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
Do you knit or crochet toys? From tiny amigurumi characters to teddies in chunky as big as a toddler, making toys can be a great deal of fun and a great way to use up odd balls or leftovers of yarn. They are often greatly appreciated gifts. We know of knitted animals that have been… Continue reading Toy making tips
At this time of year, knitters are often looking for smaller projects or ones using cotton. You can combine both by knitting kids clothes in cotton. And you end up with colourful, hardwearing garments – so everyone is a winner. We’ve picked out a few patterns to inspire you Dungarees and Dress in Rico Baby… Continue reading Knitting for kids in cotton
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
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
With the weather we’re having at this time of year, it is easy to get caught out and discover your lovely cosy knitted hat is nowhere to be found in a cold snap. This one of the many reasons we love chunky yarns – you can turn out a warm accessory or two in very… Continue reading Quick chunky knits
Have you ever knitted or crocheted your own Christmas decorations? These can be great stash busting projects (which, let’s face it, we all need once in a while!) as a lot of decorations are small items so don’t take much yarn to make. The larger projects on this list still don’t require a lot of… Continue reading Stashbusting Christmas decoration patterns
Winter sweaters are getting bigger and bigger. Looking at catwalk pictures and magazine articles about winter fashion trends, we have seen lots of large textured sweaters with scarves or even belts. Big and bold is definitely the way to go which is good news for knitters because that means quick knits in chunky yarns. We’ve… Continue reading Trendwatch: Knit big this winter
This year as part of Commit to Knit we are asking people to make and donate hats for homelessness and refugee charities. We have a number of free hat patterns on our website including our basic beanie pattern. This simple pattern is easily customised: so you can use up your yarn stash by using stripes… Continue reading Stashbusting for Commit To Knit (and how to adapt a pattern from DK to Aran)
