joli house

Pattern: Stonor by Belinda Boaden for The Scrumptious Collection by Fyberspates.

Yarn: Fyberspates Scrumptious 4-ply in Oyster

Needles: 3mm, 3.25mm and 3.5mm.

Modifications: Lily knit the body in 1 piece, sleeves in the round.

Stonor is such a cute knit. Lily does love the vintage style and this was her favourite design from The Scrumptious Collection.

Looks great with jeans but would work just as well with a cute little dress.

Just need to get her to knit one for me too now!

Feeling a touch of cabin fever here at the moment. The run up to the end of term was absolutely crazy and my deadline for submitting HLTA tasks was 16th December too. Of course as soon as I slowed down a little the yuckies kicked in and I’ve been suffering since. My head has been too thick for knitting but feels slightly clearer today so may manage a round or 2.

Lily persuaded Joel to have a play with her camera yesterday and they had a little mini shoot of some recent projects. A couple more Kentmeres and an Apres Surf hoodie that was actually started by me way back in the spring.

The grey and yellow Kentmere is Brigantia Wool DK.

This version is Stylecraft Signature Chunky and various different combinations of kid silk haze and aura. 4 different shades I think.

Apres Surf is knit in a long discontinued shade of Rowan Cashcotton 4-ply that has been in the stash for an age.

Despite feeling icky we did manage a lovely family Christmas and we’re now looking forward to a relaxing New Year. Hopefully you all enjoyed the holidays too and are ready for 2012. I’m hoping that a slightly slower pace this year will allow for more regular blogging but who knows?

Off to catch up on my favourite blogs now!

sorry it’s taken so long to announce the winners! Had my german exchange friend staying this weekend so been pretty busy! Anna picked the numbers, 50, 60, and 66, so congratulations Agnes, Marilynn, and Ashlynn! Hope you enjoy kentmere. I’ll be e-mailing it to you in a min. 

aufwiedersehen!

lily x

6 weeks since I last blogged. I think that may be a record. Things have been crazy busy round here but it is finally half-term. Phew. I’ve barely touched any of my WIPs for months now and with all the craziness my frazzled brain has been fit for garter stitch only. I was all for knitting scarf after scarf but Lily came to my rescue with a nifty little variation. This is Kentmere.

It looks quite innocent there doesn’t it – all simple garter stitchy-ness. The twist comes at the end… quite literally. She certainly had fun trying to write up the pattern.

The pattern gives instructions for 2 versions – nice plain garter for therapeutic TV knitting and another version in a textured stitch pattern. I knit the garter sample of course and Lily did the patterned one.

Garter stitch version shown in Fyberspates Scrumptious in DK/Worsted in the Water colourway.

Next is a DK version shown in Juno Fibre Arts Sirius DK. You can’t tell from the photographs but this yarn has a sparkly thread running through it.

If you’d like a chance to knit Kentmere for free just leave a comment before midnight GMT on 26th October. Lily will be picking 3 commenters at random to recieve a free copy.

And talking of free Lily Kate patterns, if you’re the lucky owner of an iPhone, iPad or and iPod Touch then you can grab a free copy of Issue 35 of The Knitter.  Newsstand, the app that organises your magazine subscriptions is offering this issue free for a limited time only.  The magazine features a Sarah Hatton design, Lily’s Langdale sweater and loads of other patterns.

Whilst we’re on the subject of magazines, have you seen this one?

Issue 1 was out just last week and early signs show it’s been super well-recieved.  I have a personal interest in this one as lots of the photography is mine – including the cover!    It’s just one of the things keeping me so busy.  If accessories and other small items in luxury yarns are your thing then grab yourself a copy.  Issue 1 features a gorgeous lace shawl, a lacy beanie/mitten set, 2 cowls and much, much more. 

Well done to the rest of the team at Practical Publishing – from concept to first issue in 6 months is pretty impressive I think you’ll agree! 

Lily is very pleased to have a second design published in the latest issue of The Knitter magazine. Langdale features in issue 35. A digital copy of the magazine is available to purchase here.

…….think alike don’t they say? Lily was half way through knitting her latest design up there when the latest Twist Collective came out a few days ago. Eek!  Her design is very similar to SusannaIC’s Hawthorn beret.  Lily has been in contact with the designer and she really couldn’t have been nicer, but after much deliberation we’ve decided to put the design aside – for a while at least! A quick look through Susanna’s other designs and we found a mitten pattern similar to Hinksey too. I think before swatching commences in future Lily will need to be sure Susanna hasn’t got there before her! 

We’re in Florida at the moment and in between the madness that is Orlando theme parks I’m actually managing reasonable progress with my Little Red knit.  I settled on Laika in the end and am loving it – even took it to a local knit night on Tuesday!

Now dare I take it to Busch Gardens tomorrow?

Sorry for the delay in announcing the competition winner – we’ve been away in the Lakes for the last 9 days and internet access is a little sketchy in the fells!

Miriam – Joel picked your name from the hat. The Scrumptious collection is heading your way.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to comment.

It’s not everyday a book featuring your own photography arrives in the post and we’re pretty giddy here today. You can join in with the excitement if you like – I’ll be giving away a copy of the book and a skein of the Scrumptious Aran in the Moss colourway to one lucky reader who leaves a comment before 12:00 midnight on 29th May.

And just in case you missed the previews on Ravelry……

Stonor

Uffington

Hethe

Burdrop

Murcott

Wytham

Arncott

Cogges

Challow

Hendred

Sonning

Tirrold

Alvescot

Childry

Hinksey & Chinnor

Longcot

Filkins

Can you believe that the weekend before Easter I actually ran out of knitting?   I know – how unlikely is that scenario!  Hours spent trawling new patterns on Ravelry didn’t throw up an obvious project-in-waiting, so Lily said she’d design something for me.  Here’s the result.

I was pretty much knitting blind with this as she was writing the pattern up about 4 inches at a time.  With school being out for Easter though, I’ve had more time on my hands for the last few weeks so progress was pretty quick, even with the 4-ply yarn.

The name of course was an obvious choice this week. 

Lily has developed a little obsession with the royals this past few weeks.  It’s wall to wall princesses on TV and she is loving it! Will you be joining us in watching the wedding on Friday?

 

It’s nearly 4 years since Lily picked up the knitting needles for the first time and boy has she moved on since then. I can remember exactly when it first dawned on me that she was a ‘natural’. We were in Orlando and I had bought some sock yarn from a LYS. Lily really fancied having a go at sock knitting. I’ve probably mentioned before that I didn’t teach Lily how to knit, and the thought of teaching her how to use DPNs and turn a heel did not appeal to me in the slightest. She pushed and pushed to have a go though, so I babysat her throught that first plain sock. It was done and dusted in a couple of days. When I asked her if she could manage with written notes for the second sock she said “It’s ok, I’ll work it out”. She was 10 years old at the time. Her first attempt at designing followed soon after with Coniston in 2009.

Back then, I could never have imagined that she would even have stuck with knitting as a hobby, let alone published her own designs. The speed she can churn out a design just amazes me. She has 4 designs in the works at the moment – one of which was only sketched last weekend and is almost done already! It’s a job and a half keeping up with her, and I’d be lying if I said it was always plain sailing. Especially when she’s explained something 3 times and I’m still not getting it. This is just one of the reasons why I don’t test knit for her. This, and the fact that my feedback wouldn’t really be valid because I just find it all too easy to get her to do all the crappy bits as she’ll do it a lot quicker and neater than I ever could. Picking up stitches? Hems? Definitely ‘Lily’ jobs! I don’t feel the slightest bit guilty about this because I still knit a ridiculous amount for her. I’m more than happy to churn out acres of stocking stitch for instance (around 6000 stitches so far today)!

Lily and I can spend hours talking about designs – she’ll chat to me while I’m in the bath. She has a scrapbook in which she logs all her ideas, colour palettes, potential pattern names etc. I’m sure this will make for interesting browsing in a few years time. She’s just started getting a bit more organised with her notes too – there have been way too many crazy hours searching for ‘that piece of paper with the right front on it’ for my liking. Scraps of paper still abound but they all get filed now. A little quirk of hers is that she has lists and lists of pattern names and quite often will pick the name first and then design something that she thinks will match it!

One of the side effects of the designing is that we aren’t really able to post as much about work in progress any more.  This means that we have barely any blog material for ages and then a whole ton to talk about all at once!  You could help us out here – if there’s anything in particular you’d like to see us posting about, then now is the time to ask.  Any questions – knitting related or not, we’ll do our best to answer.   We’re off to Wales tomorrow for the Easter holiday but will be back early next week so you’ve got a little while to think of something!

In the meantime we’ll wish you a happy Easter and may the bunny be sure to visit!