Fair Isle Knitting

A couple of weeks ago I did something I had never done before - I attended a knitting class as a student. Strange - I have taught so many classes but had never been on one. I normally choose to learn from books and the internet but have often thought it is a much harder way to learn.

I have had stranded knitting down as one of my skills I'd like to improve this year as I was never happy with my tension over it and my balls of wool always got in a terrible tangle by the end of a row. (For the uninitiated stranded knitting is where you work with two or more colours on the same row to form a pattern, colours that aren't used are floated across the back of the work, this type of colour work appears in many different knitting traditions including Fair Isle) So when I saw that Ann Kingstone the queen of stranded knitting was coming to teach Fair Isle techniques at my LYS I leapt at the chance.

Naked Wool - image from their site. www.nakedwool.co.uk

Before the class we were asked to choose yarn and come with a few rounds of ribbing already started so we would be able to crack on with the pattern stitches straight away. I chose four natural colours from The Shetland Sheep Wool Company as stranded knitting works best with yarns that are kind of sticky (smooth yarns don't work so well) and this had that property but is still soft enough to wear next to the skin.

I knew Ann really well online as we are members of a designer forum and have chatted quite a lot but we had never met in real life before. I was pleased to find she is just as lovely in real life - a really kind and patient teacher, very encouraging and fun to chat with.

Ann explained how to hold the yarn, as everyone in the group throws the yarn English style she taught us to hold one yarn in the right hand and knit in English style and hold the other in the left and knit it continental style. For continental style knitter she teaches yarn management all in the left hand. I was really pleased I already knew how to knit continental as it was one less thing to have to juggle learning but Ann's explanation was very clear and easy to follow and everyone in the group got it straight away.

We followed a simple but pretty chart as we mastered the yarn holds and the techniques Ann taught us to get the strands at the correct tension and Ann chatted to us about colour theory, the knitting traditions and let us coo over samples from previous books and sneak a peek at sketches for her upcoming book "Stranded Knits" which is on my wish list already. We learnt how to join in a new yarn with a clever spit splicing technique and how to catch long floats so fingers don't get caught in them.

I finished my headband in an evening after the class and I am so pleased with how it came out

The right side (above) looks fab and I think I will wear this a lot on winter school runs to keep my ears warm. But I am so pleased with how neat I am able to get the wrong side (below) now.

I really enjoyed being taught at this class - sure I could have learnt most of this from books and the internet but being told and shown exactly what I needed for this type of knitting was really good and having a dedicated three hours of peace and quiet to learn was a real luxury.

Ann teaches all around the country so try and find her somewhere near you - I highly recommend the class!

Disclosure: I was not asked to write a review not have I received anything for doing so. This is genuine feedback on a class I enjoyed attending.

PS: If you haven't entered my fab GIVEAWAY go and do it now!

Crochet at Play and a Giveaway!

Hello,

Today, I am delighted to be part of the Crochet at Play blog tour.

Crochet at Play is the amazing first book by talented crochet designer Kat Goldin, packed full with innovative projects - if you have kids (or kids to make for) and like crochet this is a must-buy.

Of course I am hopelessly biased as Kat is my firend, business partner and I had a little hand in this book as the tech editor and two of my kids modelled in the book (more on this later). So as I cannot be trusted to give an impartial view, have a look at some of the projects in this lovely little book trailer made by Kat Molesworth.

I have loved being a part of this book. Kat got me involved early on, as soon as she found out she was allowed to choose her own technical editor. I was shocked and a little nervous as I was pretty new to tech editing and a whole book is a big project but Kat was adamant that she wanted me. I am so glad I agreed and leapt in with both feet - Kat is so fun to work with. Even though we are hundreds of miles apart the intensive back and forth's over many many hours carried out on twitter DMs, facebook chat and email meant we got to know each other well and became firm friends. Because tech editors basically have to point out the worst bits of patterns and find mistakes it really helps if you can be friends to soften the blow a little! 

Kat is a joy to tech edit for because she cares deeply about getting it right and is so thorough and exacting in both her descriptions and her numbers. Because her projects are so innovative and interesting with thoughtful use of stitches I have learnt something new or gained inspiration from almost every pattern. 

The book was just the start of a beautiful relationship - we missed our daily flurries of texts so much after the manuscript was completed that we filled the gap by joining forces for The Crochet Project

Because through the whole process we hadn't met in real life Kat invited me and my two littlest kids down to meet her in London for the shoot. Luckily we had a good day for a shoot and the location was amazing. Shame my kids behaved horribly being awkward and uncooperative at every turn - its amazing Kat got the beautiful photos of them that she did! So much work goes into the effortless looking photography that Kat produces and it was incredible to watch her at work. I won't give away the styling trade secrets I saw but suffice to say I now look at magazine styled photos with a different eye now.

Anyway, the giveaway! Kat is kindly offering one of my readers a copy of the book and the yarn to make the gorgeous hedgehog mitts which star in the video clip. What could be better?!

To enter just leave me a comment below (don't forget to include your email address or ravelry name if its not in your profile so I can contact you) and I will draw a winner at noon GMT on 20th May.

Follow the rest of the blog tour and catch up on past posts here:

• Wednesday 24th  April – Natalie from Bambino Goodies 
• Friday 26th April – Sarah at Crafts from the Cwtch
• Monday 30th May – Kat from Housewife Confidential
• Wednesday 1st May – Joanne from Not So Granny
• Week of the 7th of May – Rachelle from Ted and Agnes and Emma from Silver Pebble
• Week of the 14th of May – Amanda from Kitshycoo and Winkie Flash from A Creative Being

Turned a corner

Our garden is tiny, we live in a new-build house. You know how it is. I have two boys. They like to kick things (and my daughter will probably follow suit as soon as foot eye coordination improves) our garden is mostly a mini Lords or a mini wembley stadium. You know how it is.

So our garden is a little unloved (that's quite a charitable way of putting it) and I was also told today by the very helpful chap in our local nursery that the only corner I can really plant up is a "challenging environment". It is in a corner that is in sun most of the day but next door has a huge conifer that blocks the rain and its roots have sucked all the nutrients out of the soil. We had the whole garden turfed but it just wouldn't take there despite our best efforts.

My Mum and I had a go last year when she kindly came up with a load of plants from her garden and we dug a little bed and planted them to see if anything took. But I am a rubbish gardener and the weeds came up and I didn't quite get around  to sorting it out. "At least weeds will grow there, that is a hopeful sign" said helpful chap at the garden centre.

But spring is always a sign of new beginnings and another chance to succeed as a gardener so with helpful chap's help I selected a few plants that might do okay in a low nutrient, dry environment and decided that some pots there would be the best way to add a little height. I got the little box of tools out of the shed and got going. And here is my gardening ta-dah...

We have some pretty little solar fairylights up that you can't quite see and a couple of heart ornaments we bought a couple of years ago but then didn't get around to putting up so they have been cluttering up the lounge mantel piece. 

A surprising number of the plants that Mum put in last year have survived my neglect. The ice-plants are doing well and so is the other plant that has the same sort of white furry leaves but a different shape. Some very pretty little purple and pink flowers (which I am sure I should know the name of) are doing well and the ornamental grasses were also thriving. I was a bit unsure what was what and think I pulled up something I shouldn't have and there is a huge clump of something else that I've left but I am not sure if it is a weed or not. 

I think it is a real testament to my Mum's cleverness that so many of last year's plants have navigated the difficult combination of challengin environment and useless gardener!I could have done with her help today really, lucky I stumbled on helpful garden centre chap. He suggested periwinkle as being practically indestructible (no pressure) and the wallflower and lamium (dead nettle) as standing a good chance. I think the lamium will only stand a chance if I can correctly distinguish it from the other nettles when I weed next spring but nevermind. He also came up with some other ideas but I think going for the large planter was the best idea so we had a little more choice for an area where we can control the nutrients better. In there I have put a dwarf conifer, a spring heather, an autumn heather and a fushia for a bit of year round colour. I added a couple of pansies to fill the space until it all establishes a bit. The tin bucket came ready planted from homebase and has a nice little selection in. I'll add something else to it next year when the annuals have gone, maybe some bulbs.

The tub and the blue pot aren't quite finished yet as I have some tumbling tomatoes, a courgette and a chilli pepper plant to go out as soon as the frost risk passes so the little corner will be able to (hopefully) supplement our diet a little too. I think I can probably squeeze in a little pot of cut and come again salad leaves somewhere too.

Of course as soon as I finished, tidied away, put the table and chairs out and put the kettle on a large cloud danced its way firmly over the sun so I shall have to wait for another day to enjoy it.

Anyone else been busy in the garden this weekend?

Nature Day

We woke up this morning hopeful. The forecast had been good and we hoped it would be right. Sunshine and outside have not been happening often enough for my family and we were all feeling the strain of a too long winter in our own ways.
But glory glory it was BEAUTIFUL today in our corner of the world. We had brunch (to keep lunch costs down) then leapt in our car and snuck over the border to Suffolk (I am a Suffolk girl and miss living there - Cambridgeshire is cool but...) to West Stow country park.

The kids played while we lounged at the wonderful play area then we had a snack and headed off on a little walk along the river.

We saw some amazing trees. I think the woodland there must be absolutely ancient. I need to send these pictures to Kat Goldin because the next issue of The Crochet Project is going to be titled Woodland Whimsy and I can just see the models posing next to something like these.

We pocked around under some log piles hunting for mini-beasts and found earwigs, woodlice, millipedes and centepedes galore. 

We peered into the water and realised that not all the stones were stones... 

...some of them were frogs enjoying the sunshine in the shallows. Some of them were enjoying the sunshine rather a lot as the kids discovered the frogs were "giving each other piggy backs"

Long may they remain this innocent...

...and long may the sun decide to stay.

Lucky

I don't enter very many blog giveaways so not surprising I haven't won anything before so I was deligted to find out I had won the giveaway of Jeanette Sloan's blog because I really wanted the prize. Badly. She was giving away a book that I knew would be most useful: Knitting Masterclass by the team behind The Knitter. It arrived in the post today and Jeanette very kindly threw in a ball of her sumptuous Baby Alpaca/Silk 4ply. This is one buttery soft yarn and I am amazed I am able to concentrate with it sat next to me on the desk calling me to have a play with it. I think I may be in love. (look how it glows in the photo!)

I have had a chance to have a little flick through the book and it is really good. Now I have a ton of knitting technique design books and I am not sure it covers anything that isn't covered in Principles of Knitting BUT (and it is a big but) this book is WAY more accessible. It doesn't patronise and it doesn't preach it just clearly takes you step by step in a nice conversational style with great photo tutorials through some of the trickiest bits of knitting. I have been knitting a fair old while but much of this material is new to me and a lot of the tips will improve my work and speed no end. Each lesson comes with a beautiful pattern to accompany the skill. I think there is only one in the whole book that isn't quite to my taste. Wonderful book. I feel very very lucky to have won it!

FULL DISCLOSURE: I won this book in a competition. I was not asked to review it but have done so because I believe it is fantastic. The yarn was a gift from Jeanette and I was not asked to review it (but I will once I have had a play.)