• Welcome to ehdknits.Here is a glimpse of debonnaire’s distinctive hand-dyed yarns,fine knitting accessories and Erica's original patterns (as well as my random comments!) . All yarns are specially chosen for quality and relative value and are extensively road tested. I also have a large stock of hand-painted needlepoint. with something to interest all. To stitch , I carry a large stock of traditional and specialty threads, including Rainbow Gallery. My mission is simply to inspire you to stitch while providing the best personal service possible. Please feel free to contact me at ehdknitsATgmailDotcom or call (0788-799-4351) to discuss any knitting or needlepoint needs. My patterns are also available through Ravelry and selected knitting yarns at debonnaire.artfire.com (click through buttons on right). Have fun with your project! Erica Downs

  • debonnaire

  • Ehdknits Twitter

  • love bags

    summer bucket bag

  • RSS feedburner

    • An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.

  • love socks

    |

  • love golf

    scott's golf club cover

  • love needlepoint

    needlepoint santa

  • love cashmere

    cashmere red

  • love labs

    Theo- a most debonnaire labtheo age 10 weeks

Debonnaire in Paris-Aiguilles en Fete

Posted on February 21, 2013 by ehdknits

Made it back from Paris in 1 piece with van intact however without my credit card machine and most importantly red book which were stolen during breakdown ( along with a camera and some other personal stuff). Those who know me know I put everything in this book so I may have lost some contact details from the last few months. If you gave me these at Sandown( January), Harrogate, boutique de Noel or red cross, I would love an email. However, if you try to tell me I owe you 5 skeins beaded silk, beware I have a memory like a hawk….
amazing show, all the stalls were beautiful. Thank you to all my wonderful clients and Francois, Ellen and Anne for helping me out
Some pictures taken by the lovely Francois Blondeau

20130221-144836.jpg

20130221-144847.jpg

20130221-144858.jpg

20130221-144916.jpg

20130221-144940.jpg

Filed under: debonnaire yarns, knitting fairs, Knitting France | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

New Hand dyes prepped for Paris

Posted on February 9, 2013 by ehdknits

Been ball banding like crazy some of these goodies prepped for Aiguille en Fete, Paris next week. Above some superwash DK merino. Below some new mulberry silk with metallic thread

some merino silk lace

and saving the best for last camel/silk lace  which is so shimmery- just fantastic

lots of other new yarns- I think the baby mille colori balls are really cute

Filed under: debonnaire yarns, lace yarn knitting, sales/shows knitting | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

New Home, New Dog, NEW STUDIO

Posted on January 24, 2013 by ehdknits

2012 was a challenging year, but one of accomplishment. Major highlights were

- selling our home for 13 years in London and moving to the country. We are now on the Berkshire/Oxfordhire border between Reading and Henley. While this was a huge move in all aspects, the fabulous upshot is that Debonnaire no longer lives in a storage room but here:

Moving in

Image

Studio in progress:

Image

It is a huge wonderful space and set up like a shop- well at least my version of a stuffed shop. Amazing the amount of goodies I uncovered in the move. In any case, all the yarn , needles, needlepoint and threads, books , patterns and samples are fully on display. The studio is open any day I am not on the road exhibiting so best to call if you’d like to stop by ( 0788-799-4351). The address is Row Lane Farmhouse, Row Lane, Dunsden, Berkshire RG4 9PT. Your sat nav will bring you straight here. It is about a 50 minute drive from West London ,10 minute drive from Henley or Reading.

Other big news is our new dog Theo who arrived with us in September ( as if I didn’t have enough to do). He is quite the stunner

He like his new mother is obsessed with yarn and sheep, so far 3 skeins of silk, 2 skeins hand dyed sock, 2 hats and 1 cowl have been chomped, as well as various assorted needles. Even though he has his own stash of baby sheep, he goes after mine- I felted Christmas sheep beheaded, 2 decorative ones dejambed….

Needless to say, I am smitten

Filed under: debonnaire yarns | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

L’aiguille en Fete- Paris Exhibition

Posted on February 21, 2012 by ehdknits

A wonderful but exhausting time in north Paris last week exhibiting at L’Aiguille en Fetes. Paris shows open until  pm so we had no time at night to do anything but eat dinner afterward. Managed to stuff in all my favorites however.

French clients were fabulous, most notably Francois who visited me on 2 different days and by the time I had returned had finished 1 pair of mitts with my new supersoft merino superwash:

formidable,n’cest pas ( my pigeon french..)

managed terrible french throughout- although I am still thinking numbers in French and can count to 100 quite quickly now. Hopefully will be able to pronounce ” la laine” correctly next time.

Unusually for moi, the trip passed without any major drama.  Am inordinately proud of the fact that I negotiated a right hand manual van throughout France without incident. In all, fun, fun ,fun. Debonnaire retournera!

 

Filed under: debonnaire yarns, knitting fairs, Knitting France, sales/shows knitting, travel knitting | Tagged: , | 5 Comments »

woolfest 2011

Posted on July 14, 2011 by ehdknits

 

 

 

           Cute Sheep- I liked the Ryelands this year and the dwarf ouessant sheep

I love the Woolfest weekend- the show is just fantastic and as well, we have the chance to spend some time in the Lake District.

Knit Nation- Imperial College this weekend!

Filed under: debonnaire yarns, sales/shows knitting, sheep cute | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Woolfest 2010

Posted on July 1, 2010 by ehdknits

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!

Filed under: debonnaire yarns, elegant sheep, knitting fairs, sales/shows knitting, sheep cute | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Ally Pally 09 revisited

Posted on November 6, 2009 by ehdknits

    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!

Filed under: debonnaire yarns, knitting fairs, needlepoint fairs, sales/shows knitting | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Race for Life 2009 free Chemo Cap Pattern

Posted on May 4, 2009 by ehdknits

mouse-with-baby-007 -For this year’s race for life ,designed this cap which hopefully you can download free from Ravelry here-http://www.ravelry.com/dl/ehdknits/20646?filename=race_for_life_2009_cap.pdf. Am trying to figure out how to get the proper button. But if this doesn’t work, email me and I’ll send you a copy

Filed under: 1, charity knitting, debonnaire yarns, free patterns knitting, KIP (knitting in public), ravelry | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

legionella in london- bad news/good news

Posted on March 12, 2009 by ehdknits

 The latest drama in our family – annabel received a letter from her flat’s mgmt company the other day informing that the building’s water supply contains dangerous letter of the 2/14 legionella bacteria- needless to say she and her 2 roommates  were immediately evacuated to chez us (their families live in Geneva) while we figure out where they are going to live next. ( because they are not going back and oh, by the way this is a very respectable building in kensington/hammersmith border). The good news is that this vastly increases my model pool and I’ve managed to get some new items photographed at last. The bad news is that annabel is at the age of 20 well on her way to eclipsing my record of weird, outrageous  life  dramas.

Sophie photos particularly well and we’ll catch Jen yet-1st-br-lace-card-doc-img_7077sock-mitts-ipod-doc

Filed under: culture and knitting, debonnaire yarns, patterns knitting, people, posts, yarn | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

IKNIT DAY AMAZING

Posted on September 10, 2008 by ehdknits

 

What an amazing day at IKNIT’s saturday knitter’s paradise. My table is looking messy- will try to clean up the presentation before the Creative Crafts show next week in Escher!

Filed under: debonnaire yarns, KIP (knitting in public), knitting fairs, sales/shows knitting, yarn | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Next Page »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 53 other followers

%d bloggers like this: