Knitting outside at the Millstones below Stanage Edge
The walk from Burbage car park to the edge of Stanage is always a joy. Something happens to your soul part way across the moor – it opens and you take a deep breath. I’m 63 years old… and I’m still scrambling over the rocks to reach my favourite knitting spot.
Beneath Stanage Edge, beside these old millstones overlooking Hope Valley, is where I come to slow down, eat my home made granola from a flask, drink tea, knit and look and feel grateful.
I’ve shared this place with you before because so many of you tell me you wish you could sit here too. I completely understand. There’s something about this view that quietens everything.
Today I brought along my Smola Beanie—a pattern I designed while living in Shetland, in a house called Smola —and I cast on using Pony’s new aluminium interchangeable circular needles, which they’ve kindly sent me to try. I a being honest here, I love them and wish they went to bigger sizes so that I could knit the chunky vest. I am using the 3mm needle and the shortest wire. There is a little extension, if you want to add 2 wires together to create a bigger one. The needles are smooth and have a good pointy needle to get into my Fair Isle stitches.
I couldn’t think of a better place to use them for their first use – out in this very cool place in the Peak District, 6 miles from my door.
Sometimes the best knitting room has no walls at all.
The pattern is called Smola Beanie, it has matching fingerless mitts and a scarf (which my daughter wanted – praise indeed)
If you would like to knit this beautiful Shetland Motif pattern called, Smola Beanie, then the link is here
Here is a quick little video to show you my first swatch Journal. I have 2 more, equally as in depth, in fact more in-depth.
This is where it all began. My very first Colour Swatch Journal. It holds over 60 knitted swatches, 180 pages of sketches, notes, colour experiments, ideas, mistakes, discoveries and little moments of excitement. Nothing has been thrown away. Every page tells me something.
Some swatches sing. Some don’t. Some worked the first time, while others needed to be knitted again and again in different colours before I understood why. That’s the joy of this process. There are no failures here, only learning.
From 1st August, I will begin my 2nd cohort of Colour Swatch Journal group who will be creating their own Colour Swatch. I’ll guide them through colour principles, ways of seeing colour more deeply, and how to trust their own instincts after gaining the knowledge and experience from a 4 month online course. By the end, all participants will have far more than a collection of swatches—they’ll have a personal record of their creative journey and a resource to return to for years to come as well as the knowledge and experience to develop their own colour decisions going forward.
I can’t wait to begin this adventure with them. 🌈🧶
If you would like to go on a waiting list for the next cohort to start in January, then please contact me through the online workshops contact form and I will add you to a list and get in touch with everyone at the same time, at the end of November because answering everyone individually is difficult for me as I am a one person band. You will all receive FULL information at the end of November.
Yesterday, Sunday, between 5 and 6 pm, I hosted our Colour Swatch Group Zoom session.
A small group of us from across the world met, and together we spent an hour talking about colour in knitting. We explored the monthly newsletter, looked at four different ways of knitting the same colours into one motif, talked about where inspiration comes from, and how sometimes the best colour choices are the ones that come from your heart rather than your head, or a carrier bag in front of the tele.
Afterwards, as always, I opened the session up for questions and for people to share their work.
Then something happened that, in seven years of teaching, I have never experienced before.
One of the ladies in the group isn’t really a knitter. Instead of sharing knitting, she shared a photograph that had inspired her. It was a photograph of her mother holding an enormous bunch of pink and peach and pale read flowers.
This lady generously shared how she had only met her mother ten months ago. In the photograph, her mother was surrounded the flowers picked for her by her daughter —flowers she absolutely loved. Looking at the photograph made her smile. This lady’s mother has severe dementia and she mentioned that some days she knows she is her daughter. Some days she thinks she is a friend. Some days she believes she is an enemy.
Every week, my participant drives five hours to visit her mother and five hours home again. Alongside that, she has been moving house. Life has simply been overwhelming.
She had already ordered yarn in exactly the colours of those flowers because she wanted to knit my Sea Urchin Mitts for her mum. But between visiting her mother, moving home and everything else, she just hadn’t found the time.
As she shared her story, it was heartwarming and sad and heartbreaking. And incredibly beautiful.
Then something happened that silenced every single one of us.
Another participant simply said,
“Send me your list of colours. I’ll knit the mitts for you and post them to you.”
That was it.
No fuss.
No hesitation.
Just kindness.
I could feel tears welling up. The lady telling her story was emotional and several of us were in the group. It was one of those painfully beautiful moments that stays with you long after the Zoom call has ended.
What made it even more extraordinary was this.
The lady who offered to knit the mitts lives on the Isle of Wight and The lady she offered to them for lives in America.
Two women who had never met, connected simply through colour workshop, creativity, the opportunity to open up and kindness.
All I could think to do in that moment was send both of them the patterns for the mitts and the matching hat. It felt like the smallest contribution compared to what had just unfolded, but it was what I could offer. In all my 7 years of teaching colour work online across the world, I have never witnessed such altruistic instant kindness and I was very moved.
Tonight reminded me that Colour Swatch Group has become something I never imagined it would be. I thought I was bringing people together to explore colour. Instead, colour has brought people together to explore humanity and we are a community.
My Participants’ colour journals have become more than pages filled with palettes and inspiration. They have become places where stories are shared, where people feel safe enough to be vulnerable, and where complete strangers quietly remind one another what kindness looks like.
I don’t think any of us present in that zoom session will forget that moment of pure kindness. I know I never will.
If you would like to join me in my next Cohort of Colour Swatch Journal Group, we will be starting In January 2027 as my 2nd Cohort starts on Aug 1st is is now Full. Nip to the workshops page and send me a contact form, to say you are interested in information for any future session.
I have just finished my fourth Chunky Knit Vest from my easy to follow pattern, and I absolutely love how different it feels from the others. These yarns came from the mystery bag I bought last week called “Harvester Pie”, but as I knitted, I kept thinking the colours were more like butterscotch, honeycomb, autumn leaves, toasted caramel, warm rich autumn colours. When I look at yarn for this pattern, I always have my favourites – every stripe seemed to tell its own little story. I always save my very favourites for the neck and arm pit ribs…
The beauty of this pattern is that there is no right or wrong way to choose your colours AND I WOULD LIKE TO OFFER A YARN GIVEAWAY FOR ONE PERSON TO KNIT THEIR OWN CHUNKY KNIT VEST FROM THE LEFT OVERS OF MY LAST 2 VESTS.
🎉 Yarn Giveaway!
To celebrate this latest vest, I’d love one of you to create your own version.
The remaining yarns from my Harvester Pie collection and the previous vest (pictured below) are going to One winner who will receive the bundle of leftover yarns shown in the photograph—perfect for creating a beautifully individual vest of your own.
There is a mix of pure wool, Rowan felted tweed, lopi, and acrylic. Enough to make your own vest by plying the yarns together in whatever way you choose to create your own Chunky Knit Vest. The pattern gives ideas on what yarns to ply.
All you need to do is purchase my Chunky Knit Vest Pattern between 15th July and 31st July, and you’ll automatically be entered into the draw. There will be one lucky winner. The pattern is £6 on Ravelry
Purchase the Chunky Knit Vest Pattern between 15 July and 31 July.
Everyone who purchases the pattern during those dates will automatically be entered.
One winner will be chosen after the closing date. I will draw one winner at 6pm on 31st July
I will announce the winner on Instagram – @traceydoxey and email the winner too.
The only thing I’ll ask is that the winner pays the postage to their country, wherever they are in the world.
Thank you so much for all your enthusiasm for this pattern already. Seeing your colour choices in the projects in Ravelry and in the comments on Instagram has made me really happy. Seeing your own interpretations is one of the greatest joys of designing something like this. Every vest has its own personality, and every knitter brings their own unique selves to it.
Every vest becomes a reflection of the yarn you already have, the colours you love, and the choices you make along the way. No two will ever be the same, and I think that’s what makes knitting from stash so wonderfully exciting. This offer is a different type of stash – it is mine that I am offering to give away.
Last night I shared the very beginning of my chunky knit vest project over on instagram link here
– from choosing yarns from my stash to plying them together and watching unexpected colour combinations appear.
This morning I’ve reached one of my favourite stages.
The body is knitted, I’ve divided for the armholes, and suddenly it feels as though I’m no longer making a swatch or experimenting. It’s becoming a garment.
This is the stage where the knitting changes. Instead of endless rounds, there’s shaping and decision-making but this easy to follow Chunky Knit Vest pattern helps you with every step. Every few rows reveal a little more of the vest, and it’s exciting to see the colours shifting as different yarns come and go from your own personal choice and personal unique stash.
One of the things I love most about this pattern is that there isn’t a “correct” way to combine your yarns. You can work intuitively, adding a strand, dropping another, letting one colour drift into the next. The vest becomes a record of your stash and your own colour choices.
If you’ve been thinking about casting one on, perhaps this is your sign. Gather those odd balls of yarn that have been waiting patiently in your basket. Don’t worry if they don’t match. In fact, it’s often the unexpected combinations that create the most beautiful fabric. However, surprisingly, for the first time ever, I bought a random bag of colours on Saturday, and the bag was called Harvester Pie. I think that butterscotch, honeycomb, ginger and pie are all appropriate for these Autumn colours. You can see some of the plyed yarns in the images below.
I’ll keep sharing this vest as it grows. Next stop… shoulders and neck shaping. But here are images of the first stages to help you, if you decided to have a go yourself.
I can’t wait to see how these autumn colours come together at the end of my 4th Chunky Knit Vest. My daughter took my first one (Compliment) I sold the 2nd one as a commission, I have the 3rd one and this is my 4th.
One of the things I love most about this pattern is that no two vests will ever be the same. Every knitter opens their own yarn basket, chooses from their own treasured leftovers and favourite odd balls, and creates colour combinations that nobody else would think of. The finished vest becomes a reflection of the person who made it. Have a look on Ravelry at some of the projects. Bottom of Form
Or on my Instagram as people are now adding their project photos in the comments which I am loving seeing.
I can’t wait to see everyone’s versions because I already know they’ll all be different. The pattern is the same, but the yarn choices belong to each knitter. That’s the magic of it. Every vest is unique, every colour journey is different, and every finished garment becomes something that couldn’t have been made by anyone else.
My hope is that this pattern gives you the confidence to reach for the yarns you already love. To stop worrying whether they’re the “right” colours and start enjoying the process of putting them together. There really isn’t a wrong answer—only combinations that tell your story.
This pattern doesn’t ask you to copy me. It invites you to become more like yourself with your own colours 😊
As more people discover my work, I’ve noticed quite a few assume that I knit jumpers for people or that I am just a colourful knitter.
It’s always a lovely compliment, but the reality is a bit different.
I’m not really in the business of knitting jumpers or hats.
I’m in the business of designing them and hat patterns in a marvellous kaleidoscope of colours. I also teach online workshops and am now running a 4 month online colour swatch journal group. This takes a huge amount of time.
And, the act of knitting is actually only a fraction of what goes into each pattern.
Before I even cast on, I’ve usually spent hours (often days) thinking about colour, inspiration, construction and whether an idea might work. Then comes the swatching. The maths. More swatching. More maths. Writing the pattern. Rewriting the pattern. Test knitting and working with those knitters. Photographing it. Filming it. Answering questions. Updating files.
By the time a pattern is ready to publish, I’ve invested far more hours than anyone will ever see.
If it takes someone 30 hours to knit one of my jumpers, I’ve probably spent several times that bringing the design into existence in the first place.
And that’s absolutely fine. I love what I do. I love the challenge of turning an idea into something that someone else can enjoy making.
But sometimes I think people don’t realise what they’re actually buying when they purchase an independent knitting pattern for £5 – £10 when a percentage is also taken by Ravelry and Paypal.
It isn’t just a PDF it is a story and my lifestyle. Independent designers put their lives into the patterns – we do not have a big tech team behind us to make everything work.
It’s all the hours of thinking, experimenting, mistakes, ripped-out swatches, calculations, colour decisions, late nights and cups of tea that came before it. It’s years of learning and refining my craft so that someone else can enjoy the creative part without having to solve all the problems first. I even have a Masters in Knitting and have knitted for over 50 years – through the 80’s to now.
Like many independent designers, I share a huge amount of my work online. I love inspiring people, showing my process and encouraging others to pick up their needles. I genuinely enjoy being part of this community. But, maybe it is time to scale back.
If I’m honest, it can sometimes feel as though a lot of people enjoy the free part without ever thinking about supporting the person creating it.
If everyone who admired a design bought just one pattern now and then, it would make an enormous difference to independent designers like me. Those £5 and £10 purchases are what allow us to keep creating, researching, designing and sharing.
So, if you’ve been following my work for a while, or you’ve ever thought, “I’d love to knit that one day,” perhaps today is the day to have another look through my patterns.
When you buy a pattern from an independent designer, you’re buying far more than a PDF.
Time to research. Time to experiment. Time to make mistakes and discover something unexpected. Time to wander around with a sketchbook, play with colour, and follow an idea simply because it’s interesting.
If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know that knitting isn’t the only thing I love making. I love drawing. I love creating sculptural pieces, like my cat lantern. I love exploring ideas that may never become knitting patterns at all. Those quieter, more experimental moments are often where the next creative spark begins.
The irony is that the more successful a creative business becomes, the less time there can be for simply being creative. There’s always another pattern to write, another email to answer, another deadline to meet, another post on Instagram, or photograph or story to write.
Every pattern you buy helps create a little more space for that kind of exploration again. It gives me the freedom to spend time making, drawing, painting, researching and developing ideas—not because they have to become a product tomorrow, but because that’s how good ideas grow.
Some of the most important moments in my creative life have come from giving myself permission to slow down, whether that was during my Fine Art degree and my Masters in Knitting. Those experiences continue to shape everything I design today.
So if you choose to support my work, you’re not just helping me publish the next knitting pattern.
You’re helping me remain an artist as well as a designer.
Sometimes I’d simply love to spend a few days drawing. Or painting. Or making something completely unexpected. I would like to paint my kitchen – not the cupboards, but paint the view.
Those are the moments that refill the creative well. They’re often the moments that quietly shape everything that comes afterwards.
You’re giving me something every artist needs from time to time: the freedom to be curious, to experiment, to make without knowing exactly where it will lead.
And I have a feeling that the patterns you enjoy tomorrow will begin in those moments.
If knitting isn’t on your list right now but you’ve enjoyed following my work over the years, another lovely way to support what I do is through my Ko-fi page.
People often say they’re “buying me a coffee”, but what they’re really giving me is something even more valuable: a little more time to create.
Time to open a sketchbook. Time to paint. Time to experiment with colour. Time to make something simply because I’m curious to see where the idea leads.
Those quieter creative moments are where so many future designs begin.
Whether you choose a pattern, leave a Ko-fi, or simply continue to cheer me on, thank you for being part of the journey. It really does make a difference.
I have been thinking about the Japanese Concept of Mono no aware. Our English language falls short of a real translation for this concept, but it could be loosely be understood as – An awareness of impermanence, and / or the bittersweet beauty of transience.
My allotment has become a place of reflection in the sense that last week, I reflected that in my old borrowed allotment, I’m feeling a sense of belonging to something impermanent but deeply enriching. I have been loaned / am the temporary custodian of 5 fruit trees, raspberry and Blueberry beds and a bed that I am trying to grow vegetables in, in the allotment. Martin, in his early 80’s has loaned me the plot in his old allotment that his grandfather and father had before him – it has been in his family for over 100 years. Can you imagine that in a city of such vast changes?
In the allotment, I recognised a feeling similar to the feeling I felt on my daily visits to the old onsen in Fujiyoshida – realising that things are beautiful because they are old, temporary, inherited, and quietly passing through time. Not melancholy exactly. More like being emotionally moved by the fragile continuity of life, passed through people.
I felt it in the old onsen near Mount Fuji because nothing there was optimized or modernized into a “wellness experience.” It was simply alive with history.
And now I’m feeling the same in my allotment in Sheffield because it has the same emotional structure and yet the places could not be further apart
* old hands cared for it before me * Martin and Liz carried it through decades and generations * fruit trees planted by people long gone are still feeding someone, * I am temporarily part of a chain larger than myself,
I do not have a name for this feeling but it is clear within me and I don’t want to let this tiny space go now because it is a wonderland of overgrown time. I think the name is Mono no aware.
Martin strimmed the long grass and placed plastic a chair under the tree for me.
I feel gratitude mixed with ache in the allotment, as I did in the Onsen in Fujiyoshida.
Some of the qualities of Mono no aware, could be: –
awareness of impermanence
emotional movement caused by transience
tenderness toward passing things
beauty heightened because something cannot last
continuity existing through change rather than despite it
The allotment matters more because:
other hands came before me
Martin will not be here forever, and nor shall I
I myself am only temporarily part of it
the fruit trees outlive individual custodians
the place carries visible time inside it
And the onsen comparison feels beautiful because of its non-pristine preservation and accumulation of human passage over decades and generations.
I have become deeply connected to these moments in places which carry the same depth. And, during time spent in Japan I encountered a feeling later recognisable to me through the concept of mono no aware — an emotional awareness of impermanence and continuity — which I now recognise again in the inherited allotment culture of Sheffield. I also felt it in the house that I bought in Shetland. Maybe I seek it, I don’t know but I do cherish it.
I am thinking of applying for a residency in Japan again, with these thoughts in mind.
knitting
allotment stewardship
inherited labour
ageing
temporary belonging
rural continuity
handwork
impermanence
greenery as living memory
Maybe this is “an application idea” and more like the beginning of a serious long-term artistic direction. I hope so.
Learn how to build your own Fair Isle garment using my worksheet chart on Ravelry as a starting point – Link to chart here
I’ll be running my online Build Your Own Fair Isle Vest/Pullover workshop again on 30th May — and this will likely be the final time I offer this session.
This workshop is designed for knitters who want to move beyond simply following a Fair Isle pattern and begin understanding how to build their own garment layouts using my Fair Isle worksheet chart as a starting point.
Whether you dream of creating your own vest, pullover, colour combinations or motif arrangements, this workshop will give you the skills and confidence to start designing in a much more personal and creative way.
What we’ll cover during the workshop
During this 90-minute online session, I’ll guide you through how I use the Fair Isle worksheet chart to plan and develop a garment design.
We’ll explore:
alignment of motifs across a garment
how to use the 24-stitch repeat creatively
planning sizing and shaping
adapting motifs into your own layouts
understanding gauge and applying it to your project
colour placement and motif combinations
building confidence with Fair Isle chart reading and design
This is not a knitting session — it’s a creative planning and design workshop focused on helping you understand the structure behind Fair Isle garments.
Who is this workshop for?
This workshop is ideal for knitters who:
already enjoy Fair Isle knitting
want more confidence adapting motifs
would love to create more personal garment layouts
feel ready to experiment beyond fixed patterns
want to learn how garment planning works
You do not need to be an experienced designer to join.
Included after the session
All participants will receive:
PDF presentation handouts
20% off my knitting patterns
Workshop details
Date: Saturday 30th May Time: 4pm–5:30pm Location: Online Cost: £30
The workshop is based around My Fair Isle Chart as a starting point – link here
After what seems like an age, my 2nd Kaleidoscope Jumper is finished.
I wanted to experiment with using larger sized needles to see what would happen with the outcome of the size. Using 3:5mm needles instead of 3mm, as in the original jumper, gives me a 47 inch chest, whereas the first jumper was 44inch chest.
I also included small gussets at the armpits because the armholes were longer in this jumper than the original. I am really happy with the outcome – even if it feels far too big for me.
here is the original, if you cannot remember it 🙂
And here are a few images of the same Jumper pattern knitted by other people
If you would like to knit this versatile jumper of many colours, then the link to Ravelry is here
but if it feels like a daunting project, then start with the easy to knit hat pattern.
Earlier this year I put out the idea of a Colour Swatch group on Instagram. I was inundated with people wanting more information. Finally, a group of knitters joined me at the beginning of March for a monthly Colour Swatch Journal Club – lasting for 6 months.
I hoped people would become more adventurous with colour and even after 3 sessions, I am so excited by their results. What I didn’t expect was the extraordinary level of creativity, experimentation and personal interpretation that began appearing week after week.
I am so proud of my Colour Swatch Journal Group’s development. Here is a peep inside the Colour Swatch Journal Club private FaceBook Group where participants share their swatches and colour development.
I am so proud of them – I’m watching their confidence grow through Colour and swatch experimentation.
My swatch journal club is developmental learning – this group is develops month on month, over 6 months with a sessional newsletter pdf emailed on the 1st of each month, including step by step exercises, inspiration, and charts, research and photo tutorials – which encourage understanding of value of colour, tone, contrast, colour blending and then confidence to run free with all their knowledge – it is a group who love to learn The Joy of Slow Colour Exploration There is also a private Facebook group to share their work and I meet online via zoom at the end of every month.
Each month, I send participants tiny experiments and developmental learning exercises – the outcomes of which I am sharing here today.
Developing A Small Swatch Can Change Everything in your practice.
Their notebooks and journals are filling up with unexpected colour combinations and these wonderful women are developing their own visual language. They are learning to see colour differently and their swatches are becoming little artworks. Their journals will be so exciting to see at the end – we will have a show and tell.
“Some participants became fascinated by…”
contrast
The Shetland motifs
garden colours and inspiration
colour blending
unexpected palettes
historical references
even experimenting with steeking.
This is What Happens When Knitters Start Trusting me to teach them how to use Colour in their projects.
The next series of my Colour Swatch Journal group sessional newsletters and meetings will start in September – so it will be a wonderful Autumn / Winter learning. And, instead of 6 months timescale, I am going to condense the exercises and newsletters into 4 months.
If you would like to go on the wait list to be sent the new information ( Around June time) then complete the contact form below and I will be in touch in June.
tracey doxey 