26 June 2020

It started with a placemat...

Trevarren Placemat Set by Moira Ravenscroft, Wyndlestraw Designs
I'm back with news about an update to our Reversible Knitting Stitches E-book! You may recall that back in January, I set myself the challenge of adding 20 new stitches to our E-book for 2020, and Anna happily joined in the quest.

The idea had come to me when I was making a new set of placemats as I had been playing around with different stitch variations and loved the new stitch that I ended up with. 
Textured Rib from Reversible Knitting Stitches by Moira Ravenscroft & Anna Ravenscroft, Wyndlestraw Designs
It was only a minor change in the stitch chart from one of the stitches in the book but the final result looked so different! The front face had a strong cellular pattern while the reverse side showed smooth undulating ribs – just perfect for placemats and coasters.

I e-mailed Anna and said how I'd love to add this to a new updated E-book, and we got to wondering if we could find some others. We chatted about getting together to work on lots of new ideas and made our travel plans accordingly. Of course, what we didn't know at the time was that the Coronavirus lockdown was about to happen and that full program of travelling was going to be cancelled... 

At first, there was a tremendous disappointment at so many plans being abandoned and that awful feeling of helplessness watching the news unfold around the world. However, in the end I was grateful to have such a fun project to focus on during the extra time at home.
Two-Colour Rug Stitch from Reversible Knitting Stitches by Moira Ravenscroft & Anna Ravenscroft, Wyndlestraw Designs
So I got my knitting pins out and made sure I had a large basket of wool by my side and Anna did the same over in Sweden. Then we had a chat about what we wanted to achieve with the new additions. 

We decided to focus on 4 areas: Firstly, we wanted to add some more easy stitches so beginner knitters could extend their range and produce great knitted projects without having to concentrate too hard. 

Then secondly, we wanted to add some more examples of colourful reversible stitches. These are, of course, the Holy Grail of knitters since it is so hard to make multi-colour items that really look good on both sides. We did have some examples in the 1st Edition but we wanted to make sure we had a few extra ones to add to the new update.
Darlington Lace from Reversible Knitting Stitches by Moira Ravenscroft & Anna Ravenscroft, Wyndlestraw Designs
Then thirdly, we had received a number of requests for more reversible lace patterns. It is easy to understand why, since lace is so often used for shawls where both sides are on show. The 1st Edition had quite a good selection of lace and mesh designs, but there's always room for more! 

Then lastly, we thought the reversible cable chapter was a bit 'thin' before, so we wanted to add a good number of additional cable samples. We are very pleased with the new ones and I am excited to try some of them out for warm winter scarves and sweaters.
Reversible Knitting Stitches by Moira Ravenscroft & Anna Ravenscroft, Wyndlestraw Designs
So, ... drumroll ... the 2nd Edition now has more than 250 stitches!! Yey!

​We are so pleased to have been able to add so many new stitches, and hope that everyone enjoys the extra examples we have included. We were only hoping for an extra 20 stitches but the ideas really started to flow once we got down to it.
Nadine Scarf by Anna Ravenscroft, Anna Alway Designs
We have also added lots of new project ideas, so that there are now over 80 project photos scattered through the book. Most of the new photos are of Anna’s recent patterns, and I love having more of her playful colourful designs in the book. We are hoping they will help show the amazing range of projects that can be worked with reversible stitches.

We already have all the photographs taken and the pages formatted so the book is now going through its final editing. We hope to complete that in perhaps another month or so, all being well. So we are currently on target to have the new edition up and ready by the autumn.
Trevarren Placemat Set by Moira Ravenscroft, Wyndlestraw Designs
In the meantime, I will leave you with the pattern I was mentioning at the top of the blogpost. This is the Trevarren Placemat Set and you can find the pattern here.

Until next time – Happy Knitting!

Moira
Keywords: Reversible Knitting Stitches
E-book, book, knitting stitches, reversible knitting, reversible stitches, placemats

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...