Sarah Elwick knitwear @ MADELondon

Sarah Elwick was at MADE London in October (last blogged about here). She designs knitwear made from merino and Scottish lambswool, and works with a small sustainable knitwear producer from the Shetlands to make her colourful blankets, scarves and cushions.  This season she's used fluro pink which I particularly like...below are some blankets (pram / cot sized). Have a look at Sarah's website for her other products: she also makes tubescarves in stripes and herringbone.

cushions

Sarah Elwick knitwear

Has Spring sprung? a quick post on knitwear as our weather is so unpredictable these days - it's warm one day, and cold the next, and when it's cold you will need a scarf designed by Sarah Elwick.  Based in Winchester her scarves (which are modeled by nice young beardy blokes on her website and Not On The High Street page), mittens and cushions feature stripes, checks and - my favourite - fair isle patterns.

You can never have enough cushsions - the fair isle one is particularly fine, green and pink is my most favourite colour combo

This one from the MADE10 show

Gabrielle Vary knitwear

Thanks to Twitter, I have found out that Gabrielle Vary (who I met at the Selvedge Autumn Fair and is the creator of my favourite quincey yellow scarf - described as mustard on the website - which I am wearing as I type) has a Facebook page.  On this page she has posted today some pics of her creations... I hope Gabrielle does not mind that I have copied a few here. The colours that Gabrielle uses in her collection are edible - look at this seagreen, damson and the most cheerful orange you ever did see.

more from Ysolda Teague

I last blogged about Ysolda Teague here - she's an amazing knitwear designer, and she has published a number of books with patterns for sweaters, toys and accessories. Cleverly, if you don't want to buy a whole book of patterns you can download one pattern at a time which you can store in your Ravelry account - Ravelry is a knitting and crocheting on-line community: create an account for free, organise and share photos and notes about your projects.

This mousie is still one of my favourites.

I also like Poppy the doll. It is a great shame I cannot knit.

Ysolda's latest books: Whimsical Little Knits 3 and Saturday Treats

Jo Gordon sale

Having had impressive amounts of rain over Christmas and New Year, and wellies and umbrellas were de rigeur. It's now cold and windy and time for woolly hats and scarves: Jo Gordon knitwear to the rescue, even better that it is now on sale.

Ysolda Teague - knitwear designer extraordinaire

As per usual, my post 'in tray' is full to bursting with magazines several months old, still encased in their plastic wrappers.  In my most recent trawl of its depths, I happened upon my copy of Winter 2011 'Edit', Edinburgh University's twice yearly magazine.  I flicked through the magazine quickly in case researchers at my alma mater had come any closer to understanding the Meaning of Life, and found something that was better than that: a great little article about Ysolda Teague, a Scottish knitwear designer (full article here p21).

Ysolda designs a great line in berets, hats, capes and shawls, all of which are extremely wearable (and necessary in these nearly sub-zero conditions we have had lately) as they are pretty, practical and have great attention to detail with ribbing, scalloping and so on (I am running out of knitting terminology) - particularly favourite designs are:

The Ishbel shawl - edged with a vine pattern and finished with a scalloped edge:

The Peaks Island Hood - just brilliant - a scarf that can be worn with the hood up or down, with one end of the scarf is longer than the other which can be wrapped round the neck and fastened with buttons:

The Icing Swirl hat - which looks like exactly the top of a Peek Freans iced gem biscuit (these favourite mini biscuits of my youth are actually now made by Jacobs which doesn't have quite the same ring to it, and remind me of the unfortunate Cream Cracker which they also make):

Ysolda also designs cute creatures such as this Mousie!

The only problem is that I'm going to have to learn to knit before I can enjoy any of Ysolda's beautiful creations because Ysolda only sells patterns, not actual knitwear **sigh**  

Available for pre-order now is Ysolda's book (I quote: part pattern collection, part resource book) called 'Little Red in the City' - I am very keen for someone I know to purchase this book, and knit me 'Melia', a hooded cape-like cardigan which looks like it has been designed for me.

Jo Gordon knitwear

Jo Gordon's Scottish handmade knitted hats, gloves, scarves and shawls are delicious (and cosy warm), featuring bright colours, stripes and pompoms.  I particularly like the pocket scarves, such as this Fisherman rib scarf. Would make a good Valentine's Day pressie... And what luck, the sale is now on!

Fairisle tank tops

When I was a teenager, the square girl at school who we called The Tweed (The T for short; presumably because we thought tweed was the depths of uncool) used to sport navy tank tops. How we snorted with laughter at her frumpy clothes.

But I'm having a 1940s moment and dreaming of fairisle tank tops (or having a frumpy moment, you decide). Get yourself the genuine article from the Anderson & Co Shetland Warehouse in Lerwick which stocks a huge range of hand knitted fairisle woollens in a variety of colours and patterns - a fantastic price of £129 for the slipover.

Alternatively, if you're handy with the knitting needles buy a pattern from Jamieson & Smith to make yourself something like this:

Or a pattern from The Vintage Knitting Lady 'cos surely you want to look a little bit like this:

Absolute beginners on the knitting front should start with this book: Purls Of Wisdom by Jenny Lord, available from Amazon (of course) which I'm told is great.

winter woolies

Just the thing for snowy weather - gorgeous gloves and other knitwear made by Quinton & Chadwick available online, and from stockists (Anna in Primrose Hill).

  

Spotted at the Selvedge Christmas Fair: Wallace & Sewell - fine silk woven scarves in vibrant colours.  I like this silk and cashmere 'verbena' scarf, the aqua blue and green is a great combo.  They also make textiles for interior furnishings - throws and cushions - which would brighten up any gloomy December day.  

Both Quinton & Chadwick and Wallace & Sewell have ranges available at the Designers at Tate.