Category: Textile History

New Knitting Pattern Release: The Valdes Houndstooth Cowl

September 30, 2021

Today, as we head into the chillier months here in the northern hemisphere, I want to share with you a new knitting pattern for a classic cowl that will see you through these colder months. The Valdes Houndstooth Cowl is a wonderfully relaxed and easy knit that will quickly become a wardrobe staple. Once a cowl sceptic I have through personal experience, become an absolute convert to this style of double wrap infinity cowl. They’re … More New Knitting Pattern Release: The Valdes Houndstooth Cowl

Mills in our Midst 2: Peter Green, Bradley & Cononley

September 16, 2020

Today, I want to share another instalment of the Mills in our Midst series. In this series I start with a ball, or in this case a scrap, of vintage ‘mystery’ yarn and use it to dig a little deeper into the industrial and social and economic histories of our craft, and reflect on our lived experience of the post industrial landscapes of our present. The identity of todays scrap of yarn only came to light when I … More Mills in our Midst 2: Peter Green, Bradley & Cononley

Litmus Cowl and Sweater

September 8, 2020

In the world before covid, last November (2019) I needed to cast on some totally mindless TV and take along public transport knitting that wasn’t a sock and I decided to knit Amy Florence’s free litmus cowl* pattern; essentially a plain stocking stitch tube joined at the ends to make an infinity cowl. A seemingly simple pattern and project, it left me plenty of head space to reflect on the relationship between mindful making and … More Litmus Cowl and Sweater

Knitters on Two Wheels

July 17, 2018

Creased and kept among the owner’s knitting patterns, this magazine pull out from a 1950s edition of Good Taste magazine, provides the pattern for a zip up cycling jacket which can then be embroidered with cycling related motifs. Some of the motifs were charted in the magazine on a later page and others could be obtained by ‘sending off’ to the Magazine. This was my starting point for today’s post which looks at the history … More Knitters on Two Wheels

Mills in our Midst 1: Munrospun, Restalrig

September 6, 2017

In a previous post on Munrospun yoke sweater kits I highlighted two directions that my digging about to find out more about about the kits had taken me in.  I made reference to a Munrospun factory in Restalrig in Edinburgh, and to Bernat Klein a one time employee of Munrospun. Today I want to follow up the first of these references. My attention had originally been drawn to the fact that Munrospun had a factory … More Mills in our Midst 1: Munrospun, Restalrig