I don’t mind saying that the Oa is one of my all-time favourite sweaters. It is just really cosy, super-practical for walking, and I love the way it looks. It’s a design that’s been really popular among knitters, but it’s also one of those hand-knits that non-knitters often really like. From time to time, when…
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One punning moment last December, I decided it might be fun to knit the familiar homonyms – yoke and yolk – into an egg-themed sweater. So please behold – my YOLK YOKE. Yes, I am standing in a frozen landscape dressed as a fried egg – what of it? There are so many egg-cellent things…
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Good morning and happy Friday, everyone. How are you all doing? Here in Scotland we are in the middle of quite a crisp, cold snap. I’m really enjoying my long local walks, the combination of snow and blue skies, and especially the fact that the mornings and evenings are becoming palpably lighter. There are a…
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Welcome to the very first post from our My Place project! We’re kicking things off with a designer who I’m sure is already familiar to many of you – Virginia Sattler-Reimer. I’ve never met Virginia in person, but I feel like I’ve “known” her forever: she’s one of those people I eagerly followed back in…
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Good morning, and happy Friday, everyone! I’ve a new design to show to you – Lilias Day I knitted two pullovers over the festive period, featuring the same Selbu motif. In Orchle, I used the motif as an allover pattern around the bottom of the pullover . . . . . . and in Lilias…
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Friday is pattern reveal day, and I have a brand new sweater design to show you! I’m a huge fan of the arched Selbu motifs which are most often traditionally used on gloves and mittens and you’ll see the long-standing influence of these motifs on my design work in hats like Richard the Roundhead, or…
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Hello! I’m happy to say we’ve just about completed all our behind-the-scenes admin, and have been able to reopen the KDD online shop today. Among the new things you’ll find there is our just-published 10 Years in the Making book (beautifully produced for us by Glasgow’s Bell & Bain), plus two brand new shades of…
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Designing hand-knit garments (and clear instructions for others to follow) can involve a lot of compromising, a lot of accepting that, for a multitude of reasons the finished thing won’t turn out quite as you initially envisaged. But sometimes you design something that looks and feels exactly as you expected. This design started with a…
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I’ve found that perhaps the most difficult thing about the experience of the past few months has been having to change our business plans – often at incredibly short notice. Like all businesses, we’ve found ourselves continually having to alter our arrangements in response to circumstances, guidelines and restrictions that are continually changing. Our position…
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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…
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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,…
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You may remember that I mentioned I fancied designing and knitting myself a new hat as part of the It’s on Your Heid knit-along, currently running in our Ravelry group I wanted to create a hat with deep, folded ribbing to cover my chilly ears; which sat on the back of my head (which is…
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Good morning! We’ve now reached the half-way point in the Inspired by Islay club and I thought I’d catch up here by showing you the last three patterns I’ve designed. The collection has been created in four groups of three (each of which features a different style of knitting, and is inspired by a different…
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A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was designing something inspired by my collection of John Clappison Hornsea pottery designs. This is the final pattern that I’ve prepared to launch at Edinburgh Yarn Fest. This is my favourite Hornsea piece. It is a cruet called “blue onion.” Clappison created it in 1963, and like…
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As discussed in the previous post, this design is inspired by an early nineteenth-century shawl, collected by Rachel Kay Shuttleworth, and now part of Gawthorpe Textile Collection. The colourful, ribbon-like bands of the shawl immediately reminded me of one of my favourite colourwork motifs, a small, simple pattern which resembles an interlocking vine. The pattern…
Read MoreToday I’ve released a pair of patterns for Seven Skeins Club members – both rather different from each other. Kokkeluri is above, and Cochal is below. Cochal is a Scottish Gaelic word for hood, and this simple to knit accessory can easily be pulled up, hood-like, to keep the cold off your neck and ears…
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