New Collection: As Autumn Falls

Autumn is my favourite season, and October one of my favourite months.  I adore the changing colour of the trees, the rapid change from peaceful green to burning reds, oranges & yellows.  As I've mentioned before, we chose our flat because of how close to the Kelvin & botanic garden it is, a lovely river which flows almost unnoticed in the west end of Glasgow through leafy green avenues, passing by a wonderful arboretum. 

I'm not sure if people really realise the arboretum is there, it's always lovely and quiet, even on the warmest of sunny days, tucked away across the road at the back of the botanic gardens.

It's from this changing of seasons, from the turning of the leaves and the crispy drop in temperature, that the Autumn collection is derived (here on rav). 

Front centre of "Baile" cardigan, as below

Comprised of a golden brown/orange cardigan - Baile, two gorgeous hats inspired by hay bales and golden twigs - Bulgurwheat & Slipthatch, and last but certainly not least, the Emmer shawl - a slightly more sombre pink/brown shawl, inspired by empty stalks and leafless branches. 

The entire collection is knitted in beautiful malabrigo yarns; a super soft merino for the shawl, superwash merino for cardigan (sensible), and silky soft merino/silk for the lighterweight hat with a single spun worsted beauty for the heavier weight hat.

Emmer- I wanted emmer to be loghtweight but warm, so used twisted stitches and occasional yarn overs to add detail to this delicate but robust shawl.  Using 150g of 4ply, it's just the right size for wrapping around your shoulder when those cold October winds begin to blow!

 

Baile - I wanted this cardigan to look complex whilst being very simple to knit, and think we've managed!  The front panels are a short repeat, easily knitted with only basic knowledge of ssk, k2tog and yo. 

Charts are written out as well, so if confused you can always use both!  

Slipthatch - this hat blocked beautifully.  The woven stitch creates a dense fabric in this worsted yarn - this hat is toasty!!  It's inspited by hay bales and thatched rooves and warm autumnal fun.

 

Bulgurwheat - after that toaster of a hat I needed something more delicate - how about one which reminds me of bare stems and golden stems of flowers long gone? 

 

On Ravelry the patterns are individually priced.  £9 for the 4-piece collection - I think ravelry adds tax to this depending on where you are! 

If there's enough interest, maybe we could run a wee knit-along in the Ravelry group? 

Which new item is your favourite??  What's your favourite time of year, and if it's Autumn, is it for different reasons to me?

DIY: Kitchener Stitch

Kitchener stitch is a method by which to join two live edges of your knitting.  It's particularly useful for top-down socks, because it doesn't leave a bothersome seam at your toes.  I also use it at shoulders, because this technique gives an almost invisible finish, making the shoulder look like one continuous piece of knitting.  It's not the strongest seam, but I've yet to have any issues with my shoulders unravelling...

To do this technique, you'll need to get set up with:
tapestry/yarn needle
two sets of live stitches on their respective needles, wrong sides facing, with needle points facing the same direction

The first few times you use kitchener stitch you might feel like the tension is completely off, or that it's incredibly uneven.  This will probably just improve with practice, but a good tip is to remember not to pull your stitches too tight - there's a great draw to do this, but don't give in!

Starting - for the first st on each side you want to do the following:

Hold your wrong sides together, with needle points facing the same direction.
1. pop tapestry needle through 1st stitch on closest needle, purlwise.  Pull needle and yarn though, but leave the stitch on the needle.
2. pop needle through first st on back needle, knitwise. Again, leave st on needle and pull yarn through.

 

Continuing - for the rest of the stitches until the ones on the end, you'll want to do this:

1. Needle into first st on front needle, knitwise.  Slip stitch off needle. 

2. Needle into next st on front needle, purlwise.  Don't slip stitch off needle.  Pull yarn through. 

3. Needle into first st on back needle, purlwise.  Slip st off needle.

4. Needle into next st on back needle, knitwise.  Don't slip stitch off needle. Pull yarn through.

Repeat until 1st remains on each needle.

As you knit, your work will start to look like this in the image below - with a little practice your seam should look like just another row of knitting.  Pause every so often to adjust tension in your stitches, you can always do them loose individually and tighten them at regular intervals by pulling on your working yarn as required.

You want to keep kitchener-ing until you have one st left on each needle.

For your final stitches, you want to do step 1, then step 3 above. 
Now you have all the joy of sewing in your ends left.



Hopefully this was helpful!
I have a new DK cardigan pattern coming out on 1st October which uses this technique - please let me know (owlprintpanda@gmail.com) if you'd like to test-knit!


What have you been knitting recently?  Any favourite seams?

Intention to Knit

This past few weeks, there have been some incredibly pretty cardigans appearing on Ravelry.   One of my favourites is the 'Snow in May' cardigan by Suvi Simola.

Knit in sportweight on 4.5mm needles, it's a simply constructed garment, styled to great effect.  I'll definitely be knitting it next time I start a project for myself!  

Suvi also designed one of my current favourite sweaters, the 5200K, which I've blogged about in the past.

This week I've also been spinning quite a bit, so I've just finished plying this lovely fluff - and started on the second :D  I shall need to take photos of the finished stuff.  

These braids are from Hilltop Cloud.  Her stock is amazing, and I have difficulty buying anywhere else (except from the lovely Fondant Fibre).  Do you have a 'go-to' fluff store I should try?  Do let me know, I need to try all the wool!

This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately - experimenting more with different types of fibre, different methods of spinning and dyeing.  There's a great site called World of Wool, which has fleece from over 30 different breeds of sheep!!

And, of course, to spin so much fleece, I might have to upgrade my wheel...

Dragonfly Cardigan

Whew!  One handspun garment!

Starting life as a (giant) bundle of fondantfibre's rolags, this little handspun cardigan took quite a while to make!  

All the details are on my ravelry project page; The rolags were british wool, mohair, silk and bamboo - wonderful to spin, and felt very quick & easy.  The pattern was the featherweight cardigan by Hannah Fettig, which is available on ravelry.  

I did get stuck on sleeve island for quite a while, especially whilst beginning my christmas knitting!  Anyhoo, it's now finished, and I'm having a dilemma as to whether or not to add some shiny buttons... 

Perhaps I'll wait a while before embarking on another handspun garment.  Though, being rather teeny myself, I'm probably in quite a good situation when it comes to knitting clothes!

Today at work, a teeny wee old lady declared to her family that 'that nice wee doctor over there is having a baby!'.  I am not, and have no intention of, having a baby.  I may indeed have just eaten several slices of pizza, but I am not with child.  After waiting for the congratulations to die down, I explained this to the wee lady and her family, who were then a mixture of disappointed (on the wee ladies part) and mortified (for the rest of the family). 

Woe is me and my pizza tummy.

Knitting on the Rooftop

What a lovely week!!

It has been slightly marred by the whole 'finals' fiasco, but I'm halfway through & haven't had a breakdown yet, so that has to be good, right?

Regardless, how can you resist sitting in the sunshine when this view is is front of you?

In case you don't know Edinburgh very well, that's the castle there over the chimneys.  They're assembling all the scaffolding around the other side at the moment for the fringe festival later in the summer, so it's the best view, if you ask me :p

We took some deck-chairs, pizza and a music-box.  And the knitting.  Can't really beat it.  

Anyhoo it all had to end sometime (like when we ran out of food), so I managed to get this lovely bundle of fluff plied up ready for being a cardigan!  It's fingering weight 2-ply, mohair/merino/bamboo blend.  nomnomnom.  

Came from the loooovely fondantfibre store  (as per usual).  Though I have asked her for more, 'cause I will be needing 400 extra metres for me cardigan :p

Have you been knitting outside for World-Wide Knit In Public week?  
I find it quite an odd concept, 'cause I already take my knitting everywhere with me, but it is nice to see more people out and about with their yarn!  

I'd lovelovelove to pop up a little gallery of us all knitting this week, so if you wanna join in the awesome bloggy post, please do e-mail me your pictures or post me your links to them in the comments below!!

What are your plans for this week?  


oooo, there are some great new stitch markers in the shop this week too!