I've been away too long

First of all I must apologise for forgetting I was going away when the competition expired. I got back yesterday but have been working on knitonthenet ever since, but first of all the winner of July's draw is Mikaela. Congratulations, could you email me with your address so I can get your book in the post to you.

I have had a hectic time travelling the length of the country. I went first to the In the Loop conference at Winchester School of Art, which also saw the opening of the Knitting Reference Library which includes Jane Waller's archive pattern collection, as well as Montse Stanley's and Richard Rutt's. You could spend a lifetime in there.

After that I travelled to Dorset to Camp Bestival to help at the knitting tent run by Gerard and Craig from I Knit London. We were promoting the Great British Sheep, which is a project to highlight the 60 plus native breeds of british sheep and how rarely you would find them in your LYS. We were swamped with knitters and learners for the three days, sometimes teaching 8 people at a time! Here's a photo of our lovely sheepy as the weekend wore on.



I made the heart!

My daughter went with me to the festival and here's her new invention, the Fringe Protector!



I managed to get Ziggy completed before the KAL deadline, and on the day it was finished it was worn by FIVE people. Everyone loved it and I now have requests for two more.







We also had a visit from a celebrity.



This is the lovely Kate Nash, who knits, and spent some time at the tent knitting and casting off. She was very sweet and posed for photos and gave autographs whenever asked. Later, when she was on stage, she told the audience she had been chilling in the knitting tent and that she loved knitting!

Issue 6 of knitonthenet went live today. I have two patterns in this issue.

Orchid, using Filatura di Crosa Brillante. I wanted to make a nice, easy to wear summer top that could be used to wear for work, with shorts at the weekend or even over a bikini. I also wanted to fit a wide range of sizes and this one is sized up to a 50 inch bust.



and Tropicana which uses knitshop's beautiful Mulberry silk. It is gorgeous yarn, really, really gorgeous.



I really enjoyed knitting this one. Its an intricate but easy to follow lace pattern called Pear and Trellis and after the first repeat it becomes very simple to follow. Much much easier to knit than it looks. I do hope you all like them.

for now
Ruby xxx