What’s your favourite bit of knitting kit? This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. After the basics are covered — favourite knitting needles, some sharp snips, a tape measure and tapestry needle — the one thing I always want to hand is a nice pile of locking stitch markers. The locking stitch marker might look small and humble, but it’s such a versatile and useful tool!
Read moreQuick tech tip: Following a hashtag on Instagram
How to follow hashtags on Instagram so you don’t miss out on any of our knitalong fun.
Read moreBehind The Knitting: How To Keep Your Needles Organised
Knitting needles can be slippery beasts. How often have you gone to start a knitting project only to find that one of your straight needles or DPNs has sloped off leaving no hint of its whereabouts? Or been ready to move from jumper hem to body only to realise, to your horror, that the circular needle you need next is kinked up beyond recognition? Or, my personal favourite, how often have you called a knitting needle amnesty, gathering up needles from the various corners of your house, only to learn that for inexplicable reasons, you’ve somehow collected six pairs of 6 mm (US 10) needles, despite the fact you rarely knit with anything heavier than a DK-weight yarn?
Read moreUpdates from Sleeve Island
I pulled all of my works in progress (WIPs) out and had a look at everything, and I seem to be stuck on Sleeve Island with my Ama Sweater. There’s nothing bothering me about it, I have just been busy with other knitting, but it reminded me that I haven’t shared this article that I wrote for Knitting Magazine last year. I hope it will make you smile…
Have you ever been there? Sleeve Island really is a magical place. Full of potential and beauty… and incredibly hard to leave.
Read moreWomen's World Cup Knitting
Have you been following the Women’s World Cup? I have, and not only have I been supremely enjoying the tournament itself, it’s been helping me through a, well, rather dull spot in my knitting.
Read moreAC Knitwear Picks: Favourite Cast Ons
If you’ve visited these parts at all this month, it’ll come as absolutely no surprise to hear that the tubular cast on is hands down my favourite. But, of course, other cast ons are available, and the tubular cast on is most suited for ribbing. Behind the scenes at AC Knitwear, we’ve been talking about what each of our favourite cast ons are … here are Jim and Katherine’s picks.
Read moreArchive Dive: Knitting Ruined My Wife, Tubular Cast On Edition
Many years ago, I wrote an occasional column for Simply Knitting entitled Knitting Ruined My Wife. As Jen mentioned in her introduction to this month’s Boost Your Knitting technique, the tubular cast on in the round, it was her obsession with this particular method of starting a project that led to the creation of the column. Today, I thought it’d be fun to take a dive in my archives and share the piece with you.
Read moreCast adrift on Sleeve Island
If only cropped, one-armed sweaters were in fashion…
Jim is stuck on Sleeve Island. What three things will get him through?
Read moreRunning on Empty
JIm and I have been taking stock of the year. I know that it’s a little bit early to be doing a retrospective of the year, but I’ve had the phrase “running on empty” running through my head for the last couple of months, and to be honest, if 2018 were done already, for me it wouldn’t be a bad thing.
We have packed far too much in to this year. I find it bizarre to consider that at the start of the year we were just finishing up the last couple of months of A Year of Techniques. That feels like such a long time ago, when actually it was only nine months back.
Read moreMore steep learning curves
It may be becoming a tired phrase on the pages of this blog, but there really is always something new to learn when running your own business. While not without its frustrations, being permanently challenged is one of its great joys.
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