I just couldn't stop thinking about those tucks. The delight of them flowing from ribbing to tuck! The satisfaction of the stitches working in just the right ways. And then it occurred to me that they could work from ribbing to stocking stitch... Or indeed from stocking stitch to ribbing...
Read moreHow to: Hexa Hap tutorials
One of the joys of knitting is that once you have mastered a technique, or found your perfect pattern, you can keep on going happily as long as you please. Equally, you could find a pattern you long to knit and discover that you need to learn something new in order to make any progress. It's the latter of these that keeps us interested in what we do as neither of us, me in particular, can say we know about, and can do absolutely everything possible with needles and yarn.
Image © Kate Davies Designs Ltd
Tom van Deijnen's Hexa Hap from The Book of Haps cleverly relies upon repeating the same sequence throughout to produce a fully reversible fabric. It also employs a couple of techniques that may be less familiar, so we have produced these short videos to help you to get to grips with them.
First is the intarsia twist, which gives a smooth, reversible transition between the two shades of yarn:
Hexa Hap is modular in that you work a triangular wedge at a time and then pick up stitches for the next wedge. Here's how to pick up the stitches:
I do hope that you will find these tutorials helpful. You can see more over on our YouTube channel: Arnall-Culliford Knitwear on YouTube
Picture This
Following on from the HapsarehappeningKAL, which still has plenty of chat going on a month after it finished, we racked our brains to come up with a new idea for the next knitalong. After much discussion about the topic, scope and name, we settled on picturethisKAL.
The idea is simple: knit a project that is in some way inspired by an image. It can be a photo you’ve taken, it can be a famous painting or photo, it can be any image you like! Your project can be inspired by the image’s colour, texture or shape. It’s up to you! Our aim is for the knitalong to be nice and inclusive. If you have an idea of what you want to knit next, then make it so. There’s an image for every possible project.
This KAL will run until Monday 17th October 2016 at midnight Alaskan time. To get involved, please tag your project on Ravelry with PictureThisKAL, and use the hashtag #PictureThisKAL on Instagram and Twitter. This allows everyone to see all of the inspiring projects involved in the knitalong.
There will be weekly prizes, selected at random for works in progress and also a prize for finished objects. Full details for eligibility are in the KAL thread.
Stuck for inspiration?
It could be a landscape such as this one of the river through Wick by Claire (soup dragon).
You could choose to match colours from other crafts, such as this cross stitch made as a present for Georgie (georgievinsun).
Perhaps something in the garden, like Danielle's (KnittingNixon) roses.
You could take inspiration from the colours of garden wildlife as Beverley (0bev0) has.
Or you could be like Alix (AlixPearson) who is basing her colours on a memorable dinner in Sweden.
Whatever you choose, get casting on now and join in the fun!
How to: Nut-Hap tutorials
I absolutely love to learn new techniques. I'm a sucker for a nifty way to make things, and I love to finesse my knitting. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to look at a new pattern and realise that it includes a heap of things you've not done before, so we aim to hold your hand with some of these techniques.
Image © Kate Davies Designs Ltd
My Nut-Hap design for The Book of Haps features a few tricks to give a really polished finished scarf. First up is the tubular cast on - my all-time favourite way to give your knitting a professional finish. Here's our YouTube video to talk you through how to work the cast on:
Nut-Hap then uses tucks to create an architectural shape to the lower edge. These are worked in with the ribbing of the body, and we've made videos to show you how to do the separating row:
And another video to show you how to work the joining row:
I do hope that you will find these tutorials helpful. You can see more over on our YouTube channel: Arnall-Culliford Knitwear on YouTube
Frome Independent and the delights of The Bakemonger
I am fortunate to live in a town that I really love. Frome is a place where people have creative ideas, and then they get up and do something about it. There's always something going on, from the Frome Comic Con, to the Half Marathon, people have ideas and run with them (sometimes literally!). One of my favourite events is the Frome Independent - a huge market that takes over the centre of town on the first Sunday of each month between April and December. The market is run by a not-for-profit organisation and aims to:
showcase the very best of independent produce, retail and makers that the region has to offer, against a backdrop of music, visual art and events
The market is a feast - and not just in the sense of the choice of things to eat! So when I first heard about the Market Makers scheme I signed up straight away. Running a market of this size in a way that supports both the town and the traders is a huge undertaking, and I fervently want the market to continue, thrive and grow (not just to survive), so we handed over our cash.
Imagine our delight a few weeks later when we learned that we had won a celebration cake (from the Market Makers scheme) from our absolute favourite Frome Independent trader: The Bakemonger! My mouth is already watering at the thought of what tasty treat I might enjoy at tomorrow's market. I'm a sucker for her salted caramel brownies - just as delicious as they are beautiful!
The whole process of choosing our cake was a treat. We decided to use the cake to celebrate the arrival of our new nephew, and Helen talked us through deciding on flavours and then design. We chose a rich chocolatey cake with passion fruit curd and chocolate ganache, decorated with white chocolate discs and stunning origami fans. The cake was jaw-droppingly beautiful and completely delicious.
It was the perfect celebration cake for our new nephew, and I've been pondering excuses to order another cake ever since... Many, many thanks to all the team at both the Frome Independent and to Helen at The Bakemonger, for not only giving us such a great market every month, but also for our delicious cake.
If you haven't already visited Frome, then I highly recommend a weekend break for the first Sunday of the month. And if you live too far away, then you can enjoy the cakes vicariously on The Bakemonger's stunning Instagram account: @the_bakemonger and see the action at the market on the Frome Independent's Instagram account: @thefromeindependent
I will be back soon with knitting content... in the meantime, if you care about local events, then find ways to support them! Use it or lose it is sadly the way these days.