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Everything I’ve learned about knitting continental style
About six weeks ago, I decided the time had come to teach myself to knit continental-style. I’ve been heavily, heavily resisting it for years, because I’m stubborn as all hell. It’s the same impulse that stopped me from watching the West Wing for years; loads of people told me I should try it, and so…
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6 reasons NOT to learn to knit with super bulky yarn
Over the last few years, there seems to be a new kind of received wisdom amongst beginner knitters – that the best way to learn to knit is with super bulky yarn, and great big 10mm+ needles. The reasoning goes like this: it’s less fiddly, it’s faster, and it’s less frustrating. It’s easier to see…
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It’s time to embrace the mistakes in our knitting
Whenever I teach a beginners knitting class – and I teach a lot of them – I always start off by saying a few things. And one of those things is this: You will make mistakes. All the time. Even after years of knitting. And it’s the truth. I still, even now, after 30 years…
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5 last minute Christmas gifts for the knitter in your life
As I write this, it’s just over two weeks to Christmas, which is a tad on the alarming side. Especially as I haven’t actually started doing any Christmas gift shopping yet. So if you’re in the same boat – or, more to the point, you think your loved ones may be in the same boat…
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What on earth is sport weight yarn, and what the heck should I knit with it?
In the last few years, there’s one type of yarn that’s been popping up more and more, and which, I’ll admit, baffled the crap out of me at first. And that, as you may expect, is a sport weight. But from my initial position of bafflement and “well, that just seems a bit pointless” I…