Croft House Knitting Kits

Sunday, November 01, 2020

Thinking about gifts for Christmas?

Red Roof Croft House knitting kits are back in stock. Available from my Etsy shop.

The kit contains everything to make the house:

The Power of Knitting

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

So happy to have been gifted a copy of 'The Power of Knitting' by Loretta Napoleoni, published by Tarcher Perigee, October 2020.

The title grabbed my attention followed by a curiosity to find out what could this Italian journalist, economist and political analyst have to say about the gentle craft of knitting.

Make Along and Competition

Wednesday, August 05, 2020

Sea Breeze Blanket

Ripples Shawl Knitting Pattern

Monday, March 23, 2020

Keeping busy and a positive mind set is something to be aimed for and never more than during this time of Covid-19. Knitting is something which helps me to stay occupied and focused generally but especially so now. 

Bambino Awsome Avocado

Thursday, March 12, 2020

Awesome Avocado is the name of this warm yellow yarn. It's a new colour addition to the Bambino DK baby yarn from Stylecraft. 

SS20 Natural Yarn

Monday, March 02, 2020

I've been testing a lovely new yarn called Stylecraft Naturals, a blend of 40% cotton and 60% bamboo. 

Garter Yoke Baby Cardi

Monday, January 27, 2020

I've been trying out this lovely new yarn. It's Regatta DK from the Spring/Summer 2020 collection at Stylecraft. I received a sample in the ‘Henley’ colour way and made a quick, easy baby cardigan.

Emma's Yarn meets Baby Tea Leaves

Thursday, January 23, 2020

This lovely skein of yarn was sent to me by Yarnworx.com. The company is an online store based in the UK. Most of their yarn is ethically sourced and hand dyed. 

A Splash of Winter Colour

Monday, January 06, 2020

I've been revisiting some of my previously published patterns and knitting them in new colour ways. A splash of winter colour is what I wanted for this hat. 

Last Minute Knitted Gifts

Thursday, December 05, 2019

Sarah from Say! Little Hen sent me a copy of her Nordic Christmas Mice knitting pattern to try out. They are deceptively easy and quick to knit, perfect for last minute gifts. 

Alice Bunny

Monday, April 08, 2019

Alice Bunny is a sweet little rabbit knitted flat on straight needles with double knitting yarn. She has a cute dress and matching shawl.

4 Sock Patterns by Helen Kurtz

Monday, March 18, 2019

Today's post features sock designs by Helen Kurtz who has the popular knitting blog called Josie Kitten. I know Helen through the Blogstars group and over time I've see the number of her lovely knitted sock designs grow, so I thought I'd share some here. 

Helen has used "Head Over Heels" sock yarn by Stylecraft. This yarn was specially developed to be durable enough for socks, but also light enough for knitters and crocheter's who like to make shawls. There are three versions of this yarn, each with at least 6 different colour ways.

Pool Shawl Pattern

Thursday, March 14, 2019

The shawl pattern I designed specially for Head Over Heels All Stars yarn is now available from Stylecraft website free (link at the end of the post). You can read about this yarn and how it was inspired in an earlier post I wrote here.

Woodland Walk Notebook

Monday, March 11, 2019

At the weekend I attended the Stylecraft Blogstars seasonal meet up at Slaithwaite in West Yorkshire. It was lovely to catch up with the group, share updates and participate in various activities.

The Saturday afternoon craft session was lead by designer Juliet Bernard and featured hand stitched notebooks. We'd all been invited to make a cover in advance of the weekend.

Inspiration for my book cover began earlier this year. In January, I went on a lovely winter, woodland walk through the Beinne Eighe National Nature Reserve in Scotland. The reserve is a special place for wildlife, scenery and geology. 

Cosy Tea Love

Saturday, February 09, 2019

This colourful Fair Isle design features panels of hearts and little houses inspired by a croft house on the west coast of Scotland. 

The Home Sweet Home Tea Cosy pattern includes a knitting chart to make it with 11 pastel colours of Jamieson's of Shetland dk yarn and is knitted in the round.

It would be great project to practice colour work knitting using some of the traditional fair isle motifs.

Birch Trees Scarf - Projects

Friday, February 01, 2019

With low temperatures, snow and ice around, it's definitely scarf weather again. This post features Birch Trees Scarf and some project images uploaded to Ravelry by knitters. 

There have been over 64K downloads to date of the Birch Trees Scarf knitting pattern from Ravelry. For my design I used size 4.5mm (US 7) needles with some of my shetland sheep DK wool in neutral white. 

Originally published in April 2014, the pattern is free to download.

Polkagris Kerchief

Tuesday, January 07, 2020

The Polkagris Kerchief is a lovely, quick and simple knit by the designer Kate Davies. 

I used a set of two mini skeins of sport weight, spun from Shetland sheep fleece. One a natural white and the other naturally dyed over marl grey in shade "Ocean".

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Transitions Shawl

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

The words "Life Changes" could bring to mind so many meanings. For this shawl it's a new variegated DK weight yarn from Stylecraft. There are 8 shades in the range and for this shawl project I chose three, Roses, Berries and Ashes. The yarn is a mix of 25% wool and 75% acrylic, 100g balls, 298m /326 yds long.

Knitting Kits at Lucy Locket Land

Tuesday, October 09, 2018

Recently I teamed up with the lovely Lucy, from Locket Land and I'm delighted to announce two new knitting kits have been produced from my knitting patterns. These were launched last week at Yarndale in Skipton, North Yorkshire.

First is the Counting Sheep kit, this includes yarn made with fleece from my shetland sheep. Several natural colours are in the kits and there's enough to make a mini flock of at least five sheep. 

Stylecraft Blogtour - Scallop Scarf and Mittens

Sunday, October 07, 2018

I'm delighted to be participating again in Stylecraft's annual Blogtour. For this tour I chose the Autumn Leaves yarn pack which includes 5 shades of the newly released Bellissima. It's a DK weight yarn in 100% acrylic. The image below shows the 5 shades I've been working with (there are 14 shades in the new range).

Head over Heels All Stars

Sunday, September 23, 2018

New yarns in Head over Heels All Stars have arrived from Stylecraft. All 6 shades have been  chosen by Stylecraft Blogstars and inspired by the artist David Hockney. Earlier this year knitters and crocheter's voted in their thousands for their favourite combinations of colours to add to the yarn range. There's a post about the competition on the Stylecraft blog. I was amazed and thrilled to find out my combination was one of the winners.

Trio of Owls

Monday, September 03, 2018

Inspired by things autumnal, 'Trio of Owls' is the latest toy pattern from Hand Knitted Things in seasonal muted colours. This cute little family is easy to make with knit and purl stitches in contrasting colours and textures, with the addition of large rustic buttons creating the whimsical character features. 

Linen Drape

Sunday, August 26, 2018

What a summer it's been with the hot dry weather here in the UK. There's been no need for extra layers and shawls. 

Back in February I had an idea for a design using the new Linen Drape double knitting from Stylecraft. The design was completed in May. Since it's now August, I though to write a short post about it before the summer turns into Autumn.

Red Roof Croft House Knitting Kit

Saturday, August 18, 2018

After much preparation, I'm delighted the knitting kits for The Red Roof Croft House are now available online from my Etsy shop. Packaged in a sturdy cardboard box, this kit make's a lovely gift for a knitting friend or relative.

Visitors from Scotland

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Last week the Knitting and Crochet Guild Archive (KCG) in West Yorkshire welcomed some visitors all the way from Scotland, Carol Christiansen, Shetland Museum curator and Roslyn Chapman from Glasgow University. The KCG archive holds an enviable collection of hand knitted "Shetland" lace shawls. Some of the most interesting and delicate examples had been selected in advance to show the visitors.

Shetland Lace Knitting

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

While browsing publications for instructions on lace shawl knitting I came across The Magic of Shetland Lace by Elizabeth Lovick. The  cover indicates the contents include stitches, techniques and projects for lighter than air shawls, just what I was looking for! However, it was the image on the front depicting light difused, delicate lace samples which inspired me to take a closer look inside.

Swedish Bohus Knitting KCG Collection

Monday, March 13, 2017

If you read the previous post about the Edinburgh Yarn Festival I mentioned the Knitting and Crochet Guild (KCG) display which featured Bohus knitting. This is a style of knitting I had heard of but knew little about. Trish who was volunteering on behalf of the KCG told me a brief history. 

Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2017

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Had a very enjoyable trip to Edinburgh where the fourth Edinburgh Yarn Festival (EYF) was being held on 10th-11th March at the Corn Exchange. I traveled by train from Inverness approaching Edinburgh across the Fourth Rail Bridge with views to the old and new road bridges.

Summer Houses

Monday, March 06, 2017

It's March already and I've been wondering where this year has gone so far. There have been too many grey and rainy days. It's been good these last few weeks to work in summery yarn shades with names such as, Sky Blue, Sunflower, Greek Blue, Poppy, Soft Lime and Lavender.

Moss Stitch Table Mat

Sunday, February 19, 2017

This is a quick and easy one square knitting project in bulky t-shirt yarn. A textured surface is created with alternate knit and purl stitches. Make just the one as a trivet  or several for place mats.

Knitting and Crochet Guild Collection: Part 2

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Following on from my previous post about visiting the Knitting and Crochet Guild Collection (KCG), I have some more treasures to show you, all crochet items. Well I can crochet a few basic stitches but am no expert. The following examples are stunning in their details and complexity.

Knitting and Crochet Guild Collection: Part 1

Monday, February 13, 2017

In my previous post I wrote about meeting with a group of knitting and crochet friends. On the Friday afternoon we had the opportunity to visit the Knitting and Crochet Guild Collection (KCG) in the village of Scholes, near Huddersfield. Having heard of the collection via a blog post by Kate Davies when she was researching a Shetland hap shawl, what I didn't realise was how close the collection is to my home in Yorkshire. So was thrilled to be invited over to the archive to be shown a selection of the vast number of items held there. (Thanks to Stylecraft and Juliet Bernard for arranging the visit).

Stylecraft Blogstars Meet Up

Wednesday, February 08, 2017

Last Saturday saw the second meet up for the Stylecraft Blogstars at Spa Mill, Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire. It was lovely see everyone again and meet some new faces along with Annabelle, Sophie, Charlotte and Juliet from Stylecraft. It was great to get together with such enthusiastic and positive knit and crochet people.

Stylecraft Blog Tour 2016

Thursday, November 03, 2016

I'm now able to tell you about a project I completed during the summer and have been keeping under wraps for several months. 

Hand Knitted Things blog is taking part in the Stylecraft Blog Tour 2016 with other knitting and crochet bloggers. We have all been designing and making items with the new colour additions to Stylecraft Special Aran and Chunky yarn. 

Arrived from The Net Loft

Thursday, October 13, 2016

This adorable collection of items arrived all the way from Cordova, Alaska, sent by the lovely Dotty Widmann from The Net Loft. Earlier this year in June/July 2016 The Net Loft hosted a fibre festival called "Fisher Folk".

Scots Pine

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

The Scots Pine glove pattern I originally designed for "Make Your Own Gifts" magazine published in October 2014, has been updated. It's been modified to include instructions for two colours rather than the original one colour.

Batik Yarn and Giveaway

Sunday, September 18, 2016

In my last blog post I spoke about my visit to Stylecraft Mill in West Yorkshire where I met with a lovely group of knitting/crochet designers and bloggers, collectively known as the Stylecraft Blogstars.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

While down in Yorkshire I made a trip to the small town of Slaithwaite near Huddersfield. I'd been invited by Stylecraft Yarns to meet up with a number of blog writers and yarn enthusiasts for the first, of hopefully many, Blogstar Meet Up's.

June already...

Friday, June 03, 2016

Not sure where nearly half the year has gone. Time for an update on the blog with a few knitting and other snippets. 

Dovestone Smallholding Knitted Shetland Pony

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

This knitted character is "Shetland Pony" from Dovestone Smallholding by Ella Austin. The pattern book is available from Ravelry as a digital eBook or as a printed edition from Baa Ram Ewe. The collection features 7 toy patterns and a play mat made with Titus DK Dovestone yarn from Baa Ram Ewe in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Retro 70's look

Monday, February 22, 2016

Continuing the theme of knitted mittens on this blog, another pair came off the needles last week. The Bunty Mitts by Ella Austin have a retro feel to the design. It was the bold flower and leaf pattern that caught my eye. Very reminiscent of the 1970's wall paper and fabrics I remember from my childhood. They also look very cheerful for these cold, dull, winter days we're having here in NW Scotland at the moment.