Titus love

This year marks ten years since baa ram ewe, my favourite local yarn store opened its doors. They are having a yarn celebration with a special batch of Titus, their first ever yarn, in 12 shades from their signature palette.

Titus is a stunning 4ply yarn with a Yorkshire accent. It blends the beautiful long locks of the quintessential Yorkshire Sheep, the Wensleydale, mixes it with the finest of all the British sheep breeds, the Bluefaced Leicester, and then adds a little alpaca, just like Yorkshire’s Victorian mill owner Sir Titus Salt did with his cloth.

Titus is one of my favourite yarns to work with. It is very soft, knits up beautifully and the colours are just stunning. Probably my favourite design I have made in Titus is Weirwood.

Weirwood trees are one of the signature images from the Game of Thrones TV and book series, with their beautiful white trunked trees and five-pointed crimson leaves. Within the stories they are sacred trees and many scenes take place under their bows.

Weirwood yoke detail

Titus is the perfect yarn for this pattern with White Rose making a beautiful white background to show the crimson leaves knitted in Heathcliff, Rose Window, Bantam and Coal.

One of the things I love about releasing patterns into the wild is watching what other people do with them. Mooseloon used the pattern to make a very beautiful jumper rather than a cardigan, and rather ingeniously made a headband for her swatch!

Mooseloon’s Weirwood jumper

Mooseloon’s swatch and headband

Weirwood is 20% off when purchased from my website or Ravelry until the end of the 10th August (no coupon needed, discount applied when checking out).

Happy birthday baa ram ewe!

Peloton Collection

In 2014 the Tour de France came to Yorkshire and I was very lucky to watch it go through my home town. I was also asked to write a hat pattern - Helmet Head - for Bespoke that celebrated the magnificent bicycle with a stunning book of 10 knit and crochet designs in Rowan yarns and published by Baa Ram Ewe.

As this years Tour de France comes to a close, I am rereleasing Helmet Head and its coordinating patterns Handlebar Hands (mittens) and Cadence Cowl as an ebook, the Peloton Collection.

Peloton Collection

I have remade all the samples in the beautiful baa ram ewe Winterburn DK and I chose autumnal colours for this set, using Endeavour, Viking and Bramley Baths. Just 2 skeins of each are needed for the whole set.

Helmet Head

Helmet Head is a quick and easy colourful beanie that is great for covering up those bike hair disasters and keeps me looking cool for the rest of the day. It fits under a helmet when cycling.

Handlebar Hands

Keeping your hands warm whilst cycling can be difficult, but not with Handlebar Hands mittens. Colourful and cheerful, they will brighten up any grey day. The pattern has both fingerless and finger-covered versions.

Cadence Cowl

Cadence cowl is perfect to wear when out cycling wrapped around the neck to keep you nice and snug. It can then be unwrapped once your journey is over into a stylish long cowl. Cadence means the rhythm cyclists get into when pedalling, and this cowl suits its name as it is easy to get into a rhythm of stitches and it grows quickly.

All use three different colours of DK weight yarn and features alternating stripes of different stitches. This pattern is suitable for beginners as there is minimal shaping involved.

The Peloton Collection being ridden on a bicycle

The ebook is available to purchase here and there is 10% off the pattern until the end of 4th August 2019 (no coupon needed) and newsletter subscribers can get a larger discount to say thanks.

Happy crochet cycling!

Sarah x

Work-life balance

A little while ago I was approached by the Academy of Medical Sciences to feature in their MedSciLife project. They feature stories from people who work in medicine and health research who have passions and interests outside of their main career. They asked me to share how knit and crochet designing influences my career as an academic general practitioner and the similarities and differences between my roles. This is the video they produced.

I think the Barry Gibb and the AMS team have produced a great video. Filming it was far easier than I expected - particularly as I showed up thinking it was a photoshoot (completely my fault, I had not read the email properly and refused to believe I was going to be filmed!). We used BaaRamEwe yarn shop as the background as I love working with them and their colourful wall of yarn is a beautiful setting.

I think combining a life of design and academic medicine helps create balance, encourages my creative side but also helps with resilience when life has its ups and downs. I have knitted through illnesses, deaths of loved ones, when dealing with the frequent rejections that is a normal part of academic work and to wind down after a difficult day. Often my most creative moments of inspiration are when I am struggling with a different problem, and one idea often leads to the solution of another challenge.

You can read more stories from those who work in medical and biomedical research on the MedSciLife page and their passions outside of work, there are some very inspiring people on there.

Happy knitting,

Sarah x

Tico

May always feels like a particularly fun month of the year. Spring is often well on its way and summer is just around the corner, and yet the weather is often cool enough to still need a layer of knitwear in the evenings. There are plenty of bank holidays to enjoy and the 4th of May is Starwars day, with lots of fun memes appearing in threads. Which leads me onto my latest design, Tico, a luxurious lace weight shawl that is perfect for layering and is named of one of my favourite characters.

Tico shawl worn as a scarf

The character Rose Tico in Star Wars is resilient yet vulnerable, witty but warm, kick-ass and compassionate, and embodies all the traits that make her one of my heroes in the Star Wars universe and the inspiration for this shawl.

Tico

Tico is knit sideways from end-to-end, with a graduating flower lace pattern for the body and a unique edging with hearts and kisses (or X-wings!). I knitted this for a special person on a special occasion and hid within it lots of Starwars references and love.

Tico lace edging detail

I knitted Tico in the luxurious Yarntelier cashmere lace, in colourway Mist. This beautiful yarn is produced in Yorkshire by Louisa Harding and is just the softest yarn and just so lovely to knit with. The shawl needs just two balls (100g) and knits up quickly.

Tico

The shawl is long enough to wrap around shoulders and body, and is very warm for its weight, perfect for spring and cooler summer evenings, or an elegant wrap in colder weather.

Tico worn as a wrap

Tico is now available to download on Ravelry with a 10% discount until the end of 31st May 2019. As always, to thank newsletter subscribers there will be an exclusive bigger discount in the newsletter I am sending today.

With its many hidden references to Tico and her universe, this beautiful and fun shawl is perfect for any chic geek!

Pattern testers wanted!

Sorry the above photo is a bit fuzzy…. it is one of the designs that I am really looking forward to releasing later this month and I am not ready to share the full picture yet…. however I am very excited at finishing the edits and photos today so I thought I would give you a sneak preview!

I have a few designs and plans for Yarndale and the rest of this year and this has led me to think a lot about designing and the process I use to go from idea to finished and published design. One of the areas that has been occupying my thoughts is how often and how many times to get a new design (or a re-published design) test knitted. I have some regular testers that I call on frequently but I would like to expand my testing pool so that I can see how the pattern fits and works on different people and levels of experience. Feedback is important to me and I want my final designs to make people happy. The patterns will have had at least their first round of tech edits before testing and you are under no obligation to test any pattern by filling in this form. I will not share your email address with anyone else.

When a pattern is available I will send you an email with details and tag you in the Ravelry post in my Ravelry group. You will then need to answer the survey for the pattern to be tested to be considered for the testing. All chosen testers will be emailed the test pattern and can discuss the test pattern in the Ravelry forum thread.

If you are interested in becoming one of my test knitters and/or crocheters then fill in the form below and I will be in contact when test patterns are available.

Thank you for your interest!

Sarah x

Six-to-One Centred Decrease tutorial

Finishing cables that join together neatly can be tricky. In all of our Mystery Knit-a-Longs Ann and I have developed tutorials to help with the trickier and new techniques. This years MKAL, Two Heads Are Better, is no exception.

Two Heads Are Better MKAL crown details

The cable pattern in the crown of Ann’s design has the cables coming together to finish neatly. The following YouTube video is the tutorial I put together to help work these. It makes a lovely centred cabled decrease.

Two Heads Are Better MKAL Big Reveal!

Two weekends ago Ann and I met in a local park with the lovely Ghazala and her daughter Mahaa for the photoshoot of our finished Two Heads Are Better MKAL hats.

Crown and Yorkshire button detail on beret version

This years MKAL was lots of fun and I loved seeing all the colourful and combinations of hats people had made in our prize giving thread. You can see many of the FO’s here on our Ravelry group page.

Beanie versions of Two Heads Are Better hats

The weather was not particularly kind, it threw everything it had at us - we had rain, hail, sleet, snow, sun and gales. We did manage to get some good photos in the brief bright but cloudy spells between all of the other weather.

Crown and tassels on the beanie versions

My designs were the stranded leaf pattern crown, the textured leaf body and the corrugated faux-cable ribbed brim, with Ann designing the cable crown, stranded flower body and the lice rib brim. We both knitted a beret version in pinks, reds and purples and a beanie version in the greens, white and orange.

I also took the opportunity to photograph Ghazala in my Striate Cowl that was published in Knit Now! issue 95 which will soon be available for download. Ghazala’s lipstick matched the red in the cowl perfectly!

Striate Cowl

Thank you to everyone who took part and congratulations to the winners. As always it was very hard to choose just six to get prizes.

Two Heads Are Better MKAL!

It is that time of year where Ann Kingstone and I run our annual Mystery Knit-A-Long! This year we are knitting hats and are very excited about sharing this with you.

As always, our MKAL is designed to stretch your creativity by giving you not one, but two options for each section of the hat. We will send out a section of two great linked designs each week and the choice becomes yours for which option to knit.

This innovative MKAL will start with part one of the designs on the 15th of February, followed by Part Two on the 22nd, Part Three on March 1st. The final full pattern will be revealed on the 8th of March with winners chosen and prizes announced for those who have posted pictures of their completed hat in our Ravelry group forum page. You will automatically receive an email with the pattern update on these dates to download the next section. Each part will have one option designed by myself and one option designed by Ann Kingstone. They can be mixed and matched giving you many different hat pattern options!

We will be holding hands with you throughout the MKAL with online video tutorials via YouTube, advice on our blogs, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and a live broadcast each week. We would also love you to join us in our Ravelry group where we will have forum threads for each update, spoiler threads and a finished hat thread as well as chat and prize giveaways. We love seeing your colour and yarn choices and sharing with you the fun of a MKAL.

This is an inclusive knitalong, and you are most welcome to join us whatever your ethnic, gender, and sexual identity is. We have in particular planned for the ethnic diversity of our local community to be represented in the pattern photography. This will be published at the end of the MKAL.

There are beanie and beret options for each clue so whatever your preferred hat style, there will be an option to suit you. The hats will fit head circumferences of up to 52½ (56, 59½) cm / 20½ (22, 23½) in, measured around the largest part of the head, ie where a hat brim sits.

Each design will require 50g of two contrasting shades of 4ply/fingering yarn. I have used Fonty BB Merinos (100% merino wool) for my beanie. I purchased this yarn on holiday in Paris at a lovely little yarn shop called Lil Weasel quite a few years ago and it is fun to see it knitted up into a design. Yarn always makes the best holiday souvenirs! For my beret option I am using BaaRamEwe Titus (50% Wensleydale, 30% Alpaca, 20% Blue Faced Leicester) which is one favourite yarns for knitting accessories. They have just gorgeous colours and so many beautiful combinations of shades, it is my go-to yarn of choice. They are also a fab group of people too!

If you have any questions please pop over to our Two Heads Are Better Ravelry group where all the discussion will be happening or jot them down below. Happy MKAL fun!

Sarah x

Cozette Cowl

Cozette Cowl has a reversible lace pattern, is great for any occasion and can be work long, draped around the neck or wrapped up cosily without any fear of a ‘wrong side’ showing. As the weather turns cooler I love nothing more than to wrap a luxuriously soft cowl around my neck.

Cozette Cowl wrapped twice around the neck

Self-publishing Cozette has been on my ‘to-do’ list for a long time. The cowl was originally published in Knit Now ‘Best of British’ magazine, issue 44 way back in February 2014. I have been selling the printed version of the pattern at Yarndale for the past two years and it has been very popular. Sorting out the digital download of the pattern has taken me a while to get round to, however I am now very happy to report that the pattern can now be purchased as a PDF file.

Cozette Cowl worn long

I love this design and I am so happy to see it out in the wild! The idea for the cowl came when I was swatching lace patterns and trying to make reversible pattern that could be wrapped around the neck, and however it fell there would be no ‘wrong side’ showing.

Cozette reversible lace pattern

The cowl is finished off with a ribbed edge and button closure. The buttons and reversible lace means that it can be worn draped long around your neck, or wrapped up cozily to be very snug. It can even be worn open like a scarf or twisted before buttoning to be an infinity cowl.

Cozette rib and button closure

You can read more about the pattern and the Knit Now release here in the original blog post.

I used two skeins of Eden Cottage Yarns Langdale Aran in Rambling Rose for the cowl. This is such a luxurious and cozy yarn and it knits up very quickly so it would make an ideal last minute Christmas present or gift to yourself this winter.

Cozette Cowl can be purchased here and there is 50% off with the code Cozy Christmas until midnight 31st December 2018 GMT.

Happy knitting, merry Christmas and have a wonderful 2019,

Sarah x

Nariko and Kai

I am very pleased to introduce to you two new crochet designs that made their popular debut at Yarndale this year - Nariko and Kai.

Nariko

Nariko is a triangular shawl, crocheted from the bottom up, with a simple, classic and clean look that is broken up by spike stitch star stripes. This was such a soothing shawl to crochet and it received a lot of admiration before it was finished. I added the tassels as I just love a tassel on a shawl and was very lucky to have some beads that matched the colours in the spike stitch star stripes perfectly.

The shawl is suitable for adventurous beginners. The main shawl is crocheted with half treble (UK term) stitches and there are photo tutorials for the spike stitch stars and adding tassels to your finished shawl included in the pattern. The stripes are worked as you go so once the shawl is finished it is ready to wear.

It is extremely cozy in a soft yarn and wraps around the shoulders easily. I have found myself wearing this shawl a lot recently as the weather turns a bit cooler and it just feels so snug.

Kai

Kai is the sister pattern to Nariko. Kai is a fun and interesting cowl to crochet with changing stitch patterns and colours. There are three different stitch patterns that work their way up the cowl. It starts with V-stitch stripes, then moves into spike stitch stars and finally finishes with a boxed block pattern. All three patterns are also suitable for adventurous beginners as they use simples stitches to make very effective patterns. The pattern also contains a tutorial on the spike stitch star pattern.

I love wearing this cowl as depending on how it falls around the neck, different colours and patterns become visible. It is tall and wide enough to cover the whole head if I wish to wear it as a snood in very cold weather and it works well to keep out cold drafts around the neck with its many folds.

Both Nariko and Kai are made with Scheepjes Stone Washed DK weight yarn which is a combination of cotton and acrylic. It is an extremely soft yarn that crochets very easily. I used Moon Stone (white), Canada Jade (green) and Coral (orange) for both designs and Black Onyx as the main colour in Nariko. There are many colours in the Scheepjes palette though and I am excited to try out a few more colour combinations.

Happy crocheting,

Sarah x