Pearl Reddington
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    four hours before @irishcountrymag awards! ten mi four hours before @irishcountrymag awards!

ten minutes before the ceremony, changing in applegreen 

what i see as i wait on the red carpet 

why did he bring her? 

family photo 

@susiefrancesconi bringing me back down to earth 

one for the fam chat 

home time
    the website has finally had a proper restock. i a the website has finally had a proper restock.

i always think knitting is going to be the main part of making knitwear. it turns out knitting is just one stage of making knitwear.

i spend a frankly alarming amount of my working day sitting at my laptop. spreadsheets, invoices, stock, wholesale orders, emails, product listings. working out yarn down to the gram, how much goes into a sleeve, a cuff, a size small versus a medium, how many kilos i need to order and how many garments that should eventually become.

then everything comes back to the studio and becomes physical again.

buttons need to be sewn on. labels need to be sewn in. loose ends need to be finished. pieces need to be checked, washed, dried, steamed, folded, tagged, counted and eventually put into boxes. stock goes out to shops, more pieces go into production, something sells somewhere and has to be removed somewhere else.

i spent a slightly unreasonable amount of time this week measuring every size, making a new size guide, writing washing instructions, photographing things, writing the web copy and trying to make sure everything on the website actually corresponds to the thing sitting in front of me. this is apparently what being a knitwear designer looks like.

there is something very satisfying about it though. a few months ago this midnight balaclava was yarn on a cone and an idea in my notebook. now chloë has photographed it beautifully, there are finished ones sitting in the studio, and you can actually buy one.

the website is properly restocked with aw26 now. new pieces, new colours, fair isle, aran knits, hats, baby pieces and some returning favourites.

i’ve also had a very lovely and slightly surreal large wholesale order for this collection, which means quite a lot of this season’s production is already spoken for. there are fewer pieces available on my own website as a result, and everything is still made in small batches, so if there’s something you’ve had your eye on, now is probably a good time.

all designed here in leitrim, made in small batches in donegal, and passed through my hands again in the studio before they make their way to you.

photos by @chloeaillud
    I was very nervous about this show. Not really ab I was very nervous about this show.

Not really about the clothes. Once the clothes are made there is a certain relief in that part being finished. They exist. Other people can wear them and look at them and decide what they think.

I was nervous about everything else.
There was a panel discussion, which I had agreed to before properly considering that this would involve sitting in front of two sold-out shows and answering questions into a microphone. I am quite shy. This is perhaps an inconvenient quality in someone who has chosen to make a living putting their work, and by extension themselves, in front of people.
I did it anyway. I can’t remember much of what I said. I was very relieved when it was over, and quite proud of myself for having done it at all.

These are Chloë’s photographs from The Fabric of Us II: Irish Heritage Reimagined, part of Dublin Independent Fashion Week.
Six female Irish designers showed work together at The Linen Yard. I brought knitwear made here in Ireland from Donegal-spun wool, including some of my new menswear pieces. It is strange seeing clothes that spend so much of their lives folded in boxes, on knitting machines or hanging on rails in my studio suddenly walking down a runway.

The first photograph is all six of us at the end of the show. Everyone else seems to have had some instinct that this was the moment to hold hands and bow. I appear to have missed it entirely. Poor Holly is trying to take my hand while I stand completely upright, clutching my handbag. I don’t know what I thought was happening. I think it sums up my awkwardness at events like these. Scroll to see me disassociating mid panel talk. 

After a 12-hour day, I packed the collection back into the car and started driving home. Somewhere along the national road, doing about 100 km/h, the car decided it had also had enough and broke down.
So the weekend actually ended with me and Easkey at the side of the road, a car full of knitwear, waiting for a tow home.
Not quite the glamorous end to a fashion show, but probably a fairly accurate picture of running a very small fashion brand.

Continued in comments :)
    first sock samples… i’ve been quietly working on first sock samples…

i’ve been quietly working on these for a while and have just put in my first proper order for socks, made in ireland using donegal yarns.

these are some of the very first samples, photographed by @chloeaillud, and they won’t be ready until october, so i thought i’d bring you into the process while i still have decisions to make.

producing socks in small quantities is surprisingly tricky, particularly when it comes to sizing. i’m considering making one really good, stretchy wool sock to fit roughly a uk 4–8, rather than spreading a small production run across lots of sizes.

but before i finalise everything, i’d really love to know what you would actually wear:

tall hiking sock, shorter everyday sock, or thick cosy house sock?

and what colours would you love to see? there will, of course, be a little bit of neon involved.

tell me below, i’m genuinely going to use your answers when i place the final production order. x
    would be fairly mad to win this one :)) voting on would be fairly mad to win this one :))

voting only takes a few seconds, link in my bio + stories. and any shares / comments / general spreading of the word would mean the world x
    down to the last few moss cardigans, available for down to the last few moss cardigans, available for one more week in @officialbrownthomas. once they’re gone, that’s it for this colourway… 

post-swim shots by @chloeaillud, who found the perfect rock, covered in seaweed and barnacles that matched the natural flecks in the wool :)
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    If you have any questions or musings about your PEARL REDDINGTON purchase, please contact us and we can work with you to find your answers.

    Product Care

    The great thing about merino wool knitwear is that it requires far less washing than synthetic fibres. Merino wool is breathable and self cleaning. Airing your knitwear on a crisp, breezy day is enough for the wool to neutralise and feel fresh again. Wool is naturally dirt repellent. Even liquid dirt finds it hard to penetrate the fibre, but rather stays on the surface, where once dry, it can be brushed off easily. Wool is also able to bind and neutralise sweat and is naturally resistant to odours, making it ideal for multiple wears. So, if your knitwear isn’t physically dirty, there is no rush to wash it! If there is a small mark, a spot clean will do the job. The less you wash it, the longer your wool will last.

    If you do need to wash your knits, Pearl recommends hand washing with care:

    • Use warm water and mix it with a gentle wool detergent.
    • Submerge the garment and soak it for 10-15 minutes.
    • Carefully rinse the garment in warm water.
    • Press or roll in a clean, dry towel to remove as much water as possible. Do not wring it.
    • Never tumble dry pure wool.
    • Place it flat on a dry towel, keep it away from sunlight and let it air-dry. Avoid any creases or wrinkles by straightening out while damp. Wool will dry in the shape it is placed in.
    • If your washing machine has a good delicate programme, you can machine wash in cold water before drying as detailed above.

    ** Please note: do NOT wash any pompoms in the washing machine, unless you want to see your fluffy head topper turn into a squidgy felt pebble forever. **