A Flowery Update

Nothing wildly exciting has been happening in my crafty little world recently, which is why my blog hasn't been updated as much recently.  I haven't picked up the needles or crochet hook for months, so sadly my current projects remain dormant.  My main focus continues to be Twisted Limone and the weekly Saturday updates.  Dyeing, winding and packaging takes up much of my time during the week.  There continues to be a little splurge of new colourways.  I tend to be crazy with ideas during the summer months!

SAFARI

SHERBET DIP
Not to be confused with Sweet as Candy - there is a subtle difference,
a peach stripe replaces the white one.

A TOUCH OF LIME

MARDI GRAS

KEY LIME PIE

The inspiration behind my colours comes largely from nature, food or anything in the environment which inspires me - this could be anything from a piece of fabric or a picture in a magazine.  Mostly, though, my ideas come from flowers and when anything catches my eye I snap away for future reference!

One day I will treat myself to a macro lens, but for now I'm reasonably happy with the effect I'm getting from a bog standard lens :)

I'm continuing to work on the re-launch of Silver Moonflowers, my Etsy earring shop.  I'm hoping to have lots of lovely new earring designs in the next month or two.  Next to knitting and crocheting, making jewellery is something I adore and is another outlet for expressing my love of colour!  More about this in a future blog, along with a sneaky peak at some designs.

Karen

Pastels and Petals

At last!  Some lovely sunny weather here in the UK.  My pastel skinny jeans are all lined up and ready to wear and talking of pastels, two new pastel colourways have been introduced to the shop.  A far cry from my usual vibrant colourways, but summer inspired these are really pretty colours and I just couldn't resist dyeing them up :)

Sweet as Candy
5 really pretty pastel shades in yellow, aqua, mint, white and pale pink.



Petals
7 pastel stripes of peach, mandarin, pale pink, pale blue, lime, white and mint.

Stuck for a present?  Wouldn't either Sweet as Candy or Petals be wonderful gifted with my pastel stitch markers? :)

The Petals colourway and the stitch markers are still available in the shop as I'm typing this - they are sooooo pretty :)

Karen

New Colourways

I've been brimming with new ideas for stripy combinations recently, a few have been introduced to the shop over the last few weeks.  This weekend Sweet as Candy and Flower Strewn made an appearance, these have now sold but don't worry more to come soon.  Pictured down below, Floating By is another new one, which will be in the shop on Saturday. 

FLOWER STREWN
7 stripes in deep magenta, pale magenta, yellow, aqua, deep violet, green and red

SWEET AS CANDY
5 stripes in pretty pastel shades of yellow, aqua, mint, white and pale pink. 

FLOATING BY
5 stripes in bright grass green, aqua, acid lime and turquoise
(available on Saturday, 1 June)

 I frequently get asked if I'm still taking custom requests, and yes I am.  I no longer put custom slots up in the shop, but tend to do requests as and when I'm asked and then invoice via PayPal.  Just convo me via Etsy and I'll answer as soon as I can.

Karen

Crochet Jar Cosy

A quick in between project for using up scrap yarn.  This little jam jar cosy knits up really quickly and looks very effective!  I've used some of my own self-striping sock yarn, it knits up a little bit more 'funky' than it would knit up as a pair of socks, as the stripes are a bit out of sync and not perfectly ordered, but hey ho I think it looks fab!

 

Yarn: Twisted Limone Self-Striping Tangy sock yarn

Colourway:  Rainbow

Crochet Hook: 2.5 mm

Stitch: Half Treble (UK)

I crocheted a chain the circumference of the jam jar, ever so slightly stretched. Then crocheted back and forth to the desired length. Sewed the piece together and voila!

 

And this is what the yarn looks like knitted up as socks ;)

 

Have a colourful day!

 

Karen





Iona

It's taken me two years to complete these socks - far too many distractions with other projects!  It's been well worth the wait, I'm so pleased with the result. 

Wollmeise yarn is such a joy to knit with and produces such wonderful stitch definition.  This cable pattern is one I found in an old stitch book.  I love the stitch so much I decided to create a pattern with it.  The beauty of this cable pattern is that although it is an 16 row pattern repeat, only 3 of the rows are cabling, the rest are knit and purl - so easy to execute and memorise. 

The sock pattern itself is toe up with a simple wrap and turn heel.  Aimed at the intermediate knitter with experience of cabling.  I've called it 'Iona', which is a small island off the western coast of Scotland - a island renowned for its tranquility and natural beauty.

Yarn:  Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash
Colour:  Saffran
Needles:  2.5 mm
Size:  Medium-Large
Pattern:  My own - it will be released as soon as I've written it up.

Enjoy the rest of your Bank Holiday weekend UK peops :)

Karen

Stitch of the Week

Back to basics.  Here is my favourite stitch this week. A very simple crochet stitch which is ideal for beginners.  It produces a very beautifully textured and dense fabric. I'm currently knitting a cushion using this very stitch and it's perfect.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Half Treble Crochet (htr)

In the US this is known as Half Double Crochet (hdc)



- Yarn round hook (yrh)

- Insert hook into chain, yarn round hook (yrh)

- Draw it through loop (three loops are now on hook)

- Yarn round hook (yrh)

- Draw through all three loops (one loop now on hook)

Video tutorial here.

Liquorice Allsorts?

This week's update is here. The little brief I set myself this week was to design some lovely, sexy gothic striped yarn. Well, as I was dyeing it up, all that kept popping into my head was Liquorice Allsorts. It was the colours.....not sexy at all.....I tried my hardest to dispel the image of liquorice sweets, but it just kept popping back into my head.............haunting me.

So.....my Liquorice yarn was born.......

Green Liquorice
Tangy Sock Yarn in a lovely dark charcoal grey and variegated yellow and green.

The stripes are quite narrow, about 2 rows of knitting and will knit up as shown on the sample piece in the Liquorice Orange colourway, which is 64 sts, at 16 sts = 2" (2.5 cm)

Orange Liquorice
Yarn content and description is exactly as for Green Liquorice above. The test knit for both colourways is shown below.

Pink Liquorice
Tangy Sock yarn in vibrant pink and dark charcoal grey. I was unsure whether to put this yarn into the variegated category, or self striping? It does, however, knit into stripes, albeit tiny one row stripes. Here it is, with the test knit piece.

Apple Bobbing
Tangy Sock Yarn in a lovely bright apply green and pacific blue. Not quite liquorice, but this yarn knits up in little micro stripes as in Pink Liquorice above. Test piece pictured below.

I've just realised I don't have a sole photograph of Apple Bobbing, but it's the one on the far right pictured above.

Finally, my usual 0.5" (1.25 cm) bold stripes.

Periwinkle

(Tangy Sock Yarn in a lovely shade of rich purple and limey green)

All of the above yarn will be added to the shop by Friday :) I needed an experimental break last weekend, but this weekend I will be dyeing up more of my bold, bright stripes, so keep checking back here or at Twisted Limone Designs

As always, thank you for looking :)

~Karen~

Early Stripes

Ah, now this is what happens when you have nearly a week off work, the shop update happens earlier.... I don't know what on earth I will do with myself!

The following self-striping yarn will be added to the shop by Friday. They will all produce approx 0.5" (1.25 cm) stripes, knitted over 64 sts.

Aztec in Tangy Sock
(a repeat colourway in bright pink, red and dark green)

Crocus in Tangy Sock
(a lovely new colourway in rich purple, sun gold and dark lime)

Conch in Tangy Sock
(another new colourway in charcoal grey and a lovely variegated light coral pink)

Cheshire Cat in Tangy Sock
(another repeat colourway in bright purple and pink - Alice in Wonderland inspired)
An example of this yarn knitted up can be seen below.

Carnival Stripes in Tangy Sock
(eye-popping colours of turquoise, lime and pink!)
An example of this yarn knitted up can be seen below.

All my yarn can be found at Twisted Limone Designs. Thank you for looking :)

~Karen~

This week's stripes.....

This week's stripy update will be added to the shop tomorrow. This little selection of yarn has all been dyed so that the stripes will knit up at around 0.5" when knitted at a tension of 16 sts = 2", over 64 sts.

Shadowland in Zingy Sock

(unusual colour combination of plum and teal - the teal has lovely subtle hues of greeny blues running through it. This colourway is not too bright and would make fab 'man socks').

Pink-a-Dink in Tangy Sock
(a repeat colourway; lovely vibrant shades of pink and green)

Grasshopper in Superino
(another repeat colourway; lovely strong greens)

Fruit Salad in Tangy Sock
(A gorgeous, mouth-watering citrus lime and bright pink colourway)

Finally............

I love this one............

Crystal Waters in Superino
(To me this yarn conjures up an image of diving into a cool, crystal clear pool on a hot, hot summer's day! Two shades of aqua blue. The lighter of the two blues is slightly variegated in shades of light blue)

Have a great weekend everyone! I will be dyeing as usual, but lovin' it! ;)

~Karen~

The one that got away....

....Carnival Stripes.....has now found its way onto my sock needles. I dyed this one up last weekend and loved it so much I couldn't bear to part with it, so unfortunately here's one that won't make it to the shop this weekend! ;)

I even labelled it......but......no.....

....you're not having it! This one's for me ;)

I've had some lovely comments about this colourway, so I will be dyeing more, I promise!

I'm about three-quarters of the way through the first sock. Just a good plain Stocking Stitch sock to show the stripes at their best. I'm loving the way they are knitting up so far. Now all I need to do is to decide whether to keep them or put them in my shop ;)



Unfortunately due to all the rain here in wet Manchester, last weekend's dyeing exploits are still hanging up and drying, but I promise this week's update will be coming soon. I have some more subtle shades this week, as well as brights (of course!) and a repeat colourway.

~ Karen ~