I've always dreamed of seeing London in December. When I heard news that Pompom was having a Christmas party and pop-up indie yarn market in London, I decided to use this party as an excuse to cross the pond. I reached out to friends and colleagues,
December started with a bang, fresh on the heels of Thanksgiving Thursday, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Goodshop Sunday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday
The 2015 Knitter's Review Retreat Canandaigua, NY November 12-15, 2015 A funny thing happens when you bring knitters together. Create a space—a comfortable, safe, and welcoming place that's removed from the daily routine, from every reminder of what we should be doing—and slowly we relax, we bloom. We see and
Ann Budd is quite possibly the best (and only) person you'd want to teach you how to knit socks. She is the all-knowing guru.
I'm strangely smitten with Stina Tiselius' new collection of knitted potholder patterns. Potholders, you say? I know, I know. Potholders are right up there with washcloths in the pantheon of oft-mocked (yet passionately adored) handknits. I've never made one myself, and I don't dare use the one
In the world of teams, few are as prolific and popular as the dynamic Swedish/Norwegian duo of Arne Nerjordet and Carlos Zachrison. Their latest ode to whimsy and cheer is 30 Slippers to Knit and Felt. It's been a while since we looked at felt, which
Romi Hill is one of my favorite designers, especially for lace. She has a way of making yarn disappear into a cohesive sheet of etched beauty. Here, she has a brand new book from Interweave Press featuring 19 new garment and accessory designs. When we
It began as all great ideas do, as a spark of an inspiration, a loose thread that many people would let rest. But Debbie Zawinski is no ordinary person. A spinner for 25 years and a lifelong walker and knitter, Zawinski started tugging at that
Once you have a few socks under your belt and feel confident with the basics, you're ready to embark on more challenging projects—and that's where this book comes into the picture. Co-editors Ann Budd and Anne Merrow have scoured the Interweave archives and selected 19
If the yarn world were football, the New York Sheep and Wool Festival would be homecoming. The event, begun in 1980, is lovingly referred to by the town in which it takes place: Rhinebeck. Reporting from Rhinebeck, NY, October 17-18, 2015 Always the third full week in October, Rhinebeck brings
Until just four years ago, western Canada had no major annual knitting gathering of its own. All that changed when two friends, Amanda Milne and Fiona McLean, began producing retreats and events under the Knit Social moniker. In just a relatively short time, their Vancouver gathering—Knit
New York Sheep and Wool Festival Rhinebeck, NY October 17-18, 2015 If the yarn world were football, the New York Sheep and Wool Festival would be homecoming. The event, begun in 1980, is lovingly referred to by the town in which it takes place: Rhinebeck. Always the third full week
In 2013, I embarked upon a project called The Great White Bale. Over the course of 12 months I, and an intrepid group of 700+ subscribers, used a 676-pound bale of superfine Saxon Merino to learn, in essence, what it takes to make yarn in
You could say that Julie Weisenberger has a thing for gadgets. The creative brain behind the knitwear design line Cocoknits, Julie has brought us the Knitter's Block, an ingenious set of padded floor tiles that you can assemble in different shapes to block whatever you want.
A few years ago at Interweave Knitting Lab in Manchester, New Hampshire, I ventured into the North Light Fibers booth. I met Sven, who, with his wife, operates a mini-mill that produces their own line of branded yarns in Rhode Island. We got to talking, and
We've reached that point in summer where even I, the ardent wearer of wool, am switching to cooler cottons and linens—even in my swatching. A skein of Twig was placed in my hands at the summer TNNA show in June. It has stayed at the top
It began with a simple idea: By repeating a certain sequence of knit and purl stitches again and again, you can create gorgeous and often reversible fabric. This is the same concept behind basic ribbing, seed stitch, mistake-rib stitch, and the like—but on steroids. The concept
It takes guts for an American to move to Australia and start a sheep farm—especially if she is a woman with no prior farming experience. And then she adopts unconventional techniques for sheep farming, techniques that, I might add, appear to be working. That, in a
The National NeedleArts Association's semiannual trade show took place in Columbus earlier this month. It's where knitting industry players come to network, to learn, and to preview new products for fall. It was a crazy, busy weekend of distractions, not even taking into account the high-school
Sometimes the most useful tools are also the simplest. They have no moving parts, they require no batteries or clamps. Consider the humble darning needle, for example. Or this, the Fix-A-Stitch, essentially a snub-nosed two-sided crochet hook. If you've been knitting for a while, you will
Hand-dyers are painters who use yarn as their canvas. Some work their magic on commonly available base yarns, while others seek out the truly rare or unusual. Many more try to find a yarn that falls somewhere in between those extremes, a yarn that is
It seemed so far-fetched, flying all the way to Scotland for just four days. But something was happening in Edinburgh, something that had all the hallmarks of greatness—and I wanted to be there and witness it. The Edinburgh Yarn Festival began last year as a one-day event in a
It all began with a picture on Instagram. Someone shared a gorgeous shot of a yarn I'd never seen before. It looked rugged, crunchy, and soulful, and I suspected it had quite a story behind it—so I hunted around online until I found an Etsy
Imagine if all the wine in the world—red and white alike—were mixed together and sold as generic "wine." Think of how many centuries of craftsmanship and flavor would be lost, and how mediocre it would taste compared with how it would taste if the grapes
