Pebble Beach Relaunch......

Hello my friends, get me two posts in one week ;-) I'm back today to let you know the Pebble Beach Shawl has been relaunched and includes an extra two sizes. If you'd already purchased it, you will get an automatic update on Ravelry but if you haven't yet bought a copy, it's definitely worth buying with the three different sizes, it's such a great pattern. If you've never knit a lace shawl before this would be a good one to start with as it's a simple lace pattern.

I test knit the original pattern last year and fell in love with this beautiful lace shawl pattern with simple eyelet lace. Helen originally designed this pattern to enter into the Unwind Brighton 2014 design contest which won by miles even though there was some other great designs that entered and it's been very popular ever since.

Helen has relaunched the pattern in collaboration with The Uncommon Thread, an indie dyer based in Brighton, UK and has used some of their lace weight yarn but it will still work just as well with 4ply if you don't fancy working with lace weight.

I knew straight away which yarn I wanted to knit the latest one in, for my birthday, last year, my friend who is a non-knitter and wouldn't have a clue about buying yarn, went to a yarn shop whilst she was on holiday and picked out some yarn for me!!!!!

This was the yarn she bought me, it is Coastal Yarn Alpaca Lace and is from their own flock of Alpacas based in Cornwall which they have spun at a local mill into this stunning, natural undyed yarn which is so soft to the touch. Didn't my friend chose well for me?

This was the very first Pebble Beach that Helen asked me test knit, the yarn I used was a gradient from Eaden Yarns who is based in Brighton. Can you see that Brighton is the common thread running with through this awesome pattern? The Pebble Beach pattern holds such a lot of wonderful memories for me after spending a fabulous few days down in Brighton, attending my first yarn show, meeting some wonderful people and enjoying this lovely seaside town.

This is my second Pebble Beach Shawl which holds the most memories, I bought the yarn from Unwind Brighton. It was Five Moons Luna 4ply, gradient kit

I sat in the Brighton Pavillion Gardens and cast it on with some wonderful knitters including Helen, Zena, Pj and Jannika.

I sat on Brighton's pebble beach in the glorious sunshine and knit some more on it. I added beads to this version and also made it larger by adding a few extra pattern repeats which is why I was so happy to see that Helen has decided to add some more sizes to the pattern.

My yarn had 600m in the skein so I started knitting the medium size as the large requires 800m, the medium doesn't use all of the 600m so whilst I was knitting away, I thought that I really want to use as much of my beautiful yarn as possible.

I spoke to Helen and she suggested knitting the large size, weighing the yarn and knitting as far as I can, ending with a full pattern repeat, leaving enough yarn for the picot bind off. Helen makes this very easy for you as she uses percentages on how far you are in the pattern so all I had to do was keep weighing my yarn to check I was on track. I finished on row 152 which was the end of a pattern repeat and I used most of my yarn which I was really pleased with. I was two repeats short of the pattern but still ended up with a fairly large shawl, it really grew and bloomed once I'd soaked and blocked it.

Here are my three Pebble Beach shawls, not one of them are the same, I've added beads on one, knit all the sizes and used different yarn weights. This is why I love the pattern so much, it is very versatile and easily adaptable to what you want from a shawl.

Thank you for stopping by, I really appreciate it and thank you for all your kind comments that I've received recently, you are all so lovely.

Have a great weekend.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

Giant Granny Square Summer Blanket.....

Hello my friends, I'm so sorry it's been so long again but I think while I'm working so many hours, I'll have to pop in when I can.

I have a few projects to share with you including a new crochet project, I was tidying up my craft room and going through my yarn collection where I found lots of cotton in an array of colours.

I wanted it to become a crochet blanket and thought about doing lots of little square or hexagons then I decided to just to do a large granny square as I wanted it to be a quick project without all the seaming. This will become my summer blanket for Caiden when we go to the park or picnic, it won't hurt if it gets grubby or thrown about, I can just throw it in the washing machine.

My travel/inbetween knitting are the Socks on a Plane by Laura Linneman, these are going slowly as I'm only picking them up occasionally when I'm not knitting on my larger projects.

I picked up this sock yarn, Heart and Sole by Sirdar, from a little yarn shop near my daughter's house, an inexpensive sock yarn which I think will be a hardwearing yarn like Regia. I'm hoping to finish the socks on my needles so I can cast on a new pair using one of these yarns. I was looking for some patterns especially for self- striping yarn and found some great patterns which I'll go through on another post.

I've been furiously knitting on two test knits, the top one is the Pebble Beach by Helen Stewart, Helen is updating her very popular design to include an extra two sizes. Those who have already bought the pattern will get an automatic update in the next few days.

The other test knit I'm working on is a new shawl pattern by Melody Hoffman, another beautiful pattern which is been released very soon. Both are blocking as we speak so my next post I'll tell you more about them.

Spring has sprung, here in the UK and last Sunday we took Caiden for a little walk around Bantock Park, one of my favorite walks, locally. Here's some photos of our Sunday morning walk.

This little man is growing up so quickly........

Apart from working and knitting, I'm totally engrossed in a book called Sleep Tight by Rachel Abbott, it's a real page turner. I had to set an alarm on my break so I wasn't late back!!!!!!!

I'm linking this post to Nicole's KCCO and Ginny's Yarn Along.

Thank you for stopping by and I'll try not to leave it as long next time :-)

xxxxDebxxxx

 

FO Friday......Pebble Beach Shawlette.

Hello my friends, how was your week? I've finished my Pebble Beach Shawlette by Helen Stewart as I've said before I love this pattern and this is the second one I've knit. This one is special though, I cast it on with a wonderful group of ladies at Unwind Brighton including Helen, the designer. I bought the yarn from the Unwind Market Place, we sat under a big shady tree in the Brighton Pavilion Gardens, cast on and just sat chatting and knitting for the afternoon. I also spent time on it all over the weekend, knitting on Brighton beach, it holds some special memories from a fabulous weekend,

I used two sets of Five Moons, Mini Phases in Fade to Grey, they also sell 20g mini skeins so you could make up any colour gradient you like. I made this slightly bigger by repeating some sections. I repeated rows 92-96 once and rows 105-108 once.

I also added beads to every other stitch on rows 91, 95 and 99 then every fifth stitch along the very last right side row and along the picot bind off edge. I buy my beads from The Bead Merchant, I use size 6 beads and a .75mm crochet hook.

Thank you for stopping by, have a great weekend.

xxxxDebxxxx

Yarn Along......a little bit of sock knitting.

Hello there, I hope you're having a good week. I've actually been knitting on my Calla Socks by Rachel Coopey this week, the pattern is from issue 4 of Pom Pom Quarterly, my favourite knitting magazine. I haven't knit on these for a while now but this week I picked them up and I'm very nearly at the toe. I'm using Artesano Definition sock yarn in Azure, I love the colour.

My Pebble Beach Shawlette by Helen Stewart is at the 50% point of the pattern, I need to work on this more this week to keep up with the KAL.

I might add some beads to my shawl, I've got these gorgeous grey beads that match, I will try adding them near the bottom of the shawl and see what it looks like.

On Friday afternoon whilst sitting in my garden under shady tree, I started this sweet tank top by Debbie Bliss. I had some yarn in my stash and wanted to knit something my soon to be grandson.

It was such a quick knit that I has it finished by Sunday, so I'll show you the finished item on Friday.

I also had a small amount of leftover yarn so knit a pair of bootees to match.

This week I'm reading In Broad Daylight by Seth Harwood, a fast paced, hard to put down thriller. Check out Tami's WIP Wednesday, Ginny's Yarn Along and Nicole's KCCO for more crafty WIPs.

I'll leave you with a few photos from our Saturday afternoon in Bewdley, a beautiful riverside town. The regatta was on so we sat by the river with a Pimms, live music and watched all the action.

Have a great week.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

Yarn Along.....Wee Envelope Jumper.

Hello my friends, how are you all? I'm back to show you what's on my needles this week. I've mainly been working on a test knit so this is all I can show you at the moment. The pattern is released at the beginning of August so will tell you more about it then.

What I can show you though is my Pebble Beach by Helen Stewart, I'm using mini skeins from Five Moons in Fade to Grey and I've reached the 40% point of the pattern. There is a Pebble Beach Knit A Long going on at the moment in the Curious Handmade Group, you've still got plenty time to join in.

After a few false starts I've nearly completed the top half of the Wee Envelope Jumper, it is an easy pattern but I think because I've never done a construction like this before and wasn't sure how it was suppose to look, I confused myself. I emailed the pattern support and got a very quick response on what I was doing wrong. After that it all made sense and if I had read the pattern properly in the first place it wouldn't have been a problem. Do you ever do that, read something but not take it in properly and knit what you think it should be? Word of advice, trust the pattern, lol!!!

What I'm reading at the moment, I've just finished Secrets of the Lighthouse by Santa Montifore and have started The Zookeepers Wife again but I'm also reading The Paris Journal by Evan Robertson and Nichole Robertson. I originally bought it on my Kindle but after flicking through it on there, I wanted the linen cover edition. It's a fabulous book full of wonderful photography, I ordered it from the US and it took less than a week to arrive to the UK!!!

I'm linking to Yarn Along, KCCO and WIP Wednesday.

It was my birthday on Friday, I was very spoilt and received some gorgeous gifts. I'm still not well so havent taken photos of everything as I just don't have the energy but wanted to share these from two of my non-crafty friends. The yarn is gorgeous and I was so touched and surprised that she'd gone out of her way to find me this luxurious skein of yarn. My other friend knows me so well too, I love the locally handmade teacup pincushion and look at the wall hanging, so special. I have the bestest friends!!!!

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your week.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

 

On My Needles....and the winners of the Curious Handmade Giveaway.

Hello my friends, today we will start with the winners of the Curious Handmade pattern giveaway........ Drum Roll.........

Reinventing Mother said...

Slip stitches are so much fun! I would love to add this pattern to my growing list! Thanks for the gmiveaway!

Caffeine Girl said...

I love Helen's designs. Afternoon Tea is one of my favorite shawls and I've knit a couple. Last week I bought Global Nomad. I would love to add Red Robin to my list!

And that baby blanket is charming.

Sarah said...

I'd love to enter the giveaway! I love the Twinkle Twinkle pattern (in fact, I think I've said so in a comment here for several weeks in a row, haha!!) but she also has some gorgeous shawl patterns! She's a new favorite on my ravelry!

Congratulations to the three winners, if you could email, please with your Ravelry name and the Helen Stewart pattern you would like, my email address is on the sidebar

My first project I've been working on this week is my Pebble Beach II by Helen Stewart, this little shawl will have lots of sentimental value as I explained in yesterday's post. I cast it on with a wonderful group of people at Unwind Brighton, there's a Pebble Beach KAL going on at the moment which is running until the 10th August. It's on for 4 weeks and each week is set out with a goal, I've reached this weeks goal of 25%, I love it when you have targets to meet, though saying that you can work at your own pace.

These are three of my purchases from Unwind Brighton, a Ysolda Teague pattern, the designer was on the stand and was so lovely and very helpful. I bought some Kettle Yarn Wimbledon Sport in Blue Pictsies. It's a 100% superwash merino in a sport weight and is very soft and squishy, perfect for babies.

I actually got to purchase some Signature needles, I've heard so many good things about them. They are as every bit as good as people say, they are comfortable to hold, lightweight and a dream to knit with. My husband asked me why they were so different from other needles, he laughed when I said they were the "Bugatti of Knitting Needles". I ended up going back to the show the following day to purchase another pair, after knitting my Pebble Beach on them!!!

I cast on last night and have finished the sleeve and front yoke, the sleeves and yoke are knit in one piece then you pick up stitches for the front and back. I've never knit a construction like this before, it's a simple knit with no seaming.

The last thing on my needles is some bunting, I got together with Mel and Sarah as part of Camp Aloha Friends , we thought this would be perfect summer knitting project. It is a free pattern called Knitted Bunting by Faye Perriam. I using some leftover Rowan Handknit Cotton.

I've started reading Secrets of the Lighthouse by Santa Montefiore as one of my favourite authors, it hasn't disappointed. I will carry on with the Zookeepers Wife but it was to big to carry around with me when I was away, also it's a library book and was worried about losing it.

I'm linking to Ginny's Yarn Along and Nicole's KCCO, I'm not sure whether I'll be back on Friday with any FO's so have a good weekend.

Happy Crafting

xxxxDebxxxx