On Saturday I got to get my Contemporary Irish Knit trunk show out on my home ground at Cork.  There is a knitting and craft shop here called Vibes and Scribes that has a great selection of wool, books, and general crafty goodness.  It is packed to the rafters with goodies so there was much shifting of stock to fit me in for the morning!  I had a steady stream of knitters calling by and we got to chat about tension/gauge squares, cables and reading charts.  With a few hints on magic loop and tightening up your cable stitches thrown in along the way!  I am very grateful to the very talented Evin O’Keeffe who took all the photos in today’s post.  I’ve got a link down further if you’d like to see more of her photos.  It was extra impressive as she was busy leaning over the table photographing while 7 months pregnant!

You can see my full set up here, complete with my trusty I-pad that is invaluable when doing trunk shows, knitters can’s miss the photos!

This was Evin’s favorite of the Ardara tunic.  If anyone want to see all the photos Evin took when she came to visit you can view them here.  You can see some from fiber Feis as well as an added bonus….and pretend that it’s still summer!

Knitters are making great progress with The Ultimate Contemporary Irish Knits KAL.  There are already some beautiful finished pieces starting to appear.  This is running until the first of December so join right in.  We are pulling together some great prizes for this so don’t miss out!

Later on today the final stop on my blog tour will be up – Ilga Leja.  If you’ve missed any of the tour stops you can view them all below.  Thank you everyone who has taken part, I appreciate your support and kindness so much.  And a big thank you to all the readers as well, I hope you found the tour interesting and discovered some new facts along the way!

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

Speaking of blog tours, tomorrow it’ll be my turn for a stop in the blog tour of one of my favorite designer’s Woolly Wormhead.  I’ll be taking a look at her newest book ‘Bambeanies‘ which is full of cuteness for little ones!

I’m getting so excited about heading to Glasgow this week, can’t wait to meet all you lovely knitters!

I’m delighted to announce the first stop on the CIK blog tour – Stephen West!

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

Competition Winners!!!

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

I wanted to have a range of project in this book. Many current knitting books focus on one area only; women, men, kids or accessories.  I wanted to buck the trend and cover the lot!

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.

We made it back home last night after the Contemporary Irish Knits launch party tired but very happy!  It is always such a pleasure to get to visit This Is Knit and the Powerscourt centre, such an elegant building with a lovely atmosphere.  This time my husband, Joe, got to come along as well so I actually have some photographs of the event to share with you!

I want to give a big thank you to all the mills and hand dyers who came along so that knitters got a chance to see the yarn ranges and talk with them.  Donegal Yarns, Cushendale Woollen Mills, Kerry Woollen Mills, Hedgehog Fibres and Dublin Dye Company were all there, and we even have the photo to prove it!

From left to right in the photo there is; Chris Weiniger (Donegal Yarns), Tristan Donaghy (Studio Donegal), Miriam Cushen (Cushendale Woollen Mills), Sean Cannon (Kerry Woollen Mills), Carol Feller, Beata Jezekova (Hedgehog Fibres), Elana Kehoe & Yvonne McSwiney (Dublin Dye Company) .

I got started before the launch signing a big stack of books for knitters who had pre-ordered.

Thanks to all you great knitters out there This Is knit sold out of the book.  Fortunately I had an extra box of books along with me so no one was left short!

I am so looking forward to seeing all of the finished knits as they appear, its so much fun to see all the variations created by different knitters to make the patterns their own.  I love talking with knitters about how the garments are constructed and possible ways of modifying to suit their own body type.

Overlapping with the book launch was the Yarn Tasting event that there were many, many knitters at (as you can see!)

At the event I got to meet the super talented (and so very nice) Kate Davies.  She also had a display of her garments and patterns up and it was lovely to get to see (and fondle) them all in person. Her historical perspective on knitting was really interesting to hear, I’m going to be keeping an eye out for her upcoming articles to read a bit more.

During the yarn tasting both Kate and me (much to our surprise) got to give a speech so attendees got to see a mini-fashion parade of a few garments from the book in action.  Thank you very much to all of the eager models (Lisa, Elana, Eimear and Aoibhe) who did a great job.

And of course there was cake (again from the amazing ‘Pepper Pot’ in the centre)…..

It was so very pretty it was a shame to cut it but it just had to be done!

Siobhan from This Is Knit was also busy snapping the event so keep an eye out on This Is Knit’s blog for some additional lovely photos of the event.  So even if you couldn’t be there you can still get some of the virtual pleasure from it!

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.

I hope you haven’t all started getting sick of hearing about my book yet! It’s more exciting than I thought it would be launching my first book, even watching it yo-yo up and down on Amazon is kind of fun (in a masochistic sort of way!).  In a few weeks time I’ll also be launching a blog tour for the book so you’ll start to see some more details about all the patterns and the book.

This Is Knit have kindly offered to host the book launch party on the 8th of September.  So if you’re anywhere near Dublin come along for an afternoon of fun (along with lots of wool and perhaps some cake)!  You can book your spot at the launch here. Their shop is located in the center of Dublin in the Powerscourt Shopping Center.  The launch will be held right up at the very top in the Loft area.  It will start at 4.30 and will run until 5.30, after this their Yarn Tasting evening begins and if you’ve also booked for this we’ll be there for the first hour or so for garment trying on and book signing.  We’re hoping to have a few of the mills there as well to give you some virtual tours of the mills and yarn.  If you have already bought the book bring it along to get it signed, if not you can pre-order when you book your spot at the launch!

For anyone not withing easy distance of Dublin, I’ll be bringing my book trunk show and book signing hand around the country.  17th of September I’ll be running a class at Crafty Alley in Killarney that can be booked here and I’ll be in Glasgow with the Yarn Cake on the 21/22nd of October, classes can be booked here.

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’ve just added the next pattern from to book to Ravelry – Killybegs.

(c) Joseph Feller

This design is very close to my heart, it was the very first one I completed for the book!  It took me ages (and much ripping) to get the top of the yoke just perfect.  Just the right amount of curve across the back from short rows without it becoming too high.

The cardigan is worked around a traditional honeycomb stitch cable pattern.  This is usually used as an accent panel but I’ve played with the structure so that all of the decreases are worked into the pattern around the yoke.  Its worked seamlessly from the bottom up.  The body and sleeves are both knit first of all, and then are joined at the yoke and worked in one piece.  The natural ‘drawing in’ quality of cables is used at the waist so that the increased cabling creates the waist shaping rather than decreases.

This pattern is worked up in Donegal Yarns ‘Aran Tweed’ (also sold as Studio Donegal and occasionally still under the Kilcarra label).  It’s a great color green that has fleck of orange and purple running through it.  As soon as I’m finished using the samples for my trunk show this cardigan is going straight in my wardrobe!

Materials
Donegal Yarns “Aran Tweed” (100% wool; 88 yd./80m per 50g skein); Color: Green (4824); 10 (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16) skeins
NOTE: This yarn is also sold under the “Kilcarra” and “Studio Donegal” labels.
US 8 (5mm) circular needle, 32” (80cm) length (or longer for larger sizes), or size needed to obtain gauge
US 7 (4.5mm) circular needle, 32” (80cm) length (or longer for larger sizes)
US 8 (5mm) double-pointed needles
Cable needle
Removable stitch markers
Waste yarn
Tapestry needle
9-13 hook and eye closures

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.