A creative year

2022 has been a very busy creative year! We published two brand-new books: first up was Argyll’s Secret Coast, which has proved to be one of my all-time favourite KDD projects for its collaborative, interdisciplinary mingling of history and ideas, photography and writing, knitting and a sense of place.

Our second title was SARK – a project which was similarly collaborative, and similarly interdisciplinary, as Tom and I worked together to create a book defined by a shared aesthetic, in which monochrome, textured hand-knits and monochrome, creative photographic images were in dialogue with one another.

I love both of our 2022 titles, which I think might include some of the best creative work that I’ve produced, simply because it was work that I genuinely enjoyed producing. That’s honestly not always the case with what I do, and, I think that most knitters (and writers too, if they are honest), have a relationship with their craft that blows hot and cold. You know what I mean: whether you are putting words together, or knitting up a sweater, sometimes that process just makes your heart sing, and sometimes you just aren’t feeling it. This year I’ve absolutely loved writing about all sorts of historical topics, from submariners to different ways of understanding colour, and have really been enjoying my designing and knitting too. I think that all of that enjoyment tells, somehow, in the blog posts and essays, garments and collections that I’ve ended up creating over the course of 2022, which this year more than most have spoken to my own somewhat eclectic range of interests and my own personal style.

I love wearing my designs – especially the recent twisted stitch ones!

But the textured design that I probably enjoyed wearing most this year was Glenan, whose simple cable panels and useful hood ended up accompanying me on all my walking trips and holidays around Scotland.

I also got back into my stranded colourwork groove! Early in the year, I created a few designs I really liked . . .

. . . and once I got started with the colourwork, there was just no stopping it! I spent most of the spring and summer of 2022 designing and knitting the patterns which are now being released as part of the Allover club. As well as colleagues Mel and Maylin, in this process I was helped by our new team of test knitters, by KDD’s brilliant tech editor Frauke, by superb Allover model, Iona, and (of course) by Tom, who is always there, behind the camera and the printed page. What a joy it has been to develop this body of work with this talented group of creative people. Thank you, all.

We are still only half way through the Allover club, which has now paused for its festive break, and I’m really looking forward to being able to release all the colourful designs that remain in this collection! It has meant an awful lot to me to see so many of you enjoying Allover, Argyll’s Secret Coast, and SARK – especially over the course of a year that has proved so difficult and unpredictable – not least for those of us running small businesses. Together, we weather the storm, and keep on moving forward, creatively. Thank you, all of you, for supporting the work we do.

Here’s to a creative and colourful 2023!