When I take North Child to knitting events, I bring with me a little notebook so that, in all the hustle and bustle of the show, I won’t forget the useful and helpful comments I get. The compliments are LOVELY and make all the hard work worthwhile, but it’s the requests which are invaluable as they keep me on track and drive forward the design process. My two most repeated requests by far are for accessories and for adult sizes of my
childrens’ designs, both of which I’m more than happy to address!
More about accessories later; but my daughter Iona asked for a Christmas sweater and Heima was her choice. She wanted a loose, “sloppy Joe” shape – a pretty classic lopapeysa really, but maybe a bit more boxy. The yoke pattern for Heima was based on a sunflower, and became one of the impressive, leggy ones grown by Gustav Klimt and my friend Vicky at Balnacra Arts this Summer. I kept the main colour of peaty undyed-black lettlopi, but subtly altered the yoke palette to a more grown-up suggestion of grellow . . . I couldn’t resist pulling in another of the beautiful lopi greys.
It’s a lovely feeling to make a gift that you know will be worn over and over. The adult Heima turned out just as I planned it and looks perfect on Iona (more pictures coming soon). . . the pattern will be going out for testing soon, so watch this space for updates.