Lots of people have been taking up knitting this year, thanks to lockdown and the current social distancing measures, giving them more time at home. If you’ve been teaching someone to knit you may well be thinking about how to help them progress. One difficulty for new knitters, is finding suitable patterns once they have… Continue reading Helping new knitters choose patterns
We were very excited when the BBC introduced their new social distancing "idents" for BBC1 - that's the little videos that pop up before programmes - a group of knitters started appearing regularly on our screens. We decided to find out more about the knitters involved. We asked Sicgmone Kludje and Vea Koranteng from Black… Continue reading How knitting became the new normal between shows on the BBC
The easing of lockdown regulations means that yarn shops in England and Northern Ireland are now able to reopen and shops are getting ready to open in Wales and Scotland once permission is given. That doesn’t mean that every yarn shop will be open right away or that shops will be operating in the same… Continue reading Yarn shop etiquette in the new normal
To celebrate many yarn shops preparing to reopen, UK Hand Knitting has launched a treasure hunt to help knitters and crocheters re-discover their local store. There are 14 quiz questions to answer which lead you on a virtual magical mystery tour around the UK. All the answers can be found on the UK Hand Knitting… Continue reading Join our virtual yarn shop treasure hunt to dig up some yarnie prizes
We are having some lovely sunny weather at least part of the time and even if you are still mainly at home you will be in need of some summer knit and crochet ideas. There are some lovely cotton and other lightweight yarns around at the moment, so we’ve picked out a few examples for… Continue reading Summer yarns for 2020
We have written in the past about school holiday knitting projects for kids and at the moment we've notice people including crafts in their home schooling plans so we though it was a good time to take another look at crafting with youngsters. You can find our top tips for teaching kids to knit here… Continue reading Using yarn to entertain your kids
It is a tough time for everyone right now and that includes the yarn shops we love. The UK Hand Knitting Association, whose members include the largest yarn brands in the country, has launched a campaign together with five leading craft publishers to support local yarn shops across the UK – “Yarn Shop Love” As… Continue reading Our campaign to support local yarn shops
A few of you have been in touch lately to tell us that charity shops are turning away handknitted items because they cannot be sold in the stores. We got in touch with Trading Standards to find out more. Current law in the UK – which includes charity shops as well as other retailers –… Continue reading Donating knitted items to charity shops
One of the biggest talking points from the recent Hollywood movie Knives Out was the cable sweater worn by Chris Evans which has proved a big hot despite the hole. It seems that men’s cabled jumpers are suddenly very popular as a result, so we’ve found some patterns for you to enjoy. They are all… Continue reading Join the men’s cable jumper trend
One of the topics our yarn doctors are asked about most is tension or gauge. Or rather, a lot of people ask why a project has come out bigger or smaller than expected – and the answer comes down to having the wrong tension. Any good pattern will tell you how many stitches and rows… Continue reading New tutorial: Getting your tension right
