The Hitchhiker Collection – Now Available in the Online Shop!

I’d be willing to bet that nearly everyone reading this blog has at some point or other encountered, if not made, Martina Behm’s Hitchhiker shawl. Published a decade ago this month, it is a pattern that has had enormous staying power: a fixture of yarn shops, hand-dyers’ show stalls and, of course, our necks! It’s spawned a whole host of clever patterns, and these little masterpieces (along with three brand new ones!) come together to form Martina’s latest book, The Hitchhiker Collection: 20 Knitted Shawls. It’s a cornucopia of delights for shawl lovers!

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Introducing: The Knitalong Hub!

It may have seemed a bit quiet around here lately, but that’s because there has been a lot happening behind the scenes! We’ve been in the midst of an office move and beavering away on a special collection (more on that soon) as well as our next Big Book (you’ll have to wait a little longer to hear about that …). In between all these things, we’ve also been at work on a project that I’m super excited to share with you today: a brand new, all-our-very-own forum space: The Knitalong Hub!

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Cardigans for Cosy Days: Temari and Trailing Ivy by Kyoko Nakayoshi

I don’t know what things are like in your corner of the world, but here in the UK, this week has marked a real turn in the weather. Walking to the office in the morning, there’s a chill in the air, the first crunchy leaves under foot … autumn is definitely on its way! Read on to learn more about our two new cardigan kits…

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Accepting our Limitations

Two weeks ago when it became clear that things were getting serious I announced I’d run a comfort blanket knitalong and use our techniques videos to put together squares for a design.

Gosh, that was naïve of me!

I had an idealised picture of what I wanted this time to be like, and the reality is far from it! We now have the kids at home, and they are needing pretty much our full attention every hour that they are awake, which doesn’t leave anything very much for self-care (which is massively important), let alone work. So thinking that I would be able to design (design?!? that’s something I find hard at the best of times!) a blanket, knit it, write it up clearly enough for others to follow, and write blog posts, was utterly crackers! I’m sorry, but in order to get through this, I need to do a bit less, not a bit more!

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