New Patterns

Image Britt Spring

You will be pleased to hear that I am fulfilling my unofficial New Years Resolution and finally getting organised! Currently I am going through my back catalogue of patterns published in magazines with an eye to producing them as downloadable single patterns. First up on Love Knitting is Molly, one of my favourite designs, a bold hat with colourwork made from scallop stitches a-topped with a cute pom. It is made with the lovely Jamiesons Spindrift yarn, but it is held double and crocheted with a 4.5mm hook, so a DK to Aran weight yarn held singly will work perfectly. And just in time for a chilly end to February!

Image Britt Spring

Happy Tenth Birthday

It is a very special day today. One of my beautiful nephews (I have four, all equally as gorgeous!) has a momentous birthday. Today he turns ten. It is extra momentous to me as it made me realise that it is ten years since I was commissioned to write my first book, Easy Baby Knits. How do I know this? Because little Finley, who is not so little today, was a beautiful baby model for it. Only six months old at the time of the photoshoot and with the brightest smile you have ever seen. All the people at the shoot commented on what a happy baby he was and said that the old adage 'Never Work with Children...' definitely didn't apply to him! Hence, there is quite a lot of him in the book!
Anyway, in a lovely coincidence, nine years after it was finally released in 2007, Easy Baby Knits has just excitingly been reprinted with a fresh new cover. And guess who the new cover model is? My gorgeous Finley. Happy Birthday beautiful boy and thank you my lovely for being the smiliest model I ever did see.

crochet colourwork hat

 The latest issue of Inside Crochet came out on Friday, which has a very autumnal theme and so the weather has been quite appropriate for some of the projects inside it. I am rather proud of the lovely little hat I designed for it. I wanted to recreate some of the beautiful scalloped colourwork patterns I have been noticing in knitwear recently, but without the faffing of doing any Fair Isle or Tapestry crochet, so I utilised the scallop stitch, comprising of shells, with some block stripes of colour to create the pattern. Here's the result!

All images by the talented Britt Spring Photography

Willow Hat

Well, my resolution to blog more often didn't last long! I have had a very busy few months, leaving little time for posting, which I will post about shortly. For now, I wanted to let you know of my latest pattern, a crocheted hat published in Issue 47 of Inside Crochet magazine. The Willow beanie is proving quite popular and I have already seen a lot of different versions, including this fab rainbow version by Ali Campbell, crochet teacher extraordinaire, over at Get Hooked on Crochet.

The hat is a great introduction to raised treble stitches (called front/back post double crochet in US terminology) to create a ribbed effect brim, and is really very simple. Unfortunately today was the last day issue 47 was available from all good bookstores, but you can buy a digital copy, and it is packed with fabulous projects. I love Rohn Strong's gorgeous cabled cover project, Rosalind, while Joanne Scrace's Walk in the Woods cardigan is just such a fabulous everyday cardi, I have to get round to hooking it. My littlun has a penchant for Lynne Rowe's Celeste blanket (she loved playing with the sample), and I must admit, I love a pompom. And there's loads more!

The pretty pictures are again by the wonderful Britt Spring.

dmc patterns

Earlier this year I was asked to design some patterns for a lovely new yarn by that well known threads company DMC. The yarn I was given to use was a new range specifically for crochet called Petra, which has all the fabulous crochet-friendly properties of a traditional crochet cotton, but with a fabulously bright and modern colour palette.

So, here are the final patterns which are out in all good yarn shops now! I designed the fashion based ones, but there are a range of interiors products too, so go check em out.

new patterns

Well folks I am on a roll now! The snow break from my work at the college has given me time to sort out a load of patterns I have had sitting around in my cupboard for months . Two new ones are up now on Ravelry.

The Oversized Beret is a very simple pattern, ideal for beginner knitters bored of scarves and has the option to knit it straight or in the round.

Sash Style Belt does what it says on the tin - not a practical belt, but a pretty adornment to cinch in a little black dress or layer over sloppy cardis.

Get 'em while they're hot!

Autumn/Winter new collection

I cannot believe that I have actually started publishing the patterns for my Autumn/Winter collection while it is still mid-winter (and boy, it really is winter this year). I am finally getting on top of the pattern writing and am aiming to get most of the collection up in the next few weeks, which is great. The first two patterns up are a beautifully warm 'snood' type affair, reminiscent of the 80s fashion accessory and of the cowls seen everywhere on the A/W 09/10 catwalks.
Cables and subtle stripes add texture and interest and the Rowan Cocoon yarn is really cosy and great to work with.

The Chunky ribbed hat was bourne out of the freezing weather and the emergency of needing a final, very quick to make Christmas present! This is also a great pattern for those of you who want to try working in the round. The Debbie Bliss Como yarn, with its touch of cashmere, is very soft and warm and with the stylish, retro shape, the original proved a huge hit with the recipient.

You can buy both these patterns singly on Ravelry now, and the ebook will be up shortly, with more patterns to be added including a simple yet beautful scarf pattern with at least three different variations, some elegant wrist warmers, a crocheted cape and a couple of suprises.

yarn forward

I have an article in the latest issue of Yarn Forward about my design process and it looks very lovely! I have tried to give an insight into how I came up with my Spring/Summer 2009 collection (last pattern will be published very, very soon, I promise!) and I have also provided a summery hat pattern from the very same collection. Hope you enjoy reading it.

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!

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!)

let's knit a hat

Check out my new hat pattern in Let's Knit's current issue.

Inspired by the 20s style cloche shape.

Flippy, girly, pretty and knitted in hemp, which was a bit of a pain to work with, but gives a lovely summery, straw-like finish.

You could also use cotton if you can't find any hemp, or any other new tough plant fibre you can find.

hats, hats, hats!

It was second time lucky with my trip to Stephen Jones' Hats:an Anthology at Victoria and Albert museum today - the exhibition was closed when I got there earlier in the month. I am very pleased that I tried again and visited this afternoon as it was absolutely fantastic in every way. The V&A is my favourite museum for many reasons, the standard of their exhibits obviously being the most important one, and this exhibition rates amongst the best I have seen.

Stephen Jones refers to hats as the 'ultimate accessory' and until I had seen his curation of this exhibition, I admit I did not agree, being much more of a shoe gal myself! However, he has almost swayed me to his way of thinking; a hat can be more theatrical and beautiful than I ever thought.

The layout assists the air of originality, drama and beauty. Jones' own work is stunning, and he has chosen fabulous pieces by other designers past and present to compliment these, assembled not in a stuffy chronological fashion, but according to style and theme, with the four main themes being Inspiration, Creation, The Client and The Salon.

The Inspiration theme looks at diverse creative simulae and my highlight was discovering that Jones based the anthology on the V&A's first fashion exhibition. This was curated by Cecile Beaton, whose designs for My Fair Lady were a great inspiration to Jones. Bonnets Audrey Hepburn wore in the film, Julie Andrews wore in the play and some theatrical and unforgettable hats from the film's Ascot scene are displayed alongside a Stephen Jones hat that is heavily influenced by these. I love My Fair Lady and these simple pieces were a reminder of the dramatic effect these scenes first had for me and on my own burgeoning love of fashion (as well as reminding me how much I love Hepburn and Andrews of course!)

The Creation section is arranged in sections according to technique. Among my favourite headpieces here were a beautifully coloured feather hat from the 1800s, a twenties felt cloche and some knitted pieces.

Monitors dotted between the glass cases show charming short films, mainly from the thirties and forties, consisting of smiling ladies wearing an assortment of charming hats that in most cases look more avant garde than many contemporary designs.

Jones' iconic Union Jack hat is filmed being meticulously handmade by the head milliner of his studio and is mesmerising. I loved watching a beautiful, unique piece being made by hand, and felt a kind of legitimising link to my pledge to promote handmade.

The only downside to Hats is that it's just too popular, meaning that we could hardly move in front of the cabinets and some pieces were hard to catch a glimpse of.

The exhibition is closing this weekend, if you are in town and haven't yet seen it, I urge you to get your hat on and try to get along.