Just Call Me Ruby

Coronation Knits

2012-02-09T18:24:00.000Z

I am so excited to be able to announce the publication of this collection of designs inspired by and celebrating the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II 60 years ago.

This small collection will feature designs for women, men and children and will be available an e-book but not in print.

I will announce price, number of patterns, and how to order etc very, very soon.

for now
Ruby xxx

Vintage Valentine Workshop

2012-01-30T20:00:00.002Z

On Sunday 5th February I will be hosting a Vintage Valentine's workshop at Waterstones in Lancaster. The workshop runs from 11am until approximately 3.30-4pm. We will be making vintage inspired knitted love tokens. The workshop only costs £8 including all materials and project information sheets AND lunch. What better way to spend a Sunday? You can see full details on the poster below.

Bookings should be made directly with Waterstones Lancaster by calling them on 0843 290 8435

A final treat for the day will be a little pop-up Excelana shop within Waterstones with 10% discount on all yarn sales for workshop attendees. Please note that as the pop-up shop is run by myself I can only take cash on the day.

for now
Ruby xx

WOW

2012-01-29T14:43:00.000Z

Its a couple of weeks now since I set up my installation at the Rheged Gallery in Penrith, Cumbria but its taken me until now to feel confident enough to blog about the whole experience. I enjoyed the process enormously but at the same time was completely over-awed by the people I was sharing the gallery with and also terribly worried that my work wasn't very good. In fact, far more worried than I've been about anything in my career. I guess if this blog shows anything its that I'm not afraid to be open about myself and my work but this installation basically lays my working practices and therefore myself, completely open.

It was however a great way to achieve closure on a project that had totally taken over my life and from which, I've found it quite hard to move on. Taking the working papers, swatches, notes, unresolved garments etc and altering their purpose has created a distance for me that hopefully means I can tidy up my mind as well as my desk. The stacks of papers have been carefully arranged to reveal little tit bits from the process, notes in different hand writing, sketches, scribbles and above all, numbers. The title of the piece, 3000 hours, was, as I've previously mentioned, the approximate time I spent on the 'mathematical' part of the project. Its an enormous amount of time and I felt it was important to try and express that time spent in a physical form. Scarily the finished installation does not include all the papers. It would have become quite overwhelming and unstable if it had!

I took a lot of photographs of the piece as it built up none of which really do the piece justice but they do help to show some of the detail. This first batch of photos are from my studio as I first starting trying to piece it all together. As the piles were created they were then glued together into a whole:

The very first pieces being laid out.

The first pile

The first stacks of glued sections

Detail as it starts to come together

a completed pile

the layout starts to come together

Once the layout was worked out and glueing was completed the installation had to be dis-assembled and packed up to take to the gallery. I then had to begin again arranging the work according to my plan.

Here I am working my best Ena Sharples look - pin curls at the ready

Not quite sure what I'm doing here. I appear to be listening for the sea in my cup

The installation starts to come together

Final adjustments

A section of the final piece

Charlie relaxing before the launch listening to Knitsonik's amazing recordings

the only not completely dreadful photo of me at the launch, wearing the Helen Shrug

There is some amazing work on display at the exhibition including other specially commissioned work from the likes of Knitsonik and Rachael Matthews, and a chance to see the thought provoking work of Freddie Robins and the unbelievable knitted BMW engine by Amy Twigger Holroyd and that's just to name just a few!

WOW is showing daily until 15th April of this year (opening times are 10.30am-4.30pm). Its most definitely worth a visit.

for now
Ruby xx

Christmas Knitting and New Year Happenings

2012-01-09T18:47:00.000Z

I do hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that 2012 is a happy, contented, successful and creative year for us all.

I managed to contract an ear infection over the holidays which slowed me down somewhat however I did manage to finish off a few garments from volume 2 of A Stitch in Time to wear over the festive period. I cleverly failed to get any pictures of me wearing the garments so for now I'll have to share them with you photographed on their own.

The first garment is Warm Jacket with a Bobble Stitch Yoke.


Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

This is one of my absolute favourites from the book because of its sheer wearability. The version in the book is knitted using Jamieson's Spindrift. Mine is knitted in Excelana in Saharan Sand. It comes out slightly 'plumper' and is even warmer than Shetland wool which is what I wanted.

It is a fairly simple knit, worked in separate pieces using a 1x1 rib with short rows worked on the upper front and back bodices. The raglan seams are then sewn together and the yoke is picked up and worked in one piece around the cardigan. What is particularly special about this version of this pattern is that mum knitted this for me as far as the short rows. Knitting is hard work for her since the stroke but she hates to be without it so we find patterns or parts of patterns that she can do, enlarge and simplify the written instruction so that she can follow it properly and then she's away. At this point the pattern needs to remain the same over a piece of knitting but she is now incorporating sleeve increases and side shaping. She can't as yet tackle buttonholes so my mother in law Dorothy knitted the right front. I finished the jacket off with only one small change, which was to fold under the cuffs to the wrong side and slip stitch loosely in place. I have stupidly short arms and had forgotten to adjust the sleeve pattern before I gave it to mum. However I really like the folded cuff as it looks smart and is very hard wearing.

My favourite thing about the cardigan though is the yoke which is simplicity itself but looks so effective.


Copyright Susan Crawford 2012

So to sum up:

Project

Warm Jacket with a Bubble Stitch Yoke (pg 223 A Stitch in Time volume 2)

Yarn: Excelana 4ply Luxury Wool in Saharan Sand

No of balls:12

Needles Used: 2.75mm and 3mm

Notions: 12 Buttons

Knitted to pattern for size 42-44 inch bust

The next completed garment is Charming Neckline.

The sample garment is knitted in Fyberspates Scrumptious 4 ply which is a silk and wool mix giving the garment a beautifully soft drape and handle. I had in my stash some Drops Alpaca Silk in a dull pink along with a single ball in a pale grey. This garment was to form part of my Christmas Day outfit along with some fabulous wide leg palazzo pants in dull pink, grey and deep red. (I will get some photos of this all together I promise!)

This time I remembered to shorten the arms so that the cuffs sit just nicely on my wrist bones.

I also knew from prior experience that the Drops Alpaca Silk does indeed 'drop' quite a lot so I made the 38-40 chest size instead of 42-44. However as I had lots of yarn I added an inch in length to the lower body to give me more expansion room. Because of the nature of the yarn, the back neck is proving a little sloppy so I'm going to add a row of Double Crochet (US - Single Crochet) around the side and back neck edges to stop it losing its shape.

I bought a fabulous hair clip from Accessorise when I was in Edinburgh to wear with the outfit which you can see in some of the photos. The colours matched perfectly.

I felt great in this jumper, glamorous and yet relaxed, which is a great feeling, and I could cook and eat without feeling uncomfortable. What more could a girl want on Christmas Day?

Project

Charming Neckline (pg 31 A Stitch in Time volume 2)

Yarn: Drops Alpaca Silk in dull pink (shade 1306) and soft mink (1760)

No of balls:12 + 1

Needles Used: 2.75mm and 3.25mm

Knitted size 38-40 inch bust with 1 inch added to lower body length

The next garment was actually sewn up on Boxing Day, ready to wear for another family gathering the next day. This is Summery - and a New Pattern.


Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

A strange choice for winter? Well mum and dad's house is very warm so this seemed the perfect choice. Knitted in Baby Rooster as in the pattern as it was just the right weight for the garment and for the occasion. This one was knitted in black and I called in the services of super knitter, Dorothy to get it knitted in time. I know most knitters really don't like knitting in black and this certainly wasn't a knit in the cinema type of project but the pattern is extremely three dimensional and clear which makes life much easier.

The jabot is knitted but not yet sewn on due to lack of time. I was also keen to see how the jumper worked without it and I personally think it works really well. Possibly on a larger chested person such as myself, the lack of a further layer is probably beneficial. I wore it with the glass brooch shown on the photos and a thirties-esque bias cut skirt.

With having very narrow shoulders compared to my bust size I played with the sizing a little on this one. Knitted in the second size for 38-42 inch bust but then extra decreases worked at the underarm taking the shoulders down to the first size stitch count. This reduced the shoulder to shoulder measurement from 16.5 inches to 15. The design has a very slightly dropped shoulder line to give the sleeves their hang but I wanted to be sure that it was only slight, which it was and worked perfectly. All other details were exactly as to the pattern.

Project

Summery - and a New Pattern (pg 53 A Stitch in Time volume 2)

Yarn: Baby Rooster in 410 (liquorice)

No of balls: 12

Needles Used: 2.25mm and 3.75mm

Knitted size 38-42 inch bust with adjustments to shoulder width

And the final finished garment is the Fair Isle Cardigan. Knitted in Excelana 4 ply luxury wool as in the book but in a very different colour way.

My colour choice focused on the closeness of French Rose, Ruby Red and Persian Grey in tone with a dash of Powdered Egg, Alabaster and Nile Green thrown in for good measure.

I love how this works as a combination and have been wearing the cardigan with a dress from Cath Kidston of exactly the same red.


Copyright Susan Crawford 2012

Again I stayed close to the pattern except for working extra decreases at the armholes again to reduce the shoulder width. On this occasion I knitted the 40-42 inch bust but reduced the shoulder width right down to that of the 32-34 inch bust as the sleeve caps need to sit high on top of the ball of the shoulder so I needed a very narrow shoulder width. Other that this change the garment was knitted exactly to pattern. I had some beautiful 1930s buttons that worked really well with the cardigan, picking out the Persian Grey in the fair isle design and was fortunate enough to have just the right number to complete the cardigan.


Copyright Susan Crawford 2012

They are quite a thick button, almost looking like liquorice. What I love about this cardigan most of all though is that it shows how wonderfully well Excelana knits up for colour work. The stitches stick together and the colours meld into one another beautifully and yet retain definition. I love it soooooo much!

Project

Fair Isle Cardigan (pg 206 A Stitch in Time volume 2)

Yarn: Excelana 4 ply Luxury wool, main shade French Rose, plus Persian Grey, Ruby Red, Powdered Egg, Alabaster and Nile Green

No of balls: 9 + 1 ball or oddments of each of the supplementary colours

Needles Used: 2.75mm and 3.25mm

Notions: 7 buttons

Knitted size 40-42 inch bust with adjustments to shoulder width

Since completing all this knitting I've been working on a very exciting project which launches on Saturday 14th January at the Rheged Centre in Penrith. I'm thrilled to have been asked to create a piece of work for the WOW exhibition, which "will unveil an ambitious new exhibition that shows how knitting and stitch are used as a medium for contemporary art and design. The exhibition will feature of work by 20 internationally renowned British contemporary artists and designers who have been inspirational in their creative uses of wool."

My piece, which is an installation, is entitled 3000 hours and looks at the numeracy and labour behind hand knitting design. I can't quite believe I've been included in this list of amazing people:

Featured artists include: Max Alexander, Susan Crawford, Stewart Easton, Felicity Ford, Fay Godwin, Kate Jenkins, Rachael Matthews, Steve Messam, Deirdre Nelson, Kate Pemberton, Trevor Pitt, Celia Pym, Joss Wrigg, Freddie Robins, Annie Shaw, Amy Twigger-Holdroyd, Hazel White, Rich White, Donna Wilson, Fine Cell Work, Carréducker and Wool Clip.

There is also a resource area which will have information about the artist's influences, their work and knitting will be going on throughout.

The Rheged Centre is an amazing place on the outskirts of Penrith in Cumbria and is Europe's largest grass covered building, yet disappears into the Cumbrian landscape. The gallery space opened early last year.

The exhibition runs for three months until Sunday 15th April and you can find out more about it at the Rheged Centre website. Do go along if you get the chance. We have the set up and then the Private View this Friday for which I'm frantically trying to knit up my own version of the Swagger Coat. However I'm not sure if I'll get there... but we shall see.

So for now,

Ruby xx

Wishing You a Very Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T21:57:00.000Z

Image Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

I had great fun creating my own Christmas card this year. I had even more fun with the 'verse' which reads:

I do hope everyone has a wonderful festive season and very best wishes for 2012.

for now
Ruby xxx

Where have I been?

2011-12-12T13:28:00.000Z

Its been over a month since I last blogged but I do have an excuse. I've been at Knitting shows and book signings and trunk shows up and down the country taking all the projects from the A Stitch in Time, Vol 2 with me. I've had a great time watching lots and lots of people trying on the designs from the book and wearing them in many different ways. I've managed to capture some of these but missed as many if not more but I thought to bring the blog up to date I would share a selection of photos from around the country...

These three photos are all of Gathered Neckline with a Bow which is knitted in a cobweb or laceweight yarn from Posh Yarns. I bought some Juno Lace when at Loop to make one for myself.

and here we have Warm Jacket with a bubble stitch yoke knitted in Jamieson's Spindrift

This is the Lady's Jumper Cardigan knitted in Persian Grey Excelana

Jan earlier in the year at Knit Nation. The first in an alpaca yarn and the second in Nile Green Excelana.

This is Cryscelle, the cover jumper and one of the earliest of the garments in the book, looking fabulously 80s. This jumper is knitted in Knitshop Mulberry Silk.

This is the Gay Bolero being worn in the first instance with the Sunday Pictorial Beret and secondly as very cool maternity wear.

And here's a whole host of the designs being worn in very different ways.

This Attractive Affair

This Winter's High Spot

This Charming Neckline

Cocktail Jumper

Designed in Paris

Quick Work in Thick Wool

Golden Eagle Jumper

The Swagger Coat with Blackberry Cardigan from Volume 1

Pretty for Everyday

Striped Sun Top

Ripple Jumper

Springtime Bolero

Trimmed with Roses Cardigan

Tyrolean Jacket


Dinah's Lacy Jumper

And here we have Dinah's Lacy Jumper again, shown here with Kasha.

Here's Kasha being worn again as a very stylish jacket

And here being modelled by the very lovely Cookie A. Believe it or not I had forgotten I had this photo!

And here's me in my very own Kasha, knitted for me by my knitter in shining armour, Tom, photographed with me here at Prick Your Finger. This version is done in Lotus Cashmere from Skein Queen and I absolutely love it. Tom has done a beautiful job of knitting this pattern and you can read more about the extra little touches he introduced on his blog.

I have knitted a number of the designs for myself in larger sizes than the sample sizes done for the book, and over christmas I'll try and get some photos of me wearing them for the blog as I'm really pleased how, like Kasha, they have really worked for a lady of more ample proportions.

for now
Ruby xxx

Further Dates for the Diary

2011-11-10T08:49:00.000Z

We are off on the road again this weekend with our huge bags of garments. On Saturday I am at Prick Your Finger in Bethnall Green, London from 3-6pm, displaying the garments, signing books and cuddling Excelana which is available here. Then on Sunday I am visiting Nest in Crouch End, London where I will be from around 2pm, with the trunk show, signing books and getting to cuddle Excelana again :-)

Next week we stay north, with a visit to Fibre and Clay, Knutsford on Friday 18th November with the full trunk show and with Excelana too for the first time.

The following week its the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate from 24th to 27th November. The Susan Crawford Vintage stand will be there - on A600 - please do come by and say hello if you're at the show (I think the organisers may have listed it as Arbour House Publishing but its still me!). The garments will be on display and we will also have Excelana for sale and some of the Knitshop yarns used in the book. Do bring your voucher if you pre ordered the book for 10% discount on Excelana and 15% discount on Knitshop yarns.

Finally for now on Sunday 4th December I'll be at Purl City Yarns in Manchester from 12-3 pm for a trunk show and signing.

Lots and lots to squeeze in before we go so,

for now
Ruby xx

Despatch Update

2011-11-01T19:58:00.000Z

I'm very pleased to be able to announce that UK pre-orders for volume 2 of A Stitch in Time should have been delivered (or delivery attempted) by the end of the day tomorrow. We have used a courier in the end due to the weight of the book and if no one is home they will leave the book somewhere safe or with neighbours if possible, otherwise they will leave a card for you to ring and arrange a re-delivery. Its taken a bit of time to get the orders all processed but we have had confirmation that delivery to all mainland UK addresses should be completed tomorrow.

For all other countries, it is somewhat out of our hands as all countries own delivery times etc are different but we have endeavoured to get the books delivered in as timely but cost efficient way as we could achieve so that no one should hopefully be waiting too long.

I will be 'out of the office' for the rest of this week but hopefully the remaining UK despatch will go smoothly. If for any reason you do not receive your book tomorrow and no card is left, please allow 24 hours for despatch to be re-attempted the following day.

kind regards
Susan

Dates for the Diary

2011-10-31T20:37:00.000Z

November is going to continue where October left off by being extremely busy. Later this week Gavin and I hit the road for booksignings, trunk shows and events. We will have with us all 80 designs from A Stitch in Time Volume 2 and the book itself available to purchase.

Our first visits this week are to:

Marmalade Yarns, Catherine Hill, Frome, Somerset, on Wednesday 2nd November from 6.30-8.30 pm. This lovely little yarn shop is in my wonderful tech editor's village and I will then be spending a couple of days with Jen vintage button shopping!

We then travel to London on Sunday 6th November for our London book launch at Loop, 15 Camden passage, Islington were we will be from 2-4pm again with all the samples from the book and Loop will be offering 10% off a wide range of yarns to celebrate the launch.

We will then be home for a few days and then hitting the road again - more details of these in a few days!

for now
Ruby

The next stage - signing!

2011-10-29T09:43:00.000+01:00

Once we had received all the books the next step before they could be packaged up for sending out was signing. So it began

all calm and collected. Every book carefully signed with a message

And so the books began to pile up!

and up!

Until finally the last book was signed

I was kept going by the thought of a roast dinner to follow after I had completed all the signings but unfortunately one or two purchasers almost received books with the charming message

"Best wishes, yorkshire puddings and gravy"

but they were spotted before it was too late!

but for now, 2 dislocated wrists, 1 dislocated thumb, 1 twisted shoulder and a raised collar bone later, the signings are complete :-)

Ruby xxx

(all images Copyright Gavin Crawford 2011)

Delivery Day!

2011-10-26T09:29:00.001+01:00

An early morning phone call surprised us with the news yesterday that Volume 2 of A Stitch in Time was on its way to us and would be with us that day. It was all very exciting and Gavin raced off to the Studio to await the new arrival. We were also expecting a delivery of 100s of packaging boxes so I had to stay at home and wait for them.

I paced up and down, I jumped around and did a little dance as my nervous energy built and built. Eventually the call came from Gavin telling me the delivery had arrived.

When I got there the unloading had almost finished with only 3 pallets remaining on the lorry. This is the friendly delivery man, who had the enormous task of manouvering all the pallets out of the van, down the drive and into the studio.


Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

This is what the room looked like as it began to fill up. And then the moment the delivery was complete the first box was opened. And here it is:

400 pages of loveliness.

And here I am exhausted and very shabby holding the first copy of A Stitch in Time Vol 2. Please excuse my tattiness. I didn't sleep the night before and as I've mentioned before we have no heating at the studio yet and we were moving 1000's of books around so I wasn't really dressed for an official photograph!

So then the first chance to actually look through the pages of our beautiful book -

It is everything I hoped and more. There were many times in this two year process when I doubted if we would actually get to this point as so much seemed to go against us but at the very end everything worked like clockwork and we have the most stunningly beautiful treasury of vintage patterns that I could ever have imagined. I love our book and I truly hope you all will too.

For now
Ruby xxx

Publication Date and a trip to Wales

2011-10-11T14:22:00.001+01:00

Without further ado, I am delighted to announce that A Stitch in Time Volume 2 will be published on 25th October (in two weeks time).

An email has gone out to all pre order customers which advises that orders will be despatched in order of them being placed, so earliest order first. Wholesale orders will be going out in much the same way and then its over to the stores to deliver how they see fit. UK orders could take up to about a week to be received therefore, and depending on the individual country's postal service I would allow three to four weeks for delivery overseas. We'll also be taking the pre order special price off the website at the end of this week so the price will be going up to its full price from Monday. So if you would still like to take advantage of the pre order offer for a few more days, now is the time to do it.

So a couple of days ago, Gavin and I set off through the countryside to meet with the lovely printing firm who are printing the book for us. The pages of the book were being printed 16 pages to one sheet of paper, so 8 pages to each side of paper. With 400 pages to the book that means 25 separate 'sets' of 16 pages. This doesn't sound so much until you see all spread out in front of you!


Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

Where the chap is at the far end of the row is the other end of the book and it is all the piles that you can see. I almost burst into tears as we walked around the corner and saw it spread out in front of us.

And it wasn't just the number of piles


Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

It was all the sheets piled up too!

We were given a guided tour of the factory and shown the enormous press that our book was being printed on


Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

Each one of these sections prints one of the four colours needed, the paper is turned over and the process is repeated on the other side. Every stage of the process is followed by cameras so that the print machine operators can check every single page as it passes through the press. The firm is very enviromentally active and have won all manner of awards and accreditation for their efforts to reduce waste and work in an enviromentally friendly way - their canteen even has a wormery for all kitchen waste! All the paper used is FSC approved and of particular interest to me, the inks used are vegetable based. This was common practice in the past but inks became chemical based over the last 60 years or so which has an impact on the enviroment in various ways. I was keen to find a printer who used vegetable based inks so was delighted when this was the case. My other concern was that the printer would be reasonably near to ourselves. So although not on the doorstep, they are only 4 hours away and with the book binders being used only an hours trip from the printers, the amount of travelling the books have to do before they reach us is minimal.

Here are a few more images of our book 'curing' before it leaves the printers to have its beautiful hard back case wrapped around it.


Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

I think most of the images are just about blurry enough to keep you all guessing!

for now
Ruby xx

While I wait

2011-09-29T15:18:00.002+01:00

With the book writing process now complete what do I do with myself while I wait for the book to arrive from the printers? Changing your work/life pattern after two years of working day and night to complete a project of this size has proven difficult. Basically my system has crashed and I am suffering from both physical and mental exhaustion. Not unusual or unexpected after a creative project of this scale, but debilitating non the less. Once a couple of other smaller deadline projects were completed, I couldn't even think what to knit next. I desperately needed to rest but there was a nervous energy that wouldn't allow me too. So really I have needed to hit the bottom so that I could begin to build myself back up and over the last week or two I've got there! Good food, lots of rest, no stress, fresh air and exercise is what is prescribed, so I'm trying my best. I have to announce that because of this I have had to withdraw from The Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace this year but I will still have a stand at Harrogate in two months time though as this gives me time to recover. I'll also be doing some book signings and trunk shows from November.

Gavin and I have introduced some new regimes for ourselves - nothing complicated but things like allowing ourselves time for a lunch break rather than eating quickly whilst working, stopping work at a reasonable hour - and understanding that, no, 5am is not a reasonable hour, and probably most significantly having some time each evening where checking emails is not allowed. We have decided that if we are eating or watching a film we will put our i-phones away and not look at emails until the meal or the film has finished. We need to do this for our sanity and our physical strength, as its one thing being a 24 hour business for trading purposes, but its another completely when the two of you as man and wife are dealing with emails etc for 18 hours or more every day. I genuinely didn't use to think that this separation was needed but now I do. I feel such guilt if I don't check my emails the moment I wake up, even before getting out of bed, or at 1am in the morning if we've just finished working, in fact I feel guilty every moment I'm not working, and that guilt is causing great stress which is making me ill and so has to stop. So from a certain point each evening, we are going to go offline and actually have some down time.

So with all this new found 'spare' time what am I doing?

I am spending a great deal of time, reading and re-reading from my own black and white manuscript of A Stitch in Time Vol 2. Only printed on 100gm paper it is thinner than the finished book will be, but it is still huge in all its 400 page glory.

It thrills me to look at it but like you all, I am so impatient to see the final results. the firm we are using is incredibly thorough and as keen as we are for the book to be as perfect as possible. Colour matching has been a big part of the pre-print process and I am excited to see how closely the finished results match the real thing. It will be with us in a few short weeks and will hopefully be as magnificent as I am expecting it to be.

I am also knitting from my draft copy.

This sneeky peek is of a new colour way of a design in the book that is in my size (for me!) using Excelana in French Rose as the main colour, with a Fair Isle design which also uses Ruby Red, Nile Green, Alabaster, Powdered Egg and Persian Grey. I am hoping to have a good selection of the garments available in two sizes for when I start visiting stores and shows.

Another very exciting development is that we have finally collected the keys to our new studio space. It is in a tiny village only 5 minutes from home and is a former coaching house.

The ground floor will be predominantly for storage and an office but the large upstairs room will be my studio.

It will be great for photography purposes with good natural light and lots of floor space - I can't quite believe how much floor space actually. The building is in need of quite a bit of TLC internally as you can see, but within the next 12 months we hope to get it just how we want it. We may even be able to do open days in the future.

And finally, with the launch of this year's Poppy Appeal in aid of The Royal British Legion I am delighted to announce that my knitted poppy pattern is again available to purchase through the knitonthenet website with a donation for every sale going to the appeal.

Many people are knitting numerous poppies and selling them on to raise even more money for the Poppy Appeal. There have even been poppy auctions. Why not join in and make this the year you wear a knitted poppy?

for now
Ruby

August 19th 1961

2011-08-19T10:27:00.000+01:00

It was 50 years ago today that my beautiful mum and rather cool looking dad walked down the aisle together.

Since mum's stroke two years ago I have wondered if we would get to this day and although it may be a somewhat different day to what we all expected, it is here, and I can honestly say they are both still so, so much in love and I just want to wish them a very, very happy 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Lots of love
Susan

Amazon Anomoly

2011-08-11T15:54:00.000+01:00

Checking Amazon.co.uk yesterday I was surprised to see that A Stitch in Time V:2 is showing as available but with delivery in approx 4 weeks. The book is definitely not available yet and I'm really not sure why amazon is showing it in this way. The approximate delivery date of 4 weeks makes sense but if you order from Amazon expecting the book to arrive immediately I'm afraid you won't receive it.

I do hope this hasn't caused anyone too much disappointment or confusion. Pre-order despatch will be our number one priority once the book is published so hopefully no one will be kept waiting once it is available.

for now
Ruby xx

Some Pretty Pictures

2011-07-29T09:26:00.000+01:00

Excellent progress is being made on A Stitch in Time Vol 2 and it will soon be going to the printers. In the meantime I'm excitedly looking forward to the arrival of samples to pick our cloth cover for the book. I've always wanted to publish a book with a hard back cover but wanted even more to publish a book with a cloth cover like the Odhams books etc so am thrilled with this. I also think it will make the finished book even more special.

I know I've been quiet on the blog for several weeks as I have worked on the book day and night so thought I would share a couple of the designs from the book with you:


Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

This gorgeous coat is officially known as 'The Swagger Coat' and is from the 1930s. It may be more familiar to many of you as Miss Marple's coat, worn by Geraldine McEwan in the TV series. It has also been seen far more recently, for approx 5 seconds, in the film 'The King's Speech', so a bit of a celebrity!

To create the smooth, slightly shiny fabric the pattern required and also getting the uncommonly big tension for the period, I used Fyberspates Scrumptious Aran in Water. It knits up beautifully, extremely quickly and with its high silk content, has exactly the right amount of sheen. The first size shown here takes 8 skeins. It will be available in a wide range of sizes from 30-52 inches.

This garment has had quite an impact on everyone who has seen it. She's called Kasha and is from the 1940s. I have a separate blog post all about the intricacies of multi sizing this little lady as she is quite a challenge so I won't dwell on that today. This beautiful cardigan jumper is knitted in Skein Queen Blush in a very special shade created by Skein Queen herself called Vintage Gold. The largest size is knitted in Lotus Cashmere DK. The lace motif is pretty complex but has been charted for the book making the knitting a lot easier. The button band is knitted as part of the fronts with the collar and little shoulder pads knitted separately and sewn on afterwards. Because of the complexity of the lace pattern, Kasha is available in a smaller range of sizes but is still available in sizes 30-44 inches.


Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

And one final reveal before its back to work for me. This is the Pretty Frilled Jumper, again from the 1930s. This is knitted both vertically and horizontally and with delicated frills knitted separately and sewn on afterwards. The stitch pattern is very simple but made more intriguing by the unusual construction. This design seems to look good on everyone who has tried it on despite being a little underwhelming in the original pattern. I think its the frills, framing the face so elegantly and then adding a bit of glamour at the wrist. It is knitted in Jamieson & Smith 2 ply Jumper yarn which has the right amount of body to get those frills to stand to attention. It is available in a range of sizes from 32-46 inch bust.

I will leave it there for today but will introduce a few more designs next week.

for now
Ruby xx

KNIT NATION 2011

2011-07-12T13:26:00.000+01:00

I will be travelling down to London this weekend to take part in Knit Nation at Imperial College London.

I will be teaching two classes "Vintage Fit & Finishing" and "Interpreting and Working from Vintage Patterns". I think both classes have either nearly or have sold out, although there may be one or two spaces left on Sunday for Working from Vintage Patterns.

I will also be having a stand at the event and thought it would be nice to offer a 10% discount on Excelana yarns to any pre-order customers of A Stitch in Time, Vintage Knitting Patterns, Vol2, who buy from my stand. To claim your discount please bring a print out of your order confirmation from the knitonthenet shop (only pre-orders directly made on the shop I’m afraid) and we will deduct 10% off any Excelana purchase.

I am trying to work out how to offer the same arrangement on the online shop for pre order customers but haven’t got it sorted out as yet, as our shop is very basic and doesn’t allow for a lot of ‘fancy stuff’.

This and the potential offer on the shop is in addition to the discount voucher being provided with the book pre-order package.

There will be a lovely selection of the garments from Volume 2 on display along with the yarn usage guide I've been steadily compiling, so if you see something you like and you want the yarn ready to get started when the book arrives next month, you can take advantage of the 10% offer.

I've also been calculating amounts needed for Excelana when substituting it for other yarns used in Volume 1 and Vintage Gifts to Knit so lots of reasons to come to my tiny stand and say hello!

I look forward to seeing some of you there.

for now
Ruby xx

More on the making of A Stitch in Time Volume 2!

2011-06-07T10:53:00.000+01:00

Things are going full steam ahead and very quickly as the book gets closer and closer to being ready. We recently had a further photoshoot around a series of outdoor locations that I had chosen close to my home. I'm lucky to live in an area that has a significant number of places that lend themselves beautifully to period photoshoots and just like with volume one, I wanted to include as many of them as possible in the book. As every single waking moment of every day is currently accounted for, twice over, I'm going to pass this post over to my assistant Inny, who has written a great account of this shoot over on the knitonthenet blog. There are also some great behind the scenes photos. You can read all about it here.

for now,
back to work!
Ruby xx

A Stitch In Time Photoshoot on Film!

2011-05-24T16:10:00.000+01:00

At one of the most recent photoshoots for A Stitch in Time Volume 2, one of Charlie's friends at university who is also studying film, kindly offered to video the day and then turn it into a short film for us. Scott Willis, our wonderful film maker, travelled down from Edinburgh on the day of shooting in March and spent the day quietly filming us. He has since spent many hours editing the footage into a marvellous visual treat of the day. I do hope you enjoy it.

A Stitch In Time Photo Shoot from Scott Willis on Vimeo.

The garments shown, as I'm sure you're going to ask, are all in Volume 2 and in order that they make an appearance they are:-

Sirdar 1035 (yet to be named!) in Skein Queen Blush, shade Vintage Gold - 1940s
Helen Shrug in Excelana 4ply, shade Alabaster - 1930s
Tri Cable Cardigan in Shilasdair Cashmere 4 ply - 1930s
Pretty for Everyday in Rowan Cashsoft 4ply (also in Excelana 4ply) - 1940s
Glamorous Evening Top in Knitshop Mulberry Silk - 1950s
Pretty Frilled Jumper in Jamieson & Smith 2 ply jumper weight - 1930s
The Jan Sweater in Excelana 4ply, shade Powdered Egg - 1930s
There is a glimpse of Dinah's Lacy Top in Rooster Baby, shade Ice Gem -1930s
Then Sirdar 1035, Jan Sweater then back to Sirdar 1035
At the very end you can see Pretty for Everyday in the background and the garment on the cover shot is Cryscelle in Knitshop Mulberry Silk - 1930s. Phew!

The two models appearing in the film are the wonderful Theodora Burrow and fabulous Lola Valentine. The hair and make up artist is Catherine-Elizabeth who can do the most amazing hair I've ever seen. Others present are myself, Charlie, Gavin and Inny.

I want to take the opportunity to thank Scott once again for a fantastic production. He's only just finishing his first year - he is going to be so good!

I'm off to watch it once again, so
for now
Ruby xx

Italia!

2011-05-20T10:20:00.001+01:00

Last week was a very exciting week. Gavin, Charlie and I set off for Italy to spend the week with Woolly Wormhead and her family just outside Sant Archangelo in the North East of Italy.

Woolly, Tom and Aran off to a wedding - copyright susan crawford 2011

With four avid photographers, Woolly, Tom, Charlie and myself all armed with our cameras at all times, there have been a LOT of photos to go through. In the end, I've chosen a small selection for the blog that I think sum up our time there.

The camp we stayed at is known as the Mutoid Camp, which is the base for a group of sculptors and artists who make the most amazing pieces out of scrap.


Copyright susan crawford 2011

The sculptures are larger than life and are dotted all around the camp.


copyright susan crawford 2011

This first sculpture is by the lovely Lou, who made us very welcome on the first night of our stay, inviting us to a barbecue she was hosting. Later in the week, Lou was to get married. Unfortunately we had to fly home on the morning of the celebrations which was a real shame.


copyright susan crawford 2011


copyright susan crawford 2011

This huge 'man' is one of a number done by another camp resident, Debbie who makes incredibly detailed and intricate sculptures, particularly for their scale.


copyright susan crawford 2011

This huge beast stands at the entrance to Woolly's plot. Its scale can't quite be appreciated here but it is over 10 feet tall. Many of the sculptures on the camp have been done as communal projects so I unfortunately don't know the details of the artists for all the works I have shown.

Gavin and I slept in Barp which Woolly used to use to get around in. Charlie was in a separate trailer


copyright susan crawford 2011

and Woolly, Tom and Aran were in the 'silver decker bus'


copyright susan crawford 2011

Sant Archangelo is a beautiful, Italian town, which has built up around a walled centre.

This is the view from about two thirds of the way up the hill

This it the beginning of the ancient walls rising above the town.

And of course amazing typically italian streets. I love the shades of green and pistachio, coral, pink and terracotta all blending into each other in this photograph. High up one of these winding streets is a small museum - a button museum! It is a fabulous museum with buttons from 1700s through to current times, and with a huge number from the 1920s-1940s which made me very happy.


copyright susan crawford 2011

The owners made us extremely welcome offering us iced tea and cake whilst we studied the collection and even had a small range of 'overs' from between the 30s and 50s from which I purchased a small number! I'll share these another time though.

One of my favourite day trips was our visit to San Marino, which is only 30 or 40 minutes from Sant Archangelo and rises up on the horizon in front of the camp. It is apparently the oldest republic in the world. It is also very wealthy and very, very pretty. Cars are parked part way down the mountain that is San Marino and then the rest is done on foot. The views are spectacular, stretching across Italy in all directions.


copyright susan crawford 2011

The streets though are very, very steep so I would recommend good walking shoes!


copyright susan crawford 2011


copyright susan crawford 2011

Three year old Aran made light work of all the steep climbs! However you are rewarded at the top with some very nice restaurants and cafes to sit, recover, eat and drink - I'm good at that bit.

Me - copyright woolly wormhead 2011

Charlie - copyright susan crawford 2011

Gavin - copyright susan crawford 2011

Back at camp there was some work to do as Woolly had photography to do for both her forthcoming Bambeanies booklet and also a retrospective she is beginning to work on. I couldn't resist getting involved and taking some photos of Woolly's work myself. A particular sculpture features heavily in Woolly's photos, which is known as the Time Machine - a result of a collaborative project by the Mutoids.

It has many parts, sides and shapes which Woolly has used to great effect. I actually managed to catch her at work when she wasn't looking!

As you can see from the photo above, Woolly persuaded Charlie to do some modelling for her. I took a couple myself in an attempt at Woolly Wormhead style -


copyright susan crawford 2011 - hat woolly wormhead

I will most definitely return to Italy. It was everything I hoped and more, but most of all I want to thank Woolly, Tom and Aran for making us so very very welcome and sharing their little part of Italy with us.

for now
Ruby xx

Pre-order update and Pattern Preview

2011-05-06T09:45:00.000+01:00

Due to the popularity of the pre-order offer on A Stitch In Time, Vol 2, we only have a few left where mini skeins will still be part of the pre-order package but I'm happy to announce that the new offer will be:

A signed copy of A Stitch in Time Volume Two
A Susan Crawford project bag
Discount vouchers
PDF preview pattern
All still for £30 + £4 P&P to anywhere in the world.

I'm also holding postage costs down for as long as possible but as we subsidise the postage costs I can never guarantee how long that will remain the price, but for now...

A couple of days ago I released this adorable pattern to all the wonderful people who have kindly pre-ordered A Stitch in Time Volume 2 and this is the pattern that any new pre-orders will also receive as a PDF - "The Jan Sweater"

Jan is knitted in Excelana 4 ply using the shade Powdered Egg. The original design is from 1938. It features a classic boat neck and deep ribbed welt. The lace pattern is very easy to follow particularly as the body is unshaped between the welt and the underarm.

Front and back are worked the same, all in all making this a great introduction to vintage knitting. The boat neck can be left fully open as shown on the photos, or it can be sewn up to suit the wearer's preference.

Photographed, is the beautiful Faye, who modelled for me for the first time recently and was an absolute joy to work with, instinctively understanding the clothes and the eras they were from.

The ear rings and brooch both belonged to my grandmother Ruby, as did the watch that you can just see in the first photo. The scarf and skirt are both vintage finds.

Don't forget there are a handful of pre-order packages left that include the mini skeins if you really wanted to get your hands on those, but I think that Jan makes a very good replacement. Don't you?

for now
Ruby xx

Bridget's Blunder!

2011-04-13T11:08:00.001+01:00

Its difficult at the moment to share much of what is happening as such a lot of what I am doing is checking and rechecking and measuring and calculating so I thought I would share this little poem with you which I found at the back of a 1940s pattern booklet, promoting the famous 'Patonised' wool of the time, and its called 'Bridget's Blunder'

Bridget's Blunder

My story tells of Bridget Whitting
Who loved both plain and fancy knitting,
But though she worked by day and night
Her efforts seldom turned out right.
Friends would say, "Cor! That jumper's posh!"
But when she'd given it a wash,
Instead of snugly fitting Bridget
It seemed more suited to a midget.
One day, when off to see her draper
She saw announced inside her paper
A brand-new wool; was she elated!
For bold as brass the maker stated:-
"This wool's the best that can be got,
It will not shrink, no matter what!"
So Bridget told her woolshop flat,
"I'll have a basinful of that."
And hurried home with glowing cheeks,
But couponless for weeks and weeks.
Soon willing Labour bore its fruit -
A salmon-pinky jumpersuit,
Which Bridget wore with pride o'er-weening
Till, solied and creased, it needed cleaning.
Said B., "It won't take half a wink,
the makers say it cannot shrink."
(But they forgot to say - the wretches! -
That wool made shrinkless sometimes stretches).
'Twas washed; the outcome nearly killed her,
It went three times round Aunt Matilda!
And looked in shade like Aunt Euphemia
Who suffers from acute anaemia.
"That's finished it," wept B., "I'm quitting,
I'm through for good and all with knitting;
I'll write at once to my MP,
about this dire clamity."
Her tale was penned 'midst groans and hisses,
- The MP showed it to his Mrs.
Who said, "That girl should be advised
to stick to wool that's Patonised,
Which, used with reasonable care
Will wash and wash, and wear and wear;
Trust P&B, the leading spinners
Only to turn out certain winners.
Just tell her she's a chump to quit
When there's such lovely wool to knit."
B. took the tip, no longer weeps;
that MP's in his seat for keeps!

I hope you enjoyed Bridget's tale.

for now

Ruby xx

Why are so many vintage patterns only in one size?

2011-03-29T18:05:00.000+01:00

I would very much like to introduce you today to Jen Arnall-Culliford.

Formerly employed by Future Publishing, Jen is now working as a freelance tech editor and has very kindly taken on the task of tech editing A Stitch in Time Vol 2 for me. It is a mountainous task but Jen is the sort of girl who loves a challenge! We work very closely together on every pattern, in our efforts to give the knitter the best pattern possible, without radically altering the design. Jen has agreed to write some blog posts explaining some of the more challenging situations we are encountering and how even so, we are managing to maintain the integrity of the original designs. So over to Jen...

So, why are so many vintage patterns only in one size - or, the challenges of vintage patterns… This is the first in a short series about technical editing of complex knitting patterns.

My background is in chemistry, and one of the things I love about working as a knitting technical editor, is the amount of problem solving, pattern spotting and maths involved. People often think I have a peculiar career path, but to me it makes complete sense! Straight chemistry didn’t provide enough variety for me, but many of the skills I learnt are directly useful in knitting. Writing lab reports so that another chemist can repeat your work uses exactly the same skills as writing a pattern so that another knitter can create the same garment. And likewise, the problem solving that you use when trying to make a natural product in the lab are the same as the problem solving that you apply to charting or grading a knitting pattern. They are, really!

Many of the patterns that will be featured in A Stitch in Time Vol. 2, were originally published in just one size. Susan is working hard on rewriting these patterns to give a range of sizes better suited to modern knitters (this process is known as grading). In most cases, this involves adding extra stitches to widen a piece, and extra rows to add length. For colourwork patterns, this is usually a straightforward process – adding extra motifs to the bands, and then rows between to lengthen. Cable patterns aren’t too complicated either, although sometimes the repeats are wide, and compromises need to be made to allow width increases of less than one pattern repeat. You will no doubt have seen patterns where extra small cables, moss stitch or ribbing are added at the sides of larger garments. It is generally lace patterns that pose a particular problem, and sometimes in these cases, grading a pattern in the traditional way just isn’t possible. The designs use the shape of the stitch patterns in such a way that it is vital to respect the way in which the stitch pattern evolves if you wish to grade larger (or smaller) sizes without losing the most important design features. A stitch pattern that has sloping sides may be used to create any of the shaping that the garment requires, for example at the waist, bust, armhole or neck opening. If you change the point in the pattern where this shaping occurs, then a vital part of the original design is lost.

Many of the lace patterns chosen for A Stitch in Time Vol. 2 use complex motifs where the stitch count changes as the rows are worked (creating a shaped pattern). This makes it almost impossible to change any of the garment dimensions in less than a whole pattern repeat. And pattern repeats can be quite large! Imagine, for example, an original garment to fit a 32in bust. The front measures 16in across, 12in to the armholes and then has an armhole depth of 8in. The stitch pattern has a diamond shape, and measures 4in wide by 4in tall, and stitch counts change on almost every row, making it necessary to keep shaping for armholes in the same relative position on every size. If you want to make the armhole depth more than it already is, you would need to go up to 12in, which is much too deep for any size. Likewise, to decrease the depth, you would need to go down to 4in, which is too small.

In some patterns, it is possible to work half pattern repeats, which give a smaller increment in which to work, but that’s not the end of the problem, as working a half repeat may well necessitate writing a whole different set of instructions for the shaping. Given that some of the patterns already take a large number of pages in just one size, adding extra pages isn’t a printable option. And remember that more written instructions increases the probability of errors. So the more instructions there are, the more checks and tests need to be performed to remove them. In science this is often possible as the risks and rewards involved are high, so budget is available for lengthy and rigorous testing. In knitting, these same risks and rewards are lower, and as such it isn’t normally possible to have more than 3 levels of editing of a pattern, without increasing the cost to the consumer dramatically. Most patterns and pattern books don’t sell in anywhere near enough numbers to cover the cost of professional test knitting of every size of a garment, followed by multiple levels of technical editing.

Given these challenges, it isn’t surprising that many older patterns were printed in only one size, and explains why some of the patterns in both volumes of A Stitch in Time are graded using needle size changes and yarn weight changes instead of pattern instruction grading. When a designer has gone to such lengths to use a stitch pattern so creatively, it’s wonderful to be able to offer that design in a wider range of sizes, whilst preserving the very design features that make the pattern so special. With careful choice of different weights of yarn, you can grade a pattern in the best possible way – the finished garment will look the same as the sample, just larger. How often have you seen disappointing patterns where the proportions have been destroyed with acres of extra filler stitch pattern in large sizes? Using needle size and yarn carefully avoids this problem, and gives larger sizes the same cleverly designed proportions as the original.

Next time I’ll take you through how we chart a pattern with changing stitch counts, and hopefully get rid of some of the confusion surrounding “no stitch” symbols.

For more technical blether, I can be found on Twitter @JenACKnitwear and on Ravelry also at JenACKnitwear.

I do hope you've enjoyed today's guest post. Jen will be back again in a few weeks with more insights into what goes into the making of A Stitch in Time.

but for now,
Ruby xx

Images courtesy of Jen Arnall-Culliford

Revised Publication Date Information

2011-03-24T12:37:00.000Z

I recently emailed all the pre-order customers of A Stitch in Time Volume 2 to explain my decision to amend the publication date on the book. I am hoping that everyone has received and has had time to read the email and would like to share it with you now:

"As you know, A Stitch in Time Volume 2 was due for publication on 31st March. However I have had to revise the publication date due to a number of factors that I have been trying to deal with, but ultimately by rushing the book to meet the original publication date, I believe errors etc will creep in and I really don't want that to happen.

An unusually high number of the original vintage patterns being used in the book have been found to be incorrect on knitting up and I have had to spend more time than expected correcting the patterns before they could be knit again. More than expected have proven so inaccurate that I have had to remove them from the book and replace them with alternative patterns. This means even more knitting and checking.

With to the high level of inaccuracies in the original patterns I have taken the decision to introduce a further level of independent technical editing which is expensive and time consuming but I am sure you will agree, well worth it, if it removes errors in the new patterns.

With so many patterns in the book, it is proving a momentous task to get all the patterns written. There is also an additional section on fit and finishing to help choose and complete the right patterns, which I'm writing at the moment. I think it will be a great addition to the book and a valuable tool when knitting from any vintage pattern, and I don't want to miss it out just to save time.

These books really are a labour of love. With just Gavin, myself and my mother in law permanently involved on the project at all levels until it goes to be printed, this is what self publishing is all about, but it does mean that you have to do everything yourself. I wouldn't have it any other way but it does create additional pressure and time constraints.

In addition to this there have been delays in the arrival of Excelana, which was being used for a number of patterns in the book. As it is my own yarn, I really want it to be featured in the book, but I only received the final batch last week, which has dramatically delayed things. Also, the lovely firm, JC Rennie went into liquidation very recently, which means several garments that were knitted in their yarns are having to be reknit in a yarn that will still be available when the book is published.

I am so grateful to every one who has pre-ordered the book, as without you it probably would not have been possible and I appreciate your commitment to the project, and am determined to communicate fully and explain what is happening. Realistically, with the number of setbacks and delays we have experienced and also additional work needed, I think it would be safest to move the publication date to the end of June and then if it is ready early, it will be an unexpected bonus. I hope this isn't too disappointing, but I am convinced that the finished book is well worth the wait. (We are currently looking at over 75 patterns and around 400 pages of wonderful vintage gorgeousness presented in a beautiful hard back book). I will continue to release images and details of projects in the book without giving the whole game away and will communicate as regularly as possible to advise of any developments. I am also looking at the early release to yourselves of a single pattern from the book as a thank you.

Pre-orders will continue to remain available at the discounted price, along with all the extra goodies, for the forseeable future. If you are unhappy to wait please do contact the shop and your order can be cancelled and a refund arranged but I do hope that you will bear with me these extra couple of months to make sure you all get the book you want.

with kindest regards
Susan Crawford"

I hope it fully explains the huge task involved in putting this book together. I have received some lovely responses from customers offering moral support in this huge task, and these responses have really helped. Thank you everyone.

for now
Ruby xx

Behind the scenes of a Stitch in Time Photoshoot

2011-03-11T18:46:00.000Z

Whilst work on A Stitch in Time Volume 2 continues day and night I thought I would share some images with you from the most recent photoshoot. We had a great day and were very fortunate to have the whole day filmed for a future short film which will be released a little later in the year. But in the meantime here's a little glance behind the scenes of just one of the many photoshoots that go into the making of A Stitch in Time.


The Location (Image Courtesy of Ingrid Murnane 2011)


Hair and Make Up (Image Courtesy of Ingrid Murnane 2011)


Setting up a scene (Image Courtesy of Ingrid Murnane 2011)

Taking a photo (Image Courtesy of Ingrid Murnane 2011)

Cover Girl Theo resting between shoots (Image Courtesy of Ingrid Murnane 2011)

Props (Image Courtesy of Charlie Moon 2011)

Pretty Shoes (Image Courtesy of Charlie Moon 2011)


Lighting in the strangest places (Image Courtesy of Charlie Moon 2011)

The Finishing Touches (Image Courtesy of Charlie Moon 2011)

What you don't see! (Image Courtesy of Charlie Moon 2011)

Another sneeky peek (Image Courtesy of Charlie Moon 2011)

My Latest Camera (Image Courtesy of Ingrid Murnane 2011)

for now
Ruby xxx

Excelana unveiling!

2011-03-02T18:59:00.002Z

I have just got back from having a thoroughly lovely time at Unravel in Farnham, Surrey. I have done the show for the last three years but what made this one rather different is that it was the official unveiling of 'EXCELANA' our beautiful new vintage inspired yarn.

Excelana is 70% Exmoor Blueface/30% Blue Faced Leicester and the sheep who kindly provided the fleece all live on Exmoor less than 50 miles from the mill where the fleece is spun and processed.

Here is a picture of our lovely ladies on the hills of Exmoor

courtesy of British Wool Marketing Board

The British Wool Marketing Board and the Campaign for Wool are both supporting the brand and I hope that we will be able to see the yarn in shops around the country and all around the world. In the meantime, the yarn can be bought through my website or directly from the Excelana website that we've set up.

So what got me started on this mission? John Arbon, who owns and runs Fibre Harvest in North Devon, has long wanted to use the Exmoor Blueface sheep for a knitting wool. But the fleece of this particular sheep does not usually get used in this way and John has had to jump through many hoops to get to the point where we would be ready to do so. John and I met through A Stitch in Time, when he bought a copy for his wife to be Juliet. We have all been firm friends ever since. John and Juliet are both in love with the 1940s and 1950s and loved the idea of a vintage inspired yarn. So we set to work!

My requirements for a truly vintage wool were -

For it be extremely stretchy with good recovery

To be lustrous with a soft handle

To drape well but to have body

To have good stitch definition

For the stitches to bind well to each other

A yarn that takes colour well

To have the right feel

A colour palette with individually beautiful colours that combine to work perfectly together.

I studied a lot of sources for my colour palette but one of main references was this amazing shade card from the 1930s which showed a wide and stunning range of wools available.


Image copyright Arbour House Publishing 2009

Eventually I made my decisions - 7 colours plus a natural undyed and waited for the work to be done and to be able to see and touch the finished yarn.

And here they are, eight beatiful colours


Image copyright Arbour House Publishing 2011

From left to right we have: Persian Grey, Nile Green, Cornflower Blue, Powdered Egg, French Rose,
Ruby Red, Alabaster and Saharan Sand. To purchase you can follow the link below or click on the button in the side bar.

And here are a few of the colours when knitted together


image copyright Arbour House Publishing 2011

The stitches really cling together well which is just what you need to knit fairisle.

Initially we only have 4 ply available but it will be followed by DK, Aran and yes, 3 ply and hopefully more colours in forthcoming seasons. Obviously the yarn has to sell for this to happen so do keep your fingers crossed for us, do buy the yarn if you are so disposed and ask your local wool shop if they would think of stocking it.

Wholesale enquiries are all done via the contact information on the Excelana website and there is pattern support in A Stitch in Time volume 2 as well as a forthcoming Excelana booklet.

And that, for today is that. My lovely technical editor, Jen, is with me for a few days as we go through more patterns than you can possibly imagine and in a few days time we'll have another reveal from A Stitch in Time Volume 2.

for now
Ruby xxx

Paris in Springtime!

2011-02-09T21:48:00.001Z

Admittedly a little bit of artistic licence with regards to Springtime but I'm happy to pretend it is, as tomorrow afternoon I set off for a few days in Paris. This makes me happier than I can possibly describe, especially as it is three days of haberdasheries, yarn stores, button shops, fabric emporiums, flea markets a little sightseeing, drinking hot chocolate with friends and l'aguille en fete, the major needlecraft event in the french calendar.

I've been invited over to visit the event, and have also been commissioned by The Knitter to write up a little piece about it too. I will also get the chance to spend some time with my lovely friend Helene Magnusson, otherwise known as the Icelandic Knitter, who is exhibiting at the show and also a former Paris resident.

One of the major reasons for going to Paris though is buttons. I haven't had a big button shop for some time and I have used up a lot of my collection recently. So the hunt is on. I'm looking forward to sharing the results of my foraging when I return.

I won't be able to tweet or reply to emails while I'm away as I'm turning off the roaming etc on my phone so if your blog comments don't show up for a couple of days please don't worry. They will as soon as I get back.

for now, au revoir
Ruby xx

Buttons and Bows

2011-02-04T13:32:00.000Z

To celebrate the weekend I thought I would reveal another of my favourite patterns from A Stitch in Time 2.

This adorable sweater was originally published by Golden Eagle knitting wools in the 1940s, and was knitted in 3 ply 'Polynit'. You can see that the pattern is in quite a state of disrepair, which has helped me make decisions quite a few times when picking the patterns to be included in Volume Two. If a pattern or magazine is 'on its last legs' I feel its important to try and pass on its legacy before anything too terminal happens to it. The pattern states that the colours used should be deep blue, hyacinth, silver grey and cerise. I haven't managed to get exactly those colours but I think we've got quite close with a similar colour scheme of teal, fuschia, silver grey and pink.

I have used Biggan Design 4 ply which has got a terrific range of colours available making a garment of this type possible. Its 100% merino and all produced and spun in Australia. The company is based in Brisbane but I believe they are on high ground, are all ok and managing to do business! The main colour needs about 5 x 50gm balls depending on size chosen with just one ball of each of the three complementary colours. The little bows are knitted seperately and sewn into place, so the sweater could be made if preferred, without the bows and even in one colour. I love it just as it is though! The pretty gathered sleeve heads are accentuated with neat little knitted sleeve pads which give the sleeves that bit of oomph. The slightly squared off neckline is very flattering and quite unusual for the period. Finally, its all finished off with a cute little back neck opening with four dainty buttons sewn on.

We decided on a bit of an Andrew Sisters vibe for these photos- doesn't Theo look fabulous? Don't forget you can pre-order your copy of A Stitch in Time Volume 2 here.

Have a lovely weekend
for now
Ruby xxx

All images courtesy Arbour House Publishing 2010
Colour photography Susan Crawford

More exciting new things!

2011-02-01T17:42:00.001Z

Over the last few months I've been working on a new range of kits to complement the books and individual patterns. As always, I'm a little bit late launching them! I had hoped they would be online for christmas but ...

However I have finally got the website edited to include a page all about the kits here and I am in the process of adding all the products to the knitonthenet shop so that customers can actually purchase them. Some are completely new designs and some have been been available as patterns previously.

Each kit comes in a lovely little eco-friendly jute bag, perfect for carrying your knitting around with you, any needles required (tied with some specially designed Susan Crawford ribbon), the required yarn in a choice of colours, pattern booklet and any notions required, such as buttons, ribbon or elastic.

Greta Turban Kit

There are currently 10 kits in the range with more to come. I've been getting lots of requests for the kits from yarn and vintage shops too so hopefully these little red knitting bags should be popping up at a LYS sometime soon.

The first kit which is also a new design, or should I say an enhancement of an old design, is the Greta Turban.

I brought out a similar pattern to this in the very early days of knitonthenet but always felt it needed improving. The stitch used has stayed the same and the basic principle of a shaped strip being knitted then tied with a knot also remains. The design has moved on though as the turban now has a crown, elastic attached at the back to hold it in place and a secured front knot, so much more a hat than a scarf. Perfect for those bad hair days or when you're in a Land Girl frame of mind!

The kit includes 2 balls of Baby Rooster yarn, knitting needles, elastic, the pattern booklet and project bag for £25.00

You can purchase the kit via the knitonthenet shop or see some more information at the susancrawford website. The pattern will also be available as a PDF download very shortly.

I've a heck of a lot of things to show over the next few weeks so I'm going to try and increase the number of blog posts but if I don't get there as quickly as promised please bear with me!

for now
Ruby xx

All Images Copyright Arbour House Publishing

Photographs by Susan Crawford

So let me introduce to you ...

2011-01-20T17:33:00.000Z

Up to now this year has been all about getting organized behind the scenes so that the countdown to publication of A Stitch in Time Vol 2 goes as smoothly as possible. Every time I cook a dinner, I'm making enough for double servings so that one half goes in the freezer ready for the next few weeks when normal life will stop and an enormous amount of work has to get done in a very short space of time. When writing and editing A Stitch in Time Vol 1, I really didn't think about how much it would impact on day to day life, but starting work at 8am and finishing at 3am was too much and this time I am determined to be more organized. I also forgot that I would need to stop and cook dinners and just couldn't find the time, hence the plan to have at least 30 evening meals, lunches, soups, breads and cakes etc all frozen and ready to be used each day.

One of my other plans is to introduce a new design with each blog post, so without further ado, please meet "Blouse with a Gathered Neckline" from A Stitch in Time Vol 2.

This gorgeous little sweater is from the 1950s and features those quintessential style statements of high neckline, buttons at back neck, fitted close to the body, short sleeves, nipped in waist and fine, fine yarn. It was actually knitted in a 1 ply wool and would have been lightweight enough to be worn tucked into a pencil skirt without making lumps!

With this sweater I felt it was important to get as close to the original garment weight as possible to really show how delicate these sweaters were. I therefore used Cecilia from Posh Yarns a 50/50 silk and cashmere yarn with 1300 yards to a 100gm skein. This fabulous top takes all of one skein!

There is a repeat pattern throughout the garment which makes it a much more interesting knit than plain stocking stitch, the sleeves are set in with the added touch of a dainty picot hem to the cuffs. The collar is knit separately and again features the picot edge as does the feminine ribbon which is cleverly knitted and folded into a bow. The only change I have made is omitting the patch pocket, which although knitted, just seems to spoil another wise perfectly elegant line.

With being fitted, short sleeved and bodied, it actually knits up really quickly for a lace weight garment and gives you the perfect excuse to indulge in a skein of something really, really special.

Don't forget, the pre-order offer is still available on the knitonthenet shop, with an ever growing package of goodies!

for now

Ruby xxx

All images Copyright Arbour House Publishing
Photographs by Susan Crawford

Season's Greetings!

2010-12-24T17:05:00.001Z


Copyright Arbour House Publishing

Thank you all so much for all your support this year.

with lots of love
Ruby xxx

A Stitch in Time Vol 2 Available to Pre-Order Now

2010-12-14T11:19:00.000Z

The last few days have managed to slow me down a bit, but ultimately we've only ended up about four days late with the exciting news that A Stitch in Time Vol 2 1930-1959 is now available to pre-order. YAY!

I've put together a lovely package of goodies to go with the book to thank everyone who pre-orders. There are mini skeins of yarns that are used in the book, including samples of the forthcoming Excelana. There is a fabulous project bag, discount vouchers for yarn shops and for Excelana. There will be a discount code to use if you wish to purchase the Crochet book when it is available and there is a printable gift certificate emailed to you in case you are buying the book for someone else.

The most exciting thing of all for me, is that the book will be hard back (or case bound) and will contain 75 patterns. So its grown a little since Volume 1. More of the designs from the book will be revealed over the next few weeks both here on the blog and on the susancrawfordvintage website. For the eagle eyed amongst you (of which I know there are many) the cover will be exactly the same as shown but without the words 'and crochet'. I'll have a new version of the cover up shortly.

I am always so grateful to everyone who pre-orders as it really helps get a gauge of the interest in a publication and therefore how many books to get printed. As self publishers you obviously choose to take the risk along with the benefits, but it helps tremendously to know there is a market for your product, so again I really appreciate your support.

I hope you love all the goodies offered with the pre-order and that Stitch in Time 2 makes you as happy as its making me!

for now
Ruby xx

The Real World

2010-12-11T13:22:00.001Z

Having spent the last week at the Clothes Show Live at the NEC in Birmingham, I was painfully aware on my return home, of the real face of disposable fashion. Its very easy to hide away from it usually. I rarely go to the ‘high street’ and don’t really buy clothes from main stream shops. I endeavour to buy only second hand, make my own or buy from carefully chosen retailers or small companies. Occasionally I venture to the city centre but rarely if ever, come back with clothing from a high street store. So to spend a week, face to face, with cheap knock offs of what the high street do, was quite depressing. Stalls selling ‘hand knit’ cardigans, capes and christmas themed sweaters for less than £10 were everywhere. On the last day, dresses were being sold at two for £1. In our area of the show, all the stand holders were there to promote hand made garments, jewelry, home furnishings etc. It was a hard six days with many of my fellow stand holders losing a considerable amount of money, after being assured by the organisers that there would be tens of thousands of people coming past their stands eager for something new and exciting. Of the few people who, despite the lack of signage, promotion and the complete lack of heating in our area, did venture over, many were very positive. Some however, were distinctly disappointed that I wouldn’t sell the garments from A Stitch in Time for £20 or £30. I explained many, many times about the time consuming nature of the knitting but how the end result was so worthwhile. Some people got it, some even bought the books as a result of this argument, more unfortunately just walked away as they couldn’t or didn’t want to spend the time knitting them.

Significantly, one of the most popular display garments on the stand was the Perfect Christmas Jumper, persuading many customers to start knitting again, or to challenge themselves with something more complex, or even to learn knitting so that they could work their way up to a christmas jumper for next year. This patience and lack of need for instant gratification is what I so wanted to inspire, and would have been delighted if even just one person had been persuaded to knit it. Its ability to inspire people to take up their knitting needles, is what makes this pattern so important to me, and why I was so distressed to see such a poor interpretation that could be bought without a second thought, out there on the high street. In addition, whilst still at the show, we heard one purchaser mention as she walked away, that she was going to run some up on her knitting machine and sell them at car boot sales and a ‘cheap and cheerful’ retailer working out how cheaply he could get them made for in acrylic and machine knit for his market stall. So all in all, the H & M issue came on top of an already depressing week.

I already feel as though a whole week of creativity has been lost in the void that was the Clothes Show Live and desperately want to get on with getting Stitch in Time 2 pre release sorted, new kits and patterns onto the website and new designs worked on. To start trying to fight a major high street giant is beyond my means financially and beyond my strength mentally and physically. I have shown mine and theirs together on the blog, I have named and shamed on Twitter, and I will send an email to make them aware of the similarities of the two garments, but I won’t be going any further. I need to focus on creating, designing and making and I think the anger and frustration that may very well ensue from any sort of protracted argument with such a huge company would, quite frankly, finish me off.

The tale is told, I’ve shown it for what it is, a cheap copy, but I need to keep going with my planned path over the next few months and not let myself be drawn into something that I might struggle to get out of! It might not be what everyone might prefer me to do, and it doesn’t bring about justice, I realise that, and I do hope, people don’t feel let down by me, but I have to do what is better for me, and with such an enormous work load ahead of me over the next few months, the choice is made.

Thank you everyone for your words of support and some extremely good advice. To know you are not on your own makes all the difference.

ETA. The Christmas Jumper makes an appearance on Glee

for now
Ruby xx

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?

2010-12-10T14:41:00.000Z

My Perfect Christmas Jumper published November 2009

From H & M this winter

This has just been brought to my attention on ravelry. Notice any similarities? Even the 'mock' box sleeve heads. As a designer, you always worry that this will happen but this seems so unashamed. I have to say its made me feel very sad. I could rant and rave and say a lot of things but as the song says "a picture paints a thousand words..."

for now
Ruby xxx

The Christmas Hoodie

2010-11-28T18:06:00.001Z

I was very excited yesterday to see my new design 'The Christmas Hoodie' on the cover of the Christmas Issue of Knitting magazine. (You can just see my name on the right hand side of the cover!)

So yesterday, whilst we were out photographing some new designs (more tomorrow) I took some of my own photos of this gorgeous jacket ready for when rights revert to me in six months.

The hoodie uses Jamie Possum Plus 4 ply yarn in claret and amazingly only uses 10 50gm balls for the first size. It is knitted in one piece from the bottom up with intricate but fun to knit bobbles on the pelmet, which also has shaping panels front and back leading to a ribbed waistband, emphasising and minimising the waist line.

From here wandering cables travelling up the body, drawing the eye inwards creating a slim line silhouette. The pelmet detail is repeated on the bell shape sleeves which also feature attractive puff sleeves.

The hood is shaped as a traditional opera cloak hood, falling and resting on the shoulders. It is knitted in stocking stitch sideways, to allow the stocking stitch to roll back from the face, providing an elegant frame.

My beautiful new model is a friend of my daughter's, and amazingly, this is the first time she has ever modelled. She was a delight to work with and, as with each model I photograph, she brought a different dimension to the clothing, which I really enjoy discovering.

There's a definite romantic quality to these images, quite different I feel to other photographs I've taken. More beautiful photos tomorrow.

Oh something I always forget to do! If you are a member of ravelry, you can favorite or queue the hoodie here.

for now
Ruby xx

Thank you, two decisions and a Christmas Gathering

2010-11-22T19:37:00.000Z

Thanks to everyone who posted here, on the knitonthenet group, and on my ravelry forums, in response to my Crochet Conumdrum. Every single person who has posted has stated that they would prefer two separate books - A Stitch in Time 2 devoted to knitting patterns, and the Mystery Titled book devoted to crochet patterns of the same period. So I think the decision, except for a title for the crochet book, is made. A Stitch in Time Vol 2 will be knitting patterns only (although there maybe crochet finishing techniques here and there!).

The feedback everyone has provided has been fantastic. Thank you again for your help, it has really helped me make the decision.

The second decision I have made, is that after much persuasion I have decided to take a stand at this year's Clothes Show Live at the NEC in Birmingham. It runs from 3rd to the 8th of December (6 days!) and I have a stand in the Sknitch area which is focused on knitting, sewing and craft. My stand will have as many garments from A Stitch in Time 1 & 2 and Vintage Gifts to Knit as possible along with other designs I've done for magazines and knitonthenet. After the initial success of the Vintage Kits that I put together for Alexandra Palace I will also be formally launching the Vintage Knitting Kits collection at the show.

What I find really daunting is that for the first time this show is just about my work, and as such the stand is going under the name of Susan Crawford Vintage Knitting. Those of you who know me well, know that promoting myself is not something that comes easy, and I have always preferred to go under the banner of knitonthenet, Arbour House Publishing, A Stitch in Time or even Just Call me Ruby. They are all designed to provide me with something to hide behind. So this is a big step, but exciting. Confidence has never come easily for me, but I am hoping that I finally feel ready for this, to put myself out there.

Its all very exciting, scary, enormous and serious. I even need to prepare a press pack. If you are visiting the Clothes Show, do come and find us in the Sknitch area on stand SK23 - Susan Crawford Vintage Knitting.

On a much more relaxed note, I will be visiting Baa Ram Ewe in leeds for an evening of Vintage Christmas loveliness with mulled wine, mince pies and knitting. What could actually be better than that I ask you?

If you live in the Leeds area do come and see us and have a thoroughly delightful Vintage Christmas Evening.

For now

Ruby xx

Crochet Conundrum for Stitch in Time Two

2010-11-14T17:16:00.001Z

Some of you may already have read on ravelry or the knitonthenet blog that I have a bit of a conundrum and I am hoping you can help me make a decision with Stitch in Time 2. I currently have too many projects than are allowed for the number of pages for the book (already bigger than SIT 1) and am having to make some big decisions.

The main issue I have is with the number of crochet patterns. It keeps resulting in either:

1) Too many crochet to knitting patterns for knitters to be happy.

2) Not enough crochet patterns to justify it being classed as a knitting and ‘crochet’ book.

My gut instinct is to suggest something completely different which is this -

Remove the crochet patterns from Volume 2 giving me the right project and page count and put together a separate volume of the crochet patterns, which also gives me the room to add some beauties which I just can’t include in the main volume. This book would obviously be available as a separate purchase but we are looking to have it ready at more or less the same time as Volume 2 and include a special offer price for buying both together. (It would be a smaller volume so also cheaper).

I feel this then gives crochet the respect it deserves rather than as a foot note to the knitting patterns, and gives all purchasers knitters and crocheters exactly what they expect from whichever book they purchase.

I would be really grateful if you could all give me feedback on this. The overwhelming response to date, is to separate the two books. As I've said earlier this is my gut instinct too. My one major concern about going in this direction is the additional costs of a second print run, which will increase our outlay dramatically. And having never offered a separate crochet volume before this is a new market for me. So my final question I guess, is:

Would you buy a book on vintage crochet pattern 1930-1959 in the same format as Stitch in Time or would you just stick to the knitting book?

Thank you so much for your help in this matter. Its a huge decision to make in many ways, and I really want to make sure I make the right choice.

for now
Ruby xx

Parcels in the Post

2010-11-12T17:53:00.001Z

A new design and a puzzle...

2010-11-10T18:00:00.001Z

As you probably all know, I am a big fan of Shetland wools and I have a new design published in December's issue of Knitting (by GMC) using Jamieson & Smith Shetland Aran in a vibrant shade of orange. This is how she looks in the magazine.

The wool is easy to work with and seemed to enjoy being worked into the twisting cables of the design. The original inspiration was victorian and edwardian evening cloaks made of devore velvet where abstract patterns have been burnt out of the lush, rich velvet pile. The theme suggested by the magazine in fact, was theatrical, and is a theme that given enough time, I would love to do a whole book of designs for! The collar is knitted to stand high, framing the face and to keep the neck warm - maybe when waiting for the handsom cab after seeing The Importance of Being Ernest or the like? I contemporized the style slightly with an interesting cable edging which is worked around the bottom of the cape once the panels have been sewn together. The cape itself is made up of five panels with cable patterns to the fronts and back panels, with the side panels in reverse stocking stitch. The ornate buttons I used are actually 1930s buttons but have a look of tortoise shell which I thought echoed the era I was inspired by. The hand openings are easily created at the side seams and the rib band is picked up after the panels are put together.

The pattern is exclusive to Knitting for six months and then the rights revert to myself when it will be made available as an individual pattern. I'm looking forward to making myself one of these at some point! Below is a detail shot of the cable before I frantically sent it off in the post. (Late as always!)

You can see the colour is a lot darker on this photo, and in reality its probably somewhere imbetween the two images.

And now a puzzle...

A little something I have been trying to do some research on has unfortunately not got very far. A lovely lady came to see me at the Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra Palace with a fascinating photo of some yarn that she had, with a completely unfamiliar label, both to her and to me. She asked me if I could possibly find out anymore about the yarn and where and when it was made. Below is the image of the balls and their amazing ball bands.

So what do we know? Very little. It came with another similar yarn called Southdown 4ply that also features the stags head logo and is made in England. Southdown is a breed of british sheep and I am wondering if Kangaroo implies Merino (corny but the most likely reason for the name). I don't want to say any more than that so I don't lead people in any direction, but am really keen to know if anyone knows the manufacturer and the probable period of production. Please either comment on the blog leaving me a contact or email at the address above. I would be really grateful for any information no matter how tiny!

for now
Ruby xx

Fibre & Clay, Ally Pally, designs old and new

2010-10-15T11:44:00.001+01:00

I've taken part in some marvellous events through the summer, but have also had a thoroughly lovely time at two events in the last few weeks. The first, well the first two, where at Fibre & Clay in Knutsford, where we held trunk shows on two separate days. We took masses of samples from A Stitch in Time 1 (& 2), Vintage Gifts to Knit and also some single designs.

The display table

surrounded by knitwear and wool!

We had lots of fun with everyone trying on the garments, hats and gloves etc and eating fabulous cakes and desserts all made by the owner, Riana.

Bobble sweater from Stitch in Time Vol 2

Can you crochet a toque? from Stitch in Time Vol 1

Our gorgeous intern Daisy, wearing Variation on the Crossover Line.

The range of yarns at Fibre & Clay is quite overwhelming, with yarns of all weights, colours and composition spread out over two floors and three rooms along with beautiful artisan produced ceramics and jewellry. If you ever have cause to be near by I would highly recommend a visit.

From this warm, cozy event we made the big decision to take a stand at the Knitting & Stitching Show in Alexandra Palace, London, probably the largest event of its kind in the UK. It was a big, scary commitment and we hummed and haa-d for weeks over whether it was the right thing to do or not. In the end, we went. Just the two of us, Gavin and I, which for a four day show plus a day setting up is hard work. We were staying at friends on the south side of the city, which with Ally Pally (as it is known) being in the far north, involved an hour and a half drive in and out of London each day. Somehow we got everything into our car we needed for the show and got to London and managed to finish setting up about 15 minutes after the show had opened on the first day! All I can say, is that its the busiest event I have ever had a stand at.

Here's the stand just before opening time - the air conditioning has already frazzled my hair!

The stand on day one, again just before we opened

one of the rails crammed with garments from Stitch in Time Vols 1 & 2

We were busy from the moment the show opened each day to when it shut. Many lovely knitters came to see us and say hi, some even came in garments they had made from the books, which I love seeing.

The Town & City Cape from Vintage Gifts to Knit

Adorable Little Bed Jacket also from Vintage Gifts to Knit and I'm in The Midas Touch from A Stitch in Time Vol 1

My lovely friend and cover girl, Theo, spent the day with us on Thursday, modelling some of the garments from A Stitch in Time, Vol 2.

On Friday, we had a visit to the stand from Sandra Polley, author of Knitted Toys, published by our very own, Arbour House Publishing.

Image Copright Arbour House Publishing 2010

Sandra signed copies of the book for a couple of hours and got everyone very excited with her amazing meerkats and other fabulous toys.

Image Copyright Arbour House Publishing 2010

By Friday night, we needed a chill out, and our lovely friends Rachael and Louise from Prick Your Finger came to whisk us away to Soho and Lorilee's for pizza and wine.

I had to work for my supper though, signing copies of Vintage Gifts to Knit after pudding!


Copyright Rachael Matthews 2010

Here I am looking rather bedraggled, crazy and tired after a 5.30 start and a long, long day.

One of the biggest thrills of the week was seeing my new design for Knitting Magazine being displayed on GMC's hugely impressive stand at the show and receiving hundreds of compliments about it. Now it has been on the stand (and therefore in public) I can show you a little photo of it. It is knitted in Jamie Possum 4, in a gorgeous deep red.

It is knitted in one piece to the underarm then divided for the fronts and back. the cables travel assymetrically up the body, with the fronts different to the back.

The shaping on the peplums is worked on the stocking stitch panels and then a ribbed waist draws the garment in. I carefully placed the cables to create shaping panels which draw the eye in and slim the wearer's body.

The sleeve heads are full and gathered in at the top, and the hood is also gathered up to create a flattering opera cloak effect. Stocking stitch is used on the hood to create a perfectly rolled back edge to frame the face. I am delighted with this design. I feel it uses all my vintage styling, shaping and finishing techniques to create a modern garment that can look dramatic and glamorous - imagine it worn with a full 50's white skirt and fur muffler for that White Christmas look or alternatively, worn casually with jeans or dungarees for a trip to the supermarket. I believe it will be released in the Christmas special of Knitting in December. After six months the rights revert to me and I will be releasing it as a single pattern.

I have a huge announcement on its way in a few days time, for everyone waiting for A Stitch in Time Vol 2, so do watch this space!

for now
Ruby xxx

A Stitch in Time Vol 2

2010-09-27T14:49:00.000+01:00

I feel like I have been waiting a long time to get the chance to show you all this, but here is the first sneeky peek of the cover of Volume Two of A Stitch in Time.


Copyright Susan Crawford 2010

The beautiful garment photographed is from the 1930s. The original was also black and silver and I really wanted to try and capture an almost black and white feel to the cover image. I also used some Hollywood style back lighting and of course, it wouldn't have looked half as good without my wonderful model, Theo. I have knitted the garment in Knitshop Mulberry Silk, which drapes beautifully and has a fabulous sheen, exactly what this particular garment needed.

Volume 2 will also contain 60 patterns divided up between the 30s, 40s and 50s in the same format as Volume 1. The book is not yet published but pre-ordering will be available soon with some special limited editions also to be announced.

I will start sharing more teasers with you all very soon.

for now

Ruby xx

Goodbye to Summer

2010-09-22T20:59:00.000+01:00

I always knew this was going to be a very busy summer, but its been even busier than I ever anticipated. Looking back at my blog over the last few weeks I can see a heap of things have been missed out, so I thought I would finish off the summer with a round up of what else has been going on.

The weekend after Vintage at Goodwood was my very good friends John and Juliet of John Arbon Textiles wedding. It took place in the lovely village of Lynton, with a picnic and party on Exmoor itself. John, Juliet and I all share a love of all things vintage, and a terrible collecting habit that none of us can shake! As previously mentioned I was working on garments for the wedding picnic for them both using the beautiful Excelana yarn that we have been developing together. Ultimately I only managed to get one garment completely ready for the day :( John's wedding vest will be to follow shortly, and both will ultimately be available as patterns. For Juliet I made a simple 50s style round neck cardigan, with fair isle detail on the sleeves and original 50s buttons, using shade 'Ruby Red'. The poor weather prevented me getting many photos and those that I took are on my daughter's laptop so I'm going to have to show you the cardigan another day I'm afraid.

The yarn colours can now be revealed though. There are eight colours which all work together beautifully creating a coordinated vintage palette. Their names are:

Saharan Sand

Nile Green

Cornflower Blue

Persian Grey

Ruby Red

Alabaster

French Rose

and Powdered Egg

Our ball band and logo has also been created and here is a quick glimpse of what to look out for in your yarn shop!

Once we returned from the wedding, with an eight hour drive from Devon, we then had to unpack and then repack almost immediately to begin our epic car and ferry journey to Shetland, for the In The Loop Two conference being held at the Shetland Museum. The journey started with a seven hour drive to Aberdeen followed by a TWELVE hour ferry journey across the North Sea.


our ferry


leaving Aberdeen

We made a grave mistake on the outgoing trip. To save money we opted for the sleeper seats rather than a cabin. Don't do it! We did not sleep for ONE minute through the night. Fortunately on our arrival in Shetland at 7.30am our lovely landlord for our stay let us into our apartment right away so that we could at least sleep for a couple of hours. The following day was the conference reception and a chance to get to meet the other delegates and speakers, then first thing on Thursday morning the conference began for real - with my talk as the opener. I was very, very nervous. I was doubly nervous when my presentation decided to loose fonts when checking through it on the wednesday night. I think I did actually become a diva and through a tantrum!

In the loop goody bags

The Thursday morning came, and actually my talk went very well. It sparked some debate and discussion which was exactly what I had hoped and I introduced my new 'explanation' of my work. This was it:

TRP

This stands for, Tradition + Reinterpretation + Progression = Renewal

and that I believe is what I do. My talk focused on my use of nostalgia as inspiration, the process behind the making of Vintage Gifts to Knit and the work I'm currently involved in at the Shetland Museum, the writing of Vintage Shetland.

I met some lovely, lovely people whilst we were there -

Annemor Sundbo

I was heavily inspired by the incredibly knowledgeable Annemor Sundbo (a whole post about this amazing woman's work to follow)

Louise, Me, Zara, Rachael

I hung out and had fun with the fabulous ladies from Prick your Finger, Rachael, Louise and Zara

and had some great chats with lots of lovely knitters from all over the world. Gavin had a great time too, not spending all of his time with the knitters, he escaped to do some fishing

Wrestling Sharks!

And some thinking

Gavin in hat by Babylonglegs

You can see him here in a marvelous hat, very kindly gifted to us by the talented babylonglegs. This is both her yarn and her design. It was given to me, but someone has claimed it.

It was a marvellous event, I came away stimulated, inspired and exhausted! I don't think it could have been better except if it had lasted longer. I never come away from Shetland without being inspired and I think the most incredible inspiration is the light, colour just works in spectacular ways there and also, possibly surprisingly, there is such an abundance of colour all around you.

shetland colours

I didn't expect to see so much orange reflecting my knitting all around me.


Seaweed

Seaweed Ribbon

This looks just like a beautifully wrapped birthday present!

Coming home we booked a cabin which was a far better idea, particularly as it was a pretty rough sailing. And so, it was A Dieu to Shetland...

Leaving Lerwick

Lerwick in the distance

However we got through it and arrived in Aberdeen on a beautiful sunny morning, and then home...

... for a few days before driving back up to Edinburgh for one final trip before the summer was officially over, to take my 'little' girl to her new home, whilst she studys for a BA in Film at Edinburgh College of Art.

So Goodbye to Summer!

for now
Ruby xx

In The Loop Two

2010-08-29T20:20:00.000+01:00

Its been a busy week since getting back from Goodwood, some good reasons some not so good. One good reason though is that tomorrow morning we drive off into the sunrise for a 24 hour journey to Shetland. We are trying the ferry for the first time as we have a heap of stuff to take with us. We have a nine hour drive to Aberdeen and then a fourteen hour ferry trip! Overnight, so hopefully I will sleep through most of it. I'm not really a boat person so this is a big test for me.

The reason we are going is that on Thursday morning I am the opening keynote speaker at the In The Loop Two conference being held at the Shetland Museum. I have a 45 minute slot which is quite a long time to be talking! I am also official photographer for The Knitter which is rather exciting, so will be going everywhere with my camera round my neck to make sure I don't miss anything.

I will report back with a longer post on our return, but in the meantime wish me luck for my boat ride.

for now
Ruby xx

Vintage at Goodwood - Part II

2010-08-19T09:03:00.000+01:00

There has been quite a lot of negative feedback about this event. I for one, am really not in a position to comment on the organisational side of things as I wasn't directly involved in that side of the event, and to be honest despite one or two hiccups, had a thoroughly lovely time. I was invited to attend as a volunteer to teach knitting at the Vintage School sponsored by Oxfam.

Each attendee paid £5 for their class which was donated directly to Oxfam. I taught some lovely ladies to crochet, some to knit and some how to make handknitted dress clips and buttons.

The high street was cleverly constructed using prefabricated buildings which were disguised with ply wood shop fronts like Hollywood films of old.

I had my hair curled here.

And watched Curse of the Werewolf at midnight here.

One of the highlights for me was bumping into glamorous retro girls wearing garments from A Stitch in Time. I tried to get photos whenever possible, without scaring people half to death! Here are two To Set off your Summer Frocks together.

This photo was taken just before The Chap Olympiad where my old friend and model for A Stitch in Time, Fleur de Guerre was working. Here are Fleur and I together.

Bizarrely, during the photography for A Stitch in Time I don't think there was a single shot of me and the models together. I'm going to make sure I get some this time round when photographing Volume 2. I also bumped into my friends The Shellac Sisters, who very kindly volunteered to come and DJ outside of my Vintage Knitting class.

One of my favourite places was the Torch Club, which was a 1940s themed dance hall. Here's me with my hair newly curled, and Gavin in his new slip over. This slip over matches the Father's new socks pattern from Vintage Gifts to Knit and will also be available as a pattern in the near future. Gavin got into the spirit of the event too, buying some brylcreem to slick back his hair and shaving off his beard to leave a 40s style moustache.

There was lots of music on over the three days - my favourites were Earth, Wind and Fire, who were everything I wanted them to be and more, and Heaven 17, who took me back to my youth, playing songs from Penthouse and Pavements and finishing with Temptation. I unfortunately missed Squeeze who made a guest appearance during someone else's show. We particularly enjoyed the Let it Rock! stage at night, although the name is somewhat misleading as it had a very eclectic line up of musical acts from The Lady Luck Club to Wanda Jackson to The Damned, with a little Burlesque thrown in too!

Despite some rain, having to camp - which bizarrely, I thoroughly enjoyed and having several copies of Vintage Gifts to Knit stolen, which really saddened me, I had a great time, and hope there will be a next time.

For now
Ruby xxx

Vintage at Goodwood

2010-08-11T17:31:00.000+01:00

August is turning into rather a crazy month for needing to be places. We're not having a holiday this year (again!) but the lovely people at Vintage at Goodwood have invited me along to take a vintage knitting class in the fashion workshop run by Oxfam at this weekend's extravaganza. Originally I was only going to go on the Sunday and run my workshop but with recent changes to my teaching calendar up in Scotland (as previously mentioned) I am able to travel down with Gavin and Charlie and spend three days camping in Sussex enjoying this wonderful festival of five decades of British Design. If the weather is good I hope to sit outside the tent and make some hand knitted buttons to demonstrate how quickly you can knit something useful! Then the dilemma of what to wear. Now this isn't your usual festival, there's going to be a lot of dressing up going on. So what on earth to wear? And what to pack! There's a great post over on retro chick's website giving some useful advice. I'm going to set my hair tightly tonight and hopefully it will get through four days, however there are hairdressers on site! So if I get desperate I might go and get my hair done by a vintage expert. I am definitely taking my favourite 50s original dress.

I'm wearing it here with one of the new designs from A Stitch in Time vol 2 from the 1950s section. Its a gorgeous bolero with this pretty harebell stitch up the sleeves and across the front yokes. I've knitted it in Biggan Design 4 ply wool and the colour is very close to that shown in the original pattern. There is a short sleeved sweater to wear under that will be getting knitted very soon.

Really, this is just an excuse to show photos of me with my lovely Charlie on the day of her 18th! On this photo you can see the detail on the sleeve more clearly.

I love this photo.

I am working on some very special knitting while I am away. My very good friends John and Juliet of John Arbon Textiles get married in 10 days and they have both requested a knitted garment as part of their wedding outfits. More will be revealed after the event but I'm particularly excited as both garments are being made from a new vintage inspired yarn that we have been working on called Excelana. It is pure wool from the Exmoor/blue face Leicester cross sheep, a rare breed that live on Exmoor in Devon. Initially there will be a 3 ply, a 4 ply and a double knit weight in each of 8 vintage colours that I have carefully selected. It is a wonderful, wonderful yarn, with an attractive halo and is surprisingly soft to the touch for a british breed. I love it and can't wait to tell you more about it over the next few weeks, but right now, I've got to go and get packing. I'm not quite sure how to fit 26 dresses, 60 jumpers and 8 pairs of shoes into a small bag so I might have to cut back slightly!

Here's hoping for no rain this weekend!
for now,
Ruby xxx

18 today!

2010-08-04T16:53:00.000+01:00

My gorgeous little baby girl is 18 years old today. I can't believe where the time has gone and am always so aware of how lucky I am to have her. 18 years ago yesterday I was rushed into hospital with pre-eclampsia, my kidneys had failed, I was going into shock and was given 3 hours for us both to live. The choices were stark. Have an emergancy ceasarian section which could kill my unborn baby or we would both be dead within hours. After an incredibly scary time in the operating theatre my little girl was born at 28 weeks weighing 2lb 1 oz.

Her lungs were not yet functioning and she was kept alive by an injection of an artificial lung fluid, which opened the lungs up enabling her to breath. I too was seriously ill and didn't actually get to see my baby for 4 whole days, when she was wheeled in to my room in an incubator on her way to another hospital without me. The following few days were a nightmare, with me fighting constantly with the hospital authority to let me join my daughter. Eventually they agreed and I moved with her to the Special Care Baby Unit at Fazakerley Hospital in Liverpool. My poor baby had tubes everywhere. I remember the first time I was allowed to hold her that was all I could actually feel!

Looking at this photo still makes me want to cry.

You can see in this photo just how small she was compared to her dad's hand. Note her little prem baby hats in each of these photos made by some wonderfully caring, unknown knitter.

After 9 whole weeks in hospital she was finally allowed home weighing just under 5 lbs. 18 years ago it was very difficult to buy prem baby clothes or to get knitting patterns for them either, so my little love came home in Tiny Tears clothes bought in Toys 'r' us...

I still have many of her tiny clothes and they are so small its unbelievable. Please ignore the worn out woman on the right. I hadn't slept very well for a few weeks!

Forgive me if I've told this story before but I am so, so proud of my Charlie and so grateful to have her in my life. She really is the best daughter any mum could ask for. And look at her now, so beautiful! (and short!)

We are off now for a family meal and tomorrow evening I am out on the town with my little girl and her friends!

but for now,
Ruby xxx

This Weekend

2010-07-30T11:34:00.000+01:00

I will be here:-


Knit Nation - 29-31 July 2010

I hope I get to see some of you there.
Do come and say hello.

Look for me signing my books at Loop, Booth 137 on Friday and Saturday at 3.00 pm

for now
Ruby xx

Knit Camp

2010-07-27T18:59:00.000+01:00

I am writing this post to express my sincere apologies to anyone who is booked onto any of my classes at Knit Camp, Stirling in August. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts to resolve several issues with the organisers this was not to be and I have therefore been left with no alternative but to withdraw from the event. Again I cannot apologise enough, and the thought of having to take the action I have has made me physically ill, however with no contract and various other issues I felt I had to take the decision that I did.

I have spoken to some participants on ravelry and I hope this message reaches other students. I sincerely hope that everyone attending Knit Camp has a wonderful time and hope to meet some of you in the future. The demand for vintage themed knitting workshops weekends seems to be building so maybe that is the way forward.

I don't know what else to say. I feel absolutely terrible about this but you just have to do what is right.

For now
Ruby xx

End of the Pier Show

2010-07-22T22:16:00.000+01:00

I realised today that it is two weeks since I last blogged. How can it have been so long, yet again? Well for week one, I still didn't have my computer. I finally got it back a week ago. It then took quite a few days to get things up and running again. I still can't use my printer and have one or two other problems - no right click! - but I'm getting back to normality again. The second week's lack of blogging is due to much more pleasant reasons.

First of all, my very good friend Woolly Wormhead, her partner Tom and gorgeous young son Aran, paid us a visit in their bus. They stayed for a couple of days and I realised what a toddler unfriendly house we have. We have stuff everywhere! We had a wonderful time though, and Woolly and I found time to go through some italian stitch books and discuss cables, twists and decreases which was fascinating. The italian stitch patterns are charted, albeit with different simples but Woolly explained them to me and I'm hopeful I will be able to make use of this new knowledge. The best part of all though was making soil castles in the garden with lovely Aran and getting a big hug and kiss bye bye from him. Broody? Not exactly, but nostalgic.

Our next visitors then arrived.

My friend Donna Druchunas with her husband Dominic are travelling through europe whilst Donna works on a new book about Lithuanian knitting. We met up a few weeks ago and showed them the bright lights of Liverpool. This time we shared the victorian splendours of Southport, and in particular, the pier.

Southport pier was first opened in 1860 and at one point was 4380 feet long. It is a fabulous metal and wooden structure extending far out into the irish sea.

Southport Pier in Victorian times

After experiencing gales, collisions with boats and a fire it somehow survived until 1990 when it was nearly closed down by the local council. It is the second longest pier in Britain at a length of 3650 feet. Recent renovation was supported by individual donations where local residents could sponsor each and every plank of wood.

The Pier as it is today

Taking a walk down the pier in bad weather is almost something you just have to do, and is almost a requirement if you haven't experienced a soaking wet, english summer's day.

What really makes it worth the walk, is the victorian amusement arcade at the end. The various amusements actually vary in age from victorian through to the 1950s but all operate with one old penny.

You have to change your money to 'old money' and then you can have your fortune told

You can be scared by the guillotine or the haunted churchyard

Or be absolutely petrified by the laughing sailor. Truly the most unpleasant of 'amusements'

You can watch a puppet show

Or even play a game of football. Note the players' oversized handknitted jerseys!

You can even 'Watch what the Butler didn't see'

We had a great couple of hours, turning the clock back and keeping dry!

for now
Ruby xx

Summer Sweaters

2010-07-08T18:57:00.000+01:00

A slightly different post to what I had originally intended, I thought I would dwell for a moment on that dreadful wardrobe conundrum - wearing knitwear in the summer. We have had good weather over the last few weeks here in the North West of England, but in fact it has probably been three years since we have experienced more than two consecutive days of sunshine. And it has been wonderful. But, other than throwing a little cardi on of an evening I was struggling to wear my knitwear. So I decided to look at some of my previous work and see how I could interpret it for summer wear.

The first garment I decided to revisit, is a free pattern on knitonthenet, from a couple of years ago, called Blanche.

I have worn the original garment so often it is now almost falling apart and is actually in the mending pile for a bit of careful darning and repair. However it is a really flattering pattern, short sleeved with a low square neck, making it perfect really for summer wear if it only wasn't in merino wool! So I checked my stash and found some Tilli Thomas Pure and Simple in a soft yellowy gold called Rattan and an additional skein of Tilli Thomas Rock Star in the same shade but with beads threaded through the yarn. Both yarns are 100% silk and the same tension as the original yarn used - Filatura Di Crosa Zara Plus - 18 sts to 10 cm (4 inches). The yardage is considerably longer on the silk yarn so I only needed 2 skeins of the main yarn and the 1 skein of the beaded yarn, so although quite an expensive yarn per skein, it was quite reasonable over all. And this is the rather lovely result.

I knitted the 38-40 inch although I'm a little bigger as the silk will very likely stretch and I would like the sweater to still look fitted. Interestingly enough, this was me in the original photos for knitonthenet, but I was dreadfully self conscious and didn't think people would want to look at photos of me so hid my face. I've got a little bit better these days but still don't like seeing myself!

The next pattern I revisited didn't require any interpretation except to make it in my size! It is The New Cowl Neck Line from A Stitch in Time.

It is knitted in Habu Silk A-4 which I still had quite a lot of since using it on a number of garments in A Stitch in Time. I decided to use this warm, earthy, coppery tone which I have never worn before but which I really like. I followed the pattern for the third size exactly, other than making the waist belt longer than the pattern and gathering the cast on edge of the body into it slightly more than in the original.

I did this due to the 12 inch difference between my waist and bust and I wanted this one to sit on the waist rather than on the hip, where the belt would accentuate the width of my hip rather than the comparative narrowness of my waist. It does require high waisted skirts or trousers to accompany it, but as the original is from the 1930s this would be appropriate anyway. I've paired it here with my long white linen skirt which has a knack of looking very 'period' but is actually only a few years old.

I am still knitting the last garment I want to talk about, and it is the Adorable Bed Jacket from Vintage Gifts to Knit.

I am knitting the 40 inch and am using Anchor Artiste Crochet Linen, which is about a 1 ply laceweight yarn, but using 3.25 mm needles as specified in the pattern.

This is resulting in a fabulous openwork style lace pattern and is coming out pretty successfully to the required garment size.

I just love how this looks and shows how versatile a little pattern this jacket is. It looks completely different from the original but just as good. The fabric being produced is a little crisp at the moment but I'm sure once it is washed it will begin to feel more like an aging linen fabric. I have still to decide on the perfect ribbon trim but I would like to see the washed results before making a final decision.

At 6 a.m. tomorrow a hose pipe ban begins in our area so no doubt it will rain solidly for the next two weeks, but here's hoping I'm wrong.

so for now,
Ruby xxx

Intern Opportunities Available

2010-07-04T17:55:00.000+01:00

Via Arbour House Publishing and knitonthenet we have two great intern opportunities available. The full details are available below. If you are interested in applying please contact the email given below rather than contacting me as I am not involved in the initial selection process. They are two really exciting posts with lots of opportunities for personal development.

Arbour House Publishing is offering two unpaid internships to work independently on fixed term projects this summer. Each 6 week placement will start after 25th July, and end by 26th September (details to be confirmed).

Location is not important because attendance on site is not required. Virtual interviews will take place by phone or skype on the week beginning 19th July.
We are looking for enthusiastic entrants into the web design and publishing sectors and are committed to helping them develop valuable skills for their chosen career.

Web Design Intern
Project: Building and populating two/three websites to a specified brief. Existing website construction skills are required and a knowledge of Drupal would be a particular advantage.

Publishing Intern
Project: Book Design. To include production of sample book covers, text editing and manipulation, image correction and replacement, and index creation. Graphic design skills are required for this project.

Requirements for both of the internships are:

Ongoing undergraduate education.
Unlimited computer/broadband access with relevant software.
Availability throughout six week period.
Minimum 15 hours per week.

Please note, these are unpaid positions. Full credit will be given for work undertaken and references provided on completion of projects.

In the first instance, please send a CV and cover letter to Ingrid Murnane at ingrid(at)arbourhousepublishing(dot)com by 15th July 2010.

Technicalities

2010-07-04T17:42:00.000+01:00

The last ten days have been filled with frustrations, all caused by technical difficulties. I am not a natural on the computer but have learned how to do a lot of things over the last three years or so since moving much of my business online. I don't have any IT training and rely heavily on advice and guidance from my husband, friends and forums. However since getting my IMac just under two years ago, things began to make a lot more sense. The apple system just seems to operate more in line with my mindset than PCs ever did and as a result I have gained confidence, that is until last Friday, nasty, horrid, bad, bad, Friday. My wonderful foolproof IMac just decided to die. Well actually the hard drive has died. It has proven itself immune to being read from any source and needs to be sent to a specialist. The death of the hard drive almost caused one of maybe only three or four arguments my husband and I have ever had. Who was supposed to be backing up the hard drive? The answer from each of us was the other, the reality was neither. I have no excuses other than I genuinely believed that it was being done on my behalf. I never actually thought to double check, so a valuable, and unfortunately costly and time consuming lesson has been learned.

I have therefore been predominantly without computer or internet access for 10 days except for when my daughter, like now, has left her Macbook home alone. My pride and joy, my IMac was accepted for repair by the apple store yesterday and I found out that I had miraculously had the sense to purchase apple care when I first bought it, so the repair of the computer itself including a new hard drive is covered. Ordinarily apple keep the old hard drive, which they return to the manufacturer, but they have kindly agreed to let me keep it so I can send it off for data recovery. This however is a more costly affair, costing several hundred pounds and maybe taking several weeks. So unfortunately, much ongoing work is currently held up, accounts not available, photographs and emails lost. And so it goes on. But hopefully much of this valuable data will eventually be recovered and as I have already said, an important lesson has been learnt. So if everything seems a bit slow over here its because even more than is normal, I don't know what's going on!

My other main technical gripe, is much to my disappointment, with blogger. I have been aware for a while that there is a significant lack of space on my blog pages for patterns both to be purchased or free, and also for my books. I recently discovered that additional pages could be added to my blog so that I could set up independent pattern pages etc., to make it easier for readers to find things while they wait for me to develop my website. Although this has been delayed by lack of computer access anyway, I have found the system sadly lacking. The design control panel does not function properly with error messages coming up for a whole raft of functions. It has taken several hours today just to get one page to remember its styles and settings. I have therefore decided that putting all these hours into something that was supposed to be a quick temporary fix is really turning into a waste of time that would be better spent getting the website built. So please do excuse the blog if it is somewhat untidy for a little while and some of the links to products etc are missing. I will add the basic items that need to be present but not all the information that the currently empty pages suggest. Treat them as a taster of the type of thing that will be coming on the website and in the meantime I will just keep blogging as normal - once I get my computer and data back - at which point normal service will be resumed!

for now
a technilogically frazzled
Ruby xx

Blog Upgrade

2010-06-29T18:06:00.003+01:00

Just a little note of warning in case everything on the blog goes rather strange for a few days. My blog is being updated and redesigned this week and its possible that things will look a bit untidy until the update is complete. Once the update is complete is should be much easier to find old posts, patterns, books etc.

for now

Ruby xx

The Jelly Tea Party

2010-06-22T22:06:00.002+01:00

This lovely tea party was organised by the even lovelier Alabama Whirly and her gang of Outcasts. Lots of people came to partake of wine, tea, cakes and a little knitting. It was a glorious evening and everyone was in their summer frocks, sitting on deck chairs and relaxing.

The deckchairs before everyone arrived.

My little stand

the stand from another angle - here you can see the motoring hood with the simply perfect corsage worn as a brooch.

Here I am with Jen from The Knitter. Jen wore her long gloves especially for me! and was trying really hard to be well behaved and ladylike.

What the girls from the knitting mags really get up to on their nights off!

The adorable little bed jacket paired with the skating skirt.

The perfect combination

The gorgeous Skein Queen who brought the lovely yarn above and had a stand alongside mine.

There was lots of tea.

And lots of cake!

There was even a display all about the pleasures of tea drinking.

We all had a really lovely night thanks to all the Outcasts, who worked so hard to make sure the evening went so well and thank you everyone for coming along and joining in the fun.

for now
Ruby xxx

Vintage Gifts Part I

2010-06-19T13:08:00.011+01:00

Its been a busy couple of weeks first coming up to the publication of Vintage Gifts to Knit and then in the week following. I felt it would be easiest to break it all up into separate blog posts although they all link together. So first of all, let me introduce you to all the projects in the book:

There are projects to knit for women, men, children and the home, for yourself or for gifts.
There are a wide range of sizes available with the women's garments ranging from 30-54 inch chest. I'll talk in a bit more detail about the different patterns, inspiration and construction over the next few weeks. You can also view more images from the book on my flickr page (not yet finished but expanding)

I am delighted with the book as I have said before, but particularly with how it has captured the essence of some of my biggest inspirations, Stitchcraft and Needlework Illustrated, which I will talk about more next week.

The book can be purchased in print form for £14 or as an e-book for £10 and each of the patterns can be purchased individually as a pdf download at £3 each. All the different formats can be purchased from the knitonthenet shop, here on the blog** or the downloadable formats can also be purchased through ravelry.

** I'm working hard on the just call me ruby website so that it will be easier to purchase directly from here but website design isn't exactly my speciality so it is taking a while!

I'm delighted that I can also offer a full wholesale package for the book and the patterns which you can find out more about either by contacting wholesale[at]arbourhousepublishing[dot]com or by emailing me directly on the usual email. Review copies are also available via Arbour House or me.

Finally, for this post, I am working with two or three yarn stores in the UK on events instore during the latter half of this year to promote the books and patterns. If you are interested in holding an event do get in touch on my email. On the new website there will also be an events page which will give details of whats happening.

Tomorrow's blog post will be all about last week's tea party and a 135 year old department store.

but for now
Ruby xx

Vintage Gifts to Knit is finally about to be published!

2010-06-07T23:15:00.003+01:00

I can't believe we have finally got here, but on Wednesday of this week - that's the 9th of June, Vintage Gifts to Knit will be published. I am so excited yet incredibly tense. I have felt as though this day would never come and was terribly conscious as well of letting people down if we didn't get the job done. But we are nearly there now, just 24 hours to wait. I am travelling later tomorrow, or possibly Wednesday morning, down to Reading for the Summer Tea Party (see previous blog post) which will be an unofficial launch party for the book. If you are coming and you have pre ordered a copy of the book, you will be able to pick up your copy on the night. All other orders will be being despatched on Thursday. Everyone has been incredibly patient while waiting for me to get this book together and I can't tell you how much I appreciate your support. Thank you all so much.

I have to update the blog and the shop and ravelry etc properly at the end of the week but in the meantime here's a little sneak preview of some of the other designs in Vintage Gifts to Knit.

This stunning jacket is inspired by vintage bed jackets and can be worn in its traditional role or as a cardigan or 'day' jacket. It is knitted in Rowan pure wool 4 ply and is deceptively simply to knit, with only a 4 row lace pattern to follow. I love this one - It also has neat, little gathered sleeve heads and a fabulously draping hood , very Phantom of the Opera!

I've called this mens sock pattern 'Father's new socks' just because I think its the sort of present that my dad would really love to get. Unfortunately for him, these ones are for Gavin - seen here as 'foot model'. Knitted in Jamieson and Smith 2 ply jumper yarn using a really simple slip stitch to create the mock fair isle effect. I've gone for these muted autumnal colours but they would be really good in black and grey or navy and cream for office wear too.

And finally for tonight, the much mentioned skating skirt. Designed initially for my good friend Alabama Whirly to knit during the Olympics, this turned into something far more than originally expected. Seen for the first time, being worn by Alabama at Unravel in Farnham, so many people asked about the pattern I realised it had to be included in the collection. It is knitted from the top down in the round in Jamieson and Smith 2 ply jumper yarn (yet again) and has 8 panels with shaping worked into each one creating this lovely drape, reminiscent of bias cut fabric. The rest of the photos for this one are fantastic, I can't wait for everyone to see them.

Its only at the end of this project, that I realise quite how much of myself I put into it. Its a very personal collection of designs that I absolutely love individually and collectively and all say something about the era they have been influenced by and the things that I love. I hope you all love it too.

Time to go to bed.

for now
Ruby xxx

Vintage Gifts to Knit is available to purchase from shop.knitonthenet.com for £14.00 plus £3 p&P worldwide.

Summer Evening Tea Party

2010-05-20T20:39:00.006+01:00

Click on the image for a better view!

As you can see on the poster above, we are having a Tea Party at Jelly in Reading. It will take place from 5pm-9pm on Wednesday 9th June and will be the 'official' launch of Vintage Gifts to Knit. It should be a wonderful evening filled with cakes, tea, deck chairs and knitting. What could be better? Well actually, on top of all of that the event is Free! Skein Queen will also be there with her beautiful yarns and there will also be other hand crafted goodies to buy. I will be doing a little talk at around 7 pm and all the projects from Vintage Gifts to Knit will also be on display.

You can find out more information about the event by clicking on the poster and I do hope to see some of you there.

for now
Ruby xxx

Vintage Shetland

2010-05-14T21:45:00.004+01:00

I recently returned to Shetland to visit the Shetland Museum Archive, where I am working on a very special project in collaboration with the Museum. The Museum houses an incredible collection of hand knitted garments, many from the 1920s-1940s. All of this knitwear has been made by people (usually women) living and working on the Islands.

The Shetland Museum

Much of this knitwear has been kept either by family or descendants of recipients and at some point the decision has been made to donate the garment to the Museum collection. As you can imagine many of the pieces have deteriorated considerably over time and as none of these pieces of knitting have written patterns the garment itself is the only record of the effort, the design, the history.

Only a small selection of the knitwear is on display at the Museum itself, the remainder is housed in an archive building elsewhere on the main island. This is where I spent several days examining, photographing, measuring and transcribing stitch by stitch a selection of these garments.

Here I am in the process of transcribing a jumper from the 1940s.

From this information I will choose about 18 to 20 of the garments which I will then write multi sized patterns for. The task of knitting the garments to match the originals as closely as possible will then begin. Once all this has been done and the patterns have been tested and checked and the stories behind the jumpers written and the photographs taken and the artwork, layout and printing done, Vintage Shetland will be published!

This is obviously a long project and the work has only just begun but I will be sharing progress as I proceed.

We managed to have a little time off while we were there and attended a 'Hamefaring' - My good friend Connie of Jamieson & Smith had married in New Zealand earlier this year and the hamefaring was held for those of us who couldn't make the trip. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the evening but I learnt both a waltz and a reel. The next morning Gavin and I went for a walk around the headland.

Here I am in my Beret for Country Walks from A Stitch in Time.

I have another trip this weekend, this time to Devon, and then I'll be back to prepare for the publication of Vintage Gifts to Knit - Yaaay!

for now
Ruby xxx

The winner of the guess who competition is

2010-05-03T10:36:00.003+01:00

Sara. Can you email me Sara with your address so I can send you some treats.

Sorry for the brevity of this post. I will post again properly tomorrow.

for now
Ruby xxx

Who she was and a new design

2010-04-27T23:13:00.004+01:00

Well, the time has come to reveal who my mystery visitor was. Was it Ysolda? No. Was it Lucy Neatby? Again, no. Was it even Kate Nash (who on Jools Holland last week had gone very retro)? Yet again, no. It was in fact, as several of you guessed, my lovely friend Woolly Wormhead. When Woolly came to visit at the end of March we thought it would be fun to do the full on retro glam treatment to see just how different she might look. I think she enjoyed the change for a short while but was keen to get back to being herself.

I shall pick at random from the names of people who identified Woolly as the mystery visitor and I shall send one person some 'woolly' goodies.

I have released a new design today, from the Vintage Gifts to Knit collection, called Town and City Tufted Cape.

It was photographed in Edinburgh when I went with Charlie to sort out her university lodgings. It is knitted in Biggan Design First Cross Merino 8 ply, which is a standard DK yarn, in a soft sage shade of green with a black edging. It has a very 1950s feel to the design, however the construction is more modern. Knitted from the neck down in three pieces using 5mm needles, the tufted pattern makes the increases for you rather than extra shaping having to be worked. Once the three pieces have been worked the edging is picked up across all three pieces together and worked in one piece. Because of the shape of the cape it is very accommodating to different sizes and although slightly shorter and more open on me than Charlie I could wear the same cape if I wanted to. The pattern explains how to make a longer length cape too if you prefer.

The pattern covers sizes 30-52 inches and is available as a PDF download for £3.00 from here or from ravelry or comes as part of the Vintage Gifts to Knit book which is currently available to pre order from the knitonthenet shop for £14.00 with free packaging and postage or as an ebook for £10 from the shop or again from ravelry.

The gloves are from a vintage shop in Camden. I got them about four years ago and they are one of the best things I ever bought, I wear them so often and the little hat is from Hope House Costume Museum in Derbyshire, run by the wonderful Nottie and supported by her equally lovely friend Pat.

I do hope you like this simple little cape. I get so involved with each design that they become so important to me and the releasing of a design is quite a scary feeling as a result. Just like your children, you want everyone to like them!

Anyway, for now
Ruby xxx

Guess Who?

2010-04-19T12:39:00.003+01:00

Whoops, did it again. Hit return from the title and it publishes the post! My apologies if you came to the blog to find an empty post.

With lots of secret knitting and lots of pattern checking on the go, I thought I would have a little competition. There will be a little knitting related prize to the first name out of the hat on Friday to have guessed the name of this 'mystery' knitting person.

Enter by leaving your guess in the comments please - and please sign in to blogger so I can send you an email back if you've won.

ETA. I think some clues may be needed:

This person is in disguise!
She is a fellow knitwear designer
And although this hair do is striking, its not the one she's known for!

Good luck

for now
Ruby xxx

Stitch in Time Vol 2 mini preview

2010-04-13T08:04:00.005+01:00

As I mentioned in my last post, we held a little fashion show at the Make, Do and Knit event. The models all volunteered their time and did a wonderful job, getting changed in little more than a cupboard and doing it very quickly.

The first preview garment is this quite formal and very elegant jumper. The body sections are knitted in different directions in rib and then dramatic pleats are added at the wrist and around the neck creating almost victorian ruffles. This jumper is from the early 1930s and I have used Jamieson and Smith 2 ply jumper yarn for this one.

Image courtesy Sam Sloan Photography

The whole garment is very dramatic and severe but very flattering.

This next jumper is also predominantly knitted in a rib stitch - as so many were in the 1930s - but has a really interesting bobble stitch worked at the sides of the garment. The sleeves are ribbed and the neck is a boat or slash neck. Other than mastering the bobbles this is a very simple knit with very little shaping, relying on negative ease and the ribbing to create the fit. I have used a 4ply cashmere and merino mix for this one with a slight marl in the yarn to add textural interest.

Image courtesy Sam Sloan Photography

Moving forward, is this delightful little jumper from the 1940s. Incredibly easy to knit with decorative ruched stripes of 'ribbon' effect colours across the body. Little bows are added afterwards. There is an opening at the back neck with contrasting buttons. The pretty puffed sleeves are helped with small sleeve pads knitted and sewn in place. I have used a 4 ply merino yarn from Biggan Design for this one, which is due for release shortly I believe.

Image courtesy Sam Sloan Photography

I have used the yarn for this next one before. This is Posh Yarns, cashmere and silk mix which was used for the 1930s cami bockers in Volume 1 - there was still enough left to knit this absolute wisp of a jumper. I really wanted to try a jumper in a very fine weight yarn. The original pattern is actually for a one ply yarn and although this yarn is more of a 2 ply it is still the lightest, most delicate thing you have ever seen. It also knits up surprisingly quickly. It has dainty picot edges on the sleeves and neckband and a pretty bow knitted separately and then sewn in place. It also has a back neck opening. The little knot stitch worked on the main body and sleeves stops the knitting process being boring. I just love this one, I really do. The whole thing weighs practically nothing!

Image courtesy Sam Sloan Photography

Moving on to the 1950s, no collection from this period would be complete without a simple crew neck cardigan. This cardigan is knitted in Jamieson and Smith lace weight yarn and is the perfect spring cardigan. The front panels provide interest whilst knitting and is a very simple knit.

Image courtesy Sam Sloan Photography

Unfortunately, I've only really got this one photo of the cardi but hopefully you can see enough of it. Its one of those that you'll need in 6 different colours!

So finally, on to full on 1950s glamour. This top is knitted in Knitshop mulberry silk which is a thick 4 ply and the garment still came out tiny, really tiny. The waistband is knitted separately and sewn to the body and then a zip is sewn into the side where the waistband ties. If you knit this one, don't try and do it without the zip - you won't get into it! The flattering neckline compliments the wearer and the decorative cuff adds glamorous detail to the wrist. The black edging and bows are crocheted - the bows are sewn on at the end. The knitting is actually quite straight forward again but cleverly constructed to create that real 50s shape. Time to get out the waspie!

Image courtesy Sam Sloan Photography

I hope you have enjoyed this little taster of what is to come. I love every single one of them, and have been delighted how amazingly well they suit and flatter everyone who tries them on. But for now, back to the knitting.

Ruby xxx

Just a quickie to say Hello!

2010-04-07T16:29:00.004+01:00

It has been a chaotic few weeks leading up to and then running the Make, Do and Knit event in Liverpool. Despite a few secret, last minute hiccups the event itself went extremely smoothly and everyone seemed to have a great time. Since then, catching up has been SO time consuming. There are so many things you don't realise you are leaving till 'later' when you have something of this scale to organise. And then when its all over they all come back to haunt you!

I will have photos of the event to post and most importantly some of the first designs to go public from A Stitch in Time, Volume II. Vintage Gifts to Knit is almost ready for despatch too, so things are beginning to happen. The images and patterns from the booklet will be ready for a reveal shortly too.

I am off to Edinburgh tomorrow with my daughter. She has been accepted by Edinburgh College of Art to study a BA in Film, so we are off to look at accommodation. She (and I) are so excited. Edinburgh is the college she has been hoping for and its fabulous it has come to be. Look out for lots of photoshoots suddenly coming from Scotland as I follow my model and muse across the border!

In the meantime I will leave you with a little tease from one of the garments from A Stitch in Time, Vol II!

for now
Ruby xxx

Twisted Woolly Toppers (by Woolly Wormhead) Blog tour

2010-03-18T15:47:00.015Z

I am thrilled to have been asked by the lovely Woolly Wormhead to be the first port of call in the blog tour to launch her new book “Twisted Woolly Toppers”. I got to know Woolly initially online, like so many of us, and we found ourselves sharing and discussing the many issues and complexities that arise for a self employed designer. We also found that we had much in common. Both of us former art and textiles teachers and independent authors, we had both had very mixed experiences of the formal teaching system in the UK, particularly as it is applied to the teaching of art and crafts. I couldn’t begin to calculate how many conversations have been exchanged between us and how many problems discussed and resolved through the power of the web!

One of these discussions in fact, is what established our working relationship. For those of you who don’t know, I am, well my business is, in a non-traditional way, Woolly’s publisher.

When Woolly self published Going Straight, her first book, it was printed by Lulu, a large online publishing/print company. As a customer ordered a book, a single book was printed out and despatched. Lulu’s costs were becoming more and more prohibitive, leaving Woolly as the designer and author, with very little return for all the effort and expense which goes into the publication of a book. The Lulu system also prevented her from being able to offer her print book for sale via retailers or at shows.

Self publishing has historically received negative press - the suggestion being that the author couldn’t attract a publisher. More and more designers, artists and illustrators, including Woolly, are making the decision themselves not to look for a traditional publisher but to find a business model which ensures they retain control of their product and receive a viable return on their time and effort. There are unfortunately, marketing issues that stem from this decision to go it alone so to combat these traditional barriers Gavin (my husband) and I had created a new business model for ourselves to publish and sell my book, A Stitch in Time. We set up Arbour House Publishing as our own publishing house, enabling us to also tap into the traditional distribution networks in the publishing world and to help other authors in a similar position to ourselves.

To resolve Woolly’s problem, we became her print publisher. Our relationship works very differently to that of a regular publisher and author. Woolly has complete control of her product, providing us with the finished artwork and selling the digital version of the books herself through her website. Arbour House prints and publishes short runs of Woolly’s books enabling us to offer them both to retail and wholesale customers. We primarily sell Woolly’s books through our own online shop and ship them all over the world. What is great for the customer is that they deal either with Woolly or with ourselves so they are never more than an email away from the source of the product they want to purchase!

This model works well for all concerned, but particularly because we believe in what each other is trying to do. When Woolly asked me to kick off the blog tour she asked me two really BIG questions:

Why I am happy to endorse and publish her books/designs?
and
What do I like about her work, from the perspective as a co-designer and as her publisher?

After considerable thought, I realised that the answers to these two questions are the same:

Woolly, is one of the most sophisticated and talented designers I can think of, with a completely instinctive and unstoppable need to design and create. Her enthusiasm and intelligence is inspiring to be around and shines through in her work. Every time I knit a Hat Woolly has designed I learn something new, but without having to struggle as the patterns are so well written, the photography is beautiful, the presentation of the pattern is exceptionally well considered and as a result I admire her work immensely.

Freccia from Twisted Woolly Toppers

This is why I am more than happy to endorse and publish her books and also why I love her work from every perspective!

And also why I couldn’t wait to see Twisted Woolly Toppers. I have seen Woolly evolve over the last couple of years into a more and more accomplished designer and this development is what can be observed in Twisted Woolly Toppers. Each of the 10 Hats in the book can be knitted in several sizes often fitting from toddlers right through to men. Each design uses twists, cables and bias techniques to echo the beautiful architecture Woolly observes around her in Italy.

Tinker from Twisted Woolly Toppers

I particularly love the sketchbook photos of the area included in the book which really help you understand the ideas behind these Hats. The patterns are clearly written with both written and charted options to follow for each design, with different shapes and styles to choose from. For existing fans of Woolly Wormhead this book offers you something new and for those of you who haven’t tried one of her patterns this is a great place to start! The book can be bought either as a PDF direct from the Woolly Wormhead website or the print copies are available from knitonthenet along with her two other books Going Straight and Wee Woolly Toppers.

Woolly will be continuing her blog tour next week at www.babylonglegs.blogspot.com followed by the dates listed below. In addition to this she will also be travelling over from Italy next week to launch her book in person at www.makedoandknit.com and then spending a bit of time with yours truly!

Blog Tour Calendar

http://www.babylonglegs.blogspot.com 25th March
http://bingeknitter.blogspot.com 1st April
http://www.stolenstitches.com 8th April
http://knitwithkt.blogspot.com 15th April
Faina Goberstein http://fainasknittingmode.blogspot.com 22nd April
http://www.tottoppers.com 29th April
http://independentstitch.typepad.com 6th May
Janel Laidman http://beebonnet.typepad.com 13th May
Jaala; Spiro http://knitcircus.typepad.com 20th May

All images courtesy of Woolly Wormhead

Make, Do and Knit, knitting and making fair

2010-03-16T21:57:00.006Z

Here in the north west of England, we struggle to find any knitting and crafting events to go to, so a few months ago, my good friend Helen and I, decided to put on a little event of our own, called Make, Do and Knit. Its taking place at the Bluecoat School in Wavertree, Liverpool, which is a grade II listed building. I will be there signing books and also coordinating the fashion shows which along with garments from A Stitch in Time and Vintage Gifts to Knit will be the first glimpse of some of the garments from A Stitch in Time II. This is really exciting for me as I haven't had the chance as yet to see these garments styled or 'alive'.

There are lots of other exciting things happening, including my lovely friend Woolly Wormhead travelling over from Italy for the launch of her new book Twisted Woolly Toppers and also, and most importantly, lovely things to buy from some of my favourite vendors. There's a full list of stalls and further information on the Make, Do and Knit website. We've also got a twitter account @makedoandknit if you want to be kept informed with goings on.

I hope to see some of you there. Do come and say hello won't you?

for now
Ruby xxx

Some Designing and looking forward ... for a change!

2010-03-04T21:14:00.003Z

Before I begin this post properly I just need to thank everyone once again for their words of support. You have no idea how much they have helped me keep going - even today when we're still waiting for our money and a nasty man knocked on the door demanding it!

We have just returned from a lovely weekend at the Unravel event in Farnham, Surrey where I gave a talk about "Fashion in the Ration" on each of the two days and in return had a little stand selling our wares. It was lovely to see old and new friends and to discuss some plans for the future - the gossip from the show for my next post!

A pattern that is available right now is one I was working on several months ago for The Knitter.
Its a very funny experience finishing a design and then sending it off in the post, and then months later its suddenly out there without your involvement.

So let me introduce "Mitford".

I had been reading about the Mitford Sisters when I was last submitting designs to The Knitter and my head was buzzing with the thought of those glamorous, hedonistic days of the early thirties, with willowy, long limbed, bobbed haired 'gells' charging round the countryside to one party after another in the latest motor car. I had seen examples of these marvellous, voluminous sleeves on many garments of the period and wanted to interpret them into a hand knitted design. The design of the sleeves proved quite a challenge but after a number of attempts I finally got the look I was after.

The volume is created by working increases very rapidly over only a limited number of rows and predominantly at the 'front' of the sleeve so the outside part - away from the body - is the fullest.
It then decreases more slowly from one textured section to the next until down to the normal required sleeve width.

The body length is short and to be worn to the waist. I have worked the body in one piece to the underarm - not common practice in 1930s written patterns, but makes much more sense here with the main body pattern twisting around the torso. The body is divided at the underarm and then raglan and yoke shaping worked back and forth on the two body pieces. Once that is completed the sleeves are worked. The slightly unusual construction continues with the raglans of the sleeve and body being sewn together at this point and then stitches picked up round the curved neckline and the textured yoke is then worked.

It was quite a complicated design to produce but I think would make a very interesting knit. At some point I would really like to knit one of these for myself! The sample garment was knitted in Sublime Extra fine merino 4 ply which was a perfect yarn for this design with a clear, neat, defined stitch detail which showed particularly well on the stocking stitch panels of the body. The pattern is exclusive to The Knitter for six months.

I do hope you like her.

for now a positive
Ruby xxx