Before 🌥️ // After 🌧️
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I'm going to have to record a podcast soon, these FOs are stacking up! We got caught in some Dartmoor weather while @katrionachapman was taking photos of my new dress.
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Image description: In the first photo, I'm sitting on a granite boulder and glancing to the left over Dartmoor, wearing a new mostly handmade outfit. The shawl draped around my shoulders is a deep dark green work of crochet magic, Drucilla by @faydhdesigns from the @jarbontextiles Annual. I am wearing a mock tweed jacket buttoned over a mid-calf length sage green dress with cream flowers. You guessed, it's my old favourite View P from Formal and Little Black Dress by Yoshiko Tsukiori. I am also wearing thick woolly socks and my green @green_shoes_uk walking boots. I like green. In the second photo I am wearing the same outfit but I look like a drowned rat. Who goes out on Dartmoor in October without a raincoat?!
There's nothing like a holiday for finishing up some WIPs! This one sat in a bag for over a year until last week.
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Thank you so much for the warm welcome back yesterday. It was so good to have a proper rest, and come back recharged and ready for the season ahead. Jack and I are busy preparing to put all the new products in my shop... It will reopen next week and newsletter subscribers and patrons will be the first to hear when. I'm so excited to share these goodies with you!
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Image description: My head looking down, wearing a newly finished colourwork hat featuring a curlew motif in shades of beige and brown, topped with a multi shade pom pom. The background shows a dramatic grey sky, soon to rain on me yet again, and some open moorland greenery either side of the footpath.
Thank you so much to everyone who came by my stand at Yarndale. It was a pleasure to meet each and every one of you. Now commences two weeks of muddy legs, even muddier boots, and no social media. See you soon 👋
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Image description: A picture of me from the knees down, standing atop Malham Cove with a view down into the green and rolling valley below. My legs are splattered with mud from the boggiest, wettest and wonderfulest walk. Not pictured: pub lunch, local ale, Wensleydale cheese and fruit cake 🧀🍰
Yarndale!
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Image description: A peek into the corner of my show stand, showing off all my wares, including the newest additions: Scrufts cardigan patterns, British Sheep Breeds project bags and cushion covers, enamel pins, greetings cards, woodland friends tea towels and prints and (just out of shot) rubber stamps. We're having a wonderful day so far, thank you to everyone who has stopped by to say hello 👋
Somehow, six weeks before a show, I managed to design, knit and publish a new cardigan. Please do not let me do this again.
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Scrufts is a gender neutral cardi which is knitted flat in pieces, with lovely seams and set in sleeves. There's a bit of mosaic colourwork, and some intarsia if you want dog pockets (you know you do). It's live on @hi.ravelry
now, or I will have printed patterns at Yarndale and online soon! The yarn is Ram Jam Sport from @daughterofashepherd and the buttons came from @textilegarden. .
Image description: In the first image, Jack and I stand in the misty woods. I am wearing my freshly finished Scrufts cardigan, complete with a 400 stitch button band that took me ten hours to knit. Jack is gazing up at me lovingly. In the second image Jack is in my arm, with a closer view of the cardi showing pockets with dog motifs and a bit of colourwork on the button band. The third image shows the cover of the printed pattern, which illustrates the cardigan on male and female bodies, and the nine dog shapes whose charts are included in the pattern 😊
Possibly the things I'm most excited about... ?
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Growing up, after I'd been told I didn't have much artistic flair and would do better pursuing more academic studies, I played a lot with rubber stamps. They gave me a way to be creative without coming face to face with that old schoolteacher in my head. Since recovering from his comments, I've wanted to include rubber stamps in my shop, for nostalgic reasons and also because they're so satisfying to play with!
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This is a tiny peek of what I have for this first launch, I can't wait to share all the designs with you in coming months as I play with them. But I've definitely had makers in mind, with lots of Yarn, wool and thread themed images. I will also have inks that you can use on fabric as well as paper, so you can get really creative.
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Image description : on the table is a selection of wooden-handled rubber stamps, made in the UK by @englishstamp, and branded Katie Green Bean. Examples of them is use show a brown gift tag with a bear wearing a cosy knitted jumper, and another tag with decorative text saying 'hand made', with a ball of yarn. There is a similar design stamped on a piece of unbleached cotton ribbon, trimmed with pinking shears.
A very late announcement because I was waiting with fingers and toes crossed for this parcel to arrive 😬😬😬
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The second guest maker I'm representing at Yarndale is Maria or @woolen.forest. I am honoured that Maria has allowed me to be the very first stockist of her beautiful progress keepers and stitch markers, from her fledgling business launch just last week ❤️ Each one of these handmade pieces is just gorgeous, I want to keep some to wear as jewellery!
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Image description: Natural crystal progress keepers and stitch markers, made with old gold metal findings, presented on kraft cards stamped with the logo Forest Charm. Those pictured feature amethyst, moonstone and peach moonstone. These and more of Maria's special notions will be on my stand, B23 at Yarndale next weekend!
Here's a little sneak peek at a collaboration I did with @hlh.designs... 😊😊
When Hanna Lisa asked me for a design that connected knitting with mental health, I knew what I had to draw. The act of knitting has helped me through some extremely tough times in recent years, and in a roundabout way it even brought me back to my love of drawing when I thought nothing could. Hanna Lisa turned my drawing into her luxury hand made project bags, which feature her signature rose gold zips, pockets and handy clips inside to keep your work organised. .
These collaborative bags will be available from Hanna Lisa when she returns from maternity leave, but I have a VERY FEW in advance to bring with me to Yarndale. I'll be selling them with 100% of profits going to @mindcharity. Visit me at stand B23 if you would like to grab one!
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Image description: A scratchboard illustration of a person with tangles emerging from the top of their head, slowly forming into orderly rows of knitting, and suspended by two knitting needles. There is also a cake of green yarn, a small sock WIP and a tiny corner of the same design on fabric, which hints at the new project bags...
