Author: Louise Diggins
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Reversible Wrist Warmers
Wrist warmers could not be any simpler than these two tubes of ribbing but the fact that they have two thumb holes so can be turned upside down to show a different colour or even folded over to be worn double for very cold days makes me childishly happy. They are knitted through out in 3
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Modified Three Needle Bind Off
Aeolian Top This is the second of two tutorials for the Aeolian top. To mirror the chain edge created by the Crochet Cast-On we used a Modified 3-Needle Bind-Off at the side seams. This eliminates the purl bumps and gives a very flat chain edge. It involves a cat’s cradle of yarn and a bit
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Cornish Thrift Top and Shawl
If you’re considering a bit of summer knitting we have the Cornish thrift top with matching shawl for when the summer doesn’t live up to expectations. The simple vest style top is worked in pieces from the bottom up in our Merino & Silk Single. It starts with a deep patterned hem, the body is
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Delicous Death
Our club boxes often come with a recipe and my favourite was from last January’s Poison box, Delicious Death a frugal chocolate cake inspired by Agatha Christie’s A Murder is announced. It was published in 1950 when Britain was still in the grip of rationing so chocolate cake and especially a deep, rich celebration cake
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Winter Club Box
I’m trying to avoid going out to the shed to wash wool as it’s so very icy outside and so very warm inside I thought I do a show and tell for our winter club box. The theme was a winter walk, with a photograph of the heath in winter for the inspiration. The only
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Gnomes and Fairies
During lock down to make Nicola laugh I sent her a gnome in the post. Who doesn’t raise a titter at a surprise gnome? In return she sent me a fairy, more Mavis Cruet than Cinderella. Here is the pattern if you’d like to make your own (watching Willo the Wisp is purely optional but
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Pip Pip Socks
We have a new sock pattern, Pip Pip, a top down sock with an easy purl, slip stitch pattern which is separated by increasing rounds of stocking stitch. The pattern is carried on down the heel flap and once more before you decrease for the toe. You can use one contrast colour all the way
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Club boxes
We are often asked if we do subscription boxes or advent calendars and the answer has always been a firm no and then, if you’re really unlucky, a long explanation of why not, but we’ve changed our minds. We’ve decided to try a club box, a run of three to see how they go and
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Summer Dyeing
I’m trying out a new sock base, a GOTS certified, superwash organic merino. As I only had a few skeins I thought I’d try a few different dyes, all the skeins were pre-treated with 7% alum and I picked a few seasonal plants.To make it really easy I decided on Dahlia flowers, Common Reed flowers
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#virtualwonderwool
This weekend should be Wonderwool Wales and instead of heading for Builth Wells were both staying at home, not flattening the curve but jumping up and down on the pesky thing. We’re, however, joining in with #virtualwonderwool and have free UK postage for all orders on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th April. This was our
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Closed-Loop Cables – Increasing and Decreasing
I’ve always enjoyed knitting cables, I find them more intuitive than lace where I can get horribly lost, but when I designed the Heart’s End Hat pattern and Miss Havisham Mittens closed-loop cables were new to me. With closed-loop you can use a stand alone motif rather than an all over pattern, just enough to
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Fair Isle
I have three different types of knitting: a small portable project for travelling; knitting for work, we always need samples and there’s usually a time limit so these are the ones I work on most and finally something I’m making for myself, this is the one that takes the longest. I’ve just finished a Kate
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Saucepan Cake
At shows we can often be found munching on a piece of cake and we never knowingly travel with out a least one cake in the tin. The perfect show cake is a substantial and sturdy thing, without icing or sticky fillings. It should be able to withstand being bounced about and not crumble into
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Seed collecting
I recently asked a question on Instagram about including free gifts with orders. If I send out an order of our hand dyed yarns I sometimes include a sample skein of yarn on a different base. If you’re at a show you can squish any of the skeins you like before you make a decision
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Washing, pH and the bonkersness of natural dyes
I was going to write about some of the projects I have on my needles but blocking a new shawl brought home the totally unexpected affect of washing liquids.
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Dyeing with Dock
Woollenmatters suggested a hashtag on Instagram to celebrate the humble dock as a dye plant. She had a lovely photo of four skeins ranging in colour from a rich yellow, through rust and tan and finally a dark brown. It was a quiet day and feeling inspired I thought I’d give it a go.
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Pink
There has been a bit of a pink theme this month. Having eaten my way through a lot of avocados lately I saved the stones and skins for dyeing. I froze the peel and stones separately, scrubbing them clean and chopping them up before they went into the freezer. In total I had 365g of
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Cornus Midwinter Fire
The Cornus needed pruning and a quick Google search says that Dogwoods give a blue dye.
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Natural dyeing with Eucalyptus bark
Before I played with wool I grew plants for a living, there were a lot of hardy exotics in my life and I still occasionally spend the odd morning at the nursery talking about plant production and happened to notice long strands of bark hanging from the eucalyptuses.
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Lewes
The plan was to publish this pattern at the beginning of December; a perfect last minute gift that used scraps of yarn – then the website went wrong. Really, really wrong.
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Howling
Howling: a fictional Sussex village in Stella Gibbons’ classic novel, Cold Comfort Farm. A place where gumboots are essential and the wind comes in “snarling cries”. Also the name for this easy to memorise, mock rib cowl that’ll keep the snarling cries at bay.
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The Miss Lavish work bag
Miss Lavish is my workbag. Now I don’t usually name my possessions. The cat spent several months without a name and even now I’m not sure he’s a Perkins but it’s sort of stuck. My workbag, however, was named instantly, it just clicked. I’d made it from some waxed cotton that I had and lined it
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Selborne
Selborne is a small village in Hampshire close to where our grandparents lived when we were children. Famous to most for the home of Gilbert White, the naturalist and for us the zig-zag path and violets. We would be packed into the car with our cousins and taken to the “secret woods” where you could stand
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Ainsworth & Prin Blockers
One of the things about attending lots of lovely wool shows is that Nicola and I spend a lot of time in a car. As I can’t get my head around an automatic gear box she gets to do all the driving and I get to think up new products …. or sleep.
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Yarndale
It’s Yarndale in Skipton, North Yorkshire this weekend and we’ll be on stand 167 if you’re visiting. We have a new colour combination for the kits, below is Wren knitted in grape with a skirt in Liberty Tana Lawn meadow. On the website we have four colour combinations for each kit but at a show you
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Passion Cake Procrastination
It’s Yarndale next week and preparations are under way but perhaps not as under way as they should be.
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Sampler
Sampler, a warm woolly scarf to keep out the winter draughts and just what you need to knit when the temperatures hit 30°C. We had this scarf as a sample at Woolfest and we also meant to have the pattern all typed up and ready to go. Well that was the plan, it was never
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Provisional crochet cast on
When I taught myself to knit in the early 1980’s life was simple when a pattern said cast on you did just that, a simple cable cast on and off you went. There was only one way to cast on, wasn’t there? It appears there are nearly as many ways to cast on as there
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Greenfinch
I’ve been dyeing stock for our first ever show at Woolfest at the end of next month and I have a new yarn base to play with. It’s a lovely springy South American merino 4 ply, very soft but still with some body.
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Erika Knight Studio Linen
Recently Nicola and I went to H+H Cologne on a serious shopping trip for the shop. Just before she left home Nicola phoned with a list of the clothes that she was taking as we both have similar tastes and we needed to check that we hadn’t packed the same. At our age identical is
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Easter Biscuits
When we were kids, Easter was a hot cross bun on Good Friday and a Quality Street chocolate egg each which was always hidden at the back of Mum’s wardrobe, so the egg hunt was remarkably quick. We never had Simnel cake and I didn’t have an Easter biscuit until I’d left home, started my
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Wiveton
I live with a bird watcher and our holidays are spent where the birds are sometimes this has added benefits, the bird observatory on Fair Isle is fantastic, luxury rooms, amazing scenery and a museum with knitting, what more could you want?
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Just arrived – Knoll Kilcarra Tweed
I taught myself to knit. When Nicola left for university I took over from her as Saturday girl in the village wool shop. I had never had so much money before. Having mastered the basics of knitting my first attempt was a cabled jumper, how hard could that be? Having answered that question I progressed
