By: KDD April 4, 2020April 4, 2020 disability, poetry, stroke, textilescoat, Coats, disability, meaning, poem, poetry, stroke, textiles32 Comments

a coat for falling

Good morning! Are there garments in your wardrobes from which a particular event or association is difficult to shake? I have friends, for example, who after wearing a certain dress at a funeral, have found that putting it on again becomes difficult. I’m a particularly garment-attached person, and there’s perhaps no garment to which I’m…

brilliant corners

Morning, everyone! Today I’m introducing a new hat, and a new shade of Milarrochy Tweed. First, the hat, which, just like the yoke of my Land o’ Cakes cardigan, is worked in variations of 2×2 corrugated rib and which, just like that pattern, I designed on the hoof, experimenting with shade combinations and rhythms in…

By: KDD April 2, 2020April 2, 2020 disability, poetry, stroke, walking, writingbirds, disability, landscape, nature, poem, stroke, walking30 Comments

protective measures

Good morning, how are you all doing? Tom really enjoyed all of your wonderful (and hugely helpful) responses to yesterday’s post – and I suspect you’ll see him following up many of these paper folding leads quite soon. . . . It’s rather blustery and rainy here today (though the weather is less severe than…

By: KDD April 1, 2020 art, making, ootlier, photography, play, processexperimentation, light, making, ootlier, origami, paper, paper folding, photography, play, process26 Comments

available light

Morning everyone, it’s Tom here. I thought I’d pop in today to share with you some of the odd but interesting things I’ve been doing recently with paper and light. As many of you know, I REALLY like paper! I’ve previously waxed lyrical about the properties of papers and how they fundamentally inform the final…

By: KDD March 31, 2020March 31, 2020 notions, weavingbelt, buckle, clasp, findings, hand-weaving, inkle weaving, weaving36 Comments

findings

Good morning, all. If you’ve not read the comments on yesterday’s post, might I suggest you do so? From Parisian ducks and the red-legged partridges of Portpatrick, to the sometimes-silent parrots of Buenos Aires, Australian pelicans, the egrets of North California, and the hummingbirds of Tennesee, Arizona or Texas, it was wonderful to read your…

By: KDD March 30, 2020March 30, 2020 birds, poetrybirds, Kate Davies, poetry, snipe49 Comments

snipe

Good morning, all! How is the weather in your part of the world? It’s a lovely, crisp morning here, with all the birds in full voice. As an early riser, at this time of the year it’s one of my greatest pleasures to go for a walk at first light, when the world’s awash with…

By: KDD March 29, 2020March 29, 2020 books, design, knitting, publishingClaudia Fiocchetti, colour moves, design, knitting, Make / Mark, mittens, mitts, publishing20 Comments

Colour Moves is published!

I want to thank everyone for your comments on yesterday’s post. Reading them, I was struck very strongly by the feeling of our all facing exactly the same pressing issue in our disparate regions in the world – an unusual sense of connection, but not one to be ignored. Today’s is an ‘announcement’ kind of…

By: KDD March 28, 2020March 28, 2020 mental healthanxiety, gratitude, mental health56 Comments

thanking my drying rack

How are you all doing? I’m someone who, among all my other mental health issues, is very familiar with anxiety, and understand how everyone must be struggling to find a path through this moment, in all its weirdness. Though I’m certainly prone to catastrophising impulses of panic and despair when in a low bipolar phase,…

shop

The KDD online shop stocks our yarn, knitting kits, books, and knitwear (socks, snoods, and jumpers, made right here in Scotland) You can purchase Kate’s hand-knitting patterns as digital PDF downloads through Ravelry Tom’s photographic work is available to purchase as high-quality archival prints To date, we have produced sixteen books under the KDD, Makadu and…

about KDD

Kate Davies Designs (KDD) was established by Kate Davies in 2010, when a stroke at the age of 36 ended her career as a literary academic. While recovering from her stroke, Kate supported herself by designing digital patterns for hand-knitting, established an independent publishing company, and began to produce books that combined her skills as…

tutorials

Ester A tutorial to make the 5-stitch star motif that features on the Ester hat. Inside and Outside the Red Box. A Bold Beginner Knits Tutorial for the Footfall shawl Triangular shawl construction. A Bold Beginner Knits Tutorial for the Footfall shawl “Join body and sleeves into yoke” A Bold Beginner Knits tutorial for the…

a coat for falling

By: KDD April 4, 2020April 4, 2020

disability, poetry, stroke, textilescoat, Coats, disability, meaning, poem, poetry, stroke, textiles32 Comments

brilliant corners

protective measures

By: KDD April 2, 2020April 2, 2020

disability, poetry, stroke, walking, writingbirds, disability, landscape, nature, poem, stroke, walking30 Comments

available light

By: KDD April 1, 2020

art, making, ootlier, photography, play, processexperimentation, light, making, ootlier, origami, paper, paper folding, photography, play, process26 Comments

findings

By: KDD March 31, 2020March 31, 2020

notions, weavingbelt, buckle, clasp, findings, hand-weaving, inkle weaving, weaving36 Comments

snipe

By: KDD March 30, 2020March 30, 2020

birds, poetrybirds, Kate Davies, poetry, snipe49 Comments

Colour Moves is published!

By: KDD March 29, 2020March 29, 2020

books, design, knitting, publishingClaudia Fiocchetti, colour moves, design, knitting, Make / Mark, mittens, mitts, publishing20 Comments

thanking my drying rack

By: KDD March 28, 2020March 28, 2020

mental healthanxiety, gratitude, mental health56 Comments

Coofle

By: KDD March 27, 2020March 27, 2020

color, colour, design, knitting, Milarrochy Tweed, yarn, YOKES!colourwork, coofle, jumper, knitting, pullover, stranded colourwork, sweater, weaving, yoke38 Comments

This is a very cheerful sweater And to accompany it, I’m wearing the most cheering pair of shoes I own. . . Yes, even someone with a dropped foot and appalling balance can gad about in these ridiculous ruby slippers! Back to the sweater, whose name is Coofle: an old Scots word for a puzzle,…

an OXO belt

By: KDD March 26, 2020March 26, 2020

weavingband weaving, belt, inkle weaving, OXO, oxo patterns, plain weave, weaving31 Comments

Good morning! Time for a weaving post! I’ve been enjoying making plain weave belts (like the one which accompanies my Land o’Cakes cardigan) and narrow pick-up bands (like my phone lanyard or mitten strap) and wondered if I might bring the two techniques together. It’s the difference in thread thickness that makes the motifs on…

walking words

By: KDD March 25, 2020

disability, landscape, poetry, writingamanda thomson, disability, landscape, language, nature writing, poem, poetry, Scots, scots dictionary of nature, walking, writing37 Comments

Good morning, everyone. Today I thought I’d share with you one of the poems I recently read at Write by the Sea. I’m someone who loves walking, and since my stroke in 2010, I’m also someone who has a disabled body. If you’ve read Handywoman, you might remember that a really formative moment in my…

how things are

By: KDD March 24, 2020March 24, 2020

businessuncertainty58 Comments

Good morning, everyone. I just wanted to say a few words about how things are here against the backdrop of the extraordinary situation in which we all find ourselves. As some of you may know, Tom has a PhD in immunology, and before he joined the business, spent 20 years researching infections and immunity. He’s…