At the weekend I attended the Stylecraft Blogstars seasonal meet up at Slaithwaite in West Yorkshire. It was lovely to catch up with the group, share updates and participate in various activities.
The Saturday afternoon craft session was lead by designer Juliet Bernard and featured hand stitched notebooks. We'd all been invited to make a cover in advance of the weekend.
Inspiration for my book cover began earlier this year. In January, I went on a lovely winter, woodland walk through the Beinne Eighe National Nature Reserve in Scotland. The reserve is a special place for wildlife, scenery and geology.
Even on that cold, damp, January day among the pine trees, heathers, mosses and lichen, inspiration for a knitting project was found.
I had in mind to use up small amounts of Batik DK yarn. The yarn has a wide range of colours in semi solid shades.
Colours chosen from Batik DK were:
mint, silver, pistachio, gold, raspberry, coral and krypton.
Bands of colour knit in moss stitch...
The notebook is size A5 (A4 sheets folded in half). The cover was knit from the bottom edge up. For the cover I used size 4mm knitting needles, casting on 71 stitches. Calculating enough stitches, I hoped, to allow for an overlap around the vertical edges of the notebook. Beginning in shade silver, knitting 2 rows, changing to shade krypton, working moss stitch (*k1, p1, repeat from * to end). Completing four panels of mixed colour representing the various mosses and plants, with the band of neutral grey in stocking stitch representing a pathway through the woodland.
The "Notes" lettering was created with short lengths of single crochet chain using a 3.5mm hook. The pieces of crochet chain were then slip stitched onto the knitting.
The edges of the knitted cover were folded over at each end to create pockets for the cover to slip into.
Finally, a wooden button and crochet loop were added to keep the notes closed and safe.
An enjoyable project, using spare yarn, which will remind me of a lovely winter woodland walk.
