I wrote this post last week, but couldn’t post it because my internet was down. Better late than never, I guess. Hope you’re all enjoying 2010. :)

At last the chaos of the festive season is over. The decorations are neatly packed in boxes for another year, the leftover turkey is (finally) finished – though there are still enough mince pies to last another month or two – and you can actually walk through Tesco’s at a reasonable pace. Ahhh. I got some lovely presents this Christmas, including the ‘Never Not Knitting’ page-a-day calendar, the Yarn Harlot’s ‘Free Range Knitter’, and a stitch dictionary (a knitter’s dream, surely). I’ve never had a page-a-day calendar before. There’s something both satisfying and terrifying about ripping away days and throwing them in the recycling bin. I also borrowed ‘Twilight’ from my cousins and spent boxing day reading it when I probably should have been interacting with my extended family. Oops.

I’m very excited because I have about 5 pages of new year’s resolutions (so far).* It’s a list I can turn to if I ever feel like I’m stagnating. All the items are easy and fun to accomplish, and I can take some sort of action towards them immediately, even if it’s just a bit of googling, but each one is part of the “grand plan”. I encourage you to give this a go. Don’t just make resolutions like, “Eat less” or “work less”, make your resolutions compelling and simple so you can’t wait to fulfill them!

Last year I also tried the idea of having a word that I could mull & ponder & use, which was ‘enthusiast’ (not ‘enthusiastic’ or ‘enthusiasm’). I found it very helpful, so I’ve decided to pick one for 2010. My guiding phrase for this year is ‘travelling light’, which I feel is a great metaphor that I can apply to any area I need: travel, photography, eating & drinking, dressing, living, working, etc. It also happens to be the name of one of my favourite JJ Cale songs (’Travelin’ Light’ to be precise).

To top it all off, here’s a PDF I cobbled together for myself. It’s 4 little cards that you can use to write notes in, things you want to think about every day; maybe the values you want to live by, your new year’s resolutions, actions you want to remember to take every day to Raise Your Standards. I’m sorry the picture isn’t terribly suitable. I wanted to represent a “standard-bearer”, but I wasn’t prepared to spend 40 hours trying to draw one. Just imagine yourself lifting your standard high above your head for all to see, as you march forward to conquer. :)

*I posted a few of them on 43Things.

Every knitter knows this is the best possible advice in all circumstances. Even if you’re procrastinating by knitting, hey, at least you’ll have a jumper by the end of it! If you’re a strung out, tangled-up, deadline-bound knitwear designer, every time you look at this poster I hope it will remind you to take a deep breath and remember why you love knitting. See number 1? It’s calming. If you’re snowed under with Christmas knitting/shopping/carding, if you’re annoyed at someone, or if you’ve just been dumped (ahem), keep calm and cast on. Stiff upper lip, darlings.

Click on any of the thumbnails to download a PDF file of the poster. Then print away!

The crown design is from a slipover I started knitting years ago, by the way. I suspect it just needed to be seamed together, but it’s still sitting in a basket in Ankara. Funny how that happens…

Hello! Welcome to those of you who found me last weekend thanks to the lovely Julia. I hope I won’t disappoint! It’s Bank Holiday Monday here in the UK (a 3-day weekend, basically). I haven’t enjoyed weekends very much since I left school (whatever happened to saturday night?). For a start, I always get the urge to order yarn on Friday evening, just when I’ll have longest to wait for it. Then if I decide to go to the library, or to the supermarket, it’s always extra crowded. And then the internet is always so quiet (where do you all go? sniff). Besides, I’m not going to stop “working” just because it’s not a “workday” for most people! But well, thanks to Julia and the Twist Collective, this weekend was devoid of its usual tedium, and I was bouncing around in excitement instead. So welcome! :)

It’s another grey day here, but I hope you’re making the most of your long weekend (if you have one) to do some knitting. I felt like something quick and cosy yesterday & found this in my stash. I love Colinette so much. This is One Zero in the colourway ‘Banwy’ (I wish their website still had those charming blurbs, remember those?). I found myself driving (well, being driven) through Banwy the other day, but unfortunately we didn’t have time to stop and scout out the Colinette workshop. Anyway, I absolutely adore this colourway (though no photos can do it justice), in particular the inky blacks that look like they’ve been dripped onto a light mossy green pool. Welsh slate, mossy rocks, tenebrous woods, and (this is pure genius) the rosy glow of morning sunshine on limewash. How did they do it? How did those clever Colinette dyers manage to put all this in a yarn?

You really don’t need to work hard to show it off. Sometimes the simplest thing is the best: stocking stitch (stockinette for Colinette, you might say). Wide and loose cowls seem to be in fashion this winter, but I like mine to actually keep my neck warm! And this is the perfect width for that. It’s jolly tricky taking photos of yourself with a manual focus 50mm lens, by the way.

There were so many sixes in this pattern, I decided to call it the Sixes Cowl, maybe it’ll make it easier for you to remember if you decide to knit one.

Simple Instructions for the Sixes Cowl

You might just be able to squeeze a cowl out of one hank of One Zero, but get a couple (or 6) just to be sure.
Gauge is also a bit tricky since One Zero is a thick & thin yarn, but mine is approx. 12 sts / 19 rows to 10cm/4in of stocking st.

Using 6mm 60cm circular needles,

Cast on 66 sts & join to work in the round.
Work in 1×1 rib for 6 rows.
Work in stocking stitch for 30cm / 12in (or however long you desire).
Work 6 rows in 1×1 rib.
Cast off in rib.
Weave in ends (my cowl is still umbilical).

Easy, eh? Look at that sweet wobbly cast off! Because of the uneven nature of the yarn, your stocking stitch will have gentle waves. I recommend you enjoy it that way, rather than trying to block it flat. If you need help with circular knitting, read All About Circular Knitting. And did I mention you can wear it either way out?

Just in case you haven’t got any One Zero handy though, and you can’t bear the wait, how about having a picture of it to warm up your desktop? You can download a large copy of the photo above from Flickr, which should shrink to size when you apply it to your desktop. If it doesn’t work though, let me know your screen resolution & I’ll see if I can whip up some specific sizes. :)

P.S. I was very tempted to call this ‘Cawl’ (pronounced ‘cowl’), which is a hearty Welsh soup made with leftovers. Just the thing after a long damp walk. But then I thought (cowls being addictive) that maybe I’ll knit another cowl to call Cawl, what do you think? ;)

A gift is not worth giving unless you’d rather keep it yourself.

I read this long ago in a novel and since then I’m reminded of it every time I’m buying a gift, or trying hard to convince myself not to part with it. For example, I bought a couple skeins of Debbie Bliss SoHo the other day, which I believe is now discontinued. It’s in that ingenius blue/lilac combination and oh, what a cool hat I could make with it. Something floppy for an autumn pallette of browns, blues, and purples. Siigh.

But I restrained myself (really, I did!). They were the last two left in the yarn shop, and they’re now safe in the hands of a very capable knitter, who will doubtless make something fabulous out of them.

You may remember the gift tags (with garment care symbols on the back) from a while back. They were one of my gifts to you. :) Well you loved them so much that I decided to extend them into a whole range of printable knitty goodies for gift-giving. You can download it here. The PDF file is stuffed with everything I could think of that you could possibly need to give, send, present, yield, lend, donate, surrender, devote, label, write, organise, entrust, relinquish, pass down, bequeath or swap:

• Labels
• Gift Tags
• Writing paper
• Notecards
• Envelope
• Stickers
• Bookmarks
• Bookplates
• Wrappers
• Sleeves
• Small sleeves
• Pillowboxes
• Straight sheaths
• DPN sheaths
• Yarn bag
• Tips & tricks for printing, cutting, and construction.

You can view all the photos here on Flickr. I hope you enjoy them. I have at least one more collection planned, with useful things like calendars, index cards, invites, etc. Suggestions are most welcome!

Don’t you love looking through books of stitch patterns for knitting inspiration? I often keep a few next to my bedside and flick through them before I fall asleep. Stitch patterns are a brilliant opportunity to practice, learn new techniques, and begin to solve the mystery of how stitches create different fabrics. They’re often a good starting point for designs too, especially if you don’t yet have the time or expertise to discover your own.

I’ve selected six stitch patterns to highlight knitted texture, lace, and ribbing, and because I wanted to make this booklet extra useful, each of the stitches is photographed on the right side and the wrong side (I haven’t seen this done before, but I wish more publications would adopt the practice), and I offer additional tips and advice to help you on your way.

Whether you’re a beginner or a bored expert, I think you’ll enjoy The Little eBook of Knitting Stitches. I’m offering it as a free gift to subscribers of the Laylock mailing list. The subject of the mailings will be ‘better living through knitting‘, emails will only be sent once or twice a month, and of course I will never spam you or share your information. Nevertheless, if you’d really rather not subscribe, write me an email & I’ll send you the PDF file anyway. Just because. :)

Sign up below (or here), and leave your comments below that to let me know what you think of your small gift. Happy knitting!

If you find my free Knit Love gift tags, and Bird Labels useful, and fancy making your own, here is an .svg file of the blank care symbols. I made these using Inkscape, which is a great open source vector graphics program. If you need some guidance using Inkscape, The Knitting Penguin has started an excellent series called ‘Inkscape for Knitters‘ which will teach you enough about Inkscape to use this .svg file. She’s clearly put a lot of time and effort into the series, so please take the time to thank her.

The blank symbols are public domain, so feel free to use them as you wish! Enjoy!

I had a lovely Easter weekend, full of amazing food, flowers, fun, sunshine, boating & bunnies. I’ve loved seeing all the Chick Egg Cosies popping up on Ravelry during Easter. Eight-year-old Rose Red made a very sweet yellow chick, chia777 didn’t have any felt, so she beaded the beak, clockworkpurple made some with googly eyes (if I ever get my hands on some googly eyes, I’m going to make some that look like Pacman ghosts, with zig-zag edges!), smartcinderella made some cosies that are laced up corset-like, and theknittedcupcake knit some amazing multi-coloured chicklets. All so clever & crafty! If you haven’t knit any yet, remember, chicks and eggs aren’t just for Easter! :) Also very lovely was seeing Vetiverknits’s finished Houses Slipover in gorgeous merino cashmere from The Knittery. Just nothing more exciting and satisfying than seeing people enjoying knitting from your patterns. Thank you all!

I’ve been knitting too, of course, and fiercely designing. I have too much inspiration for two hands, as always! But in addition to the knitting, I’m also very excited to be writing reviews for Cast On! I’m somewhat ashamed to say that I had never listened to Cast On until a few weeks ago; have I been living under a knitted rock? I remember last year a fellow knitter (Julia, who I met on Ravelry) and I were sitting in Aberystwyth Arts Centre drinking coffee and she told me I should really go listen to some knitting podcasts. She then whisked me off to a dance lesson and in between trying to remember the steps to the cha cha and the waltz I completely forgot about this excellent piece of advice. Well, I have now finished Series 5 of Cast On and I’m hooked on Brenda’s lovely voice, and in particular her weekly sweaters. My first review as a Knit Review Minion is for Simple Style, from the same series as Interweave’s Lace Style, Folk Style, and Wrap Style. I hope you have a read and let me know what you think, if only for my somewhat silly, rhyming bio!

I’ve also been playing around with knit “patterns” of another kind recently, and they developed into these gift tags. Small hearts and kisses in stitches & knitting needles. Like my birdy labels, and the labels that come with the Houses Slipover, they have empty care symbols that you can fill in according to the yarn you’ve used for your gift. The tags are now licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License, but I would like to ask that you link to this blog post rather than directly to the PDF. Thank you & I hope you enjoy them! :)

A few tips:

• Fold & glue the tags before cutting them out. Less cutting!
• I find the tags are firm enough when printed on regular printer paper & then folded, however, you could also print them on card. Check your printer manual for help.
• You could fold the tags, but leave them unglued & use the inside for extra space to write your message.
• Punching holes in the right spot takes a bit of practice! ;)
• You could also use these tags to label swatches!

Have you seen the new KnitLove collection?

The countryside is as beautiful and muddy as ever. I can hear my latest batch of neighbours being unloaded as I write. Baa-aa. I’ve been hanging out with the forsythia & the magnolia, and I’m terribly behind on everything, so if you’ve been waiting for a reply or a package from me, don’t give up hope!

Also, I realised yesterday that my feed somehow broke, so you may have missed my last post. It should be fixed now, but if you didn’t subscribe through FeedBurner, you may have to resubscribe. Have a lovely long Easter weekend! Eat lots of chocolate & don’t forget to take your camera with you!

It has taken me ages to get around to blogging this, but the Laylock website is finally up! I’m quite pleased with the way it looks at the moment, and can’t wait to fill it up properly.

In anticipation of Easter (which is on the 12th of April this year), I decided to re-relase my Chick Egg Cosy pattern as a PDF, with extra instructions. It’s been getting a lot of love on Ravelry, with over 200 faves! :) I gave all of the original chicks away to friends, so I had to knit another couple to photograph. Here they are, modeled by real eggs. They even had some adventures, before I gave them away too. You’ll notice the second chick posing in front of the Twitter main page. That’s because he’s a Twitter bird! If you’re a Twitter fan too, hop over and follow me, then knit yourself a few blue egg cosies. They’ll keep your egg warm in the morning while you tweet, tweet, tweet.

Thank you so much for all your excellent suggestions regarding the postcards. The Random.org random number generator chose #1! So congratulations to LittleWit, I’ll be sending you a package very soon!

I was very interested to hear that CraftyCripple, Vanessa, and StephCat prefer notecards. Like Tekopp, I find postcards very versatile, easy to stick on the wall, or pop into a package without fiddling with envelopes. Not to mention cheaper to post! I can see the arguments for notecards though: they can be stood on a shelf, and they are more private. Either way, I love StephCat’s idea of using them in knitswaps. To this end, as Sarah suggested, the ‘nature’ cards will be grouped separately to the ‘knitting’ cards, and I will take care to make them “generic” enough to be useful for a variety of greetings.

Having said that, until I do some notecard-printing research, the first batch of cards in the shop will be postcards. I will try to get them up sometime next week. Thank you all once again for your comments!

I have written up my solution to the little challenge I posed in Playing Houses as a PDF. I hope you enjoy it! It’s a very quick knit and I think quite sweet. If you think of any more solutions, please don’t hesitate to post them. I’d also love to hear how you get on with my explanation (it’s far easier to execute than to explain, believe me!).

Log Cabin (PDF)