A new and improved Delft pattern will be available next issue, I hope you'll agree that it was worth the wait.

It is hard to be creative and to offer a little piece of your soul out there to the internet to rip apart as they will. Every designer who comes to a magazine whether it is online or print should be mentally preparing themselves for some kind of negative comments. The lovely emails, comments and mentions on forums make it all worth while for me though.

This is the kind of thought process I was hoping for when I decided to run an issue dedicated to single skeins of handspun. Personally I really like a lot of the designs in this issue and if I ever get time to pick up my needles and knit for me then a snowbaby hat is definitely on the cards.

This picture has to be one of my favourites ever, I love it!

The August issue is up and ready to go, we're all about handspun yarn this issue. What do you do with all those single skeins of handspun yarn that you can't resist buying but aren't really big enough for a full project? I'm sure that we all have enough scarves to last us many winters so the brief given to our designers this issue was to create something using just 1 skein of handspun yarn that they were given that was not a scarf.

We still have one more pattern to upload later on this evening but I think you'll agree that there is enough here to keep you busy for a while!

Next month we're back to a normal issue with lots of socks, garments and accessories.

I had never knitted with beads until the day that I opened up my bead soup bracelet kit from Earth Faire.

The kit is packaged beautifully, with clear written instructions and great photographs. The beads themselves come in a snappy little tube with the clasp and metalic thread tucked into a little plastic envelope.

Threading the beads onto the thread before knitting honestly took me longer than knitting the bracelet! Clear instructions are given as to how to estimate when you have threaded enough beads and it worked perfectly for me. The actual knitting is simple enough for the most novice knitter and the results are fast and stunning. I estimate that it took me around an hour and a half to string on all the beads and about an hour to knit the bracelet.

Like with any pattern, its important to read the whole instructions carefully before starting to knit. I found fixing on the clasp at the end a little fiddly but that's more because I don't do delicate than anything else. The kit was shipped quickly from the US to UK and I thought that the price was reasonable. The customer service was fantastic, so much so that I'm now scouring the website to see what I can order next!

Knitgrrl 2: Learn to Knit With 16 All-New Patterns, by Shannon Okey

I haven't ever seen the first in the series of Knitgrrl books by Shannon Okey so I can't compare the two but I loved this second book! The prjects are aimed at young beginner knitters and are without fail, brightly coloured and interesting to look at. I love the way that the book doesn't assume that beginner knitters can only knit and purl without any shaping, the boundaries of beginner knitters are pushed here to show how simple yarn overs and shaping can be used in patterns. In my opinion, the innovative patterns themselves would be suitable for people with some knitting experience making this book appealing to more than just young knitters.

I'm currently obsessed with the flowers as shown on the headband on the front cover of the book. I'm thinking corsages rather than headband but they are so fun and easy to make.

Check out the rest of Shannon's site as well for lots more news about the Knitgrrl series of books as well as her new books, Spin to Knit and Felt Tips (Love, love, love that name!). There is also an errata page for the Knitgrrl books, always useful!

xx