I’m waiting (not so patiently!) for my copies to arrive, which should be any day now.  I’m so very excited to see my little box of books.  To make the wait more exciting I thought I’d have a raffle on my blog for a copy of Scrumptious Knits.  You can let me know whether you’d prefer a hard back copy or a PDF version of the book.  All you have to do is tell me which pattern you are going to knit first from the booklet and why in the comments on this blog post.  I’ll have a random drawing for the winner next Thursday the 26th.

For anyone who already has their copy of the book/ebook and is dying to get knitting please come join me for a KAL at my Stolen Stitches group on ravelry.

In more Scrumptious Knit news the book samples have arrived over in the US with the Fyberspates distributor Lantern Moon.  You can read all about it on their blog here. They’ll be traveling with them this weekend to TNNA in Phoenix so even though I won’t be there in person there will be a little part of me there :)  If you are going to the show this weekend do make sure to call to their stand so you can see the samples in person!

Ann has a very unique, elegant design style and she has put together a collection in Novel Knits that really showcase her knitting ability and design talent.  There are a wide variety of knitting techniques and projects in this book with 15 patterns in total.  These patterns range from larger sweaters and shawls projects right down to smaller projects like gloves, hats, socks and bags.  A full range of skills in covered in the book, touching on cables, lace and stranded colourwork.

Here are a few of my favourites, the first is an very elegant hooded scarf with twisted stitches curving up and around the hood organically.

Lanthir Lamath

The next is a beret, Lorien.  I’m always fond of the combination of lace and cables!  I just love the headband of this hat.

Lorien

However, Pemberley (below) is probably my favourite.  I saw this in person at TNNA last summer and it is just superb.  A very clever increase/decrease on the same row created a wandering strand of colour up each side of the front.  My love of this jumper is what prompted me to focus my interview with Ann on stranded colourwork.  It’s something I’m personally becoming increasingly interested in and wanted to hear everything she had to say!

Pemberley

Knowing you in person, I know that you have superb knitting skills! When did you learn to knit and do you remember who taught you?

My Mum taught me to knit when I was so young that I don’t even remember learning! She is ‘true left-handed’ knitter, and as I’m left-handed that’s how she taught me. I really got into knitting as a teenager though, making many jumpers and cardigans from patterns and books. I think that’s when I had my biggest leap in skills. Then, as a young woman I bought ‘Knitting in the Nordic Tradition’, and learned stranded colour-work from that, and many other skills too. That book is very fragile now!

Do you have a favourite knitting technique?

I have many favourites! And yes, I think stranded colour-work is probably top in my heart. ;o)

Has the type of project you enjoy designing and knitting changed over time?

When I started designing, I mostly did small projects, especially socks. Now I find I want to design larger garments, jumpers and coats. I think it’s because I’m a learning junkie; having mastered socks I needed to move onto the next challenge. So now I’m working to perfect my understanding of jumper shaping to achieve a good fit with standard measurements. I’ve spent an enormous amount of time researching armscye options, especially because I’m very keen to create cleverly seamless garments. I think I’ve finally really got the compound raglan, and now I’ve moved onto circular yokes and ‘simultaneous set-in sleeves’. I’m currently working on some designs with significantly scooped necks above a circular yoke, and am loving the challenge of working this out!

There is a wonderful mixture of project types in the book ‘Novel Knits’ I think that the designs that really stand out for me are the stranded colour-work projects, especially ‘Pemberley’ and ‘Lissuin’. Do you have any personal favourites?

The most popular one in Ravelry is Lanthir Lamath, and as this is my favourite too that doesn’t surprise me. I designed it to have an elvish feel, and to evoke a waterfall, and am really pleased with how the cascade on the scarf tails works. It has perfectly circular drops of water arranged near the bottom, and streams of water criss-crossing above in the lattice patterns. And I am so proud of the celtic knot on the back of the hood!

What is it about designing in multiple colours that appeals to you?

Well, you know Carol that I’m very much a colour-loving person! It brings a big grin to my face when I remember how amused you and Woolly were by the riot of colour that my end of the hanging rail sported when we shared a room in Columbus last summer!

So one thing I love about colour-work is that it satisfies my need to play at combining colour. And I love figurative motifs – hearts and flowers are my favourite. I love folk art for the same reasons, and learned to do decorative painting some years ago. Like my stranded colour-work, most of my painting features hearts and flowers too!

Do you have any advice for knitters when choosing colour combinations for the knits, or pitfalls to avoid?

It’s best to approach it with a conscious knowledge of colour theory. That’s why I wrote a tutorial about using the colour wheel to plan yarn combinations for stranded colour-work. Folk can find that in the ‘Knitting School’ at my website. Although I wrote it with stranded colour-work in mind, it is just as relevant to choosing colour for contrast trims, etc…

The most common pitfall is misuse of dark and light shades. If a flower motif is half knitted in a light colour against a dark background, and half knitted in a dark shade against a light background, then the flower will be very difficult to see. Contrast needs using consistently throughout the motif. So if I use dark red, dark green, dark purple, light blue, light orange and light yellow, I need to use the dark shades as for the motif stitches, and the light shades for the background stitches throughout, or vice versa.

For knitters who have not done stranded knitting before, what is the most common difficulty when getting started? (And how can you avoid it!!)

The hardest thing for most people is tensioning the yarn so that the work is neither puckered nor holey! Because yarn is being carried across the back of the work between sets of stitches, if it is pulled too tight when it is brought back into use, then it puckers the work. If it is instead allowed to hang in loops, then the stitches at each end of the loop will work themselves loose. What I do (and with practice this becomes second nature and doesn’t slow things down any) is make sure the stitches the yarn is stranded behind sit on the needle at normal tension (not all bunched up, and not stretched out), then at each colour change I take care not to pull on the yarn excessively as I get it around my needle.

Stranded knitting is often knit at a small gauge, why is this an advantage?

For one thing, stranded knitting is formed of two layers of yarn, so makes heavier fabric than single colour projects knitted in the same yarn weight. In finer yarns however, stranded knitting has a pleasing drape. Also, at finer gauges the individual stitches are less noticeable. They blur together so that the colour-work motifs appear to have smoother edges, a more painted than stitched appearance. And finer gauges provide a bigger stitch ‘canvas’ for knitting more recognisable motifs. It is much easier to chart a good-looking deer over a 50-stitch wide area than over a 20-stitch wide area!

Ignus is the cover photo from my newest booklet Scrumptious Knits.  This booklet is still on pre-order but it’s almost ready.  We’re on the last set of edits and it will be released at the end of the week.  So if you want to take advantage of the reduced pre-order price (and the exclusive bonus pattern Ignus Junior) order quickly!

I had promised you some details about the patterns in the booklet, the first I’ll look at is Ignus.  I’m really happy with how this tunic turned out, it incorporates so many things I love, raglan shoulder shaping, ribbing, just a little cables and a long length.  Over the last year I’ve found myself drawn to longer tops, they are so versatile and flattering to wear with leggings or skinny jeans.  If longer tunic styles isn’t your cup of tea it’s an easy job to shorten this, just omit some of the hip increase rounds, start the ribbing sooner and make it just a couple of inches rather then the depth shown.

Here is a detail of the side cable.  It’s worked into the ribbing pattern and ends just before the bottom of the ribbing.  This cable detail is echoed in the cowl neck sleeve and in the hip ribbing.  The ribbing along the side gives a very flattering fit, it adds a little extra stretch without being clingy.  It’s the same with the sleeves, worked in ribbing it does take a little longer but they fit so nicely it’s worth it!

Here in this detail of the front you can see that it has raglan shoulder shaping.  This is started at the neck and is worked from the top down.  There are a few short rows at the back of the neck to raise it up and the neck is curved to create a good shape.  When the neck shaping is finished you join to work in the round and the rest of the top is worked in the round.  The side shaping is worked on either side of the ribbing as you go so it’s easy to move it up or down to suit your own natural waist.

Finally the cowl neck is worked at the very end.  I love the finishing touch this gives to the tunic.  Until this was added when I was knitting it looked almost naked!  It really needed the extra detail to finish it off.  As with the length of the tunic the length of the cowl is also customizable.  I knit a longer version but just try it on as you go until you get the finish you want.  I’ve got a little secret to tell you about my blocking, I had a bit of a disaster….It got slightly shrunk!!  I ended up stretching the body, cowl and sleeve length back to the original size and it just about worked.  The sleeves ended up a touch shorter than originally but only I’d notice!  It worked really nicely for the cowl, stretching it created really nice drape, so due to my accident I discovered how nice a drape you get in the cowl with extreme blocking!

You’ve got one more day to do it, get the project up by tomorrow and then on Tuesday voting will start.

For Adult garments post here.

For Children’s garments post here.

For accessories post here.

There are some really beautiful finished pieces up already but I want to see everything up there!!  Then on Tuesday tell everyone you know to come and vote for you, the most loves will win the prices.  We’ll have yarn from Hedgehog Fibres, The Yarn room, Spud & Chloe as well as some pretty stitch markers and other goodies!

We’ll have a lovely mixture of prizes, which will include yarn, button/stitch marker goodies, patterns and a little surprise.  Remember that you can enter each category for multiple chances to win!

For anyone in the Cork area our wonderful local hand dyer ‘Hedgehog Fibres‘ is having an opening party for her new studio.  I’m really looking forward to this and if anyone local is coming, see you there!  Beata has very kindly donated some hanks of her lovely yarn for one of the KAL prizes so I’ll be picking that up on Saturday as well to send on to the lucky winner!

We took some photos of my original Bakerville hoodie (from Scrumptious Knits) at the same time as the second version.  You might notice some similarities :)  I’m rather fond of this colour grey in cardigans.  In fact if you went through my wardrobe you’d find probably 75% grey for knitwear!  I love grey paired with brighter colours, a bright orange t-shirt with a grey cardigan over it is just a lovely combination.  My first test version of this hoodie was done using some Knit Picks simply cotton sport that I had in my stash.  When I knit a first version I experiment a little with the construction until I get a finished piece that looks good and is as easy to knit as it can be.  After that I got some sportsweight/4-ply Scrumptious Yarn in slate and Dixie knit the sample for the second version of the hoodie.

This hoodie uses one of my favorite construction methods, top down with set in sleeves.  For this you begin with a provisional cast on across the shoulders, work short rows to slope the shoulders and work the back to the armpits (shaping them as you go).  Then the provisional cast-on is undone and the front section is worked just like the back but with the central neck stitches held for later.  At this point the front and back can be joined and worked together in the round.  You can see here how the ribbing is worked down the side of the body with shaping worked at each side of it and a pocket added for good measure.  Note as well that this is the Fyberspates version below, you can see the beautiful shimmer of the silk in the sun.

When the body is finished we begin work on the generously size hood.  This is shaped into a hood by working short row decreases across the top which form lovely seam lines as they are worked.

At the very end you work the front diagonal ribbed panels.  These are worked all the way around until the hood is finished, then the two front panels are worked for a little longer to create a crossover front placket.

Waiting for me in the hotel room was a wonderful goodie bag from The Yarn Cake, sweets (kindly eaten by my boys), whiskey (much loved by DH!) and a project bag and coffee cup that got put to immediate use by me.  The t-shirt will take a little longer to get some use, what with the drop in temperature here (and me being always cold!).

Once I had settled into the hotel room I walked to The Yarn Cake, and had some coffee and cake.  It seemed somehow fitting given the name!  The cosy front section of the shop had tables, benches and chairs and you got to look at the colourful wall of drops yarn.  I suspect that there is much impulse buying after someone has fallen for the colours!

My first day of teaching was in the shop itself but on Saturday I got to do a book signing and class in the Mackintosh church.  In their gift shop they had a paper kit to make the couple you see above.  My oldest ds is very obsessed currently with origami and paper folding so I tried to get one for him but they were unfortunately all out :(

The book signing took place on the alter of the church, any Irish Catholics out there will probably understand what a strange sensation it was to be sitting up on an alter for a few hours talking knitting!!  The knitters didn’t seem to mind though and you can see Killybegs being tried on and admired below.

At the end of the day Antje hosted an after party in her flat for tutors and volunteers and she had a great selection of local beers to choose from….

So after a lovely few days with Scottish knitters it back to reality for me, paying taxes and searching for a new car.

Halloween Pattern Discount!

To help you all get your Christmas knitting done early this year I’ve just put up a Halloween discount.  From now until the end of October use the code ‘SPOOKY2011′ when you order and all individual patterns will get a 20% discount.  No limit to the number of times you use it.  My e-booklets will not be included in this discount.

Contemporary Irish Knits – get your signed copy.

I’ve just put an option on the page for Contemporary Irish Knits to buy the book directly from me.  I’ll sign your copy with your name (or someone elses if you note it in the comments).  Just pick the correct destination and the shipping is included in the cost.

Take a look at our KAL that’s currently running until the 1st of December.  There will be some great prizes so just join right in!

A few more reviews have gone up around the web, a lovely one from Everything Old here.  Hedgehog Fibres are doing a giveway for a signed copy of the book here and you get to try your hand at yarn naming!

Sinead has been making great progress on her Rossbeg cardigan for her daughter, and she’s blogged about it here.

Here’s her progress, it fits her perfectly!:

We had a lovely class at Crafty Alley yesterday.  It was an all day class so it had a very relaxed feel to it, we could take our time and still get lots of knitting done.  Thanks to all who came along!

Go check out his review, and all comments get entered into a draw for a signed book so don’t be shy!

Ok, we’ve got our winners!  I used a random number generator to get my winners, everyone who purchase was entered.   I hope that everyone that has bought patterns in the last few weeks enjoys their knitting!  The two winners have been contacted, I won’t post your names up here on the blog unless you want them here.  Congratulations to both of you.

Blog Tour

For anyone around here who is getting a bit tired of hearing me talk about Contemporary Irish Knits :-)  you’ll now get to here a few more knitters and designers talking about it instead!  I’m delighted to tell you about the blog tour that will be starting tomorrow with Stephen West.  There’s lots of interviews and a few giveaways along the way as well.  It was great fun answering all the interview questions, they actually prompted me to remember details about writing the book that I had completely forgotten about.  The schedule for the tour is below, due to different time zones and schedules there won’t be a set time for the blog posts so keep checking. The only one that is time sensitive is the live podcast with Marly on the 27th of September.  This will be at 10.oo am in Colarado which is 5.00pm gmt.

Tour details:
15/9/2011 Stephen West
17/9/2011 Hoxton Handmade
21/9/2011 Shannon Okey
23/9/2011 Rosemary Hill
25/9/2011 Ann Kingstone
27/9/2011 Marly Bird
29/9/2011 JC Briar
1/10/2011 Woolly Wormhead
3/10/2011 Anne Hanson
7/10/2011 Stephannie Tallent
11/10/2011 Alice Yu
13/10/2011 Michelle Miller
15/10/2011 Deirdre Thornton
17/10/2011 Ilga Leja

Can I introduce you to my little boy projects; Ballinagree and Caherciveen. (modeled by my two youngest sons).

Ballinagree

From Contemporary Irish Knits

This raglan for little boys is knit from Cushendale DK in the round from the bottom up.  It is knit at a tighter gauge than normal for this yarn which is a great way to help make cables ‘pop’.  You also get an extra warm garment!

The body and sleeves are worked in the round from the bottom up and joined at the yoke.  You can see from this photo how the raglan shoulder shaping is worked using decresess all the way to the neckline.  The collar is split at the front and worked fairly short to give a standing collar.  As this is at the very end of the garment it would be easy to make modifications here, if you split the front further down you can have a larger opening, and possibly include buttons on the placket (which is knit afterwards).  Another possible variation would be to knit the collar for twice as long so that it fold right over on itself.  Just remember to have extra yarn!

The criss cross cables on the front and back of this jumper/sweater have a bold, medieval quality about them; just right for little boys!  The chest sizes for this piece range from 22.25 -31.5″/56.5 – 80 cm” which will fit approximate 2-10 years.  To figure out the correct size for kids, measure their chest size and then add the number of inches you want for ease.  If you’re unsure how much ease you need take a look at some of the clothes they wear (ideally in a similar weight material) that you like the fit of and measure.  You probably want around 2-4″/5-10 cm but that depends entirely on personal taste (yours and the little person!)

Caherciveen

From Contemporary Irish Knits

The second little boy pattern in the book is Caherciveen.  Knit in the round from the bottom up using aran weight Kerry Woollen Mills yarn you’ll find that this top (depending on where you’re from, vest in the US, sleeveless jumper in Ireland/UK!) just flies off the needles.  The cables used are a variation on the staghorn cable.  Generally cables are worked using a reverse st st background, however for this cable I’ve left the background stitch st st which means the cables are not as prominent and it creates a much more subtle effect.  As with Ballinagree above the neck opening can be moved to suit your own personal taste.  I have kept the opening low but you can move it to a higher position if you wanted to without much difficulty.

This garment is knit with more ease than Ballinagree above, the finished chest size is 24.25 – 31.75”/61.5 – 80.5 cm.  I liked how this garment looked with a little more room but you should make your own personal choices about amount of ease.  That is why I’ve given as much sizing information as possible in the patterns, so you can make informed choices.  For each pattern actual finished measurements are given (including a schematic), the suggested chest size this will fit and the approximate age this corresponds to.  I’ve also given the ease shown on the modeled garment so you can decide if you want more or less ease in the garment you’re knitting.

When the body is complete you separate the front and back at the armhole and work them separately.  They are then joined at the shoulder using a three needle bind off (I just love how easy and smooth this join is!)  The hood is continued up from there (with the separated staghorn cable at each side) and joined at the top.  When you are finished the front edging (with the buttonhole) and armhole edging are all finished with my favorite applied I-cord.  It can’t be beat for a good finish.

Classes

I’ve got a few upcoming classes in the next few weeks.  You can see the full details of them all here.

Saturday 17th of September I’ll be at Crafty Alley in Killarney.  Class can be booked here.  I’ll be bringing my complete book trunk show so if you want to see the garments in person come along for a look after the class (after 4).  Cathy will also have the book in stock so you can pick up a signed copy on the day!

Sunday October 2nd I’ll be teaching at The Yarn Room in Wicklow.  Class can be booked here. Trunk show will be available to view in the shop on the day.

October 21st-22nd I’ll be at The Glasgow School of Yarn.  Classes can be booked here.  This should be an exciting event, I’ll also have my trunk show with me for this so come along for a look.

Competition!

On my group at ravelry I’ve been running a raffle for a copy of my signed book (or some Donegal Yarn!).

From the 22nd of August until mid-day (Ireland) on the 14th of September anyone who buys one of my self-published patterns will be entered into a raffle.  I’ll have two prizes (your choice), of either a signed copy of my book or Donegal yarn.  The Donegal yarn I’ve got here is a sweater quantity of a dark grey/black (no. 4582) Aran Tweed or enough for Rossbeg girl’s cardigan in the orange (5530) Soft Donegal.