Sandness is the name of the village my dad lives in on the west side of Shetland and it’s the name I have given to my latest shawl design in Brooklyn Tweed’s Wool People 5.

Jared asked me to contribute a design for a wee shawl story that features in this collection. I had been wanting to try a little variation on the traditional Shetland construction so instead of a garter stitch center I played around with a Stockinette Stitch version. I needed to add in some extra increases to the center in order to get the right kind of width but I found a good balance and really quite like the subtle definition that these increases add to the Stockinette triangle.

I also opted for a non lace pattern for the border section and instead went with texture, one that you may recognize from another Wool People design of mine! This texture actually reminds me a lot of the well known Old Shale lace with it’s gentle undulating garter stitch lines.

And Sandness comes in two sizes!

It is no surprise that this issue is chock full of beautiful patterns from lots of wonderful designers…go take a peek!

Sorry to take so long to announce the winners of the two recent book giveaways!

They are:

Aurore for Icelandic Handknits

and Joanne for 50 Sunflowers to Knit and Crochet

Congratulations to you both!

I am very excited and honored to be kicking off the blog tour for Hélène Magnùsson’s new book Icelandic Handknits.

©Arnaldur Halldorsson

Before I go any further here is a snippet of the official press release:

“Icelandic Handknits: 25 Heirloom Techniques and Projects is a rich and varied collection of patterns for folk mittens, socks, scarves, hats, wrist warmers, sweaters, shoe inserts, and more, all inspired by traditional handknitted artifacts from the Textile Museum in Blönduós, Iceland.
In the pages of this book, renowned Icelandic knitwear designer Hélène Magnùsson delivers an array of beautiful patterns that reflect the depth of the country’s knitting traditions.”

©Arnaldur Halldorsson

It was truly a pleasure to receive a copy of this book. Flipping through the pages brought back lots of happy memories of my trip to Iceland last year. Mary Jane and I were lucky enough to take a quick visit to the museum at Blönduós and saw firsthand the exquisite handknit articles that Hélène was so inspired by.

©Arnaldur Halldorsson

Hélène has sensitively and lovingly created 25 varied designs all beautifully photographed against a dramatic Icelandic landscape.

All the items showcase the knitting of Iceland in the 19th and early 20th centuries and the book is packed with fascinating history and folklore to accompany each design.

I was personally drawn to all the similarities that Iceland and it’s knitters share with Shetland. We have so much in common in our histories. The harsh conditions that were experienced by our ancestors meant that knitted items were a practical and much needed aspect of daily life. Icelanders also knit for export, as did the Shetlanders of the 1900′s. Thank goodness for those hardy sheep!

©Arnaldur Halldorsson

I love all the designs in this collection but have to admit to a particular fondness for the lace pieces. When viewing the lace items in the museum I immediately recognized some of the same lace patterns that we see in traditional Shetland lace. It appeared to me that these are more often set on a Stockinette background in Iceland, whereas they typically are shown in garter stitch in Shetland. Construction methods also differ. In any event these patterns were being passed around and influencing many knitters of their day.

©Arnaldur Halldorsson

 There are so many great projects to choose from in this book and plenty of  photo tutorials to help you learn any new techniques! This is most definitely a book you want to add to you library.

Voyageur Press have very kindly donated a copy of the book as a giveaway to one lucky winner! To take part please leave a comment on this post before end of day EST on Wednesday the 10th of April.

To purchase the book visit Hélène’s website.

And, if you’re keen to visit Iceland (which I can wholeheartedly recommend doing) then you might want to check out Hélène’s  knitting tour this summer which will be focusing on the very knitting traditions seen in this book!

The rest of the blog tour stops are:

Today is the perfect day to tell you about Kristin Nicholas’ new book 50 Sunflowers to knit, crochet and felt.

This is the first day that it has truly felt like the stirrings of Spring in these parts. Mild enough temperatures that you start to imagine flowers blooming and birds singing! However there is still some snow on the ground and those patches that are exposed are looking pretty drab!

So what better way to encourage it along than by picking a cute and colorful project from Kristin’s new book!

It’s a feast for the eyes flipping through the pages. So many different possibilities!

I absolutely love how this book is laid out too. It’s extremely organized and user friendly and packed with clearly illustrated tutorials for all the techniques used.

You could make individual sunflowers, bugs and even a bird or you could pick one of the projects at the end of the book to spruce up something in your home. I particularly love the sunflower lampshade and now have it on my to do list!

Kristin has also generously supplied a copy of the book that I can give away to one lucky winner! In order to be in the running all you have to do is leave me a comment on this post (making sure I will be able to easily contact you).

Tell me what you are most looking forward to about summery, sunflower-filled days!

Comments will close at end of day EST on Wednesday 3rd of April.

So it is almost 6 years ago that I took these pictures of Maya in what would become my first ever published knitwear pattern…..little did I know what it would lead to!

Why am I posting about this?

Well in a few weeks time I’m going to be teaching a class on how to “get in to designing” at the Vogue Knitting Live event in Seattle. As I sat down to prep for this class I realized it would be great to have some input from my readers whether you are new to designing, a veteran or just thinking about it.

I’d love to hear what you either wish someone had told you or what areas you’d most like to know more about……

I’m asking a favor…..so I can make sure this is a super awesome class….

…..thanks in advance!

Six years later and she’s still happy to model for me!

That’s right I will be taking part in another Vogue Knitting live event…..this time in Seattle!

I’ll be teaching a Seamless knitting class, a Shetland Lace class, a Shetland Hap (shawl) class and a Getting Into Designing Class.

Classes are filling up so don’t hesitate to sign up!

There is of course a fantastic line up of other teachers and classes to choose from too.

Hope I see you there!

That ought to keep us going for a while!

For perspective…the photo on the right was taken before the storm….

This was the first inkling of the storm this afternoon….the one that is supposed to bring 18-24 inches of snow!

We are huddled up in our house waiting to see what happens….only about 4 inches of snow so far……what will the morning bring?

Ninian is a new design of mine that was just published on a Japanese site called Amirisu.
This is only the 2nd issue of the webzine and I was honored to be asked to be a part of it. I actually met one of the team members of Amirisu this past Fall when I taught at Squam Italia. In fact she even did a little interview with Ysolda and I when we were there and you can find that in this issue too!

© amirisu

Ninian is a simple and versatile sweater knit in laceweight yarn and featuring a well known Shetland lace pattern on the front. It is worked from the bottom up in one piece separating at the underarms to work the back and front flat. Stitches are then picked up from the armhole and short rows are used to shape the sleeve cap (you know how much I like that kind of sleeve cap)!

© amirisu

The yarn is Cima from Shibui Knits and was new to me. I loved it! It’s an alpaca/merino blend and incredibly soft.

© amirisu

© miyayo

This is the test knitters version , same yarn, different colour!

I’ll be totally honest…..January has been kicking my butt and I’m kind of looking forward to saying cheerio to it in a few days…it has felt fairly interminable and has been really dragging it’s feet in my opinion! Nothing awful has happened, I’m grateful for that, but I just feel like I haven’t been able to get into any kind of groove-workwise or other!

I also recently gave up my out of home studio as I just wasn’t getting there enough so I have been trying to carve out my space at home and it’s been tricky. All of which is just to say I’ve had the winter blahs and hence have not felt inspired to blog!

Today I hope to turn that around and get on with some of those eagerly made resolutions for 2013! One of these being that I want to explore photography more this year. I have plans to upgrade my Canon camera in the near future and have been researching what to go for. I’d love a full frame but don’t think I can stretch the pennies for that just yet. I’m fairly certain I’m settled on the Canon 60D.

In the meantime I will be swatting up on digital photography and practicing on my Rebel Xti so expect more photography on the blog!

Of course there will be some knitwear too….never fear!