If you’re a newsletter subscriber, you’ll have seen the other week that print copies of Confident Knitting are in our hot little hands! It’s always thrilling (and a little terrifying!) when our print books arrive. It’s exhilarating to hold the result of nearly two years of work in your hands. All the hours of writing, photography and close collaboration with a huge team of people, neatly held between two covers. Or so we hope! Our first job is always to do all our quality checks. Once they are done, we can breathe a sigh of relief, briefly think about celebrating, but instead we get down to the work of shipping!
Read moreCatching Up with Noma Ndlovu!
Today, we’re bringing you a chat with South African-based designer Noma Ndlovu, the creative mind behind this month’s Confident Knitting pattern the Lustrous Shawl! Noma, who designs under the label Bigger Than Life Knits, is a real powerhouse designer: she’s been bringing out exciting designs for garments and accessories, with a keen eye for texture and colour, at an astonishing rate! She was kind enough to take a break from her busy schedule to chat about knitting in Johannesburg, intriguing side projects and how she fits it all in! Come join us for a chat….
Read moreUse Every Scrap Knitalong: Working the Heel
Welcome to the next instalment of the Use Every Scrap knitalong! So, now we’ve knitted some tubes, with nice uninterrupted sequences of stripes, be they of the hand-dyed or scrappy variety, that are a bit longer than our feet. Lovely! Except, of course, the small matter of not being able to try them on anymore – our pesky heels get in the way. So today, that’s where we turn our attention.
Read moreFive Uses for Locking Stitch Markers
What’s your favourite bit of knitting kit? This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. After the basics are covered — favourite knitting needles, some sharp snips, a tape measure and tapestry needle — the one thing I always want to hand is a nice pile of locking stitch markers. The locking stitch marker might look small and humble, but it’s such a versatile and useful tool!
Read moreLou's Journey Continues!
Lou has been rediscovering the fun of knitting by working through Modern Daily Knitting’s excellent learn-to-knit book, Skill Set. If you missed her first post and want to catch up on her journey so far, you can find it here!
The next lesson (#4 for those of you keeping track!) was to learn to knit in the round, which basically means I had to swap the straight needles for circular needles. I only ever saw my granny work with straight needles so knitting with circular needles was definitely a new one to me!
Read moreFinished Burnished Mittens!
Somehow or other, I’ve ended up with a small back log of Things to Show Off! And, oh, is today’s rather lovely (if I do say so myself).
Read moreUse Every Scrap Knitalong: Working the Foot
Welcome back to the Use Every Scrap Knitalong! How did you get on with your toe(s) last week? Today, we’ll be talking knitting the sock feet, and we’ll even glance toward the leg. Exciting times! Let’s dive in.
Read moreNo-Wrong-Side Cables (Confident Knitting Video Tutorial)
Cable knitting has a long and rich history, allowing knitters to create stunning knits with real depth and movement. And the great thing about cabling is, if you can knit and purl, you can work a cable … cabling simply involves working stitches in a different order from the way they sit on your needles. If you’ve ever knitted standard cables though, you’ll know the fabric has a very definite wrong side. This is, of course, irrelevant for projects where you’ll only see the right side, like garments. But for knitted items where both sides will be on show — a scarf or shawl for instance — reversible cables are super handy!
Read moreUse Every Scrap Knitalong: Cast On!
Today’s the day that we cast away for our Use Every Scrap Knitalong, and cast on! Over the next two months, we’ll be sharing posts that together will form a road map for knitting toe-up socks that use up every bit of a special skein or scraps that you’ve got lingering in your stash. If you missed last week’s post on preparing your yarn, you can catch up here. Today, we’re going to cover casting on and knitting your toe. Needles at ready? Let’s get started!
Read moreLustrous Shawl + Reversible Cables
Wow, it’s hard to believe we’re at the halfway point of our Confident Knitting journey, but it’s true! Which means it’s time for me to introduce the sixth Confident Knitting pattern, the final one of the summer set … the almost unbelievably lush Lustrous Shawl by Noma Ndlovu (that’s a Ravelry link) which will teach us all about reversible cables!
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