Kilim Cushion, Knitting, issue 92, August 2011

The latest issue of ‘Knitting’ has hit the shops and it’s theme is ‘glamping’. What is it? Well glam camping of course, and as one who has just watched coverage of last weekend’s Glastonbury with a nostalgic glint in my eye it would be my preferred choice. I went ( to Glasters ) the year the Pyramid stage burnt down and amongst many bands remember seeing Orbital on the Saturday night. It was an amazing experience and though I would LOVE to go again my days of roughing it on hard ground are over, I’d like to be able to walk the next day thanks. So yes, back to the magazine and therefore my latest design, the Kilim cushion.

Image copyright Jeanette Sloan

It’s a large floor cushion which as it’s name suggests was inspired by not just the patterning but also the beautful faded qualities which are so characteristic of traditional kilims. It’s knitted using the intarsia technique using Sirdar Click Chunky with Wool which I felt was the perfect choice as it has gentle tonal changes throughout the colourway which gives the finished cushion a slightly aged look.

At 60 cm square I wanted to keep the scale of the patterning bold rather than use a smaller motif repeated several times across the design. The main colour ( sh 111 Blazer ) is a wonderfully bright, almost tweedy mix of reds, pinks, oranges, yellow, ecru and even a touch of power blue. This clever blend of so many colours means it would suit just about any colour scheme. As a contrast I chose another yarn by Sirdar, the more neutral  Escape Chunky although don’t let the neutral description make you think of boring ecru, again there are a lot more subtle changes in each colourway, and I used sh 198.

Sketching out my first ideas

The cushion is fabric backed and fastened with 3 large wooden buttons and button loops which are made from yarn rather than fabric in order to tie the whole thing together. I’ll be writing a little tutorial on the making up of this design and adding it to the blog in the next couple of days

Image copyright Jeanette Sloan

Orient Doctor’s Bag, Knitting Magazine issue 88, April 2011

Just like waiting for a bus, no blog posts for ages and then they come along in threes, alright two, but you know what I mean.

Hot on the heels of the Pyjama Case in the March issue of Knitting comes my latest design in Knitting’s April issue 88, the Orient Doctor’s Bag.

I really feel in my element designing bags and with every design I try to improve on the finishing touches that mean the difference between something that looks ‘homemade’ and something that’s been handmade.

This design marries the types of patterning and motifs you might find on Far Eastern carpets with the generous domed Doctor’s bag shape. ‘Orient’ is mainly knitted using a single end of  JC Rennie’s Chunky Aran & Jamieson & Smith’s Shetland Aran though for a couple of colours I used 3 ends of JC Rennie’s Unique Shetland 4ply to bring it up to an approximate Aran weight. I also had to make a conscious effort to stay away from my usual palette of Autumnal browns & reds or bright pinks & orange and work with what for me is a fresher colour story, ocean blue, azure, mint, marzipan, white and ochre.

The gently curved sides of the bag are charted and worked in intarsia combined with Swiss darning to create the ‘background’ patterning. On top of that twisted chainstitch, regular chainstitch, French knots and bullion knots are used to work the 3 dimensional tendrils, flowers and buds. As with my Eastwood bag ‘Orient’s base creates a contrast both in terms of pattern and texture and because the base of the bag is likely to get the dirtiest I chose to use the dark blue ( Ocean Force sh 1048 ) as the main colour for the stranded pattern accented with white and ochre which also picks up the colour of the bag’s brass feet. A purl stitch stripe breaks up an otherwise plain stocking stitch top panel and strongly coloured horizontal stripes focus the eye on the chunky zip fastener and its tassled pull ( the zip is inserted after the bag has been felted ).

Once again I’ve been drooling over the pages of product over at UHandbag.com and chosen the best hardware I could find to give the bag a professional touch. The bronze bag  feet, chocolate brown Italian Piped Leather handles and bag bottom are all available there. (Thanks Lisa).

I’ll be posting a tutorial on how to make up the bag base for this design in the next couple of weeks. There’s been a slight ‘oops’ in the printed instructions on page 80 of the magazine and the key to symbols is missing. Apologies all round but I’ve added one here

Pyjama Case, Knitting issue 87, March 2011

All’s been a bit quiet on the blog front for what seems like quite a while now. That’s because I’ve been busy with the final amendments to the book , ( more on that next week )  more work for the lovely folk at ‘Knitting’ magazine as well as making some changes to the website. I’m hoping that all that will be ready to upload next week but I’m also in the midst of packing to move house – again.

My latest published design is in the March issue ( no 87 ) of ‘Knitting’. It’s a pretty pyjama case knitted in Knitshop‘s gorgeous Mulberry Silk / Merino Wool. This DK weight yarn is a 50/50 blend and has a very soft twist which actually makes it more like roving in terms of it’s construction and the silk content gives each of the colours has a wonderfully lustrous quality. The case combines a beaded rib structure dotted with tiny ‘nupps’ and a central panel of twist stitches and eyelets.I’ve used 2 different colours of beads ( from  my lovely friends at The Little Bead Shop ) which echo the colour of the yarn.

The case is just the right size for storing your favourite pair of PJs or even your prettiest nightie and the front opening is finished off with 4 small knitted buttons.

Every boudoir should have one!

Oops, the sequel!

Huge apologies to readers of ‘Knitting’ magazine who may have been trying in vain to find the new ‘Ask Jeanette’ tab promised in the March issue. The scheduled publication went slightly awry but it’s here now. I thought it would be a good thing to add to the blog as it’ll be handy for giving additional information that won’t fit into the magazine.

Down in the smoke part 3

Yep, I’m off to London again tomorrow for the Ravelry talk at Knit Nation! Should be interesting to hear from Jess and Casey about how the big beautiful creature that is Ravelry came about and where they see it going. After that there’ll be a few nippy sweeties with Fiona from Bucks New University and Emma K from ‘Knitting’ magazine – I’ll see if I can take a few pics and post when I get back.

The old, the Stoll and the new

The old?

That’ll be me, well at least the way I’m feeling today but pleased that my latest design for ‘Knitting’ magazine made the cover.

The Stoll?

Found a new home for it, just need to dismantle it and get it down 4 floors, into the car and drive it 500 miles to it’s new home

The new?

The lovely new collection hugely talented knit students from Bucks New University, have a look at their work on their website ‘Red Shed Textiles’ here. Why Red Shed? Well as anyone who’s been to the college will know the department’s based in a huge red shed which used to house some of the building courses. At least it has windows now, when I worked there it was like working in a sauna, anyway, enough rambling.

Enjoy

Floral Sleeveless Top, Knitting issue 79

This is the original sketch for the top

This pretty little stocking stitch number is knitted in Garnstudio Drops Cotton Viscose. There are vertical stripes of lace  across the upper bust and back with a deep slit opening at the back fastened with a single button. I’ve used  Gedifra Amara for the embroidery because the colours look stunning against the lustrous black of the viscose and it’s a very easy design to wear whether you dress it up with a floaty skirt and a pair of girly heels or dress it down with a pair of skinny jeans and ballet pumps.

The embroidery is placed assymetrically placed on the garment travelling over the left shoulder to the back.

In terms of difficulty it’s a simply shaped garment with lace holes echoing the shaping of the armholes and the opening at the back. I know that embroidery on a knitted item can sometimes be offputting if you don’t feel that your embroidery skills are up to scratch and though I use embroidery in a lot of my designs I’m self taught  so the stitches I use are well within everyone’s capabilities. Just to show how ‘do able’ the stitches are I’ve done little how to video clips for the 4 main techniques I’ve used in a new section of the blog called ‘How To’s’ here

Felted Floral Bag, Knitting magazine issue 78

First sketches for the felted bag

I don’t just like designing bags, I LOVE designing bags. Even as a child I was fascinated by the various bags and accessories in my mum’s wardrobe, and as a God-fearing Bajan woman my mum went to church twice every Sunday elegantly turned out in a fab outfit finished off with a killer hat and co-ordinating bag. Now as an adult I’m not one of those shoe obsessed women, I’m proud to say that I’m a bag lady.

This bag is knitted using my felted bag yarn of choice, Jamieson & Smith’s 2ply Jumperweight. Like the Gladstone Bag I designed for The Knitter, I’ve used the yarn doubled to make it DK. The large scale florals are worked using the intarsia technique with bullion knots and beads worked at the centre of each flower and the swirling foliage Swiss darned into the background  after knitting. Felting not only tightens up the fabric to make the bag more substantial and less likely to sag when used but also blurs the colours slightly, almost like taking down the colour setting on the TV, ( does that make sense?).

In terms of difficulty if you haven’t tried intarsia before  this probably shouldn’t be your first project as there are lots of colour changes and therefore ends to deal with at the flower centres. If you have knitted intarsie before it’s a really enjoyable project to do, just enough changes to make it interesting with all the flowers placed to the right of the bag and then a contrast of a plain background to knit in stocking stitch. I thought the dark colour of the background would be too ‘heavy’ against the bright flowers so it’s broken up with curls of Swiss darning. The beads and bullion knots are added after felting, you could add a lot more knots, use  much bigger beads or even small buttons at the centres.

Although I tend not to line my bags I have lined this one and finished it off with a curved bamboo handle from Bags of Handles.

Detail of embroidered floral centre

Ask Jeanette, Knitting issue 77

Last year I was asked to become the new host of the letters page in ‘Knitting’ magazine, taking over from Jean Moss, the previous host and as well as being flatterd, frankly I dreaded having to fill such large shoes. I’ve been doing it for a while now and hopefully have helped to solve the knitting dilemmas of the magazine’s readers half as well as Jean. In this month’s issue I was asked about methods for knitting i-cords and though there are a few knitting mills on the market you may prefer to do it ‘old school’ with a pair of dpns, here’s how . . .(you’ll have to excuse the quality of the video, I’m no Ridley Scott)

How to knit an i-cord

►

Kitglobal, Knitting magazine September issue 2009

 

I was chuffed to bits that the ‘Alfie’ Mock Cable Scarf made the magazine’s Product Roundup as they gave us a fantastic review. The Baby Alpaca that we use in our kits is easily the softest alpaca I’ve ever worked  with and  we’ve worked really hard to ensure every kit is really good value for money. The down side is that they’ve entitled it ’6 of the Best: knit kits under £25.00′ when the actual price of the kit is £28.00. For that price though you do get 200g of fab yarn, a pair of lovely bamboo needles, pattern instructions and a lovely Kitglobal ‘kit’ bag to put your work in whilst you’re knitting. I’ve been assured there’ll be a correction in the next issue of ‘Knitting’