you say tìoraidh, I say hello

The KDD team has a new member!

Another Kate!

Meet Kate C, who carefully packs and ships all your orders from here at the KDD warehouse!

Kate C is a knitter, a cyclist, and (excitingly for me), a yarnie, who enjoys creating her own beautiful hand-dyed skeins. She also loves animals. . .

And has been very warmly welcomed by the canine (as well as the human) members of the KDD team. We are so very pleased to have you on board, Kate C!

Here at the warehouse, Kate C has been very busy dealing with September order flurries, as well as starting to prepare and ship the packages of pure colourful joy that are our brand-new Colour Compass advent calendars (of which more another time). But, happily for us, she also found time to model another joyful, colourful thing . . .

. . . a multi-shade version of my Tìoraidh cardigan, from Allover.

I originally designed a two-tone, virtually monochrome version of this cardigan, and it’s always felt rather odd to me that it should be one of the most popular designs from a book that is all about celebrating colour. It was time for a cheery Tìoraidh, of many hues!

Rather than contrasting patterned stripes in alternating foreground and background colours (as in the original version), here 6 contrast shades play out against a solid neutral. I chose Hirst for the background with Cranachan, Tarbet, Asphodel, Garth, Foxglove and Ardnamurchan as the contrasts.

The combination of a solid background with simple patterned bands creates a fabric that somehow manages to be both soft, and bright – an effect I really love.

This superlatively cheery Tìoraidh was knitted for me by a brilliant member of our test knitting team, Emily Poleson. Emily’s a Shetlander and a wonderful knitter. She also creates her own beautiful patterns, with Fairisle hats and gloves a speciality – check out her Ravelry store and see! I feel very proud to have a garment in the KDD wardrobe that’s been knitted by Emily.

Though I fear Kate C definitely has her eye on it . . . Stop! You’re going nowhere in that Tìoraidh, Kate C!

We have Tìoraidh kits in the KDD shop in both the two tone and multicolour versions – though in the spirit of the Allover club, I do encourage you to pick your own palette and knit a colourful cardigan to suit you.

Finally, an explanation of the title of this post: for those unfamiliar with Scottish Gaelic, Tìoraidh means cheerio, or goodbye . . .

. . . but this post is about saying hello to a brand new KDD team member, and a gloriously colourful, brand new cardigan!

So it’s tìoraidh just now from me, Kate C, and the rest of the KDD team – hope you have a lovely weekend, with lots of knitting in it.

The new Tìoraidh kits are in the KDD shop, and if you are an Allover club member, you’ll receive a pattern update with the charts and all the details you’ll need to knit this new version.