#GAL2016: The launch

For the past four years, a group of independent knit and crochet designers have joined forces on Ravelry for the Indie Design GAL: a great big knit and crochet along aimed at supporting and promoting the work of independent designers, as well as kickstarting your festive gift crafting. And the event is back! Starting at 20.00 (EST, for other time zones, you can use this converter) until the end of the year, the Indie Design GAL group on Ravelry will be a hive of activity.*

 

 

The GAL starts with a sale. Every designer participating in the event (the full list can be found here) is offering 25% off a selection of their designers using the code giftalong2016. Simply add the patterns you want to you Ravelry cart, add the code and get a bargain! To see which patterns a designer has included, head to their designer profile and look for the bundle labelled Gift-A-Long 2016, this bundle will feature all the patterns the designer has chosen to include in the sale (here's my sale bundle as an example). Do note that you will have to checkout separately for each designer you wish to buy from. The sale lasts until 23.59 (EST) on Thursday 30th November 2016.

 

The second portion of the GAL is a massive knit and crochet along. Any design by a participating designer is eligible for inclusion in the craft along, just head to the Ravelry group* and get crafting. If you finish an item before the end of the GAL (23.59 EST, Saturday 31st December 2016), post it to the finished objects thread for the appropriate category and at the end of the GAL, you could win a prize (there are some great prizes on offer*).

 

Part three of the GAL is the quizzes. Throughout the GAL, there will be several fast-moving quiz threads, with lots of opportunities for winning free patterns from the designers taking part in the GAL. The quizzes are a lot of fun, with all the answers relating in some way to the designers or patterns involved in the GAL.

 

This year the event is huge, with 335 designers taking part, 5106 patterns included in the sale, more than 100 physical prizes and 2200 electronic prizes. So head to the Ravelry group* and join in.

 

I am one of the participating designers in the GAL. All the patterns in this bundle are in the sale, and any of my paid for patterns can be knitted as part of the knit and crochet along portion of the event.

 

A selection of my patterns that will be eligible for 25% off during the sale portion of the GAL

 

*Note that you will have to signed in to Ravelry for these links to work. Joining Ravelry is free and Ravelry is an excellent resource for knitters and crocheters.

Antler cardigan: Quitting while you're ahead

A few weeks ago I posted a progress shot for my Antler cardigan, and it was going well. I had very nearly a whole sleeve and was looking forward to speeding through the whole cardigan as fast as I could. And then I stopped, and then I thought. In the summer I wear a lot of cardigans, and they're all lovely, but they're all lightweight, shop-purchased cardigans (mostly from Debenhams and H&M) that I throw on over little tops when it's a bit cool for bare shoulders. And in the winter, I throw on heavier weight jumpers, nothing too crazy, but a DK or aran weight jumper is always welcome. The Antler cardigan is going to fall somewhere between the two camps: it's a cardigan, perfect for summer, but too heavy to wear in the summer months, and it's the perfect weight for winter, but I never wear cardigans in the winter as I find them a little draughty.

The progress so far: almost a whole sleeve

I'd also been having doubts about the fit. I had gone for the size closest to my chest size, which had 1 inch of negative ease. But having worn my winter jumpers in the past couple of weeks, I realised that I like my winter garments to have a bit of positive ease, so the cardigan is going to be a bit small. And even while knitting the sleeve I was questioning the rate of increase in the sleeves - every 6 rows is great on a baby-sized sweater, but I kept thinking it was a little fast for an adult cardigan (and yet still I carried on to the end of the sleeve; one day I will learn).

And so my conclusion is to rip it out and start again. A size bigger, with slower sleeve increases (every 8 or 10 rounds, I'm still undecided on that one), and I might try and convert the body to a jumper (which no one in the first 20 pages of projects on Ravelry has tried; how hard can it be?!). And then I think it will be a garment I love. But for now it can sit on the naughty step for a bit; selfish knitting can wait until after Christmas.

My DIY yarn advent calendar

Yesterday I told you about my slow-growing sock yarn blanket, and today I'm going to tell you about my DIY yarn advent calendar, which should help the blanket grow over December, and give me a little much-needed time out during what can be a rather busy month.

I have lots of mini skeins stashed all over the place, so at the weekend I brought them all together and chose 24 to make into an advent calendar. The choice was fairly arbitrary as I'm going to make sure I have at least a couple of positions in the advent calendar open at any particular time to give me a few options on where to put the yarn for a given day. I'm sure it'll all fit together somehow! I also purchased some chocolates for the calendar - chocolate coins and Malteser reindeer, both festive favourites of mine - some pink and white striped paper bags (5 x 7 inches, readily available on eBay) and some festive number stickers from Hobbycraft.

Putting the calendar together was simple: put a skein in each bag until the pile of skeins was all gone, add some chocolates to each bag, then stick the number stickers on the bags, sealing the bags in the process. The bags were all then glamorously thrown in a carrier bag and hidden away until the end of November (I might upgrade them to a Santa sack at the end of the month, or even hang them in the living room on a washing line for all to see).

I'm not totally certain I will keep up with the advent calendar - it's been a long time since an advent calendar held my interest beyond about December 12th - especially as I also have the Paintbox yarns advent calendar to work through in December, but I will try my hardest to keep up!

My sock yarn blanket

Last year I started knitting socks, and every time I finished a pair, I added the spare yarn to a little bag, which rapidly had to be upgraded to a bigger bag, which was stashed in a cupboard for later use. I didn't think about the bag of leftovers very much. I am someone who likes to make projects with very organised colour selections, often with large quantities of a few carefully selected colours, so scrappy socks didn't appeal, nor did knitting and stuffing huge numbers of hexipuffs to make into a quilt. And then I joined Instagram and every few days someone would post a photo of their sock yarn blanket project. 

Apparently the idea stuck, and in January, I started browsing the internet for sock yarn blankets, settling on Tikki's mitred square pattern. The pattern can be worked across any number of stitches, and I had decided that I wanted to use as close as possible to 5 g of yarn per square, so cast on 2 stitches in my favourite sock yarn (Twilight Rainbow by Cuddlebums, on Donegal sock) and worked from the corner, increasing rather than decreasing at the centre until I had used just under 5 g of yarn; there were 42 stitches on the final row, which I cast off, then I picked up and cast on the 42 stitches for the next square.

The project is not a quick one. Squares are added erratically, often five will be added over two days, then none for a month, and at the time of writing, the blanket has 57 squares. I do love working on the blanket though. It's different to everything else I knit, and it gives me a chance to play with different colours of yarn and see how one shade affects another.

The one possible drawback of knitting the blanket is that it gives me a reason to buy mini skeins, which I hadn't considered buying before I started the blanket as I had no use for them, and they have a habit of accumulating! So this year, I have made myself a yarny advent calendar, featuring a mini skein to be knitted into the blanket every day. I'll tell you more about that tomorrow.

Hope, not hate

I do not usually write about politics on this blog; there are plenty of other writers on the internet and elsewhere who can write about it much more eloquently. But this morning, when I woke up to the news that Donald Trump would be the next US president, my heart sank. Coming a few months after the UK voted to leave the EU, I don't like the idea of both the US and UK pulling up their drawbridges, in both cases because of campaigns that were driven by fear and hatred.

So today I am living by the motto 'Hope, not hate', and have seen that many people are doing the same, with my Facebook and Instagram feeds full of acts of kindness. I have started crocheting a rainbow ripple blanket to donate to charity (I will be sending it to Knit for Peace, who are happy to find worthy homes for any item you wish to knit or crochet, from blankets for premature babies, to hats for refugees), because there are people in need all around the world who are more than just pawns in the game of politics, and I feel that with the current course that politics is following, the number of people in need is only set to increase. So today, and for the future, share a smile, help where you can, and remember, 'hope, not hate'.

The Flock: the launch party

This weekend I went to London to catch up with my siblings, an event that doesn't happen very often as we are rather spread out across the country. I'd had the date in the calendar for a couple of months, but hadn't made any fixed plans, so when an email came through from Love Knitting inviting me to the launch of their blogger ambassador programme, The Flock, I jumped at the chance - I would be in London anyway, so it would be rude not to!

The event started at 17.30, at Love Knitting's very shiny new office. It's in Holborn, not an area I know well, so I allowed plenty of time to find the building, and ended up arriving a few minutes early and being the first one there. I wasn't totally sure what to expect, the invite had said there would be nibbles, networking and a couple of presentations, and I was a little nervous when I arrived. I needn't have worried though, there was plenty to do, and everyone there was happy to talk about yarn, knitting and crochet all day!

Tiny cupcakes

There was a pom pom making station, and I duly added a neon pink and yellow pom pom to a cardboard sheep (whilst chatting to Justyna Lokowska, a huge knitting name, about her pattern, Maya's scarf, which I am currently knitting); I chatted to Karie Westermann, who knew who I was, which totally made my day; there was a table of delicious and very cute snack food; I met lots of people, including a few familiar faces and lots I hadn't come across before (and a few really big names that I was too shy to talk to), who were all as enthusiastic as me about all things knitting; and we got to squish a lot of yarn: every table in the room had baskets of yarn on them, which we were allowed to play with, stroke, cast on, take home; obviously all there for promotional purposes, but it was paradise.

This was even brighter in real life!

There were indeed some talks about Love Knitting and the rest of the Love Crafts family, as promised, and a little quiz, which had prizes: I came away with a Paintbox yarns advent calendar, containing lots of little balls of yarn that will become some form of (as yet undecided) bunting over the course of December.

I am so excited about this advent calendar

The whole event was only two and a half hours long, and the time whizzed by. When we left, we were each given a goody bag containing some more yarn (I also had some pom pom makers in mine; I think everyone got something different), which my sister and I pawed at on the train back to hers. Huge thanks to Love Crafts for hosting the event; and if you ever get a chance to go and visit their office, go, it really is a little yarny paradise!

I did come home with a *little bit* of yarn

*This post is about a promotional event hosted by Love Knitting and Love Crafts; all yarns shown were donated for PR purposes; the post contains affiliate links, see the Disclaimers and policies page for more information.*

New design: Winter garden gate throw

The clocks went back last week, and the nights are definitely drawing in, so now is the perfect time to cast on a cosy cabled blanket. My latest design, Winter garden gate throw, is just the thing.

Winter garden gate throw, image copyright I Like Knitting

The throw is inspired by the twisted lines and spirals of wrought iron ornamental work, which are replicated in intricate cables. The throw measures 131 x 141 cm (51¾ x 55½ in) and can be used ornamentally but is also an excellent size for snuggling in on a sofa. Winter garden gate throw is knitted in one piece with a moss stitch border surrounding the cabled panel. The cable work is intricate, but as the design is knitted in chunky weight yarn you can start to see the pattern develop really quickly; I strongly recommend learning how to cable without a needle for this design, as there are cables every few stitches, and losing the cable needle would be pretty frustrating!

Cable details, image copyright I Like Knitting

The throw is knitted in King Cole New Magnum Chunky, which is one of my favourite chunky yarns: the yarn is soft and warm, but also hard wearing, easy care and economical.

Winter garden gate throw is available exclusively in the December 2016 edition of I Like Knitting magazine, a subscription-only e-zine. For more detials about how to access the pattern, head to their website.

Warm and cosy, image copyright I Like Knitting

Thanks to King Cole for providing yarn support for this design.

*This post contains affiliate links, see the Disclaimers and policies page for more information.*