In the Making...

Have you used an i-cord cast off and been a little disappointed that it has no give? I have.  First things, first. What is this I-cord that you speak of? Believe it or not, the "I" stands for "Idiot" and was named by the influential Elizabeth Zimmerman. You might recognise it as "French Knitting" that many of us made as children using a bobbin and a needle. I-cord can be made on its own and used for lots of different things but I wanted to discuss the use of it when attached to other knitting. It's most commonly called "applied I-cord" when used in this way. For example, you can finish off a project around the edge with applied I-cord. One of my most recent projects that I completed, Vertices Unite, is finished in this way. The basic idea is that stitches are picked up all the way around the edge you want to finish and then you cast on a few more and use these to knit an I-cord and cast off. Here's an example, once you pick up stitches, c

Field & Lea is inspired by nature and includes inspiration such as dandelions, bluebells and fields. Colour and texture are the core part of Field & Lea. The mood board below was the inspiration that I was working to. It uses two strands of 4ply / fingering marled together throughout, which allows the colours to play a big part in the design. You could easily use stash yarn and your creativity to knit your own. The pattern was designed, originally, for a mystery KAL with A Good Yarn, Cleethorpes , so it is separated into 4 distinct parts. The yarn is two strands of 4ply held together, which creates fun, marled colours but you could easily swap this for a worsted weight yarn, if you prefer. There's a lot of knit and purl texture involved, so it's a simple enough knit but the changing patterns and use of colour means that you don't get bored.  There are a couple of interesting but relatively simple texture techniques in the pattern and there are several video tutor