I know that’s a long title, right? Well, it kind of sums up where I‘m at right now.
So much has happened in the last three years, culminating in a major house move towards the end of last year. And because I’m keen to give myself time and space to process these changes, 2024 marks the start of a new chapter. One where I’ll be adjusting to life in my new home city of Bristol and taking mindful steps each day to listen to what my body needs. Whether that’s reading, resting, cooking, crafting or soaking up the culture of my new hometown, this year, you should expect to see something a little different from me.
And what better way to kick off the year than with a new design? Having kept this under wraps for several months, I can finally reveal I have a design in Laine Publishing’s new book, 52 Weeks of Accessories.
Hidden Star is a mitten & fingerless mitt pattern that celebrates my love of beaded knitting, and as the temperature drops here in the UK, the timing couldn’t be better. Hidden Star is about snuggling up (remember my constantly cold hands) but with a twist on traditional stranded colourwork. Blocks of different coloured beads draw the eyes to a dart-like shape on the back of each mitten, and these mirrored darts reveal a star-like motif when both hands are placed together. So when one of my fabulous test knit team suggested the name Hidden Star, I jumped at it. It’s perfect, don’t you agree?
The mittens are knitted in John Arbon Exmoor 4ply Sock. After doing some initial swatching, I found knitting with two close tones of the yarn held together produced the gentle marled colour effect I wanted for this design. So, I mixed orange (Quick Beam) and red (Peggles) for the top section and dark turquoise (Plashes) and navy (Whortleberries) for the bottom section, with an acid green (Oddmedod) stripe cutting across the centre of the mitt to give the eye a lift. Of course, if you prefer, you can use a regular DK yarn in a single colour to make Hidden Star, as some of my test knitters did.
At this point, I must say a HUGE thank you to every member of my fabulous test-knit team who pulled out all the stops to meet an incredibly tight deadline when testing this pattern. They showed such grace and patience while I juggled with a new-to-me project management platform, responded to their queries and quickly picked up on my occasional lapses in concentration. You are all amazing, thank you!! #teamtestknit
As you can see, the results of the Hidden Star test show how you can channel your inner designer with the yarns and colours you use. I love how each knitter’s combination of yarn and bead choice reveals a little something about their personality. Seeing how every team member worked through their allocated version of the design was pure joy. Each was asked to knit a specific size and version for a full test of the pattern instructions, and what was even more gratifying was that some had never tried beaded colourwork before. That made it even more incredible that they could turn this test around in the time given while navigating such a steep learning curve.
Oh, I should mention the beads; I mean, how could I forget them? As the pattern is knitted in a DK weight, I’ve used Debbie Abrahams size 6 glass seed beads in purple (Rainbow), orange (Fruit Salad) and clear. These colours really pop on the marl background, and slipping the beads in groups rather than singly – what I like to call beaded floats – makes the star motif stand out even more effectively.
I’ve created many mittens and glove patterns over the years. I particularly like offering them in full mitten or fingerless mitt options, as I did for Toasty Cosy, part of the Warm Hands collection I co-edited with my friend, designer Kate Davies. With each design, I try to inject some intriguing details to make them more interesting for you – the knitter. After all, when you knit one of my designs, you’re investing both time and money into making the project, and both are precious. So you’ll be pleased to hear that short-row shaping and an i-cord cast-off also appear in this design (i-cord cast-off used in the fingerless mitt version only).
Hidden Star can be found in Laine Publishing’s 52 Weeks of Accessories. It’s a stunning collection of inspiring makes, and I’m proud to have my design featured alongside such an impressive pool of international design talent. If you hop over to the Laine Publishing website, you can pre-order 52 Weeks of Accessories and get a sneaky preview of all the designs. I hope you like Hidden Star. It feels great to start the year with the release of this new pattern, and I’d love to hear what you think of it.
Oh, and before I go, if you’re in the mood for glove, mitten and mitt knitting this weekend, you can get 15% off Warm Hands over on my website. No code is needed, but the offer ends at 11.59pm Sunday, 14th January GMT.
Until next time, stay warm and happy making!
J x
You go for months without so much as a word from me and then you can’t shut me up.
No 1 Skeete Road is a lace design worked on a 4.50 mm needle and for those of you who love a stashbuster project – and let’s face it who doesn’t – it takes just one hank of 4ply / fingering weight yarn. This design came about through me falling in love with a yarn back when I wrote the Yarn Reviews for Knitting Magazine. As someone who’s a bit of a sucker for an alpaca yarn I knew from the moment I unwound the hank of John Arbon’s Alpaca Delight that knitting a sample swatch wasn’t going to be enough, somehow I had to keep hold of the rest of the yarn. Promising to create a design that would take just one hank meant that not only could I hold onto it for just a bit longer but I could also scratch my creative itch too.
It’s always interesting to see how my designs are styled in magazines and Christine Boggis Knitting’s editor has gone for a classic feminine look in the current issue whilst I’m more likely to wear it wrapped back to front around my neck as a scarf. And as Alpaca Delight is a deliciously soft blend of 70% Superfine Alpaca / 30% Organically farmed Falklands Merino it’s guaranteed to keep me warm without that irritating tickle. In terms of colour the 7 pastel shades available in Alpaca Delight are all very delicate so if for example Raspberry which I’ve used here isn’t your style, why not search through your stash and dig out 100g of fingering weight yarn in a much bolder colour? I’d love to see the results.
I think I first posted about working with this shade of Rowan’s Cotton Rope back in July last year and as is often the case, it’s been languishing in my stash for years before that. Although my memory is pretty shocking nowadays I clearly remember the day this yarn joined the realms of the Sloan Stash. I’d bought it as stock whilst running HKhandknit in Edinburgh and fell in love with the colour as soon as I clapped eyes on it. It sat, and sat and sat on the shelves for a whole summer (obviously at the time too bright for my Edinburgh customers) and when Rowan decided to discontinue it I felt it would be happiest and best appreciated in my possession. All 22 balls of it.
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