Hi everyone just wanted to say a massive THANKYOU to those of you who got in touch regarding swimming and wetsuits. Thanks to all of you, I am now a successful wetsuit wearer, and am looking forward to continuing to enjoy open water swimming in Scotland’s more usual cooler weather. I didn’t mention in my…
Read More
Còinneach is this week’s West Highland Way club pattern. Còinneach is the Gaelic word for mossy, and it is also the name given to the famous summit above Loch Lomond – Conic Hill. People who don’t think about the way local names have been anglicised can sometimes be confused by this hill, which is much…
Read More
We are gradually adding a range of different kits, books, and other products to the KDD shop, and the latest to arrive are kits for two of my most popular shawl designs – Fantoosh, and A Hap for Harriet. Both shawls are great for summer knitting, and I think both also make ideal accessories for…
Read More
There was a really magnificent aurora here last night – I thought you might like to see it. Tom took this time lapse out by Loch Lomond – there’s 78 minutes compressed into 13 seconds. Thanks so much for your responses to my last post, especially the reading suggestions, which have been very helpful. A…
Read More
Hello! It’s a beautiful day here today – fog has been hanging thickly since dawn at low levels, but in places where the sun burns through there is the most incredible golden light. It is also unusually still and crisp. We took Bruce out for one of our favourite walks, and Tom shot some photographs…
Read More
There is a definite change of season in the air. There have been days of rainbows . . . . . . and days of freezing fog . . . and nights when the northern lights shimmered and shifted above the west highland way. This particular wintery spell has brought sub-zero temperatures and fine dry…
Read More
The weather really was glorious today. So, leaving Tom liaising with our printer, and muttering about gutters and crop marks, I decided to take the afternoon off. I took a camera and headed out to Loch Lomond with Bruce and walked for a few hours. This was just what was needed to blow away the…
Read More
Today’s hap is a symphony in intarsia from inventive designer, Bristol Ivy. Bristol is interviewed today over on Jen’s blog, where you can read more about her creative ethos, and why you don’t need to be intimidated by intarsia. Bristol’s Harewood hap is one of the designs in this collection that made me gasp when…
Read More
As discussed in the previous post, this design is inspired by an early nineteenth-century shawl, collected by Rachel Kay Shuttleworth, and now part of Gawthorpe Textile Collection. The colourful, ribbon-like bands of the shawl immediately reminded me of one of my favourite colourwork motifs, a small, simple pattern which resembles an interlocking vine. The pattern…
Read More
It has been one of those really difficult weeks. A good friend of Tom’s has just died (an expected death, but very sad circumstances); I have been laid low with labyrinthitis (truly terrifying) and even poor Bruce is suffering (he’s been in the cone for four weeks now due to a horrible infection on his…
Read More
Oftentimes, in the wake of finishing a large project, I am gripped with the urge to knit a hat. While I was waiting for my copies of Colours of Shetland to appear from the printer, I worked away on Snawheid, and similarly last year, in the hiatus between going to print and shipping Yokes, I…
Read More
We have been out walking along the West Highland Way near Inversnaid today, and I was put in mind of this landscape’s many famous visitors. Because of its fine views and beautiful surroundings, this was a spot much beloved of the Victorians, and particularly of literary travellers to Scotland. William Wordsworth wrote “to a Highland…
Read More
You may remember that, a little over a year ago, I passed my driving test (woohoo!) This has had a big impact on my life, and particularly on my daily walks with Bruce. Instead of just striking out from my front door, I can now drive a few miles, and explore further on foot. One…
Read MoreAs anyone round these parts will tell you, it has not (so far) been a vintage Scottish summer. One must make most of the fine weather when it appears, so we headed out for the hills, and enjoyed a lovely day’s walking. A favourite tree Dog on log Falls of Falloch I love the rich…
Read MoreGood morning! I’m extremely happy to announce that Yokes is now available for pre-order . . . and while I’m at it, I thought I’d show you another design. This yoke is called Buchanan. One of the many aspects of wearing yokes that I thought about while researching this book was the widespread practice, in…
Read MoreWell, it is time to introduce you to the first yoke from my new collection. Meet Epistrophy. Epistrophy is the title of a Be Bop “standard” composed and popularised by Thelonius Monk in 1942. The tune is characterised by its repetition and modification of a single, imitative phrase (or epistrophe). If you’d like to hear…
Read More
KDD & Co 