We’ve shown you the amazing work of clareblove here before, most notably when we featured Speziale, her wonderful Latvian Garden Baby Blanket last year.

Well, she’s done it again. This time we’re in awe of her Tír Chonaill, which is a combination of several of our favourite things: Clare’s knitting, Studio Donegal’s delicious Soft Merino and Kate Davies’ clever and beautiful design.

Unlike Speziale, this blanket is unlined, and that means that you can see the admirable evenness of the stranding on the reverse of the knitting. This sort of work is less complicated than it looks, because no row uses more than two colours at a time. What’s more, all of the work is knit and there’s no purling involved.

The lack of purling comes from knitting the blanket in the round as a large tube. When it’s done, the tube is cut open vertically and opened out. It’s a process called steeking, and it’s much less complicated than you’d think. A bit of careful preparation and a deep breath, and it’s triumphantly done before you know it.

The exact technique used for Tír Chonaill is Kate Davies’ Steek Sandwich, and it results in the lovely plump borders that you can see in the picture above. (You’ll remember that Kate gave us a workshop on this technique last year.)

If you’re interested in learning to steek, then get in touch with us. Lovely colourwork cardigans and jumpers done completely in the round, with the front and sleeve openings snipped confidently open? It’s huge fun, and once you start it’s very hard to stop, as Clare has happily shown us.

There’s something rather nice about the very final stages of a project – the last few ends to weave in, the buttons to sew on, a waft of the steam iron, and then it’s done, ready to take its place beside the other finished objects. Years are like that: the planning, the execution, the modification on the fly, and then the accomplishment after.

So before we get started on a fresh and shiny 2013, let’s have a look at what we’ve just finished. You might, as with the best projects, want to sit down with a cup of something while we look back.

The big news early in the year was the launch of the new online shop. This involved a lot of lists and a lot of pictures of yarn and a lot of computer code, and the result was a huge improvement on what it replaced. So we have happy memories of shooting beautiful yarn (that’s definitely Noro in the foreground, and isn’t that Studio Donegal Soft Merino ready for its close up?).

Judging from what you’ve been saying, you like it too (and we still want your feedback if we can make it better for you).

But really soon, it was spring, and our thoughts turned to garments that would be useful right through the summer. The Spring Knit Along kicked off in February, with a choice of two cardigans – it was enormous fun, with new skills learned and new yarn tried out and a wonderful supportive Ravelry thread. The result, in Lisa’s case, was this: a Fan Jacket that’s pretty and vibrant:

So keep an eye out for our next KAL – and spring can’t be far away now.

Over the course of the year we had the privilege of welcoming a lot of illustrious visitors to teach at This Is Knit, some old friends and some new. Carol Feller gave an excellent workshop on seamless garment construction, and one result of that was several of Carol’s pattern centenary cardigan, Ravi.

Kate Davies came back to This Is Knit in April and gave us the world premiere of her Steek Sandwich workshop. There was a lot of trepidation, and then a lot of triumph, as the steeks were cut and the stitches behaved:

We love Kate. We hope she comes back soon.

We were also very proud to host Aoibhe Ní to give a number of her clever Tunisian Lace crochet workshops – it’s been an amazing year for her, and we can’t wait to see what she does next.

Woolly Wormhead came to give a fabulous class on making the perfect hat in August, and goodness, there were so many to be inspired by: an entire table covered with clever, flattering headwear:

In September, we took over the theatre upstairs in the Powerscourt Centre for the annual Yarn Tasting. It was a lovely night, and Ysolda Teague and Carol Feller were our special guests for the evening.

There were exciting garments to try on…

…there were piles and piles of samples to rummage gleefully through…

and there was tempting new yarn to go home with. What more could you want as the evenings drew in?

Carol’s coming back in February to give us some more workshops, this time on short rows and on cables and charts – you’ll find details here.

In fact, that’s something else that was new in 2012: we started using a new booking system, the one that we blogged about back in April. It makes finding out what’s coming up and then seizing your place very convenient. A word of advice, though: events can book out very fast indeed when they’re announced (Woolly Wormhead and Ysolda’s workshops were full in a day or so), so the sooner you hear about them the better. The best way to keep up to date is to follow us on twitter – we’re @Thisisknit, and we announce sales, events and all sorts of things there, so keep an eye on our feed.

Indeed, if you were following us back in October, you’ll have found us live tweeting from the Blog Awards – we’re very happy to have been finalists, and we’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who nominated us, as well as a big Congratulations! to the winners. It was a fabulous night, and thank you to everyone who worked so hard to organise it.

Right in the middle of the year, we had the worldwide spectacle of the Ravellenic Games, with Team This Is Knit marching proudly into the stadium behind a small but appealing alpaca. Impressive feats of skill and daring were on display, new techniques mastered, new patterns deciphered, and in one case, a cardigan finished and then entirely frogged during the Olympic Closing Ceremony (it didn’t fit, and both the knitter and the yarn are much happier with something else). To everyone who took part, or cheered, or provided tea, salutation, and to our tireless Team Captains Jacqui and Nadia, thank you!

We’ve said many times that our favourite thing ever is when the yarn comes back into the shop, all made up into your finished object, so we can admire both it and your skill. This was a particularly good year for us, then.

Back in May, Clare, who’s clareblove on Ravelry, brought in her outrageously lovely steeked Latvian Garden Baby Blanket. Knitted in the round and then cut open before being backed with cotton fabric, this is a knitting tour de force.

It’s still on display in the shop, and not a day goes by without someone exclaiming over it in wonder. It’s all of that and more. Come see it.

Sometimes we get to see beautiful things that aren’t knitted, too. Late in the year, we made two new friends, Catherine and Annabel, who are visiting Dublin from Mauritius. It turns out that although knitting isn’t that big there (one can easily imagine why not!), other crafts certainly are. One day, Catherine brought in some of her ribbon embroidery to show us, and we gasped:

That’s the house where Catherine grew up. Such three-dimensional beauty, with the flowers spilling out of the frame, and every one of those flowers a little yellow ribbon French knot. And there’s more.

This one’s still in the embroidery frame, and it’s a riot of exuberant flowers in all the colours. We were simply charmed by it – thank you, Katherine, for showing us your lovely, inspiring work.

For all-round knitted delight, though, one event stood out this year. In April, Jenny, one of our customers, married Rossa. The wedding was one of the most beautiful and original we’ve ever encountered – a lavender theme, hand-made stationary, a wee knitted bride and groom on the top of the cake, and the loveliest Echo Beach shawl, all alight with Swarowski crystals.

The wedding photographer was Julie Matkin of halfadreamaway.com, and a very good friend of ours. All of these wedding pictures are her work (used with permission, of course), and if you want to see more, then go over there and look through the gallery, or click through to onefabday, which this week featured Jenny and Rossa’s day as one of their highlights of the year.

A lavender theme, you see! There’s more, much more, on the crafting of this delightful and touching wedding on Jenny’s own blog Crafty Tails. Go have a look – you’ll be glad you did. Jenny and Rossa, our very best wishes for a long and happy life together!

Finally, there was yarn! Boxes and boxes of it arriving through the door and leaving in smart paper bags – new brands, new ranges, new colours to show you. This year we added Coolree Yarns to the mix, hand-dyed in County Wexford by the very talented Alex McLeod:

And if you want to see it knitted up, here’s a shawl of Jacqui’s (looking back over these pages, she made a staggering number of shawls this year, including the Cladonia right at the top of this post) – doesn’t the colour work beautifully with the stitch pattern?

Also new this year were Jamieson and Smith Shetland wool in jumperweight and laceweight (we’re avidly awaiting Kate Davies’ new book), lovely soft Aran merino by Rico, MillaMia sportweight in those lovely bright shades and soft and colourful yarns from Katia. So much to crochet and knit, so much to plan….

Well, we’ve come to the end of the year – that’s the last end woven in, the last blocking wire removed. Time to fold up that project and cast on a new one. Knitting? Crochet? Spinning? Earthy cabled Aran or delicate lace (from the Irish Indie Dyers’ Lace Club, perhaps)? Oh, why choose – let’s do all of it!

Happy new year!

We get to see a lot of lovely knitted and crocheted objects, but it’s not often that we meet one as charming, clever and downright dotey as this. When we saw it, we begged for the details to share with you, so here goes.

First of all, this is not a giant hat photographed with an average pumpkin. It’s a hat for a baby who hasn’t been born yet, with a very tiny pumpkin. Sara, the very clever knitter who concocted it, went searching through the Ravelry database and, when she didn’t find exactly the right pattern, combined and modified two different ones.

The hat itself is the Kürbis Baby Hat, but made with a shorter and perkier stem. But stems need leaves, so Sara used a bit of the Ivy Leaf Cord for the foliage.

The yarn is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, which means that the hat’s not only soft and snuggly enough for a brand new baby, but it’s machine washable so it’s easy to care for too.

We’ve said before that pretty much our favourite thing is seeing what the yarn turns into after it goes out the door. This wee treasure is a perfect example of what we mean. Sara, thank you so much for letting us share it.

And Happy Hallowe’en to you all!

We’ve talked in the past about how to substitute yarns, concentrating on keeping the qualities as close as possible – DK for DK, Aran for Aran, and so on. But there are, as they say, no knitting police, and very often you can get the most gorgeous results by using a yarn very differently to how it was intended.

For example, that majestic-looking Swallowtail shawl above is knitted in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. We’re familiar with this for beautiful babies’ and children’s garments, but here it’s used in a vivid colour (and the colour range is stunning) to make the most glorious lace. Knitted on 5.5mm needles and taking just four skeins of yarn, this is the cosiest shawl you can imagine.

Here’s another example of unexpected but amazing lace: this is a Luna Moth shawl (like Swallowtail, this pattern’s a free download). It’s knitted in Lamb’s Pride Worsted, a wool and mohair single-ply yarn which is easy to work and wear. On 6.00mm needles, this knits up like lightning – just the thing to have in the drawer for a possible cold snap or for a last-minute warming gift.

Both of the examples so far have been shawls, where exact size isn’t really a consideration. If your stitches come out a little (or a lot) bigger or smaller than the original in the pattern, that’s ok – knit a bit more for a bigger thing, do fewer repeats for a smaller one. But we’ve recently met a project where fit did matter, but where working the yarn at a much tighter tension than suggested worked superbly well.

That’s a pair of Bella’s Mittens (yes, this one’s free as well), worked in Debbie Bliss Paloma. Paloma is a delicious chained yarn that was introduced last winter and which has proved very popular, with its pattern book full of lovely relaxed garments.

But earlier this year, a student in one of our beginners’ classes made a hat in Paloma on much smaller needles than the 10.00mm recommended on the ball band and the resultant fabric was so delicious that we began to wonder what else you could do by dropping needle size…. This pair of mittens was the result, knitted on 5.5mm needles, and taking three skeins of yarn. The fit is perfect and the fabric is firm and supple, with cables that pop beautifully.

These mittens have left for cold-weather service off the east coast of North America; we feel very confident that they’ll keep their new owner warm as toast.

We’re sure that our readers and customers have lots and lots of projects like this, where going off-road resulted in delightful finished objects. Why not tell us about yours in the comments below? We’d love to hear about them!

The thing we love most here is seeing what our yarn turns into after it leaves us. We’re always delighted. Sometimes, however, we’re simply astounded. And this is one of those times.

A few years ago, Clare (clareblove on Ravelry) decided to add some new skills to her repertoire. She took a colourwork class with us (we were still in Blackrock then). A bit later, she took a steeking class as well, and then look at what she made:

This is the Baby Blanket Latvian Garden. It’s knit in the round, and steeked, and Clare’s example is one of the most beautiful finished objects we’ve ever seen.

It’s made from Debbie Bliss Rialto in four colours. It’s backed and edged with cotton fabric, so her sewing skills got a workout too.

You can read Clare’s project notes over at her Ravelry page. And her beautiful blanket will be on display in the shop for a couple of weeks, so if you’re passing, make sure you get to see it in person.

And if you’re interested in gaining some new skills, have a look at our classes and workshops. We can’t wait to see what’s in your yarny future!

We had visitors! In a summer and autumn stuffed with special events – one-off visits, workshops, our fifth birthday party, the yarn tasting – we were lucky enough to welcome Laura Chau…

…Debbie Bliss (and our Chicago friend Skippy)…

…Aoibhe Ní…

…Carole Feller (launching Contemporary Irish Knits)…

…Kate Davies, here with Yvonne of the Dublin Dye Company…

…Amy Singer… (this picture demonstrates how lucky we are to have our own resident “yarnographer” and also how unorganised we are when said yarnographer is actually taking part in one of our events… Incredibly, we completely forgot to get a snapshot of Amy in the shop! If you attended this workshop and have one you’d like to share then we’d be eternally grateful.)

and this was Louisa Harding when she came for our official opening at the end of November:

What an impressive roll-call! We’re so happy they came, and we can’t wait to see them again.

While we’re on the topic of the new shop, what huge excitement the move was:

Even better than all of this was the projects that you made with yarn from This Is Knit. We were delighted at frog blankets…

…and christening shawls…

and contented little polar bears:

…and right at the very end of the year, the most elegant cardigan from the Spring Knit ALong:

In a particularly lovely piece of timing, roseofskye posted her finished Clam this very week. She took that picture to show one of the cleverest things we’ve seen all year: to echo the cabled cuff of the cardigan, she made a beaded bracelet with twisted lines. Isn’t it lovely? It’s a Wendy Turri design called “Over and Under”.

From Nikki’s crocheted wedding dress to a a treeful of decorations, we’ve been delighted and astonished all year with the beauty, ingenuity and fun that you all conjure with bits of yarn.

So we’d like to wish you all a very happy 2012 – we can’t wait to see what happens next!

We’ve been amazed at the creativity of the tree decorations we’ve received for our Christmas tree – actually, we were awfully glad we were drawing a winner at random, because it would have been near impossible to pick a winner otherwise.

But we have a winner, and it’s Ruth from Cork, who sent us that delightful little ornament, complete with sparkly sequin baubles and a bell at the top. A Christmas tree to decorate a Christmas tree – how meta is that!

Ruth wins a rather handsome prize – a copy of Debbie Bliss’s Knits to Give, a pair of Peace Fleece needles with little Christmas trees on the ends, and a tidy tool case from Knitpro (which can either be a hook case or a circular needle case).

This is also a good time to announce our opening hours over the Christmas/New Year season. We’re closing at 6.00pm on Friday December 23rd and re-opening on Tuesday January 3rd at 11.00am.

And now we’ve got to plan what we’re making over the break. There’s a very snuggly and enormous Swallowtail in Louisa Harding Thistle in the works, and a Wispy cardigan in Hedgehog Fibres Cashmere is underway. There’s also been swatching for the cardigan like that one that Cameron Diaz wore in “Holiday”. What about you? We’d love to hear what you’ve planned in the comments!

We’ve got lots of new yarn to show you today (including one that’s very exciting indeed!), but first, isn’t that a splendid bell? It’s one of the tree decorations that have been handed in for our competition. For once, it’s a pity that this blog doesn’t come with an audio track, because that’s a proper cat bell that rings! It’s fantastic! But keep them coming: the deadline is December 13th, so there’s plenty of time, and a jolly little decoration is fast to do!

On to our new arrivals! The first is actually two – we’re now stocking Handmaiden sock yarn and laceweight.

That’s some of the Casbah sock yarn – 325 metres of merino and cashmere with a little nylon for strength. It’s machine-washable and hand-dyed. It would make amazing socks – or baby clothes, or lace, or anything you wish.

Then there’s Handmaiden Sea Silk laceweight. Again, it’s hand-dyed so each skein is unique…

…and the colours and the softness have to be experienced up close. It’s made of silk and Seacell, a man-made fibre partly made from seaweed. It’s a relatively heavy laceweight and it knits up beautifully.

Our final new arrival is something local and innovative. We’re very proud to be stocking Studio Donegal’s Merino Soft, a two-ply worsted weight yarn, which we debuted at the Knitting and Stitching Show. It’s just the right combination of nubbly and soft, and it comes in a wide range of colours from quiet earth tones to vibrant brights, just like its big sibling Aran Tweed.

A little plumper than DK and a little slimmer than Aran, it will work beautifully in all those North American worsted weight patterns you’ve been mulling over. The colour palette lends itself to stripes or stranded colourwork, and it comes in generous 100g hanks, each giving you 190 metres of knitting pleasure. There are several cardigans being planned in the shop, and a couple of hat-and-mitten sets too.

So if you’re passing, drop in and give these lovelies a look – your letter to Santa might need a postscript.

This year, we’ve got room for a Christmas tree! We’re as excited as, well, a kid at Christmas about this, because it means that we get to decorate it!

So we’re having a Christmas Decoration Competition! To win a very special This Is Knit prize, drop a yarny decoration in to the shop before December 13th – each one will be a separate entry in the draw, and together they’ll make the dotiest tree in Dublin.

If you’re sending your dotey object by post, please remember to enclose a contact phone number. And keep en eye on the blog over the next few weeks – it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to resist showing you some of the entries.

Well, wittyknitty’s done it again. She dropped in to the shop a couple of weeks ago to show us this wedding shawl, which she had just finished knitting for C’s sister, M.

This time, Brigit Freyer’s Flamenco shawl was the starting point. When it came to the border, though, she added an even more elaborate border, adapted from Elizabeth Freeman’s Aeolian pattern:

Usually, the border of a shawl goes around the two shorter sides, leaving the hypotenuse plain. Not in this case: here the Aeolian border continues along the neckline, entirely enclosing the body of the shawl in wonderful Estonian lace:

What’s more, the border glitters with the loveliest copper-coloured glass beads, so it sparkles in the light – the perfect contrast with the natural colour of the Dublin Dye Company alpaca laceweight:

You can read more about wittyknitty’s modifications on her project page.

It’s an honour to be able to show you this beautiful object and to wish C and her new husband every happiness in the years to come. This is another heirloom piece, to be cherished by generations.