My Knitting and Crochet Highlights of 2016

As 2016 draws to a close, I somehow feel a little deflated and not my usually positive self. But looking back over 2016 has cheered me up because I did some really amazing and creative things.

Firstly, I started the year by creating The Crochet Circle Podcast with Fay from Knitit-Hookit-Craft-it. Our first ever interview was with the wonderful Erika Knight. We were quite nervous but it was an amazing interview despite it being quite noisy as we were at a Trade Show. We then went on to interview more brilliant and inspiring people from the crafting world, including the amazing and talented duo Arne & Carlos, Hugh Metcalf (Editor of Crochet Now), Cara Ackerman (DMC Creative World), Verity Castledine (Truly Hooked) and Sara Mulvey (Black Sheep Wools). 15 episodes later, I left the podcasts in Fay's capable hands, as I was struggling to find the time required to do my fair share of the work, due to my self-employment work commitments. But don't despair - you will be able to hear me on my own podcasts which will be less frequent and much shorter, so I will still be sharing my knitting and crochet adventures with you along with lots of tips and advice. My first recording is here.

I was also approached by Search Press to author a new knitting title called "Knit Yourself Calm" along with Betsan Corkshill from Stitchlinks. Betsan is an expert in the therapeutic benefits of craft and it was great to work with her and learn how knitting can really help relieve stress and improve wellbeing. I designed 16 projects for the book that all link to Betsan's research and recommendations. Knit Yourself Calm will be published in June 2017 and I can't wait. It's already listed here on amazon and you can pre-order which means that you will get it at the cheapest price that it's offered before publication.

I also embarked upon a self-published book with Fay. We called it "TAKE TWO Collection 1 - Crochet". Printed copies will be available early in January 2017 and we both really pleased with our first self-published book and how it turned out. You can pre-order the printed version here. Alternatively you can buy a download version here.

My teaching has continued which is great. I love to pass my skills on to others and see my pupils really proud of their new skills. I hope my classes are popular too in 2017. My classes are run by a local Adult Education Programme and you can register here.

One of the things I've enjoyed the most this year is writing a monthly column for Crochet Now magazine called "Stash Diaries".

Each month on the back page, you can find a little reflection from me, along with a pattern for a quick or small project that will help you to use up your yarn stash. I've written about local artisans, recycling, upcycling, my favourite yarns, tea and favourite toys and I've had great fun designing the mini-projects. I'll be sharing some of them with you over the coming year as free patterns on my blog.

My design work has continued, which is fantastic - I design regularly for quite a few magazines, including a beginners section for Woman's Weekly Knitting and Crochet as well as designing for Let's Knit, Let's Get Crafting, Art of Knitting, Art of Crochet, Beginners Guides to Knitting and Crochet and more. There will be more of this in 2017 and in addition I have designs waiting to be worked up for Inside Crochet and Love to Knit and Crochet - I'm going to be a busy bee.

On top of all that, my tech editing work is growing and  it's been a pleasure to edit some brilliant knitting and crochet books during 2016 as well as editing some monthly magazines.

So I'll be doing all of the above and more in 2017 - I have a couple of new ideas that I want to take forward so you'll hear more about these throughout the year. They're top secret for now though.

Have you have a productive and creative 2016? I'd love to hear your plans for 2017 - maybe you'd like to learn a new skill, or a new technique? Feel free to leave a comment below, or you can tag me on social media if you prefer. I'm @thewoolnest on Facebook and Twitter and the_woolnest on Instagram.

So that's my review of 2016 - thank you so much for reading and I hope you'll join me again soon. You can subscribe to my blog in the right-hand column to make sure you don't miss a post.

Bye for now and see you next time.

Happy crafting, Lynne x

Knit, Breathe and Relax with Anfeald Cowl - a free knitting pattern

Welcome to my latest blog post.

This week I'm happy to share with you a free pattern for my 'Anfeald Cowl', which is a really simple garter stitch cowl. Garter stitch is where you knit every stitch on every row – so it’s just the knit stitch repeated over and over again. It’s perfect if you've just learned how to knit and want to make something easy for yourself or a friend. 'Anfeald' uses up every bit of yarn, so there's no waste whatsoever - perfect for my thrifty knitting and crochet theme.

Garter stitch is really squishy so it creates a warm, dense fabric which is ideal for a cosy winter accessory. Even if you’re a seasoned knitter, this cowl is the perfect project that you could use for relaxing and knitting, because it is repetitive and rhythmic, you can almost lose yourself in the stitches and empty your mind, which in turn can be great for stress relief. You could knit 'Anfeald' whilst watching you favourite programs because there is no real pattern to follow.

KNITTING TIP
Slip the first stitch (knitwise as if to knit – just insert needle as if to knit but then slide it to the opposite needle without knitting it). This creates a really neat edge to the knitting.

If you're new to knitting, you may find that the first stitch of each row seems a little loose and this will create a messy edge, so slipping the first stitch avoids this. Even if the pattern doesn’t tell you to slip the first stitch – you can just do this yourself. 

I used Drops Eskimo which is a chunky yarn. I bought my yarn from The Wool Warehouse who often have a sale on Drops yarn, which is great value for money.

I cast on 21 sts and knitted up 4 x 50g balls on 8mm needles, leaving enough to cast off and whip stitch the ends together. My rectangle measured 162cm which is long enough to wrap around your neck twice.

There are other options – if you only have 100g of chunky yarn you could knit a shorter cowl that just goes over your head and you could add a line of buttons for decoration. If you only have one 50g ball each of 2 colours you could work in stripes of 2 rows one colour/2 rows the second colour. Endless possibilities really.

To substitute yarn, simply look at the ball band or yarn info on a website. You’re looking for the information on number of stitches and number of rows per 10cm. Also check the type of fibre that the yarn is. Use those 2 pieces of information to choose an alternative –  something that has the same number of stitches and rows per 10cm and a similar fibre content. Don’t be put off if you can’t find the recommended yarn or want to use your stash. I’ve written a full blog post on substituting yarn here.

You can download the free pattern here:

Anfeald Cowl

If you make your own Cowl I love to see it. so don't forget to tag me if you share it on social media. I'm @thewoolnest on Facebook and the_woolnest on Instagram. You can also add you finished cowl to the project page on Ravelry here.

I hope you enjoy making your own Anfeald cowl – if you have any problems or questions you can contact me through my blog or leave a comment on the blog post. If there’s anything in particular that you would like me to chat about then let me know and I’ll do my best to oblige. So that it for this blogcast – thank so much for listening and I hope we’ll get together again soon. Bye for now and see you next time.

Happy crafting, Lynne x

Disclaimer: This blog post is not sponsored; all of the views and comments are my own