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!

Fair Isle Design Process WIP

I've recently bought some new colours in beautiful Jamieson and Smith Shetland wool (to add to my growing collection) and got to thinking that there must be a better way to organise the colours to help me when I'm coming up with new Fair Isle jewellery designs. So, inspired by the fab Attic24, I bought myself some Dolly Pegs (took me right back to childhood!) and spent a therapeutic afternoon watching Netflix and winding yarn onto the pegs to act as my "shade card"!

I'm finding it much easier to plan colour stories, working out what colours go well together and in which order with the yarn on the pegs than it was to place the whole balls of wool next to each other

These are the lovely new colours I've just chosen- really Spring like! I'm starting to go through the Jamieson and Smith shade card to label the pegs with their relevant shade number, to make it easier when I come to order more yarn

I'm having a lot of fun playing with different colour combinations and looking forward to knitting them into new Fair Isle jewellery pieces

I think this idea works really well in terms of making custom pieces too, because the customer can come up with their own colour scheme from this selection

If you're a regular reader you will know that I have been planning my Fair Isle designs using knitter's graph paper, but for the latest few pieces I have just picked up the yarn and needles and worked in a free form whatever comes out of my head type of way, to try a less regimented way of working and just have fun with the colours. I tried to felt this particular piece but sadly it didn't work

I've decided not to make the rectangular Shetland wool brooches any more and instead I'm focusing on square Fair Isle brooches, as I think you can fit more pattern onto the square shape

With such a large range of colours there is a lot of scope for many and varied designs. I love this really girly colour scheme, which again I knitted in a "free form" style.

I'll be sure to share my new designs with you as I continue to have fun playing with the colours!

Louise Dawson Design Folksy Shop

Things are busy behind the scenes here at Louise Dawson Design- I'm working on a new collection for the Winter and making for several craft fairs that are coming up, but I wanted to let you know that I am re-stocking my Folksy Shop! The first pieces I've added are my Shetland Wool Fair Isle knitted necklaces.

I'm also offering 10% off orders in my Folksy Shop using the discount code "folksycelebration."
Take a peek at my Folksy Shop here

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!

Check Out My Etsy Shop Celebrating British Materials. Take 20% off too!

Have you seen my Etsy shop? It's stocked with textile jewellery made with British and recycled materials, all handmade by me in Essex, England. From Harris Tweed Button Brooches and rings embellished with pretty recycled fabric "blooms" to Fair Isle brooches and necklaces hand knitted in Shetland wool. I'm working hard to create a shop that is a celebration of British and recycled materials, using traditional techniques re-invented with a modern twist. 

I'm offering 20% off in my Etsy shop until Sunday 5th April- just use the code BRITISHMADE20 at the checkout and treat yourself or a loved one to a handmade gift this Easter! Have a browse here

My Harris Tweed Button Brooches and rings are all made from offcuts of Harris Tweed, embellished with pieces of pretty recycled fabrics

I hand knit pieces for my Fair Isle jewellery collection using beautiful Shetland Wool, which is traditionally used for Fair Isle knitting

I've just launched my Fair Isle Jewellery Collection!

I'm very happy to tell you that I've just added my new Fair Isle knitted jewellery collection to my Etsy Shop! I have used Shetland wool to hand knit each brooch and necklace as this was traditionally used for Fair Isle knitting and I love to use British made materials.

The pieces are very easy to wear- I've been wearing mine with my favourite Tweed jacket. Each piece comes packaged in a beautifully hand decorated gift box too, making them the ideal Christmas gift. I've really enjoyed making them so I'm so excited to finally be able to share them with you!

Work in progress

It's UK Wool Week and I'm celebrating British wool and traditional knitting techniques from the British Isles, creating a range of hand knitted Fair Isle necklaces using beautiful 4ply Shetland wool. Here's a little sneak peek at how the pieces are coming along... 

Photo Shoot part 1!

Here are a few of my favourite images from today's photo shoot at Hammonds Photography Studio! Thank you to Emma for the great shoot! 

I wanted to have some promo images for recent work including my Aztec inspired brooches and hand knitted Fair Isle brooches and I'm really pleased with these!

Over the coming weeks I'll be busy further developing the Shetland wool Fair Isle work (see brooches below) into a mini collection for the Etsy shop and getting ready for photo shoot part 2! I'll be sure to keep you posted. Hope you've had a great Sunday!

Hand Knitted Shetland Wool Brooches

On Wednesday I shared some new materials and today I've been knitting with the beautiful Shetland wool, making these Fair Isle brooches! If you've been reading along lately you'll have seen my many and varied experiments in learning Fair Isle knitting, not all of them successful, so I'm really pleased to be able to share some finished pieces with you. Here are a few Instagram snaps from today...

I love to use Bamboo needles but I don't have any that are fine enough to use with 4ply. My tension is very loose so I've had to go down to 2.25mm metal needles to achieve the correct tension- it's a little like knitting with cocktail sticks (!) but I'm finding the finer yarn looks a lot less bulky for this project than the DK wool I had been using

These are the pieces I've finished today, but I've knitted pieces in other colour combinations and I'll be making them into brooches later this week. I'll keep you posted!

Harris Tweed and Shetland Wool

Here is a sneak preview of some new materials I will be working with to create some new jewellery pieces- Some beautiful colours in off-cuts of Harris Tweed and some gorgeous Jamieson and Smith 100% Shetland Wool from the Shetland Isles. It's technically a 2ply yarn but used as a 4ply and the colour range is extensive. I mentioned in my previous post that the yarn I have been using for Fair Isle knitting (although lovely) doesn't come in a wide enough colour palette and is also a little thick for achieving quite the effect I wanted, so I'm excited to start working with these and I'll be sure to post the photos of what I come up with!

Getting there...

The Fair Isle jewellery collection is gradually beginning to take shape. I've been busily hand knitting Fair Isle pieces and felting them in the washing machine, cutting them into the brooch shapes and embellishing with a little scattering of sparkly Swarovski Crystals that highlight the colours of the beautiful British wool. I'm planning to make some non felted Fair Isle brooches too, I'll share those as soon as they're done.

However, although I love the Wendy Ramsdale DK yarn I've been using, it's beautiful to knit with and it felts beautifully (as well as being 100% British made) I'm feeling like the colour palette may be a little limited. I've been looking at some ranges in Shetland wool that come in a huge range of colours, so I'm going to order some of those to try.

This is one of the larger pieces I knitted and then felted

I'd recommend The Very Easy Guide To Fair Isle Knitting if you'd like to learn too. It's the best book for beginners that I've seen as it takes you through the stages of learning to Fair Isle in manageable lessons, from the very basics of regular knitting, to holding and stranding the yarns in Fair Isle patterns and then on to lots of stitch patterns and projects to apply them to. I didn't find it very easy at first, but I think it's a case of perseverance!

Do you have any Fair Isle tips you'd like to share?