Inspired by Islay

I am a huuuuuge fan of Kate Davies.  Her designs, the articles she writes, her blog – HUGE.

Before Christmas I signed up to her Inspired by Islay club.  Each Wednesday a pattern arrives in my Ravelry library for me to lust over.  When I took out this subscription I was kind of expecting accessories but, so far, two of the designs have been the most beautiful garments.

The price is such good value.  Unbelievable in fact, when you take a closer look at the patterns.  Kate and Jen have worked so hard on the actual pattern writing itself.  I am about to cast on Finlaggan and had a good read through of the instructions.  The first thing that struck me is that Kate doesn’t tell you what size needles to use.  This means you have to swatch – something I am very in favour of – both in stocking stitch and the decorative cable.

I tried out two different yarns that I thought might work with quite different results.  The first was from Colourmart, a merino yarn that has some size still on it so, to get an accurate swatch you might need to wash it first. Because the pattern calls for Sport weight yarn I started with 3.75mm needles.

I wasn’t completely happy with the results – it just felt a bit thin and the stitch definition wasn’t brilliant, so I tried again using Lang Thema Nuova which is described as Virgin Wool.  These swatches worked out much better. This time I dropped down to 3.5mm needles because the first swatches were oversized.

The other thing I noticed about the pattern is the use of numbers to help you orientate yourself as you knit with a brief description of what you are about to do in that section. A simple thing yet so very helpful.  I can’t wait to see what else the pattern teaches me!

The club lasts for 12 weeks – that’s another 7 whole patterns for me to get my teeth in to. Thank you Kate and Jen!