tate trip

Yesterday I caught the Per Kirkeby exhibition at the Tate Modern. I have to admit that I had never heard of him, but I enjoyed the exhibition immensely. These pictures cannot do justice to the intense colours and beautiful lines of the largescale paintings, so I would recommend a trip down to see it if you can. The paintings are real 'growers'; the more you study them, the more interesting and beautiful they become.

I also caught the Futurism exhibition at the same time, which I was more familiar with, but it still turned up some unexpected fabulous works which I had never seen, including a leaflet in which knitting was represented and some stunning Wyndham Lewis paintings which I would gladly hang in my home.

work in progress

I have been a busy little bee of late and so I thought I would give you a sneak preview of some of the bits and pieces I have been working on this week...


...ends, ends and more ends....

Oh how I detest weaving in ends, the only carrots which keep me going are the huge satisfaction of a neat and tidy project at the end of it and the gorgeous little nest of colour made by all the snipped scraps of yarn. Sometimes I have to photograph it; these little piles of joy are often almost as exciting to me as the project. Likewise the back of an embroidery, intarsia or Fair Isle piece.


My knitting - hands off!
These are some kits I have been sewing for the Kioskiosk day - 26th of July, don't forget!
I have a bit of a conveyor belt of these going, they are so fun and cute to do with the multicoloured embroidered words. I will be doing a few of my crochet kits too and they will include enough yarn and some needles/hooks to make a simple pattern, ideal for beginners. At the moment I am thinking there will be a baby's hat pattern, some floral corsages and perhaps some little fingerless gloves or mittens.


Finally, I have been knitting this jumper since way back in March, but other things have barred its progress. However, I did manage to finish it last week. It is a beautiful 4ply merino/cashmere mix and I have knitted the sleeves as a 4ply, but doubled the yarn for the aran body to make a dk weight as a contrast. It is for the long awaited Spring/Summer collection and therefore I am swiftily writing the pattern this week so I can release it into the world and create a whole s/s '09 booklet of patterns.
Then it will be straight onto the Autumn/Winter collection. Ah, a knitter's work is never done....

spring/summer 2009

Finally I have managed to get the bulk of the project I have been working on for ages finished and on the website. I decided at the beginning of this year that a collection of my own monty patterns would be a perfect vehicle to present a more fashion forward, trend led collection of garments. Being an independent designer, working to my own deadlines, instead of that of a publisher, I can create high trend designs more quickly than when I write books. It is fair to say that even though we have vast amounts of beautiful, classic and contemporary knitting patterns around, there are fewer publications which cater for each traditional season of the fashion world. However, I have tried to keep the patterns wearable and classic, as nobody wants to spend time knitting a garment which is unwearable by the next season.

The patterns and inspiraton can be seen in full on my website, where they will be available to buy shortly. In the meantime, you can buy them from my montyknits shop on Ravelry.

If you don't knit, but want to own a one-off, bespoke garment, contact me and I shall be happy to hand make you the garment of your choice to your measurements.

I am hoping to have my timetable sorted sufficiently to have a new set of patterns based around the Autumn/Winter 2009/10 catwalks out by the beginning of October, so watch this space for an exciting capsule collection based around a British Countryside theme!

more action on the site

I have recently been working on new products, my website and some new pattern collections. More of all those soon. The most recent addition to the site are these pretty floral necklaces. I really enjoy making them; the extra fine lacy wool means the resulting necklace is exquisitely delicate and somehow more satisfying. The little crocheted flowers look somehow perfect, perhaps it is because they are so tiny, you can't see any faults!

kioskiosk launch

Yesterday was just too hot to work, so it was handy that I had the kioskiosk launch to go to on the Southbank. I met Wayne Hemmingway, the mastermind behind the idea, who gave me a tour of the kiosk and I was surprised at just how Tardis-like it is; big enough to fit a changing room and loads of shelving in and it was also really cool in there, which was fantastic on one of the hottest days in London this year. It was exciting to see the kiosk in the flesh and I begun planning how I will kit it out and also what a lovely 'tea party' feel I will be giving the workshops.

I have just confirmed that the free knitting and crochet clinic and workshops I will be running on the 26th July will also have some lovely handmade cup cakes by the talented Catherine of Sugar Rose. She will be also providing the cakes at my launch party for Easy Kids Knits, and I cannot wait, they are the lightest, most yummy cakes I have ever eaten. Here are a few of her inventive and beautiful creations. My favourites are the Russian Dolls; I have never seen anything like them and I have a real weakness for Matryoshka dolls. Catherine is still getting her website ready, so come along and try them at the workshop or launch and meet her in person.

After the launch, I decided to make the most of the weather, convincing myself it was just too warm to pick up the knitting needles and so I finally made it to the Liberty sale, where I bought five bolts of beautiful Liberty print cotton.

The one on the far left was not in the sale but I couldn't resist the print that I had seen in an APC dress, so I bought the same fabric to make a similar dress at a fraction of the cost. However, the rest of the fabrics were a bargain, and now I have enough fabric to make three tops and two dresses. I just hope my excitement for sewing continues long enough for me to make them all, or my bargainous shopping may not seem so thrifty!

My relaxing day in the sun ended at a restaurant I must really recommend for great value, ethics and fabulously fresh food. Wahaca bills itself as Mexican market eating and yet it sources most of its ingredients from the UK, using in season, free range products where possible. This fresh ethos really shines through in the food and I loved it, as you can see!

new/old patterns

Recently I have been trying to tidy up my life. I have far too many things on the go at once to be disorganised, but unfortunately I am. Very. So, I suddenly realised that the exclusive copyright to a few patterns I submitted to some magazines has been finished for a while, meaning I can self publish them.

This is a great practice the magazines are trying to do to help out knit designers, as the compensation in relation to the time put in to this sort of work is generally rather poor. So, I have been busily sorting out layouts for new patterns to sell on Ravelry and have posted two up there today; Violet hat and a Christmas stocking, which you may recall in different guises from earlier posts. The whole process is really rather exciting to me, however, the next step is to get ordered enough to sell them over my own website, too.

(Wow, this pattern seems really incongruous in the middle of a summer heatwave, but I guess if you are well prepared person, now is the time to knit for Christmas...

I'm definitely not that organised!)

young designers

This evening was the Royal College of Art Textiles MA private view. I hadn't managed to get to any other shows this year, but I always try to go to this one, as it is the course I graduated from five years ago (where does the time go?!)

There is some really lovely work this year. I noticed that there was a strong hand drawn theme, with lots of naive illustration type prints and mixed media pieces. I of course enjoyed this, being a lover of a strong line drawing and it also meant that much work had a one-off, obviously non mass-produced quality. Keeping to this theme, my stand out favourite of the whole RCA grad show wasn't a textiles designer but a communications student. Haruka Shinji's work has a strong humourous aspect and truly beautifully executed drawings and cut out pieces.

I also noted that almost every student had a blog or website, almost unheard of in my day all those many moons ago. It is great for the graduates to have such a space to showcase their work, and a true sign of the internet age. It also means I can share my favourite textiles students much more fully with you, as you can check out their sites.

Tiffany Ong entitled her display Entomological Knits, and displayed lots of brightly coloured knitted samples like specimens or moths in wooden frames. This lent a very traditional feel to her contemporary work, a juxtaposition I cannot resist.

Wendy Marchbanks calls herself a printed textiles designer and illustrator, and her love of drawing is shown in her beautiful printed wallpapers (left).

Finally Rebecca Lucraft is a mixed media graduate who had a stunning space filled with golden coated bird cages and fairy tale trees housing laser cut wooden birds and monkeys. Her shapes, colours and drawing are beautifully naive and magical.

The show is on until the 5th July, so if you are in the area get in and see the work, it is free admission and well worth a look. There are some very promising designers of the future here.