July 2011

Well after months and months of anticipation Knit Nation is almost upon us and this will be my first year showing in the Marketplace. I travelled down last year for the Ravelry talk with Jess and Casey and had a quick opportunity to nosey around at the various vendors. There was such a lovely selection I decided I had to do it, so I’ll be there next week.

I was really hoping to launch 2 new yarns at the show but unfortunately there have been delays in production which mean that they won’t arrive in time. Though I’m really disappointed I will be bringing the wonderfully soft Chunky Baby Alpaca, Worsted Spun Cashmere and a selection of my printed patterns as well as of course Collection One and 14 shades of the Knitglobal 4ply Sock Yarn.

I’ve got together with the lovely Emma at Atomic Knitting to create an exclusive extra gift with purchases over £25.00 plus there’ll be a chance to win a copy of Collection One plus yarn to knit one of the projects. Events like this are a great excuse to catch up with friends and hopefully making lots of new ones so if Knit Nation is even half as good as last year, it will be brilliant.

Hope to see you there

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.

Kilim cushion Jeanette Sloan — 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.

kilim cushion — 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