Planning one of our Big Books is always lots of fun, and starts so far in advance, it can be hard not to shout about it as it happens! That’s been especially true this year, as we’ve added something a bit new to the yarn line up for Confident Knitting! I’m excited to finally get to tell you about it today!
Read moreMid-Dip Report: June's KAL so far
We’ve been swizzling, dipping, and boosting all sorts of skills over in this month’s Boost Your Knitting KAL! We’re just over two weeks in, so it seems the perfect moment to share some of the hot topics (and beautiful knits) that have been popping up over on the Ravelry threads.
Read moreA chat with Joji Locatelli
Monday brought the release of this month’s Boost Your Knitting pattern, the stellar Sterlyn Shawl, designed by the incomparable Joji Locatelli. This gorgeous shawl, knit in, well, scrumptious Scrumptious 4-ply, is the perfect canvas on which to practice April’s featured technique, fixing mistakes in your lace. I caught up with Joji the other day and really enjoyed hearing more about her thoughtful approach to the Boost Your Knitting brief. Read on for Joji’s tips on avoiding mistakes in lace, what she does when she makes them, and the technique she’d most like to conquer this year!
Read moreBoost Your Knitting: The Yarns
There are so many exciting decisions to make when putting together a programme like Boost Your Knitting, but one of the really fun ones is picking yarn ranges.
Read moreWood Warblers among the Ruschias and a Wag(tail)-ing Pup
The Autumn A Year of Techniques patterns were a great excuse to spruce up cold weather wardrobes with fun accessories while also learning some fab skills. Let’s have a look at some of the brilliant projects AYOT knitters whipped up!
Read moreRomi giveaway winner!
Summer Kits for A Year of Techniques are on sale
Today's post is just a short one to let you know that the Summer Kits for A Year of Techniques are now on sale. Each kit contains sufficient yarn to knit the June, July and August projects from A Year of Techniques, as well as a large sturdy canvas project bag.
Read moreIntarsia and the Brambling shawl
I can't believe the first month of A Year of Techniques has flown by so quickly! The enthusiasm and excitement that you've shared this month in the knitalong threads, on Instagram, by email and in blog posts has been humbling. Thank you all!
present to you the Brambling shawl! I had a total intarsia conversion last year when I knitted my Harewood Hap, so when we started to think about techniques and designers for A Year of Techniques, I knew that I wanted Bristol Ivy to be our "intarsia pusher"!
Read moreThe Yarns
During the commissioning process, we had long discussions about which yarns we wanted the designers to use in their submissions. Our criteria were fairly straightforward: they had to be yarns we absolutely loved, widely available in quantity, and come from brands with a range of options in weight and fibre mix. After some to-ing and fro-ing, we settled on three of our all-time favourite brands: Fyberspates, Jamieson & Smith, and Schoppel Wolle.
Read moreFO: Kaelyn Cardigan
I'm not sure quite how I overlooked blogging about this little knit. I guess that life just got in the way, as it sometimes does!
It's the Kaelyn cardigan by Kyoko Nakayoshi, from the Fyberspates Scrumptious Babies collection. It is such an adorable little design. I love the knitted flowers along the hem (even though I had to knit bobbles and I'm normally vehemently opposed to them...), and the sweet scalloped edging. I did a few little modifications to make my life easier... I knitted the garter stitch front bands at the same time as the body (rather than adding them at the end), and I just used one button at the top, so that I didn't need to keep track of anything else as I knitted. It's gone to my new niece, who will hopefully get a bit of wear out of it before she's too big! I used Fyberspates Vivacious rather than Scrumptious, and I was really pleased with how it knitted up. The fabric really shows off the stitch patterns beautifully. It was a fun knit! I look forward to trying a couple of the other cardigans from the collection in the future...