Gift-a-long 2016, shining like a good deed in a naughty world.

2016 - it's been a funny old year. I shall say no more.

If you're feeling a bit like the sands of certainty are shifting beneath your feet, then here's a beacon of continuity - it's November, so it's time for the good people of Ravelry to take part in the Gift-a-Long 2016. If you've never gifted along before, it's a worldwide knitting and crochet event full of KALS, CALS, discounts, prizes and the change to get to know designers, patterns and crafters from all over the place - plus get all the inspiration you'll ever need for that Christmas present knitting! Helpfully they've compressed everything you need to know in this handy graphic...

So what will I be doing? Firstly, as a participating designer, you'll be able to get 25% off selected patterns during the sale period which starts on 22nd November US Eastern time- see my Ravelry page.
I'll be posting about the patterns I have in the Sale on my Facebook page - including my new Pattern Playlists on Spotify! (Here's a sample - playlist for Endless Summer). I will also be doing some giveaways exclusively for followers of the Facebook group so why not like the page now?
On Pinterest I'll be posting my favourite patterns I discover from other designers - adding more every day during the sale period - so please come & follow.
Follow my Twitter account @hanwellknitter for a daily Pattern of the Day during the sale period.
And there'll be a bit of stuff on Instagram - @jolliemiranda

You can also join my Ravelry group - there will be a special prize giveaway for anyone who joins between now and the end of the KAL (that's the end of the KAL not the sale period) - just join the group and post in the "Introduce yourself!!!" thread to be eligible - the more people join, the more prizes I'll offer - there'll be some yarny ones and some patterny ones and maybe a wildcard or two...

If you want to get knitting before the sale starts on the 22nd, why not start with Endless Summer? It's a laceweight infinity scarf that knits from just 50g of yarn. Originally published in Knit Now magazine. it's now available to download through MSF P/hop - in exchange for a donation to the charity Medicins sans Frontieres which is doing so much to bring proper medical care to people in the most troubled places in the world.

Thank you for the freebies...

Today you're going to get the benefit of some of my thoughts of one of Ravelry's hottest topics - free patterns. This isn't however going to be a discussion of the pros and cons of independent designers posting free patterns - there have been plenty of arguments about that - it's more aimed at free pattern users, who presumably want designers to keep offering free patterns, just to explain a bit more about how you can say thank you and make sure (without it costing you a penny!) that offering free patterns stays worth our while?

First question, I guess, is why is it important to say thank you? Well, here's how much work goes into writing the pattern. First, you write the pattern. You don't of course just sit down and start writing - a designer will swatch, maybe do some maths, check standard sizes, spend some time thinking of a pattern name. The yarn then needs to be sourced - either the designer has paid for the yarn herself, or she has spent some time and effort getting yarn support. The designer then knits the sample (or pays a sample knitter to do it for her). There's then a photo session, involving either getting somebody to model it or somebody to photograph it, spending some time taking different shots and thinking about how to present the pattern - I usually try & find an attractive or appropriate location as well. And spend a bit of time rowing about it with my photographer aka husband ("Take more. I look fat. No, now I look weird.") Then you choose your photos, lay out the pattern and proof read. Next the pattern will get tech-edited (for which the designer pays a tech editor) or tested (a process of several weeks even for the simplest pattern) or both, and corrections made.

I hope I've persuaded you that, if you're then able to get the results of this work (for instance, my Beaujolais Mitts, above) for free, it's worth taking some time to say thank you.

When you're thinking of ways to say thank you, take a minute to think about why the designer (and I'm talking about professional (full-time) and semi-professional (design & have a day job) designers here, not people who just do it as a hobby) might post the pattern for free. Patterns which are posted for free permanently are usually to allow people to test out whether or not they like the designers work, and also help to keep up the designer's profile on Ravelry by getting more people to look through her shop. Patterns posted as a short-term promotion essentially are aimed at the same thing (although I will confess to having offered one after a rubbish week because I basically needed to bring a bit more love into the world - even if it's only love for a knitting pattern...). However, there's not much point for her in doing this if all that happens is lots of people download the pattern to their Ravelry libraries and do nothing else.

So, if you like free patterns and want them to keep being offered, here's some things you could think of doing when you download a free pattern, whether it's permanently free or on special promotion:

• Favourite and queue the pattern as well as downloading it;
• Make a comment to say thank you, and if you like the pattern, say so;
• Take a look through the designer's shop. If there are other patterns you like, why not share the love and favourite them as well?;
• Post in the groups you're in on Ravelry about the pattern you have downloaded;
• Best of all, make the design and post your project onto Ravelry. Many knitters just have no idea how much we love seeing that people are making and enjoying our designs!

If you want to look at my free patterns, you can find them all here. Don't forget to say thank you!

Gourmet wool on the menu!

We all love the coming of spring - longer evenings, warmer weather (hopefully!), bobbing daffodils and the first lambs gambolling in the fields. I saw my first of the year a couple of weeks ago near Pentlow in North Essex - some little Jacob's sheep, so shy I am afraid they hid behind their mums when I tried to take a picture! So it's an appropriate time of year for one of my favourite British yarn companies, Blacker Yarns, have launched a gorgeous new all-British wool blend in both DK & 4-ply Tamar Lustre Blend. They send me a little bit to try, coincidentally in pretty much my favourite colour.

The list of ingredients - Teesdale, Wensleydale, Leicester Longwool & Cotswold - is really a gourmet menu of British wool. (Think of it as the woolly version of a dish from great Cornwall's famous chefs Rick Stein or Nathan Outlaw). It's very versatile, making a lovely smooth stocking stitch and very well defined lace.

It would work well for both garments and accessories, though some might find the woolly texture a little uncomfortable to wear for a long time right next to the skin. I think the 4-ply, for instance, would work really well in a simple garter-stitch triangular shawl. The DK would be the ideal substitution for Blacker's limited-edition Cornish Tin yarn (now sadly no more!) which I designed my Cornish-pasty-themed Croust Mitts for.

so far I've only made a swatch or two as an amuse bouche - but it's already inspired me to start thinking up a few full-scale new design feasts!

Wist, lads, it's the waaarm...

When you're submitting designs to a publication, most will start with a "mood board" - pictures of colours, people, images that set the sort of theme they'd like the designs to fit with. Sometimes it's a bit vague and "woolly", e.g. "modern vintage pastels" or something; other times it's very specific. Sometimes you gaze in consternation at said mood board, wondering how on earth anyone could ever translate this concept into a knitting pattern. For these ones, I find the best way is to file the board at the back of your subconscious, as many times the perfect concept will turn up when you're not looking at it - I've got a design due out in a couple of months that arose in exactly that way, so watch this space for the story of that one.

Sometimes, though, a mood board or theme speaks so directly to you that the pattern will leap, fully-formed, like Athene from her father's skull , and that's what happened to me for the scarf I have in this month's Knit Now, Lambton Scarf.

The theme for this issue's Collection is Myths and Legends of the British Isles and I was immediately transported back to sitting on the floor by the big mirror in my parents' bedroom, as my father and I sang the old Northeastern folk song The Lambton Worm. The story of the worm - worm in this context being more of a term for dragon, although this worm is a particularly long and wriggly one - exercised a powerful effect on my imagination as a child. It's partly down to the language the song used - sung always in the broadest Northeastern accent, it was great fun so exhort listeners to "wist" and "hide yer gobs" (which basically means shut up and pay attention), plus the gory thrill of the worm "swallying little bairns alive when they lay doon to sleep". Bairn is a northeastern/Scottish word for child and as my mum's family are all from the North East I was used to being called a bairn by my granny, so the fear felt deliciously immediate! (If you're trying to recreate the accent, go for somewhere between Lauren Laverne and Jimmy Nail.)

Now I'm not saying that I just sat down and cast on - but the essence of the scarf - the "tongue" shape echoing medieval cloisonné jewellery (the tale is set in the Crusaders' era), the worm's beady yarn-overed eye, and the twisty cables representing the worm's tail (long enough to "lap ten times round Penshaw Hill") were all pretty much there.

So this is a pattern I'm especially fond of, and as a bonus I absolutely loved the Yarn Stories Fine Merino 4-ply I got to make the sample with - it has a really gorgeous sheen which works perfectly with the medieval jewel look.