Alice in Wonderland is probably my second favourite1 book of all time, and definitely my most repeatedly read. I must have read it twice a year for a long stretch of my youth, so any new film adaptation is likely to at least pique my interest. Naturally a book so rich in imagery and [...]

There is very little I dislike more than the apparent joys of travel. I hate packing bags, forgetting important things, lifting, pulling or otherwise mobilising heavy luggage amassed mostly of completely pointless and bulky objects. I dislike being without my home comforts and the things people, and places that make me happy.
So, as [...]

I am often reading on the forums of Ravelry crocheters bemoaning the bias in the fibre world that seemingly results in crochet being seen by some to be a lesser craft to knitting. To be honest, I haven’t noticed it that much myself, but as I have been told in reply ‘ah, but you [...]

I love knitting stitch dictionaries.  They are perhaps my greatest knitting weakness.  I can spend (literally) hours leafing through the same pages over and over before beginning a new projects, armed with a selection of sticky-tab page-markers as I whittle down what I think will ‘work’, first marking about 20 or so for further consideration, [...]

I have been very much enjoying knitting the stranded colourwork rows of the Flossie Bear pattern once I assured myself that I can knit this technique without stress or literally  tying myself into knots, scared to knit alone in the room lest my boyfriend return sometime later to find me bound head to foot in [...]

Welcome to the New Year, everyone!
We saw in the New Year by watching some spectacular fireworks over the River Thames, where it was absolutely freezing and where people had been queueing since about 4pm for a good spot. We had a fantastic vantage point to see in the New Year and appreciate the fireworks [...]

What came first, the woolly or the mammoth?  Did these magnificent prehistoric pachyderms evolve or were they created… by knitters?  Here are two of my favourite things – knitting and natural history, in one T-shirt, designed by Eskimimi for Mr Cloud.
With knitting needles for tusks and a warm and cuddly knitted body, this mammoth really [...]

Lace knitting is like a regression. It essentially harnesses and brings under control the one thing you try to avoid as a new knitter – holes. Terrible when created accidentally, some crazy knitters make these holes on purpose, arranging them into intricate and beautiful patterns.
I have dipped my toe into the frothy pool [...]

It is that time of year when many knitters will be looking towards their stash with an air of panic, remembering the drunken resolution of last New Year’s Eve that saw them swear they’d pace their seasonal gift knitting through the entire year, and realising that they broke their promise almost straight away when they [...]

It feels like knitting has more meaning when a warm hat can be pulled fresh from the needles and appreciated on a crisp autumn day.  I do knit in the summer months, but there is something distinctively homely about knitting woollens as nature puts a nip in the air and spins gold into the sunlight.

Autumn [...]

Recently I questioned myself and any passing readers why you choose to knit as a pastime or craft.  One blogger that responded was Funkyflower, asking in turn where do you knit?
I’m a creature of habit, and now I think about the places that I knit I realise that 90% of the time it is in [...]

Strap yourselves in, this post is likely to be quite long…
A few evenings ago I cast onto some exciting new needles with a head full of ideas and visions of projects.  After casting on and knitting merrily away for a row or two I soon started to notice a tingling fatigue in my left hand, and [...]

is a wonderful fund-raising drive backed by the Cornwall-based clothing company ‘Seasalt’.  This year Seasalt is asking for volunteers to snatch up their needles and hooks to make a handmade scarf to raise money in support of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.  Extremely important to our local ecosystems, bumblebee populations in the UK are in dramatic [...]

Here are some handy gift tags to help ensure that your hand-knits have a happy future when you give them as gifts. These small gift tags can be printed onto normal A4 white card and folded down the centre line. The front features a short message and a bright ball of yarn and [...]

Sock blockers are one of those items in a knitter’s arsenal that are totally unnecessary, yet still for many of us, quite desirable.  For me, it was not the item itself that had held an attraction, but their function.  I was not particularly bothered about owning some sock-shaped pieces of wood, no matter how beautifully [...]