Pattern Monday #3

 This baby could not look any more Scottish, unless it was playing bagpipes. Made of haggis.

Some sewing, finally! Plus Christmas Crafting

 Recently I had another go at making Simplicity 2593, a Cynthia Rowley top with an interesting twisted neckline that I had previously made back in May this year. You can read my full review back in that post.

This time I used a black cotton with an unusual 'burn out' pattern, but it's not actually see through once on. I loved that the texture added a bit of interest to an otherwise plain fabric.

I really love the neckline on the top - such a simple but effective feature which gives the blouse a sculptural look.

Apologies for mad hair - this is what happens when I'm too lazy to dry it properly!

Here I have paired the blouse with a green wool skirt I bought from a vintage shop a couple of years ago. I love the colour but didn't wear it much last year as I realised that it was a little long and consequently a bit frumpy, as I often wear flat shoes to work. I finally got round to taking up the length to a more flattering one, and now it's firmly back in the Winter wardrobe.

I have also made a start on my Christmas crafting, and posted about it on the Crafty Christmas Club blog. HOWEVER please do not look at the blog if you are going to be getting a present from me (including a blog swap - hi Sian!).

I've been trying to catch up with my blog photography today but I was fighting a losing battle by only a quarter past three!

K x

Rhinestones & Telephones Guest Post

This week I wrote a guest post for on Rhinestones & Telephones, about Handy Knitting Gadgets. Sarah has been featuring posts from a range of fabulous bloggers and I was honoured to be asked to contribute. Do check out her blog!

I feel that I haven't featured any finished objects here for a long time, but just like every other blogger, photography is proving to be a challenge due to the evenings getting dark so early. I promise I have been making things! I'm hoping to take loads of photos this weekend so I can share some handmade things with you soon.

K x

Pattern Monday #2

"Just make the best of it, son. At least we're warm"

Big thanks to the lovely Miss P for providing this week's pattern picture. Cheers Portia! I think I might be a little envious of how cosy those balaclavas look. Maybe someone could bring them back into fashion?

K x

Awesome Crochet (plus my own first efforts)

Image from here

If crochet has never taken your fancy, these amazing crochetdermy animals by Shauna Richardson will surely change your mind. When I was in London recently I visited the Power of Making exhibition at the V&A. It's not an enormous show but it's packed full of objects of all kinds, from leather shoes to furniture, spun sugar sculptures and an amazing life-size crocheted bear.

 Image from here

It was great to see such diverse crafts treated equally and there are some fascinating videos of makers at work. I would definitely recommend checking out the show if you're in London.

Last week I made my own beginnings with crocheting too. I went to a one-off evening class where we learnt double and triple crochet, and how to make a granny square.

Ta dah! My first granny square (so proud)

I really enjoyed it and can see how granny squares in particular could be a really soothing activity. Now I've got a taste for crochet, you can expert to read more about it here. I won't be abandoning my beloved sticks in favour of the hook, but crochet certainly has its advantages - speed and simplicity being two. Although I wasn't interested in crochet for a long time, I've seen so many lovely crocheted items on blogs I follow that made me realise I had to learn.

Do you crochet? Have you got any tips you can pass on?

K x

Cheerful Crockery

I was delighted to snag a whole set of this crockery in a charity shop a couple of weeks ago. For the bargain price of £9.99 I got - 6 dinner plates, 6 side plates, 6 tea plates, 6 cereal bowls, a gravy jug and 2 large serving plates. It was one of those times where I didn't buy it when I first saw it - I spotted it on a Saturday then spent a weekend thinking about it and had to call the shop on Monday morning to make sure it was still there so they could reserve it for me. Luckily it was!

I absolutely love the pattern and how cheerful it is. I love using it as my every day crockery. The design is called Topic, made by J & G Meakin. They have some gorgeous retro ceramic designs which pop up quite often in charity shops, though I've never seen such a complete set. In such good condition it was just too good to miss out on. Have a look here to see some of their other designs from the same era. This particular design dates to 1967. It's not to unusual a pattern so I should be able to pick up matching bits and pieces in the future too. Always nice to have something to look out for!

K x

Introducing....Pattern Mondays!

 

(Note: only suitable for real men who play darts and drink beer)

Following the very positive response to the vintage pattern pictures I posted during November Knit Week, I have decided to make it a regular, weekly feature. Every Monday I will post a picture for your interest and amusement, to celebrate the weird and wonderful world of knitting patterns and pattern photography.

However I can't do this alone - I need your help, dear blog readers! If you have any pictures you'd like to share please get in touch using the comments or email me at kestrelmail@gmail.com. You will of course be credited for your contributions. The pictures don't always have to be funny, just of interest in some way. Maybe they perfectly represent a particular era or show a childhood knitted item you particularly loved (or hated!). I'd love to hear any stories you might have about the pattern pictures you send.

I've already received my first pattern picture contribution, which I will be featuring next week, so be sure to check back next Monday.

K x

Knit Week Giveaway Winner

Hi All

Hope you've had a nice weekend. Mine was slightly scuppered by a hideous headache/possible virus that started on Friday night and continued through Saturday, meaning that my sewing plans didn't happen. Still, I got a little bit of knitting done and got to watch a lot of Poirot and Miss Marple, so it wasn't all bad.

 

So, the winner of the giveaway commenter number 6 - TANIA! Congratulations Tania - please email me on kestrelmail@gmail.com with your address and I'll put your prize in the post for you.

And for all you vintage pattern fans out there, I'm pleased to say that I have another couple of knitting pattern giveaways lined up, plus some exciting news tomorrow - stay tuned!

K x

Giveaway Reminder & Wovember

 

Hello All!

I'm back at home following a couple of trips away in London and Northern Ireland. I've been catching up on my blog reading so thought I'd remind you that you have until Sunday to enter the knitting giveaway. I will announce the winners on Sunday evening.

I also wanted to draw your attention to Wovember, a month-long celebration of all things woollen with the aim of increasing awareness about woollen fabrics. Wovember is the brainchild of Kate Davies and Felicity Ford and the blog includes loads of interesting information about wool, its history and uses. The have a Hall of Shame, highlighting some examples of high street retailers who list garments as containing wool or being made of wool, when in fact no wool has been involved. Naughty! And very misleading for the consumer. How will people appreciate wool if they think that their cheapo acrylic high street sweater is made of wool? Linked to this is a petition aimed at encouraging clearer labelling of products containing wool:

We the undersigned believe that:

1. In the world of contemporary fashion and retail, WOOL, together with the skills, crafts and labour involved in its production, is currently being devalued through widespread misuse of the words and qualities associated with it.

2. Consumers are being misled, and ignorance about WOOL is being promoted, through spurious branding, marketing and product descriptions.

We agree that:
1. A garment should not be described as ‘wool’ or turn up with the search-term ‘wool’ or ‘wool rich’ unless its sheep’s wool content is more than 50%.

2. A garment with a sheep’s wool content of between 20% and 50% should only be described with the term ‘wool mix’ or ‘wool blend’ (ie not ‘wool’ or ‘wool rich’).

3. The word WOOL should refer to sheep’s wool only, and there should be a clarification of trading standards to distinguish between different animal fibres (angora, alpaca, cashmere, and so on) which also possess their own unique properties, qualities and cachet.

4. When a garment’s fabric is composed of mixed fibres with a sheep’s wool content of less than 50%, the word YARN should be used in place of wool when describing its composition.

5. Constituent fibres of a fabric should always be listed in proprortionate, descending order on a garment label, and only the first two constituent fibres should be used in the product title, marketing, or description (eg, if a garment is made up of 50% viscose, 30% cotton, 20% polyamide, 5% angora and 5% wool, only viscose and cotton should be used in the product title, marketing, or description.).

(Taken from petition here)

Another part of Wovember is a competition, with prizes supplied by Jamieson & Smith, for photographs that encapsulate the idea of 100% wool. I've entered, and there are lots of great photographs in the gallery.

If you love wool, do have a look and sign the petition 

K x

NKW#14 - Knitting GIVEAWAY

 
It's the final post of November Knit Week. I hope you have enjoyed the week of knitting-dedicated posts, and found something to interest, inform or inspire you. I have loved putting the posts together, and thank you to everyone who has contributed and commented. It's been great to hear from regular readers and new commenters alike. Now, as promised, it's the Giveaway!

The giveaway consists of 3 elements:

 

1. 2 x 50g balls of Rowan Tapestry in colourway Lakeland (softly graduated blues). This is a DK weight yarn. I used the same type (less than one ball) for my wave neckwarmer 

2. A handy metal knitting needle gauge with both old UK and metric sizes

3. A selection of 7 vintage patterns:

• Sleeveless jumper in 3 ply, 4 ply or DK in bust 32 - 40 inches
• Selection of 3 sweaters in DK in 32 - 42 inch bust
• 4 ply sweater in 30 to 40 inch bust
• Lacy Cardigan in DK to fit 38 - 40 inch bust

• Classic Shetland Lace Shawl in 2 ply
• Man's sweater in chunky - 38 - 42 inch chest
• Sleeveless lace top with bow in DK to fit 34 - 40 inch bust

I hope the giveaway offers something for everyone. Personally, I love the green lace cardigan (I have the same pattern so that's the only reason I could part with this copy!) and the yellow lace sleeveless top with the cute bow. Plus, the traditional Shetland shawl pattern is so beautiful.

How to Enter

1.  Be a follower of the blog
2. Leave a comment below, including what your favourite part of November Knit Week has been

The winner will be announced next Sunday evening (13th November) and entrants are welcome from everywhere - I will post worldwide.

Good luck!

K x

NKW#13 - Vintage Pattern Picture of the Day

Final picture of the week! I hope you have enjoyed the weird and wonderful selection....

This is the face of a woman who has to deal with an uncooperative donkey. Note the small carrot in the hand which is planted firmly on her hip.

K x

NKW#12 - Caring for your Supplies and Knitted Items

We're very nearly at the end of November Knit Week, so today I wanted to talk about how to look after your knitting supplies and your finished garments. I will be talking about small beasts, which is not very nice. But I encourage you to read, for the good of your wool....

Yarn

Most of us knitters have stashes of yarn. When storing yarn, you want to ensure that it is going to be kept clean, dry and free from any pests, ready to use whenever you want to start a project. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you might know that I had an issue with finding a pesky carpet beetle in some knitting I had abandoned in our sideboard. Carpet Beetles love to eat natural fibres, including wool and silk. Another common and similarly destructive pest is the moth. Like carpet beetles they have a taste for the finer things in life, making a bee moth line for your beloved natural fibres.

Wool damaged by a carpet beetle (look here if you want to see the bugger what did it)

How do you prevent pests in your wool stash?

Beetles and moths want somewhere dark, warm and undisturbed, with plenty of delicious natural fibres to munch. A good way to store wool is in plastic containers with lids. However you should still inspect your stash regularly to make sure that something you haven't seen before has developed. If you are going to be very thorough you could put every new fabric and fibre that enters your home in your freezer before storing it normally. However this is a little extreme. Freezing is a good way to get rid of any eggs. This is one way that museums treat affected objects in their collections and the same can be done in your home freezer. Just place the item in a plastic bag and put in the freezer for a couple of weeks, if possible.

How do you identify pests in your wool stash?

You might see the beasts themselves - perhaps a moth larvae or a carpet beetle. Carpet beetles also leave 'casts' of their skin, so look out for those too. One telltale sign when looking at wool is if there are any broken fibres on the surface of the ball of wool. Look at this ball of wool, purchased from a charity shop:

Munched wool

Can you see how there are broken fibres, where the wool has been chewed? This is a warning sign that there could be nasties inside. If you find wool like this in your stash, throw it in the bin and then freeze any wool which has been sitting near it. It's also something to look out for if buying wool from charity shops. Both moths and carpet beetles will be attracted to fibres that are soiled, which may be the case with charity shop wool. In my experience it's usually chucked in a box on the floor, and you don't know where it's been before it reached the shop. I'm not say never buy charity shop wool, but do be aware! You can read more about moths and getting rid of them here and here and about carpet beetles here.

Paranoid now? I hope not! I know talking about pests isn't very nice but I haven't seen in tackled on any other blogs I read. Don't let your lovely stashes fall prey to beasties!

Needles

I have a lot of knitting needles - nearly 50 pairs/sets. The best way I've found to keep track of my needles is by using the needles and hooks inventory on Ravelry.  Here you can enter all straight, double pointed and circular needles and easily check that you have the right size needles for a project. You can also print out the chart - this would be really handy to keep in your purse if you were looking to build up a collection of knitting needles, and looking in charity shops to do so.

A few months ago I sorted out my needles, organising them into sizes and types and labelling any on which the sizes have worn off.

  

All organised!

This bring me on to needle types. I prefer to knit with wooden needles rather than metal. Wooden needles feel nice in the hand and aren't too slippy so that your stitches slip off - I find this happens especially with metal double pointed needles. My favourite needles are a pair of 4mm straight needles in rosewood. They cost £10 which I know is a lot for 1 pair of needles, but are so nice to knit with.

That being said - for me a major risk of wooden needles is this:

Acts of cat

I try my best to tidy my needles away, but few pairs remain unmolested by small kitty teeth marks. *Sigh*. Wooden needles are generally more vulnerable to damage.

Metal needles are cheaper, fairly robust and plentiful. If shopping for charity shop needles, mostly metal with some plastic will tend to be what you find. This can be a great way to build up your needle collection when starting out - they tend to be cheap and you might even get some nice knitting chat from an old lady as you rummage through the pot of needles to look for a matching pair!

Two major things to check for with metal needles is that your needles are straight and that the painted covering at the pointed end is intact. I know from experience that you will wince every time you use the needles otherwise.

As you gather up a collection of needles you may have an assortment labelled with different sizes - British, American, Metric or even unlabelled. One really handy tool to help you sort out your needles is a needle gauge:

Mine was invaluable in my recent reorganisation.

Finished Items

Just like your wool stash, your finished hand knits are vulnerable to pest damage. If items are shoved to the back of drawers, stored under beds, at the back of cupboards, these dark, quiet places are perfect for bugs to get stuck in. Similar storage principles apply - try and check items regularly (every month or so), use moth-repellent products. Make sure garments are clean before you put them away - clothes which are soiled or sweat stained are particularly attractive to pests.

 Image from here - showing moth damage along with 2 case bearing moths. They make cases around themselves using the material they are eating - it would be quite cute if they weren't so evil and destructive!

More generally, you should try and launder and mend hand knits before storing them away - you'll be grateful for it when you bring out your hand knits in the cold weather!

How do you organise and store your knitting supplies? I hope some of today's post has been helpful - do come back tomorrow for the giveaway!

K x

NKW#11 - Vintage Pattern Picture of the Day

Combined bobble hat and beard warmer? YES.

K x

NKW#10 - The Vintage Queen: Interview with Tasha Moss

The fantastically-coordinated Tasha

Tasha blogs over at By Gum, By Golly!, sharing her love of all things vintage, including her passion for vintage knitwear. If you don't already follow her blog, be sure to check out her amazing creations. She was kind enough to answer some questions for the Knit Week - Thanks Tasha!

Tasha, please can you tell us about when you learned to knit.

I learned to knit over Christmas 2005, I think. About a year before I had taught myself to crochet from a booklet I purchased at Wal-Mart (of all places) during a vacation, when I wanted a new craft to try out. Not long later my mom started knitting again after a 20 year hiatus. I swore up and down I’d never be able to figure out how to knit, it looked too hard and too complicated compared to crochet, but she somehow managed to convince me to let her teach me. And here we are today!

 Pink Elephants on Parade Sweater

Why do you knit – what do you enjoy about it?

That’s a hard one to answer! I love the rhythm of knitting and how soothing it can be. It’s a great stress reliever and a great thing to do with your hands. I can knit on the bus, I can knit watching a movie, or on an airplane. Any few spare minutes, if I’d like, I can pull out knitting. I love that about it. But there are so many other aspects of the knitting itself that I enjoy.... planning projects, selecting colors and types of yarn, making my own alterations to patterns. I just love everything about it.

What are your favourite things to knit – items/garments and techniques to use?

While I love all sorts of things, I’m a sweater knitter first and foremost. If I had to pick one type of thing to knit exclusively for the rest of my life, it would be sweaters.
I love to try out different techniques! Knitting sleeves from the top down using short row shaping for the sleeve caps, knit-in button bands, i-cord and picot edging, you name it. And I’m always excited to try something new.

Vintage Star Cardigan

 
How do you feel about knitting for friends and family? Do you love it, dread it, or somewhere in between?!

I admit, I’m kind of a selfish knitter! I knit because I love it, and I knit mostly for myself. I admire people who knit for friends, family or charity, but I’ve never understood why it seems like knitters are often expected to knit for others. Some people literally seem appalled to find out you’re knitting something for yourself! I’ve never gotten that feeling nearly as much with other crafts. I do knit for my loved ones on occasion, but it’s few and far between.

What knitting resources do you find invaluable – books or online (or people!)?
I wouldn’t be the knitter I am today without lots of resources, online and otherwise! In terms of books, one of my favorites technique books is a little booklet called The I Hate to Finish Sweaters’ Guide to Finishing Sweaters by Janet Szabo. It covers so many things that I had a hard time finding information on when I first started knitting sweaters.

Online, I have founds the Ravelry forums to be infinitely helpful. There is something really powerful in having a group of strangers tell you “really, it’s not so hard-- just try {insert new-to-you technique here}”. You can find all sorts of information by doing a key word search of all the forums. Seaming, set-in sleeves, different cast on methods, you name it, it’s there. If someone isn’t explaining the answer, they’re pointing people somewhere that does. And because you can write as much as you’d like in your Notes section of each of your projects, I often use that space to document things I’d like to remember about a project that may help me in the future, thus making myself my own resource, sometimes!  firmly believe I wouldn’t be the knitter I am today without Ravelry and bloggers who have taken the time to document certain aspects of knitting. And YouTube is a particularly great resource for those techniques that really benefit from video instruction. (I recently got a video camera to try it out myself!)

Pepperminty Cardigan

Do you have any knitting triumphs and disasters you'd like to share?

Here’s a disaster! I once knit a super bulky weight raglan cardigan and discovered as I was nearing the neckline that one of the sleeves would have had my arm sticking out from the front of my body, not the side. In my haste to finish it (since it was such a quick knit I wasn’t being that careful, clearly), I totally screwed up where I connected one of the sleeves. I had several sweaters under my belt at that point, too! All I could do was laugh at myself.

Can you tell us about how you got started 'knitting vintage', and about your experience with vintage patterns?

My first vintage pattern was a Bow Knot scarf a few years ago. It was a fun and easy knit, and I think it showed me that knitting with vintage patterns wasn’t necessarily any different than knitting with modern patterns. I knit my first sweater from a vintage pattern about a year later. I love knitting vintage because my personal style is vintage. So of course as a knitter who loves vintage, my bent is towards vintage patterns. There are so many outstanding vintage knitting patterns, but the trouble can be that the patterns themselves are often tedious to knit. Frequently colorwork is not charted, lace sequences are pretty much never charted, and patterns only have 1 or 2 sizes and everything is seamed and worked flat. Yes, there are patterns that aren’t like that. One of my favorite alternatives you sometimes find in vintage colorwork patterns is using a grid for the entire sweater, which is genius. But most of the patterns from the 1930s through the 1950s follow a format where everything is written out line by line and the entire pattern is knit flat. All of these things can be changed with enough legwork, if you’re so inclined. Which I usually am!

 Michelene Sweater

That all being said, I also enjoy modern patterns because I find some of the newer designers explore some fabulously interesting techniques that vintage patterns don’t usually use. So sometimes I find myself knitting something that isn’t that close to my style simply because it’s just so much fun!

Can you tell us about your Vintage Knitting College?

I read a ton of crafty blogs, and I’m always impressed the amount of people sewing with vintage patterns and talking about the details on their blogs. But for those who want to knit from vintage patterns, well, there’s not nearly as much of a wealth of knowledge. By no means do I consider myself an expert on the subject, but I have worked really hard to find ways to make vintage patterns a little easier to work with. So I thought it would be fun to have one place where I could share all of my tips and tricks. I really enjoyed running a vintage knit-along this spring, during which I delved into a lot of detailed resizing information. That’s when I first really thought about the idea of having a place where, over time, I could present a wide range of topics that would be appropriate for vintage knitters. Resizing patterns, beginning colorwork (colorwork patterns form the 1940s are absolutely fantastic!), learning more skills that can speed up your knitting such as working in the round and steeks. Some are techniques that a knitter back in the day would have known herself, some are more typically modern techniques that can be applied to vintage patterns.

I’m starting it off by documenting all of the steps I’m going to take in knitting a stranded fair isle pattern from the 40s. It will run the gamut from basics like how to work with two balls of yarn and how to pick colors for a vintage look, all the way up to the somewhat advanced technique of planning out steeks, aka cutting your knitting to avoid knitting flat.

My plan with VKC over time is to organize it by topic and approximate skill level, since the same project might involve a variety of skills. That way people don’t have to feel like one project is too advanced for them to follow, but they can pick and choose what topics they’d like to read about. I’m still hashing out ideas for it, so it will definitely grow and get more organized over time!

 

Fairisle Beret

What do you know now that you wish you'd known when you started knitting?

Great question. In hindsight, I wish I would have known that the most basic knitting skills can carry you into a huge variety of projects. You don’t have to knit 30 garter stitch scarves if you don’t want to. By all means, do if that’s what makes you happy, because that’s all that really matters! But if you aspire to knit sweaters, or knit socks, or knit shawls, don’t be afraid to try new things early on. Ultimately it’s all just based on knit stitches and purl stitches, anyway. Just go slowly, and if you need to look up techniques along the way, there are tons of resources online to help you. Don’t ever say “I’m not advanced enough yet to do that”. You never know until you try! :)

NKW#9 Vintage Pattern Picture of the Day

 

There is so much to say about this, but also, there are no words.

K x

NKW#8 - Tips for Successful Knitting Projects

Planning a knitting project is really exciting – deciding on your pattern, selecting your wool and starting to knit, full of excitement about the item you are going to create. Today I am going to share a few tips on how to make sure your projects go smoothly from start to finish...

       Choosing a pattern

• Don't be put off by something looking too difficult – challenge yourself and give it a go. You can learn new techniques along the way. There is an abundance of advice available online too.
  
  
• Consider when and where you like to knit. Are you looking for something to occupy your hands and help you unwind? Maybe rows of stockinette are just what you need. Do you want something absorbing? Try colour work or something with stitch or cable patterns that demand that you pay attention. Do you like to knit on the train or bus? A small portable project (socks, sections of a items which get sewn together) is what you need - a top down raglan sweater knitted in the round is going to be a huge pain to carry about!
  
  
  

  

  Yarn

• Make sure you have enough for the project and that is from the same dyelot, as dyelot colours can vary noticeably. If using a different yarn from the type given in the pattern make sure it is of the right weight but also that the yardage/metrage matches with the pattern, not just the number of balls/skeins advised.
• Make sure it is the right type of yarn for the project - cotton behaves very differently from wool. Read Kristen's comprehensive post about fibre types to learn more.
• Make a gauge swatch. It seems like a pain but is so worthwhile to make sure you are knitting within the recommend parameters of the pattern. It also allows you to see how the wool looks when it is knitted up.
• Buy the best you can afford. Make sure you love the yarn – you won't end up loving and wearing the item otherwise.
  
  

   

  
  Needles

• Make sure you have the right size needles for you to achieve the recommended gauge. Some patterns may recommend up to 3 or 4 needle sizes, as rib is usually knit on smaller needles than the main body of a garment, or a circular knitting project might recommend double pointed needles as well as circular if the number of stitches gets small.
• When you're starting out it can add a lot to the cost of a project to buy needles - read the pattern carefully and make sure that you have the needle size used most often in the garment. You will want to check your gauge with this before buying a whole host of needles that end up being wrong for the project.
  
  

   

Knitting your Pattern

Read the pattern through before beginning.

• This will give you an idea of what you'll be tackling and what you might need. Maybe you don't even need the smaller gauge of needles till the end of the project so you start knitting without having to buy everything in one go at the beginning, spreading the cost.
• A read through will also give you an idea of how it will be to knit – is there a cable pattern repeat that is easily memorised? Great! You can knit away quickly. Will you need to have the pattern in front of you at all times to negotiate difficult stitch or colour work? Fine – but it's good to think about that before you commit to the project! Do you hate sewing pieces together? Try something you can knit in the round – it can always be converted to be knit the way even if the pattern is written for knitting flat.
  
  

  

   Handmade mittens (£2 charity shop purchase)

  
  

Tricky Patches

• Sometimes you will get fed up of your knitting. This might be because the pattern is boring or difficult or you don't feel like you're getting very far. No problem - try something new. Knitting is supposed to be fun and a hobby after all!

• It can be really useful to have more than one project on the go at one time. Different projects have different virtues – socks are great portable items, a jumper with rows of stockinette can be knit in front of the TV without having to pay too much attention to your hands, multi-ball fairisle needs a bit of space to lay out wool and pattern, aran and bulky items knit up quickly for a satisfying result. There is a knitting project to suit every mood.

• It's ok to still buy knitted items! Although this gets harder when you can knit to a decent level, you probably won't have time to knit everything you want. I find that being able to knit has given me a real appreciation for hand knitted items I find in charity shops, although I can't bring myself to spend £42 in Topshop on a cardigan that is 90% acrylic and 10% wool.

What tips and tricks have you picked up along the way, to ensure your projects turn out the way you want?

K x

NKW#7 Vintage Pattern Picture of the Day

Directions for Photo Shoot

1. Sit man on plank of wood
2. Man tickles lady under the chin with ear of corn
3. Taxidermy looms in from left
4. Shoot complete

K x

NKW#6 - The Knit Master: Interview with Kristen Orme

Kristen in her knitting nook 

Today I am delighted to present an interview with Kristen Orme of kristenmakes. Kristen's was one of the first knitting blogs I started reading and if you follow her blog you'll know she's been a busy bee of late, with an internship-turned-design assistant job with knitwear designer Di Gilpin. Not to mention her recently completed MA in Fashion &Textiles Design (now you see what the post title means, eh!).

I met up with Kristen last weekend for some yarn and fabric shopping - the first time we had met in real life! We had a lovely time and were very disciplined in our purchases, with only a modest spend each in the fabulous Yarn Cake. Without further ado, let's find out more about Kristen:

Please can you tell us about when you learned to knit...

My stages of learning in knit seem to align with the different phases of my life. The first time I learned how to knit was while I was in high school. After the success of my mother’s teaching me to sew, I requested she teach me to knit. Being a knitter who jams the needle between her arm and her side, my mother’s way of knitting (and as far as I knew at the time that was the only way of knitting) was no fun for me.

A year or so later in my college years, my aunt re-taught me, and that time it stuck but still I only dabbled, making a few scarves here and there but not more beyond that. When my husband and I married and moved to Pennsylvania, being away from friends and family in a colder climate (we’d come from Florida) was very conducive for knitting, and I picked it up much more heavily, teaching myself new methods and trying out tricky patterns. It was a few years later that we moved to Edinburgh that I began to experiment in designing and writing patterns.

Why do you knit what do you enjoy about it?

Originally I really loved making things, taking a written pattern and making it my own, to suit my own uses. However, now I have so many knitted hats/scarves/mittens/jumpers/shawls that I don’t really need any more woolly items. As such I’ve begun to focus on and appreciate the process more than the ‘end-product,’ although a newly-blocked item still gives me great joy. My hands are addicted to being kept busy. More so, I love learning new techniques and methods.

I’ve really come to appreciate the organic quality of knitting in which fabric and garment are made simultaneously. With the right shaping calculations and fabric design, you do more than just create material: you create item. I love seeing a seamless garment growing beneath my fingers. It is incredibly satisfying. Investigating this, my most recent hand-knit design is a jumper that can be turned inside out and also worn back to front. Playing around with the idea of right and wrong side of the fabric, there is no one right way to wear it.

Multi Way Jumper designed by Kristen

What are your favourite things to knit items/garments and techniques to use?

I was gobsmacked when years ago I first stumbled onto Elizabeth Zimmerman and circular/seamless knitting as it was so efficient. While I still love that aspect, I also developed an affinity for sock-knitting. Portable, easy, quick, I always have a pair of socks on the needles somewhere.

Butterfly Socks

Specific techniques that still get me in a tizzy are the provisional cast-on and Judy’s magic cast-on; and of course, nothing beats the way a woollen garment response to a steaming iron. I’m not sure if that counts as a ‘technique’ however.

How do you feel about knitting for friends and family? Do you love it, dread it, or somewhere in between?!

Somewhere in-between. If someone requests something specific, even if I’m keen to knit it, the fact that the item is requested and expected stress me out as an obligation. That being said, I LOVE surprising people with knitted goods. For my sister-in-law’s birthday this year, I told her I was going to knit her a jumper and gave her a few options of patterns I thought she would like. She was super excited and chose Kate Davies’ Owls. I enjoyed every minute of knitting it, knowing how perfect it was for her and how I was able to surprise her with this. Even though she knew about it, since the knitting of it for her was my conception I was more than happy to make and give it to her. You can see how excited she is about the completed jumper below and the look on her face makes me want to do it all over again!

Kristen's delighted sister-in-law in Owls

What knitting resources do you find invaluable - books or online (or people!)?

Online videos for sure. That is how I added loads of different techniques into my knitting arsenal in Pennsylvania. Knittinghelp.com

Do you have any knitting triumphs and disasters you'd like to share?

My disaster was a necessary but painful learning experience. My first ‘real’ knitted garment has long since been handed off to the charity shop circuit. All was wrong about that project for me: fibre choice (acrylic), colour choice (bright orange), design choice (although a lovely shawl collar cardigan, it did not suit my warm Florida needs), pattern choice (being that it was not as clearly written as a novice knitter might require), and of course swatching for gauge and checking for consistent gauge (I ended up with arms that did not fit armholes and longer fronts than back). I learned a lot from that mess and realised after two desperate attempts to wear it and prove to myself it was a success I gave in and let go. I still wonder where it is and whether it found someone else to love it more than I.

 The orange cardi

I also have had an accidental knitting triumph where my second or third knitted garment – although knitted and fitting perfectly – wasn’t really something that felt that rewarding. However, perhaps because it was a good specimen of my growing knitting skill, I could not discard it like I did the last disaster. And somehow over the years, that jumper has become one of my favourites. I grew to love the blousy fit and cream colour that I once was bored by, and I am so glad that my instincts forced me to hold on to it.

 Thermal Sweater

You've recently completed an MA in Fashion & Textiles Design. Can you tell us about your studies, and how it has affected/developed your knitting?

My MA studies drew me to sustainable and slow fashion. While I read more about waste in fast fashion, it made me recognise another reason why I love knit: to make and have a unique, quality item that has been planned for and suits your wardrobe needs perfectly. As a result, I am much more critical in my knitting choices. I step back from starting the next whimsy that I fancy, and take some time to plan and evaluate how it fits into my life.

I would also say that I was surprised at how rather my hand-knitting affected my MA work. I didn’t initially think much on what my focus would be at uni and even pondered dabbling with weave for a change. I ended up unable to give up knit and wanted to learn more about machine-knitting. My obsession with shaping and seamlessness in my hand-knitting infiltrated my thought process when approaching the world of machine-knit. In many ways you can do more with hand-knitting than machine-knitting, and my approach was to figure out how to translate a hand-knit technique into machine-knit. I kept asking ‘is this possible, and how?’ As such I experimented with a lot more different techniques that I would have done if I were learning without the basic understanding of the structure of knit. What resulted in my submission was one re-workable knitted garment concept. I wanted to prove how knit is so well-suited for slow design, as there are so many things you can do in it, how it can create a meaningful garment with multiple purposes.

Reversible Dress designed by Kristen as part of her MA

What do you know now that you wish you'd known when you started knitting?

I don’t think I would change anything about the drawn-out process that got me where I am now in my knitting. Every mistake was a lesson learned. I think the foibles and discoveries along the way cause me to appreciate the craft more.

I'd like to say a big thank you to Kristen for taking part in November Knit Week. Aren't her multi-way designs fantastic?!

K x