Busy Days!

Exciting day today - had my first student (just the one, but it was quite nice to do a one-to-one lesson as my first) and went and set up some free online adverts which you can visit here and here. Hopefully I'll get some responses and the tuition diary will start to fill up!

A very geeky blanket.

I had a minor triumph the other day - I FINALLY finished the blanket I was knitting for my parents-in-law. I'm actually a bit sad it's finished, I quite enjoyed doing it - although not sad enough to do another straight away. It's a cable sampler blanket knit in strips and stitched together with a border added to stop the edges curling. I learnt a new joining technique with this one, Russian grafting, which gives a strong seam with a zig-zag appearance and doesn't use any extra yarn; I also used provisional cast-ons for the first time ever and discovered just how frustrating a poorly written set of instructions can be...you can rest assured that I will endeavour to make my own patterns crystal clear!

It's knitted in Sirdar Tweedie Chunky, which is a lovely alpaca/wool/acrylic blend, now sadly discontinued. It comes in these bold colours, as well as natural shades of which I also have enough to do something lovely - but that will be for me! When I showed the blanket to friends I was told that it was 'quite mediaeval' by one, it was very 'Harry Potter' by another (the four house colours are all there) but my favourite comment was, "You do know you've got all the federation uniform colours there, don't you?", which as a not-so-closet Trekkie pleased me greatly!

The cables come from my various books and are all my favourites. Although the blanket I have in mind for the natural shades will bring together all my favourite leaf and tree themed cables. But I WILL NOT START IT until I have typed up some of my patterns...

The original hat

Currently on the needles is one of my owl hats. This is another pattern I need to write up, but this one is a priority as it's one of the patterns I'd like to offer as a kit. It started life as a gift for my mother-in-law, but with a few modifications and tweaks it's become a popular seller at her local bird of prey sanctuary. Last year I knitted sixteen - sixteen - of them in four different shades and two different sizes for the shop, I was knitting them in my sleep by the time I'd finished! Fortunately, with one thing and another, it's been a while since I knitted one so I no longer grimace at the prospect. I'm working one up in each size so I can work out how much yarn I need in the kits; I shall calculate this by the scientific (...) method of weighing the ball of yarn, knitting the hat, then weighing it again so I know how many grams I've used.
The design works best in natural or tweedy shades and the eyes, although crystal on the original, look great when made with golden sequins and beads. So if you love owls, keep your eyes open - this one will be on the site soon!

Welcome to White Dragon Designs!

Like the title says - welcome!

This is The Dragon Scrolls, our blog, which will keep you up to date with what's happening at White Dragon Designs - workshop and course dates and events, new patterns and whatever is going on in The Weyr.

Thank you to everyone who has already visited and liked/shared on facebook, the support I've had for the decisions I've made has been great. If you look at the bottom of the sidebar on the website, there are share buttons for Twitter, facebook and Pinterest, so feel free to spread the word!

So what's going on at the moment? Well, there are several free patterns for you to download here and here. Please do have a look at our copyright statement and information page - there's nothing scary on there, I promise!

At the bottom of the Mitts & Wrist Warmers page there is a little gallery of pictures of mitts I've designed but have yet to write the patterns for. Whilst I love knitting and designing, I'm less enthusiastic about writing up the patterns as it takes quite some time and feels like homework. I'm hoping that putting the photos there will prod my conscience enough to make me translate the hieroglyphic scribble which passes as my pattern notes into something people a) can decipher without a degree in cryptography and/or an hallucinogen, b) can follow and work from sufficiently easily to recreate an item approximating the original and c) can use without excessive swearing and/or developing a migraine. I've made a sign for the door:

and I've also invested in some software which should make life easier. I just have to sit down and do it. Today I actually did housework in preference. However, I do want to share my designs with you all so I will just have to bring some of the determination I'm capable of mustering when trying to avoid doing something to bear on actually doing it and get it done.

I also have my first students this week, which will be exciting. They know they are sort of guinea-pigs but I'm really looking forward to it. I'm also in tentative negotiations with a local college about providing some workshops and tuition - more information on that as it develops.

The Hoard, the website's shop, will be open for business soon - I'm hoping to get items listed on there in the next few weeks made by both myself and other crafters, so keep checking back.

There are a few events coming up such as Knit in Public Day on June 21st - we haven't quite decided what we're doing yet but we'll be doing something so as soon as plans are finalised I'll post about it. As we come into summer there will also be more craft fairs and when we have a stall we'll also run mini learn-to-knit drop-in sessions so it would be lovely to see you there!

Any questions, comments, feedback, suggestions and requests are welcome - use the contact page and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Many thanks once again for visiting - come again soon!