Thursday 24 December 2015

Fenchurch Cardigan in the Knitter Issue 93

My copy of The Knitter Magazine has arrived and I am over the moon to see my Fenchurch Cardigan on the front cover! The stunning photos by the Knitter Magazine show the bold lines and texture of my design in beautiful detail.

Fenchurch Cardigan by Emma Vining
Photo by The Knitter Magazine 
Fenchurch is inspired by modern urban architecture. I have used wrapped stitch ladders to create bold lines. I love the way the wrapped stitch sections change the shape of the cast on edge at the beginning of the panels. The textured sections are knitted in moss stitch. To keep the tension of the sections even, the moss stitch section is worked in short rows. 

Fenchurch Cardigan by Emma Vining
Photo by The Knitter Magazine
I particularly like designing (and knitting!) cardigans where the button band is knitted as part of the fronts and Fenchurch fits the bill with this integral moss stitch band. Shaping for the neck is worked in a line of decreases that follow on from the first wrapped stitch ladder. This enhances the wide neckband and the moss stitch upper body.

Fenchurch Cardigan by Emma Vining
Photo by The Knitter Magazine 
The optional belt features two wrapped stitch ladders with a moss stitch centre section. The cuffs are made in a similar way and added after the sleeves are complete.

Fenchurch Cardigan by Emma Vining
Photo by The Knitter Magazine
Fenchurch is knitted in Cascade 220 Aran, 100% Peruvian Highland wool. The lovely blue shade is Marine, 8339. 

Thursday 10 December 2015

Diamond Kites Sweater in The Knitter, Issue 92

Issue 92 of the Knitter Magazine includes my Diamond Kites Sweater pattern! Knitted in Artesano Alpaca Silk Lace yarn, Diamond Kites has a delicate twisted stitch pattern. The beautiful photos show the sweater in lovely detail. Thank you very much to The Knitter Magazine.

Diamond Kites Sweater by Emma Vining
Photo from the Knitter Magazine
Little twisted stitch diamonds form the long "kite tails". They lead up to the "kite head" that is made of three interlocking diamonds, again knitted in twisted stitches. The back of the sweater is longer than the front and the sides are open to the top of the rib section.

Diamond Kites Sweater by Emma Vining
Photo from the Knitter Magazine
The beautiful Artesano Alpaca Silk lace yarn is available in a wide range of gorgeous shades. I have used Colour 2083, "Aubergine" for Diamond Kites. The knitted fabric with the twisted stitch design in this combination of alpaca and silk has lovely drape and is very flattering to wear.

Diamond Kites Sweater on the Cover of Issue 92!

Errata update 14/12/15
There is an errata for the pattern published in Issue 92.
A couple of symbols were missed out of the abbreviation list and the sleeve cast on has been updated. Please follow this link to the Yarn Loop website for the updates. Thank you.

Sunday 6 December 2015

Knitting: Stitch-Led Design by Alison Ellen

Exciting news! Alison Ellen has released a new book! Knitting: Stitch-Led Design is an inspiring read with ideas and projects for knitters of all levels. Published by Crowood Press, the book is available to buy direct from Crowood, where you can also take a "peek" inside the book. 

Alison Ellen's new book
Published by Crowood Press

"This book encourages you to look beyond ready made knitting patterns and to explore as new the creative potential of this strong textile structure that we are all so familiar with. It looks in minute detail at how stitches can change the character of the knitted fabric, using even the simplest combinations of knit and purl to alter the surface, feel and drape." This quote from the inside cover perfectly describes the first part of Alison's book.

I particularly like the"Comparing Stitches" Chapter where Alison demonstrates how different stitches affect the knitted fabric . She has included a "baseline" sample on each page to clearly show the differences. Understanding how knitting stitches behave at this detailed level is the key to designing and making interesting and original knitwear. 

The chapter on "Shaping" is an excellent resource for exploring 3D form and knitted fabric manipulations. I have had first hand experience of some of the samples in this section as my knitting group, Teresa, Maggie, Sue, Rosemary, Joy, Kim and I, helped to test knit a selection. I am also very proud and absolutely delighted that Alison has included one of my designs in her book. My Points scarf pattern illustrates how increasing and decreasing can create 3D form. Knitted in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, the scarf looks great worn long or wrapped around to show off the 3D patterning.

Points Scarf by Emma Vining
in Knitting: Stitch-Led Design by Alison Ellen
Photography by Colin Mills
The "Techniques" Chapter includes the information you need to make the gorgeous designs included in the last Chapter, "Projects". Beautifully photographed by Colin Mills. the garments and accessories have clear and informative pattern and yarn notes. The projects range from lovely hats, bags, scarves and small accessories that use the techniques demonstrated earlier in the book, to some of Alison's most beautiful designs, such as her Modular Jackets and my favourite jacket, "Broken Blocks". You can see Alison's design Collection on her website, Alison Ellen Hand Knits.

Looking in detail at Alison's designs in Knitting: Stitch-Led Design, you can really appreciate the clever thought behind each garment, along with the stunning combination of yarn shades she has selected. In each project, the stitch pattern and garment shaping relate really well together. The end result is beautiful garments and accessories that are a pleasure to knit. 

"Written by a passionate and innovative knitter, Knitting-stitch-led design pushes ideas and boundaries to encourage creative thinking and confidence in experimenting. It promotes a different approach to designing and explores how stitches work, always asking the question 'what would happen if....'" This quote from the book cover is spot on and sums up why I find Alison's approach to design so inspiring. I thoroughly recommend this gorgeous book for all the excellent advice and encouragement for knitters to experiment with their knitting.

You can read more about Alison on her website and there is an interesting interview with her on the Knitting & Crochet Guild website too.

Monday 30 November 2015

Fair Isle Knitting with the London K&C Guild

The London Branch of the Knitting & Crochet Guild met this Saturday afternoon and the extremely talented Mary Henry presented an excellent Fair Isle workshop. There was so much to learn about this most "traditional" of techniques, from the beautiful symmetry of colour and stitch in each design to the most practical ways to manipulate two colours on one row. 

Fair Isle knitting by Mary Henry

Mary had brought along some of her own garments to illustrate techniques. As well as being beautiful on the outside, each garment was stunning on the inside with the floats having the same symmetry as the design. 

Fair Isle knitting by Mary Henry
Mary demonstrated the usefulness of a camera phone to work out colour combinations. Taking a photo in colour then changing it to black and white shows the difference between hue and saturation. This can make all the difference when selecting multiple shades for a complex design.  

Colour Shade card

The same shade card in b&w

We had a lively discussion about techniques for steeks! Mary had brought a swatch with her and showed us one technique that uses crochet to secure the edge stitches. Mary used a contrast yarn to crochet two lines of stitches on either side of the stitches to be cut. Then, with much trepidation for some of us, we all got the chance to cut the steek!
Crochet edges in progress

Crochet edges in progress

Partially cut steek

Philippa Thomas joined Mary to talk about machine knit fair isle. It was extremely interesting to hear about Philippa's lovely designs and how her design process changed over time. 


Fair Isle Knitting by Philippa Thomas
There was time to try some of the Fair Isle techniques and I particularly enjoyed trying out corrugated ribbing. Reversing the colourways changed the look of the ribbing and although I ran out of time to test this fully in the meeting, I did finish the swatch on the train home!

Fair Isle sample in progress by Emma Vining

The next K&C Guild London branch meeting will be on 6th February 2016 and will feature Jennie Atkinson on "Sparkle: The Art of Beaded Knitting". All are welcome to come along, members £10, non-members £15.  More information on the K&C Guild and the London Branch can be found on the Guild website

Thursday 19 November 2015

Knitting History Forum AGM and Conference 2015

The Knitting History Forum (KHF) Conference was held at the London College of Fashion on Saturday 14th November. This excellent afternoon covered knitting history topics from "Gunnister Man" to "Medieval knitting in Spain". Our speakers shared their in-depth knowledge and passion for their subjects and left us wanting to discover more! Thank you to Professor Sandy Black and the KHF committee for such an interesting Conference and thank you to all the speakers for their wonderful presentations.

Pence Jug by Sally Kentfield

Knitting History Discussions at the KHF Conference

Carol Christiansen: ‘Late seventeenth century knitwear from the Gunnister Man find‘

To enable the remarkable Gunnister Man reconstruction project, an enormous amount of research and testing of materials was carried out. Some of this detailed research was outlined by Carol Christiansen from the Shetland Museum in the first presentation of the afternoon. Throughout the project, the importance of specific sheep breeds and the different characteristics of their wool was very clear. I was very impressed by the extensive comparisons Carol and her team carried out, especially the dyeing of fleece and yarn samples with tea to simulate the look of the Gunnister Man  textiles that had been buried in peat for so long. 

Slide from Carol Christiansen's presentation
showing fibre comparison

Slide from Carol Christiansen's presentation
showing knitted samples

Similarly the fulling/ felting of samples of different combinations of wools to find the exact fibre 'curl' for the inside of the Gunnister Man cap revealed important new insights into these fibres. Learning how wool behaves through extensive testing was the only way to determine which specific fibres were originally present. I particularly liked Carol's conclusion that the correct fibre mix for recreating the knitted cap was a combination of yarns that were "long, but not too long" and "silky, but not too silky"! More information about The Shetland Museum can be found here

Slide from Carol Christiansen's presentation
showing felted samples


Kirstie Buckland: ‘Saintly Socks and Silken Pillows – a glance at the mysteries of some medieval knitting in Spain'

Kirstie took us on a journey through Spain as she tracked down a reference to knitting depicted on a huge altarpiece painted in the fifteenth century. One particular panel shows the Virgin and Child surrounded by Saints. The Saints are working on domestic tasks including black work, spinning, embroidering and braid making. Knitting is also clearly represented! An elegantly painted Saint is holding 5 short wooden needles. Her hands are positioned to knit and she is working on a sock or a gator. The only details missing are the stitches on the needles!


Lesley O’Connell Edwards: ‘Who wrote what when? A study of the publications of the Hopes of Ramsgate in the 1840s'

Lesley's investigation into the Publisher "I Hope" and the authors "Mrs Hope" and "George Curling Hope" was a very interesting detective story. Many craft and knitting publications are attributed to the Hopes, either as author or publisher but very little information exists about the family. A review of journals and books from the same time period revealed clues to the actual identities of the Hopes, but it was Lesley's investigations through Census data and family history that lead to the interesting conclusions. 

The publications Lesley looked at were delightful and my favourite had an advertisement for a "Magic Puzzle Kettle Holder" kit that contained the rhyme "Except the kettle boiling be, Filling the teapot spoils the tea".


Zoe Fletcher: ‘Designing for breed: Enhancing the potential for British wool in UK knitwear manufacture, through design, new technologies and marketing strategy’

Zoe Fletcher's presentation emphasised the importance of individual British sheep breeds and their very particular characteristics. She has looked in great detail at 72 British Breeds that are promoted by the British Wool Marketing Board. The aim of Zoe's research is to collate this massive database of information on each breed and to make this information easily and usefully accessible to designers working with wool. Zoe has created imagery and data entries that are not only informative, but beautiful to look at. 

Zoe Fletcher's Research on British Sheep Breeds
Zoe Fletcher's Research on British Sheep Breeds
Using all the characteristics data and scans of individual yarn fibres along with Shima Seiki 3D technology, Zoe can simulate knitted swatches and whole garments. These designs can also be mapped onto the body. This amazing tool kit for designers even allows simulation of wear points and drape. 

Zoe Fletcher's Research on British Sheep Breeds
Zoe Fletcher's Research on British Sheep Breeds
Zoe Fletcher's Research on British Sheep Breeds
This fantastic British Sheep Breeds Breeds database currently contains 71 of the 72 breeds and Zoe would like to hear from anyone who can send her some Vendeen fleece to complete the set! You can read more about Zoe's fascinating research on her blog.


Jane Malcolm-Davies: ‘A knitting revolution? A scientific survey of sixteenth century knitted caps'

Jane Malcolm Davis is a Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow at the Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She has previously presented at the KHF Conferences on her work with the Tudor Tailor.  She is currently researching sixteenth century knitted caps and looking at knitting as a key technical innovation of the sixteenth century. In particular, Jane is considering how raw materials and techniques travelled around Europe at this time. She describes her research process as "re excavating" items from Museum collections using archaeological techniques. 

Jane is currently looking for volunteers to participate in this fascinating project. If you would like to find out more, please contact her direct at the following email address: jmalcolm-davies@hum.ku.dk.

Jane will be running several workshops during her research project and on completion, there will be a free online database with high quality 3D images of the sixteenth century knitted caps. We have also all been invited to the concluding Conference in July 2017!


The KHF Show and Tell Table had some very interesting historical knitting on display. Sally Kentfield had recreated a delicate pence jug and tiny booties. 

Pence Jug by Sally Kentfield
Booties by Sally Kentfield

Joyce Meader, otherwise known as The Historic Knit, had brought along a small selection of her fascinating knit collection, this time focusing on knitted swimwear. Joyce will be hosting an open house next year for us all to take a look at her extensive collection of historic knits.

Knitted Swimwear from Joyce Meader's Collection
Knitted Swimwear from Joyce Meader's Collection
If you were at this year's Conference, please get in touch to share your thoughts and ideas from this inspiring afternoon. If you were not able to make the Conference, I hope this brief overview of the talks will give you a taste of the Knitting History Forum. If you would like to know more, please take a look at the website and join us for upcoming events. The Kitting History Forum is open to everyone who is interested in the historic aspects of knitting and crochet. Details of the Conference and other events will be posted on the KHF website here

Tuesday 27 October 2015

Caleo Cowl and Wrist Warmers for Yarn Stories

My Caleo Cowl and Wristwarmers design is part of "Alchemist", the latest collection from Yarn Stories. The Caleo stitch pattern uses a combination of intarsia and fair isle knitting techniques to create a rich fabric. This 'layered' colour work is set within a cable and twisted stitch pattern. I love these beautiful photos taken by Yarn Stories!

Caleo by Emma Vining for Yarn Stories
Photo by Yarn Stories
Caleo by Emma Vining for Yarn Stories
Photo by Yarn Stories
The gorgeous contrast yarn used in Caleo is Yarn Stories Fine Merino DK in Mulberry. This rich colour is described by Yarn Stories as a "cranberry red, with a touch of purple'. The "warm shade of grey" used for the main colour is Anthracite available in Fine Merino DK and in Fine Merino and Baby Alpaca DK

There is more information on the Yarn Stories Website about these lovely yarns, my Caleo pattern and all of the beautiful designs in the Alchemist Collection.

Caleo by Emma Vining for Yarn Stories
Photo by Yarn Stories

Monday 19 October 2015

Cornflower Lace Sweater in Simply Knitting Magazine 139

My Cornflower lace sweater is in this month's Simply Knitting Magazine! Cornflower is knitted in beautiful Sublime Cotton Silk DK yarn. The mix of fibres gives a lovely drape to this sweater.

Cornflower by Emma Vining
for Simply Knitting Magazine
Perfect for layering, this textured design is simple to knit. After a couple of repeats, it is easy to see where you are in my half hexagon lace pattern. Garter stitch edging makes a great contrast to the lace pattern. The sleeves are knitted in stocking stitch and have a 'round' of half hexagons around the cuff.

Cornflower by Emma Vining
for Simply Knitting Magazine
Cornflower by Emma Vining
for Simply Knitting Magazine


Tuesday 13 October 2015

The Knitting & Stitching Show 2015

There was so much to see and do at this year's Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace. Interesting vendors and fascinating exhibits filled the three halls. I volunteered to help on the Knitting & Crochet Guild Stand. This is one of my favourite things to do as I can spend the whole time talking about knitting and crochet! Fantastic! 


Crochet Gloves from the Knitting & Crochet Guild Collection
I really enjoyed talking to all our lovely visitors and catching up with Guild members who were also volunteering on the stand or just popping by to say hello. There was a lot of interest in the Guild and everyone enjoyed looking at the beautiful items on display on the stand.

Last year, the Show organisers introduced "Stitch by Stitch". These sessions feature demonstrations of many different techniques. The K&C Guild had some great demos this year including Tricia Basham on Amigurumi crochet; Marian Dye on Knitting with Beads; Bronagh Miskelly on Confidence with Cables; Annette Brown on Unravelling Crochet Charts and Symbols; Marjorie Needham on Designing Waistcoats to fit. These sessions were very popular with visitors and showcased the many talents of our Guild members. 

KC Guild Stand with yarn winder at the ready!

Afternoon Tea items from the KC Guild Collection

It was great to see some of my favourite yarn companies and designers at the show. A highlight for me was saying "Hi" to the amazing Jane Crowfoot. Her fabulous crochet designs are really stunning and it was so good to have a chat to her.


Yarn Stories had an great display of their most recent designs including my Galena cardigan. As well as being available for download through the Yarn Stories Website, all the patterns were available to buy at the show. I am very proud to have designs featured in the recent Minerality and Alchemist Collections. The printed book of the Minerality collection sold out at the show and more copies are now being printed!

My Galena Cardigan on display at the Yarn Stories Stand

Beautiful yarns by Yarn Stories

Yarn Stories were also displaying the beautiful result of this summer's competition with the Knitting and Crochet Guild. This gorgeous blanket is made up of 13 different repeated designs, each one inspired by an item from the KC Guild collection. The popular winning square, announced at the show, was the blue cabled design by Bronagh Miskelly. The blanket pattern will soon be available as a download from the Yarn Stories website. I am delighted that my square was also included in the blanket. My design is made as a cabled mitred square and was inspired by a gorgeous cabled sweater in the KC Guild Collection. You can read more about the blanket and see the squares close up here.



Louise Walker's stand had a brilliant display of her "Critters" and it was great meeting her Mum! You can read more about Louise and her talk and workshop at the K&C Guild convention here and take a look at her website here.

Louise Walker's Critters
Louise Walker's Critters
Toft Alpaca had a huge number of the really cute Ed's Animals on their stand. This year the menagerie has been joined by these amazing birds! You can read more about Kerry Lord and Toft Alpaca here and about her talk at this year's K&C Guild Convention here

The Toft Alpaca Stand
The Toft Alpaca Stand
I had a lovely chat to Jennie Atkinson on the Make it Coats Stand. Jennie was at the Show promoting her beautiful new Rowan designs that use Swarovski crystals. Jennie had given an excellent presentation on her research into beading in knitting at the recent In the Loop Conference in Glasgow so I know how passionate about this subject she is! 

No visit to Ally Pally would be complete without a visit to the Black Sheep "Yarn Dive"........ Ever since I began visiting the Show this has been one of my favourite things to do. I am convinced that Sara and the team are hiding a secret treasure at the bottom of their enormous pile of yarns. Like every other visitor, I am determined that it will be me that finds it!!!



As ever, this year's Show was great fun and I am already looking forward to next year's Show. Dates announced...... 5th to 9th October 2016.