Fair Isle Necklaces Featured In Simply Knitting Magazine!

I'm super excited to share that my hand knitted, Shetland Wool Fair Isle necklaces are featured in the latest issue (issue 151) of Simply Knitting Magazine! I'm so delighted and I'd like to say thank you very much to the team at Simply Knitting

New Fair Isle Necklaces Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek at some new Fair Isle necklaces I've been working on! They are all hand knitted to my own designs in Shetland wool and the lightweight Fair Isle triangles hang at 11" on a 22" silver plated chain. I love making them as much as wearing them- they are very versatile dressed up or down. I'll be adding them to my Etsy shop very soon and I'll also be holding a competition to win one- I'll keep you posted!

New Work- Fair Isle Brooches

March has been a strange month as Mr Writer was away for most of it- he worked in Korea for 4.5 weeks and this was the longest we have been apart in the 13 years we have been together. It really was so strange to be so far apart! Whilst my family and friends were so great at keeping me busy and distracted (thank you to you all!) I lost a lot of motivation and positivity and sadly didn't achieve as much as I would have liked to. I was so surprised at myself, I thought I'd achieve so much with all of that time on my hands, but I really underestimated how much Mr Writer motivates and encourages me. Thankfully he's back now and is having a good rest and I'm once again making and loving my work. I've got a week off from the day job and I'm looking forward to making a start on some new things and planning new content for the blog. Watch this space!

Today I thought I'd share some things I've finished so far this week...

I'm really enjoying making these hand knitted Fair Isle brooches, designing the Fair Isle patterns and hand knitting them using Shetland wool. I'm learning more about Fair Isle with every one I make- I'm seeing this as an evolving project and a learning process

I'm hoping to take these particular brooches to show a potential new stockist of my work- fingers crossed!

When I first started making Fair Isle brooches I made them rectangular, but as I'm finding that these new square shaped brooches are getting a really good reaction, I'm going to go ahead now and always make them square, unless requested

Although I plan the patterns on knitter's graph paper, sometimes the design doesn't really pop until you knit it up. I had previously knitted this design in other colours and I thought I'd try it using different colours- it's one of my favourites. I don't intentionally try to make the patterns look like anything, re. flowers etc, as I like to design in a more spontaneous way, but I think this one looks like little houses!

Thank you for letting me share an insight into life lately- I'll be back later in the week to share my Instagram photos from March and also sharing a sneak peek at what I'm up to on my week off. I've also got a floral Spring themed How To in the planning!

Hope you've had a lovely March and wishing you a happy week!

Photo Shoot Sneak Peek

At the weekend I gad a great photo shoot at Hammonds Photography Studio in Chelmsford for some new jewellery pieces. I'm now working on adding all of these pieces to my Etsy shop- watch this space!  Here is a sneak peek at some photos from the shoot...

New Fair Isle brooch designs, hand knitted to my own designs in British wool

I have chosen three spring like colours that I haven't used before to make new Harris Tweed Button Brooch designs

There will be several new Fair Isle necklace designs coming to my Etsy Shop soon. These are hand knitted in Shetland wool

Teal Knitted Necklace with Upcycled Fabrics- I haven't made this style of necklace for some time but I really miss making them, so I will be re-introducing this design to my shop. I'm going to include the option of making custom orders if you'd like to choose a particular colour for your necklace

Harris Tweed Button Bookmarks with upcycled fabrics

I've been making these "Half Moon" necklaces for some time now but have always sold them before they've made it into the Etsy Shop, so I'm pleased to say that these will be up in my shop soon! These are a labour of love which I so enjoy making- I love embellishment and for these necklaces I have used Swarovski Crystals, Freshwater Pearls, Mother of Pearl and beads upcycled from broken jewellery.

Thank you for letting me share this sneak peek with you today- I'll let you know when I've added all the new pieces to my shop!

New Etsy Shop Products #WIP

Here is a sneak peek at some new work in progress jewellery pieces that I'm working on at the moment, coming soon to my Etsy Shop!

Working on new hand knitted Fair Isle Necklaces, hand knitted in Shetland wool and knitted to my own designs. I really need to stock up as my Fair Isle jewellery was popular over Christmas time- thank you if you bought a piece from my shop, it makes me so happy to think that there are people out there wearing my designs

A custom order I made for a lovely customer using her choice of colours. I love receiving custom orders- if you'd like me to make something just for you, visit my Etsy Shop, click "Request Custom Order" and I'd be very happy to design something for you

Something a little different... I have an obsession with Swarovski Crystals and I love making jewellery with them just as much as I enjoy wearing them. I'm working on some Swarovski necklaces and rings that I'd like to add to my Etsy Shop as occasion wear. Watch this space!

I've also been making what I call "Half Moon Necklaces," embellished with Swarovski Crystals, Freshwater Pearls, Mother of Pearl and glass beads upcycled from broken jewellery, but they've never made it to my Etsy Shop, so this new year I'm determined to change that! They would make lovely occasion wear-  I can make them in most colours so they are ideal for accessorizing your wedding/party outfit, but look just as lovely worn with your favourite jumper (how I can often be found wearing mine!) Watch this space on this one!

Are there any pieces you'd like to see me stock in my Etsy Shop? I'm always open to suggestions and I'd love to know what you think, leave a comment below and I'll see what I can do!

Wool Week Work In Progress- Fair Isle Brooches

Today sees the start of Wool Week in the UK so I thought this would be the ideal time to share some of my latest work... These are new square hand knitted Fair Isle brooches, made in beautiful British wool. I'm loving making these and transforming them from initial Fair Isle designs into wearable pieces and the Fenella 2ply wool I'm using to knit them is a joy to use and British grown and produced too. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be revealing more new jewellery work that I'll be adding to my Etsy shop soon. Watch this space!

What are you knitting at the moment and do you enjoy using British wool too?

New Work- Hand Knitted Fair Isle Necklaces

I've been busy working on some new pieces for my Fair Isle jewellery range and I'm excited to share the first of my new Fair Isle necklaces! I hand knitted the necklace to my own Fair Isle design in beautiful British wool and the knit encapsulates light wooden beads that tie with ribbon. This is my first prototype of Fair Isle necklace in this style and I am going to experiment with other colours and designs to add to my Etsy and Folksy shops soon. I'll keep you posted! 

I find the Fair Isle process very therapeutic and very rewarding. One of the reasons I love knitting so much is because you are creating your own fabric. Maybe one day I'll go one step further and try spinning my own yarn!

This is a real statement piece that can be dressed up or down and is a great way to wear wool every day! 

I've been following the Fair Isle tradition by using a maximum of 5 colours per design

The nature of the design means the necklace is reversible, so you have two looks in one!

You can check out my other Fair Isle necklaces and brooches here. Watch this space for more new designs!

WIP- New Fair Isle Jewellery #2

The Fair Isle practice continues here at Louise Dawson Design! As you may know, I have previously hand knitted a fair isle jewellery collection in Shetland wool. I loved using the Jaimesons 4ply to make these, but I'd like to make more complex designs and I've now chosen to make a new range using Susan Crawford Fenella 2ply.  In this post I shared with you the start of some Fair Isle brooch designs in this beautiful 2ply British wool

I used one of the knitted samples to make a round brooch using a cover button but I thought that this hid the fair isle design too much, so I've knitted the same design and made it up as a small square brooch. I'm much happier with this, I think there is more scope for trying out different designs within this shape.

I'm so enjoying making up my own fair isle designs using knitter's graph paper and coloured pencils!

I'm trying out lots of colour ways to find out what works too. I've just ordered a few more colours in the Fenella to add in too- it's such a beautiful yarn, I find it hard to resist!

I'll continue to share my fair isle progress- I'm aiming to create a whole new fair isle collection

WIP- New Fair Isle Jewellery

I thought I'd show you a little look behind the scenes at what I'm working on at the moment! I'm already thinking of Winter designs and adding to my Fair Isle Jewellery range that you can find in my Etsy Shop. I made these pieces using 4ply Shetland wool, which is beautiful and is traditionally used for Fair Isle Designs. However, due to the small scale of the jewellery pieces I felt I couldn't knit as detailed pieces as I would have liked, so for the new designs I'm using a 2ply yarn!

Working out some new designs on knitters graph paper

A friend told me about Susan Crawford Vintage yarns and the Fenella two ply. The colours are inspired by a vintage colour pallette and it's a British grown, spun and dyed yarn too- soo lovely! I've just got a small selection of colours to use at the moment but I'm sure I'll be investing in more of the range!

At the moment I'm just experimenting to see what works. It's more tricky than I thought to select colours that work together in the pattern and It's quite a challenge to fit lots of Fair Isle detail into such a tiny piece. As you can see, once I've used the knitted rectangle to cover the button some of the Fair Isle detail is lost, so I will be working on this!

It's fascinating to see the stitches on the page come to life in knitted form and I'm really enjoying the experimentation. I'll share more as this project progresses!