A Yarn-Shop Jaunt to Edinburgh: Kathy's Knits, Ginger Twist Studio & Be Inspired Fibres.

In early 2009 I was in the process of setting up my own yarn shop in Glasgow. I had done the research, I had sourced my suppliers, I had the business USP worked out, and I had even found the premises. Unfortunately I had also found a shady landlord and I ended up having to pull the plug on the shop before it hadn't even opened. It was a hard time, but today I am thankful that it did not work out. I have taken a very different path in my knitting life and it is one I find incredibly fulfilling. But it is always interesting to visit yarn shops and see how the people who did make the leap have done so. I look at the yarns the shops stock, how the yarns are displayed, the type of signage they use – heck, I even look at the fonts they use and how the window displays are merchandised. I get paid to notice these things when I am working, so it makes sense that I notice all these things even if I am not officially on the job.

In mid-July I went on a merry jaunt to Edinburgh to have lunch with Susan Crawford (who is quickly becoming a dear friend). It was a sunny day and we decided to combine our lunch with a trip to a few local yarn shops. Edinburgh is lucky to host several quality yarn shops but we were only able to visit three on the day. All three turned out to be fantastic but they were also very different. As someone who had a very strong idea about the shop she was going to open, I just love how shops carve out their own niches and identities. A yarn shop isn't just a place that sells yarn.

Kathy's Knits was our first stop.

Cathy specialises in British yarns and is really passionate about stocking local products. We had a good look at the fabled St Kilda laceweight yarn and I ended up buying some 4-ply yarn for a specific fair-isle project. I also love how Cathy really cares about the local knitting community. I first met her when she was volunteering for us at the Kaffe Fassett event last year, she backed The Edinburgh Yarn Fest, and she is very vocal in supporting the other local yarn shops in Edinburgh.

Susan and I bumped into Emily of Tin Can Knits at Cathy's – it does feel like a hub for talent.

Cathy stocks predominantly British yarns like JC Rennie, Blacker yarns, and Jamieson & Smith as well as some great hand-dyed yarns from the likes of Eden Cottage Yarns and YarnPony. You can follow Cathy & Kathy's Knits on Twitter.

Ginger Twist Studio is one of the newest LYSs in town and a nice walking distance from Kathy's.

Its owner Jess is a bundle of energy and warmth - she's as tiny  as her shop which bears her cheerful, vintage-inspired trademark. I just felt instantly at ease in her company and her shop. She has a strong focus on what I'd call the typical Ravelry knitter: young students who love colour, affordable natural fibres, and offbeat design. It was such a fun visit and I wanted to sit down next to her and knit away whilst gossiping about yarns and patterns. And I think that is a strong indicator that Jess is making things happen.

Jess & Susan had a great discussion about their shared love for vintage designs - it was hugely inspiring.

Jess stocks New Lanark, various yarns from Cascade,  and King Cole among others and also hosts "yarn of the month" and "designer of the month" ensuring an ever fresh selection. Ginger Twist Studio is on Twitter, of course. You can also find Jess working stalls at various vintage craft fairs throughout Edinburgh.

Be Inspired Fibres was our last yarn shop visit of the day.

Situated in an upmarket area, Be Inspired has a definite 'boutique' feel to it with plenty of space and natural light. The shop takes a step back to let its customers browse and inspiration from its many different products. Mei has worked in the yarn business for many years in various roles and is very passionate about luxury yarns. Her shop is a beautiful, very calm space and Mei has a strong selection of very unusual yarns and designs. Like the other two shops, Be Inspired reflects its owner - Mei is very conscious of design, clean lines and wanting to offer her customer an exquisite experience.

We had a very long conversation about Scandinavia - Mei draws a lot of inspiration from Japanese and Scandinavian design - and we were shown glimpses of what Mei plans to stock in the future. I will be teaching a couple of workshops at Be Inspired in the autumn - all with a focus on clean lines, Scandinavian heritage and modern knitting design. Keep an eye on Mei's workshop schedule for more information.

Mei stocks Ito yarns, ChaioGoo needles, Malabrigo, Fyberspates, Lotus Yarns, Habu yarns and BomBella Kits as well as a cracking selection of international design magazines ( I am very excited about her future plans too - and you should be too). Be Inspired Fibres also have a twitter feed.

After having walked miles in stunning sunshine, Susan & I finished up with refreshments at Peter's Yard - a Swedish bakery. Cardamon buns, oh yes. What a lovely, lovely day - and what lovely company!  Three so very different shops: I love their shared passion and their individual visions.

I need to make my way to Edinburgh more often.

How the Land Lies: The Gillean Hat

How do we understand a landscape? From satnavs and street lights to bus routes and border controls, our twenty-first century landscape is controlled and marked in a myriad of ways. We are told how best to reach our destination (the destination being more important than the journey!), not to trespass, and to have our passport ready for inspection. Not only does Google Earth enables us to walk the streets of cities we will never visit from the comfort of our own homes, but computer-generated landscapes can end up feel more real than the landscape outside our windows.

(I still remember the shock coursing through my body when I first played Diablo II and discovered the village in Diablo had been burned down. It was a real, physical reaction to a simulated environment.)

Thankfully human beings still want to feel we are part of our actual, real surroundings.

We want to inhabit our landscape emotionally as well as physically. We take shortcuts ('desire lines') when the official path seems too circuitous; we respond to stark urban environments by planting trees and flowers; and we turn spaces into places by telling tales about them: "This is where I played as a child" and "Turn left at the tree that was hit by lightning."

And the Gillean Hat is partly a response to this story-telling impulse, this desire to belong.

The Gillean hat is named after Caisteal nan Gillean - a Mesolithic archaeology site on the Scottish island of Oronsay. I am fascinated by how we choose to name sites and how many layers of stories we can find in place names. Caisteal nan Gillean literally means 'the fort of the boys' and since we will never know the actual Mesolithic name of the site, the boys will linger.

But there are other ways of marking your place in the world when words are no longer remembered and myths about a place have ceased to be told. Caisteal nan Gillean has plenty of evidence that it was a place tied to memories, stories, experiences and meaning. People inhabited the island on many occasions and left behind traces of their lives.

I am using a stylised shell/limpet motif in this hat. Oronsay is famous for its shell middens - solid evidence of human activity in a landscape - and I wanted to throw a handful of these shells across a hat. The hat uses beautiful organic Faroese yarns that reflect an isolated island environment: a grassy green flickers at the edge whilst the two greys capture the idea of shells strewn across weathered stones. A link to a past landscape in a own present-day world.

If you want to read more about how we relate to landscapes - both internal and external ones - I recommend Robert Macfarlane's beautiful The Old Ways: a Journey on Foot.

That Sweet Spot: On Knitting Needles

I think we all have our own sweet spot in knitting whether we realise it or not. When you first start out knitting, you will probably try all types of knitting: chunky yarns on big needles, double-pointed needles and a self-striping 4ply for your first sock, scarf knitting using textured yarn on straight needles and so forth. Some people will continue to bounce back and forth, but most knitters will find their preferred type of knitting eventually. My sweet spot? I rarely use anything below 3mm (US 2) and above 5mm (US 8). I prefer circular needles above anything else - 80 cm (32") being my preferred cable length. I do not get along with interchangeable needles - an expensive lesson to learn - but want my circs to be fixed. As someone who designs and knits a lot of lace, I need a smooth join between needle and cable as well as a pointy tip. I'm less fussy about the material of the needle - wood, bamboo and good quality metal all work well for me.

(As for brands, there is a certain sense of one-upmanship in knitting (a bit like Top Trumps for crafty grown-ups) and I'm always a bit reluctant to play along with this. Apologies if the next bit reads like me slamming down a card or two.)

Until recently my go-to needles have been Addi Bamboo circs. They are not always ideal as the bamboo can be a bit soft and easily scratched, but I like how they feel in my hands. They are lightweight, yarns pass smoothly across the needles rather than slip across, and the cable has a pleasing solidity to it whilst still being flexible.

Addi Bamboos are not as easy to get as KnitPros and I have a fair amount of wooden KPs as a result. The needles themselves are smooth and the tips are nice and pointy. I am less keen on the cable which does not feel as high quality as the needle part. This was recently confirmed by a KP cable snapping at the join. If I were a DPN user or a straight needles gal, I'd probably like KPs more.

Addi Turbos form another big part of my tool box. The needles tend to be on the blunt side and the cables can have kinks (the latter is easily rectified by strategic steaming) but they are good workhorse needles. My 3.75mm (US 5) Addi Turbos remain my Beloved for no apparent reason other than 'they fit my hands so well'.

And then at Woolfest I decided to try out Chiaogoo needles after hearing friends talk about them like they were the second coming. I switched needles on a project so I could test them almost immediately and I've been in love ever since. They really, really hit that sweet spot for me.

The tip are pointy and have a nice, long angle to them which means I can quickly move from stitch to stitch (especially noticeable when working decreases into the back of the loop). The needles themselves are smooth but with the tiniest hint of grip which means slippery yarns stay put and my rhythm remains the same regardless of type of yarn. The join is equally smooth and allows for easy movement of stitches from cable to needle (always key).

But I am deeply impressed by the cable.

The cable feels substantial, but not weighty. No memory means no potential kinks and no curcling around when I magic-loop. I have also tried walking around whilst knitting an almost-finished top-down jumper(!) and the cable + join do not feel unduly stressed. The cable may feel slightly bulky for some knitters - especially if you are used to KPs - but I really like it. I have also road-tested the cable with flimsy lace knitting and it still outperformed.

To absolutely nobody's surprise, I have since added Chiaogoos in most of my preferred sizes to the toolbox. It was a bit of an indulgence but having proper tools make such a difference to me. I have finished two pieces of sample knitting since the needles arrived and a third is almost done. They have really enhanced my knitting joy.

What tools are essential to you? What sort of needles fit your hands and your style of knitting? What do you look for in a good set of needles? We are all different and I'm curious to hear about other people's sweet spots.

Quick Freebie: Kirkja

My Kirkja shawl pattern is currently available for free on Ravelry. Offer expired, sorry! As you may be aware, local boy Andy Murray took home the Wimbledon men's title yesterday. He is the first British male to do so for 77 years (though the marvellous Virginia Wade won the women's title in 1977). Scotland has gone a bit crazy as a result - and I have lived in Glasgow so long that I feel this strange sense of pride too. It's rather odd but who am I to quibble with a sense of belonging?

Before the match I decided that if Andy Murray defied the odds, I'd offer one of my paid patterns for free. And because Andy won, you can now use the code comeonandy to get Kirkja for free until 6pm GMT tonight.

Almost 1250 people have snapped up Kirkja in the last 19 hours. Do join them! Maybe even dip into the Karie Bookish group and show off your Kirkja shawl once you've knitted it!

An aside: I like this photo a lot. I didn't use it as a pattern photo for various reasons, but I like it a great deal. It looks like me - and I cannot begin to tell you how much that means to me. Modelling my patterns is one of my least favourite activities. I feel very conscious of the way I look and how far I am from the standard 'model look'. Ravelry is a great place for showcasing different body types, but I still dislike the way I look in photos. I note all my flaws and imperfections before I look at how the knitting looks. It feels awful, just awful. So, it's a big thing for me to say that I like a photo.

That was a bit of an aside!

The rest of today will be used on sprucing up the website (have you noticed the new layout?) and on getting the next Doggerland pattern sorted. If you are one of the Kirkja downloaders, do stick around. Plenty of exciting things happening!

A Trip to Cockermouth: Woolfest 2013

I started my summer holiday with a trip to Cumbria in the North-East of England. Woolfest 2013 is one of the big events on the knitting calendar and, as I usually work events rather than attend, being able to go as a visitor felt like a treat. Of course, my Woolfest visit turned into actual work once I got there - places to be and people to see - but it was good to be a 'punter' for about 20 minutes! Compared to other events I've either attended or worked, Woolfest was overwhelming. It wasn't as crowded as I had feared, but I found myself rushing from one end to another over and over. And then it was suddenly time to go home and I hadn't done half the things I had planned on doing.

(I did get to say a fond go forth and conquer the world goodbye to a friend who has landed her dream job in Canada. I am sure I will get to see Dr J again but it was bitter-sweet. But, hey, I am used to having friends spread out across the world and one day I will have the best couch-surfing adventure ever. Right? Right?)

A few obligatory photos of purchases:

Woolfest is all about celebrating British wool/yarn and I loved seeing the rare sheep breeds on display. I wasn't too happy with people who kept poking the poor sheep, but it was great seeing the animals in person. I think many knitters forget that there is an actual animal at the end of their yarn (so to speak) and I think even more knitters do not realise the variety of local wool available. I was very taken with the Wesleydales (hippies, man) but I loved the Manx Loaghtan sheep even more. When I saw the white Wesleydale/Manx mix, I could not resist. Coupled with the darker Manx, this will become a warm winter's hat.

One of my favourite destinations at any knitting event is always the Susan Crawford Vintage stall. This time I wanted to see Susan's new cotton yarn - Coquette 4ply - but it is always a joy to look at her stall. She has such a personal sense of colour and a very focused aesthetic. I didn't leave with any Coquette, but I picked up two balls of the exquisite Excelana 4ply. It feels beautiful in the ball and I want to support British yarn producers! I have a very specific design idea for this yarn. Shhh.

This was an unexpected purchase. This was described as "Hebridean 4ply" and it certainly looks like Hebridean 4ply. As you can see by my tiny hand, this is a massive amount of dark brown 4ply with a decidedly Hebridean feel. Goodness knows how much is there, but it will certainly be enough to form the backdrop/main colour of a colourwork cardigan. I am ridiculously pleased with this purchase and it was a real 'spur of the moment' one too.

And then I bought buttons. I woke up Sunday morning when the whiff of the button stalls had cleared from my head and I was confused for a moment. Had I really bought that many buttons? Of course I had. I always buy buttons at events.

The big two buttons are ear-marked for a project. The buttons at (roughly) 4 o'clock are meant for my Bute cardigan (1.5 sleeves to go!), the 8 o'clock buttons are for the Stevie cardigan and I bought the 9 o'clock buttons because they reminded me of ammonites. We like fossils in Casa Bookish! The rest of the buttons were bought for unspecified future projects.

It was very good to meet a lot of friends - both old and new. Apologies if I missed seeing you or if I was only there for a second - it was a manic day. I think if I am to do Woolfest again, I will have to stay overnight. One day isn't really enough! And on that note I think I shall go enjoy the rest of my holiday.

Pattern: Hoxne

Hoxne is the second pattern to be released from the Doggerland: Knits from a Lost Landscape collection. The shawl is named after a small village in Suffolk. Hoxne was inhabited as early as 320,000 years ago but the site shows signs of continual flint tool production through the ages. Flint is one of the key materials of North European prehistory - and I knew I wanted to design a shawl evocative of flint tools.

I know flint very well.

My childhood landscape was shaped by the ice age: softly rolling hills and a large moraine we called Tornved Bjerg (literally: Tornved Mountain).

Local farmers cursed the vanished glaciers for leaving so much debris behind as they worked the stone-filled fields, but I loved running across the newly tilled land and finding pieces of flint. I held the small stones in my hands as though they were gold nuggets. They were warm from the sun, yet cool to the touch. They were soft to hold, yet had sharp edges. I didn't realise until much later in my life that I had probably been picking up worked pieces of flint in a landscape full of prehistoric archaeology.

Hoxne reminds me of being that child - so inquisitive and seeing something special in everyday things. I hope I haven't lost either quality.

The shawl is knitted in Snældan 1ply - I keep referring to this yarn as Karie's Favourite Lace Yarn and that still holds true (I should write a Desert Island Yarns entry at some point). It is soft, holds so much character and it blocks out beautifully. Snældan is still spun in the way that it was spun in the 1940s and I love how it feels alive in your hands. Some yarns are processed beyond recognition but Snældan 1ply retains this magical feeling of authenticity and landscape which is so central to what I'm trying to do with Doggerland.

The Island Wool Company will be featuring Hoxne on their website - keep a look out and do browse that Snældan section. I continue to be thankful that Fiona & Daniel have chosen to make my beloved Faroese yarns available for UK knitters. It makes my life a lot easier!

Tomorrow I will be heading to Woolfest with my Glasgow knitting group. If you see me, do say hello!