Tag: Kate Davies

  • now forthcoming!

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    I’m hard at work here at the moment, putting together the next issue of Textisles. It is shaping up really well, and I’m very excited about it! Among other things, this issue contains everything (well, almost everything) you will ever need to know about the history of the modern swimsuit, including a guest-feature from the…

  • rams return!

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Last week, myself and the Rams and Yowes blanket, took a trip North. The rams were returning to the place where they began . . . . . . the Shetland wool from which they were knitted was sorted and graded here . . . . . . and now they are home again. If…

  • hazelhurst

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    So, I am imagining that some of you won’t have heard of Ronnie Hazelhurst – the meister of British light entertainment who has given his name to my new design? Tom and I are both children of the 1970s, and, for better or worse, the tunes of Ronnie Hazelhurst have featured largely in our lives.…

  • rams and yowes

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Hmmm . . . do I spy . . . some sheep? . . . . many sheep? . . . and many rams? 120 yowes and 48 rams?!! Yes! It’s the rams and yowes lap blanket! In case you were wondering, yowe means ewe in Shetland dialect and, just like the sheepheid design from…

  • merry mucklemuff

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    I am currently completely obsessed with the knitterly potential of colourwork tubes. Here is my latest tube – which I have called the Mucklemuff. In Scots, ‘muckle’ is a sort of catch-all emphatic expression which means big, large, or much. This skater’s muff is all of these things, and its name is also a shout-out…

  • wrong side

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Quite a few of you have been asking to see close-ups of the Boreal colourwork from the wrong side, so here we are: While the front of the sweater does not really give an indication of the effect of the colourwork on the thickness of the fabric, I think you can really get a sense…

  • boreal tropical

    boreal tropical

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    Here, as promised, is Mel’s Boreal – which we photographed in the palm houses at the Botanical Gardens. Mel used two shades of teal for her sweater (Artesano aran shades c740, and 8316) , and reversed the light-on-dark, dark-on-light order of the colourwork. The effect is more subtle than the high-contrast, highly-festive look I’m sporting…

  • B o r e a l

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    We had a lovely day out in the Highlands today. Bruce loves a good walk up there – though, as you can see, he is not a fan of sitting still and posing for a photo. Would you like to see what I’ve got on underneath that jacket? Boreal — my new design! Two years…

  • news &c

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    A miscellaneous post: First, a reminder that there are only five days remaining for entries in the Wovember competition. You could win some amazing things! One grand woolly winner will be selected by our friends at Jamieson & Smith, and there are other great prizes too: Blacker Designs are offering three runners-up awards for the…

  • Funchal Moebius

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Here is my Funchal-inspired design! Like the ‘dragons-tooth’ pavements I saw in Madeira (thanks for the info, knitlass), the Funchal Moebius uses a high-contrast OXO motif with strong diagonals. One side is dark-on-light: and the other is light-on-dark. The design begins life as a provisionally cast-on tube . . . . . . which is…

  • Shetland Wool Week

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Huzzah for Shetland Wool Week! I have been enjoying: Spectacular landscapes in beautiful weather . . . (The Drongs from Braewick) . . .hanging out with my favourite woolly creatures (Shetland sheep at Lunna) . . .meeting inspiring people . . . (Hazel Tindall) (Mary-Jane Mucklestone) . . . good company . . . (Wool…

  • peerie flooers mittens

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Gloves and mittens really are bloody tricky to model successfully. As soon as you stick a pair of hands inside them the trouble begins. You have to give the hands something to do, and this is difficult to accomplish without insane artifice. The leaf-throwing you have seen, but I also tried other strategies this morning,…

  • colourwork and crown decreases

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    I’ve been receiving several queries recently about how to read colourwork charts when shaping the crown of a hat, so I thought I’d write a quick post about it. A number of knitters seem to be making peerie flooers as their first colourwork project: so if this is you, and you find yourself bewildered by…

  • peerie flooers

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    I have surprised myself, and completed the pattern for the hat! Because I drafted everything up beforehand and was, in effect, my own test knitter, I was able to work from my own charts, tweaking everything as I went. After some careful graft yesterday, and a cool editorial eye this morning, it is now available…

  • housekeeping

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    taken on yesterday’s walk – a glorious Scottish Summer evening. 1. Thanks to everyone who has recently emailed me about Textisles! I’ve received several queries about whether subscriptions are available, or whether you can access the content without the ‘Warriston‘ pattern. It’s lovely that so many of you are interested in the possibility of subscription,…

  • shetland lace

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Excitement! Unable to wait for my copy to turn up in the post, I just popped up to John Lewis to pick up the new Rowan Magazine. Rowan (who will soon be bringing out a new laceweight yarn) wanted a substantial piece on the history of lace knitting and this is what I came up…