| RuthHappy New Year to the world of Knitting |
| A Happy New Year to all from the Yorkshire Moors in the UK, Australia's Anna Bay, Macy's in Chicago (had lunch in the Walnut Room) and Palm Springs in California. Thank you to everyone I work with: Laura and Petra, students, fellow knitters, fellow designers, magazine folk and show planners, yarn store owners and, somewhere out there, the yarn designers too!!! |
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| Me riding a friends young Arab on the moors of Yorkshire - on a stunning blue sky Yorkshire day! |
| Wool, waves and Walnuts |
In December I took a few balls of wool up to Anna Bay (right),  there of course is a little show and tell below in this news letter. I thought it a great chance to share some images from my travels! I love a good thunder storm, right as the storm clouds roll in the sun lights up the sand dunes - the largest sands dunes in the Southern hemisphere! Below left inside Chicago's Macy's department store, stunning building - what other reason would I be there for? Right, this window is into a 1680's barn, friends are about to start to restore. |
| Thank you for a great 2012 |
 
Signatur Handknits and you allow me to travel within Australia and to the USA and UK. The new events that stand out in my year were new shows in the USA and new knitting classes everywhere!
In February at Madrona Fibre Festival I joined an array of teachers in a fund-raising night of great and varied talents. We are all signed a non disclosure agreement! The night raised over $3,000 for charity. |
| Vogue Live in Chicago |
  I was asked to stand in for Debbie Bliss who was unable to attend the show. I created a lecture 'Designing Figure-Flattering Styles'.
Many attendee's had already signed up for the lecture with Debbie, so thank you for giving me a go! It was great fun and included my 'one-woman' fashion parade of designs, essential to see the results that simple styling achieves in a handknit. |
| Sadly I didn't even try on these shoes! |
| Palm Springs Eternal |
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| Palm Springs - left the golf club where 2 days of classes were held and (right) a late afternoon photo when we drove into the hills above the valley. |
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| Winter 2013 is about colour and pattern. Here are a couple of images from magazines: crazy patterns are mixed and un-matched. There's bold geometrics - which just beg to be worked into Mitred designs, and cute, boxey little jackets. |
| Tally Ho meets Mitres: just in time for winter |
  The Tally Ho Jacket (left) with it's neat body shaping, will marry up this winter with Mitres.
I have taken Mitres from the back of Tuscanny Drape (right), and combined them with the texture and front hemline shaping of the Tally Ho. This will be the Mitred Tally Ho kit, available as both a vest and a jacket this winter.
I love the vertical zig zag stripe achieved by working the back sideways, from the right shoulder across to the left, then from the right to left. This creates the vertical zig zag pattern.
This new design will be photographed soon! |
| Watch this space for work-in lace |
| Lace is also a big story for winter 2013 - from cropped Chanel-style jackets, bringing a touch of the sixties along, as well as over sized knits. I don't have finished garments yet, but here's the design story so far. |
  The most exquisite lace is often finely knitted one-ply shawls. Lace changes character when put into a thicker yarn so working in winter weight wool 22sts to 10cm/4" creates quite a different look. I feel it's quite a challenge so I started by exploring a couple of stitch pattern books.
Lace is made by taking the yarn around the needle, the following row the loop is knitted creating the open 'lace' stitch. The loop has added 1 stitch to the knitting, so within a lace pattern there has to be decrease stitches too.
Left the Lace cable works what I called paired increase/ decrease maintaining the stitch count. |
| Patchwork Jacket & Hamlet Swingcoat with Lace |
 
Above Right the Leaf lace, firstly increases 2sts every RS row, then the decreases shape and form the top of the leaf, taking the stitch count back to 1 stitch.
Lace can be challenging to size, the stitch pattern repeat and body shaping has to be considered when constructing the garment.
With swatching I was looking for a simple logic to the lace pattern, so after a couple of pattern repeats the knitter can relax into the pattern. |
| The Patchwork jacket and Hamlet Swingcoat (Close up stitch panel), two designs which include lace Stitches |
| What creates Lace? |
| What creates Lace? yarn over needle or yarn round needle - creating a loop, which on the following WS row is then knitted as a stitch. (Often beginner knitter's do this by mistake). An increase worked in this manner creates a hole (not a dropped stitch hole) in the knitting and the placement of the holes creates the lace pattern. Each increase is paired with a decrease to maintain the original sticth count. |
| Sneak Peek - Coley A Line |
 Of course it's not a Signatur piece without a little Swing, Swagger and Drape. So my first garment piece off the needles is the Coley A line.
I love the raised texture of the leaf lace stitch pattern, I am also loving the waverings hemlines texture creates. The leaf shapes are reducing in size hem to the shoulder to create the A line shaping.
I have choosen a simple sleeve for the Coley A line, as I find raised textures on sleeves add weight and bulk to the garment silhouette and therefore the wearer!
There will also be a A fitted style incorporating rib and leaf lace. |
| Playing with scales |
From the orginal Lace leaf swatch (above lime green) I have explored scales - this is achieved by working the repeat over a different number of stitches - the centre is double the number of stitches as the lace at the sides (just in shot). This also shows beautifully the how the lace creates the chevron into the hemline. I've added a little texture with small bobbles.
This piece is still on the needles and looks like being a Jacket as well as a Vest. I love this change of scales, as I tend not to like the all-over effect of lace, this breaks the repeat. This change of scales has also worked beautifully into the sizing options. |
| Hopefully we will get Amanda our lovely model back before the end of the month and let you see the finished garments. |
| Another twist with the Wave Wrap |
 This design started as the Wave Scarf, below in 3 colours. As I played with knitting this wider I started with small wedges and added stitches to create the width. Two pieces are knitted and joined centre back.
And we've got two new colours in the Tonalita range to add to your kit choice for both these scarves: Harvest and Coffe Latta are their names!
  
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| Where I'll be & when in 2013 |
 Canberra
March 8th - 9th Hyatt Hotel Designers on Show
March 10th Old Bus Depot Market
Sydney
March 22nd - 24th - Designers on Show at Turramurra
USA
April 5th - 7th - Yarns by Design Neenah WI - knitting classes
April 10th - 13th - Stitches South - Atlanta GI - knitting classes
Melbourne
July - Art & Quilt Fair
UK
Knitting and Stitching show
Full listing of shows will be available shortly |
| Designers on Show |
 Designers on Show brings together between 6 to 16 Australian Designers and Makers. I organise the Sydney (Turramurra) show. Promoting this show is my challenge, so if you have any suggestions I would love your input.
In 2011 as a group we joined the Timber Show at Fox Studios in Sydney - however in 2012 the Timber show moved to Homebush. As a result we are looking for an Eastern suburbs venue, so any suggestions? Or if you would like to run an Eastern suburbs show please contact me. |
| 2013 line up for Turramurra include from Canberra Nullabor Nights Knitwear (above) and Aharoni Jewellery (below). From the Southern Highlands Belisa Cashmere (below left). North coast NSW Pamela (lino print of Kangaroo paw below) and Daves Jones with his bespoke hand crafted Australia Timber furniture. Blue Mountains artist Jane Stapleford are amongst this years exhibitors. |
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  Knitting  Classes & Lectures 2013 |
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USA mid West Masters WI - 5th - 7th April
Yarns by Design's annual retreat
www.yarnsbydesign.com
USA Stitches South GI - 10th - 13th April
www.knittinguniverse.com
Australia Annual Retreat - 10th - 12th May
Uralla Wool Room (between Armidale and Tamworth)
www.urallawoolroom.com
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| Classes plus a couple of lectures |
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 I have added 2 lectures to my class schedule in 2013 - I really enjoy this chance to talk, display garments, and show my AV presentation with diagrams and details that I can't always squeeze into a class structure. By the online response students have found they have learned from my lectures and are asking for more!
I am working on a new range of classes, which I will be teaching for the first time in March and April. These will include 3 hour classes in Intarsia and Mitres, as well as the next step into textures.
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| Looking back - UK & USA in 2012 |
 I had a great time last October. Starting at Hartford Connecticut at the Stitches East show with 4 days of teaching, fashion parades and banquets. Then a sprint to the UK, cool my heels and teach there for the first time. Sorry if you missed out on the class, it was limited numbers and we had a great day - I will tie this into 2013 dates and the knitting and Stitching show.
Chicago was my first teaching at Vogue Live, in Chicago's stunning Palmer House Hilton. I also worked with Yarns by Design, I will subsequently be teaching for Barbara at her "Mid West Master Classes ' in April 2013.
My last stop was with my friend Jan Runkel in Palm Springs for 2 days of teaching, overlooking the amazingly green turf of some fantastic golf club! I should know its names but I am only interested in balls of wool! |
Left is the Mitre Vee Capelet, which was featured in my book Swing, Swagger, Drape.
In the shot many people, understandably, mistook this for a poncho - so finally I have completed the pattern as a poncho - again this will be photographed soon!!! |
| Merrin - a drop in the ocean! |
Merrin has been cruising aboard ship - I am told you get optimum knitting time when cruising. I did teach on a Vogue Knitting Alaskan Cruise back in 2005 which was great fun. I am a poor sailor but these were calm waters.
I am contemplating a cruise to test my sea legs and if it's successfull I plan casting off to teach aboard ship in 2014! |
| Visual skills |
 This lady sat next to me flying from Las Vegas to Palm Springs in October.
I was working on a design for a poncho for knitters magazine. She kept snoozing and then watching me knit - very closely!
Then she motioned to try to knit herself with my knitting. She slowly started: she'd observed the centre decrease, found the decrease and between hand motions and noddings of heads slipped the stitch, knitted 2 together and passed the slip stitch over. She fully completed the Mitre and handed back the knitting to me!
When I told my class in Palm Springs they were horrified that I allowed her to do this - but when I showed them the garment they couldn't tell which was hers and mine! |
| So, lots of new designs to photograph and bring you in my next newsletter! |
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| If you'd like to ask a question about anything in this newsletter - or anything all, please email Jane. Thanks for your support - Laura, Petra, Meg, Sue, and I look forward to seeing you in the knitting circle! |
