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Finally it’s the end of the day. The kids are asleep. You’ve decided whether or not you can bear to tidy the kitchen now or wait until tomorrow. It’s knitting time. What are you working on?

For me, I want something interesting but not too tricky. I don’t want to get caught up in whatever is happening on The Lincoln Lawyer or Bridgerton or Heartstopper and realise that I have totally messed up my knitting. Missed decreases, accidentally made a jumper several inches too long… we’ve all been there.

It’s something I’m very conscious of in my designing. Because I know that it isn’t just me. I know that most of us want a beautiful end product, but we need to be mindful of the time and headspace that we actually have available.

So, here are my favourite 3 patterns for working on while in front of the TV:

First: Quiet Time shawl (On Ravelry or Payhip). It’s mainly garter stitch, so really simple to work on while multitasking. And the lovely edging is easier than it looks, I promise!

Second, the Emily Shawl (available on Ravelry or Payhip). It is designed for variegated yarns, but is gorgeous in any yarn really! The pattern is really rhythmic so great for working on as you watch, but there is a little more to keep your fingers busy than some of the other options!

And the third is the Carabosse shawl (check it out on Ravelry or Payhip). It looks far more complicated than it is, and again has a lovely intuitive and rhythmic thing going on. Plus, those lace points are just stunning, and really show off a yarn!

Tell me below about your favourite TV knitting projects, I’d love to know!

One of the things that seems to come with parenthood these days is waiting. Waiting to pick your child up from swimming or dancing or football or… You know what I mean.

So, what do you do with that time? You knit. Or I do, at least. It makes that waiting time feel more productive, more fun, more about me. And less about being an unpaid taxi driver!

Socks are always a great choice for this sort of situation. They are small enough to tuck in a bag, and if you are in a car the needles aren’t so big that you keep elbowing the door. Are you a sock knitter? What is your go to for car or waiting around knitting?

Both of my sock patterns are really good for this situation. Warm Milk socks (Available on Ravelry or Payhip) if you want something a bit simpler and the Oberon socks (Available on Ravelry or Payhip) if you want something a bit more involved. But both patterns are really clear and intuitive so easy to grab for a few rows before needing to pop them away quickly as you have a tired/hungry/damp small person to get home.

But what if you’re not a sock knitter? This isn’t a time for a big jumper necessarily! But how about a cowl? Or a simple one skein shawl? The Dora cowl (See Ravelry or Payhip) is great because it is in DK yarn so a quick knit and really simple and intuitive to knit. Or, if a shawl is more your thing, the Playing Dress Up shawl (Ravelry or Payhip) is simple to work, uses one skein of sock yarn and is super pretty!

What are your favourite projects for when you’re waiting for your kids? Tell me below!

I don’t know about you, but time for hobby knitting can be hard to find. And sometimes there is a project that I love the look of but just can’t help thinking “Well, I won’t finish that any time before Christmas!” But there are some kinds of project that are good for little pockets of time, and if you need one, I have 3 of my patterns that I think are great for that!

The first is the Warm Milk socks (check them out on Ravelry or Payhip). They are simple socks and the joy of socks is that you can put them down and pick them up as needed – especially with a straightforward and intuitive stitch pattern. I’m always surprised by how quickly socks knit up in little moments here and there!

The second is my Goodnight Sweetheart shawl (See it on Ravelry or Payhip). This was designed very much for those of us with little time or brain-space for our knitting. It uses simple textures and can be used with pretty much any 4ply or sock weight yarn. Because it uses simple stitches and there is nothing too complicated there, you can knit a row and put it down until later without being very worried about losing your place!

And the third is the Stacking Rings cowl (Have a look on Ravelry or Payhip). This is great because it is simple stitch patterns and worked round and round. I used minis, but it can be done all in one colour, or you can miss out the stitch patterns and just use stocking stitch! So it can be more or less involved depending on what you need, and it is super easy to see where you’re up to if you are interrupted and need to come back to it later!

What are your favourite projects for when you don’t have much time to knit? Comment below, I’d love to know!

I’m currently getting ready to test my next pattern. This is always exciting for me because I love the testing stage of pattern designing!

What is a pattern tester? It’s when a group of people get a pattern in advance of its publication in order to… well, test it. It helps the designer make sure there aren’t any lingering issues, typos, or confusing instructions. Last month I was interviewed by Amanda from Little Likac Yarn on her podcast about test knitting, so definitely suggest you check it out, if you’re curious! It can be a lot of fun, as long as you don’t mind that the pattern probably won’t be perfect yet!

I have a tester pool for my test knits, which is always the first place I go to find testers, and you can join it too, if you want, just go to this page and drop your details! There is no commitment to get involved in any particular test, it just means that you find out about them first! And if you do a test and complete it then you get the final pattern and a free pattern of your choice from my catalogue!

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have noticed that I tend to focus on one of my patterns each month. In all the excitement of new pattern releases it is easy to forget what has come before, and it is lovely to be able to remind myself – and you – of previous patterns!

So, this month there will be posts here and on Instagram talking about the Stacking Rings Cowl. There is also a discount code for 15% off, and this can be used either on my Payhip shop or on Ravelry (Ravelry link). Just use the code “May22Blog”!

I won’t go into too much detail today – otherwise what will I talk to you about for the rest of the month?? But will give you a quick overview:

The Stacking Rings cowl was part of my Playtime Collection last year. It’s made up of stripes using different colours and textures so is a super fun knit. Using different colours, it is also great for using with mini skeins or leftovers. I used some gorgeous 4ply miniskeins from Cartref Yarn alongside some of their undyed yarn, and I loved the intensity of their colours.

Apologies! However, I am renewing my efforts to make my website both lovely and up-to-date! Watch the pattern page to see all my patterns finally show up there, and keep an eye on the blog side of things as I will be here every week or so too!

So, I’ve shared my new pattern, the Oberon socks. They started to be available for pre-order yesterday, and you can get the pre-order pattern discount all the way through to Sunday night. The code “FairyKing” will get you 20% off the pattern and you can buy the pre-order from Ravelry or my Payhip shop.

Today I want to share about the yarn I used for my sock sample.

When I had the idea for the Fairies in Literature pattern collection, I liked the idea of collaborating with an indie dyer. I love collaborations, I think it adds a whole new dimension to a design idea. More so in a case like this, when we have a collection.

In my search for a dyer to collaborate with I found Tami from Eternity Ranch Knits, and we had some really exciting conversations. She just seemed to get my ideas and when she suggested colourway concepts I loved them. I won’t get into the other colourways now, except to say that there are four of them in total, and they’re all gorgeous.

I told Tami that my plan for Oberon was a pair of cabled socks, and we agreed that we needed a foresty kind of a colourway. The resulting yarn was this beautiful skein, greens and browns melded together. The yarn base helps as well, as it includes 10% Tencel. It gives the yarn such a gorgeous sheen and really allows the colours to pop, particularly in the cable section.

Tami now has the yarn up in her Etsy shop! It is dyed to order, and can be on its way to you in three days!

So, tell me – when you think of Oberon, what images do you get in your head?

When I decided to include Oberon in my collection of fairy inspired patterns I really had to think about this. The thing is, Oberon is… not nice. I mean, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is all very funny but it is also incredibly unkind. Oberon is manipulative. He is selfish. He is absolutely unconcerned with the happiness or wellbeing of Titania – or of almost everyone else in the play. You could argue he does a good deed in instructing Puck to help out the lovelorn Helena, but… I think his motives are more about power than about being at all helpful. And then there’s the fact that it didn’t really go according to plan.

So, while I wouldn’t put him in the “evil fairy” box (I have one, keep an eye out for more on her soon!), the fact that he is a fairy and a king doesn’t mean that the overall feeling is one of sparkles and jubilation!

So, what does that mean for a knitting pattern? Well, we can cross lace and soft colours off the list for a start. Oberon needed a foresty deep colour, and I’ll talk about that more when I talk about the yarn collaboration with Tami from Eternity Ranch Knits. He needed a manipulative stitch pattern. He needed cables.

So, I knew we needed a cable pattern. And I wanted something that felt regal. This is how I found my way to the cable pattern I used. Some of the imagery of Oberon shows him with stag horns, and I felt that was very appropriate, and I chose a cable pattern to suit that.

I deliberately kept the rest of the sock simple. Even with a cable motif, I want my sock design not to be too intimidating or too involved. You should still be able to knit it while waiting to pick up your kid from school!

I have more to tell you about the pattern, so keep an eye out the rest of the week!

In the meantime, the pattern is now available for pre-order. It is 20% off using the code “FairyKing” on my Payhip and Ravelry shops. The pattern formally comes out on the 15th of November 2021, and if you have pre-ordered then you will receive it automatically.

This week has been my second design anniversary! If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook then you’ll have seen that I have a 20% off sale going until midnight (UK time) on Saturday. Just use the code “WeAreTwo” in either my Payhip or Ravelry store!

On my social media I have also been highlighting a pattern or two a day and giving a bit of information about them.

I’ve got some exciting plans for year three! I have my Fairies in Literature collection coming out over the next 6 months or so and there are some other exciting plans in the works that I haven’t shared publicly yet!

As always, the best place to get news first is by being on of my newsletter subscribers (they also get the best discounts!), and if you’d like to sign up, then just click here!