Author: Kate Davies Designs
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evocative ermine
I find our responses to colour endlessly fascinating. It’s amazing how, by simply looking at an object, we can so immediately use its palette to visualise another object that might share the same distinctive colouring. And there’s much more to this process than the brain simply using colour to awaken a neural association between two…
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Meconopsis blue
Those of you who enjoyed seeing the emergence of my Himalayan blue poppy in 2025 may be interested to know how it has fared this year. The poppy began flowering on May 18th (almost exactly the same day as 2025) and is still doing so today, June 9th (carrying its final bloom alongside six healthy…
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Cranachan Yorlin
We have one final lovely Yorlin to show you today. This cardigan was made by top-notch knitter, Sarah, who has helped us in the development phase of many patterns, and who always finds a lovely landscape in her home county of Norfolk in which to photograph her knits. Today is no exception. Here’s what Sarah…
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Foxglove Yorlin
Over the past few months, behind the scenes, the KDD team has been busy with Yorlin knitting. The four cardigans we have shared with you so far have all been rather subdued in tone, but Claire definitely brightened up our mini-KAL by selecting a bold, hot pink shade of Milarrochy Tweed in which to knit…
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Gloamin’ Yorlin
Good morning, we have another lovely Yorlin, in a rather different hue, to inspire you today. Here’s Maylin, in her natural habitat on a Cumbrian fellside (by Angle Tarn), wearing her Gloamin’ Yorlin. Maylin says: “I don’t wear a lot of purple, but I chose the Gloamin’ shade of Milarrochy Tweed for my Yorlin as…
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You see grēne where I see grœg
Your responses to yesterday’s piece – in which I introduced KC’s fabulous Chingly Yorlin – really interested me. In both the Ravelry group and newsletter comments, many of you suggested that you do not see Chingly as I do – as a greenish-grey – but as very definitely green. Others described Chingly as sludgy, brown,…
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Chingly Yorlin
Good morning! It’s time to show you another lovely Yorlin. This one has been knitted by KC, in Milarrochy Tweed shade “Chingly.” Chingly is an interesting shade, and one with which I’m slightly obsessed. We introduced it into the Milarrochy Tweed palette in 2023, and it is one of a handful of shades that we…
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Ooskit Yorlin
Good morning, and welcome back to the mill garden! Here I am to show you another Yorlin, which has been knitted in a rather different yarn to the Milarrochy Tweed Ardlui version I was wearing yesterday. This cardigan has been knitted in our Ooskit 4 ply. The yarn’s name is Ooskit “4 ply” to distinguish…
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Ardlui Yorlin
Good morning! Welcome to all knitters who are joining the Yorlin KAL! And a very warm welcome to all readers to my home, here in Kintyre. Today I’ll be showing you some of my garden, while introducing my brand new Ardlui Yorlin. If I had to pick one, single shade of Milarrochy Tweed from the…
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Yorlin KAL
It’s time to announce the KDD summer KAL! Will you join us and knit yourself a Yorlin? Knitted in 4ply (or equivalent) at a gauge of 28 stitches to 4 inches, Yorlin is a lightweight, airy cardigan. Knitted from the top down, Yorlin features raglan shaping through the upper body, twisted-stitch trims, and two beautiful…
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Breaking away
I am currently reading Anne Goldgar’s excellent Tulipmania: Money, Honor and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age (2007), a book which is perhaps less about tulips themselves than about what they represented in the seventeenth-century Dutch republic. Much like the balloon-o-mania of the 1780s, for this era’s moral commentators, tulips were emblematic of what they…
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Mary Moser’s tulips
As I was looking for images of “broken” tulips in historic collections the other day, I happened across a series of watercolour studies in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which were the work of Mary Moser. Moser was an interesting eighteenth-century artist, who, because she specialised in botanical subjects, has often been dismissed in the…
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a broken tulip
“Come quickly,” I said to Tom, “and bring the camera. We’ve got a broken tulip.” “a broken tulip?” “Yes! A broken one! Just check it out!” “Hmm. It certainly looks like a freaky tulip” “It is freaky! In fact, a tulip that has broken in this particular colour combination is actually known as a bizarre.”…
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Knitting Bullshit
My theme today is Knitting Bullshit and before I begin, I had better explain to you what I understand bullshit to be. In what follows, “bullshit” is used very much in the sense that Princeton philosopher Harry Frankfurt describes in his seminal essay, On Bullshit (1986; 2005). For Frankfurt, bullshit is an utterance with “a…
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Knitting Wester Ross
The book is out, all pre-ordered copies have been shipped (thank you, Kate C and Kendall) and club members can access the full e-book in your Ravelry libraries. Knitting Wester Ross is now available to purchase in the KDD shop and by way of celebration, I thought I’d reproduce the book’s introduction here today. This…
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“Peppermintstick”
Tulip season has arrived – hurrah! I anticipate several happy weeks, in which I savour and enjoy every variety that I carefully chose and planted last November. I have several lasagne-style tulip pots at the front of the house, as well as a sizeable display round the back . . . . . . and…