Tag: knitting

  • hot shots

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    We have just returned from a photoshoot. It is a very hot day and Tom couldn’t stop taking photographs of Bruce’s monumental panting tongue. (Don’t worry, he was supplied with plenty of water). In between the hot dog shots, he was photographing my new pattern – a cardigan, which is due for release toward the…

  • Sontag

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    I have a design published in the new Rowan Magazine! It is a simple triangular shawl or “Sontag” knit up in three tasty shades of Rowan Fine Tweed. (shades Wensley, Bedale, and Dent) The garment is named after Henriette Sontag — a German singer, who brought this kind of shallow, front-crossing shawl to the attention…

  • Paper Dolls anew

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    When I first published this design a few years ago, I used a lovely British yarn that is sadly no longer available — Bowmont Braf 4ply. Many knitters prefer to make their sweaters in the same yarn as the pattern sample, and I often receive queries from folk enquiring about the yarn I used for…

  • Images of knitting #3

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Here are a couple more postcards from my collection in which knitting is represented in association with regional / national stereotypes. This is an American card dating from the very early 1900s. It is number 11 in the popular “St Patrick’s series,” whose tone is, of course, incredibly sentimental and nostalgic. One could hardly imagine…

  • kitkin

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    I thought you might like to see the shorter version of the Catkin sweater that Mel has just knitted — Kitkin! Like the original Catkin, Kitkin is knitted in baa ram ewe’s Titus, in a lovely charcoal grey shade. To make this cropped version, Mel simply cast on the number of bust stitches for the…

  • today

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Skylarks and sunshine, whin and whin-coloured knitting. A yellow day. (Mel gifted me several amazing Bruce-shaped stitch markers a while ago. One day I’ll show you the whole set. )

  • my handmade childhood

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Various things have been prompting me to think a lot recently about the role that sewing and knitting and other handmade things can play in the shape of ones life. Like many crafty folk in the UK, I enjoyed watching the Great British Sewing Bee. Unlike so many of these competitive TV formats, this programme…

  • Catkin

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    In a fit of May Day fervour, I have decided to release CATKIN! Catkin is really two designs: a tunic-length sweater, and an accompanying slouchy hat. I called these designs CATKIN because the soft hand and haze of baa ram ewe’s Titus yarn reminded me of . . . . . . and also because…

  • Images of knitting – 2

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Here are a couple more postcards from my collection. Strictly speaking, these are reproductions of advertisments, but I am particularly fond of the Sunlight Soap image which, as you can see, has been pinned on my board for some time. I find it interesting for the way it represents knitting as a leisure activity, rather…

  • Ode to my Socks

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    Kate Davies Designs
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     A comment from CinOz in response to the previous post pointed me towards this wonderful Pablo Neruda poem, which I thought you’d enjoy reading. Ode to my Socks Mara Mori brought mea pair of sockswhich she knitted herselfwith her sheepherder’s hands,two socks as soft as rabbits.I slipped my feet into themas if they were two…

  • Of Note

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    I’ve been really inspired by some fantastic knitting books which have turned up here recently, so I thought I’d give them a shout-out. First up is Rachel Coopey‘s much anticipated first collection. Rachel is truly the Queen of Socks — she has a distinctive feel for pattern and structure which suits her foot-shaped canvas perfectly.…

  • Jim’s running (and knitting) for Refuge

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Who is this man? Well, some of you may know him as Veuf Tricot, author of the scabrous and witty column in UK magazine Simply Knitting. But I know him as Jim, husband of my good friend and colleague Jen. As well as being a teacher, writer, and all-round good egg, Jim is currently in…

  • images of knitting #1

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    I have a small (but ever growing) collection of prints and postcard in which knitters, and the activity of knitting, are represented. Some of these are really very interesting, and I thought I’d occasionally share them with you here. This card, which was posted with an Austrian stamp in 1916, depicts a ‘continental’ knitter working…

  • Ursulas

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    I always find it exciting when different iterations of my patterns are posted on Ravelry. This is particularly the case when knitters’ colour choices and personal modifications really transform the look of a design. Some amazing Ursulas have begun to appear which, because they have a completely different feel to my original, and also because…

  • still making

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Worry not . . .I’m not going anywhere. I produced yesterday’s post because: 1) this is my space and its useful for me to have a record of such decisions 2) this is your space too, and I like to be honest with you 3) some of you may have been expecting to run into…

  • Friday inspiration

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    From Norway, Sweden and Estonia