KDD & co

midstream

By: KDD June 28, 2019June 28, 2019

design, knittingbold beginner knits, knitting, midstream15 Comments

Ta Da! Meet Midstream – the fifth pattern release from Bold Beginner Knits Since I created Rowchoish for the West Highland Way collection, I’ve had a bit of a thing for using simple oblongs to create interesting shapes that wrap around the body. I have so many oblong-y ideas, in fact, that they could probably…

Inside and outside the red box

By: KDD June 24, 2019June 24, 2019

tutorialfootfall, shawl, tutorial12 Comments

Inside and outside the red box A Bold Beginner Knits tutorial for the Footfall shawl Many hand-knit designs – for everything from lace shawls, to Fairisle hats and cabled pullovers – use charted pattern repeats – which often appear within a red box. The red box is, I think, one simple reason why some beginner…

“I feel like a lot of textiles tell stories”: Reena Makwana

By: KDD June 23, 2019June 23, 2019

art, embroidery, inspiring projects, interviewchain reaction, embroidery, featured, illustration, interview, Reena Makwana28 Comments

You may remember that a few years ago (thanks to one of this blog’s readers, Maylin) I was interviewed on Woman’s Hour for part of their “chain” series, in which women nominated other women who had inspired them, creating a series of interlinked interviews. I often find myself thinking about the interconnected nature of women’s…

Triangular shawl construction

By: KDD June 20, 2019June 20, 2019

tutorialbold beginner knits, footfall, tutorial6 Comments

A Bold Beginner Knits Tutorial Shawls can be constructed in many different ways, using many different shapes – triangles, rectangles, combinations of triangles and rectangles and other geometric shapes. Footfall is a triangular shawl with a top-down construction which begins by casting on a few stitches and ends by binding off many. This shape is…

footfall

By: KDD June 19, 2019June 19, 2019

Àrd Thìr, design, knitting, learn to knit, yarnÀrd Thìr, bold beginner knits, featured, footfall, Kate Davies, Kate Davies designs, shawl, shawls9 Comments

Are you a beginner knitter who is wary of lace shawls? Does the very idea of putting holes in your knitting scare you? Or does a lace shawl just appear too complicated a thing for you to consider attempting? Well, Footfall – the latest pattern release from Bold Beginner Knits – offers you a deceptively…

Corryvreckan

By: KDD&Co. June 15, 2019June 15, 2019

Àrd Thìr, knittingbold beginner knits, Corryvreckan, featured, hat9 Comments

This week’s release from Bold Beginner Knits was borne out of the need to swatch.
How on earth are these crazy waves made?!

Away to Berneray

By: KDD June 13, 2019June 14, 2019

photography, Scotland, textilesBerneray, featured, Hebrides, north Uist, ootlier, Outer Hebrides, photography, Scotland60 Comments

Hello! Tom here. Kate and I spent all of last week away in Berneray and North Uist, where I’ve been working on a new photographic project (more of which later). Late spring and early summer is a truly beautiful time of year in the Outer Hebrides, and we feel very lucky to be able to…

need needles

By: KDD June 12, 2019June 14, 2019

knitters, knittingknitting needles, needles22 Comments

Do you have any knitting needles to spare? KDD is currently supporting some local community groups who use craft as a tool to tackle social isolation and mental health and we need needles! We are able to provide yarn support, to share our skills, our patterns and ideas, but new knitters also need things to…

“join body and sleeves into yoke”

By: KDD June 9, 2019June 9, 2019

knittingbold beginner knits, knitting, tutorial, upstream7 Comments

A Bold Beginner Knits tutorial for the Upstream pullover When you are knitting your first sweater an instruction to “join body and sleeves into yoke” might appear especially bamboozling. You have, on your needles, one body and two sleeves. How on earth do you combine these three separate tubes so that they magically become one…

float upstream

By: KDD June 8, 2019June 8, 2019

Àrd Thìr, Kate Davies, Kate Davies Designs, knitters, knitting, learn to knitÀrd Thìr, bold beginner knits, featured, Jane Hunter, Kate Davies, slipped stitch patterns, slipped stitches, yoke, yokes28 Comments

Hello! Kate here. It’s time for another release from the Bold Beginner Knits collection – the Upstream pullover. Seamless yoked pullovers are a great first sweater project for a beginner knitter to tackle, and I knew I wanted to include one in this collection. And loving the muted marl-y palette of Àrd-Thìr, I was keen…

on being bold

By: KDD&Co. May 31, 2019May 31, 2019

knitting, learn to knitbold beginner knits, featured, Jane Hunter, learn to knit21 Comments

Kate has designed a series of patterns with me, as a bold beginner knitter, in mind. I don’t think I had ever considered myself bold…

Drymen Show, 2019

By: KDD May 29, 2019May 29, 2019

beasties, photographyagriculture, cattle, Clydesdales, Drymen Show, Drymen show 2019, Elfie, featured, Highland cows, horses, rural life, sheep, This Farming Life, Valais Blacknose sheep38 Comments

Hello everyone, it’s Tom here popping in to tell you about my latest photographic assignment – the 2019 Drymen Show. In 2017, as part of a project for my darkroom and film photography course at City of Glasgow College I set about documenting – and celebrating – the people, the animals and the work involved…