knitting diary « Cotton and Cloud

Category Archive: knitting diary

Sock in Between Work…

September 24th, 2012

Thank you so much for all your wonderful warm comments on Cloudy Apples. Both Jen and I were so humbled.. Thank you!!!

So in between my “work”, I like to have a random, brain numbing knitting project on the go. I have such thing at the moment.

I have two sisters. One of them is about to have a baby soon. She lives in a Buddhist temple on top of a hill in a cold region of Japan. It is a magical place but for a her, who grew up in a city, it is freezing. So I want to knit her a pair of socks. Time is pressing!

As I have so many stash – and they are good stash – I decided to use one of my very favourite sock yarn. It’s Shoppel Wolle, Admiral Ombre. I don’t have much time nowadays so I am just going to make a long but simple stocking stitch socks. Hopefully it will keep her feet warm as the temple only has tatami and wooden floor…

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Knitting Pictures: August

August 23rd, 2012

Wow, time flies! I have been working on various projects both small and large in August.

pain au chocolat

As some of you already know, one thing keeping me sane is eating pain au chocolat. I have been eating so many of them and I can taste the difference between various supermarkets and shops.

Cable knitting.

A small cable project. I am using Artesano Superwash Merino. A lovely versatile yarn. I have been thoroughly enjoying working with this.

Stripe zigzag

Also using the same yarn. My cats approves of the quality.

Motif knitting.

This is another picture of my small project which I am very excited about. This one is Artesano alpaca 4ply. I love them so much that I am thinking of making different designs using this theme in future.

Mini tomatoes.

I did not knit the above tomatoes but I really want to share this picture because these are tomatoes that I grew on my patio. They are so beautiful.

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Good Weather & Knitting.

May 28th, 2012

What a beautiful weather we had this weekend!

I worked on a new design using blue Sky Alpaca. It’s an innovative design and you will see it this coming winter.

The weather was too nice to knit indoor, so I cycled around London and knitted at different cafe.

My cats also enjoyed the nice weather. The cat grass is now fully grown so they were able to munch.

I always wonder what the cat grass taste like. They must be quite bitter.

Back onto the project.

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Translating Knitting Patterns from Japanese to English: A Beautiful Design by Mitsuharu Hirose

March 24th, 2012

Being a part of knitting community is wonderful because everyone is always kind and we help each other. It is very similar to my own personal experience living in the UK because without the help of so many friends and even people that I didn’t even know, I wouldn’t be here today.

I do spend majority of my time designing and patterning my own stuff, but I think being a part of society, it is important to do something for others. So today I want to talk about a project I have been working with The Knitter mag since last year. The project is about bringing Japanese designers to the West!

There are many beautiful designs created by Japanese designers but not many are published in English. There is an obvious language barrier and it’s a real shame. I think it would be really nice that more Japanese patterns, and not just my own, are accessible in English for everyone to enjoy!

So this is where I come in. I am an English and Japanese “knitting” bilingual (LOL). I do write and speak both languages pretty well. So why not use this skill for others? The Knitter team made this possible. I have been the go between person to organise the Japanese designers and have their Japanese patterns translated and graded to English. So together, we were able to publish Japanese high profile designers’ work in English.

Mitsuharu Hirose and Hitomi Shida were our very first choice. They are the Japan’s most well-known and loved professional designers. They are true knitting artist. Working with them is just amazing. Now that this project is coming to fruition, with Mitsuharu’s beautiful design called Sanmyaku being published this month, I want to talk about a little bit about the work I did for Mitsuharu, The Prince of Knitting.

Mitsuharu is a pioneer in every aspect of Japanese knitting. On top of all the beautiful designs that he creates, he has published countless books, he teaches all over Japan and appears regularly on TV. This meant that he also became a pioneer to work with me and my clumsy communications (I was so nervous!). But you know what? He was just so superbly professional throughout. He was so nice and was spot-on with the designs, never late to reply, always to the point. I admire and respect him so much!!!

So his design for issue 43 is called Sanmyaku which means mountain range in Japanese. His love of beautiful Japanese mountain views and nature is so well presented in the design. It has a decorative zig-zag motifs with delicate lace collar pattern which is shaped by differing needle sizes.When I first saw the design, I loved it and it gave me goosebumps (LOL).

When I received the pattern files from him for me to translate and grade sizes, I was even more impressed by his precise description. The gauges and measurements were bang-on and it was just a thrill and honour to work on his work.

I was eager to see how the pattern will be published. The Knitter team has really done an amazing work on the photography, technical editing (thank you Melanie!) and putting them together. I felt so happy to be a part of a great teamwork. And I think it is a real success! Thank you so much Mitsuharu for your amazing work.

Mitsuharu_Hirose_The_Knitter_Mag_43

It’s a great and fun pattern to knit. Do please check it out Happy weekend!

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Stitch & Craft Show 2012 at Olympia Report

March 19th, 2012

I spent a day with The Knitter team at The Knitter & Simply Knitting stand last Sunday at Stitch & Craft Show 2012 in Olympia!

My job was to work along with The Knitter team (Rosee Woodland, Jen Storey and Miriam McDonald) as a part of expert knitter team (!) and to help visitors with any knitting queries. I have been to several shows in London but this one was the first so I was really looking forward to seeing what it would be like!

The show was bigger than expected. It wasn’t all knitting. There were areas for sewing, embroidery, quilting. One amazing thing there was the quilt display. There were hundreds of them and they were all about London Olympics!

The Knitter stand was nice. There was a large wooden table and chairs as well as sofa to chill out and knit. We all had our own knitting project. People came in and out chatting with us or asking about some techniques etc. It was pure knitting and I loved every moment!

There were many companies who had their stand. I kept going to say hi to Joanna Osborne, one of the authors of Best in Show Knit Your Own Cat – an AMAZING Book! I got the book finally as well as a kit to knit a ginger cat. The book was also signed by her .

Also there was Hooplayarn, who specialises in chunky fabric yarn (500g cone). They are so cool. I will blog about the company again in detail.

I was also in a mood of a yarn on the day and I got a gorgeous yarn from Artisan Yarn. Anne uses natural dyes to create lovely colourways for her luxury fibre. They were so beautiful and I had a difficulty choosing which one to get – But I chose the baby camel and silk blend

Martin Storey and Sarah Hatton were also doing the book signing. I was too shy to walk to them tell them how much I love them! BUT towards the end of the show, Martin walked towards us and got us some gift from Rowan. I was SO NERVOUS and SHY but had to tell him how amazing his designs are and I am a big fan (LOL!). He is such a lovely person and I am so glad that I did! Next time I will say hello to Sarah too!

So I had a wonderful time. It was so nice to spend a day and got to know The Knitter & Simply Knitting team. They are extremely knowlegeable and passionate about their work. I hope those who visited the stand was able to learn more about knitting. I also hope that I will be able to do more of the show for The Knitter. If you want to see more pictures, there are more on my facebook page.

So now what’s my plan for the week? Well, I am working of several accessory designs this week – all for Autumn and Winter collection!

Have a fab week!

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Knitting in 2012

January 17th, 2012

Tonsilitis. That was my first New Year event. It took a whole week for me to recover, so apology for not writing for a while. I am better now though!

I get really frustrated when I am ill because I know I could be doing lots of designing, patterning and knitting! In 2012 I can tell you, there will be loads of great things regarding knitting not just within the world of Cotton & Cloud but also within the whole knitting globe.

Jamieson's of Shetland Heather

For example, Jamieson’s of Shetland have introduced brand new colours for their Heather range (above). From what I know, they hadn’t introduced new colours for Heather for 5 years or so until last year. So It is a very exciting news! Cotton & Cloud, of course, will be stocking some in the coming months.

Gomitoli Yarn Angora

I, as a knitting pattern designer, will also be creating many more new patterns both here on my site as well as on various publications. You will see a pretty pattern from this Gomitoli angora yarn in few months time as well as a really lovely top from Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend in Spring.

Manos del Uruguay Yarn Silk Blend

Cotton & Cloud will also start a new project which is called Knit & Sell Scheme. You can now sell anything made from Cotton & Cloud patterns when you join this scheme. It’s so exciting because the aim of this is to empower knitters around the world to sell more hand-knitted items and allow people around the world to enjoy wearing them. At the moment, the scheme is still under review, but hopefully I will be able to introduce it officially in the coming weeks.

grow apricot from pip

Above is the apricot seeds I want to grow. I then realised how metaphoric it is to my work. I hope more people will enjoy Cotton & Cloud in the coming future!

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Merino Wool Facts (also Free Patterns from Nick Atkinson & Win the Wool!!)

December 15th, 2011

Did you know that merino wool is not just a beautifully soft and lovely yarn? This year, I pledged that I would keep running in winter. Since I am a forever-cold-body person I did a research on what sort of things are good to wear outside when you exercise… and I was really surprised that I landed on MERINO WOOL! They are used for so many winter sports clothing (cycling, mountain climbing, skiing.. you name it!).

So here are some facts I found on merino:

Regulates body temperature without over heating.
Merino fibres has lots of tiny pores on their fiber which traps air. This acts like a layers between your body temperature and the outside environment keeping you warm when the weather is cold, and vice versa.
Apparently Merino has high warmth to weight ratio. which means lots of warmth with less amount of fibre.

Merino wool wick moisture away so that your body feels nice and dry.
Merino is a hydrophillic (mening loves water!) fibre and can wick up to 1/3 of its weight.

Merino wool is naturally anti-bacteiral.
This means that the fabric is resistant to smell (unlike the sysnthetic counterpart).
The reason for this is that bacteria prefers to grow on an even surface with moisture but merino wool fibre has uneven surface and it draws water keeping the surface dry.

So I thought I would knit something for myself a nice little project using merino wool…

Free glove pattern Rayna by Artesano. Haven't knitted selbuvotter for ages!

Pattern: Rayna by Rita Taylor, a free knitting pattern by Artesano.

Yarn: Artesano Superwash Merino (100% machine washable wool; 112m / 50 g ball). I used Purple (3158) and Baby Peach (8413).

I LOVE knitting selbuvotter of all kinds. This was perfect because it is knitted with DK weight yarn so it’s nearly finished!

So warm and so cute!

If you are a merino geek, you might have heard of some controversial issues about museling on merino sheep. I don’t know much about this issue but the fact that people talk about it, it must be an important aspect of wool production. I think some of you would be happy to know that Artesano Superwash Merino wool comes from Peru and I have read that the practice of museling does NOT happen in Peru – it’s good to know these facts.

Front view of the glove.

Also I recently found out that Artesano is giving out free knitting pattern by Nick Atkinson when you complete a quick questionnaire. And out of those who has completed a questionnaire, 5 people will win the Superwash Merino DK in their colour choice to knit the garment!!!! The deadline is 17th Feb 2012.

I have done it already I think the pattern is beautiful (see below). Isn’t it nice? It’s so clever that the diagonal eyelets are worked on the yoke. It continues even across the buttonband! I so want to knit with a red (colour: 8083) or teal (colour: 6701). I also think grey (colour SFN41) would look gorgeous.

This is going to be a beautiful cardi that you can knit up quick!

So much fun in winter. Happy knitting!

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Raindrop Shawlette Knitting Pattern – Behind the Scene

December 12th, 2011

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I have been finishing off my new shawlette knitting pattern.

There is something about knitting shawls. A smaller shawlette is so fun to knit with less amount of yarn, but still very pretty and practical.

For a long time, I wanted to update on my original Raindrop Shawl which was a large rectangular shape. So I recently updated it, but I updated it so much that it actually became a completely different pattern!! LOL. BUT, I love the result!

So let me introduce you to my new half-circular Raindrop Shawlette pattern

Raindrop Shawlette knitting pattern now available from my shop.

I used 1 skein of Fyberspates Scrumptious 4 ply Sport; water. It is definitely a shawlette-kind of yarn with 45% silk and 55% superwash merino (354m / 100g skein). I loved every stitches I knitted with this yarn!

Patterning this shawlette was truly fun. It features double-eyelets that radiates outward. The pattern then develops into an all-over diamond lace pattern with the size of the diamonds gradually increases as you knit along. The edge has a nice scallop lace motif finished by triple eyelets.

The pattern is definitely suitable for all levels of knitters. I was so amazed how easily and fast I could knit this.

Do also please have fun blocking it…

I didn't have any water spray to do the spray block. So I soaked the shawl in warm water. The yarn is a blend of superwash - so it should be OK!...

and it was perfect: the shawlette soaked up water within 10 min without any problems. After blocking, the remained as beautiful as before.

Children’s foam play mats are so useful to block the shawl. I bought 4 interlocking parts for about £13 on Amazon. To stretch out the shawl as even as possible, I used 72 pins! As you can imagine, my cats would want to walk over it, so I made sure their favourite toys are far away and they are not interested in what I was doing!

Blocking shawlette on a playmat

I put the whole thing against the wall overnight.

So how would you wear a shawlette? Anyways you can with anything!

You can wrap it around yourself like a small shawl or around the neck like a scarf.

You can also tie it. I do like this look.

The pattern is available both from my shop directly or via Ravelry.

Hope you like it and happy knitty week!

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Suspect: Has My Design Been “Adapted” to an Extent That It Is Identical?

August 16th, 2011

I saw something about 10 days ago that surprised me immensely. I think one of my knitting patterns has been copied or at least “adapted” to an extent that it is literally identical. But I won’t say it’s for definite because things like this could truly happen by chance. But thinking again and again about what I saw, it is really quite hard to believe that this happened by chance because it looks exactly the same. I can see some differences but I know why these differences were made. If (that is if) this pattern which is already published, was really an adaptation of my design, it is disappointing that no credit was given to me. Actually this is the second time by different individuals that my designs as been “adapted” to an extent that it is identical. So I decided to voice about it.

I won’t go into detail about this particular case as it is by an individual and not by a large retail giant. If this happens for the second time by the same person, I will take an action. But for now, I would like to talk about my philosophy about this whole situation.

Knitting community is a great pool of people where they are all courteous and give credit to one’s design if a person adapts it – even to an extent that you cannot really see any resemblance to the original design! Knitters are all creative and I love being a part of this community.

Getting an inspiration from other designers, brands, etc is natural. I have my own favourite designers that I admire and I am always inspired by fabulous knitting designs that I see on Ravelry and elsewhere. If you are designing a new pattern, you may adapt a certain shape, a certain stitches on a completely different type of garment. I think that’s fine. But when it becomes, the same style of garment, the very similar detail of designs, very similar stitches on a same style garment – then that is a bit too much.

When you suspect that someone has adapted your design to an extent that it is literally identical, it is a difficult feeling. But one thing I can say is not to let this stop you. It’s a cliche to say that “imitation is the highest form of flattery”. May be it is, but you know, the bottom line is all about THE NEXT NEW DESIGNS. There is no point publishing what has been seen before.

It taks a LONG time for me to create a garment from start to finish. I go into a lot of details (scenery, photos, words, colours, texutres etc), swatches, analysing the ideal fibres. So when someone adapts my design I would expect someone to give some credit for the hard work I did.

Although I won't be able to tell you which one it is, these are some of the images I went through to design a garment.

I don't just go through inspirational images. It really does take a long time, but that is the beauty of knitting - TIME.

I don't just go through inspirational images. I knit countless number of swatches. It really does take a long time, but that is the beauty of knitting - TIME.

I would like to “turn lemon into lemonade”. So next time I create my own design (which is going to be soon), I will blog about every step that takes from the beginning to the end of creating the final garment. I want to share my method of how I do it, and may be there is something that we can both learn from each other. Life goes on. I have a loving family and kitties with amazing knitting friends. All I need to concentrate is to create knitting patterns that we can all enjoy.

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FO: Cable Knitted Dress

February 8th, 2011

Last week, I told myself that I will sleep before 11pm and wake up at 6am. It’s been hard but I think I am getting used to it. I feel great because I get majority of things done way before I usually do

I am so happy to show you that I have finally finished knitting for myself the women’s version of Ocean. This was one of my new year’s resolution and the pattern is now available from my shop.

FO: Knitted Dress for Women - Ocean

I casted on last December, hoping to finish if before for the end-of-year-party I was attending.. but I could not finish it!. The New Year came and I was determined to complete knitting. The good thing is that because this garment is short-sleeved I knew I would be able to wear it well into spring.

This was taken the end of the year. I took this to knit when my flat was still being refurbished.

WIP...

There are few other patterns that I am working on (including adult version of Cable Yoke Jacket) but this one was something that I wanted to do first, mainly because I wanted to knit it for myself!

So cool to wear what you have made and walk around the town

I have modified the original girl’s version slightly to suit grown-ups by making the neckline shallow and giving it a high-neck instead of a crew-neck. When I was talking to Jamieson’s last year during the Knitting & Stitching show, they were saying how it would be nice to wear this with a nice pair of boots.

I do love high neck jumber. It always add a touch of retro-ness to the garment.

I do love a high neck jumber. It always adds a touch of retro-ness to the garment.

I haven’t yet managed to take a photo of myself wearing it but I will promise to do that soon.

Pattern: Cable Knitted Dress for women from Cotton & Cloud
Yarn: Jamieson’s of Shetland Heather (charcoal 126)
Needles: 5 mm (US 8) and 4.5 mm (US 7)

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