I’ve been thinking a lot about two sayings lately. One will be familiar for anyone who has ever waited for a London bus: that you can wait an hour for nothing and then three will come along at once. The other is something my Grandma used to say: “If you want something doing, ask a busy person.”
Well, I am a busy person and all my buses have come at once. On one hand I’m preparing for my biggest shop update…possibly ever? Meanwhile in the background I’m quietly packing up my house and studio for a relocation. These two events will take place closer to each other than any sensible person would ever choose.
I’ve clearly been using my creativity to cope with the stress and anxiety of finding a new home over recent months. I was somewhat surprised to discover that along with two new knitting patterns, I’ve poured my love and obsession for mushrooms into a whole host of other goodies that I cannot wait to share with you!
Here’s all the info:
My shop update will happen on Friday 4th November at 12:00 GMT.
At this time, as well as updating my shop with all the new lovely things (scroll on to see them all - I’m so proud of them!), kits for the Fairy Ring hat will go on sale at John Arbon Textiles, and kits for the Fairy Ring socks will be available at Daughter of a Shepherd.
At 18:00 GMT, you’re invited to a zoom party where myself, Jack (of course), Rachel from Daughter of a Shepherd and Sonja from John Arbon Textiles will be chatting about the new designs, yarns, mushrooms and the glory of the UK’s woodlands in autumn. This event is free for all to attend but you do need to sign up at the link below:
Pattern Booklets! As you know if you’ve watched recent episodes of my podcast, I love designing beautiful booklets to house my knitting patterns. You can actually watch me finishing off the front cover paintings for these in Episode 51, just published today.
Project Bags! These fair trade and organic cotton bags are printed in the UK with my illustrations of squirrels, oak leaves, acorns and mushrooms. They will house the sock and hat kits over at Daughter of a Shepherd and John Arbon, but I’ll also have a few bundles without the yarns in case you want to choose your own or use something from your stash.
Enamel Pins! For a long time I’ve wanted to design a companion to my Lichen Fancier pin, although I admit Fungus Fancier felt all kinds of wrong. After much deliberation I went with Friend to Fungi, and I am so pleased with how these came out - I basically designed the pin I most want to wear, and I hope you’ll love it too.
Stickers! OK I did get really carried away with these. I spent much of this summer in anticipation of mushroom season, and had so much fun working on these paintings. I have some sets of three, which are printed on paper and ideal for journals, letters etc. The black background beauties and fancy shaped ones are printed on a biodegradable synthetic paper which mimics vinyl - which means they’re waterproof, so you can use them to decorate your water bottle, laptop, or whatever else needs adorning with a few mushrooms.
Washi Tapes! Just four new ones? Quite restrained I feel.
Prints! I’m thrilled to be working with a new printer on some archival quality art prints. The came out really gorgeous, they look like velvet. I’ve just done two designs in a limited edition of 100.
Notebooks! I’ve wanted to add a plain paper notebook to my shop for some time, and I loved the design from the project bags so much that I had to include it on something else too. These little books are just the right size to tuck into a backpack for a day out adventuring - maybe looking for mushrooms?
And last but by no means least, I have a very special collaboration with Maria of Forest Charm. Maria makes the most exquisite semi-precious stitch markers and progress keepers which sell out in moments during her shop updates. She’s also based in the USA, so shipping costs to the UK are… a lot right now. Maria has kindly offered a limited selection of her treasures for me to stock, and I’ve had fun pairing them with some of my new goodies into gift bundles. I’m so excited to be able to offer these and hopefully make Maria’s charms more accessible to some folks on this side of the pond (though of course you’re welcome to order these wherever you are based!)
I cannot tell you how proud and excited I feel to have produced the autumn collection of my dreams, and be sharing so much of my love of all things mushy through my art this way. I do hope you’ll join us for the Fairy Ring Festivities next Friday, maybe find something you like in my shop, or consider knitting yourself or a loved one some Fairy Ring socks or a hat…or both!
Hello Katie :)
Wow !!! You haven't been idle! Everything is splendid and so well thought out, I love it! that's a lot of exclamation points but... it's so beautiful!!! Cheer !
P.S.: Will it be possible to buy your patterns in pdf format? The booklets are beautiful but I'm afraid that the shipping costs to my country are a little too high for me... :'(
Katie Green. You Are The Best. I look forward to hearing from you and when I do, wow. I must have lived another life in England. My parents were English and Welsh and...well, I love everything about your designs, your images, you and Jack.
Thanks so much for all of your inspirations.
Dave in Virginia