Dispatches from Summer - and a new Call for Testers
Scottish nature, accessible art, and the knitted biker jacket you never knew was missing from your wardrobe!
Imagine you are in a tall bed looking out at Loch Fyne through a wide, clear window at your feet. You are cloud-watching and Karen Dalton Radio is playing, the ragged edge of the inlet sparkles.
Tall plants dance, flashing their violet flowers as a gull dives, liquid smooth above the sharp-rippled water. Putting your knitting aside for a moment, you pull a pepper out of the sandwich you picked up before you got here and take a bite. The door is open and you can hear birdsong drifting in from the young trees. It’s corny but you tear up a little when Judee Sill sings, and you sing with her:
‘I’ll tell you a secret, I’ve never revealed:
However we are, is ok’
I started writing this week’s newsletter in a bothy in the highlands on a 24 hour trip away to celebrate my ten year wedding anniversary. After a few exhausting and mentally fraught weeks of work and summer holiday, it was everything I needed and more and I feel so privileged to be able to be refreshed in this way. Walking along overgrown paths filled with wild plants up to a castle ruin, I felt like I was back in my childhood. We wandered down a grassy slope to a stony beach, I searched for shells and pretty stones. Slowly, I stepped on dry seaweed, letting it pop under my shoes - a mixture of bubble wrap and autumn leaves. Scotland is a really beautiful country. Hello lovely folks.
This week we will be sharing some lovely things and a test knit for our new pattern the Joyride Jacket. Scroll to the end for the test details!
Lovely Things Report
This one is for i-phone users, but I think some other phones have a similar capacity? Did you know you can use your phone camera to identify plants and animals? I didn’t! If you view a photo in the camera roll and swipe up to where you’d usually only find the metadata you can just wait a second and it’ll often pull up a recommendation of what plant or animal it thinks you have photographed.
So far I have used it to identify that a ‘weed’ in my garden was in fact a type of wild spinach often called Lambsquarters thats very edible and has been a lovely addition to my dinners. I also have been using it with my kid to identify birds! Lately we have been spending a lot of time speculating on bird drama, they are very entertaining! R’s favourite are the Moorhens at our local park who love to terrorise the pigeons.
We also managed to visit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park last week which was truly wonderful and also facilitated my first experience of using a non-ambulatory mobility aid! Booking a scooter at YSP was so easy and did not require any special ‘proof of disability’ which, shockingly, is not guaranteed (in Athens I was grilled outside of the lift down from the acropolis! Like sorry, I don’t have my ADP grant forms on me currently lol!!) The staff were super helpful and friendly, and the scooter itself was SO comfortable and would definitely comfortably support users much fatter than me. It fundamentally reshaped what would have been a short and painful visit only using my cane into something expansive, relaxed, and so joyful!
The park itself is just wonderful. I love large scale artworks so much. The combination of wide-open fields and green spaces, huge trees, sheep, and water with the art was such a beautiful alternate to the white-space gallery. My kid also really liked it, and racing the scooter only added to their fun! I highly recommend it as a visit for anyone, and especially disabled folks who don’t always have access to green space. There are also free tickets for carers available.
Note- the scooter does require the use of your right hand, making a fist and tilting back and forward to power it.
I wrote a little poem to remember this visit by (it should be middle aligned but I don’t know how to do that on here hehe):
Approaching Kimsooja July 5th 2024 The setting is ‘hare’ and I am racing my kid, Measured spin down the grass verge they are rolling and my Chair is rolling and the big needle is stitching the sky to the Ground where my feet won’t touch. Where the space opens up like a new friend, where the Trees turn away and the slope makes short work of the View which of course is all awe and Wonder how it always is when something is Iridescent and so tall. I am not walking for the First time, not heavy. Two tracks mark where the wheels flatten I thought I was a cleaver but it’s not so ominous, I Understand I am A needle - and this is all Just quilting. ‘A Needle Woman: Galaxy was a Memory, Earth is a Souvenir’
Test Knit Applications Now Open - Joyride Jacket
Our new design, the Joyride Jacket is going to be in testing from
July 19 - October 4 2024 (a total of 11 weeks)! If you test with us you will receive a fully formatted pattern that has gone through multiple rounds of technical editing as well as proof reading, it is as finished as possible, barring some photos that are still pending. We want testers who can help us find teensy typos and double check the fit- that’s it, we don’t expect you to be doing any of the hard stuff!
‘The Joyride Jacket is a real step up for your knitted wardrobe! Knit in stockinette with clever folded hem and yoke details, well-placed short rows, and a beautiful zipper detail - nobody will believe you made it yourself! With sports-wear inspired seamless saddle shoulders and simple intarsia detailing, this jacket packs a punch without relying on too many fiddly techniques. Inspired by Motorcycle and Car racing jackets, I like to think this piece will bring a little excitement to your knitting life!’
We don't have official photos yet but I think you should be able to get a decent idea from some of the photos shared here. The main changes between the pics and the final design will be some reshaping of the intarsia line where the green and beige meet so more green is visible at the front and less at the back, and the addition of a zipper. (Also I didn’t get a chance to really tidy up the folded hem welts that got messed up in blocking so obv those will look nicer in the final!! This sample has been knit and reknit in so many bits so many times so please excuse my not 100% ready pics!)
This pattern is graded using ‘women’s’ sizing charts but is designed with a wide variety of body shapes in mind. This style is unisex and should also fit a lot of cis men and other people who usually use ‘men’s’ sizing charts. The sleeves and body are both every so slightly cropped and there are options for hip shaping and bust shaping to fit a wide range of shapes. For more information on the yardage, sizing, and schematic, please click through to the application form- you can see it even if you aren’t going to apply :)
Brooklyn Tweed provided their beautiful Arbor yarn for this sample and will provide a 15% off discount code for testers. It’s a really nice middle ground between the superwash merino I usually use and the more rustic pure wool I’ve used in the past. It has nice structure but it is also way more wearable against bare skin imo! If you need full yarn support to participate it should be possible for us to organise that… just let us know in your application!
The test will take place on Slack. We’ve done this for the last couple of tests and love it! There’s such a chill and supportive vibe. Testers are expected to complete their garment within the allotted time and fill out a feedback form before the deadline, of course we understand when life gets in the way and it’s impossible- but please don’t apply if you are very unlikely to be able to complete the test. We love it when folks are active in the Slack and can provide fit pics so we can get confirmation that we did the grading right, but taking or sharing photos on social media is not a requirement of the test, just a lovely added help to us if you’re up for it!
Testers will receive the finalised pattern, as well as a code for a free pattern of their choice from the catalogue :)
If you're interested in applying, please click the link below!
Looking forward to hearing from you! Thanks for reading!
Lydia and Rose x