Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas!

Hope you enjoy this song, "White Winter Hymnal" by the Fleet Foxes - it always makes me think of wintery days when I hear it :)

Wintery goodness from WildCat Designs

There is something wonderful about this time of year - I really do like all the seasons (each has its merits, naturally) but I find the act of wrapping oneself in warm, woolly things against the cold quite satisfying. Plus it does feel *right* to be knitting cosy comfort when it's chilly outside, and it's just not quite the same doing so on a hot summer's day somehow!

Not that I let that stop me from knitting all year round of course (yes, I wholeheartedly admit it, I'm utterly addicted, but at least it's a productive obsession!) - I always have at least a handful of different projects on the go.

So...on a somewhat related note, if you feel like getting your paws on some of my lovingly handmade goodies this winter, and wish to receive them before the 25th of December, here are my recommended order dates.

UK orders: Tuesday 18th December

Orders for Western Europe: Monday 10th December

Orders for Canada, USA & Eastern Europe: Saturday 8th December

Orders for Japan, Oz, NZ & everywhere else: Sunday 2nd December

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I *will* be accepting orders after these dates but
please be aware that items may not arrive in time for Christmas,
after all, it is a very busy time of year!

These order dates also apply to my WildKittens online shop.

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Shop online: bigcartel, etsy, DaWanda or folksy.

...or alternatively, find my hand-crafted creations
at one of my UK stockists:

Edinburgh: Flux or Bliss
East Lothian: Peter Potter Gallery
England: Vertiline in Love

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Custom orders: If you are interested in a custom order,
please get in touch by Monday 19th November.

Birds go West

Yes, that's right...more antics from our feathered friends! Those cheeky arctic terns have flocked over to the Lighthouse in Glasgow's Mitchell Lane.

One arctic tern perched on my windowsill
before he joined the flock!

The Bird Yarns project is nesting at the Lighthouse from now until Sunday 28th October - I even paid them a little visit myself in Glasgow at the weekend! You can currently find them up on the top floor, perching on the viewing platform by the café.

(Please click on the image to view it better!)
If you're interested in knitting your own Arctic Tern, the Lighthouse gallery shop now sells kits so you can do just that. (Would also make a fab pressie for a crafty friend or family member!)

Further Information

Bird Yarns: http://www.capefarewell.com/seachange/bird-yarns
Bird Yarns Tumblr: http://bird-yarns.tumblr.com
Bird Yarns Twitter: @Birdyarns
The Lighthouse: http://www.thelighthouse.co.uk
Luminate: http://www.luminatescotland.org
Cape Farewell: http://www.capefarewell.com/seachange/bird-yarns
Deirdre Nelson: http://dstitch.blogspot.co.uk

My knitted Arctic Tern bird-in-progress (June 2012)

(See also my previous post about the Bird Yarns project.)

Wool Week 2012

In the world of knitting and for those who appreciate natural fibres in general, Wool Week is a definite highlight in the calendar. It also seems to coincide nicely with the time of year when one's thoughts naturally turn towards all things woolly and cosy. So you might say it's the perfect timing!

Image via Deadly Knitshade (on Instagram).
I've loved following some of the fun projects which have been going on as part of the general Wool Week merriment - particularly the "Clickety Click on the Clickety Clack" aka a whole carriage of knitters collectively creating a knitted super-sized Union Jack, in the time it takes to travel by train from London King's Cross to Edinburgh Waverley and the whimisical "Woolly Golf" run by Lyle & Scott.

Image via the Campaign for Wool (on Instagram).
I also spotted a lovely freebie Rowan knitting pattern - it's for a cute gadget cosy made in Felted Tweed, a cosy blend of Merino & alpaca wool. All you need to do is sign in or register to download the PDF.

The Birds are coming!

I'm so excited to announce that the Bird Yarns project is coming to Edinburgh!

The project is an interesting one, involving many crafters from all over the UK (and a few from further afield!), knitted Arctic Terns and Textile Artist Deirdre Nelson.

My knitted birdie!

Bird Yarns is organised by An Tobar's Artist-in-Residence Deirdre Nelson (An Tobar being the arts centre in Tobermory on the isle of Mull), supported by Cape Farewell and is intended to highlight the plight of these little birds. The exhibition is a response to the changing migration patterns of seabirds across Scotland’s islands.

A flock of Arctic Terns will descend upon the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, 26th-27th September 2012 - I can't wait to see them all!

They're knitted with locally-sourced, beautiful natural undyed wool from Ardalanish (also on Mull) and recycled materials - my tern has a thick felt beak, legs which I French knitted and reinforced with coated red wire, also used to make its little webbed feet. I then stuffed my knitted bird body with recycled wool scraps from my other knitting projects to keep it eco-friendly.

A little birdy told me (pardon the pun, I couldn't help it...) that there are now kits available too if you want to have a go at knitting your own! [Ravelry link]

Give, Craft, Make

Looking for inspiration for a summer craft project? Look no further!

Glasgow Craft Mafia is back with Give, Craft, Make - the perfect event for all you crafters out there :)

On Sunday 12th August (that's this Sunday!) from 12 noon - 5pm at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow, there will be stalls selling lots of crafty goodies to get your imagination going. I'll be selling oodles of yarn, all manner of haberdashery, beads, and some lovely knitting pattern books too.

There will also be craft workshops on the day along with a yarn donation station so if you have any oddments of wool you no longer need, feel free to give them to charity!

Hope to see you there! :)

The Knitting Olympics!

Yep, you read that right - a fibre-enthusiast's version of the Olympic games, known as the 2012 Ravellenic Games :D

If you are wondering what on earth I'm on about, well, it's basically a bunch of keen knitters/crocheters/spinners/fibre-dyers getting together to form teams on Ravelry and competing in different imaginatively & humorously-titled yarny events such as the Frogging Trampoline, the Hand-dye High Dive, the Felted Freestyle, WIP Wrestling (*love* this!) and the Lace Longjump. There's even an event for participating machine knitters, entitled Rhythmic Machinastics! So as you can see, they all relate to the names of real events...

In the Frogging Trampoline event, competitors are encouraged to "frog" (a knitting term for recycling, essentially!) a project which has been languishing in their stash for too long - meaning completely unravelling the knitting and rewinding the yarn back into balls to knit anew for a future, more promising project.

Obviously the "Ravthletes" don't receive a fabulous gold, silver or bronze medal with Nike, goddess of victory on it like the athletes at London 2012 do, but there is definitely a sense of achievement that goes with successful completion of a project when competing in one of the events nonetheless. You also get a virtual medal so you can celebrate in cyberspace!

Needless to say, I decided to get involved as it seems like the perfect accompaniment to watching the events unfold on the TV. If you're a ravelry member, just check out the Ravellenic Games group to see what all the fuss is about :)

A Confession...

Truth to tell, I've been going through a lot lately. I don't often talk about details of my personal life, as the blog is intended to be more creativity and inspiration focussed but I think it's worth mentioning in this case because I've been evaluating many aspects of my life recently. This has meant I have been dealing with a greater quantity of "stuff," both emotionally and physically, so I have had much less energy to devote to my blog. In all honesty I've also felt quite overwhelmed with some of the amazing, inspiring blogs out there and it's been really rather counter-productive...

Anyway, dear reader, I hope you'll understand if my posts are perhaps less forthcoming at the moment than they usually would be. I am definitely planning to continue with my blog though, as I do enjoy hearing from you all (I love reading your comments on my posts, just for the record!) and I like to be able to look back on posts and reminisce about what was whirling around in my brain at that moment in time.

One thing I seem to return to time & time again when I need some inspiration is photography, be it digital or old school {I adore both!} - so this month I've been taking part in the Photo a Day project created by Chantelle of FatMumSlim. The list of daily inspiration for June is here, in case you're interested. I've been doing roughly every other month so far this year and it's fun, I recommend having a go :) Some of my daily pics are sprinkled around this blog post!

I've been taking part via Instagram - if you want to follow me there my username is Catameringue & just search the tags for #photoadayjune to see all the different contributions!

A sprinkling of inspiration

Hello! Hope you're all having a nice weekend. I thought I would break my post-Knitting & Crochet blog week blogging hiatus by sharing a couple of things which have been inspiring me recently.

I'm a big fan of recycling and upcycling. I also like kitties and good design... so I had to try hard not to "squeee" when I saw this!

Image via Atomic Attic

Atomic Attic creates these wonderful pet beds made from recycled iMacs - so they're nice & colourful and the light shines through them too. Doesn't that cat look really rather content in it?

Birds + lego + art = awesomeness. If you don't believe me, for proof, see below:

Image via Laughing Squid

- thanks to the North East Craft Mafia for highlighting those! There's a whole series of British birds built by Lego enthusiast DeTomaso Pantera, including a woodpecker, blue tit, kingfisher, goldfinch and even a puffin.

3KCBWWC - Perfect Day

Day Seven: Craft your perfect day

Today I chose to go for the 'wildcard' (3KCBWWC) topic: "Plan your fantasy day with your craft, It might just take up one hour of your day or be the entire focus of the day, but tell your readers where you'd love to craft, whether you'd craft alone or with friends, knitting or crocheting something simple or spending a day learning new skills."



I think my perfect knitting-filled day would have to start with poring over my library of knitting books and magazines for inspiration. I've collected rather a lot of them over the years! (the image below shows just a small selection of some titles I own...) This may be followed by having a peek at some knitting blogs and of course, the wonderful Ravelry.

Fibrespates Scrumptious DK from my stash

After that, I would head off into town (Edinburgh, that is) and one of my favourite local yarn havens, k1 yarns, a cosy, bright little shop on the West Bow, just at the curve at the bottom of Victoria Street in the heart of the city's old town. They specialise in Scottish yarns such as Orkney Angora, Jamieson's of Shetland and Harris Tweed, and have a lovely selection of hand-dyed yarns too. It's quite likely that this visit would result in a yarn splurge, but that's part of the fun, right?! Plus I could get another stamp on my loyalty card ;)

Orkney Angora St. Magnus 4ply from my stash

Once I've satisfied my yarny needs, I'd meet up with friends at an alternative bar I'm quite fond of, the Auld Hoose, for some of their tasty food and a spot of pub knitting. The perfect way to round off a knit-tastic day, n'est-ce pas?

I do hope you've enjoyed reading these posts. It's been fun taking part in Knitting & Crochet Blog Week for the third year in a row, not just as a participant but reading other knitty blogs too. To view my other posts for the week, see here. Thanks once again to Eskimimi for organising it!

3KCBWDAY6 - Skillful knits

Day Six: Improving Your Skillset

Hmmm... wasn't quite sure where to go with this topic, as I feel I have covered the "things I'd like to learn/could improve on" subject in previous years here and here. Admittedly though, there's always something new you can learn, improve upon or a new approach to something (such as a different cast-on method) to try.



However, I am happy to say that I have learned many aspects of the knitting skillset over the years and I truly appreciate why it is called a "craft" - both from a hand knitting and machine knitting perspective. I'm glad that it's something I have persevered with, as it is so much more than just a hobby to me, at certain points it has in fact been my livelihood as a self-employed designer.



Knitting definitely has its benefits (certainly for me at least) and I have found the meditative quality of the rhythm and repetitive motions comforting on many an occasion - when things seem a little overwhelming, I find it really does help to sort out my emotions and thoughts, as well as being an activity that I like to do to help unwind (pun intended) before bedtime.

I think if there's one thing I'd like to do more of, it's to write more of my own patterns. I have written several patterns - for machine and hand knits - so "improving" is one thing, but it's more about having the courage to just do them sometimes, and put them out into the world. I haven't actually published very many of them but I would like to build on my pattern library in the coming years.



As someone who has read and knitted from rather a lot of patterns in one capacity or another over the years (some of them better than others!!!), I like to think that I have a pretty good idea of how to create a clear, easy-to-follow pattern and accompanying set of instructions.

3KCBWDAY5 - A post with a difference!

Day 5: Something a bit different

Enjoy.

3KCBWDAY4 - A Knitter for all Seasons?

Day Four: A Knitter for all Seasons?

I have to confess that although I adore knitting lightweight lace projects (I really do enjoy lace knitting, whether it's a simple motif with only a few rows repeat, or a more complex piece requiring full concentration), the type of projects I seem to spend most of my time making are generally wintery things, especially mittens and scarves.

This is probably due in part to the fact that I have had a business selling such things for several years now, but I think also because I really enjoy working with woolly, cosy yarns and personally love wrapping up with handmade knits in the wintery weather.

So although I occasionally work with cottons and more summery yarns, I can be found working on warm, woolly things pretty much all year round! I find that this is very much reflected in my stash too, with a definite bias towards fibres which are suitable for giving warmth and comfort such as wool, alpaca and cashmere.

3KCBWDAY3 - My crafty heroes

Day Three: Your Knitting or Crochet Hero

In the first year of Knitting & Crochet Blog Week, I talked about knitters whose work I enjoy. Of course, this is a somewhat similar idea but today I'm going to talk about people whose work I am inspired by and admire. It's far too difficult to whittle it down to just the one, so I've chosen my top 5 (in no particular order)!

· Kate Davies

I really love the beautiful designs of Kate Davies and one day hope to make her "owls." If you're a fibre enthusiast, I highly recommend her blog, needled.

· Anna Hrachovec

You may well have heard of knitter extraordinaire, Anna Hrachovec, of Mochimochi Land. I'm a huge fan of her creative and whimsical world of knitted critters and characters, not to mention her wicked sense of humor! Below you can see a tiny pigeon I knitted from one of her patterns :)

· Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

I've long been a fan of the witty fibre-infused banter which can be found on Stephanie's Yarn Harlot blog (and books, for that matter.) - read and enjoy - 'nuff said.

· Carol Meldrum

I was lucky enough to work with the lovely Carol during my time at Rowan. As well as being a published author and workshop tutor, you can find her Beatknit designs here. I also think her book of Knitted Icons is a lot of fun.



· Stephanie Dosen

I have adored the creations of Tiny Owl Knits for a while now. You may be familliar with the incredibly popular Beekeeper's Quilt Stephanie designed and created - I do love seeing all the different colours of "hexapuffs" people have been knitting.

I look forward to reading about everyone else's crafty heroes!

3KCBWDAY2 - Snap Happy

Day Two: Photography Challenge Day!

Today is about getting creative with craft and a camera, so I thought I'd share this pic which I took a while back. I'd had this rough concept idea for such an image for a while & experimented with different yarns to achieve what I had in mind.

The idea was to create something eye-catching to use as a flyer for that year's Etsy craft party, as you can see below :)

Oh...and just for fun, here's another snap - the rock chick in me couldn't resist :)

3KCBWDAY1 - Colour Lovers

Welcome to Day 1, year 3 of Knitting & Crochet Blog Week! (3KCBWDAY1)

Day One: Colour Lovers

Colour. Truly one of those things which (in my humble opinion) makes life worth living. As you can see below, I even seem to have a full colour wheel within my stash!

Although I appear to have an abundance of different colours overall, I am definitely drawn to certain colours, with a real fondness for rich, jewel-like hues and in particular teals, cobalt blues, evergreens, ruby reds and wonderfully saturated shades of purple...

...not to mention aquatic colours and vibrant fuschias. I've even been known to buy yarn simply because I loved the colour! Case in point: this ball of Noro Iro :)

When it comes to making a new knit, the part I deliberate over the most after choosing my pattern (or inventing it!) is the choice of colour. Suffice to say that one of the reasons I love certain brands of yarn, aside from quality and availability, is their selection of a wonderful range of colours.

As far as playing around with colour combinations (something which I really do enjoy), I know from my time working as a Design Consultant that many knitters have an inherent fear of straying from the original colour a pattern has been knitted/photographed in. Fortunately I don't seem to have any such issues and mix things up with merry abondon! Above, as an example, is my recoloured take on Dauphine (currently still a WIP; it's kind of hibernating if I'm honest!).

Eastery Wishes

I do hope you all had a happy easter weekend! I had fun making these delectable little lovelies...

...and nibbling on other assorted chocolate treats :)

It has been a wee bit quiet around here for a little longer than I'd like, I won't go into all the details but one major reason is that I've been busy beavering away on several websites - one of these will be a brand new portfolio website for my web/graphic design work. I can't wait to show it off, it's not quite ready yet but it will be here soon!

In other news, was excited to see that the topics for Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2012 have been announced - check this post on Eskimimi's blog for more info.

I'm also thrilled to be heading off to Geneva later this week to visit my sister and get a wee change of scenery - I will be taking my camera (and Ray-Bans, here's hoping for some sun!!) with me for sure! Hopefully I'll have some fun stuff to tell you about when I get back.

I've been taking part in this month's Photo a Day challenge, organised by the lovely Chantelle of Fat Mum Slim. You can find my submissions on my Instagram feed (look here to see my pics). I seem to be doing every other month so far! Are any of you lovely readers out there joining in this month too?

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2012!

The observant among you may have noticed this pop up on my blog sidebar recently:

It's back! This year Knitting & Crochet Blog Week is even bigger and better than before - with prizes and everything! All the more reason to participate, if you ask me. See the image below for details of the dates and tags - more info, including details of the prizes also available here.

I've participated since the first one in 2010 and I'm happy to say I'll be blogging along again this year. Looking forward to checking out what other fibre fanatics write too :)

If you want to find out more, and/or get involved yourself, check out this post on Eskimimi's blog.