Two colour Crowberry

Eighteen months ago (was it really that long??) I knitted myself a Crowberry cardigan. It is one of my most popular patterns but I did not have a sample of my own. The original sample is owned by Woolyknits who supplied the lovely Bluefaced Leicester DK yarn. I had been wanting one of my own to wear but was having the usual problem of so much to knit and too little time - a perpetual problem for every knitter.

When I finally decided I was going to treat myself to my own version I fell in love with the navy Rowan felted tweed DK. I love navy and the tweedy effect adds an extra bit of prettiness. The navy balls of yarn were sitting in the shop next to the pretty white with blue tweedy bits balls.... and they looked so good together I just knew I had to use them both. The idea for a two coloured Crowberry was born.

The contrasting colour is used to accentuate the Crowberry pattern on the front of the cardigan and also used in the i-cord cast off and button holes. I have to confess I love it and I wear it frequently. 

The PDF pattern for Crowberry has now been updated to include instructions for the two colour version as well as the original one colour. It has also been updated to my new Aldersign layout. Thank you to everyone who has purchased this pattern already, you should get an email letting you know it has been updated. For those of you who would like to buy it and make your own, there is a discount of 25% off the usual price for this week only. The discount will automatically be applied at the till.

A knitterly review

2015 is nearly over and I am sitting with my family ready to watch the fireworks in London, toast a glass of my Dads finest single malt and sing a rather out of tune Auld Lang Syne. It has been a very busy year and looking back through all my photographs, I achieved so much this year, I am almost too exhausted to start thinking about what 2016 might bring!

I set myself a few challenges this year. The first was to produce my first book of knitting patterns. I am really proud of An Elven Reckoning. It has got some great reviews and I loved having a stand at Yarndale where I got to show off all the samples. It was a fantastic weekend and the book is still doing well. I am about to order my second print run! Each of the twelve patterns all came from ideas that have been lurking in my head for several years and all mean something special to me. My favourite photo from our shoot made the front cover of the book. I give my heartfelt thanks to all my friends and family who helped me get it out there.

There were a few other designs released in 2015 as well as those in my book. Horwood is a cute textured hat that is published by the Knitting and Crochet Guild. There was also the Baby Owl Mobile pattern for crochet lovers and cute babies, Cozette Cowl in Knit Now! February issue and May Cowl in the BaaRamEwe book of Titus mini knits.

All that is left is for me to wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year and to persuade my Dad to open his whisky cabinet ;) Cheers!

Christmas shopping and store update

It is that time of year when lots of shopping and crafting of christmas presents takes place in preparation for the holidays. I have been busy planning all my gifts for my friends and family and I am looking forward to seeing them open their presents at Christmas.

Lil' Owl crochet kit

To make your present buying easier I have updated my online store with new products. Anyone who has followed me for a while will have seen the amigurumi kits I sell. They contain everything you need to make the amigurumi creature including yarn, pattern, knitting needles or crochet hook, toy stuffing, toy eyes and sewing needle. They all come with how to knit or crochet instructions so they are suitable for beginners. 

Lil' Vampire bat knitting kit

There is a knit zombie or bat and crochet Cthulhu, alien, owl and voodoo doll. There is also a new kit for this year, a Yorkshire white rose corsage that contains a brooch back to make your own decoration.

Yorkshire White Rose Crochet kit

All kits make great stocking fillers and are suitable from age 10 years and up.

Bright flower buttons

I have also updated the button selection and there are now new sizes ranging from 15mm, 20mm, 25mm to 30mm, and new designs. Each packet comes in an Aldersign package and they are made of wood with a printed pattern on the front. They are great for finishing off hand knits and crochet garments for an extra special touch. 

Octopus buttons

Butterfly buttons

Of course my book, An Elven Reckoning would also make a great gift for any knitter with its twelve patterns all inspired by the seasons of Rivendell. The patterns are fun and interesting to knit and my first print run is selling out quickly!

Last ordering dates for christmas is Monday 14th December for Europe and USA and Canada and Sunday 20th December for the UK so get your orders in quick!

Crafty Secret Santa

Each year my local knit/crafting group get together for a christmas meal and gift swap. It is one of the highlights of my year and the gifts are amazing every time. Each person brings a hand crafted gift. Names are put in a hat and whoever's name you pull out, you get their gift. So the secret is you don't know who you are making a gift for! 

We had lots of fun at the meal, wearing the christmas cracker hats was compulsory (for at least ten minutes) and plenty of wine was drunk.

This year I decided to crochet a snowman for my gift. I have loved the short film The Snowman by Raymond Briggs and try to watch it every year. The spin off The Snowman and The Snowdog is also very cute, and the Father Christmas story is very blooming funny. 

So the morning of the Christmas party (nothing like leaving it to the last minute) I began to design and crochet my Snowman. I am very pleased with how he turned out, especially his floppy hat. He looks quite cheery to me. I am planning to write up the pattern and release it as one of my amigurumi kits for next year.

The Snowman

For my present I received this gorgeous fluffy Santa from my friend Emily. Isn't he fabulous? I love his beard with the curl in the end and his long pointed hat. He is sitting on our windowsill looking very pleased with himself.

The fluffy Santa I received

All the gifts showed so much love and creativity. There was a little potion bottle of homemade sloe gin, christmas bunting, a beautiful noel embroidery, luxurious organic hand cream, a pretty felt christmas tree, cross stitch heart ornament, a poinsettia type flower, a granny hexagon stocking and an elegant puff necklace. They are all amazing and I would have loved to receive any of these. Roll on next year, I'm excited already!

All the amazing gifts

Dianthus

November is pancreatic cancer awareness month and it is a topic that is very close to my heart. In November 2011 I released one of my first patterns, Dianthus, a beret hat that I donated all the proceeds from sales to Pancreatic Cancer Uk. You can read about the original pattern here.

Me & my mum. Apparently I was unhappy at being taken out the bath!

The hat was designed for my mum who sadly died before she got a chance to wear it. She had pancreatic cancer and only survived 12 days from diagnosis. Pancreatic cancer has one of the worst survival rates of all cancers and this has not changed in the last 20 years, compared with other cancers where survival is thankfully much better. 

This November I decided I wanted to update the pattern. Initially only available in one size, I have now sized it from newborns to large adults. One size is not great for hats as people have very different shaped heads. It also works well as a kids hat and in the photo below the toddler size is being modelled by Jellica who has just celebrated her first birthday.

Jellica in the toddler version of Dianthus beret

I have also changed the finances for the pattern. Previously I had to send all pattern income to Pancreatic Cancer UK but that is not very practical so I have decided to make the hat pattern available for free to download, but to include a link to my donation site so the money will go directly to Pancreatic Cancer UK, rather than via me. I am hoping this will make it easier for people to make a donation. To go to the pattern page please click here. For the donation page please click here.

Dianthus beret

The hat is an easy knit in the round pattern that has alternating large and small lace holes and an i-cord finish. It is very quick to knit in aran weight yarn and I have made two new samples. I'm modelling the Artesano Aran adult version and Jellica is modelling the toddler version in West Yorkshire Spinners Aire Valley Aran. Both yarns show off the lace pattern well, are soft to knit with and warm to wear. I have not stopped wearing mine since I finished knitting it, especially as the weather has suddenly turned a bit frosty here and it is now hat wearing weather.

Toddler sized Dianthus beret

I hope you like the new pattern and thank you to everyone who has previously purchased it. You will receive an email to update your version for free. Thank you for all future donations too, let's hope one day we can improve the survival of pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic Cancer UK is a registered charity (no 1112708) that funds research and supports patients and their families through this disease.

Indie Designer Giftalong 2015

This year I have joined in the fun of the Indie Designer Giftalong held on Ravelry. The Indie Design Gift-A-Long 2015 runs from Thursday, November 19 at 8pm (US-EST) - about 1am today in the UK - through Thursday, December 31 at midnight (US-EST) - which is 5am Jan 1st for those in the UK.

It starts with a sale period which is on now through to Friday, November 27 at 11:59 pm (US-EST) - which is 5am Saturday November 28 for the UK. There are over 300 designers taking part in the GiftAlong this year. Each designer has created a bundle on their designer page of Ravelry where you can view their patterns that they have included in the sale. My bundle can be found here and each pattern in the sale is shown on the photo at the top of this post. All included patterns are 25% off their usual price for the sale period. To get the reduced price add the code giftalong2015 when checking out. That's all you need to do to support the indie designers and get a bargain in the process!

In my giftalong sale collection I have included:

• Crowberry
• Alexandria Gauntlets
• Baby Owl Mobile
• Cadence Cowl
• Handlebar Hands
• Bela Cowl
• Farm and Festival Welly Toppers
• Caffe Latte Laptop Snug
• Garden Rose Corsage
• Cuckoo

There are also KAL/CAL going on and designer treasure hunts with prizes to be won in the Ravelry Indie Giftalong forum. There is such a sense of community surrounding this, I love all the support being shown to the indie designers.

So please join in and have fun exploring new and established indie designers and the beautiful patterns they create. I hope to feature some of the wonderful patterns on sale over the next week that would make great christmas presents and cozy items to wear as the weather gets colder.

Kitchener Stitch tutorial

Grafting ends together to create a seamless fabric is one of my favourite knitting techniques. I use the Kitchener stitch to graft sock toes together all the time, and a few of my patterns use it for seamless seams, such as joining the applied i-cord in Nórui and underarm seams in Maethor. I thought a tutorial on how to do Kitchener stitch might be useful.

Kitchener stitch is used to graft two pieces of stocking stitch together and it creates a seamless join that is invisible from the rest of the stitches. That's why it is so great for sock toes - no seams to rub and cause blisters!

You will need a tapestry needle for this technique.

Set up

To set up for Kitchener stitch there are a couple of preparatory steps that stop the end stitches from being loose.

Step 1:

Arrange the stitches so that there are equal numbers of stitches on both needles and the wrong sides of the fabric are together. This gives you a front needle with stitches and a back needle with stitches. 

Cut the yarn leaving a long tail (at least 3 times the distance to graft plus a 15cm/6in sewing in end) and thread a tapestry needle.

Step 2:

Insert the tapestry needle into the first stitch of the front needle as if to purl. Pull the yarn all the way through (not too tight) and leave that stitch on the needle.

Step 3:

Next, insert the sewing needle into the first stitch on the back needle as if to knit it. Pull the yarn all the way through and leave that stitch on the needle.

The above 3 steps are preparatory and only need to be done once.

Kitchener Stitch

Now we are ready to graft the stitches together. This is the fun part! Do not pull the yarn through too tight on the next steps. It is easier to adjust the tension of the stitches when you have grafted a few together.

Step 1:

Insert the tapestry needle into the first stitch on the front needle as if to knit. Pull the yarn all the way through and then slip this stitch off the front needle.

Step 2:

Insert the tapestry needle into the next stitch on the front needle as if to purl. Pull the yarn all the way but this time leave the stitch on the front needle.

Step 3:

Now insert the tapestry needle into the first stitch on the back needle as if to purl. Pull the yarn all the way through and slip this stitch off the back needle.

Step 4:

Insert the tapestry needle into the next stitch on the back needle as if to knit. Pull the yarn all the way through but leave this stitch on the back needle.

Graft the next stitches together by repeating steps 1 to 4. After a few stitches have been grafted it is worth using the tapestry needle to tighten up the stitches so they are at the same tension as the stitches in the fabric being grafted.

Once you have grafted a few stitches it becomes quite rhythmic. I often remember the steps by counting: front knit off, front purl on, back purl off, back knit on - as in front needle knit the stitch and slip it off the needle, front needle purl the stitch but leave it on the needle etc.

Continue to graft the stitches together by repeating steps 1 to 4 until after step 4 only 1 stitch remains on both the front and back needle, then move to the finishing step.

Finishing steps

The finishing steps are similar to the preparatory steps in that they tighten up the edge stitches.

Step 1:

Insert the tapestry needle into the first stitch on the front needle as if to knit. Pull the yarn all the way through and then slip this stitch off the front needle.

Step 2:

Now insert the tapestry needle into the first stitch on the back needle as if to purl. Pull the yarn all the way through and slip this stitch off the back needle.

Finally, use the tapestry needle to adjust the tension of all the stitches to match the tension of the  stocking stitch fabric, then weave in the yarn end.

There you have it, a grafted stocking stitch fabric with no visible seam. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If there are any other techniques you would like help with please leave a comment.

Yarndale 2015

A week ago (is it already a week??) I had my first stand at a yarn festival. Yarndale is in its third year and is held in Skipton auction mart in the Yorkshire Dales. It is a beautiful location and I have enjoyed being a punter for the past 2 years, but with An Elven Reckoning being released I thought it was time to brave having a stand.

An Elven Reckoning

The wonderful thing about Yarndale is the closeness of the independent designers and creators of beautiful yarn. I did not get to look around much this year but what I did see was a rainbow of yarns and hundreds of amazing designs that I want to make all mixed together with rare breed sheep, alpacas and angora bunnies.

The fantastic team!

I was sharing a stand with my friend Gwen Wagner-Adair of Petitchoufleur Knits who is also my tech editor and my friend Sharon who was a fantastic help all weekend. We made a great team!

Maethor and Nôrui

I loved being able to show off the garments from An Elven Reckoning and have the book in pride of place for people to look through. Thank you to everyone for the lovely comments about the pattern and book and to everyone who purchased it - you made my day!

Aldersign Buttons

My buttons were really popular and I will be updating my website shop with more once I get some photos of the new ones. There are two new sizes of buttons and lots of different designs, all of which are £1.50 a packet.

I was also very lucky to showcase some of my friend Alison's beautiful needle craft. She had knitted and liberty fabric pincushions, needle books, rolled needle cases and scissor and tape cases. Her work is amazingly neat and pretty so check out her blog: Stitches of time.

I also released a new crochet kit - the Yorkshire White Rose. Like all my kits it contains everything you need to make the Yorkshire White Rose corsage and includes instructions for beginners. The new kit can also be found in CraftyPraxis in Huddersfield Byram Arcade and will be updated to the website soon.

The other wonderful thing about Yarndale, and what I look forward to each year, is the beautiful display they have knitters and crocheters all over the world contribute to for charity. This year it was flowers for memories, raising money Alzheimer's Society. The display was a beautiful rainbow of colour and raised £1811.80 which is just fantastic.

Overall it was a fantastic festival and I had a really great time. I'm already making plans for next year!

An Elven Reckoning

After two years of work, my book is finally here and ready to release to the outside world! I have been so excited about this, it has been really hard to not show you my patterns and photos, but at last I can share.

Rhovan (wilderness)

An Elven Reckoning is a book of twelve patterns inspired by the calendar that the Elves use in Rivendell: a reckoning. An Elvish reckoning has six seasons: spring (ethuil), summer (laer), autumn (iavas), fading (firith), winter (rhîw) and stirring (echuir). Each season in the book has two patterns, making twelve in all. Each pattern is named in the elvish language of Sindarin (but don't worry, translations of the names are given!).

Faradrim (hunter)

Ever since I first read J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, I have been in love with Rivendell, or the last homely house west of the mountains, and its Elves. So beautiful and graceful but powerful, and lets face it, I just want to be Arwen Evenstar. Rivendell in the pictures by Tolkien and in Peter Jackson's movies has always been on my bucket list to visit. It just looks so peaceful and idyllic.

Imloth (flowering valley)

The photos for this book were all taken at Beaumont park in Huddersfield. This is my favourite park as it has so much to explore. The lower castellated gate and the trees surrounding it reminded me of Rivendell the first time I walked there. It was whilst I was walking through the park that I was inspired to design this collection.

Nînim (snowdrop)

The beautiful photos were all taken by Christine Patterson - her website is www.christeeny.com and I recommend that you have a look at her work. She takes the most amazing photos and her photoshop skills (notice the elf ears on all my models?) are just fantastic! I cannot thank her enough. Before we started the photoshoot she caught the location and us getting ready on film. It shows just what an amazing place it is, and a bit of the fun we had taking photos and channelling our inner elf!

The book will be released on the 26th of September at Yarndale. I will have plenty of copies for sale and the garments of the book for you to try on. I will be on stand 135 with Gwen Wagner-Adair of Petitchoufleurknits. For now it can be pre-ordered as a print copy (with complimentary e-book) or just an e-book at a discounted price which is only available until midnight 25th September. When you purchase either print or e-book you will receive the lookbook straight away which contains all you need to start planning your knitting. The print book orders will be posted out the week after Yarndale. I hope to see you there!

Maethor (warrier)

Amrûn (sunrise)

Eryn (forest)

Gilgalad (starlight)

Rhien (crowned lady, queen)

Míriel (jewel-like)

Nórui

Randir (wanderer)

May Cowl

On the first of May this year my May Cowl pattern was released in store by BaaRamEwe, the fantastic yarn shop located in Leeds. I was commissioned to design this cowl last year and it is great to see the pattern on sale. 

May Cowl in BaaRamEwe Titus Goddess - Shades of Chevin

Originally designed to show case 'Shades of Chevin' - a result of mixing their gorgeous titus yarn with the colour guru that is the Knitting Goddess, each month a new pattern and a new Titus Goddess colourway was released and mine was May.

May cowl is a very versatile accessory, designed to be worn round the neck as a cowl, over the shoulders like a capelet or as a scarf or wrap.

May Cowl in BaaRamEwe Titus - Chevin

The stitch pattern was inspired by a 1967 doily pattern I found in a Learn to Crochet booklet that belonged to my Nan. I liked the open work combined with solid stripes of the same pattern.

This is a very easy crochet pattern with only a few stitches to learn.

May Cowl has been reissued in the Chevin shade of Titus (which is lovely to crochet with) by BaaRamEwe and it is now available on Ravelry and also in their new booklet, Titus Mini Knits.

It is now available on Ravelry to download for £3.00 and for the next week only with 25% off the usual price with the code VERSATILE

To show just how versatile this cowl is, I had a photoshoot with my sister who is a good sport and kindly modelled the cowl in many of the ways it can be worn.... watch out for the Shades of Grey shot!