Pattern: Hoxne

Hoxne is the second pattern to be released from the Doggerland: Knits from a Lost Landscape collection. The shawl is named after a small village in Suffolk. Hoxne was inhabited as early as 320,000 years ago but the site shows signs of continual flint tool production through the ages. Flint is one of the key materials of North European prehistory - and I knew I wanted to design a shawl evocative of flint tools.

I know flint very well.

My childhood landscape was shaped by the ice age: softly rolling hills and a large moraine we called Tornved Bjerg (literally: Tornved Mountain).

Local farmers cursed the vanished glaciers for leaving so much debris behind as they worked the stone-filled fields, but I loved running across the newly tilled land and finding pieces of flint. I held the small stones in my hands as though they were gold nuggets. They were warm from the sun, yet cool to the touch. They were soft to hold, yet had sharp edges. I didn't realise until much later in my life that I had probably been picking up worked pieces of flint in a landscape full of prehistoric archaeology.

Hoxne reminds me of being that child - so inquisitive and seeing something special in everyday things. I hope I haven't lost either quality.

The shawl is knitted in Snældan 1ply - I keep referring to this yarn as Karie's Favourite Lace Yarn and that still holds true (I should write a Desert Island Yarns entry at some point). It is soft, holds so much character and it blocks out beautifully. Snældan is still spun in the way that it was spun in the 1940s and I love how it feels alive in your hands. Some yarns are processed beyond recognition but Snældan 1ply retains this magical feeling of authenticity and landscape which is so central to what I'm trying to do with Doggerland.

The Island Wool Company will be featuring Hoxne on their website - keep a look out and do browse that Snældan section. I continue to be thankful that Fiona & Daniel have chosen to make my beloved Faroese yarns available for UK knitters. It makes my life a lot easier!

Tomorrow I will be heading to Woolfest with my Glasgow knitting group. If you see me, do say hello!

Doggerland: Ronaes

So here we are. I released the Ronaes shawl pattern on Monday. It is the first of the Doggerland patterns to be published and I do so with a sigh of relief.

I'm really proud of Ronaes - it was one of those designs that just fell into place really quickly and where the finished object looked even better than I had imagined.

(I have issues with the way I look in the pattern photos: oh, all the issues that arise when you stare at your own face and body as you edit photos and patterns - but I think that's a topic for another day.)

The original Ronaes was knitted in Garthenor 1ply - a beautiful and bouncy laceweight. It's called a cobweb on Ravelry which I think is a touch misleading. It's more like a heavy 2ply or a light 3ply. Maybe if I spun yarn I'd have a better idea? Looking at all the different yarn choices made for Ronaes in the Doggerland KAL is my favourite activity at the moment.

Also this week I could finally share some really exciting news. The Island Wool Company is the UK importer of the fantastic Snældan yarns. They love the Doggerland collection so much that they asked if they could team up with me. Imagine that. How could I say no? So, apart from Ravelry, the Doggerland patterns will pop up on the Island Wool Company website. I have already ordered some Snældan 2ply in Mist, so I can knit myself another Ronaes.

And in final Ronaes news, Louise Scollay of the excellent Knit British blog took an early look at Doggerland - and especially Ronaes:

What excites me about this collection is the connection to landscape and the past, and also a sense of otherness – something I often feel keenly in my own landscape.

So here we are.

The past fortnight has been crazily busy - but I'm happy to say that I'm meeting some absolutely fantastic people as part of the general insanity. If you're reading this, you are one of them.

Bookish Knits in Knit Now

There is a reason why I call myself Karie Bookish - I love books and I love reading. Family lore has it that whenever they couldn't find me I'd be hiding somewhere with a book. I also love knitting. When I was asked to design a number of bookish knits for Knit Now Magazine, I had to pinch myself. What a dream assignment.

The first pattern is the Eyre Shawl.

I reread Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre in 2011. The novel was extraordinary - far richer than I had grasped when my 14 year-old self had first read it. Jane was a study in self-respect, self-reliance, and intelligence:

“I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”

But Jane wasn't the only reason why I wanted to design a shawl. The housekeeper at Thornfield Hall - the inimitable Mrs Fairfax - was constantly knitting throughout the novel and kept having small asides about how she really had to finish this row..

The recent film adaptation featured a number of knitted shawls - one spawned several garterstitch shawl patterns on Ravelry - but I wanted to take a different direction. I wanted to design a shawl that was both as delicate and strong as Jane herself - something which Mrs Fairfax would have enjoyed knitting.

My Eyre shawl has an all-over chevron pattern which gently fans into a leaf border. It is very easy to customise: like most of my shawl patterns, Eyre has a design feature which means you can repeat the central chevron stitch pattern as many times as you'd like before starting the border. I like shawls like that because it means you can customise the size of the shawl to suit your yardage.

The sample shown was knitted in Malabrigo Lace in "Applewood". It blocked out beautifully and is wonderfully soft.

I also designed a hat and fingerless gloves set for the magazine.

I set myself the challenge of designing an Art Deco-inspired accessories set which would be accessible for beginner knitters. That means everything is knitted flat. It is a bit of a controversial decision in these Everything Must Be Knitted On Circular Needles times, but I've spent so much time teaching beginning knitters that I understood how frustrating it can be to see a beautiful pattern and not be able to knit because you're not yet confident enough to use double-pointed needles or circs. So, everything is knitted flat.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby was my starting point - after all, Baz Luhrmann has an adaptation out later this year and the High Street is already filled with Art Deco inspired clothes. The 1920s silouette was boyish and simple, but the details were everything but. I wanted to capture the lavish and carefree world of Gatsby and I did so by choosing a cashmere-blend yarn and use a glitzy metallic yarn as contrast. Likewise, I decided against designing something practical - this Gatsby set will not keep you warm, but it will make you feel glamorous and feminine.

The set is knitted in Rowan Cashsoft 4ply and Anchor Artiste Metallic in "Thunder" and "Blue" respectively. The hat is photographed as a beanie but is meant to be a very nonchalant beret à la Faye Dunaway in Bonnie & Clyde.

Knit Now Magazine issue 18 will be in stores from Thursday. You can order it online too.

PS. Knit Now has a history of supporting some truly talented indie designers like Jacqui Harding, Anna Elliott, Ella Austin, Elly Doyle, Anni Howard, Woolly Wormhead and Rachel Coopey. Just one reason among many why they are awesome.

The Light Is Pale & Thin

Oh, 2013. You are off to a slow, slightly bemusing start. Life is slowly creeping back into Casa Bookish. The suitcases are nearly unpacked, the laundry basket is nearly empty, and the fridge has been emptied of all holiday food. I still feel exhausted and I get easily winded, but I am feeling much better than I did just a few days ago. We've caught up with several friends and everybody seems to have been laid low with something this past holiday season. One thing is certain: I'll be getting the flu jab next winter season! No need to go through this %&¤#! again if I can help it..

So, I've been crossing off items on my giant To Do list. One of the top items was "preparing patterns for release" - and I crossed that one off my list today. All three yarn club patterns are now available for general consumption via Ravelry - you can buy them individually for as a bargainous e-book collection. Seeing as the original yarns are not available, I've worked together with Old Maiden Aunt yarns to find good colour substitutions.

At the same time I am busy designing some new things - I currently have two new designs on the needles and three other designs somewhere in the process between sketch and knitting.

In-between all my sample knitting, I have been knitting on my Bute cardigan. I cast off the second front last night which means I only have two sleeves to go, huzzah! I'll be block the back and fronts this week and hopefully get the body seamed, so I can pick up stitches for the button-band. I have a couple of different button styles to decide between but we'll cross that hurdle when we get to it.

Resident Photographer ran off with the camera today or I'd show you the unblocked pieces.

And if a blog entry could have a colour, this entry would be pale blue-grey with a dash of pink blush. The colour of winter slowly turning on its heel. Just like this photo from the Botanic Gardens we took late last year.

Pattern & FO: Baker Street Gloves

Baker Street is the third and last pattern in the Old Maiden Aunt/Karie Bookish yarn club collaboration.I feel a bit sad about the yarn club drawing to a close. It has been a lot of fun for both Lilith and I - not to mention the horde of knitters who have been taking part. Also, I cannot believe it is December already!

The Baker Street gloves are knitted in the "221b" colourway in Lilith's Bluefaced Leicester Aran. The gloves are knitted to an unusually tight gauge on 3.75mm in order to make the gloves extra warm and also extra durable.

Lilith loves these gloves and nearly nicked them when I first showed them to her. I really like them too. They are super-cosy and due to the nature of the stitch pattern and construction, they fit snugly across many shapes/sizes of hands. I like having my fingers all cosy, so the gloves are rather long - but as with most of my patterns, I have shown how to modify this in the pattern.

A little bit about how I put the collection together.

I started out by sketching a motif I could play with across many types of accessories. The motif becomes increasingly more elaborate and complicated throughout the club patterns: the shawl had a fairly easy repeat and the hat started incorporating the motif in the round and into shaping. The Baker Street patterns adds twisted stitches to the motif and instead of repeat it in a sort of diamond formation, I chose to stack it. OK, so this is designer mumbo-jumbo. Basically this just means that all the patterns use the motif differently and yet they all work together.

I have been wearing my Baker Street gloves these past few weeks: winter has hit the UK and I needed something a bit more cosy than my usual fingerless mitts. These were perfect - heavier yarn than my other fingerless gloves and the length/fit of them ensured my hands were warm. Of course I were slightly worried that I'd meet a knitter who'd ask me about my gloves. Well, I was on constant Whip-'Em-Off alert, but I escaped unscathed. It's a pleasure to be able to wear them with pride in public now!

Thank you so much to all yarn club participants. The club-only exclusivity for all the patterns runs for the remainder of this month. By the beginning of January, the patterns will be available for everybody via the magic of Ravelry.

I'm off to make æbleskiver now. The Old Maiden Aunt studio is open tonight as part of the West Kilbride (Craftstown Scotland) Yule Night and I offered to bake some Danish Xmas goodies for the Knit-In. Yes, it's most definitely December..

Pattern & FO: Baskerville Hat

The November pattern in the Old Maiden Aunt/Karie Bookish yarn club is now live. SO excited!

Baskerville is knitted in OMA Bluefaced Leicester DK in the club-only colourway Grimpen Mire. I originally asked Lilith for a green that was somewhere between sage and hunter green - I think she outdid herself with this one. I want to knit everything in this colourway.

Every time I release a pattern I say that this is my all-time favourite pattern, but it's particularly true for this one. I first toyed with the idea of creating an even lacier hat based upon the stitch pattern I first used with Serpentine Avenue, but I realised that I like hats to be warm. So, instead I let the stitch pattern run all over the body of the hat before incorporating it into the crown decreases. I love how it looks.

Pretty, right?

Designers like to talk about "samples" and "not touching the samples". I can tell you that I will be wearing the beep out of this so-called sample because I just love it so much.

(It is also a handy replacement for the hats I lost to the moths but I couldn't tell you before now)

All the patterns and colourways in the yarn club take their cues from late Victoriana with a special nod to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Baskerville takes its name from the Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles in which Holmes investigates the mystery of a supernatural hound that supposedly takes revenge upon the Baskerville family. It's a also a sly nod to baskerhue - a Basque hat - which is the Danish name for a beret!

The colourway is named after the location where the Baskerville Hound roamed. There is no actual place called Grimpen Mire but Conan Doyle was inspired to write his story after a visit to Dartmoor's Fox Tor Mire.

Many thanks to my testknitters and my patient stylist/photographer/cake devourer. Let the knitting commence!