kits – KDD & Co

all the colours

By: Kate Davies Designs May 10, 2021May 10, 2021

color, colour, creativity, kits, knitting, Milarrochy Tweedcolor, colour, creativity, Dathan, Dathan hap, Dathan pullover, experimentation, knitting, Milarrochy Tweed, shades9 Comments

New shades for the Dathan pullover and hap.

Oa my!

Kate’s favourite outdoor pullover gets an Oa-verhaul

two-shade Sterntaucher

By: Kate Davies Designs January 7, 2021January 7, 2021

colour, design, Kate Davies Designs, kits, steeks10 Years in the making, cardigan, colourway, construction, design, finishing, knitting, palette, pockets, steek, Sterntaucher12 Comments

When we are working on a collection, Mel and I often knit several samples of a single design. This not only allows us to test and hone the pattern instructions (for maximum knit-ability, and knitterly-ness) but means we get to see how a design appears in alternate colourways. For Sterntaucher, we thought it would be…

treit

By: Kate Davies Designs July 3, 2020July 3, 2020

design, kits, knitting, yarndesign, gardening, knitting, Lace, Milarrochy Tweed, summer, Treit, yarn, yoke13 Comments

Good morning and happy Friday everyone! Today we are feeling particularly pleased because Ardnamurchan is back in stock! And with stock of this lovely tealy-green shade available, we can now release this new summery design of which I’m really very fond – Treit. Treit is a simple tee with a lace yoke, knitted from the…

all dressed in grellow

By: Kate Davies Designs May 15, 2020May 15, 2020

colour, design, kits, knitting, landscape, West Highland Way, West Highlandsall dressed in yellow, cables, design, fiddler's bid, knitting, Stronachlachar24 Comments

Hello! After some welcome warm weather, there’s been an unusually cold snap over the past few days in Scotland. Though we’ve not seen much of the snow and hail flurries that have been bothering friends further north, the air has turned very cold, we’ve put off planting out our broccoli, and have had to protect…

stripey St Catherines

By: Kate Davies Designs May 8, 2020May 8, 2020

creativity, design, kits, knitting, style, yarncreativity, design, knitting, St Catherines, styling, work28 Comments

Good morning! Friday is project reveal day – or in this case, outfit reveal day. Do you remember St Catherines – the shrug-style garter-stitch cardigan that’s included in my Shore collection? I originally designed this piece in a solid colour, which I wore, and rather liked, but then Mel knit up a bruce and birkin…

looking forward

Hello! Kate here. August is the month at KDD when we all start to look forward to what’s coming in the autumn. This season we are busier than ever, with a wide range of different projects and new releases. Next month, for example, we will finally be able to begin to release the new knitwear…

new look

You may have noticed that we’ve been overhauling a few patterns recently. In some cases, this has involved replacing older yarns or colourways with those more readily available, in others it has meant updating outmoded methods of pattern-writing to reflect my more recent in-house style. Having spent the past couple of years knitting with two…

summer shawls

We are gradually adding a range of different kits, books, and other products to the KDD shop, and the latest to arrive are kits for two of my most popular shawl designs – Fantoosh, and A Hap for Harriet. Both shawls are great for summer knitting, and I think both also make ideal accessories for…

Ottar (hap)

By: Kate Davies Designs May 19, 2017March 5, 2018

design, feminism, Kate Davies Designs, kits, knittingauld shell, book of haps, design, garter stitch, hap, haps, Kate Davies, ottar, Ottar hap Buachaille, Shetland knitting35 Comments

I have been so inspired by Ottar (see yesterday’s post) that I decided to name my latest design for her – the Ottar hap. This is a hap I’ve had a notion to knit since I started working on The Book of Haps about eighteen months ago. As I researched Shetland hap construction, I became…

Offbeat

By: Kate Davies Designs October 25, 2016October 28, 2016

Buachaille, design, kits, knitting, textilesamazing knitters, Anna Elliott, Buachaille, design, hand-knit, hat, knitting, Offbeat, yarn6 Comments

Last March, at Edinburgh Yarn Fest, I spotted Anna Elliott wearing a great hat (Anna has many great hat designs). She’d knitted this particular hat in Buachaille shades squall and furze and it was really striking. In its bold, graphic simplicity it immediately reminded me of the mid-century ceramics that had inspired Anna to create…

Braid Hills – reworked

Another new garment! Braid Hills is one of my favourite designs, and one I really wanted to return to. Some folk found the original pattern a bit tricky for a couple of reasons: I love the design, and really wanted to iron out these issues so that everyone could enjoy knitting and wearing this cardigan!…

snow deco

We have at last seen something like wintry weather in Scotland over the past few days. I much prefer a crisp, cold winter day to a muggy, grey wet one (who doesn’t?) so the snow and sunshine have really felt something like a treat. And not least because we have been waiting for exactly the…

goats & yarn

As promised, here are Mel’s goats. She selected Buachaille shades Squall, Islay and Haar for her set, and the effect is quite different to the colours I chose for mine. Here’s a good shot of the top of her heid, where you can see the amorous goats, and the hearts at the centre of the…