So I Had an Idea...

I have recently done a few designs to use up scraps which have involved slipped stitches. Which got me thinking... The row gauge for slipped stitches is a lot tighter than straight knitting or stranded knitting. So playing about with it could allow some quite fun results.

So I swatched a bit to see what effects I could achieve. And I am quite excited to find you can get very intricate looking patterns with a few basic rules that must be obeyed.

I have charted up and made my first non-stranded 'fairisle' hat sample and am currently knitting the matching cowl. I will post photos later...

My other design currently being tested is my 'Tudor' hat and Cowl set. It uses an adaptation for knitting in the round of the Tudor Grillwork pattern from my Second Treasury of Knitting patterns by Barbara Walker. Just what every stylish bank robber needs :)

Life and Death in Todheugh

The Good - first snowdrops of the year spotted a couple of days ago:

The Bad - beech tree split it two from the gale force winds two nights ago:

and The Ugly - drowned mice in my upside down bell cloches:

Indie GAL Lives On

The Indie GAL officially ended at the New Year but there are still a lot of us continuing on with WIPs and patterns won/bought. And a lot of chatting...

I am working on my Bewitching Hour gloves, one of the freebie patterns I chose from my prize vouchers:

and I still have three more vouchers to claim.

I also won two skeins of gorgeous yarn (Rapture) from Squoosh Fiberarts - I can't say how happy I am. I have chosen colurways Cognac and Red Maple.

The switch over to LoveKnitting has gone relatively smoothly - I have even had my first EU sale.

The start of the year has been busy with two new patterns published already, and three more being tested.

The scarf I designed for Paul, Seriously Stripey Scarf, was published on the 2nd:

Still waiting for my new release, When the Wind Blows hat, to reach Published status on LK  but there are a lot of us adding patterns onto the site so I think they have been inundated...

2014 A Year of Knitting

Another year over and what have you done?

Well, this is my annual year of knitting photo :)

1 sweater, 1 blanket, 1 table runner, 1 pair of gloves, 5 hats, 6 face cloths, 7 cowls, 8 scarves, 8 shawls and 9 pairs of socks,

I started self publishing my own patterns earlier this year and have learnt a lot. A lot of it I didn't want to learn. A new EU directive came into force not long after I started wrt Consumer Rights which meant a lot of stress trying to ensure I was compliant. And then the stress of the new EU VAT regulations that came into being today...

Ravelry have been wonderful in partnering with LoveKnitting to let us divert our EU sales so that nano-businesses like me can continue trading without having to sort out the nightmare of determining customers location, storing data for 10+ years, VAT registering and having to submit quarterly VAT and MOSS returns for very small amounts of money...

At the end of this year I have 20 published patterns - far more than I had imagined I could achieve in 9 months.

I have started my own Ravelry group, Helen Gipson Designs, which was kind of scary but most of the people who I asked have joined, some more have come along and now I have a happy band of testers.

I invested in charting software, StitchMastery, at the end of September which has been worth every penny in producing more professional looking knitting charts although I was kind of fond of my colour coded spreadsheet charts :)

And now I have to decide on how much time I use knitting/designing and how much time to dedicate back to word studying as that was put on the back burner for most of last year.