If you’re subscribed to our newsletter or frequent our forum, The Knitalong Hub, you’ll know that we’re working really hard behind the scenes preparing for the launch of our newest project. We cannot wait to tell you all about in a very short time. But while we wait, I thought it might be nice to have a peek into our two flagship books, A Year of Techniques and Boost Your Knitting. I call them books, but really they’re more than that … they’re self-contained programmes carefully designed to help you sharpen your knitting skills. So while there’s beautiful patterns by talented designers, to be sure, there are also in-depth, stepwise photo tutorials + video tutorials that will teach you new techniques. Our mission is to empower knitters to unlock their full knitting potential, and these books are really at the heart of that endeavour.
Read moreMore Patterns for Experimenting with Colour
The Skystone Armwarmers, designed by Felicity (Felix) Ford as August’s featured Boost Your Knitting pattern, are the perfect canvas for practicing this month’s technique, choosing colours for stranded colourwork. The pattern calls for three background and five foreground shades of Jamieson & Smith 2ply Jumperweight, giving you lots of room to capture the subtleties of your inspiration source — be it a bouquet of flowers, a mossy headstone, or a towering mountain! But if you’re casting around for more patterns to bring your newfound confidence in choosing colours too, here are a few ideas!
Read moreThe final three: afterthoughts, colour dominance, and nail-biting steeks
The final three A Year of Techniques projects for winter were all about demystifying techniques that some knitters find particularly intimidating.
Read moreOorik Tank Top KAL
Have you chosen your pattern? Found some yarn? Swatched? It must be time to kick off the final Year of Techniques knitalong, and this is a great one! I know SO many knitters who are fabulously accomplished, and yet haven't tried cutting a steek in their knitting. There's a fundamental feeling that taking your scissors to something you've spent so long knitting must be a bad idea, but honestly, with the right yarn (and this is KEY), it's a piece of cake.
Read moreChoosing my colours for Oorik
I'm popping in today, as I've been making great progress on my knitting projects. I've cast off a heap of things in the last few weeks, which means that I'm all set to be casting on for my Oorik tank top, bang on schedule, next week. I'm hoping that a few of you will be joining us in the final official monthly knitalong* for A Year of Techniques. Sobs. I can't believe we're there already!
Read moreOorik tank top by Mary Jane Mucklestone
The fantabulous Mary Jane Mucklestone has created our final design for A Year of Techniques: the Oorik tank top.
Oorik (meaning small person in Shetland dialect) is a Fair Isle tank top (US vest) knitting completely in the round. The arm and neck openings are created with steeks, thus allowing you to always be working with the right side of the fabric facing you. This makes it easier to avoid mistakes in the colourwork, and there's no purling to do in the Fair Isle section.
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