Anna

Knitting Stories

From the Archives..

It’s a mark of how profound the challenges were that people faced during the COVID19 pandemic that it’s still a daily reference point for the stories we tell, of how things have been since, or the way things were before. Things changed and many of those changes remain a part of the way we live …

Knitting Stories

Something extra without the fluff

It was whilst she was out on a cardigan-fishing expedition on Ravelry that Brontë came back with this beauty by Amy Chritoffers. The pretty knit-purl herringbone decoration and that properly boxy shape were ticking all her pattern boxes – until she mulled over the gauge and discovered that she might have a problem. Christoffers was …

Knitting Stories

Blooming marvellous

Nothing about my trip to Edinburgh had gone as planned. I woke up to a text message from The Trainline telling me my train was cancelled, with only baffling and contradictory information about what to do next. I joined a stressy group-chat with the rest of my party. We agreed to try and get there …

Knitting Stories

All that glitters is not gold..

..Some of it is very woolly too! We had so much fun with the golden rules that so many of you sent in last week, we thought we’d share some of our favourites with everyone! On Being a Knitter.. Don’t stay up till 1am to do the tricky part so you can knit the easy …

Knitting Stories

The Golden Rules Project

The paperback was a bit worn along the spine and had an unpreposessing cover showing a colour-washed photograph of a ball of wool with 2 straight needles. It should have probably gone straight into the charity shop pile, but I got distracted by the 3s 6d price label and the rather comically named author. And …

Knitsplaining

Ladderback what???

My first encounter with the ladderback jacquard LBJ technique was back in 2023 during one of my weekly dives, deep into the wierder and wonderfuller end of the not-very-dark web where knitty geeks post videos of cool techniques they use to make their knitting better. I watched a video which showed a woman with burgundy …

Product highlights

In our Good Books

There are times on my long scrollings through Ravelry in search of a just-right raglan for a customer, that it’s tempting to ask if there’s any room for anything new anymore. Hasn’t everything been designed already? If you’re slipping into a similar jadedness there’s no better antidote than a rifle through the new releases from …

What I'm thinking about when I'm knitting

Threads of learning

The women arrived together and their chatter had that slightly nervous excitement that comes of being away from work, as they entered the training room. It was 1998 and I was working on the 13th floor of an unlovely old office block on Bree Street in downtown Johannesburg. I was a web developer for an …

What I'm thinking about when I'm knitting

Will Anyone Notice?

“Will it show? Do you think I need to rip it back?“ Ask me how to do a neater left leaning increase, or why you need to do those k1 sl1 setup rows on a tubular bind off, or what difference your gauge will make to the size of your sweater, and I’m your person. …

Pattern round-ups

Unbuttoning the gloom

“The weather is always rubbish at this time of year. What do you expect? Of course it’s grey and rainy. It’s February. This is the deal!“ She was a little harsh, but probably also fair. Mostly, my friend explained, she was just fed up of listening to everyone moaning about the last 6 weeks’ lack …