We are five weeks in to the Knitting Season Club – a three month exploration of creative making (and handknit design), following a format that’s a little different to previous clubs, with weekly essays and creative assignments as well as the usual collection of new patterns. These essays have been one of the most enjoyable… Read More
Like many people, I think, this style of warm, hard-wearing and definitively wintery sweater fills me with a very particular kind of nostalgia. I first saw sweaters of this kind when I was eighteen, and went away to University. There I encountered a very particular kind of student who wore this type of sweater –… Read More
It’s yarn launch day! Let me introduce Àrd Thìr: our new aran (heavy worsted) weight yarn in a range of beautiful shades that have been inspired by the Scottish winter landscape. Our winter landscape is often thought to be drained of colour, but if you look carefully, you’ll discover a mix of many interesting shades:… Read More
Hello, everyone Things have been a bit quiet around here – largely because I’m busy working on the Knitting Season club. As well as the designs, the club involves a 12-week essay series (a course, if you like) exploring a range of different approaches to creative practice. These essays are polemical, and are meant to… Read More
We are now over half-way through our Milarrochy Heids reveal. Pre-orders of the book will remain open until Friday 30th November – which is the last day for purchasing with free shipping. The book will be published this coming weekend (hurrah!) and we will begin shipping out your orders early next week (3rd). I’m so… Read More
Did you know that our Milarrochy Heids book was now available to pre-order? I’ve been really enjoying revealing one hat per day over on Instagram and Ravelry, and here’s a round-up of the first few heids. First up is Ella Gordon’s Breiwick – the featured cover design. Inspired by her own elusive search for the… Read More
Back in the spring, I knew my ten year owliversary was coming up, so I decided to knit myself a new owl sweater. These photographs were taken while we were in Berneray, back in May. It’s quite weird seeing myself with my ‘old’ hair – I suppose that must mean I’m now completely used to… Read More
You all know that the owl sweater means something to me, and now I know that it means something to you too. Over the past few day, via email, blog comment, or on Instagram, you’ve shared your owl-y stories. I received more than 700 responses across the different platforms and it has been inspiring, moving,… Read More
I recently wrote about how I designed the owl sweater in my book Handywoman. As part of the sweater’s ten year owliversary, I thought I’d extract that part of the book here. “In the autumn of 2008, I’d knitted a sweater that lots of people seemed to really like. As my skills and technical acumen… Read More
In November it will be ten years since I knitted my owl sweater. A lot can happen in a decade, and that’s particularly so for me. In November 2008 I was an academic lecturer at Newcastle University, researching and teaching literary history. Knitting was one of several hobbies I enjoyed, and I’d begun documenting my… Read More
Isn’t one of the best things about Autumn that it’s sweater weather? I always enjoy seeing knitters around the world wearing my designs, and this enjoyment often comes to a kind of peak around this time of year, when a veritable slew of amazing projects begin to appear on Instagram and Ravelry. I’ve never been… Read More
Back in 2015, when Tom left academia and began working with me, I took a decision to only design with my own yarns. The reasons for this should be obvious: I’d taken a huge risk developing and investing in Buachaille. Buachaille was what I hoped would enable us to shift from a single-person enterprise to… Read More
