That the shop becomes quieter in the summer months seems almost too obvious to be worth mentioning. We make things to keep us warm, so our’s is a winter sport – right? The regular recurrence of this sleepy section that the shop settles into over July and August is something I now take for granted. It’s warm outside and therefore… Read more →
‘Do you think that bit where I went wrong back there, shows? Would you undo it? ‘ This whether-or-not-to-frog question is as much a question about the knitter as it is about the knitting. For the answer involves reading the person and their feelings about their knitting. Mistakenly encourage an eager new knitter to rip it back, and she has to… Read more →
Socks on the beach, cables in the glow of a head torch by a camp fire, zoning out with rounds of plain knitting under a tree by the paddling pool.. summer can be the perfect knitting season. It can also confound us with unexpected challenges, particularly if it’s happening far away from your box of trusty tools, and not within… Read more →
It started quite randomly – a proud photo of an impressive garlic harvest sent by my sister to the family Whatsapp group. A slightly absurd word association game began playing out in my head: garlic… stalks… plaiting… bicycle.. BERET! Now out of the ground, those alliums’ gloriously long green stems plainly needed braiding. And if she was going to be… Read more →
Making and finishing a thing is great. We all know that. But it’s not always easy to get there. It needs lots of stuff to come together at the same time. We need to like what we’re making, who we’re making it for, what we’re making it with, how the stitches go – there needs to be some good-enough balance… Read more →
This week at Wild and Woolly, we have talked about.. ..the eruption of the volcano on St. Vincent and how people who lived in the route of the lava flow and have lost everything, still prefer to stay on the island which they’ve always called home. ..what parts of the knitted stitch you need to push the crochet hook through… Read more →
Last night we took the first step in over a year to revive Knit 15 – our series of niche talks for knitters – with a virtual talks night hosted by this year’s Unravel Festival of Knitting. We plan to get the talks up online for all of you to be able to listen to as soon as possible. In… Read more →
There’s a video clip circulating on YouTube at the moment, from a US talkshow in which Michelle Obama is telling the host, Gayle King, about her newly acquired lockdown knitting habit. King feigns surprise at Obama taking up such an old lady pass-time. Let’s just park that hackneyed old lady knitting cliche for now. Whatever the case Michelle dismisses it with humour and good grace. And… Read more →
It was early January 2020. I’d had 10 days of holiday rest and it was time to go back to work. There was talk on the news about this virus in China but there was talk about a lot of stuff. My mind was on re-opening the shop and getting started on a new plan we had to run a series… Read more →
A baby sleeps under a corriedale moon as he dreams of Jumperweight sheep jumping over a knitting needle stile.. A yellow icord Circle Line frames a London Underground map of knitted tubes.. Knitting needle rain pours down over 2 bunnies sheltering under an umbrella swift… A yak-merino mouse potters about its diminutive cardboard box house.. 2 sweaters break all the… Read more →
