Anna

Pattern round-ups

Witch stitch?

Now I know that Halloween is not everyone’s cup of tea – I come from the generation of curmudgeons that bemoans the rise of over-the-top costumes and spray-on spider webs. We’re the ones who look grumpily at the halloween tat in other people’s supermarket trolleys, silently thinking ‘In my day…’ thoughts, with self-righteous re-written memories …

What I'm thinking about when I'm knitting

I love September and I cannot lie.

Out of respect for the faithful old-timers who’ve been reading these newsletters for a few years now, I made a decision this year that I’d skip the Woo-hoo-September’s-here! post. Apart from anything else, I suspect your mailboxes are already full of messages from other wool shops telling you how great it is that autumn’s here …

Pattern round-ups

The infinite knit

perennial /pəˈrɛnɪəl/ adjective 1.lasting or existing for a long or apparently infinite time; enduring or continually recurring. “that sweater has a perennial appeal“ The year is on the turn in that way that makes Brontë and I both feel the pull of the familiar – those patterns you come back to again and again. Where …

Travels with knitting

The 800 mile ball of wool

The sun was low in the sky, casting an orange light around the room. I’d woken up from an afternoon nap on the couch. We were in an old Ottoman apartment block beside the Gelata tower and I could hear the muezzin’s call to prayer outside and the faint whirr of the AC unit above …

Knitting Stories

On Your Marks, Get Set, SALE!

The London summer heat on and it’s time for Brontë and me to pack up a few choice knitting projects, switch off the fan and lock up the shop. We’re heading out of Clapton for some long travels, far-away street wanderings and maybe even some sandy-toed knitting. Depending on which of us you’re asking, our …

Pattern round-ups

Knit Your Own Summer Part 6

Welcome to the last summer pattern round-up of 2024. Compact, cool, light and fun: this is the side-pocket-of-your-rucksack challenge – trains, planes and automobile-friendly patterns. We’ve been on the hunt for projects that will work on a beach, in the park and in pyjamas during those really slow holiday breakfasts. So if that long-suffering unfinished …

Knitting Stories

The Resourceful Knitter’s Guide to the Summer

There is a line that gets drawn towards the end of July here in east London, beyond which the holiday season begins. We see it in the slowing down of how people amble down the street, the temporary disappearance of neighbours as they drive off with car boot-fulls of tents, duvets and lilos, and on …

What I'm thinking about when I'm knitting

The Nine Patch List

There’s a ready-made versus hand knitted discussion I’m often roped into, which starts off revolving around the price we pay for the wool we knit our sweaters with. Mostly it goes along the lines of.. ‘Wouldn’t it be cheaper to buy it ready made?!’. ..followed by me conceding that ‘Yes it would’, but with the …

Knitsplaining

Who’s Afraid of Positive Ease?

“But what does the actual measurement mean? And what even is a measurement that isn’t actual? Does that mean sweaters have a pretend measurement aswell?” Ok, I hear you. It’s confusing. We need to talk about Ease. “Hmm, I thought I was asking about actual measurements. But if you would rather talk about ease, we …

Pattern round-ups

Knit Your Own Summer Part 5

Yes, Part 5 means that there are another 4 that came before, but don’t panic – they happened last summer and the summer before that and we have them all listed here so you don’t have to hunt them out. Plus thanks to the timelessness of the super designs we found back then, they’re still …