• Welcome to ehdknits.Until I get the website rolling,view debonnaire’s collection of artistic yarns,unique knitting kits, accessories and hand-painted needlepoint here (as well as my random comments!). Please feel free to contact me at ehdknitsATgmailDotcom with any further questions. Erica Downs
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  • love bags

    summer bucket bag
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  • love golf

    scott's golf club cover
  • love needlepoint

    needlepoint santa
  • love cashmere

    cashmere red
  • love cavaliers

    MOOSE- a debonnaire cavalier moose

knitting in vermont

I’m up in Vermont for a few days visiting . There are 4 needlepoint shops and at least 9 knitting shops that I’m aware of (not including Cherry Tree Hill and green Mountain Spinnery, which of course should be included). Vermont@s ambiance sorta reminds me of bits of Dorset and Somerset but plop mountains in the middle. It’s also a very small state by US standards.Here’s the shop closest to me today
Most americans are shocked when I tell them how few knitting stores comparatively there are in England- for them, England is the holy grail,mother of it all in knitdom…. They also like Debbie Bliss yarns….
By the way, please email me if you need to get in touch, my phone service is abysmal.

Long-Tail Cast On (via Happy Stitches)

This is the cast-on method I most often use, recommend and teach- I thought this was a good description from Lucy Neatby

Have you ever really looked at the Long-Tail Cast On? It is such a versatile method, that it is worth a second look. (If you are familiar with the technique skip straight to the What is going on? paragraph.) Try an experiment and tie two colours together one to be the tail yarn and the other the stitch yarn and look at the function of the two different yarns! How about doubling the tail yarn for super-elastic hard working edges, such as sock tops … Read More

via Happy Stitches

Woolfest 2010

I love Woolfest, I love the Lake District. My stand looked like this:

If Debonnaire was a sheep- it would probably be a wensleydale- sorta messy but interesting:

Here are some other favs   :

and a lovely customer knit ( wave wrap):

many thanks to all involved!

Pardon Me I didn’t knit that for you

My next post was going to address weighty matters such as world sheep population, Sarah Brown knitting innocent smoothie covers and impact on election, volcanic ash travel disruption and the like. However, these will have to wait as annabel has just forwarded me this:

absolutely hysterical- I will be singing ” pardon me I didn’t knit that for you” all day

Malvern Knits

A successful and fun 3 days at the Malvern Creative Craft and Stitch Show.Thanks to all for the positive response and special thanks to my helper, Ariane. The only drama  ( there’s always a drama when I’m travelling) was the flat tyre while trying to pack up… Fortunately, Scott was around to sort it out ( well sorta, we drove back to London with a slow leak). On to Olympia tomorrow.

Laugh or Cry

I did not know whether to laugh or cry when I saw this:

Members of a knitting club in somerset are knitting jumpers for rescued battery hens.” The hens usually come out of farms quite bald and can be underweight,” said one member,”while they are waiting for their feathers to grow back they can benefit from our knitted jumpers.”

well, at least they are not knitting shreddies….

Rowan Mersh-check him out

One of the most fun projects this fall was working with the incredibly talented textile artist Rowan Mersh. Rowan was looking to source yarn for his fabric fewelry and neckpieces. Interesting collaboration as I am known for colour use and Rowan uses only black, white and grey. Don’t have any pictures yet of his new pieces, but here are some samples of his work. Check out his website at www.rowanmersh.com which he hopefully will update with new shots soon!

harrogate ends with a bang

Hellie ( www.fussfreeflavours.com) and I had an interesting ,busy 4 days at Harrogate Knit and Stitch 2009-

stand is looking stuffed as usual with yarn, samples , kits and needlepoint. Loved meeting new people , the city and staying with the incredibly hospitable Lucy Best-Shaw. However, to prove that there is always drama and high comedy in my life, the roof box blew open on way home-scattering yarn and kits over the M1 and adjoining fields. Fortunately, no drivers were blinded by cashmere and alpaca bags and once I managed to get the box closed in 80mph gusts of wind, we carried on home. I was however too traumatized to attempt to take any pix of the spaghetti strand-like balls of soft spun we ran over for the next mile.

(By the way, the roof box was an Autoform Denver largest size-beware….)

Ally Pally 09 revisited

    ally pally 09 010Debonnaire_Ally_Pally_2009_-_1[1]

I was hoping to provide better pictures of this event , but not to be….

New sock and lace yarn is due to be photographed imminently, however!

Stressed so Knit -part 2

On 2 occasions this week, knitting has kept me from going utterly insane .1- had a completely flat tyre on the M40 last weekend and due to road shutting down completely about the second after it happened ( they found a dead body or something by the side of the road…) had to wait 2 1/2 hours for the RAC to show up. So… I sat on the hillside and knit calmly ( while savannah went insane ). Not sure it’s the chicest knitting in public . Don’t even ask why we didn’t try to change it ourselves…
2. Completely nuked my blackberry operating system the other night. Most forums suggested I get a new one unless I had a spare 6 hours or so.I perservered and after 5 hours and 49 mins had it up and running ( sorta- a few things are still missing, like my BBM). In any case, what kept me sane during about 17 de and re installations was my current project.Scott was quite impessed as I frequently just have a fit and demand someone else ( ie my kids) fix  technical difficulties.( He would not be so impessed if he kew how I killed the phone…)

knit flat tire doc

scott looks really unhappy and it’s because HE DOESN’T KNIT!