Good morning! This is Pabaigh – my new design in the new Cranachan shade. I spend a lot of time walking in some quite exposed and windswept places. And I’m not sure if this is the case elsewhere in the world, but here in Scotland I find I often need to layer up, especially in… Read More
Our new West Highland Way book has just been published! I’m rather proud of this collection of thirteen patterns, five of which use our wonderful new Milarrochy Tweed yarn The Craigallian Hat and Mittens The Strathendrick pullover The Còinneach Cardigan and the Shieling blanket The collection also includes four patterns in our original own-brand yarn,… Read More
During our West Highland Way club, we ran a couple of competitions: the first for interesting / creative uses of colour, using my Craigallian hat as a template . . . . . . and the second for an original hat design in our new Milarrochy Tweed. This first time I’ve arranged this kind of… Read More
A book like our recent West Highland Way project involves many different kinds of work for me: when producing a collection I spend time coming up with the design ideas, swatching, knitting, re-knitting, pattern writing, working with Mel (who tests the pattern and produces many samples), working with tech editors (who check my patterns and… Read More
For a few months now, I have been riffing off the same idea (which really is one of my favourite activities as a designer). I’ve knit four Carbeth jumpers and two cardigans (for the tale of woe involving number 5 see here) . . . but Carbeth’s interesting gauge-related ratios and simple geometric shaping weren’t… Read More
This is a very busy time of year for me. But however busy I am, somehow the knitting never stops. So in the interstices of putting together the West Highland Way book, I’ve also been whipping up a Carbeth cardigan. I created the cardigan along the same general principles as the jumper: two strands of… Read More
One thing I’ve really enjoyed about designing my West Highland Way collection has been playing with new shapes. The Strathendrick jumper is an oversized garment with dropped, skinny sleeves, and the Shieling blanket is created modularly, with each square knitted borders-in, similarly to a hat crown. Meanwhile, this week’s pattern – Rowchoish – features an… Read More
The question of how to style handknits can be a tricky one. Any knitwear stylist might wax lyrical on the question of just how difficult hands can be (if one doesn’t have a nice mug in the props basket you know those mitts won’t look their best!). In general, I really enjoy thinking about styling… Read More
Còinneach is this week’s West Highland Way club pattern. Còinneach is the Gaelic word for mossy, and it is also the name given to the famous summit above Loch Lomond – Conic Hill. People who don’t think about the way local names have been anglicised can sometimes be confused by this hill, which is much… Read More
This week, the West Highland Way Club passes through Strathendrick and Strathblane, close to where I live. I walk through these beautiful valleys (or straths) every single day, enjoying the changing seasons and my surroundings. It is a landscape of great variety: the bare muir blooms with colourful flowers, pasture meets rocky outcrop, and verdant… Read More
It has been an extraordinarily busy year for us here at KDD! We began the year working on, and producing the Inspired by Islay book. This collection includes some of my all-time favourite designs . . . . . as well as the wonderful work of some of my other creative friends. I’m proud of… Read More
For the past six months I’ve been designing a collection. I have developed the ideas for six garments and six accessories, made swatches, knit prototypes, re-knit prototypes, re-knit again; drawn charts, produced grading spreadsheets, written patterns, re-written patterns, written patterns once again; edited the patterns, styled the designs, and, finally, modelled them myself. I’ve by… Read More
