Summer Sale starts today!

Tired of waiting for the sunshine?
Why not make the best of it by coming inside, lighting a fire and getting out a little knitting kit. Nothing too big (it might be sunny tomorrow....), just a little project to keep you going until it's fit to go outside again.
Say hello to my mini kits. Usually retailing at £12, they are now on offer for the summer at £10 per kit.

The mini cushion kit makes a cute 6" cushion, with a complementing knitted flower to decorate. You could use the rest of the yarn to knit a matching pair, or use the pattern suggestions to make a headband or journal cover. Kit available in 4 colours and includes 50g DK wool, bamboo knitting needles, stuffing, sewing up needle, contrast yarn and full instructions.

The 3-in-1 kit would suit any keen crafting teen or pre-teen, as well as adults looking for fun little projects or gifts. It contains everything you need to make a phone sock, purse/wristband and pencil case, and comes in 6 different colours including some cool boy-friendly ones.
Available at www.calknits.co.uk - why not treat yourself or buy as an unusual gift for a friend?

Help and Support video

Tom, my friendly techno ace, has triumphed again. He's taken a plain video of me steam blocking a finished cushion piece, added some text, some noodly background music, sped up the boring bits and voila! - my first published CalKnits tutorial!
Imaginatively titled "Blocking your Knitted Cushion", it's available to view on YouTube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79wyLQWTdA8
I will be adding a link from my website help and support page later today.
Hot on its heels (as soon as we can get together and edit it) will be the sequel: "Sewing up your Textured Stripe  Cushion".
I've done these videos first, as there's lots of really good videos out there already on how to cast on, knit, purl, cast off, intarsia etc, whereas there wasn't much on straightforward steam blocking, and obviously the making up bit is pretty project-specific.
But as ever, if you're stuck on any aspect of a CalKnits project PLEASE get in touch and I'll do my best to help you.

Day trip to New Lanark, looming postal charges and stuff

Went to New Lanark this week to pick up lots of lovely aran wool. Whilst there, I took the children around the visitors' centre. It's a fantastic place, fascinating to explore, as the whole village has been restored to replicate life in a mill town.
We really enjoyed the Annie McLeod experience - a spooky ride into the past where we got to see exactly what life was like in a cotton mill, before exploring the working machines which now spin wool instead.
We also loved the school building. Robert Owen, who "founded" New Lanark, had really progressive ideas about education, so the school was light and airy, with lots of stimulating displays, where the children played and danced, and learned in a fun and enjoyable way. I was really impressed with the class pet - a live baby crocodile!

 Back now, and to the revised pricing on the website. I've raised the price slightly of the finished cushions, but on a positive note the price of refill packs has gone down, as has the Blaze cushion kit. Postage, however, has been a bit of a conundrum. I've decided that to avoid putting the price up by such a hike, instead from the end of the month I will post out second class instead of first. I hope this doesn't inconvenience anyone too much.
And finally, this Sunday (15th April) I will be running a stall at the Rheged Wool Fair, Rheged Visitors' Centre, Penrith. The fair is open from 10 until 4, and is the culmination of several months of exhibitions, demonstrations and all things woolly.
It would be lovely to see you there!

More Blaze photos... and a lesson in customer service!

Spring has sprung! And so, without looking too closely at the state of the garden, outside seems to be the most obvious place to photograph my new colour combinations for the Blaze cushion.
Thomas came round yesterday and took some shots - the rich browns look well and truly fiery in the sunshine. See what you think...

Now that winter looks like it's over I'm getting into bright colours once more, and my work for my next design is using New Lanark's "Clementine" and "Blue Lovage" which are both pretty fresh and zingy. I'm basing my doodlings and swatches on the theme of Fruit market stalls - watch this space for more details.

I'm feeling all bright and zingy myself having just come back from a girl's weekend to Manchester. We had a lovely time, little bit of shopping, cocktails, a show, overnight stop then a little bit more shopping and a train ride home. Manchester was buzzing; as always everyone seems so enthusiastic there, and we were bowled over by how friendly all the shop assistants and waiters were. It was a great lesson in how to make the customer feel good, and particular praise must be reserved for the lovely lady in Zara who let me take far too many silky shirts back to the hotel to try on and return, the lady at the Palace Theatre who made us cocktails, the waitress in Jamie's Italian who knew everything about the menu and the building, and made us feel so at home, and the Mary Portas Sales Assistants in Kendals, who were so friendly and happy to let us try on the pants over our jeans that we ended up buying several pairs each!
However the Po-Faced Misery award goes to the incredibly stuck up shop assistant in a certain very "top end" store, who when faced with the question "Do you sell Mary Portas's pants?" could have just smiled and said, "Sorry, no, have you tried Kendal's?" But no. He took the opportunity to deliver a 20 minute lecture on why Mary Portas isn't bespoke, unique or niche enough to be stocked at a store like his, and that I'd be better off shopping at Boots the Chemist or ("Shudder") a supermarket...
As I skulked out of the shop feeling a little bit like a naughty school girl it suddenly struck me that the telling off I'd just had said a great deal more about his insecurities than mine. And as we sat in St Anne's Square drinking coffee and soaking up the sunshine, I reflected that I'd much rather shop with enthusiatic people who genuinely want me to enjoy the experience, rather than those who want to make the whole thing some exclusive game of one-upmanship.

The Finished Cushion

So here's the final version of Blaze, now available in kit form or as a finished cushion.

It's available in natural undyed greys, natural browns, and two other schemes - a rich mix of russet, autumn brown and ochre, and a mix of a cool green (copper blue), deep green (forest) and cobalt blue.

My one finished prototype is up at New Lanark, so I spent as much time as I could on the stall at Brampton knitting up the next demo cushion in rich browns (kept my fingers warm!), and my friend Jacqui is working on the green / blue version.

Had a lovely time at the market today - it was so nice to meet some of my previous customers and hear how they had got on with the stripy cushion. I'm now selling "refill" packs so people can knit a matching or contrasting pair, without having to buy the pattern or needles over again. Visit the website for details...

I also popped into The Rusty Button whilst I was in Brampton. It's looking fantastic - I loved the vintage jewelry! Dropped heavy hints to him indoors tonight... Julie has sold several of my cushion kits in the last few days, so I dropped off some more stock whilst I was there.

So my task over the next couple of days is to put the new design up on the website, and finish the demo cushions ready for another photo shoot with Thomas. And then it's on to the next idea, and hopefully a bit of course work in between...

New Cushion Design - "Blaze"

My aim is to produce a new cushion design or product every month, and the idea for the "Blaze" cushion has been bubbling along for some time now.
Basically I see the same view every morning on my way back from the school run - it's of the Eastern flank of Blaze Fell, the nearest high ground to Armathwaite. It's one of those views that immediately puts me in a good mood, whatever the weather, and in every season. I think I particularly love it in winter when the colours are much more muted.
I've made several attempts to photograph the view, but as with all things like this, my mental image is miles better than the photo!

But you get the idea - lots of crisscrossing fields and clumps of woodland stretching into the distance.
I've done lots of sketching, trying to reduce the image to a series of intersecting lines, before translating it into knitting using blocks of different colour and texture.
This was my first attempt

All in natural colours, and with a bit of a 1980s stripy vibe!

However it's a bit too busy to work well as a kit, and also too expensive as it uses 4 different colours. So design 2 is much more pared down, with 3 colours and a simplified structure.

Still a little lumpy as I've not blocked it yet, but you get the idea...

Now all that's left to do is write up the pattern in a user-friendly style. This is a more complex knit than the textured stripe design, but hopefully I can introduce novice knitters to the intarsia technique gently!

Somewhat excitingly New Lanark have put in an order for the new design cushion kits, for delivery this Thursday! I then hope to have the kits available online by the weekend, tying in with my stall at Brampton Market on Saturday.

I'm also contemplating different colour schemes for the cushion. The scheme above is using Pebble, Limestone and Gritstone, so is sticking to the natural greys, but with a fair degree of warmth from the blends (Pebble in particular has quite a brownish tone). I wanted to do a combination of wintry green, ochre and rich brown, to mimic the colours out there at the moment, but I'm struggling to get a good mix, so may well end up with a cushion in rich earth tones (Ochre, Autumn and Russet?) and one sticking with the natural greens. Watch this space, or come and see what I've come up with on Saturday....

New outlet in Brampton!

This evening I met Julie Kemp, owner of The Rusty Button - a vintage/retro/fairtrade/recycled retailer about to open a shop in Brampton.
She has agreed to stock my cushions and kits, along with a small haberdashery section.
The Rusty Button, 3 Shepherds Lane, Brampton will open this Friday, 10th February.
Well worth a visit, for a chat and a glass of wine, and to see Julie's fantastic stock.
I love vintage clothes so no doubt will be there to have a good look around.
Find it just off the Main Street in Brampton, down a lane next to Travel Team travel agents.