Hot Water Bottle Pattern Available Online!!!

After a big break (babies and moving house- phew!) I've finally managed to get what will hopefully be the first of many patterns up online- from just £1.75 you can make your own copies of some of my favourite pieces! Currently only the Hottie is there but I have many many more to come........

Hot Water Bottle Pattern

*apologies that the checkout seems to go a bit crazy colourwise (it's fine- it just looks mad) between adding to the cart and finishing- I'm trying to sort this out! If you have any other worries or problems while this download system is all settling just let me know......

Knitting Magazine- Zig Zag Cushion pattern giveaway amendment

Well we all slip up occasionally.......this month its the turn of Knitting Magazine who in their feature on my book The Knitted Home have misprinted the featured pattern......Oops! 

But dont panic- its very simple to sort out- they have simply missed a line of text- instead of just 'repeat rows 3-12' it should read;

'Row 3-16 is one repeat. Do 3 more full repeats. Then repeat rows 3-12'

Phew! And apologies to all the baffled knitters out there- one of whom was Janet- who after a quick email to me whizzed up this lovely example- Well done Janet!

The Knitted Home in Waterstones Piccadilly!

Thankyou to my lovely friend Anya who spied this in Waterstones on Piccadilly..............(pink writing- right in the middle- THE KNITTED HOME)... still so crazy its a real book!

Cable Cushion Success From Knits At Home!

Thankyou so much for your latest update Jane Parker! I feel like a proud mother hen!

See what wondrous goodies Janes been making with help from my book Knits At Home/ The Knitted Home..........

 

The cushion above is one she has developed with the help of the section in the book that explains how to design your  own cushion with cables and the floor cushions below use the more general 'how to work out your own pattern' guidance- arent they all gorgeous- and I'm totally jealous of your beautiful house too!!!!

 

Janes Letter about the above......

Hi Ruth, 

How are you?

I forgot to take a photograph of the second finished cushion cover I knitted before mailing it overseas to my Mother in England. I did however take this photograph of it before it was sewn up and finished with steam.
It is just 'wrapped' around one of my other cushions to give the effect of it being finished. I am really pleased with how it turned out and already feel more comfortable sketching out and making up patterns. - It also didn't take too long (thankfully) to figure out what would still look good but be less complicated to knit. i.e. making sure that all my purl lines were straightforward and I could quickly knit them up without too much concentration !

I also wanted to show you a couple of my other projects.
These were inspired by the sea urchin style floor cushions I see in many of the Homes and Interiors magazines.
Again, I don't like the idea of simply copying other people's work but I wanted to see if I could figure out how to make them.

The larger one is made with 12 strands of yarn which I had to crochet into a chain link before putting it into the washing machine on a hot wash a few times to felt the wool together into a thick woollen rope.
Then I knitted it up (trial and error with the pattern) on giant needles that I made myself by transforming two 4cm thick dowelling rods purchased from my local hardware store.
With the amount of wool, hot water and hard work involved (I had to kneel on the floor to knit because everything was on such a large scale), I think it will be a while before I make another.

I am currently working on the chair pad cover you have in your book and am happy with how it is turning out.
The only thing is; I feel the need to be more original, so as I'm knitting away I can't stop trying to thing of my next project !!!

As always, thanks for everything.
Regards,

The Knitted Home- Cabled Bolster Cushion Success!

So this morning I found a lovely email from Jane who bought The Knitted Home and has not only created her own version of the cabled bolster cushion but is spinning her own yarn and will be adapting more patterns for her own yarn- Go Jane! This is exactly what I hoped people would be able to do with the book- Huzzah!

Hi Ruth,

Well this is my first attempt at a cushion inspired by yours.

I tried to just look at the designs you had created in your book to figure out what you must have done to achieve each cable effect as I didn’t want to simply ‘copy’ your pattern if I could help it.

This cushion was knitted with hand spun wool I had purchased from a lady who was retiring from her homespun wool business. (I was too impatient to start right away and didn’t have enough of my own yarn spun ready to start that quickly) !
I have ‘found’ some off white Merino wool that I had forgotten I had so that will be cushion # 2 with perhaps a few modifications to my initial design.

I also can’t thank you enough for the section in your book about finishing with steam. What a difference that makes !

Thanks again for everything Ruth.
You have inspired me so much to explore and design my own style of knitting, which I didn’t feel confident enough to do beforehand.

If I manage to go from strength to strength I’ll keep you posted.

Jane.

To order your own copy go to www.amazon.co.uk (The Knitted Home- English/ Australian title) or www.amazon.com (Knits At Home- North American title). It is also available in French, Finnish and German.

The Knitted Home; Geometric Cable Blanket- not as hard as it looks?

I was absolutely the most thrilled girl in the world to get back from holiday and find the most lovely email (see below) in my inbox....... it's so great to have inspired someone to crack on with their knitting! 

Go Gabrielle!!

Dear Ruth,

You kind advice and geometric throw instructions from your new book inspired me to knit this sample. 
Can't wait to get started on the larger project.

Being a beginning knitter, this was a fun project.  Learned  how to do cables.

Warmest Regards,

Gabrielle

Rhubarb at the Royal Albert Hall- cosy tableware- Done!

The lovely people at Rhubarb- the new Royal Albert Hall restaurant are getting their shipment of cosy tableware today ahead of opening night on Thursday! Good luck everyone!

Thankyou Linda Bloomfield for arranging this and making fabulous tableware once again xxx