Skeinspotting

Happy Mother's Day

This is a vintage inspired design called Ann Marie Stockings that I came up with specifically for a feminine romantic look using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Multi in the Flamingo Stripe shade. I did this in association with Lorna's Laces because they donate 20% of profits from sale of this shade of yarn to women's cancer charities. This is why I incorporated an iconic pink bow into the design.

The stockings are named after my mother, who died aged 54 of ovarian cancer. My efforts are also a tribute to her mother, who died aged 42 of breast cancer and for all the many women in my family who have suffered from cancer related deaths or illnesses.



The key to improving this situation, is for all at risk to be regularly screened and I go for my 6mth check up next month as I am considered to be greatly at risk. I am older than my grandmother was when she died, and younger than my mother and unable because of my immune disorder to have anything removed without serious risk to my health so families like ours are dependent on your generosity to cancer charities that help set up screening programmes that we are part of. Hopefully by the time my niece is of an age to be at risk, they will have found a way to eridacate the disease or at least screening and prevention will be so much more sophisticated than it is now. It should be available to all women though as any of us could be at risk and hopefully new methods will make this possible.

It seemed apt that these stockings were ready to release today, just days away from Mother's Day and the pattern is free, a gift to all women (or men if they should wish to knit them for someone special). And I also hope, it will increase donations made to charity for research and screening.


Thanks to Jennifer Gwiazdowski who was our model but who also donated her own vintage lace skirt for photography. Also, thanks to Stevie Savage of Raid Zero for the free photography and editing and also to Abi Flynn who knitted these thigh high beauties, and who also was a technical editor for my pattern (both checking errors and copy but also keeping it in a tidy layout)

Of course, many thanks to Lorna's Laces who donated this yarn to us to be able to do the project.

You can download the pattern from here
Or here

Another Free Pattern

This is my new free pattern which replaces another old classic. Ages ago, I designed a squareish sort of beret in a super chunky yarn I had bought for no particular reason. So I wrote the pattern up and as it was a personal pattern I offered it free for others to use. I did know the yarn was soon to be discontinued and that Rowan Country was a really strange in between type gauge on 9mm needles.

I had assumed knitters would use this pattern with equivalent yarn and correct needles. However, many people chose the pattern first then looked for yarn and tried to make unsuitable yarns do the job. The result for many was disappointment as they could not achieve the size. Many thought they could adapt the pattern, add or take away stitches to make it work, but that just messed up the shape.


Anyway I mulled this over, and decided that I would redesign the beret, take out the square type construction and make it a round classic one, and reknit it on smaller needles that people would be able to find yarns for more easily. So this is it. Called Another Country Beret and also free to download from here I love the jewel-like shades in this DB tweedy yarn. Many of these are also discontinued but there is still loads of it left on sale and in addition, there are new yarns coming out that knit on this range of needles which are a standard chunky size.