Award-winning Scottish publishing and design
I used to be one of the many knitters who didn’t particularly enjoy a visit to sleeve island. Working with dpns or a long circular and magic loop, I rarely looked forward to knitting the second sleeve of a pair. This changed radically when I started knitting with 8 or 9 inch fixed circulars a…
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Good morning, and happy Friday, everyone! I’ve a new design to show to you – Lilias Day I knitted two pullovers over the festive period, featuring the same Selbu motif. In Orchle, I used the motif as an allover pattern around the bottom of the pullover . . . . . . and in Lilias…
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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…
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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…
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Do you become obsessed with sweaters you see in films or TV? I frequently do, and on several occasions these obsessions have developed into fully-formed pattern ideas. Ursula, for example, began life with a very fleeting glimpse of a cardigan worn by a character in South Riding, a 2011 BBC miniseries set in the 1930s.…
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We were able to put quite a few things in the KDD shop last week, including our brand new 10 Years in the Making book. The book is now available for wholesale too, so if you are a bookshop or yarn store (or know a bookshop or yarn store) who would like to stock this…
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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…
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When we are working on a collection, Mel and I often knit several samples of a single design. This not only allows us to test and hone the pattern instructions (for maximum knit-ability, and knitterly-ness) but means we get to see how a design appears in alternate colourways. For Sterntaucher, we thought it would be…
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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…
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As the first copies of our 10 Years in the Making book arrived in the KDD warehouse yesterday, I thought (not for the first time) about what a very weird year it has been. We published four brand new titles . . . . . .and created 23 new patterns – the majority of which…
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Designing hand-knit garments (and clear instructions for others to follow) can involve a lot of compromising, a lot of accepting that, for a multitude of reasons the finished thing won’t turn out quite as you initially envisaged. But sometimes you design something that looks and feels exactly as you expected. This design started with a…
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I’ve found that perhaps the most difficult thing about the experience of the past few months has been having to change our business plans – often at incredibly short notice. Like all businesses, we’ve found ourselves continually having to alter our arrangements in response to circumstances, guidelines and restrictions that are continually changing. Our position…
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There is no getting away from the fact that, whatever business you are in, this year has been a very weird one. Having to change the nature and direction of what you are doing – often very rapidly – is never an easy thing, and this year there have been so many of those changes.…
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Well, there’s just one week to go until the start of our 10 Years in the Making Club, and we are all geared up and ready for three months of knitting fun! This is the fifth club we’ve run at KDD, and each one has been a little different. Our first – the Seven Skeins…
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Good morning, everyone! We are all very happy (and indeed somewhat relieved) to have finally revealed Schiehallion, and opened subscriptions to the 10 Years in the Making club, in the brand-new-look webshop that we’ve been working on behind the scenes. Yes, my feet have actually left the ground in that photo – it is no…
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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…
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