Liz Corke Knit Design

Although I’m currently sitting here in the sunshine, Storm Ali yesterday suddenly made winter seem awfully close and I’m really glad I have my new mitts ready to wear! Meaning separation in Scottish Gaelic, the cable makes me think of a river which has split to go around an obstacle and diverges off to opposite sides of the glove.

I bought the yarn for this pattern (Eden Cottage Yarns Hayton 4 ply) at Edinburgh Yarn Fest and I’ve been looking forward to making it into mitts assoon as I bought it. You can find the pattern on Ravelry and LoveKnitting and there’s 20% off automatically on Ravelry until midnight (UK time) on the 24th September.

If you want to find out what I’m up to between blog posts you can keep an eye on what I’m up to on Instagram, or come and chat with me in my Ravelry group – I’d love to hear about what you’re knitting! If you’d like an exclusive 40% discount on future releases sign up to my newsletter – I only send out emails when I release a new pattern or am having a sale, so generally you’ll only hear from me once a month.

To be honest when I started knitting I really didn’t have any desire to knit my own socks, however since joining Instagram I’ve seen so many gorgeous photos of hand knit socks that I had to give it a go for myself and once I’d tried I fell in love! Since knitting my first sock I constantly have a pair on the needles so designing my own socks was inevitable!

I’m so happy with this pattern and I really hope you’ll love it too! Once you have the first chevron in place the rest will flow from there so it’s a very intuitive pattern and you shouldn’t need to be glued to the pattern. The pattern has a gusset and heel flap – which I find gives me the best fit. I love the Eye of Partridge stitch on the heel flap – it’s my favourite heel stitch!

Worked from the toe up, the pattern uses Judy’s Magic cast on for a super neat toe and it comes with three sizes – 7″, 8″ and 9″. You can find the pattern on Ravelry and LoveKnitting and there’s 20% off automatically on Ravelry until midnight (UK time) on the 14th August.

If you want to find out what I’m up to between blog posts you can keep an eye on what I’m up to on Instagram, or come and chat with me in my Ravelry group – I’d love to hear about what you’re knitting! If you’d like an exclusive 40% discount on future releases sign up to my newsletter – I only send out emails when I release a new pattern or am having a sale, so generally you’ll only hear from me once a month.

You know those days when it’s drizzly and miserable, and then all of a sudden the clouds part and the light streams down and everything glows? That is Turadh and that is what the stripes shining through the white shawl say to me. I’ve been on quite a jounery with this shawl – I’ve actually designed it twice. The first version didn’t come out as I wanted it to so I went right back to the start, reworked it all, and now I’m completely in love with the shawl!

I got the mini skeins for my pattern as a set from Old Maiden Aunt and I love how they work together. My favourite is  the teal green (called Jaded) so I put it in the last spot where I’d use more of it! It’s been so much fun seeing my testers choices. My favourites are the one made with gradient mini skeins, and the one with a variegated main colour and mini skeins that pick up the main colours from the variegation.

The possibilities are endless with this pattern – instead of using 6 colours you could use two, three or four. Instead of mini skeins, you can always use left overs and have a memory shawl.

You can find the pattern on Ravelry and LoveKnitting (it’s not up yet, but you can find it here when it is!) and there’s 20% off automatically on Ravelry until midnight (UK time) on the 17th July.

If you want to find out what I’m up to between blog posts you can keep an eye on what I’m up to on Instagram, or come and chat with me in my Ravelry group – I’d love to hear about what you’re knitting! If you’d like an exclusive 40% discount on future releases sign up to my newsletter – I only send out emails when I release a new pattern or am having a sale, so generally you’ll only hear from me once a month.

This is easily the pattern that has been the longest in development, but I hope you’ll agree that it was worth the wait! I ordered the yarn way back in July 2015 and cast on immediately. After knitting most of the first skein I took it off the needles to block it, decide if I wanted to use the second skein, and decide if it needed a border or edging. After blocking the shawl , still on a lifeline, was boxed up and moved houses three times before finally being put back on to the needles at the end of march this year. I finally finished it at the start of April! Breac a’ Mhuiltein is Scottish Gaelic meaning Dappled Sky, which is exactly what the lace section in the middle reminds me of – a sky with a smattering of cirrocumulus clouds across it (this photo is a perfect example).

I’m so glad I picked this shawl up again and finished it, it’s now one of my favourite shawls and I know I’m going to be wearing it a lot this summer. It’s completely flexible in size – just  cast on and knit until you have used up most of your yarn and bind off. The pattern is easy to memorise and all the garter stitch leaves plenty of time for relaxing knitting – perfect for chatting while you knit on sunny summer days in the garden…

You can find the pattern on Ravelry and LoveKnitting and there’s 20% off automatically on Ravelry until midnight (UK time) on the 29th May.

If you want to find out what I’m up to between blog posts you can keep an eye on what I’m up to on Instagram, or come and chat with me in my Ravelry group – I’d love to hear about what you’re knitting!

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Newsletter:

My newsletter is sent out using services from MailChimp, and you can read their privacy policy here. I do not store any of this information myself, but I do have access to your email address via MailChimp.

Pattern Sales:

Pattern sales are handled through Ravelry and you can read their privacy policy here. I receive a copy of each download email when a pattern is purchased automatically from Ravelry as a proof of sale and delete this email after a week. Ravelry stores your email address, which may be linked to your Ravelry account if you are a member, and I have access to this sales information through Ravelry.

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All payments are processed through PayPal and you can read their privacy policy here. When I download my sales data from PayPal for accounting, I do not download or store lists with names, addresses or email addresses – I simply store the sales figures for tax purposes.

LoveKnitting:

My patterns are also available from Loveknitting you can read their privacy policy here. Loveknitting send me no payment or order details, only a monthly statement with the number of each pattern sold.

I’m so happy to finally be sharing Coorie with you – I think it might be one of my favourite projects ever! I first had the idea for it all the way back in September last year and although my plans for it changed over the months, I’m absolutely in love with the results and I hope you love it too!

There were a lot of firsts for me with Coorie – my first asymmetrical triangular shawl, my first time using a single ply yarn and my first time doing intarsia. I love the swoopy curved triangle shape – you can expect to see more shawls this shape from me! The Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light yarn was a joy to knit with and so, so soft and I think this was a great gentle introduction to intarsia – it only used two balls of yarn for a start! If you’ve never done intarsia before, there’s a photo tutorial included with the pattern.

Coorie is written for two sizes – I knit the large size, with three skeins of yarn which is delicious to wrap up in. Just now I’m mostly using it at my computer on cold days but it’s going to be so perfect in a couple of weeks when the weather is a little warmer and the threat of snow is gone! Many of my testers knit the smaller size – it needs just over half a skein of the contrast colour so it’s great for leftovers. You can check out their projects on Ravelry.

You can find the pattern on Ravelry and LoveKnitting and there’s 20% off automatically on Ravelry until midnight (UK time) on the 3rd April. If you’re looking for a new project over Easter, this is perfect!

I’m so happy to be showing you these mitts at last! They were so much fun to knit. I thought today I’d give you a quick rundown on the design process and how this pattern came to be.

It always starts with a sketch in my book. I’m not sure what the inspiration was, but I sketched out the outline of the mitts and scribbled down some details about the pattern. You can see that originally the idea was for the cable to move from the outside of the hand towards the thumb, but when I got a little further through the process I switched it so it travels to the little finger. I picked up the most amazing yarn for this pattern – Eden Cottage Yarns Hayton 4ply – super soft thanks to the merino and luxurious cashmere with a little nylon for toughness – perfect for these hard working mitts.

The next stage was choosing the cable and that took ages! I had a couple of swatches with many different options on each, but eventually I made a choice. This is the point where the gauge swatch and the pattern writing begins! Luckily for me, my gauge came out the same as for Nicnevin so I got a shortcut on the maths and could jump straight into the charting. I always chart out my pattern on the computer before I start knitting – then I can save it as a pdf and have it handy on my phone at all times.

This is where the real fun begins – the knitting! I have to fit in knitting whenever I can in the quiet parts of the day – mostly if we’re having cuddle time on the sofa and once my kids are in bed. At one point I planned to make this into fingerless gloves instead of mitts, but having done the left hand I wasn’t satisfied with the finger placement, so with the right hand I just separated the pinky to help hold the glove in place on that side. You can skip this step if you like! Having ripped out the fingers on the left hand, I procrastinated for a week or two on redoing the cuff!

After knitting the right hand, it was pattern writing time! First I had to grade the gloves into a larger size and decide how I was going to present the charts. I like to keep my charts to as few pages as possible, so it was a little bit of a challenge to fit each hand onto just one page. Stitchmastery takes the charts I’ve made and gives me written patterns, which is a nice shortcut, however the written instructions it gives me are nowhere near publishable! I have to go through and consolidate things like: (K tbl, p) x 8, (k tbl, p) 4 times, (k tbl, p) x 4, into (K1 tbl, p1) 16 times and then put in the repeats for the large size. With each glove having more than 70 rounds, it took me about a week to get this stage ready to be tech edited!

Tech editing is always a little nerve wracking – you send off your new baby and hope it doesn’t come back with too many red marks! I always send off my pattern in the best state I can get it to, but there was no chance of getting this one back error free! After I make the fixes from the first round of tech editing, I get testers for the pattern. This is always super fun! I love to see my patterns being knit by other people. My testers were really helpful – picking up a few errors that had slipped through the net, and suggesting other little improvements. One notable change was that a tester couldn’t find a video for the cast-on I’d specified, so I went through my cast-ons book, found another name for the same cast-on and then I found loads of videos for the Estonian Cast-On. During the testing process I usually find time and good weather for a photoshoot.

Once testing is done and I stop getting suggestions from my testers, I make sure all the errors are fixed, incorporate the suggestions I like and send the pattern back to Jo for a final review. Finally it’s time for setting up my Ravelry and LoveKnitting pages, drafting my newsletter and blog, and getting all my social media announcements ready. My husband sets up the page on my website, and once our kids are in bed I can finally hit publish, and send everything out!

You can find it now:

• On Ravelry
• On Loveknitting
• and on my website

There’s 20% off on my website and Ravelry until the 12th February at midnight UK time – no code needed! Want to see what I’m working on now? Check out my instagram account for sneak peeks! Or sign up to my newsletter to hear about my new releases (and get an exclusive discount!) just enter you email address on the right!

Ripples in the Mist is my first (and second!) cowl pattern! I had the idea for a cabled cowl with a bandana point a couple of months ago and here it is, ready for you to knit as well. The cable pattern in this cowl is super soft and cosy – unfortunately the day we did our photoshoot was -5°C outside, and as a coat would have hidden the details I wanted to show off, I had to stand around with no coat on, trying to look like I wasn’t freezing – hopefully I succeeded!

While my original design was for a bandana pointed cowl, I’ve also included a pattern for a cowl that just has a straight edge at the bottom. This pattern uses less than 100g of DK weight yarn and is great for those specials skeins you’ve been hoarding. This is a super quick knit, and if you buy now you could get one or two knitted up before Christmas, especially if you’re in search of any last minute Christmas presents!

This photo on the right is probably my favourite photo from the whole shoot. I was watching my daughter exploring our new garden for the first time, and I love the expression my husband caught. The pattern is now available on my website, Ravelry and LoveKnitting. You’ll get an automatic 20% off at checkout on my website and Ravelry until the 26th December – so don’t wait too long to buy!

I started designing Bestla when I needed a shawl for my best friend’s wedding and I had nothing that worked with my dress in my collection! The lace in the body of the shawl is a pattern I’ve been waiting years to use and I’m so happy to have finally found the perfect use for it. I had three weeks to knit the shawl originally, but it needed some refinements I didn’t have time to do before the wedding, so I’ve now knit Bestla three times, and I’ve loved it every time!

Bestla is written in two sizes for one or two skeins of fingering/4ply weight yarn and it’s super easy to change the size by working more or less repeats of the lace section. The shawl is a shallow crescent shape, with an elongated garter tab to eliminate the hump common in crescent shawls, a stockinette body, followed by a wide lace section and finished with a delicate leaf border. It’s named after Bestla who was a Norse frost giantess and the mother of Odin.

The pattern is now available on Ravelry, Loveknitting and here on my website. I really hope you’ll enjoy knitting it as much as I have! Use the coupon code on Ravelry and my website BESTLABLOG for 20% off until the 5th Nov!

Do you have a problem with too many WIP? Nicnevin was the Goddess of witches and in Fife it was believed she would steal unfinished knitting projects on New Years Eve – so get these done in plenty of time! This is the third pattern in my trio of Celtic Goddess fingerless mitts. Like Beira and Brighde, this has an asymmetrical cable on the back of the hand, matched by a smaller cable than starts under the thumb, splits to move up either side of the thumb gusset, and rejoins at the top. The super stretchy twisted rib means the glove will fit most people!

We did the photoshoot for Nicnevin on Saturday and had a lot of fun. It was a great return to this part of the design process! My co-model wasn’t always co-operative but she did have a lot of fun shouting “run, run!” as she sprinted off, and she’s so adorable it’s easy to forgive her! We had so many great shots I’ve had a hard time choosing which ones to use which is the best sort of problem to have!

This series has taken me a lot longer to finish than I ever intended but I’m so happy to be publishing the third pattern at long last! It’s definitely one of my favourites! I am currently contemplating releasing the three patterns as an e-book, with an extra (optional) step on making them into fingerless gloves instead of mitts. If it’s something you’d be interested in, let me know – I’d love an excuse to knit them again! You can find Nicnevin here, on my website, on Ravelry and on Loveknitting.