Tag: kate davies love

Birds of Blendon Hat

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I spent some time knitting this weekend. I do love stranded colorwork and following charts. Very Zen. I should knit more Fair Isle patterns so I have a better idea how the colors should work together when designing.

This is coming along OK. As you can see I am not following the colors as I started charting them. Instead I wrote my color plans in the left margin.

I did a good job designing the motifs. It’s quite enjoyable to knit. If I don’t like the way the colors come out on this one, I could always try it again with a different color combination.

What do you think? It’s still early days.

Bobbles and Tudors, Thistles and Sunflowers

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West Highland Way the 5th (knitting pattern) arrived this week. It is covered in bobbles. I love it!

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(Photo credit: katedaviesdesigns.com)

Look at those perfect bobbles! My bobbles don’t look half so good. I downloaded the pattern and looked at how her bobbles are made. Of course they are made differently than the instructions I’ve been following.

I may have to knit this. It’s lovely. But I will probably wait it out a bit to see what other patterns are on the horizon. I have a pretty limited yarn allowance.

If I do knit this, what color? I love Campion (red.) But, as we all know, dark blue (Lochan) is my color. That will be a tough choice.

I also love the The Shieling. My husband is a (maternal) McLean, and wore his tartan on our wedding day. My boys also wore McLean tartan ties, and they all wore thistles in their boutonnieres. So the thistle is mighty close to my heart. This might replace the gansey bed cover I was planning for our tiny house.

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It’s a Canada Thistle , and not a Scottish thistle, because we used a florist that sources from local farms and wildcrafters. (I’m not sure we could get Scottish Thistles here even if we tried.)

Anyway, the boys had thistles. The girls had sunflowers. It was a beautiful fall day. And I made my own dress. Lovely.

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The boys are standing on a log here. That’s why they tower over everyone.

Maybe I could knit some sunflower cushions that would work with the thistle blanket?

I have been reading Tudor: Passion, Manipulation, Murder. I love English history, and this book is well written but still manages to flesh out the bones. Did the Tudor princes read Machiavelli, or was The Prince written about them? It was published around the same time. Probably neither. Perhaps it simply reflected the times. But you could learn a lot from this book if you were an insecure monarch, or a ruthless entrepreneur.

While I was searching for names and images of some of the lesser known figures in the book, I came across this compilation of sketches by Hans Holbein the Younger. They are stunning. Almost photographic. They have a quickness and liveliness that is missing in formal paintings, like the past brought to life.

Of course I googled “Tudor knitting” and landed on “Tudor Roses,” a book by Alice Starmore. I reserved it from the library. I doubt I will knit anything from it, but I’m sure I will enjoy looking through it.

One of the things I love about this time period is the use of symbols, which is discussed lightly in the book. Tudors were great at Public Relations, masters of spin!

Red Rose for Lancaster. White Rose for York. Tudor Rose combines both and symbolizes rightful reign.

Thistle for Bob. Sunflower for Alissa…

Sunthistle, anyone?

Color Theory!

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I really enjoyed my Color Theory class at Yarn It and Haberdashery, Look at Esther! Can you imagine a better person to learn from about Color Theory?

The best tip of the evening was learning to use colors that are opposite (or almost) on the color wheel but also using cool tones against warm tones to really make them pop. I can’t wait to get my Milarrochy Tweed yarn to see how the palette works together!

In the meantime, I will make some black and white copies of my chart and color in some potential options.

I also purchased a new skein of yarn to start on Brassica, which I fell in love with while swiping through my Ravelry app. Although I would have loved to have used the Cascade called for, I found instead a skein of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Chunky in – guess what color? Grey.

Last night, I confessed to the fun and funky ladies at class that I’m a boring knitter. Esther corrected me and called me an “Over the Pond” knitter. Her shop is filled with bright and fun colors, and everyone is knitting speckled yarn. She says that’s what the Americans like. But not me. It’s true. I follow KnitBritish. I like natural fibers in neutral colors. I like cables and texture work, and if colors, then stranded Fair Isle or Nordic colorways. One time I took a “What kind of knitter are you?” quiz, and the answer was “Purist.”

I waxed rhapsodic about my navy stockinette pullover I will knit for myself one day. There were a lot of eye rolls.

I’m exaggerating a bit, but I do think it’s interesting. I like the history of knitting. I like the tradition. I want to hug sheep.

Speaking of, I have an exciting field trip this week which I can’t wait to blog about next weekend!

Will I blog tomorrow and make this a two-blog weekend? I guess we will find out tomorrow!

Progress

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img_2741Words cannot express my joy at finally (mostly) finishing the design for the West Highland Way hat contest and ordering the yarn!

I posted this in black and white because I’m not finished with the color design. I need to see the yarn in person to really know how I am going to use it. But I did finish the top decreasing which I think will work out okay, and I chose colors which remind me of that winter’s day at Blendon Woods and the birds in the snow.

I also ordered 2 extra balls of the color Bruce (black) because I am going to knit myself a textured hat with this. What can I say? I like wearing black and I like knitting hats.

Also, the yarn is my Valentine’s gift from Bob. ❤ Thank you, Bob!

(Checks weekly blog post off to do list.)

New Year’s Day Round Up

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I finally get to hang up my Goats of Anarchy calendar. I’ve had it since September!

I didn’t blog every day between Christmas and New Year’s, but I did knit almost every day. Here are some project updates.

My J&S swatch is coming along. It’s time to experiment with the cables. I was pleased I could jump right back into 2-color stranded knitting, although my tension was a little off on the purl row back. Luckily the sweater should be knit in the round.

Here is a tip. If you want to manifest something into your life, put it on your blog! Look what I got for Christmas!

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One of my presents from Bob was also to sign me up for Kate Davies’ West Highland Way Club – patterns only, but I will certainly be saving my pennies for some yarn as well. I’m very excited about it and can’t wait for it to start!

I did swatch the J&S Shetland while watching Shetland a second time. (I had to for tongue-in-cheek purposes.) I tried to take a photo but couldn’t get one worth sharing. In the first episode, one of the characters is wearing Kate Davies’ Peerie Flooers hat. When I saw that, I remembered I was introduced to Kate Davies Designs through the show the first time I watched it. I think that moment was the spark that rekindled my love of knitting last year. (Hmm… that hat is knit with J&S jumper weight… Hmm…)

Although, I will probably knit the Goats of Inversnaid hat first. What can I say? I really love goats. And so does my youngest. He might get a goat hat, too.

I’m off to make a digital vision board for 2018 full of knitting hopes and dreams.  Happy New Year! What are your aspirations for 2018?