HRYC

A stripe study shawl is pretty high on my list of things to knit. There were a few spotted at Knit Nation, which helped nudge it up the queue a bit further.

What do you think?

I'm pretty keen on this colour combo - any shade of yellow and grey has me quite joyful these days.

Lucky us, we've had visits from both Tracee of Maude & Me and Matt of Wabi Sabi Fibres in the last 2 days, and ohhhhh....such beautiful colours!

Maude & Me

Maude & Me

Maude & Me

(We love that some of the Maude & Me labels feature Maude the cat!)

Maude & Me

Wabi Sabi

Wabi Sabi

Wabi Sabi

A few weeks before heading to the land of tea and scones, Michaela got in touch to organise the crazy knitting rabble that formed the Knit Nation crew. Michaela is one supremely organised lady. We had a colour coded spreadsheet, work times and jobs all assigned to us well in advance. Being a process geek, I had a suspicion she would be my kind of person.

Turns out I was right.

We got on splendidly, and spent lots of time chatting about knitting shiz. (The first thing we talked about was the fact her cat had, just that morning, peed on her knitting bag.) Micheala has a very science based background - which going by the number of knitwear designers with a similar foundation should lead to great things.

Having not done my research (ahem), I was oblivious to the fact Michaela has been referred to by the BBC as a ‘fashion expert’. Going by the fantastic shoes gracing her feet, and the amazing work she has done as part of the MODO Fashion Society, the reference seems entirely justified.

Michaela’s 2011 knitwear collection has me all aflutter. I would rather like to own (or knit) her ‘Falling Down’ dress. This is what modern hand knits should be - delicate, strong (a theme I’m going to keep coming back to) and with real sass.

Take a look at her ‘Koho’ pattern (above) - one that admittedly I would never consider knitting. Then I saw the construction schematic. YES PLEASE. There is nothing that stokes my knitting fire like interesting construction. Not only that, Koho doesn’t say ‘hi, i’m a knitted vest.’ More like ‘Hi, there’s every chance I was purchased from a high end fashion store. I can be worn with sexy as hell skinny jeans and kick ass boots.’

I really can’t wait to see what Michaela comes up with next.

(PS - all images from Michaela's website - click on them for more info x)

Seeing as my brain is still quite mushy from only being back for 24 hours, here are a few pics from the last few weeks:

(it was pretty freaking incredible as far as trips overseas go!)

Coraline in spectacular gold on Ysolda's sample rack

A fabulous coffee and plastic yarn from Prick Your Finger

Best cupcake of my entire life thanks to Sandy

k1 yarns, Edinburgh

Promise for fuller, interesting posts over the next couple of weeks! x

We have a new winter workshop schedule all ready to roll - pop over to the workshop page to have a nosey, and flick Tash an email if you would like to join in the fun!

We're hosting classes covering everything from lace to cables to socks - the perfect opportunity to learn something new and give yourself a wee push.

xx Tash