Just to let you know that I now have a new website specifically to focus on my pattern design and professional knitting life. For now, I will keep this going as a personal blog and then review once the dust has settled.
Information on my patterns, design work, teaching and classes will now be found at:
http://louisetilbrookdesigns.blogspot.co.uk/
Please do pop over there to take a look and let me know what you think. While you are there, why not sign up for my newsletter to make sure you never miss an update?
Wednesday, 30 April 2014
Friday, 25 April 2014
FO Friday - Spring Shawl
It's Friday, the sun is shining (well it might do later, if it feels like it) and I have a new FO:
My new Hitchhiker shawl in some fabulous yarn from The Love of Yarn. I got my sticky little paws on this yarn courtesy of the Trial Club for The Golden Skein and have been wondering how best to use it in a project.
The colours are a vibrant mixture of yellows, golds, greens, blues and greys. Now yellow isn't really my thing and I can count on one hand the number of projects I have made which contain yellow - a check of my 280-odd Ravelry projects confirms this anti-yellow bias - but I Love, Love, Love this shawl.
The colours work really well together and although I did get some pooling (although the changing stitch count helped to minimise it) I think it looks fabulous in the finished item and is really very wearable. It isn't quite as long as my other Hitchhiker (I think I got 34 'teeth') but the ends are long enough to wrap comfortably and I'm very happy with it.
Note to self: next time put makeup on before taking FO photo.
The Spring KAL is continuing over on the group , with some fabulous finished items on show. Do pop over and check out what others are doing and feel the Sping Love.
The colours are a vibrant mixture of yellows, golds, greens, blues and greys. Now yellow isn't really my thing and I can count on one hand the number of projects I have made which contain yellow - a check of my 280-odd Ravelry projects confirms this anti-yellow bias - but I Love, Love, Love this shawl.
The colours work really well together and although I did get some pooling (although the changing stitch count helped to minimise it) I think it looks fabulous in the finished item and is really very wearable. It isn't quite as long as my other Hitchhiker (I think I got 34 'teeth') but the ends are long enough to wrap comfortably and I'm very happy with it.
The Spring KAL is continuing over on the group , with some fabulous finished items on show. Do pop over and check out what others are doing and feel the Sping Love.
Friday, 4 April 2014
Oh no - no FO today
My run of FOs has come to an end, and instead I have lots of WIPs - some old and some new.
The Hitchhiker continues apace and I hope to be finished with that fairly soon.
I have also started a sock yarn blanket - yes I know I said I would never do one but it just goes to show that you should never say never. During a spring-clean of my sock yarn stash I unearthed over 1.2kg of sock yarn (and that is just the good stuff). I found a lot of Regia and basic sock yarn leftovers which went to the charity shop.
So, what is one to do with 1.2kg of beautiful (mostly hand-dyed) sock yarn but turn it into a thing of beauty - a monster sock yarn blanket no less.
I am following this pattern, but with modifications so that the first square is turned on it's side - see here- to become a diamond. This means that the blanket is then shaped with straight edges and avoids the need to knit lots of little triangles to fill in the gaps.
I had a very productive day recently and made a flying start;
That pesky thing called work has slowed me down a little since, but I am aiming to do a square a day, with the odd power blitz on it every so often.
I won't bore you with it's slow incremental progress but I think it will be fun to do a monthly update of progress - if nothing else it will keep the project in the front of my knitting mind and stop it sinking to the murky depths of my WIP pile.
I read a helpful tip for knitting one of these blankets somewhere which said that you should aim to get a sizeable amount done in the first few weeks when enthusiasm levels are at their highest. Once that's done, it's a lot harder to ignore a blanket with 50+ squares compared to one with just 5.
I'll get back to you on that one :)
The Hitchhiker continues apace and I hope to be finished with that fairly soon.
I have also started a sock yarn blanket - yes I know I said I would never do one but it just goes to show that you should never say never. During a spring-clean of my sock yarn stash I unearthed over 1.2kg of sock yarn (and that is just the good stuff). I found a lot of Regia and basic sock yarn leftovers which went to the charity shop.
So, what is one to do with 1.2kg of beautiful (mostly hand-dyed) sock yarn but turn it into a thing of beauty - a monster sock yarn blanket no less.
I am following this pattern, but with modifications so that the first square is turned on it's side - see here- to become a diamond. This means that the blanket is then shaped with straight edges and avoids the need to knit lots of little triangles to fill in the gaps.
I had a very productive day recently and made a flying start;
That pesky thing called work has slowed me down a little since, but I am aiming to do a square a day, with the odd power blitz on it every so often.
I won't bore you with it's slow incremental progress but I think it will be fun to do a monthly update of progress - if nothing else it will keep the project in the front of my knitting mind and stop it sinking to the murky depths of my WIP pile.
I read a helpful tip for knitting one of these blankets somewhere which said that you should aim to get a sizeable amount done in the first few weeks when enthusiasm levels are at their highest. Once that's done, it's a lot harder to ignore a blanket with 50+ squares compared to one with just 5.
I'll get back to you on that one :)
Wednesday, 2 April 2014
WIP Wednesday: Spring KAL
Over on my Ravelry group I am hosting a Spring KAL. A fun relaxed KAL with very few rules and lots of happy spring-like knitting.
It doesn't need to be one of my patterns, it can be socks, shawls, mitts, even a full scale sweater if you have the stamina.
Just cast on anytime from now onwards and finish before May 30th. Post your cast on post and project pictures over in the group thread to qualify for one of the three prizes and tag your project with #springiscoming.
You can also join in on Instagram with the hashtag #springKAL
As for my spring project. I have chosen a Hitchhiker in some beautiful yarn from the Golden Skein..
A delicious blend of wool and bamboo, nothing says spring to me more than these vibrant yellows and greens.
Happy days.
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