Rachel Gibbs ...

P/hop at Fibre East 2016

I love Fibre East, it’s my local show and always has great vendors, real sheep and lovely ice cream. This year I ended up manning the p/hop shawl all Sunday. P/hop is a knitting fundraiser for Médecins Sans Frontier: designers (including me) have donated patterns which are then sold in exchange for a donation of the customer’s choice online and at shows all over the UK.

Oscillating Socks, my p/hop pattern ©Rachel Gibbs

I’ve helped out for a few hours before and found it really fun, getting to chat to people about knitting and making money for charity. Heidi, the current p/hop coordinator, asked for people to run the stall as she would be unable to be there due to an inconveniently timed pregnancy (she ended up giving birth on Sunday morning, so good call not to try and be there). I volunteered to be there for one day and three other volunteers also stepped up, so we were able to split the weekend between us.

We look intense, but that’s ’cause we take volunteering for @msf_phop so dang seriously. Also, ice cream. ? Lovely day at Fibre-East minding the P/hop stall!

A photo posted by julie zaichuk-ryan (@juliezryan) on Jul 31, 2016 at 10:35am PDT

I spent the day with Julie, who was great company, especially when we weren’t entirely sure what we were doing. All the stallholders we talked to said that Sunday was quieter than Saturday but we still had quite a few visitors to the stall and hopefully made a lot of money for p/hop.

I did get the chance to look around and buy a few things. Sock blanks seem to be all the rage at the moment and I’ve never used one, so I bought a gorgeous sparkly gradient one from Sara’s Texture Craft. I also bought some deep blue/purple sock yarn from WooSheeps, which is a new brand to me and I’m excited to try it.

I’ve talked about my love of 9″ circulars for vanilla socks before, and I want to see how metal tips compare to bamboo, which I usually prefer. It should also reduce the number of times I end up juggling needles when I’m working on three things at once! The only other thing I picked up was some Debbie Abrahams beads, since so many people are bringing out beautiful beaded sock patterns at the moment.

A very modest Fibre East haul ©Rachel Gibbs

I had some great conversations with people, including Fiona, my tech editor, from alittlebitsheepish, who I’ve never met in person before but was lovely, as well as being great at finding issues with my patterns. One of my favourite things about knitting events is all the people I get to meet.

By the end of the day I was absolutely exhausted, I nearly fell asleep on the coach home. I don’t know how people do two days in a row, although my stamina is pretty terrible anyway. I’ve just about recovered now, and looking forward to next year.

Tags fibre east, p/hop

Knitting

That Heel Girl

I needed a vanilla sock to help me through a difficult meeting, and not having one on the needles I chose a fun self striping by Unbelieva-wool from my stash. Ruth of rockandpurl had just done a series of blog posts on her perfect heel, known affectionately as That Heel Girl, and I decided this was the perfect opportunity to test it out.

This heel has several factors: an unusual heel flap, a unique pick up method and gusset decreases placed on the bottom of the foot causing it to hug the foot in a pleasing manner. According to Ruth, this is a winning combination.

The only issue I found was that because the heel flap requires an odd number of stitches and I started with a multiple of 4 (my favourite 64 stitch cast on), the foot ended up with 33 stitches on the instep and 31 on the sole. This was fairly easy to accommodate when it came to the toe, however, and would be solved completely a round or star toe was used.

I like the cushiness of the heel flap and the pick up method is very neat, although with self striping yarn you do get a flash of the wrong colour of yarn at the edges of the heel flap. I’m not sure the moved decreases are always worth the extra brainpower required to keep track but it does fit very well.

I love the wool, the colours are lovely and vibrant and it makes a great, smooth fabric. I think these socks are going to give me a little boost every time I wear them, and we all have days when that would help.

Tags socks

Designing Sewing

Rachel’s Got a Brand New Bag

Post author By Rachel Gibbs
Post date 31st May 2016
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Completed Watercolours and Lace bag ©Rachel Gibbs

I’m working on a mini sock collection and I’m currently knitting the second sample out of Triskelion Elen Sock that I got at Edinburgh Yarn Festival. I always like to co-ordinate my knitting with its project bag and stitch markers and I knew the best bag for these socks was one that hadn’t been made yet. I bought a kit from Watercolours and Lace at Festiwool last year with a lovely green sheepy print that I knew would be perfect, so it was time to exercise my rusty sewing skills and try to put it together.

The kit, along with my other Festiwool purchases ©Rachel Gibbs

I found the instructions mainly very clear, although there were a few things I had to look up (including which way to iron interfacing). I learnt how to sew on patch pockets, how to bring thread to the back to tie off and how to top stitch. My Mum is very into patchwork and taught me the basics of sewing when I was a kid but it’s been a long time since I tried anything on my own. I did have to ask her for a little help with the assembly as I was struggling to get the lining to fit into the bag (my seam allowance wasn’t always perfectly to size) but apart from that I managed everything.

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I’m really pleased with how it turned out and my sock has already moved in. By the time the bag was complete I had started on the second sock, which I’m hoping to finish for the Joeli Create’s No Nylon Sock KAL, but I finished the bag before the socks so I’m counting that as a win.

Tags socks

Designing

New Pattern: Out of Phase Socks

Post author By Rachel Gibbs
Post date 19th April 2016
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I studied Electronic Engineering at university and that involved spending a lot of time thinking about sine waves. I like to incorporate the curving patterns into cables and Out of Phase Socks take this one step further. In signal processing phase is the offset between two waves. Being out of phase means the waves are always going in opposite directions.

These socks feature lots of curves, with the two large waves being mirrored and the small cables being two overlapping cables in opposite directions, forming open and closed spaces. Due to the fact that all the cables are moving in different directions, the cables are worked on alternate rounds, meaning there are no rest rounds. However, the repeat is small and so not too difficult.

This is a top down, cabled sock pattern with a flap and gusset heel. The pattern has written and charted instructions and comes in three sizes – 7 (8.5, 10)”/17.5 (21.5, 25.5)cm.

I used Three Irish Girls Adorn Sock in Dorian Grey which is a very smooth and rounded yarn and gives good stitch definition. The colour is somewhere between grey and blue and very hard to photograph accurately! The sample is size 8.5″/21.5cm and knit on 2.25mm needles. I’m quite a loose knitter so you may need to use a larger needle size.

Thanks again to my tech editor, Fiona, and my lovely test knitters. I always love watching the finished pictures come in. You can see their great work at my bundle (we’ll not mention the banana incident).

Visit the Ravelry pattern page here for more information and buy the pattern for £3.00+VAT directly here.

If you like this design and want to be notified of future pattern releases, sign up to my newsletter in the sidebar.

Tags socks

Knitting Life

Edinburgh Yarn Festival Photo Post

Post author By Rachel Gibbs
Post date 25th March 2016
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I didn’t catch the EYF bug that seems to be going round but I did manage to sprain my hand getting off the bus (no I don’t know how I managed it either). While my hand is a lot better than it was, I’m just going to share some photos of my favourite bits as typing one-handed is quite awkward!

Blue Moon indigo-dyed yarns from The Border Tart ©Rachel Gibbs

Gorgeous Gradients at Bilum ©Rachel Gibbs

Lili's Knits ©Rachel Gibbs — Lili’s Knits ©Rachel Gibbs

EYF 2016 Haul ©Rachel Gibbs — EYF 2016 Haul/My 27th birthday presents ©Rachel Gibbs

Designing

New Pattern: Regency Socks

Post author By Rachel Gibbs
Post date 25th February 2016
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Regency Socks were first published in Knit Now issue 17 and I’ve now got around to republishing. They are available on Ravelry and shortly on LoveKnitting.

The inspiration for these socks came from damask wallpaper popular in the Regency era with motifs encased in a diagonal grid. This is a top down, cabled sock pattern with a flap and gusset heel. It has an allover cabled grid with a small twisted design in each space. The pattern flows into the heel and toe smoothly through the use of transition charts.

Back view of Regency Socks ©Rachel Gibbs

The pattern has written and charted instructions and comes in four sizes – 6.75 (8, 9.25, 10.5)”/17 (20, 23.5, 26.5)cm. This is one more size than the original magazine pattern.

The sample was made in Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Chino and 2.25mm needles. This is a nice smooth yarn which gives a good stitch definition to the cables while also being soft. Due to the extensively cabled nature of the design more than 100g may be required for larger sizes.

The Ravelry pattern page is here for more information and you can buy the pattern for £3.00+VAT directly here.

If you like this design and want to be notified of future pattern releases, sign up to my newsletter in the sidebar.

Tags socks

Knitting

Dawlish Socks by Rachel Coopey

Post author By Rachel Gibbs
Post date 21st February 2016
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Before Christmas I had the urge to knit socks that were more interesting than vanilla but didn’t require any decisions on my part (being in the middle of releasing Falling Petals). I decided on Dawlish by Rachel Coopey from her first book Coop Knits Socks. Rachel Coopey is one of my favourite designers; I think I’ve made more of her socks that anyone else’s. She has a real talent for creating interesting designs and her patterns are always well written.

These are made from Artesano Definition Sock in Kidney Bean. This yarn gives good stitch definition and feels like it will wear well. I used my 2.25mm KnitPro Karbonz DPNs, which are my favourite if a pattern involves cables as I find 9″ circulars don’t have enough room to maneuver properly. This did mean, however, that I put these socks on hold for a few weeks so I could use the needles on a new sock design I couldn’t wait to cast on.

I’m really happy with how these turned out and I even remembered to use the mirrored instructions for the second sock, which I didn’t with the last pair I made from this book. For my next Rachel Coopey pair I think I’ll have to try her new yarn Socks Yeah!. Maybe by Edinburgh Yarn Fest I’ll have decided on a colour, they’re all so pretty it’s hard to pick.

Tags socks

Designing

New Pattern: Falling Petals Socks

Post author By Rachel Gibbs
Post date 1st January 2016
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It may have been 2 years in the making but Falling Petals Socks is finally available to purchase on Ravelry.

This is a top down, cabled sock pattern with a flap and gusset heel. It has an allover pattern of diamonds travelling down twisted cables and a patterned heel flap. The pattern has written and charted instructions and comes in three sizes – 7 (8.5, 10)”/17.5 (21.5, 25.5)cm.

It’s no secret I’m a big fan of cabled socks and I like the way this simple idea has turned into an attractive pattern, even if it did give some challenges in the design stages. The large motif size means that while the medium size is symmetrical about the foot, the other two sizes have motifs on alternating sides.

Falling Petals Front — Falling Petals full frontal view ©Rachel Gibbs

I would recommend cabling without a cable needle for this pattern as it only uses two stitch cables and there are a lot of them! If you haven’t tried this technique before, I like this tutorial from Ysolda.

The sample is made in size 8.5″/21.5cm using Eden Cottage BFL Sock in Antique Rose. I really like this yarn as it has the delicate look I wanted for this design but should still be hard-wearing. It is on the thin side for a sock yarn, with 436yds/400m to 100g, and the pattern is knit on 2mm needles accordingly. The largest size may require more than 100g, especially if the wearer has long feet. Eden Cottage is currently having a New Year’s Sale until January 8th, so if you are thinking of buying, now is a good time to do so.

The pattern needs a yarn with good stitch definition, and a solidish colour helps the cables to stand out as well. My testers had success with Regia and Artesano Definition after a few false starts. Several also went up a needle size, so make sure to check gauge and pick needles to suit.

The Ravelry pattern page is here for more information and you can buy the pattern for £3.00+VAT directly here.

Massive thanks to Joeli’s Kitchen, without her bootcamp this design would still be languishing waiting for me to find the courage and the motivation and the final product would not be nearly as polished. I also had great support from my tech editor, Fiona from alittlebitsheepish, and my intrepid test knitters: woollenwords, jraltonsmith, Turtleback, herrlene, ButFirstCoffee and Olga25.

Joeli is holding a knit-a-long of all the bootcamp designs in her ravelry group in the new year. I featured some of my favourites in the previous post and would love to see some Falling Petals being included.

I have several more designs in the works (with lots of cables, of course), and have started a newsletter you can sign up to in the sidebar to be the first to know about new pattern releases.

Tags falling petals, socks

Knitting

Joeli’s Kitchen Designer Bootcamp

Post author By Rachel Gibbs
Post date 21st December 2015
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I’ve mentioned before that Joeli has been running a bootcamp for inexperienced designers and I’ve found it really helpful. She’s given out lots of useful information and doesn’t mind answering my stupid questions. Not only that, she’s great at building people’s confidence and helping them realised that everyone has the same insecurities.

The bootcamp is due to finish at the end of December. My pattern is almost ready and just waiting for all my test knitters to finish, but there are other great patterns that have already been released, here are some of my favourites so far.

Galactic Hat by Julianna Puccini © Julianna Puccini

Julianna’s hat shows off her semi solid yarn really well. It’s a simple concept but well executed. I loved watching her periscopes on the development of this pattern. It also comes in a two colour version with the slipped stitches in one colour, which is a nice touch.

Blomindon Hiking Hat by Ana Watts © Art-by-Ana

I love the way the cables flow together in Ana’s hat. From the brim to the body and then the decreases. It can be tricky to decrease in pattern but she pulls it off well.

Seasalt socks by Jacqui Gouldbourn © J Goulbourn

These socks are in a beautiful blue colour and have cables, of course I love them. They have little cables all over the front with lovely wavy cables at the side. I’m also impressed by Jaccqui’s choice of location for the photo shoot.

Knitting Life

Knitting For Peace

There’s been a lot of talk on social media lately about knitting and mental health issues, particularly aplayfulday‘s #makegoodfeelgood campaign.

I’ve been on sick leave for more than a year due to problems with depression and anxiety. Through this time I may have knitted different, less challenging, things than I would if I was well but I continue to make things. I find it helps to be doing something productive and the process of knitting is relaxing (most of the time).

Knitting doesn’t only help me in the moment, it also helps me to connect with other people. Having depression can make people very isolated, especially if, like me, they develop agoraphobic tendencies. I’ve really enjoyed going to knitting events and talking to other knitters this year. Finding people who are just as interested as you are in that unusual hat construction, or the quest for the perfect needles is a great way to feel connected. While there are support groups for people with mental health issues, I’d rather talk about knitting than my personal issues any day of the week.

Periscope has also helped me to find like-minded knitters to talk to. For the uninitiated Periscope is a Twitter offshoot that allows people to broadcast videos and get responses in real time. There is a community of knitting periscopers and I can either just watch if I’m having a quiet day or comment if I’m feeling better. I’m far too camera-shy to scope myself, but I really appreciate the people who do.

A selection of hats and a scarf for Knit for Peace ©Rachel Gibbs

Lately I’ve been knitting for Knit for Peace, a charity who distributes knitted goods to people in need. I’ve found this a great way to use up some of my leftovers (which were threatening to take over my flat) and satiate my need to knit hats when I already have plenty (until I lose the current set). It looks like this winter is going to be terrible weather wise and given the international situation at the moment, there are plenty of people who are going to be spending it in far less than optimal conditions. A hat isn’t much but hopefully it will keep someone a bit warmer and let them know that there are people who want to help.

There’s a plain stocking stitch hat in Adriafil Knitcol, a hat with helical stripes in Wendy Ramsdale DK, an Opari from Ysolda Teague’s Knitworthy in Stylecraft Ethical Twist 70/30 and Chrysanthemum frutescens Hat from The Knitter’s Curiosity Cabinet in Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend as well as a 1×1 ribbed scarf in Sirdar Escape DK. I found the brioche in Opari and Chrysanthemum frutescens really interesting as I hadn’t done this much before.