Throwback: Autumn knits

 'Autumn leaves and the grass is jewelled...'*, autumn is here! A friend has recently had a new baby and I wanted to make a small, quick gift to celebrate the arrival. Right back at the start of my design career, I designed a couple of cute hats: a pumpkin and an apple, both of which are perfect as gifts for an autumn baby. They aren't the only autumnal designs I've created though, so why don't we take a look at all of them?

Apple for Teacher** and Harvest's Bounty**

These were some of my earliest designs, designed explicitly as a gift for new babies, but sized to go from baby to adult, which makes them perfect for matchy-matchy family photos! The hats mostly use orange (pumpkin) and red (apple) yarn, with little accents in green and brown, making them excellent patterns for using up leftovers from other projects.

Fantastical Fox Hat and Mitts**

This hat and mitt set was so much fun to knit. The pattern uses intarsia in the round, which is a bit of a challenge, but so rewarding when you see the end result! I had a lot of fun taking the photos for these patterns, and they're sure to generate a smile from anyone who sees you wearing them.

Barley Twist Cardigan**

I love cardigans as a layer in the autumn: they extend the life of kids' summer dresses with layering, and if the sun makes a sudden reappearance you can undo the buttons to let a little air in. The Barley Twist Cardigan is a simple top-down raglan with a cable detail along the increase lines; because the cardigan is knitted top down, you can adjust the length easily, and if your child has a growth spurt, you can always unpick the cast off edges and add a little extra length. This is another item that would make a great baby gift as it starts at size 0-3 months. If matching sibling clothing is your thing, you're in luck as the pattern goes right up to 12 years.

Susurration Socks**

Knitted socks are one of my passions, and these toe-up beauties are perfect for autumn as they feature a wheat ear pattern up the front of the foot and leg and a textured grass stitch pattern on the back of the leg. The sock pattern uses lots of fun techniques to create the perfect sock: toe-up heel flap and gusset, a slipped stitch heel and short rows to avoid the pattern bunching where it meets the toe and cuff. If you're a fan of knitting socks, why not make the most of the evenings drawing in and sit down to knit these?

Hedgehog and Hoglets**

Another perfect baby gift, the Hedgehog and Hoglets blanket uses intarsia to create a family of hedgehogs walking across a stocking stitch background. This blanket would be ideal for parents that have a woodland themed nursery, and its neutral palette also makes it ideal for parents who don't know the sex before the baby arrives (when you're desperate to cast something one before the baby makes their arrival!).

Which one would you cast on first?

Remember, all single patterns in my Ravelry store are buy 3, get 1 free. Add the 4 patterns you would like to purchse to your basket and, when you check out, the cheapest will be deducted from the total.

*I can't just be me that remembers this song from school assemblies?

**Note: All links are Ravelry links. Ravelry may cause issues for people that have photosentivity, proceed with caution. All my patterns are also available on LoveCrafts (affiliante link).

Yarning Along: Festive plans afoot

I've got a much longer Yarning Along post for you today than usual. Partly to make up for the lack of post last week, and partly because I have plans afoot!

It was Halloween yesterday, and while it's not a festival I celebrate, I did make a token effort with some pumpkin carving, which I enjoyed much more the previous attempts I've made (I think I chose the right knife this year, which made it much quicker than earlier efforts). I also took my kids along to the school Halloween disco, which they enjoyed and I endured. I like parties with music, but it's not that much fun when you're expected not to dance!

  

And now it's November 1st and I can get started on my Christmas knitting almost guilt-free (I have a few commissions that I need to get finished so that I can cast something else on completely guilt-free). First up, I will be casting on some Christmas socks in this very festive yarn from Unbelievawool (it was a club colourway a couple of years ago), and carrying the project round in my brand new Christmas sloths bag from Yarn Magpie. Seriously, the bag is amazing, beautifully made and a lovely size, and who doesn't need festive creatures on their project bags. And once my Unbelievawool socks are done, I'll be knitting some Candy Cane striped socks in the new yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners (which I ordered the second I knew of its existence!).

While the socks will be my out and about knitting, my home project will be a Christmas stocking for a friend's daughter. I made a stocking for my friend's eldest a couple of years ago, and am pleased that a second was requested for their new daughter who arrived earlier in the year.

After the stocking is knitted, I shall be totally indulgent and cast on my Sincerely Louise reindeer head so it can be mounted on the wall in time for Christmas. I'm not certain the deer was designed as a Christmas ornament, but mine shall be adorned with tinsel over the festive period, and maybe even some fairy lights, so it will be super-festive!

You may remember that last year I had not one, not two, but three yarn advent calendars. You may also have noticed that I didn't show you the after photo for the sock yarn blanket. And that's because I still haven't completed all 24 days of squares, oops. My schedule required two squares per day, which was never going to happen, but over the next few weeks I am planning on adding the final 16 squares (days 16-24), so that I can be ready to add this year's advent squares over the course of December (one per day; the yarn will come from an advent calendar swap that someone was organising on Instagram). Here's what the advent section of the blanket looks like at the minute.

And in the spirit of Yarning Along, here's what I'm currently reading: The Power by Naomi Alderman. I heard of this book via Radio 4 ages ago, but was reminded of it last week and ordered a copy straight away. The premise is interesting: what would happen if all girls suddenly had the ability to control electricity and as a result became physically stronger than men. I'm a big fan of well-written dystopian novels, and so far this one is ticking all the boxes.

I finished reading Autumn just before half term, and felt the book was far too clever for me. I am actually considering reading it for the second time as I think there's a lot more I could get out of it now I know that it is character- rather than plot-driven. I have a couple of other books I am very excited to get started with over the next few weeks: The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman and Into the Water by Paula Hawkins. I loved the His Dark Materials series, so am glad that Pullman is revisiting that world again. I'm saving the book for a clear weekend as I suspect that once I start reading it I won't be able to put it down again! Into the Water is by the same author as The Girl on the Train, which I read very quickly a couple of years ago; I heard an small extract from Into the Water on the radio when it first came out and am excited to see what happens.

Thanks for reading. What are you excited about at the minute?

As ever, linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along.

Do you have any festive knitting plans? If you do, why not join in with the Vikki Bird Designs' Christmas KAL? All the details can be found in my Ravelry group.*

*Ravelry link. Requires a Ravelry account to read; membership is free.

Definitely hat weather

Contrary to the evidence provided by this blog I haven't fallen off the edge of the Earth! Last week was half term and we had a lovely time travelling to see family, and my friend Amy came to visit for a few days. Over the course of the week we have seen dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum, crunched through autumn leaves, dyed yarn (more on that soon), baked cakes and decorated Christmas decorations, all good fun!

I did have a couple of scheduled blog posts for the week I was away, but they both fell over and failed to publish, no idea why! Unfortunately this means you missed out on a couple of mini-promotions I had organised; to make up for this, I'm offering 50% off any of my hat patterns from my Ravelry store until 11.59pm GMT Sunday 5th November 2017 using the code OOPS, just follow this link to find them all.

Hope you're enjoying autumn and have some time to knit. If you have Christmas knitting on the needles, why not join in the Christmas Knits KAL that I'm running in my Ravelry group?* Crochet is welcome too!

 

 

*This is a Ravelry link and will only work when you are logged into Ravelry. If you're not a member yet, you'll have to create an account; membership is free.

Yarning Along: Record socks

This time last week I was one a half socks into a four sock deadline. Did I make the deadline? Well, sort of! Somehow, through some serious speed knitting, I managed to get both pairs of socks completed by the end of the party (yes, that does mean I was still working on them when we arrived). I think these socks deserve a post of their own, which I'm going to save for FO Friday, but here they are in all their giftwrapped glory!

Having finished my gift socks, I am back to the autumnal socks I gave you a sneak peak of last week. The yarn is Paintbox Yarns sock yarn,* which will be available from Love Knitting** by the end of the month. I'm going to give these socks a full post to themselves when I review the yarn, so keep an eye out for that, but for now, just enjoy those beautiful stripes.

This week has felt long and we're only on Wednesday. The party we went to at the weekend was in Cambridge, which is a very long way from Durham, and we only spent one night there, so we spent a lot of time in the car. It was worth it though as we managed to catch up with friends, spending the afternoon walking round the parkland at Wimpole Hall, which was gloriously autumnal, before having dinner with my sister and her family, followed by drinks with just my sister after our children were safely asleep in bed. We nipped into Cambridge very briefly on the Sunday morning to show the city off to my brother in law who had never visited, and my son, who is currently studying the Tudors at school, was very excited to see all the Tudor buildings in the city centre. I spent three years living in Cambridge and it is one of my favourite places, so I was delighted to be back, even if it was only for an hour. The party itself was wonderful. I met many of my mum's relatives who I hadn't seen in years, and some that I had never met. The party was held in one of the Cambridge colleges, and the kids loved exploring the gardens and chasing the squirrels.

Yesterday I went into town to queue to get tickets for the Lumiere Festival, a biannual festival held in Durham city centre. I've been to all previous events and am looking forward to it again this year. Some of the event is held on the Durham peninsular, and tickets are required to enter that area between 4.30pm and 7.30pm on festival days. Having been to all the previous years, I know how busy the event can be outside these hours, when access becomes unrestricted and the area becomes very crowded, and as tickets are free queuing for them yesterday morning as soon as they became available seemed like the only sensible option. I ended up queueing for an hour, which was actually a bit less time than I expected. I took a book (I can't knit while standing up, I'm not sure I've shared that here before!) and read my way round the queue! I'm still reading Autumn by Ali Smith, and while I am not disliking it, I am unsure of where it's going and what its conclusion will be. Also, the book has no speech marks to indicate when someone is talking, which is annoying!

As ever, linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along. What are you crafting on and reading this week?

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Don't forget, I'm currently running a competition for my blog's first birthday. More details can be found here.

*Yarn provided by Paintbox Yarns for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
**Affiliate link.

Yarning Along: I had no plans for Socktober

In the online knitting world, October is referred to as Socktober, a celebration of all things sock.* Many people set themselves sock-related challenges, such as knitting their first pair of socks, knitting as many pairs of socks in a month as they can, knitting some socks for charity, or trying a new sock construction. This year I decided that I wasn't going to get involved in any Socktober activities, but here we are, one third of the way through the month, and I have a lot of sock projects on my mind.

This weekend I am going to a family birthday party, and I decided months ago when the save the date card arrived that I would knit a pair of socks for each of the two hosts of the party. And now, four days before the party I have almost one pair of socks (knitted in Regia Pairfect). Which isn't quite enough - I can't give one host a pair of socks and not the other! So for the rest of this week, I'm going to be using every spare minute to whip up a second pair of socks, in West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply, and keep my fingers tightly crossed that I can get them finished on time.

A little disco sheep progress marker to help me make the socks the same length

I have another half finished pair of socks that have been on the needles for too long. The socks are knitted in some brand new sock yarn that I have been lucky enough to get my hands on before the yarn's official launch next week. These socks have been my out and about/leisurely lunch socks for the past month or so, and while I am very pleased to have one sock complete, I probably should have a full pair by the time the yarn launches next week. In the meantime, here's a tiny sneak preview. Aren't those colours perfect for the season?

This month I also need to knit a pair of socks as a magazine commission (and yes, that is all I can say about them), and I really, really want to cast on my superb self-striping Halloween sock yarn from Strawberry Fields Yarn, but at this point I'm not sure that's going to happen. Ah well, next month I'm sure I'll be casting on some special festive socks to wear in December!

*Socktober didn't start as a knitters event. Socktober was coined by Brad Montague in the US in 2011 as a charity collecting socks locally to distribute to the homeless. This initiative is ongoing, and more information can be found on the Socktober website.

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This title of this week's book is very seasonal: Autumn by Ali Smith. I've been reading this for a little over a week now, and while I don't feel like I've made that much progress I am enjoying the variation in writing styles between chapters, and the relationship between the central characters (a child, her friend, whose is an older male neighbour, and her mother). There have been lots of little gems in the writing that have made this an enjoyable read so far.

As ever on a Wednesday, linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along.

New design: Susurration socks

Today I am delighted to announce the release of my new pattern: Susurration socks.

This pattern came about as a collaboration between me and my friend Fay (Bea and Rose), an indie dyer local to me who creates beautiful colourways: think deep saturated colours with plenty of speckles. A few months ago Fay suggested we work on a collaboration together, and this is what we came up with: the Susurration socks. Fay has dyed up amazing rich autumnal shades that echo the colours of wheat fields, a theme that is reflected in the lacy wheat stitch pattern that makes up the central panel of the socks. I came across the slipped-stitch textured stitch pattern in a stitch dictionary under the name grass stitch, which tied in so beautifully with the theme I couldn't not include it!

Why Susurration? Susurration means 'whispering or rustling', which makes me think of the sound of wheat ears rustling in the wind.

The Susurration socks are knitted using my favourite toe-up construction with a gusset and heel flap shaped with short rows. The socks have a pattern on the instep and around the leg, while the sole is knitted in stocking stitch. The gusset length is affected by your row/round gauge, so a table of gauge-dependent lengths is included to help you achieve the perfect fit.

I've written the pattern in three sizes (finished sock circumferences, 16 (20, 23.5) cm [6.5 (8, 9.25) in]), to ensure you can make perfectly fitting socks. When choosing which size to knit, choose the size that is approximately 2.5 cm [1 in] smaller than your foot circumference – socks are stretchy and negative ease helps the socks to fit properly. The pattern is needle-neutral and can be knitted on any of DPNs, short circulars or long circulars using the magic loop technique.

The socks are shown in a sample of Fay's 4 ply sock base (4 ply; 425 m [463 yds] per 100g skein; 75% merino wool, 25% nylon). The yarn is a merino/nylon blend that is perfect for socks with the softness of the merino yarn being strengthened and stabilised by the addition of nylon. The sample socks shown are the medium size for a UK size 6 foot (foot length 24 cm/9.5 in) and used 330 m [357 yds] of the suggested yarn.

If you buy the pattern direct from my Ravelry store, you will get a 15% discount code for Fay's shop.* Fay has dyed up several colourways especially for this pattern: Braciaca (top left), By the Fireside (top right), Cornucopia (bottom left) and Gather (bottom right).**

As ever, if you'd like to share your progress, create a project page on Ravelry, or post a photo to Instagram and tag me (@vikkibirddesigns). In addition, Fay will be running a knitalong for these socks in her Ravelry group until the 1st November 2017. Head over to the thread to join in the fun and be in with a chance of winning a skein of her hand dyed yarn and a project bag.

*Your discount code will be included on the final page of the pattern. Just open the pattern pdf when it arrives to find your code. Codes will be valid until 11.59pm BST, Tuesday 17th October 2017. Fay ships internationally and has a beautiful selection of yarn. Some colours have been specially dyed for the socks but the discount can be used on any product (excluding yarn clubs).

**Colourway photos are copyright Bea and Rose.

New design: Apple Leaves Sweater

Today I get to share with you a beautiful new design I was working on earlier in the year and is now available for you to knit, the Apple Leaves Sweater, which can be found exclusively in the October 2017 issue of I Like Knitting magazine.*

Image copyright I Like Knitting

I adore autumn, especially watching the leaves change colour and fall from the trees to form a thick carpet that is so much fun to crunch through. The Apple Leaves Sweater picks up the leaf motif in the form of a central lace panel that runs down the jumper; the jumper is fully reversible, so can be worn with the lace panel at the back (as modelled) or the front.

The jumper is knitted from the top-down in the round, with a placket running along one of the raglan increase lines to allow the neckline to be opened up, making it easy to get the jumper over a baby's head. I used my favourite wooden apple buttons to close the placket, making a feature of the detail. If you wish to make the placket less visible, you could use buttons that blend in with the yarn you choose to knit the jumper in.

Image copyright I Like Knitting

The Apple Leaves Sweater is written in five sizes 3 (6, 12, 18, 24) months, to fit chest sizes 16–20 in (40.5–50.5 cm), with 3 inches (7.5 cm) of positive ease for a relaxed fit.

The sweater is knitted in Sublime Extra Fine Merino Wool DK (100% extra fine merino; shade 0449, Botanist)**, a lovely soft wool that has excellent stitch definition and wonderful colour intensity.

Fancy adding the pattern to your Ravelry queue? The pattern page can be found here.

*I Like Knitting magazine is available electronically, and can be purchased on a subscription basis or as an individual issue. All links to I Like Knitting in this post are affiliate links.
 **Affiliate link.

September plans

Hello there September! The past few weeks have been a wonderful whirl of holidays, beaches, parks, gardens, travelling and other fun stuff. I have really enjoyed the summer holidays, but I'm now looking forward to a slightly quieter month; besides, the weather feels autumnal now and I am ready for autumn, handknit socks and cozy blankets!

I'm not certain September is going to be much less busy, but it will defintely be differently busy. I will be off to Yarndale on Sunday 24th September. I wasn't planning on going, but a local friend is driving down, and it would have been rude to turn down the lift (ha ha! I leapt at the chance!). There are two things I need to do before I go to Yarndale: one is to work out what I want to buy (I am currently considering picking up one of the Coop Knits books and the yarn required to knit some colourwork socks); the other is to finish my Pavement Sweater, which has languished for the whole of August. I really hope I can get it done!

The most recent Pavement sweater photo. There's quite a long way to go!

I will be releasing at least two children's sweater patterns this month, assuming I can get my daughter to agree to a photo shoot soon! Photo shoots are always good fun, but there is never a guarantee that I'll get any good photos - I tend to take several hundred as children are great at the unexpected... Turns out 'never work with children or animals' is good advice!

This gingerbread man will be making his appearance later in the month!

September will be very busy on the knitting front: I managed to sneak a small pile of submissions in over August (I worked like I was possessed for a couple of days knitting swatches), so will be working hard getting my Spring samples knitted! Obviously all those patterns will be secrets until they're released, but I am really excited about all of them.

My aunt and uncle are having a big birthday party in October, and as they already own everything, I will be knitting them a pair of socks each. I haven't knitted socks for either of them before, but am pretty sure that they are both knitworthy people.

So, September isn't going to be less busy than August, but there will be more knitting time as the kids are back at school and nursery. I will miss them when they're not at home, but at the same time I am very much looking forward to a little bit of time to myself.

I hope you've had a lovely summer. What are your plans for autumn?