Getting Going with Magic Loop (Two Video Tutorials!)

Chances are, if you’ve read this blog before, you’ve heard of magic loop knitting. It’s a nifty way of using a long-ish circular needle to knit a small-ish circumference item. Now before we go any further, I’m going to level with you. I used to hate the magic loop. Many years ago, I was a knitter who found The Way I liked doing things and stuck with it, and The Way I Liked To Knit Small Circumferences was with two circular needles. I’d given magic loop a cursory try, but it felt awkward and ungainly, with kinks of cable everywhere. So I happily stuck with my totally serviceable but rather expensive habit of knitting small circumferences on two circular needles until one day, I was commuting to work on the bus, and the bamboo tip of one of my circular needles broke. I was faced with two choices: sit the rest of the bus ride without knitting or face my magic loop demons. I’m sure you can guess which one I chose.

Read more

MDK Field Guide No. 17: Lopi is Here!

Are you ready for an adventure? Travel might still be a bit of a distant dream, but hey, we’ve got our knitting needles to transport us! Fresh off the press and piled high in the online shop, we’ve got a little book that’s your ticket to an Icelandic knitting adventure: Modern Daily Field Guide No. 17: Lopi .

Read more

Top Tips for Tidy Intarsia!

When you hear the word intarsia, what do you think of? Perhaps jumpers from the eighties with splashy motifs and a bit of mohair (both of which, as it happens, coming very much back into style!)? Maybe it brings up memories of a knitting disaster (as it used to for me)? Or maybe you’ve not come across intarsia —“Intars-WHAT?—before, and you’ve got no idea what I’m talking about! Read on for top tips for perfect intarsia…

Read more

Incandescent Intarsia with Kaffe Fassett!

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of Modern Daily Knitting’s little Field Guides around here. Each time we get news of a new one, there’s excited chatter around A-C Knitwear HQ about just how lush the latest offering is. We eagerly await the first sneak peek for wholesalers, then it’s a matter of counting the days until we can share the beauty with you all. For this latest offering, keeping mum was especially hard. Joyous, riotous, genius — all words we’ve been throwing around to describe Kaffe Fassett’s impeccable, irresistible designs for Field Guide No. 16: Painterly. Buckle your seat belts, this is going to be a wild ride.

Read more

How to Win at Yarn Chicken (In Photos)

There comes a time in every knitter’s life when they have to make a decision: can I squeeze one more repeat out of the yarn I have left or do I bind off now? The latter option promises safety and security from that most unpleasant of sensations: running out of yarn halfway through the bind off. But the former holds out the satisfaction of using up as much yarn as possible — particularly tantalising when using a treasured skein of yarn and also pleasing in its avoidance of unnecessary leftovers. What’s a knitter to do? Today’s tip saves you from having to make such a choice … no scales, no tools required, all it takes is a little knot!

Read more

Reading Your Knitting: Right- and Left-Leaning Lace Diagonals

Learning new skills and techniques is always loads of fun — there’s nothing like mastering something new and realising a whole new world of knitting possibilities has just opened up to you. Harder to teach, but perhaps even more revolutionary, is to learn how to read your knitting and really understand what’s happening. In today’s tutorials, I show you how to keep track of your left- and right-leaning yarn over/decrease pairs.

Read more

I want to knit all the cardigans!

My Conviviality Cardigan from Something to Knit Together is well underway, and oh am I loving it. Cardigans do very heavy duty in my wardrobe, and I know I’m going to wear this one lots. And this particular cardigan has a few things going for it that make an extra pleasurable knit in my book.

Read more

MDK Field Guide No. 15 Open – Available Now!

We’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of the latest in Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne’s perennially popular Field Guide series — and now that it’s here, let me say, our impatience has been justified and rewarded. Field Guide No. 15 is called Open and is all about beautiful, modern lace, brought to you by knitting industry legend, Jeanette Sloan.

Read more