May colours

Weathered hoardings:





Second version of new pattern (a third is blocking):

Poppy suffering effects of awful weather:

Howth – a seal swimming out to greet a boat:


spot the dog:

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Inspirations – old notebooks

Some pages from a pre-digital age with inspirations and sketches for textile designs:





2 postcards from Ljubljana:


More peonies from Farmleigh:



Front door flowering cherry:

Have a nice weekend!

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Romeo Gigli – inspiration

Approximate pronunciation: Ro-MAY-o JEEL-yee
These images are recent photos of brochures which were available in the Romeo Gigli shop in Milan in the early nineties.
Summer 1990:







Winter 1991:




More images

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4 corners

It’s finished…



(It has 4 corners)

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Mughal

Thanks for all the comments on yesterday’s post, and apologies for the flaw in my system -
I forgot that comments would go into a queue for moderation and not show up overnight…..

The Knitcircus Collection has been sent out to the first ten.

Here are some swatches of the pattern in different colours:
The orange is Lorna’s Laces, left over from swatching Cold Mountain, the Turquoise is Shades of Cashmere silk left over from Sound of Waves, and the grey is Baruffa Cashwool.

I can’t remember exactly why I scrapped the top right version. Here it is in digital repeat:

Next, an early swatch with Rowan Felted Tweed and Zauberball Sock:

The last swatch is in Rowan Pure Wool 4Ply – this was done to test the two new charts which eliminated the bunched up points at the cast on and bind off.

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Knitcircus

I have a new pattern in the Knitcircus Summer pattern collection, which is coming out tomorrow. It’s a striped rectangle called Mughal shawl, vaguely based on textile patterns from miniature paintings.

If you’d like a copy of the Knitcircus pattern collection, please say so in the comments! – I will have 10 complimentary copies to share (first come, first served).

Below: disintegrating tulip in a birdbath, and May Day drama in the Mountains of Mourne.

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Hit and Miss

Some patterns take off and some don’t.
This one does not seem to have captured the public’s imagination, although it seemed to be quite an interesting idea, and potentially an interesting project.
It started off with an unused swatch for Cold Mountain. Then I played around with chopped up sections of photos of CM in Photoshop to invent new patterns.
I had been thinking about African textiles which sometimes have variations of patterns merging into each other – like some Kuba textiles.
Maybe I chose the wrong colours or yarn for the sample. Fortunately there are some hits to make up for the misses – and the ones that don’t even get published…

Thanks for the comments about the new stranded triangle pattern, it’s almost ready.
I’ve started a new stranded/lace hybrid, with 4 attempts to get the increasing right – it’s now increasing in an acceptable manner. The theme is Transdanubian bride. (Thanks to crocodile for the encouragement on these patterns!)
Two new lace ideas have been attempted & abandoned, and I’ve got as far as casting on for a swatch for a third, but I’m not in the mood for small needles at the moment.

Lopa on Ravelry has done a beautiful version of Kerchief – In Icelandic wool.

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Mercato dei Fiori 2

Barbara‘s second version is finished, and I’m putting the pdf together.

It’s going to be more colourful than usual.

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Mercato dei Fiori

I love stranded knitting. This project was an abandoned design from around the time I started making Nine Lives. It was called Stranded Triangle – it’s quite an irregular triangle – the yarn is Rowan Pure Wool 4ply, on 3.25mm needles.

It was too small, there were too many increases in the striped stranding at the bottom, and it needed an extra lower border.

Barbara (crocodile on Ravelry) spotted the project on Ravelry and very kindly offered to do some test knitting – so the pattern has been salvaged and it’s called Mercato dei Fiori, after the Patti Pravo song. This picture shows a new version on bigger needles with fewer increases in the striped section – not enough! -

So I tried a third version of the chart, and played around with colours:

Barbara has done a second, more colourful version (which merits the fancy name) – it’s blocking at the moment! Pictures coming soon. The MC is indigo, with three different colours for the flowers, and red and deep pink stripes.

In the mean time, I unpicked the edge of the original version and added the outer border and a contrasting cast off:

I’m also trying out another drop stitch pattern in turquoise linen from Riga, and have two new lace patterns at the sketching stage.
Mini got a Spring haircut.

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Echo Beach Variation

This is the variation of Echo Beach (with one dropped stitch instead of two), beautifully test knit by Teilzeitheldin with one skein of Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash in the Uluru colourway.

When I was in Munich I was tempted to jump on a train to Pfaffenhofen to visit the Wollmeise shop, but it seems to have restricted opening hours.

Next is the first swatch for the pattern – the ktbl stitches looked funny when slanting to the right, so they needed to be twisted differently – and the single stitch between dropped stitches was too weak.

I bought a book.

It’s a small volume, full of fascinating old photos of knitters and fishermen, and charts for guernsey sweater stitch patterns – nothing too complex – inventiveness with knit and purl stitches and cables.

Finally, a trip to the Rhododendron Gardens above Howth Castle .

The yellow gorse looked spectacular against the sky and had a scent of coconut.

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