Anna

Knitting Stories

Not a sweater. Again.

I’ve plundered the archives this week for another look at an oldie 2023 post which I think could be handy for anyone out there who’s struggling with finding a knitterly pathway through the on-coming bank holiday weekend and what is forecast to be decidedly un-knitterly weather. When is a sweater not a sweater? Perhaps when …

Knitting Stories

Overheard in the wool shop

I’ve gone out sockless with sandals 4 of the last 7 days. Summer, this is not, but it’s definitely on the way. For the shop that means there’s a gear change of sorts. Our days are less frenetic and there’s more time for shooting the breeze with the knitters who swing by, all the better …

What I'm thinking about when I'm knitting

There’s something about Aase

In a change from our usual, this week’s post is being brought to you by my recently finished jumper – The Aase Sweater by Hanne Rimmen. Unaccustomed to writing newsletters or blog posts, Aase, the Sweater tells their story here in an interview with a Wild and Woolly Knitter which took place last week.. ——————— …

Meet the maker

Custodians of the land

“The thing about a croft is that it’s a life-long tenancy. You don’t own the land. You’re just custodians of it for your lifetime… There’s a mindset where you realise that you’re part of a long tradition that started in the mid to late 1800s and you’re just continuing that legacy“. Meg Rodger’s croft is …

Pattern round-ups

Partly Cloudy

Blue skies in the shop window are one thing. Making them happen outside and up above – in April – in Clapton – is quite another. It’s that time of year where the only thing you can be sure of weather-wise, is that.. well you can’t really be sure. So Brontë and I have been …

The shop

11 years ago today…

..on a similarly sunny April morning, I pushed the shutter up and unlocked the door of 116 Lower Clapton Road and wedged the door open with the fire extinguisher. The shop was open to the public for the first time. I placed 4 glass jars in the window, and set each one next to a …

Meet the maker

Bright and dark at the same time

It was clear as soon as we began unpacking the Harvest Hues skeins from the latest John Arbon delivery that we were in the company of a whole load more than the 400 meters on the 100g skein band. There’s a totally unexpected toothiness to the yarn which is concealed by its lustre – a …

Product highlights

Ready to Wind

“The only mistakes we make”, we’re told, “are the ones we fail to learn from”. So what was the lesson here? A mis-stranded skein of yarn was unknowingly loaded onto the swift for ball winding. In a matter of seconds, the whole thing was a snarled up spaghetti-like mess of tangles. The customer smiled nervously …

Heritage

Happy Mendings

We used to keep a pile of mending when I was a child, for my granny to do when she came to visit. It was a mixture of ripped and knee-worn jeans, holey elbowed sweaters, socks and tights where the toes poked through, accidentally torn shirts and so on. My granny sat in good light …

Knitsplaining

Apples and pears with Sophie

Knitters count and they do it a lot: we count ourselves all around necks, yokes, bodies and sleeves, we count our way through elaborate lace repeats in shawls, we count our way up the crowns of hats, and down to the turning of heels, so why is it so confusing to count out how many …