work – KDD & Co

holding pattern

By: Kate Davies Designs June 17, 2022

dogs, health, strokeappointment, Bobby, Bran, bruce, dogs, exercise, job, landscape, recruitment, stroke, work21 Comments

just popping in to say hi

collaborative graft and being daft

By: Kate Davies Designs February 12, 2022February 25, 2022

art, creativity, making, workbilly preston, collaboration, creativity, interdependence, Louise Bourgeois, making, music, scottee, sesame street, the beatles, work13 Comments

making work together

reflective

By: Kate Davies Designs October 3, 2021October 3, 2021

knitting, mental health, photography, seasonalAutumn, bipolar, knitting, landscape, making, mental health, photography, productivity, seasonal, work27 Comments

in-between things

inkling is out

By: Kate Davies Designs May 16, 2021May 16, 2021

books, creativity, Kate Davies Designs, making, publishing, textilesbooks, creativity, design, inkling, knitting, making, Milarrochy Tweed, publishing, work9 Comments

The Inkling book is published!

behind the mask

accepting that not everything works out is key to the (slow) creative process

We were able to put quite a few things in the KDD shop last week, including our brand new 10 Years in the Making book. The book is now available for wholesale too, so if you are a bookshop or yarn store (or know a bookshop or yarn store) who would like to stock this…

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…

12 months

By: Kate Davies Designs December 24, 2019December 18, 2020

making, Politics, publishing, Scotland2019, Applied Arts Scotland, Crafting Futures, creativity, end of year, publishing, wheesht, work36 Comments

We are about to take our short festive break, and have all been looking back over the past 12 months. 2019 has certainly been a very significant year for us as a publisher. With our Glasgow printers, Bell & Bain, we’ve completed work on four new titles, and printed around 18,000 books (the largest number…

in-between times

By: Kate Davies Designs December 1, 2019December 1, 2019

mental health, worklandscape, mental health, work18 Comments

We have just finished work on three large projects here at KDD. Two are a couple of books which you’ve already heard about and which I’m happy to say we’ll be launching very soon – Wheesht and Knitting Season. The third is a really exciting project we’ve all been beavering away on in the background,…

different shapes

By: Kate Davies Designs December 20, 2018December 20, 2018

design2018, designing, knitting season, work, year in review40 Comments

I seem to have published a lot of designs in 2018, including thirteen different sweaters. This fairly large number is due to the fact that, in the past year or so, I’ve found my energy for my design work has been massively renewed by different shapes. I’ve created easy throw-over garments with grown-on sleeves and…

when the work is done

By: Kate Davies Designs March 31, 2018March 31, 2018

design, health, writingcreativity, design, energy, health, publishing, West Highland Way, work, writing120 Comments

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…

Boxing day jumper

By: Kate Davies Designs December 27, 2017December 27, 2017

Buachaille, design, knitting, landscape, West Highland Wayboxing day, Buachaille, design, jumper, knitting, photography, West Highland Way, work124 Comments

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…

in progress

1. I’m now over half way through writing my new book. I’ve been enjoying the project immensely. Being able to just explore ideas and try out different ways of putting things across feels like a complete luxury. I genuinely love writing (which is probably the key to being any sort of writer, I think) and…

Great Tapestry of Scotland 1-23

On Sunday I finally got to see the Great Tapestry of Scotland. I was completely blown away by the vision of Alistair Moffat (who produced the tapestry’s historical content and context), Andrew Crummy (the superb artist who designed these 160 panels) and perhaps especially by the skill and beauty of the work of the thousand…