HRYC

October 11, 2012

Adventures with Spud & Chloe

When Spud & Chloe Fine arrived in the shop, I was more than a little taken by one of their colours: Glow Worm. You could go so far as to say I was quite enamoured with it. The only thing I didn't like was that, sadly, it doesn't glow in the dark. BUT IT LOOKS LIKE IT SHOULD.

Spud and Chloe Fine in Glow Worm

Spud & Chloe Fine in Glow Worm

And you know what else I can't help myself with? Stripes. Why oh why do I do this to myself? Every time!

Spud & Chloe Fine in Wildberries Spud & Chloe Fine in Lisptick Spud and Chloe Fine in Glow Worm Spud and Chloe Fine in Sidewalk

Spud & Chloe Fine in Wildberries, Lipstick, Glow Worm and Sidewalk

A conversation followed about how great these four colours looked together. And then I stumbled across the Nova Dress pattern. Fate? I'd like to think so.

It was a great, quick and straight forward knit - I made the size 4, and cut the yarn at each stripe change rather than carry four colours up the side (I felt that would be messy, and don't mind the weaving in).

Hooray! Finished!

The problem when the dress was all done though - the leftovers! Oh noes! They sat forlornly on the stash shelf for weeks. Solution: kid sized version of the Leftovers Cowl.

Instead of doing 70 stitches as with the adult version, provisionally cast on 50sts on 3.25mm needles, and follow the instructions for the bigger size. Easy peasy!

If you're one of the many many people now addicted to Pinterest - I've pinned a whole bunch of awesome Nova dress projects found on Ravelry. Great way to pick up ideas on colour combos and peek at cute kids!

PS - we're out of stock of lots of Spud & Chloe Fine colours at the moment, but a bumper order will be with us in about 2 weeks. Yay! Let us know (shop@hollandroadyarn.co.nz) if you'd like us to pop any aside for you when it arrives.

October 08, 2012

Incredible colourwork socks II

Okay, so I kept looking at colourwork patterns...I couldn't help it! Here are more to get excited over. I really am my own worst enemy when it comes to mentally queuing up things to knit. With all the spare I (really, really don't) have.

Kirkwall by Mary Jane Mucklestone

Wallflower by Stephanie van der Linden

Bumblebee by The Needle Lady

I'm done now. I think. Maybe...

September 29, 2012

A little bit of cake

Last week's Sat Sit & Knit saw us having a nibble on a lemon curd pound cake. It got me thinking, though: could I make one with the raspberry jam sitting in the pantry?

Hooray! Yes! It worked really well, so here's my recipe, adapted from this lemon curd pound cake from My Kitchen Snippets. Yum!

Ingredients:

115g of butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp milk
2 tsp lemon zest
1 cup flour
1/3 cup desiccated coconut, plus extra for top
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
raspberry jam

Grease a loaf pan and heat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

Cream together butter and sugar until light.

Add eggs one at a time, beat until well combined.

Mix in the milk and lemon zest.

Add flour, baking powder, salt and coconut. Beat until well combined.

Spread the mixture out in the loaf pan. Using a dessert spoon, add blobs of raspberry jam along the centre of the loaf. Sprinkle extra coconut along the top of the jam.

Bake for about 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool and then enjoy with your knitting! We ate it plain, but I think it would be delicious with a bit of cream or yoghurt on the side.

September 28, 2012

Incredible colourwork socks.

There are some seriously amazing colourwork sock patterns around at the moment.

I really, really don't need to add new projects to my 'desperate to knit' list, but all of these have me hunting around in my stash and dreaming up colour combinations...

Hot Crossbone Socks by Camille Chang

Fireweeds by Rose Hiver

Garden Gate Socks by Emily Johnson (i've wanted to knit these since forever)

Butterflies are Free by Rose Hiver

Zirkel. by Stephanie van der Linden

I really am never going to run out of things I want to knit. It's a little bit crazy! I know lots of people find stranded knitting a little bit scary - but it's worth a go. As long as you start with something that has no more than 2 - 3 stitches of a colour before changing to the next colour, you'll be fine. It's all about practice, after all.

September 24, 2012

Rock and Purl: knitting with Rock & Roll

This week it is super exciting to have Ruth Garcia-Alcantud, aka Rock and Purl, as both our #twitknit special guest and in a guest blog post. Hooray! Add your comment to this post by 5pm Wednesday 26 Sept and we'll draw a couple lucky winners who will receive a free Rock and Purl pattern!

As part of the conversation it was decided that we'd have our first #twiknit KAL - and what better pattern to go for than Ruth's new self-release pattern, Lichen Mists. It's a real beauty of a shawl pattern! We've set up a thread in the Holland Road Yarn Co group over on Ravelry if you fancy joining in.

Ruth has been featured in loads of knitting publications including Twist Collective, Vogue Knitting, Yarn Forward and also releases independent designs.

Tell us your knitting journey: when did you learn, who from, and how did you decide it was

a craft for you?

I learnt, of course, from my grandmother! I spent all summers at her house and I

remember my first project was a horrible "scarf" with holes in it. I believe she still has it

hidden somewhere! She also taught me how to crochet with a teeny 2mm hook and #5

crochet cotton, do cross-stitch, sew in a straight line (by hand!), repair clothes... I picked

the needles back up in 2006 when I found myself unemployed after moving to the UK for

good.

Do you have a favourite item to knit? Or do you like to dabble in a bit of everything? Is

there a pattern you adore and return to knit time and again?

My favourite thing is designing garments. The first handful were so difficult and organizing

the information in my head was a headache in itself, but now I love the problem-solving. If

I'm knitting for fun (it happens only Friday-Sunday evenings!) it tends to be vanilla socks or

gloves. My favourites would be Ricardo or Flecha, both my designs, both very easy socks

with 4-row repeats that makes them go veeery fast.

What do you love about the knitting community and being a designer?

The thing I love the most about this is the friendship. It's a lonely job, especially if you

live in a remote area like me. I don't have a knit-night or anything, so the friendships I've

formed over the internet with customers, students, designers and yarn companies are

such a good source of fun and feedback.

As a business owner I join tweet chats and blog comment threads and have started

relationships with writers, marketing people and business coaches that push my

boundaries and allow me into a 4th dimension where what I do for money is not as

important as how I manage and develop my business - which is more abstract and allows

my creative self to be applied to something other than knitting!

Adoro, on Tash's list of 'must knits'

What inspired you to start designing patterns?

It all started as a bit of a challenge during a time in my life where I had time to study

garment making and apply what I had learnt from my family (dad works in fashion and

both grandmothers were fine seamstresses!). I knew I needed a change of path since my

career was making me unhappy. I read all I found online about garment design and bought

some books on flat pattern drafting, then realised until I put my hands to it I wouldn't

be able to apply it. My first garment was a men's cardigan that is now out on the Fresh

Designs for Men book.

I now look everywhere for inspiration and try to knit a swatch every couple of days and

think of ways to apply it to a garment - it's good to have a backlog of designs to look at

when inspiration runs dry!

Do you have a favourite yarn, tool or accessory to that makes you knitting life complete?

My absolute favourite yarn is Rowan Felted Tweed. I could knit with it forever and never

get tired, you can imagine how thrilled I was when they expanded to Aran and Chunky!!

Tools? Circular needles! The best in metal are ChiaoGoo (the ones with the red cable!)

they are made of stainless steel and glide like lightning!

Being a professional in the knitting industry, what’s most interesting thing you’ve learned

through being on ‘the other side’?

This is, regardless of how "cottage" it feels, a business. You have to present yourself to

each project proposal as if you were having a job interview - be it with a yarn company,

a book proposal, a magazine submission... They expect professional results, in a timely

manner, with appropriate communication.

Also, it is not a business free of expenses - hardware, software, needles in all sizes

and lengths, yarn to swatch, travel to events and conventions... Something I advise all

newcomers to do is to evaluate and discuss with their family how much money you can

invest in this business and how much return you expect to see, with a timeline. Essentially,

make a business plan.

These are points rarely discussed when you're blinded by the possibility of "I get to knit

all day" and all your partner sees could be "you are sitting on your behind all day". I put

nearly 10-12h of work into this job every day (including weekends!) and most successful

designers do too, since we tend to be one-person businesses. It's essential to analyze

whether you and your situation (at home and at the bank) can take the risk of making this

your livelihood.

Lastly: tell us something we don’t know! What are your passions outside knitting?

I love cooking and photography - I'm good at the former, trying to be good at the latter! I

also love reading philosophy and political current affairs books and articles. Who woulda

thought!

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