Anna

Knitsplaining

Unwinding the unspun yarn

The Manchelopis arrives here in large, shiny black plastic tightly wrapped bundles that put me in mind of the bales you see wrapped in the fields after haymaking in the summer. It comes that way because the 100g plates of yarn are so voluminous in comparison to normal 100g balls or skeins of yarn, that …

Meet the maker

Everything Fits

Anna Husemann sits in the centre of a striped Louis XVI sofa, her face framed by long golden curls and a perfectly straight-cut fringe. Behind her is a studio pinboard of colour swatches, mini skeins, stencil cutouts and magazine clippings. There is an orderliness to the whole arrangement – Anna, the sofa and the items …

Heritage

A short history of thrumming

Is Wild and Woolly starting a side hustle in background noises? Why are you writing about thrumming? No, this isn’t about thrumming as in the humming sound that engines make. This is thrumming as a way of adding an extra layer of unspun wool to the insides of knitted things to make them warmer. Hmm. …

Knitting Stories

Well I’m so pleased you asked..

A recent discussion in the shop on solving the problem of a knitter’s too-tight bind off yielded 4 different suggestions from the randomly assembled knitters…  ‘I just pick a size bigger needle and cast off with that‘. ‘It’s always the sewn cable bind off for me.‘ ‘Knit 2 stitches, then put your left needle through …

Meet the maker

Vulture Culture

“It was when I’d finished knitting the viruses. I started working on a death mask and I looked at it and thought, No. It’s got to be a vulture.“ Harry’s vulture, named Vern, has been stopping passers-by in their tracks, ever since he took up residence in the shop window a couple of weeks ago. …

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 …