New Designs and a Big Thank You

Thank you everyone for all your kind and uplifting comments both here on the blog, to my email and on ravelry. You all really helped to lift my spirits this week and give me the boost to get through. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You're the best.

I will be working away for the rest of the week at the Stitch & Craft show at Olympia in London but before I go I wanted to share three new designs which I have just released on the new issue of knitonthenet.

The first of the three is my somewhat delayed Celia's Gloves pattern. This pattern went missing three months ago and I finally managed to get it rewritten in time for this issue.



These gloves use a single repeat of the lace pattern from my Celia Scarf pattern.
The gloves are made from the same Garn Studio Drops Alpaca but the pattern is extremely versatile. When I was reworking the pattern I used some left over 4 ply tweed and it looked fabulous.

The next design is Miss Moneypenny, so named after the character in James Bond, who I thought really summed up ladylike glamour.



I had come across a pattern in an early 1930s magazine featuring a ribbed garment made on very big needles. What they had done though was use a thick aran weight yarn, knitted it on bigger needles than normal and pressed it out. The result was a bit mixed. But it got me thinking that if the designers of that period had had access to the super chunky yarns that we do now, they would probably have given them a go from time to time. So I decided to create my own 'period' big wool garment using Twinkle Super Chunky. To avoid unsightly seaming I have knitted this in one piece to the underarms, including the button bands, separated for the upper body, then work a three needle bind off at the shoulders. The collar is 'grown on' with decreased worked to shape it into the neck and short rows worked to create the collar points. The collar stands up at the back without creating bulk. The sleeves are knitted separately and sewn on as I didn't want a yoke to the upper body and I wanted some bulk in the sleeve head to create body.

This is the view from the back, which I feel also gives it a sort of 1980s, Anthony Price look to it. Might be my imagination!



The final design is Quadrato. This means square in italian, so it is a square scarf, but this doesn't sound half as interesting as Quadrato. I have given this pattern as a chart as it didn't make sense to try and write it out line by line. Initially I found this quite daunting, not because I find charts a problem, but because I write them out on squared paper and I find the jump to working chart on the computer quite a challenge. However, once we had the rows and columns drawn up and a key devised it was really quite simple. I'm glad it was a single sized square though. Made things a lot easier.

Quadrato can be worn around the neck (at the front or back)



or as a headscarf



I love this photo of the lovely Vicky, and I love the way the texture of the Rowan Yorkshire Tweed really stands out on the image. I love Yorkshire Tweed, I wish Rowan hadn't discontinued it.

However, after three hours sleep last night to get all this done, I am off to bed ready for an early start for the 4/5 hour drive to London in the morning.

for now
Ruby xx