some of the thinking behind the making
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All articles filed in craft
¿Quieres bailar?
Are ye dancin?
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behind the mask
accepting that not everything works out is key to the (slow) creative process
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out of the woods
Outi Kater introduces a wonderful design inspired by Finnish childhood winters and restorative woodland spaces
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zwiebelmuster
Nicole Wagler tells us about eighteenth-century porcelain and her sense of place in Meissen
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the thaw
Rebecca Osborn shares a beautiful design, inspired by her place in the Canadian Arctic
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my McRostie forever bag
Today we released the Evendoon Cardigan – the third pattern in our 10 Years in the Making Club (come and join us for three months of knitting fun!) I really enjoyed styling this cardigan with my beautiful Mull Bag, which was made for me a wee while ago by Colin Campbell of McRostie: one of…
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Square Share
A little over a year ago I travelled to Reading for a confab with my friend Felix. We’d had an idea to work on a project together with our mutual friend and colleague, Mel, and wanted to thrash things out. By the time I was heading north again, we’d come up with a plan: to…
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Knitting, creativity, mental health.
I have been thinking a lot over the past week about the difficulties of talking about the mental health “benefits” of a craft like knitting. There’s a lot of really interesting research about crafts and mental health about right now, but I often have problems with the way such research is publicly communicated or presented.…
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croft, craft, creativity
One of the many things I really like about the communities and cultures of crofting is their distinctive effect on the way people work. What I mean is this: in towns and cities, jobs tend to become more and more specialised, people do what they do within smaller and smaller categories, individual work occurs in…
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making stuff (at Lockies)
One thing you can say about knitting: it really makes you think about the many different processes that producing textiles involve. For example, prior to becoming an obsessive knitter, I had never really considered blocking a woollen garment (with water or with steam) . . . . . . nor had I understood what a…
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Helen Robertson
If you’ve read my introduction to The Book of Haps then you’ll already have come across Helen Robertson – a Shetland artist and craftswoman whose work I deeply admire. Working with silver wire and other precious materials, Helen has developed a uniquely thoughtful aesthetic which celebrates, commemorates and reflects upon Shetland’s history and heritage –…
Read MorePop-up fair
Are you in Edinburgh this weekend? If so, can I encourage you to pop along to the pop-up fair which is being held by my friends at the Royal Edinburgh Repository and Self Aid Society on Saturday? I’ve mentioned the Society here many times, and as you know, it exists to provide financial support to…
Read Morepompoms in Balfron
After some exciting developments on the relocation front, Tom and I went to view a house just outside Balfron yesterday. As we drove about the outskirts, I began to notice a few pompoms hanging from the trees and bushes outside people’s houses….then I spotted a whole jolly array of them along a hedge by the…
Read Morefestive balls
Can I put away the pompom makers now? Merry Christmas, everyone!
Read Morecraftopolis
This is Knit has its home in the Powerscourt Centre – a place that strongly reminded me of what the Corn Exchange in Manchester used to be like in the 1980s (ie, when it was a happy mecca of independent retailing, rather than just another anonymous mall). In the English North, such places tend to…
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