One punning moment last December, I decided it might be fun to knit the familiar homonyms – yoke and yolk – into an egg-themed sweater. So please behold – my YOLK YOKE. Yes, I am standing in a frozen landscape dressed as a fried egg – what of it? There are so many egg-cellent things…
Read More
Do you dream of textiles? Clothes, in particular, form a routine focus of my dreams. In a dream, I might find myself wandering through the streets of an unknown city, and, arrested by a window display, be drawn inside to browse a whole collection of imaginary garments in an imaginary store. Dreams also frequently involve…
Read More
Good morning and happy Friday, everyone. How are you all doing? Here in Scotland we are in the middle of quite a crisp, cold snap. I’m really enjoying my long local walks, the combination of snow and blue skies, and especially the fact that the mornings and evenings are becoming palpably lighter. There are a…
Read More
There are many creative handywomen I admire here in Scotland, and today I’m really happy to introduce you to one of them: Flora Collingwood-Norris. A super-talented designer of knitwear (of whose palette I’ve long been a huge fan), over the past couple of years, Flora has proudly advocated both the value of making, and the…
Read More
Welcome to the very first post from our My Place project! We’re kicking things off with a designer who I’m sure is already familiar to many of you – Virginia Sattler-Reimer. I’ve never met Virginia in person, but I feel like I’ve “known” her forever: she’s one of those people I eagerly followed back in…
Read More
Friday is pattern reveal day, and I have a brand new sweater design to show you! I’m a huge fan of the arched Selbu motifs which are most often traditionally used on gloves and mittens and you’ll see the long-standing influence of these motifs on my design work in hats like Richard the Roundhead, or…
Read More
Hello, everyone! Thanks so much for your comments on yesterday’s post (which if you enjoy on-screen knits as much as I do I suggest you go and read!) I want to say an especial thanks to Davina for the link to the top 118 Twin Peaks knits (I personally have a thing for no72, though…
Read More
I think the month of January – and perhaps particularly this January – often seems rather dark. These are certainly dark days for many of us around the world, but there are some visible green shoots, improving prospects, and the hope of brighter days ahead. I wanted my first design of 2021 to speak to…
Read More
Hello! I’m happy to say we’ve just about completed all our behind-the-scenes admin, and have been able to reopen the KDD online shop today. Among the new things you’ll find there is our just-published 10 Years in the Making book (beautifully produced for us by Glasgow’s Bell & Bain), plus two brand new shades of…
Read More
Lynsey Walters is a fellow Scottish designer of whose bold, colourful work I am an enormous fan – and whose necklaces and earrings (I am thrilled to say) we are now stocking in the KDD shop. You may already be aware, of how much I love Lynsey’s work, as I seem to have worn quite…
Read More
Morning, everyone! First up, I should let you know that the KDD shop is once more up and running, and subscriptions to the 10 Years in the Making club are now open! Next, I can finally tell you about our new flagship yarn, Schiehallion This is a yarn that’s been a long time in the…
Read More
Hello everyone. Tom here with a post about my new favourite colour film, Kodak Portra 160. What I find really exciting about the discipline of photography is that despite the advancement of technologies available, access to old techniques remains, meaning that the rich and complex history of photography continues to be available for us to…
Read More
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…
Read More
Good morning, and happy Friday, everyone. Thanks so much for your comments on yesterday’s post. I’d especially like to thank Vivienne Richmond, who kindly shared the booklet that accompanies the exhibition she curated about the darning and needlework collections of Whitelands College. Like many samplers, those in Vivienne’s exhibition originate in the classroom – eighteenth-…
Read More
Good morning! Something new to show to you today – our latest shade of Milarrochy Tweed. Dyed to a beautifully saturated hue of blue-y green, this shade is enlivened by tweedy twists and flecks of pale pink and paler green. It’s a deep, bold colour – almost the opposite of the spectrum from our other…
Read More
Good morning! Time for another pattern release today! I love our new Asphodel shade of Milarrochy Tweed – a light, fresh orange colour with bold tweedy neps. I wanted to really celebrate Apphodel’s interest and complexity by featuring it in a garment – so I designed Con Alma A couple of years ago, I designed…
Read More
