I have loved designing for Mirasol Book 7.

Over the past few months it has been great to see the amazing changes at the Mirasol Boarding House. For example the picture of the 'normal' classroom on page 5 has light bulbs! I remember the brief time I spent in the area and I think of the place I stayed, which was beautiful. Here the electricity was on a generator and was turned on in the morning, turned off during the day, turned on in the evening and turned off again at 9pm. To me building a house with electricity is so basic I wouldn't even think twice about it. The building of this centre has involved so many wonderful people, from the ones who physically built it brick by brick to those that brought the yarn. I have learnt so much from seeing the photographs of the developments and from hearing the stories. It makes me feel very lucky to be involved and I feel my designing is doing something extra special.

My design process starts by playing with the yarn. I like my stitches to be easy to knit. For beginners there might be tricky moments, but once you have mastered the technique you'll be fine, as Becky, a student who wanted to learn about hand knitting found out. She told me she had only ever knitted and purled once before so the first time she had cabled was when knitting Loro, she only asked one or two questions while knitting and successfully completed the hat in a week.
After I have played with the yarn and stitch techniques then I think about the shapes of garments or accessories. For each of the patterns I've included my thoughts on the design to share with you. I like sharing knitting stories and techniques with other knitters. There is something lovely about sitting down with other knitters just chatting and watching different knitting styles. I've tried not to repeat myself with the words 'I love this design' but I do!
One of the reasons is because the yarns keep showing me something new. Like with Miski and Sulka, each shade is made up of many different colours. Every time I knit with them I see a new colour.
The Tupa has a twist that makes the silk shine through. The Qina is a classic favourite. The Hacho has a special fondness with me as it is made with 100% hand dyed merino but feels like cotton.
While the 2 new yarns add even more qualities to the Collection. The K'acha is a roving yarn hand painted in tone to tone colours made up of merino wool, suri alpaca and silk mulberry. While the Akapana is a thick and thin yarn plyed in 2 made of baby llama, merino wool and donegal in natural and multicolour kneps, depending on the shade. For example we used multicolour kneps on Navy Brights and natural kneps on Double Cream.

Happy Knitting,

Jane