’s still a bit of a mess, but I finally have something that I’ve dreamed of since I was about 8 (I fell in love with sewing long before knitting) – a space to sew that doesn’t require any setup. A couple on nights ago I threw together a cover for my chair’s cushion, something that’s been desperately needed for a long time.

The scissor bows are making me so happy, they’re made from tape printed by Jezze. It’s not weird to adorn everything with craft related imagery, is it?

Spurred on by the success of my wee cushion project this evening I started cutting out fabric for something bigger – Macaron from Colette patterns.

I find cutting into fabric so very difficult, I’m always worried that the project will go wrong, or that I’ll find a much better use for that particular piece. The result of this of course is that I have a bunch of fabric that I never use, which is ridiculous. No more! If it does go wrong, while it might be harder to fix than knitting, it will at least have been a learning experience – and I’ve got plenty more fabric.

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Je asked what the hat shown in yesterday’s post, was? It’s my Snapdragon Tam, I’ve been trying not to wear my samples too much, because it’s so great to have ones in good condition events. I love seeing knitters try on my designs and sometimes it’s also fun to convince one of my friends to show one off at an event, as Laura kindly did at Rhinebeck.

However, in the case of this pattern and the accompanying flip-top mitts I haven’t been able to resist wearing them. The mittens are so practical, the hat works both posed at a careful angle and pulled down to keep the wind (and snow!) out of my ears and even if those things weren’t true I don’t think I’d be able to resist this colour. This magical, instant smile, go with everything, cheer up the gloomiest of days glow is from Madelinetosh, really all of their colourways are beautiful but I can’t promise that any other than Gilded have these sorts of superpowers.

I’m sorry Sarah, but I might have to talk you into knitting up some pristine samples for events, wearing these is just making me too happy.

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I’ve been out to play in the snow a little and got thoroughly bruised in the process,

but a lot of fun all the same.

Mostly though I’ve been staying warm in my nest,

playing with new toys

and slowly trying to make things both more pleasing to look at

and easier to use.

When the sun does make an appearance, my desk is the perfect place from which to enjoy it,

although the view more frequently looks like this, luckily I have plenty of knitting to be getting on with!

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Inspired by the fresh start of a new year I’ve been working hard in the last few days to really clear out the clutter in my flat. I’ve found a lot of junk, but also quite a few long abandoned projects like this cardigan.

I think it ended up stuffed in a bag in the first place because it wasn’t perfect enough to be a pattern, the raglans particularly are way too deep. See how much extra space there is? I think it would look better if the waist hit at my natural waist like this too. I’m not really crazy about the colour either, but the blue buttons and making sure it’s away from my skin helps.

Although I can see why I abandoned this it was really, really close to done and despite the imperfections I think it’s pretty wearable. And a wearable garment is definitely better than clutter that’s been sitting around for almost 2 years!

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Registration for Knit Camp classes opens today at 8pm GMT (soon!), you can read about the classes I’m teaching here.

I’m so excited that it’s time to put up my lovely Crispin Finn planner. I have a feeling it’s going to get full fast!

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A very busy year is coming to an end quietly but happily for me, at home baking, knitting, and watching the fireworks from my kitchen window.

Thank you for following my adventures in 2009, I’m looking forward to sharing what 2010 has in store. Wishing you a wonderful 2010 – happy new year!

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