Jim is stuck on Sleeve Island. What three things will get him through?
Read moreHeel flap, flapper hat and a flapping reflector
One of the great pleasures in what we do is the location photoshoot. The photos for the summer projects from A Year of Techniques were taken in Bath, in the kitchen of my brother’s house and on the banks of the River Avon.
Have a look back over the summer techniques and patterns.
Read moreHow helices, intarsia and a mouse enthralled knitters across the world
Back in 2017 we launched our first book, A Year of Techniques (AYoT), and we really had no idea at all whether anyone apart from us would think it was a good idea. Happily, lots of you agreed with us, and what followed was a year of glorious sharing of knowledge and skills, with twelve knitalongs and hundreds of projects completed. We were totally gobsmacked at how many of you decided to work through the entire book, completing everything, and really honoured that you would choose to dedicate so much valuable knitting time to A Year of Techniques. Lots of people popped in and out and worked on the months that inspired them most, and that was amazing too. The projects were always designed to be self-sufficient, so whether you joined us for one or two, or all twelve – thank you all!
Read moreThat was fun! Shall we do it again?
Happy New Year!
The kids are back at school, and we have found our way to the office and dusted off the computers, ready to knock this year out of the park! Or something like that…
The break was nicely recharging. I’ve been working on a sweater for myself – Granito by Joji Locatelli – and I’m using our Something to Knit With 4ply in the dark and mysterious Twilight colourway. It’s knitting up like a dream and I’m even daydreaming that I might finish it to wear at EYF in March. But that might be a bit over optimistic… We will see!
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 moreHelical KAL progress
With only a couple of weeks remaining in the KAL within our Ravelry group, I’d thought I’d share a small selection of finished items to inspire you to try out the technique for yourself.
Read moreVideo: Multi-Round Helical Stripes
Now that you’ve got two-round stripes and stitch patterns nailed, you’re ready to open the doors to a whole new world of helical possibilities…
Read moreMountain Mist in progress
Jim is knitting for himself for once.
Read moreAndrade cowl
As I mentioned yesterday, one of the ways in which helical stripes differ from traditional stripes is that they make the fabric slant. The more rounds you have in your stripe pattern, and the smaller the circumference of your knitting, the more the stripes appear to slant in the fabric. I absolutely love the effect this gives when you push it as far as you can, and I struggle to see how else you would achieve this look in your knitting.
Read moreTwiss cowls
Lots of knitters have asked me about how to work multiple round stripe patterns helically. In fact, this question is one of the things that motivated me most in writing the Something New to Learn About Helical Knitting ebook. The Twiss cowls are really my answer to the question of how to work stripes with more than 1 round in each colour. The pattern includes details on how to work 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-round stripe repeats, including patterns where you work more than one round in each colour.
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