Award-winning Scottish publishing and design
You may (or may not) remember that last year we organised one of our regular design competitions. The theme was “My Place” and the idea was that competition entrants design a shawl, hap, wrap, scarf, cowl, snood, kerchief, or other neckwear accessory in Milarrochy Tweed inspired by their “place” in the world – however they…
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note: links in this post refer back to Ravelry projects and profiles. Perhaps because I worked for so long in universities, September has always had a fresh start-of-a-new-year feel about it to me, and I suspect that might also be the case for anyone who works with (or just enjoys) yarn and knitting. Here at…
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One of my favourite things about designing is that, after completing my work on a pattern, I get to see it afresh through the eyes of other knitters who gravitate to different colourways. I love these changes in perspective and often I see a design quite differently when a creative knitter simply reverses the shade…
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One of the pleasures of working on my Knitting Season collection was allowing myself some space to develop ideas and experiment creatively with garment shapes and styles. For a few years, I’d been wanting to design a colourwork allover with a side-to-side construction that was knitted as one long tube, using steeked openings for the…
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It’s book launch day! And, for the final Warm Hands pattern reveal we are ending with a showstopper – the Opera gauntlets by Steve Malcolm. Jamaican-born Steve is an experienced and committed designer who is perhaps best known for his amazing cable patterns – but is someone who is generally hugely passionate and knowledgeable about…
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Today is the penultimate design reveal from Warm Hands – a collection of original patterns for mitts, mittens and gloves co-edited by Jeanette Sloan and myself. If you are interested in knitting any of the glorious designs the book contains, I should also mention that it’s the last day to pre-order your copy from the…
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Today’s Warm Hands pattern is a super-cosy pair of mittens knitted in our aran-weight Àrd-Thìr – Heartland Marsh. These beautiful stranded mittens, worked at a dense gauge that’s sure to warm your hands right through the depths of winter, are the work of talented young designer and podcaster Safiyyah Talley. (Safiyyah in her design, the…
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Today’s Warm Hands designer, Tiina Väätäinen, hails from eastern Finland – where there are many opportunities to wear the warm, woollen accessories she loves to knit and design. Tiina’s a talented designer of socks and mittens which often incorporate many playful elements. Her beautiful Lumikuningatar mittens, for example, reflect their snowy landscape across the hands…
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Today’s Warm Hands design is the work of Romi Dame la-Lata – a neat wee pair of fingerless mitts, featuring a geometric lace pattern and added texture – called Rhombus. Here’s Romi to tell you more about herself, and her design. “I was born in a small city in Argentina and moved to Spain in…
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Today’s Warm Hands design is a lovely pair of mitts with several thoughtful and well-designed details that make them an extremely knitterly knit – Craobh The Croabh mitts are the work of Jenn Wallace. Knitting and archaelogy have both formed important parts of Jenn’s life since she whipped up her first pair of mitts while…
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Today’s Warm Hands design is one I’m particularly excited to introduce: the Mudra mitts, which are the work of Lana Jois. Lana is an experienced and prolific designer, whose speciality is creating really beautiful lace accessories. You may have knit her lovely Winding Roads shawl from last Autumn’s Interweave, or admired her many gorgeous and…
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As a designer who has had a career in an entirely different field, I’m often interested in how expertise from one discipline can feed into and creatively fuel another. That’s certainly the case for Claudia Fiocchetti, a British-Italian historic stone and painting conservator, whose flair for original stranded colourwork left Jeanette and myself spoilt for…
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It’s a real pleasure to introduce today’s designer to you – Chihiro Sato. Chihiro’s an experienced knitwear designer who lives and works in Tokyo, but her inspiration comes from Shetland, its landscape, its culture, and its knitting. Bringing traditional patterns, interesting construction methods, and a fresh and distinctive take on colour together, Chihiro is the…
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Who hasn’t, at some point, lost their mittens? And which knitter has not wanted to recreate a piece of knitwear based on the evocative memory of something they once wore as a child? Recollections of her favourite pair of childhood mittens motivated today’s designer, Rebecca Tsai, to create her pattern for Warm Hands, which she’s…
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Today’s pattern has its own animation! One of the joys of developing a collection like Warm Hands is discovering the work of talented new designers. Today’s wonderfully jolly mittens – featuring stranded colourwork, cosy folded hem, and flower-topped hands and thumbs – are the work of first-time designer, Matissa Hollister. Here’s Matissa to tell you…
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Today’s Warm Hands pattern is Dissonance – a pair of two-tone mitts knitted in a couple of contrasting and cosy skeins of Àrd-Thìr, and designed by the very talented Sarah Mackay. You may remember Sarah as one of the stars of our Milarrochy Heids book, with her stand-out Every Flavour hat. Sarah submitted her design…
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