Onwards & Upwards

I am awash in a sea of teal. It being a "thing" for a "thing" I cannot spill too many details - except that I am currently 4380 sts away from finishing the thing (which equals about 3 hours of concentrated work - it's not a quick knit, alas). The "thing" has kept me company for the past few weeks of enforced rest and I shall be sorry to send it away.

Actually, the "thing" was much admired today by three new-to-knitting nurses. I spent some time at Glasgow's Western Infirmary getting my leg checked by an orthopaedic specialist and took my knitting with me in case I had to wait around. The verdict? My leg is still very bruised and if I am still struggling two weeks from now, I am to see the specialist immediately. Right now, though, there is no evidence of a torn ligament (hooray! silly A&E) but the tissue surrounding the ligament is definitely badly bruised. I am to rest my leg as much as possible but also begin to do exercises including prolonged periods of walking and gentle stretching.

I am hugely relieved by the news.

However, I do find walking very fatiguing and overwhelming. As a result I am having to postpone a few engagements over the next couple of weeks. I hate disappointing people but I'm really not at my best right now. I am very sorry.

Thank you to everybody who has been in contact over the last few weeks. Your messages, texts and emails have been enormously cheering.

Onwards and upwards.

For the Love of Indie Dyers

A big thank you to Victoria of Eden Cottage Yarns for sending me this sneak peek of her new yarn, Milburn 4ply. It arrived last week and it brightened up the day. I am yet to wind any of the skeins and swatch, but I have played with colourwork patterns in my head. That oatmeal/grey colour is particularly speaking to me - I am going through a bit of a neutral phase - and I love how the other colours sing to each other. Designing a palette is always hard (every colour needs to be distinct but still play well with the others) but Vicki has pulled it off.

The UK has some of the most amazing indie dyers and I feel so fortunate that I have ready access to names like Vicki, Skein Queen (new website!), Juno Fibre Arts, Lioness Yarns, Kettle Yarn Co., Triskelion Yarns, and The Knitting Goddess. Yarn is shipped quickly and I get to see them 'live' at the various shows. Scotland is particularly strong on indie dyers: I'm a huge fan of  Old Maiden Aunt; RipplesCrafts' amazing colours are pulled from her Highland surroundings, and The Yarn Yard is well-established as a go-to dyer for sock lovers.

One of the many things I really appreciate about many UK dyers is their commitment to offering a variety of bases - many of which are UK-specific breeds. Sourcing the right bases is one of the hardest thing for an indie dyer (followed closely by being able to source enough for a sustainable business) but so many of them are now selling yarns that are so much more than just a merino or a wool/nylon mix. They are showing a real commitment to showcasing the best of British fibre - and I think this is something we should celebrate. They are small, local businesses, they are supporting other small, local businesses and knitters get to discover what makes Polwarth wool different from Corridale wool, say. Win-win for all concerned.

Louise Scollay of KnitBritish recently wrote about the Dos and Donts of Knitting Locally. It is a wonderful post which pokes holes in a lot of myths surrounding knitting locally. It does not have to be more expensive, nor is it more difficult to care for. Being thoughtful about your yarn choices is maybe something to requires a bit more mindfulness (especially next time you are in a yarn shop and are overcome with omg, all the yarn!) but it is doable and rewarding.

I'd love to see a big collaboration between indie dyers and local designers. I try to work with as many indie dyers as I can, but I am just one person. Wouldn't it be wonderful to see a plethora of the best UK indie designers collaborating with the best UK indie dyers? How do you as a knitter feel about this? What would you love to see happening within the UK indie community? And who are your favourite dyers? I know there are some dyers I am yet to discover!

Out of Joint

About two weeks ago I was working for a client in a yarn store when I suffered an accident. Some big shelves fell on the back of my knee and I was left with a very impressive bruise. As the bruise faded away, I expected to be back to normal but unfortunately my knee is still bad.

I went to the A&E last week and they concluded that while I didn't have a fracture, the overarching conclusion is that I have torn or badly bruised my lateral collateral ligament. The LCL stabilises the outside of the knee and also grips the fibula (the outside bone of the lower half of the leg). I have an appointment with an orthopaedic clinic next week and hopefully that will lead to physiotherapy.

For me, enforced rest is always difficult. I like being active and I get easily bored if I'm restricted in my movements. I have kept myself going by writing patterns and doing some sample knitting, but as the days have passed I just feel increasingly worried about how long this is going to take and what that means for my working life. While it has been great to dig into some editing gigs, I have been forced to cancel quite a lot of jobs. March is going to be an exceptionally lean month, in other words. Being self-employed means a huge amount of freedom but it is also a precarious way of making a living.

Yesterday I celebrated my birthday and it was a curiously low-key day. I received some lovely presents (among others: my bestie gave me an ace book on Doggerland and my parents gave me a fantastic-sounding novel about 18th C Danish colonisation of Greenland) but most of the day was spent resting in bed. We caught a taxi down to the best burger joint in town but although I enjoyed being outside Casa Bookish, I ended up in considerable pain (and waking up in the middle of the night begging for painkillers is not the best way to end my birthday).

So it is a hermit's life for me right now.

(If you need anything tech-edited, copy-edited or actually written, now is a fantastic time to get in touch (just fill in the form). If you were considering buying one of my patterns, now would be an equally great time to do so! If you want to recommend any knee exercises, leave a comment!)

Doggerland: the Vedbaek Shawl

The Vedbaek shawl is the latest pattern from my Doggerland collection. Vedbaek is also one of my favourite things I have ever designed. When I began designing the Vedbaek shawl, I started by reading a lot about the Mesolithic finds of Bøgebakken, a site within the small seaside town of Vedbæk, Denmark. Between 1987 and 1990 more than 79.000 Mesolithic artefacts were found in a small contained area.The finds spoke more of a community than any other Mesolithic site I had read about up to that point.

And so I wanted to design something that spoke of people whose lives were inextricably tied to the sea and the rhythms of nature. People whose lives had a rhythm tied to seasons and a specific landscape. I also sought to design something that had a meditative rhythm to its own construction - something that would give comfort both while it was being made and afterwards.

Vedbaek is a story of continuity. It is also a story of making sense of life and carving out a space within everyday life.

One of the most poignant stories uncovered by the archaeologists was the one of the mother and child found sharing one of the graves on site. The mother was young - maybe no more than eighteen years old - and had died in childbirth. Her new-born baby had been placed right next to her. The mother had been adorned with snail shells and animal teeth; the baby was resting on a swan's wing.

That image of a swan's wing offering comfort captured me. It is a powerful image. We will never know what a swan's wing meant to Mesolithic man, but we can imagine words like flight, preciousness, grace, and (as anybody will know if they have disturbed a nesting swan) protectiveness.

The Vedbaek shawl is the end result of that design process. It has long, deep ridges that end in elongated points. I thought of spears used to capture fish and I thought of flint arrowheads secured to long, thin reeds. I also wanted to capture that wonderful, affecting image of the swan's wing. I wanted to make something with the weightlessness, grace, and beauty as the single swan's wing cradling something lost, something precious.

I knitted Vedbaek in Snældan 2ply (which is actually a 4ply) and I used almost 2 skeins of it. The yarn is lofty and soft (particularly when blocked) and the shawl is big, yet lightweight. Absolutely perfect.

It has been a long time reaching this point of finally release Vedbaek. I feel it is a bit ironic that my own life fell short of its own internal rhythms and comforts to the point where I could not release a pattern which is intrinsically about framework, rituals, rhythms, and solace. But we all muddle through somehow, don't we? Life takes its own quirky detours and I did have a beautiful shawl to wrap around my shoulders when life got cold.

I like telling stories through stitches.Vedbaek holds so many of them - both deliberately and accidentally.

Freebie Pattern: My Heart in My Hand

It is that time of year again. February. February is my favourite month of the year. It is short; the days are getting longer; Valentine's Day means presents; my birthday means even more presents. This year we also have the Winter Olympics in Sochi to make the month seem even more colourful. So I thought I'd post a little free pattern for all your Valentine/birthday/Sochi needs.

Fuelled by coffee and my love of late 1980s synthpop, I give you..my heart in my hand. It hasn't been tech-edited, it's nothing earth-shattering, and you won't get a fancy PDF (or a glossary). On the other hand, it uses up tiny amounts of yarn, it is very quick to knit and it is versatile. I am going to wear my heart in my hand as a brooch - but you can turn it into bunting, use it as a bookmark, stick it on a card or (if you make two) a pin cushion. The last bit is particularly useful if you want to practise voodoo on an ex!

(Why am I mentioning Sochi? Why am I doing a rainbow heart? What does it all mean?)

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MY HEART IN MY HAND

Materials:

sportweight/light DK yarn (shown using Rowan Felted Tweed) - 10 yrds max 3.25mm needles tapestry needle for weaving in ends

gauge is not important but aim for roughly 25 sts over 4 inches, if you must.

(Rainbow version uses the same pattern as below but changes colour every fourth row. I used shades 150, 154, 161, 167, 181 and 186 - take care when you weave in ends)

Instructions: CO 2 sts

Row 1: Knit Row 2: Kfb into both sts. 4 sts Row 3: Knit (slipping first st of this row makes for a prettier edge)

Rep rows 2 and 3 another 6 times. 16 sts

Knit 4 rows

Row 19: k8, turn w rem sts put on waste yarn (or kept unworked on needle) Row 20: ssk, k4, k2tog. 6 sts Row 21: Knit Row 22: ssk, k2, k2tog. 4 sts Row 23: ssk, k2tog. 2 sts Row 24: k2tog and pull yarn through st.

Pick up rem 8 sts and rep rows 19-24.

Weave in ends. You can make the heart shape even more prominent if you use the end of yarn from where you rejoined yarn at the top to pull in the centre of the heart a tiny bit.

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If you really, really enjoy this pattern, please consider donating to your local LGBT charity.  Spread the love. Love is never a crime.

Twin Practices

Knitting, if acquired in youth becomes so mechanical an employment that the occupations of reading and knitting can be carried on simultaneously; while the benefit of early training in this work is felt in extreme old age, and when the sight is dim or lost, a pleasant creation is still open for the experienced knitter - from "Myra's Knitting Lessons. No.1" circa 1800

I still haven't really mastered it - I find it easier to knit along to TV, films and podcasts. And thank you to Louise Scollay of KnitBritish for pointing me towards Myra's Knitting Lessons. How marvellous.