Pattern: Vintage Moments Hat & Gloves

What a lovely surprise I got this morning. We are having family visiting due to Glasgow hosting the Commonwealth Games and as soon as they left for another day of sports, I sat down to check my inbox. And then I started giggling. I just got my first cover, folks, and I had no idea it was happening.

Several months ago, I was approached by the lovely people at Let's Knit magazine. They commissioned me to design a hat/gloves set celebrating my Scandinavian heritage. I also did an interview with them talking about my family background, how I got into designing, and why I am passionate about getting other people thinking about crafts.

And I started out sketching my design.

I was watching a film from the early 1930s when the initial idea came to me, so I knew I wanted a 1930s colour scheme. I had just finished working on a big colourwork project so I used the left-overs for the swatch but I already knew the green wasn't quite right. I needed a cooler seafoam green. Next came the idea to do very, very straightforward colourwork. I picked some of my favourite motifs and played with them until I had some simple, fun motifs I could scatter across my canvas. I drew upon my knowledge of Faroese knitting which is more geometric than Shetland colourwork - and I ended up with something that was super-cute and super-fun .. even for people who are not that confident at colourwork.

I was very lucky that my Let's Knit editor was onboard with my ideas very quickly and knew what I meant about getting the right colours. Sarah suggested looking at Jamieson's Spindrift which is a wonderful British yarn that comes in a myriad of colours. I have used Spindrift before and it knits up beautifully. The pattern only uses three colours, so working out a colour scheme is relatively easy.

Let's talk colour substitution. I would suggest looking at it the following way:

Neutral Background - make sure to match this colour in terms in warm/cool undertones. My sample used Pebble, a white with a cool, grey undertone

Main Contrast - make sure to choose something that makes a statement as it'll dictate the overall look of the knit - the sample used Eucalyptus, a cool seafoam green with a grey undertone

Second contrast - make sure this matches the other two colours but make sure it doesn't take over the entire look - the sample used Sorbet, a cool mid-range pink with a grey undertone.

Here is a warm version (using Granny Smith, Lipstick and Mooskit) - it feels less vintage and more playful:

Or maybe a slightly more modern colour scheme?  You will still get the contrast  but with a dark background (Yellow Ochre, Eesit and Shaela):

The colour combinations are endless. This is partly what I love about colourwork - you get to paint with yarn.

I cannot help but feel that autumn is on its way - I am utterly delighted to have secured the cover of Let's Knit and I can see many other new patterns are heading out into the world right now. I love this time of the year.

Some Thoughts on Blogging, Identity & Safety

Blogtacular led a discussion on twitter yesterday about online privacy and safety. I shared a few thoughts but want to expand upon them here. Get coffee. It's a long one.

I started blogging around 2001. I did not use my real name; I did not post pictures of myself and the only clues to my identity were these: I lived in Copenhagen, Denmark and I was female (I used the nom de plume "Ms Bookish"). My then blog was fairly straightforward: I mostly wrote about books and the contemporary literary scene. Around 2004-2005 my blog had become a professional tool and I was widely engaged in the literary blog scene working with publishers and authors. However, I was still completely anonymous.

And then I began noticing a pattern.

One particular blog commentator, Martin (not his real name), left comments on every single blog entry I made. After a few weeks he began sending me emails expanding upon the comments he had left me. So many emails. I didn't read them after a while. Something felt totally off about the guy and, really, I was too busy.

Then I attended a blog networking event and Martin was there. He had presents for me and cornered me. How did he know I would be there? And how did he recognise me? I started to feel really uneasy. Martin started leaving seriously whacked-out comments on the blog and, creeped out, I decided to check my emails from him. Well, they weren't good.

Martin knew when I had been out doing my grocery shopping and he had watched me bike around Copenhagen. It got worse: he wanted me to have a nervous breakdown so he could take care of me, he thought I had an artificial leg (and wrote in great detail about how my prosthetic turned him on), he thought I was leaving him clues on my web site professing my great love for him, and so forth. Gross, bad, awful stuff.

Then I came home to find Martin standing on the other side of the road. You can probably guess what happened next.

By now I had documented as much as I could. I had saved every email and screen-capped blog comments. I passed all this information to the police and stayed at friends' houses while the police managed to sort things out. I know Martin got psychiatric help but apart from one letter (which his psychiatrist had told him to write) I never heard from him again. I was able to move on from the incident because I knew I had just been a random victim: Martin didn't know me; he just knew I was female and I read a lot of books. Classic case of erotomania.

I learned some valuable lessons from this:

• You cannot control how other people read what you write online. I had not peppered my literary blog with hidden clues for Martin to follow. That was his mental illness talking. I was not responsible for how he chose to interpret my posts.
• It is very, very hard to stay anonymous online and there are many ways of finding out your identity. Martin got my name from somewhere (probably from looking up who registered my blog domain) and managed to track my address very quickly. He also had access to my financial records thanks to his job, so he could find out where I did my grocery shopping and where I liked to hang out. People also talk: my neighbours let private things slip to a guy who seemed nice and harmless. Things like the fact that I was single and that I was living on my own.
• Document everything. I let some of our early interaction slip through my fingers which I regret as I may have been able to stop him sooner.

And then I decided to take ownership of my identity. I began using my real name and posting photos of my face.

I had spent years trying to lock down information about myself online and had convinced myself I was keeping myself safe that way. In actual fact, the only real way to stay safe is to step out there and say "Hi, I'm Karie Westermann and this is what I look like." There is freedom and power in that statement: it is my identity and (unlike anonymity) nobody can take that away from me.

Furthermore, when I hadn't shown my face on my blog and Martin still recognised me, it was very scary and I felt utterly powerless. He knew what I looked like despite all my efforts. Nowadays I have my face splayed all over the internet  and it's my choice. Occasionally I get recognised by someone who's knitted one of my patterns or who follow me on Twitter - and I am totally cool with that.

Being a craft professional actually means that I write a lot more about my life online than I ever anticipated. And that brings me to another point.

For me, there are three spheres: private, personal & public. I keep the private sphere to myself - everything else may be blogged.

I don't write about family or friends. That would be rude and intrusive. I write about some personal things - like the fact that David & I celebrated our 9th anniversary yesterday (and if you've kept an eye on the timeline -  yes, Dave played a big part in helping me deal with my stalker) - but I sift through them carefully as personal details can quickly get self-indulgent. And then there's the public stuff like blogging about an event - where you should totally come say hello to me.

Interestingly the Martin story stayed off my blog for a very long time. I didn't think it relevant material, though I did write a few pieces about cyberstalking for magazines. It was too private a story for many years and has only just recently become a personal story that I occasionally allude to. And now I am finally writing about it under my own name on my own blog.

Anyway, the best way to stay safe online is to act like you would offline. Oh, and keep in mind that the Martins of this world are few & far between.

• Don't announce where you will be on your own.
• Don't overshare.
• Don't post anything you don't want the postman or your boss knowing.
• Respect other people's right to privacy
• If in doubt, don't do it/don't post it.
• What happens online can quickly spill into offline life.
• Don't forget you will always have an audience (even if you think you don't). Act responsibly.

Workshops & Events Updated

Just a tiny heads-up that I have overhauled the Workshops & Events page, so you can actually see where I am teaching!

Right now my Autumn 2014 schedule looks like this:

August 23: I am teaching a half-day class on Crochet for Beginners at The Queen of Purls, Glasgow.  More information here.

August 30: I am teaching a full day of Knitting Lace Shawls at Fluph, Dundee. More information here.

September 13: It's a return to Dundee as I'll be running my two-handed colourwork workshop (Full Day) at Fluph. More information here.

September 27: Learn how to design your own lace projects with me at this half-day workshop at The Queen of Purls, Glasgow. More information here.

October 12: I'm teaching Two-Handed Colourwork (Full Day) at Be Inspired, Edinburgh. More information to come here.

October 25: I'm back at Be Inspired, Edinburgh, for a half-day class on how to tackle short-row shaping in lace. More information to come here.

November 1: An introduction to two-handed colourwork (Half Day) at The Queen of Purls, Glasgow. More information here.

November 9: I'm running a full day workshop on Crochet for Knitters at Be Inspired Fibres, Edinburgh. This class covers the basic crochet techniques before exploring how knitters can use crochet and knitting together. More information to come here.

Several 2015 dates are already in place, so start looking out for those towards the end of this year.

Thanks to an awful knee injury I was unable to teach workshops at the beginning of this year, so I am really looking forward to getting on the road to meet knitters again. It's slightly unusual for me to teach this much, but it feels really nice too. Invigorating, that's the right word. Nothing beats seeing people being all happy about a new skill or idea.

(Psst.. If you are a yarn shop, a knitting festival or a retreat, please use the form on this page to get in touch)

A Little Bit About Designing

Summer is always one of the busiest periods of my working life as magazines are commissioning items for their autumn/winter issues. I have just finished the last of my many commissions and am now looking forward to getting stuck into the self-publishing side of my life. I have been asked many times how I go about doing what I do, so here's a little run-down.

• I start by compiling a moodboard (this is my moodboard for a mini-collection I did together with Old Maiden Aunt yarns). As I add pins, a theme will eventually emerge and I start editing the moodboard down to the bare minimum of pins I need to convey the idea.
• I sketch ideas based upon the moodboard. This can be anything from stitch pattern ideas to the shape of a sleeve or even the actual piece I want to design.
• The stitch pattern is charted and I start pondering things like what sort of ribbing I'd use or what type of drape I'd require from the yarn.
• I decide upon yarn and swatch. I always knit a generous swatch (at least 6" x 6") and I wash & block my swatch.
• Basing my numbers upon my swatch, I then write the pattern. Numbers are everything. Before I have cast on a single stitch, I will worked the entire piece in my head and on paper.
• And then I cast on.

There are many ways of going about designing, and I always advocate doing what feels right and natural to you. However, by working out the entire pattern before I commit to knitting it, I reduce the risk of having to rip back because the numbers do not add up and, of course, the risk of forgetting to take notes.

I'll write more about my design process later this year when I'll show you my sketches and swatches for a garment that is due to be published around November.

I talk more about my working life, my sources of inspiration and my plans for the future in this interview I did with the lovely folks of Love Knitting. The interview took place just after I returned from Unwind Brighton so I am pleasantly surprised by how coherent I sound!

Speaking of Unwind Brighton, my head is buzzing with ideas and plans.. and I finally have time to sit down and do something about all the things in my head. Huzzah!

Knit Works - A Weekend of Creativity & Scandinavian Love

Being of Nordic persuasion, it was perhaps inevitable that I ended up working at Knit Works in Edinburgh this past weekend.

Knit Works was a collaboration between the National Museum of Scotland, The Danish Cultural Institute, Edinburgh Fashion Festival and local yarn shop McAree Brothers with Rowan Yarns donating a sizeable amount of yarn to the event. I helped supervise and cheerlead a staggering amount of knitters as they worked on a collaborative project celebrating Scottish and Nordic knitting culture. Although it was a very busy weekend, Knit Works was also a nice change of pace for me. I had spent the previous weekend working at Unwind Brighton and I could not help but marvel at the differences between the two events.

I think we talk a lot about the knitting community - making it sound as though it is a monolithic, homogeneous entity with similar tastes, attitudes, and interests. I would suggest it is better to talk about the knitting communities as knitters are very diverse with very different approaches to knitting, tastes and lifestyles.

While Unwind was very much about physically consolidating a pre-existing online community, Knit Works felt like giving various communities the chance to meet however briefly. It attracted a lot of knitters who were seasoned knitters-in-public, who wielded charts with ease, and who were comfortable going off script. Being in the middle of the National Museum, it also caught the attention of tourists: people who were unused to following English-languaged instructions, people who knew how to knit a little and people who were just excited to get into crafts for ten minutes. We also got a lot of people who were seasoned knitters but had never knitted in public before, people who discovered the pleasure of meeting other knitters, and people who found it a challenge to talk and knit at the same time. I found it incredibly interesting to watch this merging of communities and seeing people finding common ground through knitting.

(I will never tire of watching knitters' hands work, incidentally.)

Carol Meldrum, Heather Peterson and I worked out a design based upon the squares knitters had handed in on the day. Originally the plan had been to have a giant Norwegian-style snowflake on a neutral background. We received so many colourful, vibrant, and interesting squares that we revised the plan significantly.

Instead we devised a colourwash design (I was briefly accused of having colour OCD, thank you Carol) which allowed a lot of beautiful squares to shine. We also had a pile of swatches donated to us by the machine knitting girls from Brora, pom poms were donated by kids who had been yarn-bombing the museum, and we were given pretty crochet squares from an Arne & Carlos workshop (totally hyggelige guys in that very special Scandinavian way).

Within ten hours of starting we went from a pile of yarn to a big, colourful blanket that will be touring Scotland over the next few months. It helps when you have a lot of happy knitters on hand to help you. I found it really nice to spend time among Scandinavians (we had a good turn-out of those, tak!) and just chill out with knitting for once.

However, after the last two weeks, I am seriously shattered. I'm a textbook introvert and the next few days will be spent recharging my batteries. As much as I love meeting knitters & getting all excited about making other people excited, I'm going to enjoy my own company and some blessed solitude with a dash of knitting. Hopefully it will rain.

Ahhhh...

Unwind Brighton 2014

Brighton was amazing. If I lived in Brighton, I'd be unbearable. As it were, I lived in the single estate coffee shop next to my hotel, I watched the World Cup finale in an awesome craft beer pub, I had some incredible locally-sourced organic vegan food, and there was some knitting thing going on too. Ah-mah-zing.

The knitting thing was Unwind Brighton and it was the real reason why I was there. And you know what? It was really good. National newspaper The Independent wrote an article about Unwind and called it 'a woolly business conference' and I love that definition. It captures a lot of things for me: I went to Unwind and I bought yarn (more on this later), but I also met incredible, incredible knitters and fellow pros. Being a knitting industry professional can be a bit weird sometimes because .. well, you are on your own a lot and you work strange hours and you never know what to tell taxi drivers when they ask about your job. Unwind was a good reminder that I am not throwing words into thin air when I work long hours from home - amazing people knit my patterns, wear them, and respond to them, gosh - and that my lifestyle is shared by a lot of incredible, interesting people. Other people get it. Whoop.

The venues were stunning. As a huge Regency nerd, I had  small 'moments' throughout my entire stay about my surroundings. Okay, I was running around like a big geek. Not only did I teach in a Grade II-listed Georgian house, but the marketplace took place within Brighton Dome which was built in the early 19th century for the Prince Regent's stables (and where ABBA won Eurovision in 1974). It was such a pleasure to see buildings I have been reading about my entire life and imagine ladies in diaphanous muslin dresses (or, in Agnetha's case, satin trousers) float down the street where I was having lunch.

I taught three classes: Beading for Knitters, Continental Knitting, and Crochet for Knitters. I was so impressed by the students who took my classes: they were creative, excited, focused, imaginative, and adventurous. This is a sentiment that was shared by a lot of teachers, incidentally. People were there to learn and they were not afraid of getting things wrong because it simply meant a learning opportunity. I was deeply impressed by that. I took as much away from my classes as the people in my classes.

The Unwind marketplace was so well-curated. It felt coherent, the vendors were of a very high standard and it was clear that the organisers had gone in with a clear idea of what they wanted the marketplace to reflect. I have seen larger marketplaces, but I have rarely seen a marketplace where every single vendor was so appealing (Edinburgh Yarn Festival is the only other one that springs to mind). It just had that feel of quality, you know?

I got my hands on one of TrueBritKnits' iconic knitting badges and picked up a skein of Eden Cottage Yarns Milburn 4ply because reasons. I have worked with Triskelion Yarn before and I was really looking forward to meeting Caerthan in person (he was lovely). My one indulgence was a skein of his Taliesin 4ply in dark green . Finally, I  acquired a hank of Lioness Arts Merino Single in "Quartet" at the Pom Pom Mag Seaside Shindig when my team triumphed in the pub quiz (we may have been slightly competitive). It's lovely to take home one of Dani's beautiful yarns because she did an amazing job as an organiser.

Looking back, Unwind Brighton feels slightly unreal. I described it at the time as Glastonbury for Knitters - though with less mud and more artisan coffee - but it's not quite accurate. I met a lot of old friends, forged a lot of new friendships, and I feel so inspired. During Unwind I occasionally had to escape from everything because so many things started clicking in my head and I needed time-out to sort through them. The beach was a welcome retreat (with bonus gelato) where I could hear myself think.  It'll take me a couple of weeks to sort through all that happened.

Thank you Dani for organising Unwind Brighton. It was an honour to be a tiny, tiny part of something this special. Thank you to all of the organising team - you kept us all sane. And the biggest thank you to everybody who came to the seaside for a day or five. It was truly magical.

See you in 2015?