North Child





knitting design that reflects the Highland seasons :: natural, handmade dolls in the Waldorf tradition :: tutorials and workshops exploring textile-craft :: nature and life in the North of Scotland

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So, 2017!

January 20, 2018 by Sarah Berry

Last year, my blog was seriously neglected in the whirlwind of making, teaching and selling; all I can say in my defence is, looking back through my year-planner, I genuinely don’t know how I did it all! – but I’m going to make sure I shuffle things round to create more time for the website this year . . . I do enjoy being here. Instagram is just so immediate that what I have posted has gone on there, but there’s nothing like writing a blog post for making you reflect on your practice – time well spent, I reckon.

2018 bestnine @sarahnorthchild

These are just the pictures that people liked the most on Instagram; but they do give a pretty good impression of where my energies were concentrated last year!

It’s no accident that there are a few fond memories of Edinburgh Yarn Festival featured here. If you love knitting, crochet, weaving, spinning, and all the associated treasury of project bags, needles, roving and notions, and you haven’t yet been to EYF, then go! GO!!! Take my ticket for Saturday, because I bought it in denial of the massive probability that I wouldn’t be able to travel the 200+ miles by public transport after work on a Friday night from my tiny and relatively remote corner of the world, which is of course true. Can’t believe I won’t be there, after looking forward to it since last March when EYF 2017 ended – but I’ll be keeping up with all the gorgeous shenanigans online, and remembering 2017 highlights such as Knit Night, a wonderful Knitsonik workshop, the utterly staggering Marketplace and most of all the people, many of whom are now friends.

 

 

North Child goes to EYF 2017

 

North Child goes to EYF 2017

 

I loved going to EYF 2017 and mooching about as a punter; but last year also saw North Child taking a stand at a flock of yarn festivals, including Dornoch Fibre Fest, Highland Wool and Textiles Fair at Dingwall, Perth Festival of Yarn and Loch Ness Knit Fest . Seeing the same friendly faces vending at these events – and many more in posts online – brought home how much I love being a part of this hardworking, creative, clever and caring wool tribe. And meeting hordes of customers who had eagerly travelled from all over the world to squish hand-dyed, indie-produced, designer-made fibre creations was full-on fun. Here’s a picture from Perth, just after the doors opened, with my beautiful assistant holding the fort:

 

North Child at Perth 2017

 

Teaching workshops was another big part of  2017 for me, and one which I was glad to return to after a two-year break. I launched a whole new workshop programme for Yarn Festivals, which reflected the shift in focus my creativity has taken since North Child: I taught around the processes involved in lopapeysa construction – knitting in the round, magic loop technique, grafting, yoke pattern design, stranded colourwork – because these processes had filled my head so intensely while I was working on my children’s lopapeysa designs. It is very true that if you want to properly learn how to do something, you should teach it; my lovely students brought a whole new dimension to my understanding of the design process.

And something else kept popping up, although it had never really gone away; thanks to a request from Loch Ness Knit Fest, I began again to teach Waldorf doll-making. Preparing workshops for Yarn Festivals resulted in a brand new doll pattern, and then two variations – and eventually, written and photo tutorials and doll-making kits, which are now in my shop . . . more of this coming up on my Dolls page!

 

North Child Waldorf doll-making workshop at Perth 2017

 

It was wonderful to have these “Tibby”doll kits leaving the shop in the run up to Christmas, and to know that some little people would be getting special handmade gifts!

But that was weeks ago – and Christmas already seems long gone, although there’s plenty of fresh snow and the mountains are white to ground level. It’s a new year, and I have new plans for 2018 which are keeping me busy and excited for the Spring and beyond;  I’ll be posting an update here as soon as I can.

 

Filed Under: Dolls, Kits, Knitting Design, Workshops, Yarn festivals Tagged With: Buy Handmade, Christmas, design process, gift knitting, kits, knitting, lopapeysa, lopi sweater, Waldorf dolls

Adult sizes – Iona’s Heima

January 5, 2017 by Sarah Berry

 

Adult Heima,sweater design by North Child.

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.

Filed Under: Knitting Design Tagged With: adult sizes, colour, design inspiration, design process, gift knitting, kits, knitting, knitting design, lopapeysa, lopi sweater, new designs

Oh Christmas Tree

December 17, 2016 by Sarah Berry

North Child bendy gnome

Still a few more making days left before Christmas. . .

Now that the final posting dates for Christmas delivery have arrived, the flurry of activity in the shop has died down. I still have more gift knitting to finish than I would have liked at this stage, but I’m going as fast as I can and  loving every stitch of this adult-sized Heima. When that’s been blocked, wrapped and given with love, the crackers have been pulled and the pudding is going down, I plan to bash out a couple more hats for the Pussyhat Project before the deadline of January 14th – cerise yarn ready and waiting.

The plan for tomorrow though is wrapping, parcelling and knitting, interspersed with bouts of decking the, ahem, halls. Today we acquired a small, fat Christmas tree, in scale with the house and two of the cats, and by the end of tomorrow it should be a lot sparklier.

Filed Under: Dolls, Knitting Design Tagged With: cats, Christmas, Christmas tree, craftivism, gift knitting, knitting, lopapeysa, lopi sweater, Waldorf dolls

Small knits

December 9, 2016 by Sarah Berry

 

North Child Waldorf doll lopapeysa

I work 99% of my knitting in the round, and like a good Elizabeth Zimmerman fan I often make a swatch cap, or a mitt, instead of  a standard swatch-in-the-round. Plus-side being, you get to wear your swatch afterwards; although beware of over-indulging in your swatch-accessory, and then having to play yarn chicken. Never a good feeling.

The other swatch/project I’ve been known to make is a doll-sweater. Of course, the difference in scale between this and your planned human-sized garment means that the doll wears a “chunky knit” version, but it can give a good idea of colour combinations, especially with a little head popping out of the top. And the doll-clothes reserve has one more item added!

 

Filed Under: Dolls, Knitting Design Tagged With: doll clothes, Elizabeth Zimmerman, knitting, lopapeysa, lopi sweater, swatch cap, swatch hat, swatching, swatching in the round, Waldorf dolls

Adult sizes. . .

December 2, 2016 by Sarah Berry

 

North Child sweater design Heima

It’s always good to get feedback, and lovely to have had so many requests for adult-sized North Child sweater kits. I’ve started designing these already and I’m planning to tweak them a little, shape- and detail-wise; samples in progress and looking interesting!

 

Filed Under: Knitting Design Tagged With: adult sizes, kits, knitting, knitting design, lopapeysa, lopi sweater, new designs

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2018 bestnine @sarahnorthchild

So, 2017!

Adult Heima,sweater design by North Child.

Adult sizes – Iona’s Heima

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