Yesterday I took a day trip to Dublin to visit Showcase which is Ireland’s Creative Expo.  I have been meaning to go to this for the last several years but the timing never worked out well for me before.

This year I wanted to drop a few samples and posters to Studio Donegal so I actually planned for the visit.  As well as Studio Donegal both Cushendale and Kerry Woollen Mills had stands there.  There are some new yarns coming out for both Studio Donegal and Cushendale.  Studio Donegal have launched the ’2-ply Merino’ yarn that is just wonderful!  This is the same yarn that was know as ‘Soft Donegal’ that was used in Contemporary Irish Knits to knit Rossbeg.  This yarn has the colored flecks just like the Aran  Tweed but it has the super soft merino as well a 2 ply (rather than singles) structure.  Well worth a try – I know that This Is Knit have lots in stock and I’m sure most other yarn shops will also have it shortly also.

The second new yarn from Irish mills is Cushendale’s lace weight yarn.  You can buy this from The Yarn Room, there are just a few colors right now but it won’t be long before they roll out a bigger range.  It’s not an especially soft yarn but I suspect that just like the other weights once it is washed and blocked it will feel great and wear well.

I’ve got a few little surprises being released in the coming year using all this new yarn, how could I resist :)

It of course wasn’t just yarn at the show, there were quite a few stands that really caught my eye when I was there:

Woolcore has a huge range of products (lots for babies) that use wool fleece.  I saw a few on pieces on the stand that I couldn’t see on the website that use waxed cotton backing and fleece inside.  Everything felt so great and were beautifully made.

I got a kick out of Bog Buddies - definitely an innovative use for peat!!

Fellow Cork business with super soft fleece kid’s clothes- Ba~Goose.

The coolest lampshade ever at Klickity.  And for you Origami lovers there was Japanese Papercraft.

I’m waking every morning at the moment with 3 little voices singing its only ‘x’ days left until Christmas (oldest is way too cool, and involved in exams for this!).  Currently they’re also wondering if there is any possibility of time travel to make the intervening days disappear.  Unfortunately for me, even though I am completely with them on this sentiment, every day closer to Christmas is also a day less towards deadlines :)

My niece will be here after Christmas so I’m hoping to get a second little girl knit finished before she leaves.  Knits for here are really selfish gifts…you can only take it if you let me photograph first!  The first knit I have for her is a version of Ignus Junior in Spud and Chloe sweater.  Its in the Watermelon colour so just right for a girl that is crazy about pink!  The knit I hope to get finished before she leaves is in Madelinetosh Tosh DK.  I’m pretty mad about this colour combination of Citrus and Tern, but these colours are really for me as she only wants pink.  It’ll be a child’s version of Eilonwy but with a swing cardigan that has long sleeves.  It’s a good thing I’ve got such yummy yarns to work with, it makes all the speedy knitting more fun!

Speaking of yarns, I got to try some of Miss Babs yarn this week and she has some seriously delicous colors….have a little peek here to make you jeleous!

Just in case you want a little yarn love yourself, the publisher of my Contemporary Irish Knits Book, Wiley are doing a Christmas giveaway for a sizable batch of Studio Donegal yarn.  You just need to leave a comment by the end of the week here! (Please don’t watch the video, its seriously embarrassing to have to listen to my own voice!!)

Killybegs

Contemporary Irish Knits

This cardigan ‘Killybegs’ was the first design that was knitted for the book.  It was in fact finished when the book was barely an idea, rather than a reality!  The concept for this cardigan centered around creating a seemingly complex garment from the humble honeycomb stitch. The simple stitch pattern forms all the shaping for this cardigan.  Their is no waist shaping added, you can see how the honeycomb pattern (which has a ‘drawing in’ effect, as with all cables) is increased at the waist to form smooth organic waist shaping naturally.  It has the added bonus of creating a really interesting pattern using just the increases and decreases of the honeycomb repetition.

As you move up the body (did I forget to mention that it’s seamless worked from the bottom up!) you join the sleeves and the body together at the yoke.  I spent a really, really long time perfecting the decreases at the yoke.  All of the yoke decreases are worked into the honeycomb pattern to create a seamless honeycomb band around the yoke.  The back of the neck is raised a little at the very end using short rows and a neat, tidy I-cord finishes the neckline.

Speaking of I-cords, the bottom of the body is started using an I-cord cast-on.  This can be tricky to get right so I’d suggest experimenting with a swatch before you begin the garment to get it right.  If you just can’t get the first row to tighten up (this cast-on can create a loose first row) you have a couple of alternatives available.  The easiest to do is to work a provisional cast-on at the hem and then when you are working I-cord edging around the front you can work the I-cord edging along the bottom at the same time.

You can see here at the front I have opted for hook and eye closures.  This give a lovely smooth, clean finish.  If this isn’t your style just work I-cord buttonholes as you work the front edging instead.

The sleeves cuff also uses an I-cord cast-on and the honeycomb stitch to fit the cuff snugly at the wrist.

Once I had finished the Killybegs cardigan I started work on a complementary beret ‘Bundoran’.  This beret is also based on the honeycomb stitch with the crown decreases being worked into the honeycomb pattern.  After a few trial runs I opted to work the first few honeycomb repeats with spaces between, this helps to avoid the beret becoming too cable heavy.  There are two style options given in the book; a fitted style and a more slouchy style (shown here).

Both of these patterns are worked in Donegal Yarns ‘Aran Tweed’.  The texture and colors of this yarn are just a delight to work with and really complement the patterns.

In west Cork this weekend my friend Sue decided to hold her own little mini fibre event.  Her back garden was a sea of tents, spinning wheels and lots of smiling faces!

After a misty morning the clouds cleared and we miraculously had sunshine for most of the day!  It felt like such indulgence to sit knitting for the whole day, with mountains of food provided by everyone who came.

Except for the photo above and a very, very fuzzy photo of the bonfire at the end I didn’t take any photos in between.  Evin however took some great photos of the day, most importantly of Sue’s pretty new kitten Minou.  I also pulled out a few boxes of samples for people to try on and there will be a few of those up on Evin’s Flickr stream later.

Sue’s lovely DH (who was the model for Straboy in the book…) was worked hard that evening, barbecuing for us, and later building the most amazing bonfire.  It’s a pretty dreadful photo from my i phone at night but it gives you a hint of what it was like!

Many, many thanks to Sue and hubbie for the great (but exhausting!) weekend.

In the next day or two I’m going to post a little  more on the Contemporary Irish Knits Book.  I’ve put some details with a montage together and I’ve eventually managed to get all the patterns up on ravelry, that took quite a while!  I’ll have lots of fun stuff coming up to celebrate the book launch in the next few weeks, a blog tour kicking off on the 15th of September, some give away on the blog and a book launch party in Dublin.  The launch will be at This Is Knit on the 8th of September but we need to finalise the last few details.  If you want to make sure you book a place just get in contact with This Is Knit.

I arrived home from Knit Nation on Monday, exhausted but very happy! I met so may knitters and fondled so much yarn that my head’s on information overload. Of course I manage to forget my camera so my photos of the weekend are non-existent unfortunately. You can however see a few photos at Anne Hanson and Clara Parkes websites to get some visual of the weekend. I do however have yarn that made it home with me that I have photos of!

Before the classes started I got to go to the Victoria and Albert museum and have high tea with the other tutors.  I was very honoured to be included with this bunch, which included Alice, Cookie A (the 2 organisers), Ann Hanson, Lene Alve, Susan Crawford, Elise Duvekot, Franklin Habit, Susanna Hansson, Marjan Hammink, Carol & Pete Leonard, Judith McCluin, Clara Parkes, Merike Saarniit and Julie Weisenberger.  I hadn’t met many of them before but they were lots of fun to spend an afternoon (and weekend) with.  Judith lead the tour of the museum and she is just a font of information, it was just a pleasure to hear her speak so knowledgeably on textiles through the ages.

Just before travelling over to London on Wednesday last week I had the start of a sore throat.  Unfortunately by the time I had finished talking for 3 days solid I was sounding pretty croaky.  My apologies to any knitters who had to listen to me on Sunday afternoon, I suspect I was sounding pretty bad!  I had the most wonderful knitters in my class from all over the place with a huge variety of knitting styles.  It’s not often you get English knitters, Continental Knitters, Portuguese Knitters and mirrored backwards knitters (to name a few) all in one spot.  It was very informative to see just how many different ways you can produce the same knit stitch.  Knitting is definitely not a one size fits all kind of pursuit.

The first class I had I got a wonderful gift (just like last year!) from the Portuguese knitters.  It was a little skein of wonderful hand spun yarn, a lavender sardine, pins, a sample of Yarn Adventures yarn and a handmade project bag.

In addition to these wonderful gifts Filomena also gifted me a bag of her wonderful yarn ‘Yarn Adventures’.  You can find her also on ravelry and facebook.

The rest of the weekend passed in a blur, I met some friends from Ireland, met a few other designer friends that I only get to see at different events (including Woolly Wormhead, Ann Kingstone and Marleen van der Vorst) as well as tons of new knitters and designers.  I spoke for a while on the way back from high tea with designer Stephen West who is now based in Amsterdam.  Who knows, we may actually get to meet up again as my sister lives there!  And for anyone wondering, Franklin Habit is indeed as funny as his blog!

With all of this teaching and fun I did get a few chances to slip into the marketplace and pick up the odd hank of yarn..

the first is The Yarn Yard ‘Clan’ in a delicious shade of green.

The second yarn that sneaked into my bag was Easy Knits ‘Deeply Wicked’ in Sands of Time Colour.  How could I leave it behind?

It’s getting really close to my book actually coming out; as we speak it’s being printed!  I brought the cover cardigan from the book with me to my classes (it was the perfect example for top down set-in sleeve designs) and some bookmarks to make sure everyone doesn’t forget the name….

Not too much longer now before you get to see the full book.

I’m still pretty groggy from jetlag post-TNNA but I thought it was better to actually write down some of my experiences now before the memories fade.  There is something very surreal about spending a weekend with knitters/designers that you only know virtually, a bit like having a fairy tale book just jump to life!

I flew over from Dublin on Thursday thinking I’d have a nice relaxing trip.  It didn’t quite turn out that way, courtesy of multiple severe thunder storms many flights were cancelled or delayed.  I arrived into Newark, went to look at the departure screens and found my flight cancelled.  In a bit of a panic about losing a day (as well as having to figure out where to stay at Newark) I managed to get slotted into a later flight that evening.  However the storms kept up so flight were being cancelled all over the place – we managed to get on the plane at 8.15…only to be kicked off again!  When we got on for real at 9.30 I was nearly jumping with joy, and the excitement from Woolly Wormhead and Ann Knigstone when I reached to room made the journey worthwhile!

Friday night I went to the designer’s dinner that was organized by the wonderful Marly Bird.  We got the most insanely amazing goody bag…I foolishly didn’t take a photo of the whole bag but below is a little sample of the highlights, which included a hot pink Namaste bag (really just wonderful!), Bijou Basin Ranch ‘Bijou Spun’, Blossom Street yarn, Malabrigo sock yarn, Entree to Entrelac by Gwen Bortner , Knit Kit, boyd yarn snips and rosewood crochet hook, some red heart yarns and tape, JHB buttons, Heel foot soak, Eucalan, and a few more bit that the boys have managed to run away with before I photographed!  A big thank you to all the sponsors.

After the dinner we headed over to the Hyatt bar where there was quite possibly the world’s biggest knitting circle.  I spent my time sitting there seeing who looked most like their avatar, fun guessing game!  I got to talk for a while with Ann Hanson (who I’ll be teaching in London at Knit Nation with) and the lovely Rosemary Hill.  It’s a very unique experience actually getting to talk shop with so many designers all on one night.  Alisha Goes Around was busy putting the finishing touches to her polar bear that I got to see the next day on her stand..it was pretty amazing, she also had a great knitted peacock that I don’t have a photo of :(.  I got some wonderful yarn samples from her that I can’t wait to get knitting with.

First day of the show I was the first up on the Ravelry stand with my trunk show, I’m so glad I brought my ipad with me – I was able to set a full slide show of all my self-published patterns up so that even though I only had a selection of garments with me everything was viewable.  Ravelry is so loved by everyone, I just couldn’t get over the amount of people who just wanted to come up and tell them how much they loved them all.  Mary-Heather and Sarah (with her lovely pregnant bump!) were quite possibly even nicer than I expected…if that is possible!  Just truly wonderful people.  Here is a photo that Mary-Heather took in the stand when I was there.

I spent the rest of Saturday walking around stands getting to know people and fondling yummy yarn.

A few of the other designers who had stands that I got to chat with were Ilga Leja, Bonne from Chic Knits (we also met over breakfast), Shannon Okey from Cooperative Press and Michelle from Fickle knitter and Heather (Army of Knitters) over lunch.  As I was talking about my upcoming book and blog tour I got tons of offers from other designers to host a leg of the tour.  We’re going to end up with a really exciting tour!

Saturday night I went with some fellow Wiley authors (Kristi Porter (Knitting in the Sun), Alison Stuart-Guinee (the very cute Fairy Tale Knits), Melissa Morgan-Oakes (Teach yourself visually Circular Knitting)) for dinner with Wiley sales rep Jack.  As always a good opportunity for a photo!  As my book isn’t quite there yet I’ve just got a extract to hold!

Second night at the Hyatt bar and I spotted Sarah passing by wearing a version of Trousseau, which she kindly stopped to model for me!  Sorry about the poor photo quality, the ipad just doesn’t do indoor lighting well.  You can see Sarah’s much prettier photos on ravelry here.

Next day I had my book signing at the R&M (a book distributor) stand.  It was really a signing of bookmarks with a pattern extract from the book but everyone went away looking happily awaiting the full version.  The camera seemed to want to focus in front of the table so we’re a little out of focus but it’s all I’ve got!

On my final night I got to talk for a while with Anne Kuo Lukito aka Crafty Diversions and Stephanie Japel.  You two, I really enjoyed my evening and Anne I hope we didn’t have too much kid talk (I think most of it was while you were at the bar though!)

Sunday meet up with Emily who has test knit many projects for me.  She drove from quite a distance to come meet up, so thanks Emily!  As she had a car she went and drove us a little downtown to get some tasty food.  Was nice to see a little of Columbus beyond the airport and conference center!

I went back home on Monday, really sad that I hadn’t booked an extra day.  Next year (it’s kind of addictive) I hope I can add one more day to the trip, it felt early going home so soon on Monday.

My flights back home were as smooth as could be, I even managed to get to Dublin a half hour early.  My wonderful DH decided to drive up and collect me rather than me taking the bus home.  He’s just one big sweetie!

I’m sitting at home this morning with a sick little one.  Nothing too bad, just a temperature right now and I’m waiting to see if it gets any worse from here.  I do however feel somewhat guilty as when he’s home sick I usually get tons of work done…no early school collection and he usually takes a huge sleep mid-morning.  Bad mommy me.

In between my never ending edits I have released my newest pattern Akoya.  If you click through on the name you’ll get full details of the pattern and lots more photos.  I’ll post my favorite below again though!

The version shown above is actually the second version of the cardigan.  It was knit by the talented Dixie using Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply/sportsweight.  This yarn makes a really floaty lightweight cardigan.  The lovely sheen and stitch definition really help the details to pop out as well.

The first version I knit was from Rowan Felted Tweed DK.  It doesn’t quite have all of the fine details worked out yet but the basic shape and idea is the same.  For me it is very wearable due to the dark color but it doesn’t really help for photography!

I started knitting this version for myself at Christmas.  Usually when I start knitting I have a fairly firm idea in my head of where a design is going but this was definitely more of a free form process with the details emerging as it was knit.  This meant that when it was finished there were several tweaks that needed to be made (mainly with cable and lace panels) to make it just perfect….hence the second Fyberspates version that is just right (I’m feeling like Goldilocks!).

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas.  We had or first Christmas at home in several years and it was really lovely.  I’m feeling in need of some brisk walks and detox by now though!  Our cold spell continued until the day after Christmas, complete with frozen pipes and afterwards cracked pump.  Hopefully we’ll have our pump repaired in time for the next cold snap next week.  Everything closes down for Christmas here in Ireland, so we will be lucky to get it welded by the end of the week.

We did take advantage of the Christmas snow to take some very pretty photos of my niece in her Iceling Cardigan.  This version was knit using Babylonglegs Radiance Aran.  She loved it so much that it was barely taken off while she was here!  I’m putting a version of  the pattern together for BabyLongLegs and she will be starting a KAL in January for anyone interested.  As you can see from this version this cardigan style is short, however if you want to make it longer just make sure you have more yarn and knit to the length you need (you have to add a few more stitches to pick up along the front as well for the extra length).  She is a good size 3 1/2 year old and I knit her the 25″ (4 year old) size.

After Iced was published this Summer I began thinking about a baby/child version.  I wanted to keep the basic structure and feel of the cardigan the same but make it more suitable for a smaller body.

It’ll still be top down raglan construction with a large double breasted front band but the yarn weight I used is an aran weight so there is less bulk for a child.  I’ve put a fairly extensive size range together from 3 month up to 10 years.  The body will still be short as in the original but I’ve lengthened the sleeves and added a large garter stitch bottom band.  The whole cardigan is designed to grow with the child, the wrist bands can fold back when they’re small and then be unfolded when older.  The double breasted front can be fastened on the second set of buttons to also extend its useful life.

We met up with Tracy yesterday and took some photos of her beautiful 5 week old.  I think he looks just adorable in his Iced baby set!  The yarn was kindly donated by Jeni of Fyberspates, and the set took just two skeins of Scrumptious Aran (in Cherry). I’ve also knit a larger size for my niece for Christmas in Sarah’s (AKA Babylonglegs) Radiance Aran and the multi-colored yarn looks pretty wonderful in garter stitch knit in different directions!

I keep calling this set Iced Baby (cue the Vanilla Ice song) perhaps I should go find a new name?!?

This pattern should be up and available in the next few weeks, it is such a fast easy knit I think that I may be a little addicted to it (just finished another  hat for my 4 year old!)

It’s the start of November so its time for our Talamh KAL to get started.  There have been a few people who have gotten started already but there’s lots of time for everyone else to catch up!  Post all your questions there, even if it is just help with yarn choices.  It is a big help getting getting other view points and opinions.

Up to this point the patterns in the Four Seasons booklet have only been available together.  However by the end of this week you will be able to buy all patterns (except Tine) individually for $5.95, so if the only pattern you want is Talamh you’ll be able to get it then.

On a totally different note, I was up in Dublin last week for the Knitting and Stitching show.  Rather than go up for just the day I went up on Thursday night and got to go out for dinner with some pals from This is Knit.  We went to a delicious Italian restaurant, so very yummy!  (Of course too much chatting and good food meant we ended up staying up way too late!).

At the show on Friday I got to meet lots of new people, Stephanie from The Yarn Room was at her stand with mountains of lopi, I had spoken to her before but this was our first time meeting.  Laura Hogan had a stand upstairs and we spent ages chatting knitting, she spins and hand dyes yarn for sale on etsy.  I picked up a ball of Drops Nepal at the Pippablue stand.  I had been looking at this particular colour for several months and just couldn’t decide online if the shade veered too far into the gaudy end of the spectrum.

Even though it was just for one day I was tired for a full 24 hours afterwards, a full day on my feet with that big a crowd just wipes me out!