inspiration – KDD & Co

Woolly Originals

place, pattern and colour combine in beautiful, original design

Hello, everyone! Thanks so much for your comments on yesterday’s post (which if you enjoy on-screen knits as much as I do I suggest you go and read!) I want to say an especial thanks to Davina for the link to the top 118 Twin Peaks knits (I personally have a thing for no72, though…

a few nice things

There is a lot going on here behind the scenes (I’ve been writing a book and designing a new collection with our brand new yarn) and I’ve not found myself with much spare time for blog posting . . . but in amongst all the hard work I’ve been enjoying some nice things, such as…

end of summer knitting

By: Kate Davies Designs August 22, 2020August 22, 2020

amazing knitters, creativity, inspiration, knitters, knittingamazing knitters, inspiration, inspiring projects, knitters, knitting, yarn12 Comments

note: links in this post refer back to Ravelry projects and profiles. Perhaps because I worked for so long in universities, September has always had a fresh start-of-a-new-year feel about it to me, and I suspect that might also be the case for anyone who works with (or just enjoys) yarn and knitting. Here at…

Birlinn Yarn love

Hello! Friday is project reveal day, and today I wanted to show you a new iteration of one of my favourite designs of 2019 – the Udal pullover, designed for and with Meg Rodger’s Birlinn Yarn Company. Inspired by one of my favourite Hebridean places, and using Meg’s own fabulously hardy and beautiful Hebridean wool…

remembering Walter Crane

Walter Crane, The Triumph of Labour (1891) ©The Trustees of the British Museum It was May Day a couple of days ago, an occasion that puts me immediately in mind of this wonderful image . . . Walter Crane, A Garland for May Day (1895) ©The Trustees of the British Museum . . . which…

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…

Omnia Feminae Aequissimae

You may remember that last year at KDD, we celebrated International Women’s Day by designing and knitting a commemorative blanket together with our good friend, Felicity Ford. Celebrating 30 diverse creative women, our blanket was created with the central aim of using our crafty skills to educate each other about the many different ways in…

“Being European, we are more than the sum of our parts” Melanie Berg

By: Kate Davies Designs August 14, 2019August 14, 2019

design, inspiration, inspiring projects, interview, yarnÀrd Thìr, conversation, design, designers, Europe, European Yarn Community, interview, knitting, Melanie Berg, yarn12 Comments

Today, I’m delighted to introduce Melanie Berg as the next participant in our European Yarn Community conversations. Melanie is a German designer whose work will, I’m sure, be already very much admired by many of you. Melanie is best known for her shawls, but she also creates gorgeous modern garments, and everything she makes is…

croft, craft, creativity

One of the many things I really like about the communities and cultures of crofting is their distinctive effect on the way people work. What I mean is this: in towns and cities, jobs tend to become more and more specialised, people do what they do within smaller and smaller categories, individual work occurs in…

Carbeth Colour

By: Kate Davies Designs April 8, 2018April 8, 2018

inspirationamazing knitters, carbeth, Carbeth Cardigan, inspiration, knitting51 Comments

This spring has been very slow. And as yet a wee bit lacking in colour. But over the past few weeks I’ve been receiving cheer in many hues from the fabulous Carbeth Cardigans that have been springing up on Ravelry and Instagram. When I saw Susie’s amazing Carbeth Cardigan yesterday, I knew I had to…

Ottar

Working on a book can be full of surprises. I did not think, when I set out to write a chapter about tools and objects and the way my attitude to the material world changed after my stroke, that I would end up being inspired by an amazing feminist anarcho-syndicalist . . . but weirdly…

The Inspired by Islay club

By: Kate Davies Designs November 19, 2016September 18, 2020

inspiration, Inspired by Islay, Islay, Kate Davies, Kate Davies Designs, knittingclub, Hebrides, Inspired by Islay, Islay, Kate Davies, knitting, landscape, Tom Barr, Whisky, Wildlife61 Comments

The Inspired by Islay club is now open for pre-order! I’m really excited to finally be able to share this project, which has occupied the majority of my knitting and designing year thus far. If you have been wondering about the distinct lack of knitting content around here recently, it is because all of the…

Estonian Knitting I: Traditions and Techniques

By: Kate Davies Designs August 12, 2016March 5, 2018

History, inspiration, review, textilesAnu Pink, book review, Estonian knitting, Estonian knitting: traditions and techniques, History, knitting, Kristi Joeste, review, Siiri Reimann, textile history59 Comments

Years ago, I wrote the occasional piece for Selvedge. I pitched a few ideas to them for short features which combined the history of knitted textiles with some account of how they were actually made, but was told that any sort of technical instruction was verboten “we aren’t interested in how-tos.” But why not, I…