Weaving in ends – sneaky techniques with EastLondonKnit

EastLondonKnit has returned to the blog to help the speedy people already finishing up their Naloa in the ongoing KAL. Thanks Renee, and well done speedsters! 😉

(It is still not too late to start your shawl as the KAL runs till October 4th and there are many exciting prizes available for those who take part.)

I love how this technique hides the straggling threads and makes the weaving in seamless. So sneaky and clever!

Take it away, Renee…

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Hello!

Naloa features gently undulating stripes of colours in the lace edging.  Each colour change begins on a right-side row, thereby making an end to be woven in once the shawl is complete. (So if you’ve just completed a RS row, slide the work to the other end of the needle, and begin the next row from the RS again!)

There are many ways to weave in ends, but when working with lace, you have to be more careful to keep it tidy and invisible.

I used duplicate stitch in Naloa. It’s a handy technique for  solving many different problems.  Check out this primer.

First, thread a sharp tapestry needle with the end, and following the end from whence it came, trace the row back through 4-6 stitches, splitting the yarn with the needle.

Although I wove in my ends before the shawl was blocked, many people prefer to do so afterward, to make sure they don’t tighten the edges of the shawl too much.

I can’t wait to see your beautifully finished Naloa Shawl!

Happy knitting!

Renee

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Make sure to check out Renee’s other beautiful designs on Ravelry and find more  useful tutorials on her blog and follow her on Twitter or Instagram.

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Little wayward tidbits

I have been on a bit of a break for the last few days and won’t be answering emails until the 16th as I take a proper rest!

Thought I would share some images of my Naloa in progress as I’ve just added my first contrast colour stripe…

…and an image of my new, local, vintage habadashery Wayward in St. Leonard’s to amuse you!

 

More soon!

Naloa KAL starting this Saturday Aug… 30th…!!

This last month has been a huge roller coaster ride for me as I have moved house/city and have relocated next to the British seaside! Your parcel of yarn-y goodness will now be winging to you from the lovely Hastings:

Hastings castle on the day I arrived!

With all the moving palava I realised only the other day that I’d made an error on the Naloa KAL start date. Huge apologies for the confusion…  We will be casting on TOMORROW – Saturday August 30^th, running to  Saturday October 4^th.

BEYUL fingering shown in ‘yurt’ and ‘turquoise tarn’ colourways , image © EastLondonKnit

There are still kits for the shawl on the shop…

Naloa by EastLondonKnit – detail, shades of BEYUL image © Kettle Yarn Co.

…and see the KAL group page for details of all the fantastic prizes!

I can’t wait to pick this project back up! The shawl will be my holiday knitting as I am taking a full 2 weeks off starting Sunday.

If you order any yarn after tomorrow please be aware that shipping will be delayed until September 16th while I am on leave.

 

Naloa shawl inspiration from EastLondonKnit

The ELK, herself, EastLondonKnit, has been kind enough to offer to help me out for the next few weeks as I am swamped with some personal stuff! Here she is for her first post, discussing her inspiration for Naloa! Thanks Renee!

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Hello!

When Linda told me she had a new, exotic yarn base made of silk and yak and that she was working on a palette for this new yarn inspired by Tibetan traditions, I was so excited!  The richness of tone and hue were visually intoxicating and I was only too happy to design something to compliment the beautiful combo of yarn and colour.

 

After much debate, we decided the undyed Yurt and the gorgeous Turquoise Tarn were destined to be a new shawl.

 

Now I have never been to the Himalayas, so I have no idea how accurate Google’s depiction of the beauty of the place is, but it looks stunning.

 

This is a Himalayan Tarn from Adam Elliot’s superb photography blog.

A beautiful image of a tarn from my neck of the woods.

I love the naturally bright blue green of the tarn against the stark, rocky mountain landscape, and took the water as my inspiration.

 

The summer-time weather dictated something lovely and lacy.  For this shawl, I wanted the ‘work’ to be right-side only— in other words, every WS row would be simple purling; I wanted the rivulets that radiated from the centre all the way to edges to create a distinct and easy-to-follow structure, and I wanted some variation on simple stripes. I began to swatch…

 

…and sketch….

 

 

And it wasn’t long before it came together. In the end, I think I managed a shawl that is enjoyable but not complicated to knit, which shows off a gorgeous yarn.

Naloa shawl by EastLondonKnit, image © EastLondonKnit

Happy knitting!

Renee

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You can find Renee on her website or blog and follow her on Twitter or Instagram.!

Naloa shawl now available – and impromtu London trunk show!

Renee Callahan’s breathtaking Naloa shawl is now available for purchase on Ravelry! A simple, elegant shawl, this is a top-down triangular shawl with streams of stacked eyelets running out from the centre to wavelets of lace in the border. Designed to be knit with 2 skeins of BEYUL fingering, Naloa features a simple alternation of colour to bring out the beautiful flow of the lace pattern.

As a little added bonus for anyone in the London area this weekend we are also holding at mini-trunk show at the EastLondonKnit studios for the annual arts festival Hackney Wicked:

You can drop by, enjoy the festivities, try on the sample and even purchase some Kettle Yarn Co. yarn to start the shawl! Renee will have some BEYUL in studio for you to see and fondle in person.

 

We are planning a marvelous Knit A Long (KAL) for this beauty which will start on Saturday August 9th and will run to the 13th September and will have some AMAZING prizes for various fun things. We’ll give you more details next week when we’ve worked them out.

Check the blog for details next week and get your Naloa Kit now in the shop while they last. I am planning on taking a bit of a break from dyeing through August, so skeins are limited for the time being!

yurt / turquoise tarn

yurt / electric amaranth

yurt / iceberg

yurt / sacred saffron

Thank you Unwind Brighton!

I have been trying to find a way to describe the wonder that was Unwind Brighton all week and find that words just can’t describe the amazing time I had!  I met such incredible people and a good number of online lovelies from as far away as Tennessee! A darling new friend also brought me chocolates from Brussels!! (pardon the blurry shot, my hands were a bit shakey as I was so excited to crack them open. Thanks again Cissi!) 😉

A HUGENORMOUS thank you to everyone who came by and said hello and took time out to play with me for a bit. It was such a pleasure! I can’t tell you how much it meant to me.

The booth was incredibly busy and I hardly had time to take any shots, but luckily my partner, Jason, took a few in the beginning:

It was such a huge and humbling pleasure to see how excited people were getting about my babies and I had to shake myself time and time again to keep hopping and stop watching everyone squish! You were all so kind!

The fair was a HUGE success and even got mentioned in the Independent… Dani and the team really outdid themselves with their very first event!

There were such an unbelievable number of people I’d always wanted to meet there – Rachel, Cissi, Joji, Helen, Aimee, Bristol, Kari, Ysolda, Kate, Felicia, Cathrin, Victoria, Dieuwke, Asti….and so many others I’ve probably missed here! It was truly difficult not to be a fan-girl, and I tried my very, very hardest not to be annoyingly starstruck – all Canadian-style, eh? (Vancouverites, at any rate, pride themselves on not showing they are starstruck. We DO live in ‘Hollywood North’, after all! hah) It was tough, let me tell you!

And it was SUCH a pleasure to catch up with old friends as well. I loved that people were describing it as ‘Ravelry in real life’, as that is what it felt like – all these people I know from Rav in the flesh! FAB….and they were/are all even more lovely and amazing in real life, too!

I even got to host the winning design competition shawl that was in the programme-  Curious Handmade’s beautiful Pebble Beach Shawlette at the booth. For those of you interested the KAL has officially kicked off! And for those of you that weren’t able to make it last weekend, the pattern is now available online. Knit in only one skein of WESTMINSTER, it is shown here in colourway ‘Gold Rush’:

image © Curious Handmade

I was lucky enough to wear it for a brief moment and have to say it is glorious! It fits beautifully over the shoulders and the ends ruffle down the front like in the photo above. Truly a lovely knit! I am getting more of the blend in this week and will have more colourways in shop next week and at Fibre East at the end of the month.

I was a little bleary by the time Pom Pom Quarterly’s Shindig kicked off on the Saturday evening, but they had arranged a brilliant knitting pub quiz that had us all scratching our heads and laughing. Nice work once again, ladies!

Here is a photo of the ever-gorgeous Lydia and Meghan reading out the answers to the quiz:

image from Instagram (please let me know if this was yours as I can no longer find the original in the stream!!)

I feel that no matter what I say it will be completely inadequate to describe the wonder and joy had by all, so will just end this with a thank you to all who made this weekend so wonderful…you know who you are. ;*

New pattern: Brownlow Wristwarmers!

I wasn’t sure I would have time to get this up on Ravelry before Unwind, but managed to squeeze it in this morning!

I have a new pattern for autumn. Super simple and super quick, the Brownlow Wristwarmers developed out of a successful swatching session with a beautifully bouncy, super-twisted Bluefaced Leicester blend that I fell in love with and became TWIST, as my day job – located in London’s Bloomsbury – was a stone’s throw from the historic house of Charles Dickens, author of the famous Oliver Twist novel!

© Linda Lencovic

While swatching this blend with my new naturally heathered HEATH – 100% ethical Merino – I couldn’t help but notice how perfect it is for garter stitch variations and decided to design something that would showcase both the yarns’ hardwearing qualities, while echoing the Dickensian brick and cobble lined streets filling my daily cityscape in London.

© Linda Lencovic

Mentally, I’ve always pictured Fagin’s crew wearing ratty fingerless gloves in Georgian London, however, these wristwarmers are less street-urchin and much more more elegant! Worked in a delicate garter rib with a flattering stripe of stockinette up the inside wrist to add texture contrast, these are simply knit in the round. The thumbhole is created by simply turning the work and working flat for a number of rows then rejoining to continue in round.

© Linda Lencovic

These beauties are really simple and perfect for knitting two at a time magic loop or for beginners and knit up in a couple evenings.

The pattern is available for download now on Ravelry and will be available free with yarn purchase of both TWIST and HEATH yarns for the pattern till the end of the month as a special promotion for those of you that can’t make the yarn fairs coming up here in the UK! For those of you at Unwind and Fibre-East I will have the yarns available and will email you the pattern on purchase.

I am hoping to have a Knit Along with these in August, so stay tuned for details!

Unveiling my Veil

I’ve been knitting up a storm lately in preparation for the summer shows and  have gotten a bit behind with sharing. My most recent FO is the stunning Veil of Leithen shawl by talented designer Renee Callahan, otherwise known as EastLondonKnit:

I knit this beauty up in less than one skein my new, delicious yak blend BEYUL in colourway Yurt  – which I still haven’t had time to announce properly, but will get around to it in the next few weeks…I promise!

This summer shawl is a lovely top down mesh which finishes in a subtle lace edging knit on all at once.

A mix of the softest yak down, silk, and superwash Merino this blend is just perfect for this delicate shawl. You can see the delicate yak down halo and subtle lustre on the yarn in the photo below!

Renee is currently hosting a KAL with prizes in the Unwind group Ravelry page so you can join in there to win and see FOs.  You can also wear your Veil of Leithen at Unwind Brighton on the 12th/13th July for a chance of winning a prize at the show!

Have you voted?

I was pleasantly surprised early this week when I saw the shortlist for Dani’s Unwind Brighton design competition and realised that not one, but TWO of the fantastic entries use Kettle Yarn Co. yarns! Wheee! How amazing.

In the shortlist for the competition are Rachel Brown’s adorable, squishy-looking Brighton Dome socks:

These beauties are knit in TWIST fingering, a beautiful bouncy yarn in  100% British superwash BFL. This yarn is a great all around blend as it is super soft and perfect for warm shawls, tops, gloves, etc., but also perfect for socks as the Bluefaced Leicester fibre is long-staple so hardwearing with lots of natural tensile strength and abrasion resistance.

Rachel blogged on her design earlier in the week so you can see more details on the design process there along with closeups of the yarn. Now I just need to get someone to knit these for me! ;-D

I have solid colourways of this yarn in this weeks update, and am planning on getting more of this polka dot colourway dyed up for Unwind so watch for it in the shop!

I just noticed that currently first in the running is Helen Stewart’s Pebble Beach Shawlette, knit in my hand painted WESTMINSTER, the softest, slinkiest baby camel/silk!

Helen blogs as Curious Handmade and you can listen to her talk about how much she loved my yarn on her recent podcast!

Using only a single skein of this luxury yarn the shawl drapes like liquid gold over the throat! I am currently carrying this blend in light fingering which gives you even MORE bang for your buck at at  533 m • 583 yds per 100g skeins for a slightly lighter but larger shawl!

I’ve used 2 golds in the Gold Rush colourway so that the colour shimmers across the shawl even when not moving!

You can vote for your favourite now. The winning design will be published with the show programme so you can get it for free!

(do it, do it, do it!)

Noordzee – a warm breeze by the sea

Starting off the week with a new pattern announcement!

The product of another collaboration with talented London designer Rachel Brown, the Noordzee shawl was written to use only one precious skein of my luxurious, handpainted WESTMINSTER baby camel/silk for a sumptuous quick knit.

Delightfully simple, the shawl has a delicate beaded lace edging and changing short row intervals which give it a bit of interest along the border… and a somewhat unexpected shape!

While short rows first draw the border up in a curve towards the shoulders, the shawl then swings outwards and down, flaring into a gentle wing-like span. What a beautiful detail!

Also gorgeous is how the span of stockinette creates the perfect canvas to showcase WESTMINSTER’s subtle, handpainted colour changes. The different hues shimmer across the body of the shawl like sunlight on waves, perfectly echoing the shawl’s Dutch name which means ‘North Sea’. (to get slightly poetic about the whole thing) ;-D

watery colourway ‘Florence‘ shown

The piece can be blocked wide and worn as a traditional shawl or steamed gently for a smaller throat-warming scarf, as shown modelled by the North Sea itself above!

This shawl is the perfect one-skein project for beginners or just plain satisfying lazy day knitting, blending blissfully mindless stockinette with intriguing lace to create a sensually liquid neckwarmer for spring and summer.

Additionally, Rachel is kindly offering a special 15% discount with any Kettle Yarn Co. fingering weight skein until the 15th June, so get your discount now!

Think I’ll be taking this one out to the garden for a bit of sunshine knitting and book reading, myself… As soon as the sun comes back out, that is. ;-?