I hope you’ve all been enjoying the Scrumptious Knits blog tour.  When you’ve finished a collection of patterns by the time you  have photographed them, edited them and finished the full layout you almost forget the original inspiration.  Answering questions on a blog tour is a really interesting process, you find yourself drawing on memories of the design process.  In fact I often find myself falling in love with a collection again.  It’s probably good for me as I tend to have a very short term memory, once something is finished I move on quickly and spend more time looking forward rather than backwards.  I think evaluating a collection through interviews  really helps the design process to become more cohesive and thoughtful.

So far on the blog tour we’ve visited Woolly Wormhead, Ann Kingstone, Stephanie Japel (still an ongoing giveaway!) and today we have Stephannie Tallent who has a second giveaway.

There are several more great stops on this tour, keep following to keep up…I always send out a tweet when there is a new stop so just check out my twitter feed on the right of the page.

It feels so wrong to have a blog post without any photo so I’ve added a gratuitous shot of the pear tree in bloom in my garden :)

You can probably tell, I’ve just begun using Instagram   -  still getting used to it so you’ll probably find some rather odd photos coming from me in the near future.

A couple of months ago I launched my Scrumptious Knits booklet.  The intervening months have been rather hectic so a little belatedly I’m bringing you the blog tour!  If you’re interested in the origin of the book, how some of the designs came about and perhaps just learning a little about the design process please follow along.  Many of the blog tour stops will also have the added chance of winning a copy of the booklet.

So for your viewing pleasure I bring you our first stop on the tour – Woolly Wormhead.

Recently Lantern Moon began distributing Fyberspates yarn in the US.  As Scrumptious Knits uses Fyberspates yarn they are also distributing my Scrumptious Knits book.  You all probably know that they sell an amazing range of needles, which I’m now really excited to try out.  They sent me some samples of their needles (circular are my favorite as you may have noticed!) I think the first I’m going to try out will be the Ebony Destiny needles, nice tip and super smooth.  As an added bonus their needle tips rotate freely on the wire which should make for very comfortable knitting….or maybe the rosewood will get the first try, decisions decisions!

I’ve been experimenting a little with my Ipad to record some video tutorials for you. For anyone who has an Ipad you may know how awkward trying to do this is! It’s big enough that you have to lean over it to record just your hands, and to make matters worse, the camera is on the side so you have to work way over to that side to make your hands centered!
So with much effort and I bring you my first two video tutorials for cable cast on and alternate cable cast on.

These cast ons are really useful – I find that I use the cable cast on primarily for underarm areas or the front of the neck when working top down. It tends to leave less gaps than the backwards loop method. I have shown this cast on with the new stitch slipped knit wise from the right hand needle to the left hand needle. I have sometimes done this purl wise and I’m not sure it makes a huge difference? Any opinions out there on this? Would love to hear, just leave a comment letting me know how you slip this stitch after it is created.

I stumbled upon the alternate cable cast on when looking for a substitute for tubular cast on. When working 1×1 ribbing (k1, p1), I just love how a tubular cast on looks. The cast on flows effortlessly into the ribbing and creates a smooth continuous edge. It however takes forever to create, making it hard to suggest in patterns!A  couple of summers ago Woolly Wormhead mentioned alternate cable cast on, which I then promptly forgot only to rediscover it again in the last few months when I wanted a tubular substitute.

So let me introduce you to my Cable Cast On video and my Alternate Cable Cast On video, enjoy!

We just had a 3 day weekend.

It was so very, very nice.  It feels as though with our lives at the moment that we are permanently running at 150% which is hard to sustain.  It really was a few days out of time for us, all of the boys activities were cancelled over the weekend (as there are 8 different activities that’s fairly significant!).  We got to sleep for an extra hour with no alarm clock in the morning, it really makes a tremendous difference over 3 days!

Saturday was Patrick’s Day.  I’m not really crazy about parades and the chaos but we did our own family version of celebrations.  We started with a walk in the woods, and got very, very muddy!  Then we went out for lunch.  This may not seem like a big deal to you but we realised that it was the first time as a family we had gone out for a meal in a year.  Between the cost and having a child that finds new situations difficult it is often something that we avoid unless necessary.  Anyone who get a chance though, The Pink Elephant in west Cork is well worth a visit :)  Friendly, helpful and very tolerant of kids and mud!  Plus there’s the added bonus that well, you’re eating at a Pink Elephant…..

Just across the road there is a wonderful beach so we got to finish our day out by running our very patient dog (who sat in the car while we ate) on the beach.

Of course I have no photos from the actual day but just so that I don’t have a completely photo less post I’ll give you a bonus shot from the top of our hill from my walk this morning.  I love when it starts turning green again after the winter (ok, so the trees aren’t quite there yet!)

I’m feeling a little sorry for myself this morning, I’ve got a big fat lip courtesy of my oldest darling son!  He decided that his tennis racquet was much better as a sword and lets just say that it didn’t stay in his hand :(  We also seem to be going through the latest series of coughs and colds with another round of doctor visits this morning.  Sometimes I find it so hard to make the call about whether you should go to the doctor with kids, they seem just fine and you are ready to send them off to school… then they start coughing and you send them back in the other direction!

On a different note -

Our Taupo KAL knitters on ravelry are working away hard on their cardigans, come take a look to see how they’re getting on.  Most people have worked through the provisional cast on now and all the different modifications that knitters are making are shining through.  Hopefully we’ll have a few photos to show you in the next few weeks.

On the pattern front – Byzantine Walk is done and the full finished pattern has gone out to everyone that has  pre-ordered!  This is a fun knit, the combination of tweedy merino and slipped stitches in the round is addictive.  Probably how the hat ended up as slouchy, cause a beanie just isn’t enough!

I’m working on an exciting new project at the moment, I can only hint at details for now but I do have a little bitty swatch that will be part of it that I can share….

You may notice that  ‘Soft Donegal’ is peaking through again.  Can’t stop knitting with this yarn!  This is the biggest project I’ve taken on in a while and totally new to me.  It’s very exciting and fun to be working on, I’m looking forward to sharing more details with you.

We have a winner!  Erica is the winner of my random drawing, congratulations.  However as I was working my way thought the great name suggestions that you posted I wanted to add an extra bonus prize for the name I choose, so thank you Jody for the name ‘Byzantine Walk’.  It somehow managed to stick in my head!

So may I introduce to you

Byzantine Walk

I have been playing with this stitch pattern for a long time now.  It looks really different when worked with small and large gauges and with different yarns.  I finally settled on  this yarn with the pattern as I really like the interplay of the yarn texture with the slipped stitches.  At the moment I”m really enjoying texture in my knitting!

If you want to buy this pattern now it is available at a discounted pre-order price of $5, next week when the full pdf is uploaded it’ll go up to its full price.   When you buy now you’ll get an information page about the pattern with all the details.  When the full pattern is uploaded you’ll be sent a link automatically for it.
buy now

On a different note, I’ve just spotted a post on Hedgehog Fibres blog talking about my upcoming class there. Still some spaces….

I’m planning on putting this pattern up for pre-sale on Ravelry this afternoon:

I have a problem though, I can’t for the life of me name it!  When I look at it I just see the colour (which I love) and want to call it ‘Study in Pink’.  For Joe the folds on the hat remind him of the Shar-Pei dog!

Post your name suggestions below and everyone who posts a name suggestion will be entered into a random draw, you’ll have to be quick though as it’ll  be up for today only.  Who knows, perhaps the perfect name will come to me by this evening!  The winner of the draw will be posted tomorrow and if you don’t win, I’ll also have a pre-order reduced price for the set.

This is set is knit using one of my new favourite yarns, Soft Donegal.  I don’t normally like pale pink but the flecks of purple, blue and cream running thought it completely transform the colour from me and make it very wearable.

They are both knit using a slip stitch pattern that is fast to work but creates a wonderful textured surface that works really well with the tweedy yarn.  The hat uses one of my favourite edges, a folded hem which is created seamlessly.

The cowl is knit in a large size, to create a length that works perfectly wrapped around your neck twice.  I don’t think I’ll every knit a scarf again – a long cowl works so much better and won’t come unwrapped!

When I was in TNNA last summer I met Stefanie Japel for the first time and we had so much fun chatting.  I have such admiration for her work it was overwhelming to actually meet her in person! She was telling me about a new website that she worked for called Craftsy. Of course I promptly forgot all about it and only rediscovered it recently. If you are a multi-crafter this site will be heaven for you. It crosses over many different crafting lines (knitting, crochet, embroidery, quilting, sewing, jewelry, felting and paper crafts to name a few). It started out as a place to show your project as well as doing online classes and workshops. In the last few weeks they’ve opened up a new pattern section.  I was hesitating about whether I wanted to take the many, many hours to list my patterns in a new venue but after exploring for a while I really wanted to be part of the site. I like the multidisciplinary approach and I think the way the patterns are listed are really clean and slick. So I’ve started the uploading job, it’s not totally finished yet but hopefully by the end of the week I’ll be there! Some take a look at my page.

(BTW – thanks to DH I just figured out how to ‘snip’ from a webpage to get the above screen capture!)

My class in May at This Is Knit (seamless knitting – moving beyond the raglan) has sold out in record time.  I know there is a waiting list if you want to be added.  There are still spaces at my Hedgehog Fibres Short Row class, scroll down this page to book your spot.

It seems like quite a while since I’ve taught classes in Ireland so this May I won’t be just teaching one but two!  You can see full details here.

The first class will be at the Hedgehog Fibres studio (go check them out here) in Little Island.  For anyone not from Cork, this is just outside Cork city a little to the east so easy to access.  Here I’ll be teaching my short row class.  This is a great class to try out different ways of creating short rows and find one you really like.  After that you’ll learn just how to use them to shape your garments for a customised fit.

The next class will be on Seamless Knitting – moving beyond the raglan.  This class will be at This Is Knit in Dublin.  I’m really excited to get a chance to teach in their new shop, I saw it briefly last month and it looks like it would be a wonderful class space.  This class will look at different seamless construction techniques and will then go on to get everyone measured so they can create a perfect custom fitted garment for themselves.  There will be full details on how to create your own custom top down jumper with set in sleeves worked with short rows from the top down.  It should be lots of fun :)  This class is booking up quickly so you better be fast to nab a spot.

Ok everyone, we have our KAL winner!  Taupo just beat Ignus by a hair so this will be our first KAL from Scrumptious Knits.  To get you all started you can get either the pattern Taupo or the entire Scrumptious Knits booklet with 25% off if you enter coupon code TaupoKAL. Remember to use the coupon code you have to ‘Add To Cart’ (don’t use ‘buy now’) and you will have the option at the bottom of the pop up window of entering the code.  The code will be valid until the end of the month when the KAL begins.

We’ll get the knitting started on the 1st of March, up to that you can get going with yarn choices.  If you’re looking for some help and suggestions come and post at my ravelry group here.  I’ll pop in every day and will help out with suggestions.

A few months before the red version (show above) which was knit by the talented Dixie I knit a blue version (see below).  I discovered afterwards however that the blue yarn colour was in fact discontinued which is why a second red version was knit!