KDD & co

People MAKE Glasgow

By: KDD September 11, 2020September 11, 2020

People MAKE Glasgowcreativity, making, manufacturing, People MAKE Glasgow, publishing9 Comments

Hurrah! It is People MAKE Glasgow launch day! As well as introducing you to what the book’s about, in this wee film you see one of the Glasgow makers featured in it – talented signwriter Rachel E Millar – creating the book’s cover art on one of the interior walls of the KDD warehouse. In…

a new doocot!

By: KDD September 10, 2020September 10, 2020

design, knittingdesign, doocot, knitting, Schiehallion, yarn17 Comments

Good morning, everyone! We are all very happy (and indeed somewhat relieved) to have finally revealed Schiehallion, and opened subscriptions to the 10 Years in the Making club, in the brand-new-look webshop that we’ve been working on behind the scenes. Yes, my feet have actually left the ground in that photo – it is no…

schiehallion

By: KDD September 9, 2020September 9, 2020

wool, yarnbritish wool, colour, knitting, palette, Schiehallion, yarn22 Comments

Morning, everyone! First up, I should let you know that the KDD shop is once more up and running, and subscriptions to the 10 Years in the Making club are now open! Next, I can finally tell you about our new flagship yarn, Schiehallion This is a yarn that’s been a long time in the…

10 years in the making club

By: KDD September 7, 2020September 18, 2020

Kate Davies, Kate Davies Designs, knitting10 Years in the making, club, design, handknitting, knitting, launch, patterns, publishing, subscription club, yarn36 Comments

Hello! We have a busy week ahead here at KDD – and the whole team is still hard at work preparing everything behind the scenes for three almost-simultaneous big launches: our People MAKE Glasgow book; our beautiful new Schiehallion yarn, and our new club. I’ll tell you all about Schiehallion later in the week, but…

horology

By: KDD August 28, 2020August 28, 2020

design, knittingbritish wool, cables, cardigan, design, horology, Kate Davies designs, knitting, Laxtons, Sheepsoft, spinning, wool, yarn27 Comments

We’ve a new pattern release today: Horology! This is a cardigan I designed as part of a collaboration with my friends at Laxtons, who are about to release some wonderful new yarns for hand-knitters. I’ll explain a bit. Laxtons are a Yorkshire yarn manufacturer who develop and spin many wonderful yarns, with many different purposes.…

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: KDD 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…

Lunardi in Campsie

The revival of my eighteenth-century balloon-o-mania was inspired after some recent walks around Clachan of Camspie and Milton of Campsie (just north and east of where we live) during which I discovered that that balloonist, Vincent Lunardi, landed in Campsie Glen at the conclusion of his second flight from Glasgow in November 1785. After wowing…

balloons

I’ve a long-held fascination with late eighteenth-century hot air balloons and ballooning. In fact, I’ve even knitted an eighteenth-century balloon (in a square of our International Women’s Day blanket, which references the Montgolfier balloon that appears in the final lines of Anna Laetitia Barbauld’s brilliant poem, Washing Day) In the past few weeks, my historic…

restock!

By: KDD August 1, 2020August 1, 2020

design, yarnbusiness, design, stock, yarn12 Comments

For KDD, as for most other small businesses, the past few months have certainly posed their difficulties. I have not talked about such difficulties here: though some things have not been easy, I’m continually reminded that, unlike so many others, absolutely nothing we’ve had to face in any way counts as hardship. I’m grateful for…

the pillar craig

By: KDD July 30, 2020July 30, 2020

landscape, People MAKE Glasgow, Scotland, walkingcarbeth, Craigallian, Glasgow, Glasgow writers, Hugh Macdonald, Ian R Mitchell, Pillar Craig, Rambles Round Glasgow, Strathblane, walking, working class writers19 Comments

I’ve been reading a lot of books while researching People Make Glasgow, and one of my favourite recent reads is Ian R Mitchell’s This City Now (reissued as Walking through Glasgow’s Industrial Past in 2015) which offers a brilliant walker’s guide to the city’s industrial history. The book mentions one of Mitchell’s peripatetic-literary Glasgow forbears…

a picture of rain

By: KDD July 28, 2020July 28, 2020

landscape, photographylandscape, photography, rain, Scotland, weather28 Comments

It has been a very wet and cool July. As our Spring was unusually dry and warm, the garden has definitely appreciated the wet weather, and apart from having to wear the dreaded rain pants on my long daily walks, I’ve rather enjoyed it too. Certainly there is something rather jolly about hearing the rain…