I am rushing to get out the door - a glorious wedding this weekend in Newport and the week after we’re taking off en famille - babies, nanny, kids, spouses - as Zorba would say, “the whole catastrophe” - for an end-of-summer Tuscan idyll. I intend to post, but we’ll see. I hate to say, we’ll see-you-in-September… in the meantime, here are a few quick knit-thoughts…

event: New York Textile Month & Scandinavia House
Did you know that September is New York Textile Month?
Lots of events going on so check it out here.

Scandinavia House is also running a number of events 👉🏼 Nordic Textile Takeover.

movie: the ‘new’ My Brilliant Career
We plunked ourselves down on the sofa this past week to watch the latest rendition of My Brilliant Career and surprisingly saw an entirely different movie. This coming-of-age tale, which takes place in the Australian outback, first came out in 1979 starring Judy Davis and Sam Neill and was inspired by the 1901 original, written by the 21-year-old author Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin. It was charming and wistful and innocent in all the best possible definitions of the word. And of course the scenery was, well, an Australian version of the American pioneering West.

Banish your stuffiness and turn off your romance-detector when you warm-up the telly to absorb this new rendition that includes masturbation, homosexuality, inter-racial marriage, swearing and nudity - we’re all good, no? What is also in the new version is a hand knit and crocheted sweater that is so fabulous that it literally steals the scene it’s featured in. Yup.

Phyllis Williams is the Australian designer of this scrumptious period cardi-coat, which could easily be worn today at the soiree of your choice. You must-must-must check out her instagram feed. Her multi-stranded knitting is a kick….she knit-writes as do I in my Tickerknits collection.

And detail of the cardigan…

stuff: Fall 2026
Marni’s offering a crocheted clutch bag - it’s a shape they’ve rolled out in the past. I bought it 20 years ago, a bit larger and in black patent leather and have since sold! But it is a shape that is eternally ‘modern’; it can be folded and used as a clutch as well.

Crafters have also whipped up this shape in the past…for DIYers see here, here, and here.

And finally, Japanese Pillings’ fall line-up, ‘unstable’ knits, struck me as interesting-funny…and can be bought at noodlestories.

W o o l - B e i n g

W o o l - B e i n g

lifting-up-women via handwork
I’ve wanted to talk about Eleanor Leftwich for a while now. She’s a really interesting lady, but I’ll let her tell you:

Like many women, I wear many hats (not all of which are designer): mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, farmer, and business owner. When not managing Eleanor Leftwich, our family’s multi-generational farm, or chasing after my four children, I enjoy the thrill of the hunt (for vintage finds, that is). Eleanor Leftwich was originally created to share the joy of getting dressed every day, but soon morphed into a platform to help others build a beautiful (and sustainable) wardrobe of sophisticated but easy to wear pieces, or what I call, The Uniform. I hope you’ll join us as we live life in and beyond the uniform!

Leftwich has in short order built this thought of a ‘sustainable, but sophisticated’ wardrobe into a quickly growing business. Her learning curve has been steep but the good part is that she writes about it and takes her audience along for the insight and journey. This is especially thrilling if one is interested in fiber in general and knitting in particular, as I am. She writes about how she sources fiber, manufacturers and what she is trying to create in a garment.

She has a lot to say and there’s lots to see on her site, so if you have the time, do visit. But most immediately, I wanted to highlight her bold move into high-end hand crocheted, knitted and embroidered garments, which was a feature of one of her recent posts, The Maker Series: The Hands Behind The Hand-Crochet Collection. Leftwich is currently working with a Bolivian purveyor to make rather extraordinary garments that are crocheted with hand-embroidered overlays.

These pieces are pricey, ranging from $1,295 for a tote to roughly $2,600 for dresses and jackets. But unlike in the past, where foreign handwork was often inexpensive and was often done quickly and often crudely, EL’s collections are anything but. Look closely at the fine detail:

In Eleanor’s write-up, the owner of this Bolivian atelier, a divorcee, is driven to help these women earn a living, to help them become more financially independent, which might also give them the means, if need be, to also leave unhappy marriages.

One can’t help but laud such an effort and it’s exciting to see what she’s doing. That said, the market for expensive items could be limiting. I am old enough to remember that decades ago The Peruvian Connection started by vending hand knits but as their market grew they couldn’t keep up and shifted into just machined goods. Similiarly, The Elder Statesman began with hand knits and shifted over to machined goods (with some hand knit Bolivian socks tossed into the mix - those Bolivians seemingly are going strong!).

But here’s to Eleanor Leftwich 🍻Let’s hope she keeps part of her mix worked by hand - it’s just glorious to look at.

and on a similar note…in India
Indian companies are also looking to use their indigenous hand crafting talent to bolster their local economies. As reported by The Pioneer, in Crochet’s Comeback Can Create Jobs, Strengthen India’s Economy:

Crochet and hand knitting are making a strong comeback in India, driven by Gen Z creators, slow-fashion trends and growing demand for handmade products. Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh said the revival of these traditional crafts has the potential to generate large-scale employment, empower women artisans and strengthen India’s creative economy.

The minister was speaking at the unveiling of the ‘Premium Hand Knitting Yarns Collection 2026’ by Ganga Acrowools Limited at Le Méridien New Delhi. Organized in collaboration with Heartbeats Premium Yarns, the event brought together distributors, retailers, designers, entrepreneurs, self-help groups and artisan communities. Amit Thapar, President of Ganga Acrowools, said the company aims to build an ecosystem supporting creators, retailers and self-help groups. The company currently exports to more than 60 countries and manufactures over 900 yarn varieties.

Seems like the race is on - look out Bolivia! 🏃🏃🏃

call-outs
I am impressed with what the Finnish are doing for hand knitters with their glorious Laine Magazine (and books). Since 2016, they have been increasingly filling the vacuum left in the wake of many American knitting magazines that either collapsed or went entirely digital. Their prolific output of really nice designs is rather mind-boggling. So I asked the grand-poobah what was up?

The Up & Up of Laine Publishing….

Laine launched in 2016 with a deliberately different strategy and has grown into a recognized international brand (sold in dozens of countries, with the U.S. now one of its largest markets; majority stake acquired by Finnish media group A-lehdet in 2023 while remaining operationally independent).

Key reasons for its relative success:

• Global-first mindset from day one — Finland’s domestic market is tiny (~5.5 million people). Founders Jonna Hietala (Helin) and Sini Kramer designed it in English for an international audience from the start, riding the wave of interest in Nordic/slow-living aesthetics. They never depended on a single national market.

• Premium, lifestyle positioning — Laine is less a pure “pattern magazine” and more a high-production-value object: strong photography, long-form fiber stories, interviews, recipes, and wearable contemporary designs with a distinctive Nordic aesthetic. It feels collectible and aspirational rather than disposable or purely instructional. Readers often treat issues as keepsakes.

• Diversification into books — Successful titles like the 52 Weeks series (socks, and more recently sweaters) created additional revenue streams and reinforced the brand.

• Direct-to-consumer + strong retail presence — They sell effectively online worldwide while still reaching yarn shops and specialty retailers. Subscriptions and individual issues are positioned as premium products.

• Lean, founder-driven culture that scaled carefully — It started small and passion-driven, then professionalized processes (e.g., better publishing tools for multilingual editions). The 2023 majority sale to A-lehdet brought resources and stability without fully corporate-izing the creative side.

• Focus on a passionate niche rather than mass volume — High perceived quality and a clear aesthetic identity help it stand out in a crowded field. It expanded pattern counts in recent issues and maintained visual storytelling that many readers find more inspiring than older, more utilitarian U.S. titles.

In short, traditional American magazines often operated in a higher-volume, ad- or corporate-supported model that became fragile when digital alternatives proliferated and costs rose. Laine built a smaller-scale but higher-margin international brand around beauty, lifestyle, and collectibility, then expanded intelligently into books and secured backing while keeping its identity. The broader print knitting-magazine market remains challenging—many indies have closed—but Laine’s approach has proven more resilient so far.

And there you have it! There’s always more than one-way-to-skin-a-cat as they say…

what I am working on…
My own designs - of course which I am hoping to post in good order - I am even contemplating sending Laine Magazine a design for the first time 😉

But I do want to give a shout out to PurlSoho for its Basket Blanket designed by Hiromi Glover. After knitting, my second-love is basketmaking - me, the basket maker on Insta @ willowworker. I love to weave willow so I couldn’t resist this knitted basketweave pattern, which is in the works for a special someone 🤫

lamb couture
Louis Vuitton is offering up a new ‘project bag’ idea…how cute is this?
Dear Santa 🎅🏻 I have been a very, very good girl this year : )

Baa-baaaaaa 🐑🐑🐏

the Mey Highland Games
Much like our summer country fairs, the Scottish Highland games are a vibrant blend of traditional heavy athletics, Celtic music, Highland dancing, and clan pageantry, a reason to celebrate heritage and to get together for just some plain good fun. The games originated centuries ago as tests of strength for clan warriors, while modern games function like a combination of a track meet and a cultural festival. ‘Strength events’ are a big and rather unique feature of the games in which kilted athletes compete in feats demonstrating raw power. In the caber toss, athletes balance a giant wooden log vertically, run, and flip it end-over-end. The goal is a perfect flip so it lands straight ahead at a “12 o’clock” position. The stone put is like an Olympic shot put, where competitors hurl a heavy river stone as far as possible. In the Scottish hammer throw competitors stand stationary and whirl a metal ball attached to a long wooden shaft around their head before releasing it backward for maximum distance. And there’s more, but you get the idea. And what would a Scottish gathering be without bagpipers and drummers, in full ceremonial dress marching across the field, which commences with the Chieftan’s Parade. Add in some foot races and Highland dancing and you’ve got a real hootenanny.

King Charles in full Scottish gear
But of course, what caught my eye this past week was the shot of King Charles in full Scottish kit attending the games - and part of his attire is always hand knitted kilt hose held up by a red garter. This year he wore ‘green’ (see photo above) but in past years he’s also worn red and navy blue - I particularly like the ‘red’ stockings ♥️.

who knits the King’s hose?
The British Monarchy awards what is referred to as ‘Royal Warrants’ to makers of their clothing and also foodstuffs that they regularly use. It’s the ne-plus-ultra of endorsements; the idea being that, if it’s fit for the King, why then it’s fit for all. While several other European monarchies - Sweden, Denmark and Belgium grant their own equivalents of “Purveyor to the Court” - the United Kingdom is the only country that has current Royal Warrants awarded specifically for the bespoke craft of hand-knitted goods as well as hand-finished, hand-crafted knitwear.

The British Royal Household has roughly 800 warrant holders ranging from local artisans to global brands like Aston Martin and Twinings. To earn a Royal Warrant, a company typically must have a commercial relationship with the Royal Household for a least five years. The goods and services are not provided for free; all transactions are strictly commercial. Currently, there are only two Royal Warrants awarded to concerns that employ traditional hand-knitting, hand-cabling, and hand-linking craftsmanship: one to Wendy Keith Designs and the other to Corgi Hosiery.

Wendy Keith Designs

Wendy Keith Designs was first awarded a Royal Warrant when the current King was a Prince. The Cornwall-based company employs artisans across the UK who strictly use traditional four-needle techniques to create bespoke, hand-knitted shooting stockings, kilt hose, and sweaters.

Wendy’s story..

Over forty years ago, Wendy Keith was asked to mend a pair of men’s shooting stockings. She grimaced at the prospect. The given pair had shrunk in a 30% [i.e, warm] wash, and the wool had ‘matted’ – but the experience gave Wendy an idea. That idea has blossomed into a highly successful and creative business with satisfied clients all over the world for over 40 years. She began by sourcing a few hand-knitters who had knitted ‘sailors socks’ close to the dock-yards at sea -ports such as Gosport, during the Second World War. This took time and great patience to achieve the quality required by the perfectionist. With an instinctive and deep love of the countryside Wendy combined her flair for design, and her commercial experience, to become a market leader in the production of hand-knitted shooting stockings, accessories and other distinctive country knitwear with a choice of yarns such as wool/mix (machine wash) to the wonderfully sensuous ‘Hint of Cashmere’ Baby Alpaca Possum/Merino from New Zealand and Extra Fine Merino from Australia

Her Royal Warrant is displayed on her website, but in good British form, she doesn’t mention her knitting for the King except to say:

Not withstanding the temptation over the years to source abroad, Wendy always insisted that ‘Flying the British Flag’ is vital to the future of her business. In 2014, Wendy has again extended her British Organic Collections, and include Rare British Sheep Breeds. The Award for the Best Organic Collection at Olympia in 2010, was sourced with the kind permission of the then HRH Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, from their own organic Sheep at Highgrove Home Farm, Gloucestershire.

I’d love to be a fly-on-the-wall listening to the conversation between Charles’ valet when he orders socks from Wendy… “Sir, what color will the King be wearing this year?” 💂🏻 🇬🇧

Corgi Hosiery

Similarly, Corgi Hosiery, a knitwear and hosiery manufacturer, was granted a Royal Warrant in 1989 by the then-Prince of Wales. Based in a Welsh mining village, Corgi is renowned for its hand-cabled knitwear and luxury cashmere socks, utilizing century-old hand-knitting machines alongside master craftsmen who painstakingly hand-link the seams. If the granting of their Royal Warrant is more recent, the company was founded back in 1892.

Rhys Jones began producing thigh-high woollen socks for local coal miners in 1892. Still in Carmarthenshire, Wales we design and make the very best socks, knitwear and accessories, hand-crafted using natural yarns such as wool, cotton and cashmere. It’s all done in-house. We are best known for our socks ….

Corgi got its start with hand knitters, but today most of the stockings are made one-by-one on sock machines and hand-linked.

Both Wendy Keith Design and Corgi offer custom-made pieces and well within the range of affordability. Take a look at their websites. Corgi offers 45 cashmere colors even. Christmas is only 141 days away. 🎅🏻🎄

knit your own kilt hose
If you want to knit your own kilt hose, check out ravelry.com - there are lots of patterns to choose from….

A new ‘Whirl’ feature
I love cartoons and have long been an admirer and collector of Helen Hokinson’s output. She worked during the 1940-50s mostly for The New Yorker magazine. She poked fun at the eccentricities and privileged status of upper class women who lived primarily on the Upper East Side of New York; a comparable British cartoonist is Annie Tempest who works under the byline, Tottering-By-Gently, since 1993 for (UK) Country Life magazine. Who doesn’t like a giggle now and then, so here goes…

W o o l - B e i n g

cathycarron©2026Aug

I thought I had this week’s write-up about innovative hand knitting designers was in the bag and then 💥 Vogue magazine comes out today with a fascinating article, “Inside the Neo Knitwear Boom,” about hand knitting ideas that are melding with larger production models. I am still going to include the designer I was originally going to feature, but let’s look at what Vogue has to say first….

technical innovation driven by hand knitting
The details of being a hand knitter can become so absorbing that one might overlook what’s happening in the wider design world and how hand knitting itself is influencing fashion. For sure, technology is pushing the ball forward. It’s been observed that in recent years ...

a growing cohort of designers who put knitwear at the center of their creative practice has emerged, challenging preconceptions about knitwear and filling demand for pieces that combine craft with technical innovation.

This focus is being driven by a “structural shift in luxury retail as shoppers swap logos and fleeting tends for tactile, long-lasting craftsmanship.” Luxury knitwear sales are up across the board, while demand for premium yarns, like cashmere — especially Italian-sourced fibers — is surging. Much of this shift can be traced to hand knitting — its cozy feel, old-fashioned charm, versatility and good ‘fashion’ value.

Nick Tran, head of buying and merchandising for Dover Street Market Paris said, “There’s definitely a rise in interest around knitwear in general at the moment, both traditional and experimental.” He’s referring to design, but the article emphasizes that this includes both hand knitting and technological innovation. He posits that:

in the wake of the athleisure boom over the past decade, which has featured a lot of synthetic fabrics, the old-fashioned charm of knitwear feels refreshing — and worth the price. “After the boom of hoodies and sweatshirts, knitwear offers better value and can help you feel more dressed up, while retaining an ease of wear,” he says, adding that knitwear can provide a better value proposition than ready-to-wear.

Many of designers mentioned in the article are experimenting with machine knitting. One is Cecile Tulkens, a London based-designer known for her gansey knits (a fisherman sweater, traditionally hand-knitted, but hers are finely-machined). Tulkens’ designs are clearly informed by traditional hand knitted motifs - for a gansey, that would be a horizontally patterned yoke - albeit she inserts her own name into the top of her ganseys in picot-fashion. To be honest, it’s hard to tell whether her ‘Tulken’ sweater below is ‘camp’ or marketing.

Pillings (Tokyo)
For hand knitters, the most intriguing designer mentioned would be Pillings (Tokyo). Founder Ryota Murakami employs 100 hand knitters - mostly, if not all women, who are a community of knitters called Atelier K in Kobe, Japan. He explains the partnership between designer and knitters:

The initial (sweater design) concepts come from the Pillings team, but throughout the making process, we actively incorporate the ideas, experience, and creativity of the knitters themselves. Rather than simply commissioning them, we develop each garment together through an ongoing exchange of ideas.

challenges for designers & opportunities for hand knitters
Nothing ever stays the same and that goes for knitwear markets as well. Italian yarn, the gold standard in the industry, gets increasingly expensive because of economic and geopolitical pressures, not to mention increasing demand for Italian fiber. Staffing can pose problems as well. For brands that use hand knitters, an aging workforce is a real concern:

“Finding ways to pass these techniques on to the next generation has become one of our central concerns,” says Pillings’s Murakami. “I think more people need to know about the profession of being a hand-knitter, and it needs to become a career that people genuinely aspire to.” He hopes his work for Pillings will spark more interest in knitting as a viable career.

So for hand knitters out there, there’s actual employment by being just a knitter! Over the years, I have had a number of people contact me asking if they can do my sample knitting so I know there are folks out there who just want to knit. Sounds like a project for someone to organize? Calling all hand knitters….

So hand knitting continues to influence beyond the sphere of hobbyists and is doing so in many countries too. But, if you can access it, do read the Vogue article in its entirety; it’s a fascinating overview. Not mentioned in the Vogue article, but within the sphere of hand knitting innovation, is also the Swedish design company, HODAKOVA.

HODAKOVA
Recently, flipping through a European magazine - can’t remember which - this image of a ‘mitten dress’ popped up, which I thought was wildly amusing. I tore the page out - it’s a HODAKOVA creation.

The Swedish design company HODAKOVA was founded in 2021 by Ellen Hodakova Larsson and located in Stockholm:

HODAKOVA converts discarded materials of finest quality into unique pieces, crafting a narrative of time with methods from the past. We challenge conventional design practices while paying homage to repurposed material origins by converting fabric, textiles and objects. Our method stands as testament to the lifelong passage of time.

People have conserved and reused materials since time immemorial, more out of need and utility. But, recycling as an ‘art’ or as a statement has been a long-running trend since the outgrowth of the 1970s ecological movement. At the very least, reconstruing material does push creativity forward, in some areas more than others. Fibers especially can be reshaped, recut and contorted to create new and exciting and provocative ideas.

HODOKOVA recyles all sorts of fibrous materials, not just knitting, and pushes the envelope in every direction possible, like in this series of ‘carpet clothes’.

It’s worth taking a spin through their Instagram link here to see the thinking going on.
What I also like is that their Scandinavian inspiration bubbles up in the classic Nordic sweaters casually thrown on over more abstract modern pieces - the zig and the zag of it all.

HODOKOVA’s mixing of traditional Scandinavian sweater shapes and stitch patterns grounds the collection but allows for a certain design cacophony to occur - can I say that? - in with the old, in with the new! It’s all about ideas, ideas, & ideas.

THE END-PAPER
’love the look on British Actor David Jonsson (full name David Jonsson-Ejimonye) at the 46th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards - he’s “wearing a pink (or light mauve) fuzzy/mohair-style Louis Vuitton cardigan over a white shirt with a striped tie, paired with green silk cargo pants.” It’s all about the juxtaposition of the gauzy mohair with the shiny pants fabric. Makes me want to make a dash for MOHAIR 🏃‍♀️

William Lee’s story is one of the great forgotten episodes in the history of technology. Four centuries before artificial intelligence sparked fears of unemployment, Lee invented a machine that threatened an entire skilled workforce. The arguments made against his invention would sound remarkably familiar today with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In 1589, William Lee, a clergyman from the village of Calverton in Nottinghamshire, invented what became known as the stocking frame—the world’s first successful knitting machine. Lee lived during Queen Elizabeth I’s reign in the heart of what was becoming England’s knitting country. Previously, most hose were made of woven cloth. But, around this period, knitted stockings were starting to replace woven cloth hose as fashionable dress. Until then, every knitted stocking in Europe had been produced entirely by hand. Knitting was slow, highly skilled work, a labor-intensive cottage industry. A good knitter might produce only one fine stocking every week or two. So, there was an obvious commercial incentive to increase production.

the myth and the man
There are many stories and theories about what spurred Lee to invent the frame knitting machine. One was that he was trying to get the attention of a possible girlfriend - the love angle, but it turns out he was already married. Another posited that Lee was banished from his university because he was married, but it seems that in fact, Cambridge actually did allow students to be married at the time. And furthermore, nothing in the surviving records noted Lee’s dramatic dismissal from Cambridge University. In the end, it seems the simplest explanation was also the most plausible. Lee completed his education, entered the Church, became a country curate, and then devoted himself to solving a mechanical problem that fascinated him.

What is acknowledged, is that Lee was exceptionally well-educated and mechanically gifted. Rather than being motivated by romance, he likely saw an economic opportunity: if the motions of knitting could be analyzed and replicated mechanically, stockings could be produced faster, more consistently, and in greater quantities. In other words, he was behaving much like an engineer or entrepreneur today—studying a repetitive, skilled task and asking, “Can this process be mechanized, could a machine do this instead?”

In many ways he was doing exactly what AI researchers attempt today - observe skilled human work, break it into repeatable steps and build a machine capable of reproducing those steps. Lee’s invention multiplied that productivity many times over while producing remarkably even stitches. The machine itself was an astonishing feat of engineering. Hundreds of tiny hooked needles worked in perfect sequence, creating loops exactly as a human hand would—but far faster and with extraordinary consistency. Modern knitting machines still operate on the same basic principle.

but it’s never that easy…
As any inventor would today, William Lee wanted to protect his invention and so went to Queen Elizabeth I to seek a royal warrant for patent protection. Patents were not simply intellectual property. They were economic licenses that could make an invention commercially viable. Moreover, obtaining the Queen’s approval would help in financing the development of his frame knitter.

Lee got his chance to demonstrate his machine before Queen Elizabeth I, who was reportedly impressed by its ingenuity—but nonetheless, was deeply troubled by its implications. According to later accounts, she declined to grant him a patent, saying words to this effect:

“Thou aimest high, Master Lee. Consider what thy invention could do to my poor subjects. It would assuredly bring them to ruin by depriving them of employment.”

Whether these are her exact words is impossible to prove, but contemporaneous records leave little doubt about her reasoning. England’s textile industry employed thousands. If one machine could replace many knitters, what would happen to apprentices, widows, cottagers, stocking knitters, and rural families dependent on piecework?

These were not foolish concerns. They were serious questions about technological unemployment, much like that of today when all sorts of businesses are facing the onslaught of AI. The Queen refused Lee and he returned home disappointed.

determined and driven
If the Queen’s response was in fact accurate as to her concerns about the employment of hand knitters, somehow Lee wasn’t listening or ‘didn’t get the memo’ as we say today, or he just thought the Queen was dissatisfied with the coarseness and quality of the product that his machine made. So he set out to improve his machine to impress her - to be able to make finer silk stockings, the ones preferred by the aristocracy and of course the Queen. Surely, this would persuade her? But it did not. Elizabeth refused him again.

try, try again
Like most dogged inventors Lee was not one to give up. After Elizabeth’s death in 1603, Lee appealed to her successor, King James I, but he was no more enthusiastic. And without royal backing, Lee would not be able to establish any large-scale manufacturing. But somehow, word got around as to what he was up to and he eventually accepted an invitation from the French King Henry IV, who hoped to establish a luxury silk industry in France.

For a brief moment, it appeared Lee’s fortunes had changed. He moved to Rouen with several of his workers and his precious machines. Then disaster struck. Henry IV was assassinated in 1610 and without his patron, Lee lost his financial support. It is said that Lee himself died soon afterward—probably in poverty.

his legacy and idea lived on
Lee himself never became wealthy, but his frame knitting machine survived. Some of his workers eventually returned to England carrying knowledge of the machine. Over the following century, stocking-frame workshops spread across Nottinghamshire, Leicester, Derby, and eventually much of Britain. The Midlands became one of the world’s great knitting centers. And by the eighteenth century, tens of thousands of people actually worked with stocking frames. The irony is profound; The machine originally feared for destroying employment ultimately created an entirely new industry.

the AI parallel: Were Queen Elizabeth’s fears well-founded?
William Lee’s story feels astonishingly modern because the underlying questions have barely changed. In 1589, people asked:

If a machine can knit, what becomes of knitters?

Today we ask:

If AI can write, code, translate, design, diagnose, or compose music, what becomes of knowledge workers?

Although thousands of jobs were eventually created with the introduction of the frame knitter, not everyone benefited. Mechanization changed who worked, how they worked, and how much they earned. Master knitters who once controlled their own pace increasingly became wage workers. Factory owners gained power. Production accelerated. Competition increased.

Eventually, in the early nineteenth century, economic hardship led some framework knitters—the people operating descendants of Lee’s machines—to join the Luddite protests, smashing machinery they believed threatened their livelihoods - a story for another day….

In the short term, the Queen was largely right. Technology did displace workers, disrupted communities, and concentrated economic gains. The pain was real and unevenly distributed. In the long term, however, history suggests a more complex outcome. The stocking frame transformed textile production, lowered costs, expanded markets, and ultimately supported a much larger knitting industry than hand production alone could have sustained. New occupations emerged—in machine building, maintenance, factory management, design, and distribution—even as older ways of working declined.

The lesson is not that technology always benefits everyone, nor that fears of displacement are unfounded. Rather, it is that societies repeatedly face the challenge of managing transitions. The key questions are less about whether technology should exist than about how its benefits are shared, how workers are retrained, and how institutions adapt.

William Lee never lived to see the world his invention created. Yet his story reminds us that debates over automation, productivity, and employment are not unique to the age of AI. They have accompanied transformative inventions for centuries, from the knitting frame to the steam engine to today’s intelligent software. The names and technologies change, but the underlying tension between innovation and disruption remains remarkably constant.

AI compares itself to Lee’s invention 🥸 and the similarities are striking.

William Lee’s Knitting Frame Artificial Intelligence
Automated skilled manual work Automates skilled cognitive work
Initially resisted Frequently resisted
Threatened established trades Threatens established professions
Required workers to adapt Requires workers to adapt
Increased productivity enormously Increases productivity enormously
Created industries nobody foresaw Like to create industries we cannot yet foresee

how hand knitting ‘employment’ changed…
With the advent of the frame knitting machine, hand knitting as a profession greatly diminished if not disappeared almost entirely, and became more of a hobby than a profession that people did in their homes. And as the 19th century Industrial Revolution approached, hand knitting, as well as other needle crafts would boom once again with the growth of a vibrant middle class, leaving people, especially women more time to pursue hobbies like knitting, fostering the growth of wool shops and the manufacturing of needles and other accessories, which in turn created employment in these new spheres.

ADDENDUM: the depiction of William Lee in art
Years ago, I became enthralled by the tale of William Lee when I stumbled upon this Victorian era engraving on Ebay. I was intrigued and had to have it. As it turned out, this particular copy had hung on the wall of a textile manufacturer’s home in Rhode Island for decades; it was in pretty good shape, but with the help of an art dealer friend, I had it sent out for conservation to get it cleaned and it returned a bit brighter. This was a mass produced print, distributed rather widely through the United States and the United Kingdom as well; I was told the Cambridge University (UK), William Lee’s alma mater, also has a copy.

On my version of the print, the bottom inscription reads:

The Origin of the Stocking Loom
William Lee of St. John’s College Cambridge was in the year 1589 expelled the university for marrying contrary to the statues having no fortunes the wife was obliged to contribute towards their joint support by knitting and Lee while watching the motions of her fingers conceived the idea of imitating those movements by machine.

Most likely, this was a Victorian fabrication of the Lee’s invention story. As I mentioned previously, there’s been a lot of myth-making about what inspired Lee to invent the frame knitter. There is no good evidence that William Lee was "fired" or expelled from Cambridge because he was married. In fact, there is no contemporary evidence that he was expelled at all. Modern textile historians have revisited the surviving records and have concluded that much of Lee's early biography is uncertain. One scholarly review notes that the university and ecclesiastical records do not conclusively prove even some of the traditional details, such as exactly where he served as curate or whether he was married. Alas!

And finally, William Lee himself is surprisingly elusive in the historical record, but the technology he created is documented in extraordinary detail through patents, surviving frames, guild records, and the vast knitting industry that grew from it. In a sense, the machine, the frame knitter, has left a clearer biography than its inventor.

ADD-ON
’just days after this was posted, July 26 - the Wall Street Journal, this Big Companies Are Starting to Hire Again, Defying Predictions of AI Wipeout…but if course, this is just the beginning of the AI era - buckle up!

custom hand knits in the Big Apple 🍎

When next New York City, I am going to make a point of stopping off at Old Stone Trade. I am intrigued by its retail model, which is that of a custom atelier offering hand-made and exclusive goods. One can buy items from their website, but they also beckon customers to come have a look-see, a personal fitting or consultation.

We invite you to schedule an in-person appointment to explore works by our artisans, have a fitting, and discuss bespoke commissions. Virtual appointments are available.The Old Stone Trade Studio is located in an elegant 1909 apartment in Manhattan’s Upper East Side Historic District.

Of course, what caught my eye were the hand-knits by Olive MacLeod (Fair Isles hats and vests) and Miki Knits (cropped sweaters).

Miki Zanini of Miki Knits, “a Milan-based hand-knitter, crafts timeless pieces that exude warmth and care. Her passion for knitting began during summers with her Swedish grandmother, who introduced her to the craft.” She knits simple forms in luxurious fibers, which seems to be the model for many production hand knitters today: Crafting x Luxury.

Do look at Old Stone Trade’s knitwear shop, where a half dozen other knitters are featured. Custom knits and clothing in general seem to be a current trend, both in the USA and Great Britain. It’s nice to see that some people can afford it and are willing to have something personally made.

look who’s got stash
Perusing the Wall Street Journal last week, I had to chuckle when I came across the story and listing of “Grey’s Anatomy” actress Katherine Heigl’s 25-acre estate in the Utah mountains for $10.6 million. She has a craft/stash room and she loves neon pink yarn 🩷 my own fave. Very homey, although I’d need a task light over one of the chairs and not so many bright lights overhead. We’ll take a pass. 😂

hand knit SALES
Has your email inbox been flooded as much as mine has, with seemingly everything on sale? I don’t need a thing but I love to look. Here are some hand knitted items on offer at the moment that could be tempting … unless you might attempt to make them yourself….

Namu is located in Houston, Texas, and has a nice sensibility for unusual hand made items, as self-described:

Namu Shop is a retail concept intended for the discerning individual. We are founded on the idea of regional modernism, curating selections that draw from each designer’s unique perspectives and influences. The name reflects our commitment to timeless and thoughtful design that stands the test of time - like a tree.

This bulbous-shaped hand knitted and felted cross shoulder bag by Cecilie Telle could be used throughout the year even though one might read wool to be ‘just for cold weather’. Hand made in England, it’s crisp and modern looking. This is Telle’s signature bag shape.…

Envoy of Belfast
During Covid, I took to shopping in Europe via mail because it was not only easier but they offered a different mix of makers, or shops would pick a different mix of things from designers’ collections than would an American store. Orders from Scotland and Northern Ireland would get to my house within a week, while Covid had put stateside businesses practically at a standstill - remember that? The urge to impulse buy was fierce, but that has since been tamped down by the latest tariff regime. During Covid these taxes weren’t nonexistent, but nowadays expect to get a notification from DHL or FedEx of the tariff surcharge - but at the moment sale items might make things that much more affordable. I have three favorite Scotland / Ireland shops, one of which is Envoy of Belfast, where this Dries Van Noten hand knitted cotton vest is on sale (albeit ‘made in China’). Pairing the melange vest with a printed skirt is a DVN hallmark :

Here’s a deal - a Casey-Casey black hand knitted t-shirt vest also at Envoy of Belfast. Casey-Casey has been one of my ‘Covid finds’. It’s a French design firm more known for their dresses, shirts and coats in over-sized shapes, rather than hand knits. But here’s one that’s a deal.

I had to add the following striped top, first because it’s on sale and second it was hand made - but it is crocheted rather than Moda Operandi’s schizophrenic description of it as ‘knit’ in the heading, but then ‘crocheted’ in the description. I find it baffling that design houses and retailers can’t tell knitting from crocheting 🤷🏼‍♀️. There-oughta-be-a-law. 🤣 It happens a lot. Anyhow, this striped cotton top, crocheted in Australia, looks to be summertime ‘cool’ … as is its current price….

the backward vendor
Chic-shop Worthwhile (South Carolina) has the rarely scene stateside collection the backward vendor of London. Its hand knitted ‘corner hat’ is now on sale! Curiously, it’s made of ‘banana 🍌 yarn’ mixed with wool mohair….

not-on-sale but…
…rather cute, if possibly unnerving, to have this little black sheep constantly knocking into you as you walk. At least you’ll never be alone. 🐑 Baaaa, Baaaa…

purls-of-wisdom
And finally, our days at the beach in Avalon, New Jersey, last week were brightened when the cousins-by-marriage showed up on the porch one day. I was knitting kid sweaters and they pulled out their knitting as well and we did a show’n’tell of sorts. Sisters Kara and Ellie, both in their 30s, just learned to knit during these past few years and oh, boy are they not only enthusiastic about what they are daily knit-conjuring, but they are really, really excellent knitters as well. I loved their energy. I was fascinated by some of their equipment and accessories as I am more of a barebones girl in that regard. And in the course of our chat, they told me about their favorite shop - they hail from Pennsylvania - Purls-of-Wisdom - ‘sounds like a road trip !?

summer bling
Let’s start with something you don’t need but gosh, it-would-be-fun-to-have. Everyone needs summer bling - casual jewelry that you don’t have to take off until it practically falls off come September’s Labor Day. Tie one of Clinton Hill Cashmere’s beaded KNITTER bracelets on and look out waves, here you come!

buzzy markers 🐝
To me, knitting markers are just utilitarian objects. I use a lot and lose a lot. Just stare at the floor in my house for a minute or so and you’ll find at least one or two; the vacuum cleaner exists to suck these babies up. So, I like them to be inexpensive and shaped so that they are unobtrusive when I am knitting. No funky tassels, beads or distracting elements for me; I am quite satisfied with simple plastic rounds, which I tend to buy in bulk. However, I could make an exception for Camellia Fiber Company’s sweet-as-honey hexagons reminiscent of a beehive. Maybe I’d take more care about losing a marker that’s 14K gold 🤷🏼‍♀️

the ultimate stitch holders for knitting ITR
I’ll be honest with you, I am unfamiliar with this product idea, but as one who solely knits ITR (in-the-round seamlessly), I am intrigued:

Knitting Barber Cords are colorful silicone stitch holders, perfect for putting sleeve or body stitches on hold as you’re knitting a seamless sweater. These flexible tubes are designed to slip onto the point of your needles for easy transfer of live stitches from needles to Knitting Barber Cords and back again.

Each tin includes three cords: one measuring 60″ and two measuring 30″ each. Both The Woolly Thistle and The Hillsborough Yarn Shop carry them.

And whirling about, I found another version at Jimmy Beans called Minnie & Purl ‘Purl Strings’

… 2mm flexible rubber cords are hollow so they fit snugly over the tip of most needle sizes. Once attached, your stitches will slide with ease from your needle onto the Purl String and back again. Perfect for trying on your knitting without the need for waste yarn and darning needles! The Sweater Plus Pack pack includes 3 cords (two in 1 meter length, and one in 2.5 meters length) securely stored in a handy screw-top tin.

One tin includes 3 cords(two in 1 meter length and one in 2.5 meters length).

Seemingly, great stitch holders and I love the idea that they can be used to hold stitches while you try on a work-in-progress. It’s just something every seamless knitter does!

very clever yarn gauge
I first came across the Katrinkles knitting accessory company awhile back, but I never felt compelled to spring for anything. I already had stitch gauges and most of the items on offer. Their products were cute but I wasn’t sure how useful they’d be for me so I always passed. That was years ago. But recently, I came across some new - at least to me - Katrinkles items, which I think are not only cute but clever and even useful, such as their ‘yarn gauge’ and the formula for doing a Kitchener Stitch, the latter of which I can never remember 🤷🏼‍♀️so I’ve written it down in my Imac notes folder. For those of you unfamiliar with the Kitchener stitch, it is most often used to weave together the toe tips of socks. It was developed during WWI, when knitting socks for the troops was all the rage; Kitchener was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who came to prominence for his imperial campaigns, his involvement in the Second Boer War and his central role in the First World War.

don’t need one - but maybe I do 😂
I bought my yarn swift - which has wound my skeins into balls for 42 years! at The Woolgatherer in Washington, D.C. - see my previous post. Occasionally, the twine holding the slats together wears out, but it’s easy to restring. For sure, I expect my swift to outlast me. But when I saw this paduk wood version on the Knitpicks site, I immediately got swift-lust! The wood color is gorgeous - you’d almost want to keep it extended out as a piece of sculpture, whether you’d need to use it or not. Mine is useful but not such a looker so I tuck it away in a drawer when not in use. Gift it to yourself : )

stuff it with wool!
Over the years, I haven’t made too many toys - some small Easter bunnies, a Tom Cat from Beatrix Potter, etc., and I’ll admit I used polyester filling. I don’t know why I never thought of using wool, which just makes so much sense. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I have long admired and bought the German brand Steiff stuffed toys for presents, precisely for the handcrafting and the fact that they are all wool - well, maybe; Today, Steiff is also using synthetics for some items, but they have continued to offer (more expensive) all wool characters as well. So it’s great that the Woolly Thistle is packaging wool for this purpose.

anything to keep stitches from running away
This is one product I thought I could do without, as I am careful to push the stitches back enough on the needle so they don’t fall off. That said, lately, I am finding in my travels, I am getting jostled lots and stuff happens, I.e., stitches fall off. Someone grabbed my bag to help me get my bag down from the overhead bin on a plane recently and inadvertently grabbed my knitting and pulled - eeek! So I made a point of purchasing these fun rubber ‘cupcake and tulip’ toppers or ‘needle guards’ from Beautiful Knitters on our recent pitstop in London - but the shop isn’t shipping to the USA anymore or so they said … so perhaps some American shop will bring them stateside. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Although not as entertaining, these rubber ‘stitch stoppers’ by Cocoknits from Row House look like they’d also do the trick. I’d definitely give them a go.

… soft and flexible cylinders made of durable EVA foam, in a variety of sizes with an opening in the middle, that accommodates knitting needles from size 0 (or the cord of an interchangeable needle set) to a US 15 (or 2mm to 10mm)

I like that they go right over the entire needle and not just cover the tip. It looks like they stay on.

What I wouldn’t recommend are those needle guards that look like ‘traffic cones’; They can be easily pulled off or the plastic cones dry out and they fall off. Oh dear, the travails of knitters. 😅

wool but not for knitting…
I use dryer balls all the time and I do think they help to keep things ‘fluffed’ up. The ones I have are commercially made, so it was nice to see a handmade, MAINE-made, version. Bartlettyarns Wool Dryer Balls are a natural eco-friendly replacement for laundry dryer sheets. Each ball, made individually by hand, uses 2 ounces of wool. Pop them in the dryer to help remove static and soften your clothes.

what I ordered…
I would buy all of these products discovered on ‘my whirl’ across the web. The KNITTER bracelet is tempting. I love bling. The gold honeycomb stitch markers are stunning, but as mentioned, I am rather careless with markers - but wouldn’t those sparkly gold honeycombs make a fun necklace laced onto cording? Talk about summer bling! I was also delighted to find a source for wool stuffing; I have three grandchildren now and for sure this product will come in handy making toys. The color silicone stitch holders are tempting - but what color to choose? The paduk wood swift is also stunning - but I already have one. The Katrinkles yarn gauge and Kitchener Stitch instructions are fun - maybe someone will slip them into my Christmas stocking this year? And finally, the rubber stitch stoppers - I just picked up those ‘cupcakes & roses’ in London, so don’t need those at the moment either. So in the end - drumroll 🥁 - I ordered the silicone stitch holders - I’m curious as to how they would work!

what we didn’t see in Mallorca this past month…
Yarn! - but there was evidence of wool…
We just returned from our fifth sojourn to Mallorca which is well-worth visiting and revisiting. It’s a bucolic and charming Spanish island located in the midst of the Mediterranean between Spain and the northern Africa coastline. The air is comfortably warm, but there always seems to be a calming island breeze that wafts over the valley where Valldemossa resides, the village where we stayed. We find no reason to leave the village except to sample other restaurants and while I planned to hunt down ‘yarn & knitting’ - alas, I didn’t. Too comfy, too lazy. But we did tour the olive-growing estate called, SONMO. This agro-business has a shop in town which we visited on our last visit, so we made a point of signing up for the hike-and-lunch this time around.

Our tour guide explained how olives are grown and the history of estate, which goes back hundreds of years. Some of the olive tree trunks were 1,700 to 2,000 years old. They graft new strains on top of the old trunk and they encourage the sheep to chomp away at the older strains of growth that occur at the base of the trees, so that the trees’ energy is focussed on the new strain growth at the top. They have goats too - which of course eat everything and they will even climb up into the trees to eat the newer growth too, which is a no-no. So there’s sheep and naughty goats to keep everything in order and hence there is wool production on the island. To date, they have been using this wool to create blankets. Check out their website here - and of course they sell olive oil as well. In fact, oil olive and almonds are sold all over the island. I asked our estate guide whether they have plans to produce knitting wool and she said there’s talk of it - so stay tuned.

Once upon a time, there was a yarn shop, The Woolgatherer, situated in a townhouse on the edge of Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. It was home to both the shop and its owner - the cantankerous, artistic, loving, bitchy, warm-hearted, concerned, lonely, talented, sweet-snarky, hard-working, generous, interested and interesting Charles Higginbotham. If there was ever to be a Hall-of-Fame for yarn shop owners, Charles would not only be admitted but would for sure be the ‘King-of-the-Hall’. I met Charles in the early 1980s and began to work for him out of necessity; if I wanted to knit during the years just after I got out of college, I needed to make more money to buy yarn.

After college graduation, I moved to Washington, D.C., to start a job as an assistant in the Economics Department at the Brookings Institution, an influential think tank, then and even today. It was said to be an honor to be chosen as one of about ten research assistants hired annually to work with its well-known staff economists: Joe Pechman, Henry Aaron, Arthur Okun, Alice Rivlin, Barry Bosworth, Charles Schultze, among others were there during my year in residence. But with the honor of working at Brookings came a rather paltry annual salary of $9,000 (1980 dollars). I had received far higher offers from banks in New York, but chose what I thought would be a unique experience. My take-home pay was $650 per month, which had to cover monthly expenses of $180 rent, $90 student loan payment, and then there was food and clothing - not much was left over for anything else. So I made my way to The Woolgatherer in hopes of landing a part-time job that would give me access to yarn. Charles offered me Saturdays, 9 to 5, which I accepted without hesitation.

Saturdays 9-to-5
Charles’s shop was conveniently located for me; I shared a townhouse with two roommates located on the northwest side of Dupont Circle and The Woolgatherer was on the southwest side of the Circle. It took about fifteen minutes to walk to the shop.

In many ways, it was just a simple ‘shop job’. I helped customers calculate how much yarn they would need for a given project and untangled myriad balls of yarn: a combined ‘knitting first aid’ nurse and sales person, offering advice on yarn, accessories, projects and just about anything else related to the knitting. I also stocked shelves, rang up sales and tidied the shop when the day was done. I don’t recall sitting down at all, which I didn’t mind either. There was always lots to take in with customers coming and going throughout the day. Whereas Charles, as was his prerogative, sat regally on his throne by the front window knitting, commenting on the street life below, while monitoring the comings and goings of the shop. He would get up to assist, but usually only for customers he knew and liked well or who were just entertaining. Often, his friend, Richard - and he was ‘just a friend’ - would sit opposite him, working on needlepoint projects. The two of them would kibitz, laugh and giggle throughout the day. If I remember correctly, Richard wrote obituaries for a local paper. He was a true ‘gentle’ man, cheery, mild-mannered and the perfect foil for Charles’ sharper tongue. Their banter was constant and entertaining … for the most part.

Fashion, fiber and destiny
For all the time I worked for Charles, I had no idea what his background was other than he owned the yarn shop. Years later, I would read that he grew up in Orlando Florida. He …

… was born to the late Vertis and Bernice (Curry) Higginbotham in Owensville, Ind. He grew up in Orlando, Fla., and was a graduate of Boone High School in 1959. He graduated from Jones College in 1964 and went into the Army for 3 years. He returned to Jacksonville, Fla., and became a dress buyer for May Company. Then he moved to Washington D.C., to be a buyer for Jelleffs where he learned the basics of needlepoint during the recuperation from surgery. He joined the staff at The Woolgatherer and after 5 years of intensive study he became a master knitter and fiber authority and then bought the shop itself.

Having read this description of him many years after the fact, it certainly explained his innate ability and interest in fashion and fibers. Charles loved to design and relished a design challenge. I recall one particular commission he knitted for a Philadelphian woman, which was an A-line, mid-length shirt dress with a pleated skirt in taupe-colored, mink yarn. The gauge was a painstaking eight stitches per inch. It was an exquisite garment eventually selling in the $2,000-$3,000 (1982) range.

Charles stocked the shop like a painter forming his painting palate. There were the staples, i.e., standard yarn weights, but he also ordered a vast array of colorful and textured novelty yarns. This was before the homegrown, hand-dyed yarn craze that gives interest to shop stocks today. His selections were interesting and dramatic. Much of it was European-sourced. It’s what drew the public in. And Charles liked customers who wanted to dive into his design-oriented end of the pool. He relished those moments.

The Woolgatherer had a buzz and was busy not only because it was hosted by its knowledgeable and talented owner with a great yarn inventory, but because it was ‘Washington, D.C.’ busy. The center of national government drew in all sorts of politicians, lawyers and lobbyists and even celebrities and entertainers. It wasn’t uncommon to for us to assist ballerinas who were performing at the Kennedy Center in choosing yarn for their leggings or for politician’s wives to drop by for their campaign trail yarn dose; Senator Ed Muskie’s wife bought ‘mink yarn’ to make mittens for cold Maine winters. You could never tell who’d walk through the door next.

When ‘gay’ was different
It was hard not to want to be friends with Charles as he was very well-mannered, charming and affable. However, I was well aware that I was his employee and was careful not to overstep my bounds in this regard. I was also 20 years younger than he was and to be honest, I was a bit afraid of him; he had a wicked sense of humor and a sharp tongue. I was on guard. He was also gay and seemed to live in a world totally different from my own.

Up until then, I had never really met or known a gay man - women, yes! - I attended Smith College after all - but Charles was my first gay male relationship, if you will. In fact, during this period in Washington, Dupont Circle had a high concentration of gay male inhabitants. However, back then, gay life seemed ‘quieter’ or perhaps it was more underground compared to today. Although the gay rights movement had started with the Stonewall Riots in 1969, the early 1980s were still pre-AIDS and non-marital-rights days. Charles for one didn’t rally to the cause or at least he didn’t overtly call out his sexuality. He didn’t dress outrageously or even ‘arty’, though he could have, given his interest in fashion. He wasn’t really political or at least he didn’t bring it to the shop. His type of gay didn’t wave a rainbow flag, no tattoos - nothing. However, he didn’t hide his gayness either. He just wanted to be like anyone else. He dressed and acted like everyone else. But if being bitingly witty was ‘gay’ in any way, Charles had that nailed.

Charles’s gay life popped up when he would tell us that he had a ‘new friend’ and occasionally that ‘new friend’ would drop into the shop. And before long, Charles would usually start knitting the ‘new friend’ a sweater. But seemingly before he could finish anything, the ‘new friend’ would have moved on. At one point, Charles lamented his closetful of unfinished sweaters. Over time, it became clear that he was looking for a more long term, meaningful relationship. He desperately wanted to care for someone and for someone to care for him. And for those of us who observed these mini-dramas in the shop, it was hard not to feel his disappointment each time he was abandoned.

Fun and games
Day in and day out, running a shop is pretty routine. Customers needed to be serviced and the shop required maintenance, stocking yarn, straightening (paper!) patterns, etc. But occasionally, when there was a lull in activity, fun and stupid stuff happened. On one of those days, a rainy day, it was pretty quiet, and for a moment, Charles seemed to have disappeared. We thought he went to his apartment upstairs to get something, but then all of a sudden he sprang out of the storage room at the back of the store, dressed in layers of knitted store samples, with a striped hat tipped sideways on his head. He sashayed up the aisle of the store a la Carmen Miranda, Spanish-dancing with invisible castanets, giggling all the way forward. We howled with laughter.

Charles also appreciated the company of males no matter if they were available to him or not - like my boyfriends for instance. He wanted to know all about them. One Saturday, a cop I had dated in college had come to visit, and when he walked into the shop, Charles’s jaw dropped and then he broadly smiled, dimples-deep. Without even knowing R-, Charles launched into welcoming him, by telling R- that he could imagine him in his tall black leather boots and conjured up a Tom-of-Finland fantasy in front of us all. What a riot! What a good chuckle! And who doesn’t like being so adored. Months later, Charles asked me if R- would consider chauffeuring him to a yarn and sheep show at Chester Farms in Charlottesville, VA. And soon enough, the three of us, R- and I in the front seat and Charles sitting in the back, took off like a scene out of Driving Miss Daisy.

After the two and a half hour drive into the countryside, we jumped out of the car and began to walk the farm and show. Charles looked as if he landed from another planet. He was more cosmopolitan than country, but he was smiling ear-to-ear. He was absolutely delighted to get out of the city and I am sure also to have such a handsome chauffeur driving and guiding him during our stay. For me, the highlight of the weekend was watching sheep dogs wrangle a herd of sheep. I am sure I must have bought some yarn, but what I remember most is the hand-carved shepherd’s crook, which I still have to this day. Charles ordered gobs of Chester Farms yarn which the shop began to offer.

And very properly - because Charles had excellent manners - he sent along a thank you note for his weekend trek to the Virginian countryside:

On another occasion, Charles and Richard, his needle-pointing friend who often sat with him in the shop, invited me and another boyfriend, C- to dinner at Richard’s place. Of course, we weren’t going to turn down a dinner invitation, but at the same time, I wasn’t exactly sure what to make of it; I was still his employee, but now we were having a dinner together. Moreover, no one C- and I knew ever had dinner parties except holiday dinners with our parents and now we were being invited to dinner by two gay men, decades older than ourselves, in one of their homes. It was a ‘here goes’ moment; I figured it was just another opportunity for them to appreciate charming and gorgeous male company embodied in C-. I didn’t think it was about me at all. In the end, it turned out to be an elegant and lovely evening and the first and last time I was ever was served or ate sorrel soup, made by Richard from scratch. Still learning, I was.

Generous and gracious
One weekend, my mother came to visit and to see Washington so I made a reservation to have dinner at Bootsie, Winky & Miss Maud, considered one of the hottest restaurants around Dupont Circle in the 1970s and 1980s, and remembered for its whimsical name, elegant atmosphere, and popularity with the city’s social and political crowd. It was often described as one of the quintessential “ladies who lunch” destinations. It was also favored by the neighbor gays and was just a few blocks away from The Woolgatherer. Charles dined there frequently, usually by himself.

If I remember correctly, aside from the restaurant’s crazy-playful name, the outside of the building was painted a light coral-pink, somewhat incongruous amidst the more austere environs of the embassy-filled neighborhood. Within minutes of being seated, the waiter landed two enormous drinks in stemmed glasses on our table, “Elsa Maxwell’s for you both, compliments from the gentleman” - and he pointed to Charles sitting off aways by himself. I really wanted to invite him over, but wasn’t sure how he’d respond, after all I was with my mother. So, we just waved.

It was the first time I had ever had an ‘Elsa Maxwell’ as it was for my mother as well. A classic Maxwell features cucumber vodka, Cointreau, fresh cucumber and lemon juices, agave nectar and a Champagne topper. Neither of us were big drinkers, in fact she was a teetotaler. But nothing held her back from tasting it and I could tell she loved the idea of being ‘treated’. And immediately tasting went to quickly sucking up the bubbly yumminess as if it were just a plain lemonade. By the time, we were ready to leave she was looking whoosey. Indeed, I even had to help her stand up and as I did she looked at me with a sly smile and all but slurred, “I really like those Elsie Maxwells”. Ah naughty Charles.

Learning and advice
At the time, I didn’t realize it, but I was learning a lot from Charles; however, I doubt he knew or even cared. And as time went on, I would ask his opinion on a number of things. When I expressed interest in starting a knitting business, opening a shop, etc. he told me not to do it. Even though he lived in a lovely townhouse cum shop, I had a feeling it was touch and go for him at times. On designing knitwear, he made me want to take more chances, to be bolder, to experiment. Up until that point, I had never had much money, so I was conservative about what I knitted and in the yarns that I chose; I tended not to take chances or to be extravagant because I usually couldn’t afford to. But Charles did take chances, which I observed. When conjuring an idea, he would race to walls of yarn and pull one skein out after the other and place them on the table. Then he’d mix them about to see what colors and textures were resonating with him. It was fun and exciting watching his process. It didn’t hurt that he had great taste and ideas.

And I observed the little things he did that made life more pleasant. Charles lived elegantly and with style. There was an artiness to his approach in all things. Usually, I brought my own lunch to the shop. But one day, he asked if I’d like to try some leftover pasta he had had for dinner the night before. Of course I would! And he went away for a few minutes, returning with the pasta plopped on a gorgeous floral china plate - simplicity meeting the refined.

“bi -e - e -atch”
In a 1983 article, The Craftsman Has Knit His Niche Selling Yarn, The Washington Post published what today would be characterized as a ‘puff piece’ about Charles and his shop. It was a lovely write-up regardless. Nothing was false or it didn’t say anything untrue. And the article ended with a Charles-quote:

Many people will say they're too impatient to learn knitting, when they ought to say I should learn to knit because I'm impatient. The calming sound of the whistling spinning wheel coupled with the feeling of creating something from nothing with their own hands must have a positive effect on them.

But, what was missing from the article was that Charles was more colorful and sassier than the writer could have politely included or even have known. For instance, it wasn’t unusual for Charles to hiss “Bi-i-i-itch” after a difficult customer cleared the shop doorway so she wouldn’t have been able to hear, but we did. We’d all chuckle. But admittedly, after a little more than year-of-Saturdays, his sassiness and even negativity was beginning to grate on me. It was making me tense. I didn’t really fault him for it because I knew he was a good and generous man, but Charles was often lonely. He didn’t say it, but he exuded it. He really wanted to meet someone and was irritable that he hadn’t. It was amusing that The Post article described him as a ‘bachelor’ - how quaint. So I decided to quit. That was it or so I thought.

After about six months away from the shop, Charles called again. He asked me if I’d come back and I did for a period, but I can’t remember for how long. In fact, I had missed him. I never told him why I left in the first place. Why make him sadder than he already was? Also, he seemed to have calmed down. So I was ready for another round of Saturdays.

Time to go
After three years in Washington, I finally packed my bags and headed off to graduate school up north and soon after graduation, got married and moved to New York. When Charles heard the news, he wrote:

Dear C-
Marcia A- was just here and told me the good news. I sit here smiling and thinking of how happy you must be. You have chosen the right one at the right time of your life - and as if that weren’t enough - to live in New York and have all that creative influence at your fingertips. You have earned the right for the very best of all things. I am happy for you.
Kisses on your face. Best to A- and your family, Charles

never forgotten
Ten years later, in the mid-1990s, Charles and I would touch base once again, the last time via letters when I was on my way to London, now with two daughters and a husband, whose job had been transferred to the United Kingdom. I haven’t been able to locate that particular letter but it’s around somewhere.

In 2009, I read that Charles had died - he was 67.

His obituary reads:

His sense of humor and deep study showed him a style of hand knitting that was little known and little used. He taught classes to countless students from around the world, in his home and at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., in the continuing education program for 20 years. Following, he moved to Sarasota, Fla., and worked at Eye of the Needle, always with a laugh.

….and Charles’ final farewell:

When I’ve knitted my last stitch and the time has come for me to lay down my needles, let it be said that Charles M. Higginbotham . . . had a great sense of humor and got through it all with a laugh. I hope my enjoyment of my profession will carry over to others who knit.

Charles was a touchstone in my life in ways that I didn’t anticipate or even really understand at the time. It baffles me why we didn’t stay closer in touch. I think back on things he said, silly moments and also on the sorrows and regrets in his life, as well as my own.

During those Washington years, I had some really interesting weekdays jobs in the Economics profession and met a number of well-known people, even shook the hand of First Lady Barbara Bush at a Smith College reception! But nothing made an impression on me like working Saturdays at The Woolgather with Charles. And there are very few people - dead or alive - who I would ever want to meet up with again. But for sure, Charles Higginbotham would be at the top of that list. And we’d sit and have a good chat.

EXHIBIT: Schiaparelli @ the Victoria & Albert Museum (London, UK)

I didn’t expect to see much knitting at Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art but was delighted that her iconic bow-tie sweaters were included right at the beginning of the exhibit. I’ve seen photos of this work before but never had a chance to look up close. I discussed Schiaparelli’s iconic bow-tie sweater in my #16 post. Her early sweaters were hand knitted but as demand picked up they began to be machine-made and then the edges were finished by hand.

Schiaparelli was so imaginative, so inventive. Born into an aristocratic and intellectual Italian family, she later moved to Paris, where she launched her iconic fashion house in 1927. Her lifespan covered the height of the Surrealist movement, the challenges of World War II, and the evolution of modern high fashion. Coco Chanel, one of her contemporaries, despised Schiaparelli’s work, famously dismissing her as “that Italian artist who makes clothes.” Meow. When I think of all the contemporary fashion designers today - Prada, MARNI, Dolce & Gabbana, Daniela Gregis (my current fav),etc - in my book, the Italians still outrun the French in inventiveness, artistry, and craftsmanship.

Also in the exhibition was an example of her ‘newsprint’ textile, called ‘Breaking News’, which was referred to in post #21. I have added a photo at the bottom of that post. Worth a look-see.

Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art
V&A South Kensington
70 Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2RL, United Kingdom
Closes 8 November 2026
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EXHIBIT: Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style
This blockbuster exhibit — the largest and most comprehensive display of the late Queen’s fashion ever staged — is currently running at The King's Gallery, Buckingham Palace. There’s lots to look at in this show - styles, color, decade-spanning cultural change. Especially noteworthy were the Queen’s wedding dress and coronation gown, both of breathtaking needlework, that drew the crowds around them like a magnet; People would shoot past entire rooms just to see these two dresses; Here’s a bit of the detail in the coronation gown:

But per usual, I was looking for hand knits as I walked through galleries of clothes ensembles in scrumptious colors, not to mention fab hats galore - but found only the Queen’s Shetland gloves pictured below. Not one sweater was displayed. This exhibition includes 300 of the 4,000 pieces of the Queen’s wardrobe which is managed and conserved by the Royal Collection Trust. So I am guessing there must be some knits still in storage, eager to have their debut someday? 🤞🏼

No matter, as I wended my way towards the end of the exhibit, my eye caught a label that rang a ‘knitting bell’; It read that the designer of Queen Elizabeth’s sovereign robe was ‘Marion Foale’. Now that’s a ‘knitting name’ I have known and whose work I have admired for some time, but was it the same Marion Foale of knitting fame?

Designing a robe for Queen Elizabeth II
Yes it was! While still a student at the Royal College of Art, Foale - only 24 years old in the early 1960s - was asked to submit designs for a mantle (robe) to be worn by Queen Elizabeth II during ceremonies of the Order of the British Empire. Because the monarch was a woman and traditional ceremonial dress had been designed around male attire, a new design was required. Foale’s design won the competition. Sources note that this mantle remained in ceremonial use for decades afterward.

Her knitwear career
Born in 1939, Marion Foale’s fashion career spanned both the Swinging London fashion revolution of the 1960s and the following decades when she became a highly admired hand knitwear designer. In 1961, right after graduating from the Royal College of Art in fashion, she began a design studio with fellow student, Sally Tuffin. The pair became one of the defining design teams of Swinging London, alongside figures such as Mary Quant.

After Foale & Tuffin was dissolved in 1972, Marion turned towards knitwear, opened her own business and became well known among serious knitters for her patterns, books, and distinctive approach to knitted tailoring. Rather than designing traditional flat sweaters, she applied couture tailoring principles to knitted garments, creating shaped jackets and structured knitwear that reflected her training in pattern cutting and garment construction. She’s regarded as one of the designers who elevated hand knitting from craft to sophisticated fashion design.

Why Marion Foale’s work is still worth looking at…
Some years ago, I acquired her most well-known book, Marion Foale’s Classic Knitwear (1985) because of her unique approach to fashioning hand knitted jackets in particular and it is still worth acquiring today for this reason. There’s no other knitting book like it in this regard. Do note though, that the patterns are not sized to accommodate today’s larger figures, but they can be used as a guideline in achieving Foale’s aesthetic. Foale also produced her own sweater line which was sold in London shops of the day.

Her cardigan jackets were tightly and finely knitted in either cotton or wool and although her line is no longer produced, today vintage pieces can readily be purchased on eBay and other secondhand sites.

Foales’ most recent work was a collaboration with British fashion designer Margaret Howell in 2018. She’s now in her 87th year! You can read more about her in this 2014 interview.

So except for the Queen’s Shetland gloves there were no knits in the King’s Gallery exhibition, but there was a wonderful tip-of-the-hat to the start of hand knit designer Marion Foale’s extraordinary design career.

Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style
King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1A 1AA, United Kingdom
Due to unprecedented demand, this landmark exhibition has been extended to run through April 18, 2027

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’Knitting’ even greeted us at our London hotel….
This very tall and hilarious sculpture, ‘Tall Blue (Mind Bubbles)’ of 2024 was in the entryway of the Berkeley London Hotel where we stayed in the city. It’s by Viennese artist Erwin Wurm. And it’s wearing a blue knitted polo - natch!

Over the course of his career, Wurm has radically expanded conceptions of sculpture, space and the human form. His sculptures straddle abstraction and representation, presenting familiar objects in a surprising and inventive way that prompts viewers to consider them in a new light. He often explores mundane, everyday decisions as well as existential questions in his works, focusing on the objects that help us cope with daily life and through which we ultimately define ourselves. These include the material objects that surround us - the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the food we eat and the homes we live in.

RETAIL THERAPY: Beautiful Knitters
Whenever in London, I usually made a point of stopping off at Liberty of London’s haberdashery / wool shop. But that pitstop ceased a few years back as it’s a mere shadow of what it used to be when Rowan yarns reigned supreme there. Now, there’s not much to look at save for a few needlepoint kits and some accessories. Not worth the trouble. However, as of late, I do stick my nose into Beautiful Knitters when I am in town. It’s a small charming shop with an interesting range of fine fibers and British wools not seen stateside. That said, the shop will no longer deliver to the USA, I am assuming because of the complicated tariff situation. 🤷🏼‍♀️ That’s really unfortunate, as their cashmere is of such high quality and in a great selection of colors.

Not sure why, but I am having a pink-fuchsia moment; I’m guessing these balls of cashmere and silk/mohair will want to become a cowl - and I couldn’t resist the house-branded tulip and cupcake needle guards.

Other ‘must-sees’ in London…

ART SHOW: The James McNeil Whistler exhibition at the Tate Britain was comprehensive to say the least and a real delight. His lifetime of work stretches over more than a half dozen rooms, one of which is an installation that photographically recreates his teal-and-gold Peacock Room along with a voice reenactment between Whistler and the patron who commissioned the original space, which is now housed in the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C. on the mall. They argued about money - natch!! Walking through the galleries I could hear this loud argument off in the distance - it was a little unsettling - until I realized it was just the exhibit’s recording.

THEATRE: The new-ish play ‘1536’ is about three young women during King Henry VIII’s reign who meet up in a field to discuss their lives and the issues of the day, one of which is the indictment of the king’s Anne Boleyn for adultery. The play opens with a couple getting it on - she leaning against a tree and he into her…etc. The play’s premise - how these women’s lives parallel what is happening to the queen, i.e., a woman’s fate in Tudor England was precarious. It was well done and captivating. A fav actress, Tanya Reynolds, plays Mariella, a midwife and as of late she is also appearing as the social-climbing Caroline Bingley in the BBC/BritBox drama The Other Bennet Sister (often referred to as 'The Other Austen Sister’ - which is currently dropping a episode weekly - no binge watching! )

In The Sheep Detectives, Jackman plays George Hardy, a shepherd who raises sheep just-for-the-wool, ‘never intending to eat them’. 🧶 Not to give the plot away - but there’s a murder, which, of course, the anthropomorphic sheep solve. The movie was, as they say, just-what-the-doctor-ordered for a calm and relaxing evening, a light-hearted hour and a half remove from the world’s craziness. It was meant to entertain and not to challenge (at all). You can see where it’s going throughout, but you’re okay going-along-for-the-ride. 🐑 That said, there is a missed opportunity in the film, and that was the complete, and I mean complete omission, of anything knitting-related. Perhaps the writers thought it would be too much of a cliche? 🤷🏼‍♀️ BUT wouldn’t it have titillated millions of knitters worldwide if Jackman was seen to be knitting in his camper van, no? In fact, I found myself anticipating a tip-of-the-hat to knitting. There was a bit where one sheep suggests to another that, “if you eat dandelions, you grow better wool” - in actuality, a fallacy, completely unproven. And that was the sole reference to wool. Some of the characters did wear sweaters (usually ochre-colored, perhaps a costume designer penchant?) and one even a knitted necktie (also ochre-colored), but with perhaps one exception all the knits appeared to be machine-made. Do let me know if you know otherwise, ie say it ain’t so. No balls of wool were flung about, no clicking needles, nothing, nada. Ah well. A missed opportunity indeed, but in the end, it shouldn’t dissuade anyone from enjoying the show otherwise.

‘a handmade sweater is a hug you can wear’

I am always in awe of designers who manage to produce and sell not just a few hand knitted sweaters, but offer an entire line. I was once one of those ‘production’ people who knitted for a store in Georgetown (Wash D.C.) eons ago and know what it entails, which I covered in my #16 post. What I didn’t mention is that, I also did some custom knitting for The Woolgatherer in Washington, D.C., a shop off Dupont Circle in the 1980s run by the truly darling Charles Higginbotham. At the time, I was a research assistant in the Economics Section of the Brookings Institution (where I met my husband!). My salary was really low, living-off-fumes, etc - after rent and food nothing was left. So if I wanted to knit, I had to supplement my income, hence my Saturdays at The Woolgatherer with Charles. Custom knitting does differ a bit from production knitting though! As I write this, I am feeling another essay coming on - lots of funny and weird things happened in that shop - but for another day ….

So here are a few more designers who sell hand knits and who are worth checking in on every so often to see what they are up to…

Suzi Kondi (New York City)
Kondi is an Australian-born designer who founded her New York-based clothing label in 2018. Her brand is known for its colorful velour track suits and elevated loungewear that blends comfort with a polished look. She grew up in Queensland (Australia) where her mother owned a fabric store and where she learned to make her own clothes. In her twenties, she met an American sailor and spent 13 months sailing from Australia to New York on a yacht. She intended to stay just briefly but ultimately settled in the city.

Her distinctive velour tracksuit was her first major success and it was inspired by traditional Albanian-style trousers worn by her grandmother. The designs attracted attention from women in her social circle, including Sofia Coppola who became an early customer. Her aesthetic is often described as ‘athluxury’ - comfortable clothing with a nostalgic, beachy Australian influence combined with downtown New York-style.

More recently, Kondi has added hand knit sweaters that are generally regarded as luxury artisan pieces rather than just ordinary knitwear. Many are hand-knit in New York from Italian cashmere and the prices reflect that - typically ranging from $700 to over $2,000 depending on the style and complexity.

What sets her look apart from others is not intricate Fair Isle or Aran pattern work. Instead the appeal is that they are hand-made of extremely soft, high-grade cashmere in relaxed, slightly oversized silhouettes. Hand knitter hobbyists might gasp at the high prices, but the ‘value proposition’ is less about technical knitting complexity and more about hand labor, luxury yarn and craftsmanship.

For this summer, Kondi has also introduced a hand-crocheted, cotton collection of skirts and tops for the beach that you can see here.

the Make Shed (Kent, UK)

Claire Ambrose-Gordon, an artist and maker based in rural Kent, England, oversees this small-batch clothing and knitwear company that relies on local makers, seamstresses and knitters. Their philosophy is rooted in slow fashion (versus mass production), timeless and simple designs, that uses sustainable and ethically sourced materials where possible. The emphasis is on traditional craftsmanship over trend-driven fashion. They promote the idea of buying fewer garments and wearing them for many years.

Compared to Suzi Kondi hand-knits, The Make Shed is at the opposite end of the luxury spectrum: less New York luxury cashmere and more English countryside craftsmanship, natural fibers and slow-fashion values. I was charmed by this line and actually bought the cardigan shown above. It’s quite lovely, if very warm and heavy on the body. For me, that means it has to be worn outdoors only; I could cross the Arctic naked and not pop-a-goosebump. 😅 The workmanship is top-notch and the prices incredibly reasonable. In addition to their chunkier styles, they offer styles in lighter yarn weights as well - here.

knitbrary (Spain)
I surprised to find out in my research that knitbrary is Spanish and I thought, having followed them for years, that they hailed from the UK based on the clever name of the company. Fool me. This Spanish knitwear company was founded by Yolanda Estevez and Pedro Castellanos around 2011. Its name (“knit” and “library”) reflects their goal to create an archive of “exceptional knitwear made from very fine natural fibers.” This duo deliberately rejects industrial fashion / mass production to focus on natural fibers and artisanal fashion that would “last for decades rather than seasons.”

Knitbrary works with local artisans in Arequipa, Peru, a region famous for textile traditions and alpaca fiber. Similar to The Make Shed, their philosophy centers on slow fashion, natural fibers, limited editions, timeless and often gender-neutral designs and a direct relationship with its artisans. I particularly adore the tank design below - it feels fresh.

IRIS VON ARNIM (Hamburg, Germany)
Not much snail-mail nowadays makes me gleeful, but when I retrieve the Gorsuch catalogue from my mailbox, I always set it aside to have a good look. That’s where I first saw IRIS VON ARNIM sweaters - clearly for the swish set - luxurious and expensive, made of the finest cashmere and mohair-silk fibers.

Born in 1945, Iris began knitting seriously only after a severe car accident in the 1970’s left her bedridden for months. A friend brought her yarn and a record player to pass the time. She experimented especially with color, and developed her now-famous Rainbow Sweater, which became a fashion sensation on the German island of Sylt.

Her original sweaters were genuinely hand-knit by women working from home. But as demand grew, stores began placing orders that exceeded what the home knitters could produce, leading to the formal creation of the Iris Von Arnim brand. And when copycats appeared, she pivoted to cashmere. At the time, cashmere knitwear was not widely available in Germany, and she became one of the first designers to build an entire luxury brand around it, which earned her the nickname ‘Cashmere Queen’. Her line ranges from $1,750 to $3,500 (1,500 to 3,000 euro).

Fifty years later, Iris Von Arnim remains a family-owned business, still headquartered in Hamburg. And she continues to focus on luxury knitwear of understated, timeless designs. Like The Make Shed and knitbrary, Iris also promotes the ‘Forever Sweater’ philosophy - buying fewer, better garments that are to last for decades. Of the four designers I’ve presented here, Iris von Arnim is probably the most influential historically; she helped establish cashmere as a standalone luxury category in Germany and has built one of Europe’s most enduring knitwear-focused fashion houses.

That’s it for this week…
Next week, we are off traveling but I hope to post regardless. We’re off to London and Mallorca. I don’t usually do too much research before a trip other than nail the places we want to visit. That said, no matter where we go, ‘knitting & wool’ seem to find me. Both locations have become a constant with us - who’d have thought that Mallorca would become an annual thing? I don’t speak Spanish at all but have found the island to be relaxing, friendly and colorful. Best yet - there are direct flights from the USA. Mallorca is also filled-to-the-gills with craftspeople. And most importantly, wool is a real thing there, as is agro-tourism overall, especially, the development of ‘fincas’ (large family farm estates) that are now producing not only things to eat but also things to wear and to adorn one’s home. There’s a particular finca we will be revisiting that I hope to write about. Enjoy what has finally become ‘good weather’. 🙋🏼‍♀️

What’s with knitting ‘the newspaper’?
This past week, I unintentionally went down a rabbit hole and somehow got caught up in ‘newspaper knits’. I didn’t mean to write about this at all, but I think it’s actually amusing - so I dived in! As a teen, I do recall buying fabric printed with ‘newsprint’ out of which I made a jumper - the American kind, not the British - if you know what I mean. But I never knit the ‘news’ per se … but perhaps maybe I did … do read on.

And then I fell down a REDDIT-hole - I never go on REDDIT - but there I was, reading this exchange on the sweater below. Seems like in the 1980s, Europeans, notably the Norwegians and Danes, were enthralled with knitting newspaper designs. 🤷🏼‍♀️ The REDDIT conversation was hilarious - high fives all around for the person who dredged up the origins of this Danish sweater pattern - ya just need a translator to get to the goods - the actual pattern:

And then there’s this fab image - but not the pattern itself 🤷🏼‍♀️ perhaps if you’re really interested you could contact the company in the link.

It turns out that the earliest use of newsprint imagery traces back to Elsa Schiaparelli in the mid-1930s. She created newspaper-print textiles in 1935 after seeing Danish fishwives using folded newspapers as head coverings in markets. She translated the idea into surrealist fashion prints for scarves, blouses, and accessories. However, those were printed fabrics, not knitted sweaters.

The earliest known hand-knit “newspaper sweater” people regularly point to is the Danish “Avis-sweater” (“newspaper sweater”) pictured above from the 1980’s. It featured an all-over faux newspaper layout knitted directly into the garment using stranded colorwork. These sweaters actually did become cult objects in Scandinavian hand-knitting culture because:

• the “newsprint” was actually charted stitch-by-stitch,

• they mimicked real newspapers typographically, and

• they were technically difficult long before computerized knitting patterns became common.

Machine-made newsprint sweaters came thereafter…
…and today those sweaters can be found on Etsy, Ebay and Grailed - at rather dirt-cheap prices.

Christian Dior makes its (second) dive into newsprint this season

Knitting newsprint petered out after the 1980s but then BAM! - this Christian Dior Fall 2026 number popped up on my screen this week. It’s a ‘WOW’ - machine-knitted cashmere with embroidered lettering - just ‘WOW’ - and at $4,400 - let’s give it another ‘WOW.

If you look closely - it appears that the background of the sweater was originally knitted in white with black knitted lines delineating the columns and structure of the page; Afterwards the type was embroidered on. It must have taken some time to do and each one had to be done individually, hence the hefty $4,400 price tag.

This wasn’t the first time the House of Dior used the newsprint motif. John Galliano, its chief designer, used it 26 years ago for a dress worn by Sarah Jessica Parker that was famously immortalized in Sex and the City. It is one of the most culturally iconic and heavily referenced textile designs in fashion history. Today, an original Galliano for Dior newspaper piece is considered a vintage “holy grail”. Vintage editions routinely command massive premiums, with historical auction sales fetching upwards of $54,000 to over $70,000.

So, how have hand knitters pursued ‘newspaper’ design?…
I would say, 'abstractly’ as illustrated by the following patterns. Note however, that at least one does refer to the paper ‘columns’, but not actual words. It would be tedious, even painstaking to work up, no? Marianne Isager did several interesting interpretations of newspaper print:

And I adore the more recent hat of Alina Appasova - a very clever ‘newspaper take’:

Joji Locatelli’s ‘newspaper’ columns are to be read sideways 🥸

Except for the patterns above, I couldn’t find anything else inspired by the ‘newspaper’ on Ravelry.com. Several patterns refer to ‘newsprint’, but seemingly as a way to backend a pattern name over any striped design. Hear that PurlSoho. 😂 I‘m not giving it to them. At least, the abstracted designs above tip their hat to actual newspaper columns.

My own obsession with the knitted word …

I like designing and knitting ‘letters’ but not in newspaper form; I prefer to stack words and knit them using multi-colored strands in fair-isle fashion, which I refer to as ‘TICKERKNITS’. In fact, there are FIVE - count’em! - booklets of words, words and more words. So maybe I was vibing ‘newspaper or newsprint’ all along. 🤷🏼‍♀️

And finally, today, there’s actually a nostalgic aspect to these newsprint designs, as newspapers are slowly being phased out to digital formats, swiftly becoming a thing of the past. Very retro indeed.

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ADDENDUM: ‘just back from seeing the current show at the V&A London on Schiaparelli which included a piece of her ‘newsprint’ textile, ‘Breaking News’ (1935).

We trotted up to Boston last weekend, to take in new art exhibitions, walk the Boston waterfront and just to have a grand ‘ole time. Force of Nature at the Museum of Fine Arts was the initial impetus for the trip, it is gardening season after all. We’re huge fans of artists Andrew Raftery and Michael Mazur, both of whose work were in the show. One of the final pieces in the exhibition was the photo by Daniela Edberg below, which caught my eye because she’s knitting, natch. It’s hilarious and spooky at once. The photo’s description reads as follows:

When times are stressful, we often turn to soothing and repetitive activities. Daniela Edburg’s, Killing Time, is one of a series of visually seductive-yet emotionally unsettling - scenes that examines this impulse. The artist knits and crochets many of the elements seen here (and displayed in the case - see below) and places mysterious handmade creations, such as the ominous gray bomb at the woman’s feet, into a landscape. In so doing, Edburg causes us to question what is real and what is not. In anxious times, how might we create spaces of calm and safety in a natural setting such as a garden?

Edburg is 51-years-old so her career is well-established. She’s currently represented by Galeria Enrique Guerrero (Mexico City & Todos Santos), Fabienne Levy Gallery (Switzerland), and Elizabeth Houston Gallery (NYC). Knitting pops up even at an art exhibit on flowers and nature, go figure. This show closes June 28…

And walking from one gallery to the next, we strolled by a bucolic favorite, by Jean Francois Millet (French, 1814-1875):

I never leave an art show or museum without checking out the shop. I mean, who goes to a museum nowadays without topping off the day with some retail therapy? That said, I thought it a bit ironic that the exhibit was on nature and flowers and yet they were selling artificial flowers 🤷🏼‍♀️ these crocheted posies were cute - no matter I left empty-handed. The therapy this time was this glorious show.

Dark Luxury : Why does the ‘King of Cashmere’ sell so many plastic clothes?
Growing up it was the rare person in my life who owned a cashmere sweater. My godmother was that rare person and I am guessing that her regular visits to Scotland in the 1960s gave her access to what was considered a real luxury back then. In my early teens, she gifted me one of her slightly, moth-eaten numbers which she was probably going to toss out anyway. I wore that light blue cashmere pullover for years, even throughout college, of course mending the moth-breaches first. More recently, kids probably would have let them rip, kind of like torn knee-holes in jeans?

Today however, cashmere is ubiquitous - as Oprah might say, “and you can have a cashmere sweater, and you too! can have a cashmere sweater”. It is seemingly everywhere today, but for sure the quality varies widely. Scotland is still in the game, but more so China, China, China. For gosh-sakes even middlebrow retailer, J.Crew sells gobs of cashmere sweaters, albeit you-get-what-you-pay-for so it’s not exactly the best of cashmere fibers. A little itch here and a little itch there, if you know what I mean.

And then there’s the plus-ultra in cashmere sweaters produced by the Italian designer and billionaire-extraordinaire Brunello Cucinelli who made his reputation vending some of the best of the fiber in the world. But perhaps not anymore or not all the time which was revealed in a substack essay that slipped into my mail last week. To find out more

read Conrad Quilty-Harper’s, substack, “Why does the ‘King of Cashmere’ sell so many plastic clothes?”. Quilty-Harper zeros in on a self-congratulatory film that Cucinelli has produced:

The billionaire is Brunello Cucinelli, whose eponymous company makes expensive woolly jumpers, and the film is Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, dir. Giuseppe Tornatore of Oscar-winning Cinema Paradiso fame. This expensive, partially taxpayer-funded puff piece and the largely uncritical reaction to it made me want to look a bit further into this “gloriously potty” man, as one journalist who’s interviewed him described him, and his company. You only need to take a two minute-long look at the website (SEO strapline: “Philosophy, Online Boutique & Investor”) which features quotes from Kant, philosophical tracts on AI and photos of Brunello at the UN, to understand why.

MEOW, MEOW.

Nashville Yarn Fest just finished up its SECOND successful year in April. National Public Radio gave it an exciting and encouraging review. I could be tempted next year to ‘Trot, trot to Nashville’ if anything to knit-a-few, purl-a-few, and to catch some Grand ‘Ole Opry Music and ‘hot chicken’ as well. 😊 Save-the-date : March 12-13, 2027.

My husband and I usually make our own travel arrangements. We have quirky interests and like the flexibility of being on our own. However, we have made an exception for Rowan Tree Travel. Heather Radl - the founder is a pro and a lovely person to boot. A friend and I have traveled with her to Scotland and the Faroe Islands (definitely an ‘OMG trip’); I’ve been by myself with her to Estonia and my husband and I took her tour around Ireland, a place we had been to a number of times before - but Rowan Tree Travel made it fun, different and interesting all over again. They just published their tour schedule for 2027. Highly recommended! What are you waiting for? Giddy-yup. 🐎

‘Knit Nation’ jumps into the knitting media fray

There seems to be a new kid on the knitting media block called, ‘Knit Nation’. But who knows who these kids really are? It’s a bit of a mystery. According to the company’s own “About” and product pages, The Kindness Company was founded and is owned by Brittany Smiley, and the publications are created by Brittany and her husband Eric Smiley. The site says the company publishes several print-first hobby newspapers, including: Knit Nation, Crochet Nation, Baking Nation and History Nation.
They be busy.

There doesn’t appear to be public corporate ownership information beyond that (no major parent media company is obvious from public records or the website). The domain registration is privacy-protected.

So where are they located and what are the owners’ backgrounds? Not sure about that either as their website does not list a formal headquarters address, but the company says its newspapers are “packed and shipped with care from our warehouse in the U.S.” From the site and related materials, Brittany Smiley’s background appears to be rooted in crafting, publishing, and family-centered creative projects rather than traditional media. The company story says she started the business after becoming a new mother and while coping with her own mother’s dementia. She describes wanting to preserve the emotional and tactile traditions of knitting, baking, and handmade crafts through screen-free print newspapers.

It seems like a family-run operation, with Britanny as the founder and creative lead and with her husband, Eric covering the operations/business side; He’s described as a “lifelong educator” who has implemented educational programs internationally. Their daughter Lily is jokingly listed as “Chief Yarn Tangler”.

But that’s about it, there is no detailed professional résumé for Brittany Smiley or prior publishing/media-company employment or a LinkedIn profile clearly tied to her or public corporate filings identifying a larger owner or investors. So publicly available information suggests this is a relatively small independent niche publishing business built around hobby/craft communities and direct-to-consumer subscriptions, rather than a conventional magazine conglomerate.

It appears that The Kindness Company launched Knit Nation in late 2024 or very early 2025. I ordered and am awaiting a ‘sample copy’ and so can’t wait to see what in it.
To Be Continued.

Trot, Trot to New York City

We go into the city a few times each month to get caught up on theatre, our book group, to see friends and to dine-out. And it’s the rare occasion when I don’t pop into Knitty City - just a block and half away from our apartment - which I did again this past Tuesday. I’m not always looking to buy - ‘just want to see what’s going on. Very convenient.

Years ago when I would lecture on my books in the city, my publisher would arrange to have Knitty City owner, Pearl Chin, set up a ‘mobile book shop’ at my talks. Tiny Pearl would arrive toting a rather large, book-filled, carry-on suitcase. She’d set up shop at the back of the lecture hall. Pearl was always delightful, always cheery and so hardworking. With great sadness, she passed this world in 2020, but her son has kept her legacy alive running the shop. So when in NYC, especially on the Upper Westside, do pop into the shop. There’s lots of yummy yarns to tempt fidgety fingers.

Knitty City
208 West 79th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam)
New York, NY 10024
212-787-5896
store hours: Mon to Sat, 12 to 6 pm

The use of the argyle ‘diamond’ pattern, sometime referred to as ‘harlequin’ in fashion comes and goes, and this season it is having another moment. The above quip is from a Guardian article of years back, How to Wear an Argyle Knit. And hardly surprising, as the argyle pattern can be as challenging to style as it is to knit.

Argyle knitting and argyle knitwear have roots going back to 17th-century Scotland, where Highlanders wore patterned ‘tartan hose’ (knitted socks) related to the tartans of Clan Campbell of Argyll. But argyle as a widespread fashion trend really took off in the 1920s, especially after World War I. The knitwear company Pringle of Scotland helped popularize the diamond pattern in sweaters and socks, and the style became strongly associated with golf fashion and Edward VIII, who wore argyle frequently. And Pringle continues to reinvent the pattern as seen below, layering enlarged diamonds one over the other.

Although we are in the midst of another ‘argyle moment,’ this geometric pattern has had waves of popularity in the past:

• 1920s–30s: Golf wear and fashionable menswear.

• 1940s–50s: Huge boom in hand-knitted argyle socks and sweater patterns in the U.S. and Britain — many knitting books included argyle designs.

• 1950s–60s: “Preppy” Ivy League style embraced argyle sweaters and socks.

• 1980s: Bright, bold argyle returned in pop and new-wave fashion.

• 2020s: Another revival in both high fashion and vintage-inspired knitting.

A traditional argyle design, when hand knitted, employs the intarsia technique, where separate yarn bobbins each wound with a different color are used create the diamond blocks of color. Back in the 1960s, I recall my mother’s friends carting about their knitting bags with multiple bobbins trailing or sometimes hanging over the bag’s edge. To a neophyte knitter, it looked complicated, a bit of a mess, but very impressive nonetheless.

From the beginning of its use in the 17th century, argyle has always had a rather upper-crusty vibe. Today, the design is often associated with a classic, preppy style and has been used as a metaphor for humorously critiquing the upper class. Some argyle sweaters have become iconic via a mix of fashion writing, movies, and character descriptions. A few especially memorable movie examples are:

• Clueless (1995) — Cher Horowitz’s yellow plaid/argyle-inspired prep-school look is one of the most famous uses of argyle-style fashion in pop culture.

• Mean Girls (2004) — pink argyle sweaters became shorthand for affluent, tightly controlled “preppy girl” style - see below

• Gossip Girl (2007-2012) — argyle repeatedly appears as a symbol of upper-class prep culture.

• Knives Out (2019)— the sweater worn by the character played by Michael Shannon also helped revive interest in argyle knits.

What makes today’s ‘argyle moment’ unique though, is the inventiveness and playfulness in which designers are altering the traditional pattern itself, changing the dimensions of the diamonds, enlarging them or making some small and some large in the same pattern or disassembling the pattern altogether. Moreover, stylists are having their way too, by creating unexpected pairings with clothing and accessories as Johnstons of Elgin has done, mixing up its argyle cardigan with gladiator sandals for a bit of whiz-bang. Penny loafers begone!

Numerous fashion houses have incorporated argyle this season too. And not just the traditional Scottish sweater houses, but the younger and newer houses as well. For an interesting visual overview click onto the following link to see what they’re showing: ARCH4, &Daughter, Khaite, LeSet, Sporty & Rich, Ganni, LaLigne, Lisa Yang, 525 America and Loro Piana.

where knitters can find argyle patterns
It’s not hard to find argyle knitting patterns on Ravelry, Etsy or eBay. However, the key thing to watch out for, especially with vintage patterns, is ‘sizing’ - women were smaller in the past, especially through the chest, and sweater silhouettes differed depending on the era. Up until the 1960s, sweaters tended to be more fitted and fashioned, whereas as time marched on, shapes became more over-sized and drapey. Make sure the pattern you pick has the size you require especially if you can’t alter the pattern to accommodate your measurements yourself. Typical of more modern takes on argyle is the simplicity of the ‘jeju’ sweater below - a Ravelry pattern. It’s clean, modern and crisp - and not as ‘noisy’ as traditional argyle coloration. And perhaps even easier to style as well?!

In preparing this write-up about the ‘argyle moment,’ I thought it was rather ironic that I myself had never knitted or designed an argyle pattern. But then I remembered that, a few years back, I designed a series of ethnic-inspired pullovers with a ‘Get-Your-Whatever-Ethnicity’ on theme. So below is my ‘Get-Your-Scottish-On’ version where both the sleeves and sweater spell out ‘ARGYLE’. Funny that. This particular sweater series was fun to do and even though it’s multi-colored knitting, it’s easier than you might imagine. I kept the structure as simple as possible so that a knitter would be able to focus on the stranded knitting parts. As it’s said in Scotland, ‘Have a go at it.’ The pattern can be found on my website.

And finally, some more ‘argyle inspiration’ 🧶 Not to be missed and having nothing whatsoever to do with knitting other than that Texan cartoonist Scott Hilburn loves to wear argyle sweaters 😜 His byline is The Argyle Sweater - catch him on instagram here.

the devil’s return
Last weekend, along with millions of others, we drove up to our local theatre to catch The Devil Wears Prada 2. It was a pilgrimage of sorts, no? I mean who could resist. I had to chuckle though at the contrast between our local theatre, The Bantam Cinema built in 1927 as a silent movie theatre in what looks like it could have been a garage but in fact was a purpose-built theatre of the era in the wee village of Bantam, CT (pop. 800), and the movie we were about to see, which is set not just in the highest of skyscrapers of New York but at the snobbiest and toniest of levels. Sweet. No matter, our little theatre was packed to the Saturday-night gills, including a rowdy group of middle-aged women dressed in homage to actress Anne Hathaway’s character, ‘Andy’. Their esprit de corps set the stage for what would be an entertaining evening.

Numerous reviews are already out there, so no need to put in my two cents in that regard. Did I like it? Meh 🤷🏼‍♀️ there were some amusing bits and lots of wink-winks about jokes made in the 2006 Part 1. But almost by definition, most sequels never live up to the first go-round. Honestly, they are blatant money grabs - it’s rumored Meryl Streep took down $20 million (compared to the $4 million for Part 1) - but we all gladly fall for it and do it willingly. After all, the weekend is a time to relax and let the culture flow over us. As a knitter, the bit I most enjoyed was at the very end when ‘Andy’ shows up in her cerulean blue sweater from Part 1 - but this time, in Part 2, she’s cut off the sleeves and snipped into the front of it to create a v-neck. Very clever. Very sassy. Very subversive.

the demise of print in the hand knitting world
Andy’s chopped up sweater is an apt metaphor for the changing nature of the fashion industry, especially print media, a change that has reverberated through media in the hand knitting world as well. For those who haven’t yet seen the film, the storyline or premise of TDWP: Part 2, is that the business of ‘Runway’ magazine (aka VOGUE) is collapsing or fading away because no one is reading print anymore and the industry needs to change to survive. And so the story begins - is editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) savvy enough, with-it enough, to stay in the fashion magazine biz? In our rapidly changing world, the winds Miranda faced are blowing everywhere though. The last 15 years haven’t been tough just for fashion magazines but for knitting magazines as well - many of which just didn’t decline, they either shut down entirely or moved to digital-only formats. Since 2010, numerous notable hand knitting magazines have ceased publication or effectively disappeared in print altogether.

One of the earliest shutdowns was Knitter’s Magazine published by XRX Inc, a small independent publisher located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota founded by Rick Mondragon and Trisha Malcolm; Malcom was the longtime editor who shaped much of the magazine’s identity. It was founded in 1984 and shut down in 2016. Malcolm would go on to become Editor of Vogue Knitting for 13 years: 2000 to 2013, a reign remembered as one of the magazine’s strongest editorial periods, with a mix of high-fashion styling and technically sophisticated patterns.

However, what was plaguing the industry finally caught up with Vogue Knitting when it too quietly shutdown with no widely publicized formal “last issue” announcement - its last issue was Spring/Summer 2023. Likewise, its mass market, beginner-friendly companion, Knit Simple was also officially discontinued in 2020. Debbie Bliss Magazine closed a bit earlier in 2018, which wasn’t heavily publicized either, but it appears to have been part of the broader contraction in print craft magazines during that period as well

Arguably the biggest recent loss in the U.S. knitting magazine world has been Interweave Knits, which had been in print since 1996. Its print edition ended after Spring 2024 with a shift into digital. Other Interweave publications, knitscene (a younger trend-focused audience) and Knit.wear (more fashion oriented) also quietly stopped publishing. Love of Knitting supposedly still exists in some form but distribution and visibility have significantly diminished compared to peak years. Indie magazines too: The Pom Pom Quarterly, a design-forward read for a younger audience, shut down in 2023.

what actually happened to knitting media
For sure, the internet was the hammer that smashed these publications. Suddenly, anyone could be a designer (who needs an editor, she said facetiously 😂) and anyone could access patterns and many patterns were just offered for free anyway. Almost instantly, magazines became dinosaurs. Clearly, publishers must have known what was coming but many were slow to react or didn’t react at all, at least initially. No doubt money was a factor. In order for publications to migrate from print to digital, investments needed to be made - money - lots of money was needed and most knitting publishers weren’t known to be wallowing in dough, a reflection of its advertisers who aren’t exactly swingers in the world of commerce. A publication like Vogue Knitting (which BTW - has no connection to Vogue magazine) never had the kind of luxury advertisers that high fashion magazines courted. The most luxurious yarns or more likely the best-selling yarns, don’t generate the kind of income that Louis Vuitton bags cough up. So when the internet democratized the hand knitting business, it served to banish ‘magazine gatekeepers’ as well. All change has its pluses and minuses, but for sure the businesses of yarns and patterns would never be the same thereafter.

Annie ‘the Angel’ Modesitt
As knitting publishers were facing the growing and powerful force of the internet, they didn’t exactly help their own cause in other areas either, especially in compensating knitwear designers for their designs and intellectual content. In the years preceding the gradual collapse of knitting magazines, there was growing discontent about the extremely low compensation designers were getting - or not getting from the magazines, as the case turned out to be. And it all burst out into the open when designer Annie Modesitt aired her complaints about payment from Vogue Knitting most prominently in 2009—on her personal blog: Annie’s Recovery & Knitting Blog (modeknit.com). Annie was one of the most talented designers at the time. Her intricate designs offered a unique viewpoint in the hand knitting world, which was riddled with a lot of sameness and even tedium. Annie’s work stood out and no doubt she would have appreciated more acknowledgment for her vision.

In a very close-knit and small industry, where practically no one would offer any criticism for fear of being ostracized, Annie let it rip. Her most cited post was titled “Hell. No.” published October 5, 2009. Modesitt objected to very low royalties (around 6%) on online pattern sales from Vogue Knitting/SoHo Publishing. She contrasted this with competitors like Interweave, which she said paid 20–50%. Her posts framed this as part of a broader issue of designer compensation and rights, especially as patterns began being resold digitally. Hers wasn’t a single isolated complaint—it became part of a wider, semi-public dispute in the knitting industry about:

• digital rights to patterns

• royalty structures

• transparency in payments

Annie’s blog posts were widely discussed at the time (blogs, forums, TNNA chatter), making them one of the few on-the-record critiques of Vogue Knitting’s pay practices from a working designer. After the late-2000s disputes (like Modesitt’s 2008–2009 complaints), Vogue Knitting and its publisher (then SoHo Publishing) didn’t issue one single public “contract overhaul” announcement. Instead, what happened was more of a gradual industry correction that showed up in contracts, designer expectations, and how rights were structured over the next decade. Thereafter, most knitting magazines became more cautious about digital redistribution rights for patterns. Notably, more designers refused blanket buyouts of all pattern rights. By the mid-2010s industry contracts—including those used by Vogue Knitting—generally shifted toward: (1) separating print rights vs. digital rights vs. reprint rights, (2) offering limited-time exclusivity windows rather than permanent ownership, and (3) defining more explicit royalty definitions, even if rates were still relatively modest compared to independent publishing platforms.

With shrinking budgets and fewer exclusive commissions, print magazines were having less and less leverage over designers. Designers were retaining more rights by default, especially digital rights, licensing became more granular (print, digital, translation, reprint are separate). And magazines were no longer the dominant gatekeepers they once were. That said, these controversies didn’t lead to a single reform at Vogue Knitting, but they were part of a broader shift where knitting designers gained more control over intellectual property, while print magazines lost leverage as the primary distribution channel. In the end, the inability of knitting publishers to react in a timely manner to the multiple changes of the evolving internet marketplace was very damaging indeed.

As for my own experience as a knitwear designer of twenty-plus years now, who has had dozens of patterns published by Soho Publishing, I have never received residuals for any pattern published by Soho Publishing in its magazines. I am not even sure they even have a system to pay these residuals. More than once I queried the editor Malcolm, as to when such payments would be forthcoming and she would look me straight in the eye and say, “You mean you haven’t been getting your residuals?” - Nope and never did. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t paid for the cost of a project, I was. But residuals for subsequent use were never forthcoming even though they still continue to sell my patterns online. As for my five books that Soho’s book division published, I do get periodic updates however, there has been no compensation for international rights at all, even though my books have been translated into French, Japanese, Russian, German, Czech and Spanish. On the other hand, Interweave Knits (Peak Media) has consistently and regularly paid out residuals, but refuses to make any payout if the quarterly residual payment is $25 or less; last month, my never-to-be-paid payment was SEVEN cents under. It’s only a electronic transfer at this point - no stamp-and-envelope - so what gives? A warning to budding knitwear designers: Beware of where you seek to sell your wares - if anything, check your contract.

And finally, it took a lot of courage or maybe even desperation, for Annie Modesitt to challenge the powers that be in getting just compensation, not only for her work but for all hand knitting designers ever since. And it was with great sadness by all who either knew her or who admired her work to see Annie leave this world prematurely in 2020, in her late 50’s, after a prolonged illness - an angel on earth and no doubt wherever she is now.

knitting takes second blow - this time with Ravelry
In 2007, as print media continued to struggle, Ravelry.com sprung up as an on-line knitting pattern site to compete with the traditional magazines. For the first time, it allowed knitters to immediately download patterns and any aspiring knitwear designer to post their work for direct payment, with a cut for Ravelry of course. The site was created by the duo, Casey and Jessica Forbes, and quickly became the dominant global platform for knitting and crochet, sharing project tracking and designer sales. In industry terms, its launch was a turning point because it shifted power away from magazines and toward direct-to-designer digital distribution. It had and still has a huge impact on Interweave Knits and Vogue Knitting contracts. Ravelry fundamentally changed the bargaining power between the publishers and knitwear designers. Ravelry’s rise further forced magazines to compete with higher designer payouts, elsewhere often 50% to 70% in direct sales contexts. That said, Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits still retain a competitive edge by their ability to editorialize and curate, which Ravelry has been unable to do with its unedited, free-for-all postings. Ravelry is just a catch-as-catch-can, wild west sort of platform, an editor-free environment. Knitters get the high and low of design, whatever is posted and they have to figure out for themselves what’s important or even fashionable, leaving most to use the site just as a reference outlet, much like one would the Encyclopedia Britannica.

No matter, Ravelry was launched at the perfect moment - it addressed the needs that knitters and knitwear designers were seeking and in short order it was able to dominate the discussion in ‘knitting commerce’. What a ride it was having and then kaboom! Ravelry decided to slap itself in the face. In 2019, the owners stepped into politics and made a policy decision about political expression on the platform, when increasing numbers of patterns and forum posts were showing up in support of President Donald Trump. Anti-Trump knitters began to protest loudly and even harassed Trump supporters. So the owners banished all Trump-projects and expression, insisting that they were concerned about inclusivity and ‘Trump’ harm to others and pushed to remove anything Trump-related from the site. No more pro-Trump imagery or slogans or any political symbols tied to his campaigns or administrations would be allowed. In response, hundreds of knitters, perhaps, even thousands left the platform. A few of these people even tried to set up alternative platforms but none succeeded in replicating the Ravelry model.

As Ravelry was reformulating its policy, things got a bit confusing for a while as to what projects and imagery would or would not be allowed. Some users interpreted or reported the policy as extending to patriotic symbols (e.g., American flag motifs), religious imagery or even general “belief-based” expression. However, in actuality, there was no formal blanket ban on patriotic imagery or religious symbols. The enforcement focus was on political campaigning and content seen as supporting or opposing specific political figures, not religion or patriotism broadly. But at the time, the clamp-down felt all-encompassing and a few things made it seem even wider than it was. And it didn’t help that Ravelry announced its new political policy quickly but then it revised or clarified aspects of it after the fact. Exacerbating the change was that moderation decisions were sometimes applied to edge cases (e.g., slogans or symbols embedded in political designs). And finally, heated community reaction amplified worst-case interpretations on both sides.

No matter, the fallout was rapid and intense and tore apart the national knitting community - a community that had overwhelmingly embraced the site for what it could do for them as the magazines fell by the wayside. Numerous knitters responded reducing their activity on Ravelry or abandoning it altogether accusing it of political censorship, while others supported the decision, viewing the moderation as a safety policy. In the end, the broader knitting community—already heavily online by then —became more visibly divided along political lines than ever before.

So what’s left - who are the players and who’s still publishing?
So in the last 15 years, the knitting magazine landscape went from dozens of active print titles to just a handful of reduced or digital-first brands. The field has shrunken dramatically. And the ambivalence towards Ravelry as a ‘safe site’ has not abated. So who’s still publishing knitting content?

Consistently doing better is The Knitter (U.K.) which is a traditionally British heritage, technique-focused, slightly conservative styling. It remains an active regularly published print magazine - roughly monthly, about 13 issues a year. Also doing well is Knitty which has never been a print magazine - it’s a free online magazine founded in 2002. It continues to release regular issues (about 4 per year) plus occasional “surprise” patterns between issues. As of 2025–2026, it is still actively publishing new issues and remains supported by a mix of readers and advertising. So unlike many print knitting magazines that have closed or gone digital-only, Knitty is actually one of the few long-running still-active, free online knitting magazines. Interweave Knits also seems to have successfully migrated to a digital format.

Although Vogue Knitting, has announced a new subscriber supported, on-line newsletter, The Next Loop, due out September 2026, it seems most knitting media innovations are happening in quieter and smaller ways. In 2023, Long Thread Media launched Farm & Fiber Knits, a print + digital magazine focused on farm-to-yarn stories, fiber producers, and knitting patterns, with regular seasonal issues (for example Spring/Summer/Fall 2025–2026 issues are already published). And to be hatched August 2026 is quarterly Purl Magazine, based in Oregon and created by the team behind PLY (spinning magazine) - Jacey Boggs Faulkner (director and publisher) and Karen Robinson (editor-in-chief) - to have an emphasis on ‘thoughtful, curated content and print quality’; perhaps a rebound of print at the high end?

What’s gone in the United States though is newsstand, monthly or bi-monthly knitting magazines. Have you been to a Barnes & Noble lately - there’s NADA, nothing to peruse. Nothing to grab in an airport! As for me, I bemoan the lack of ‘fashion and style’ in designs that are being published in what’s left of the knitting magazines out there - both print and digital. There’s gobs of information on traditional knitting designs, which I love…BUT…and gobs on knitting technique and how-to…BUT…

Is there any future for ‘fashion’ in hand knitting design anymore ? Where’s our Miranda Priestly?

doublet
I just bought a crazy barn coat with trompe l’oeil, embroidered vegetables pouring out of its pockets, and had to find out who made such an outrageously amusing thing. And it turns out, they also do outrageously amusing sweaters. doublet is a Japanese fashion house founded in 2012 by designer Masayuki Ino, who didn’t follow the typical “serious luxury fashion” path. Before launching his own label, Ino worked under Mihara Yasuhiro, where he learned both technical design and a willingness to experiment. But with doublet, he wanted to break away from fashion’s tendency to take itself too seriously.

The name “doublet” comes from the idea of duality and doubling—things that look familiar at first glance but reveal something unexpected on closer inspection. That concept shows up constantly in the designs: Clothes that mimic everyday items (like packaging or uniforms), optical illusions or trompe l’oeil effects, pieces that transform or have hidden layers and humor embedded into otherwise “normal” garments. Ino has said he wants people to smile or feel surprised when they see his clothes—not just admire them.

doublet is distinctive in that unlike many Japanese designers who emphasize minimalism or craftsmanship in a quiet way, doublet leans into absurdity and irony, pop culture, and everyday objects reimagined as fashion. At the same time, the construction is still highly skilled—so it’s not just novelty. The craftsmanship underpins the joke.

doublet exists almost as a reaction against fashion’s stiffness - rather like a Japanese ‘Moschino’. Masayuki Ino built it on the idea that clothing can be clever, funny, and conceptually surprising, while still being beautifully made. That tension—serious technique + playful ideas—is really the heart of the brand. International recognition of its humorous and offbeat approach came in 2018, when it won the LVMH Prize, which is a huge deal in fashion— putting the brand on the global stage almost overnight. I missed it back then, but am glad to observe what he’s doing now

lena hoshek
I am always interested in knowing how cultures sustain their identities through clothing. Several years ago, I traveled to Latvia on my own and then onto Estonia, with Heather Radl at Rowan Tree Travel for an in-depth look at how Latvian and Estonian women are researching and reestablishing their national dress after decades under Soviet domination. And more recently in Norway, I sought out shops selling their national dress and costumes as well. I love the dress shapes, the floral and geometric patterning and the materials - usually wool! So it was fun to come across Lena Hoshek of Graz, Austria where she combines aspects of traditional Austrian dress with more modern fashion elements.

As a 24-year-old, Lena Hoshek opened her first studio in Graz, Austria in 2005 with self-sewn clothes. At the opening party, she sold her first traditional Austrian ribbon skirt, which has remained her trademark today. In her collections she embraces the contradiction of worlds, tailoring them into something entirely new: she may live loudly and boldly in the present, but she flirts with the aesthetics and traditions of past decades. In celebration of her 20th year in business she develop a limited edition of 25: an ‘Anniversary cardigan’ - hand knit of cashmere with merino wool embroidery.

Two women. One cardigan. A celebration of craft, chaos, and beauty. For the “20th anniversary of Lena Hoschek,” Austrian craftsmanship meets the poetic knitwear of Michaela Buerger. Each cardigan is entirely hand-knitted in Italian cashmere and embroidered with dozens of colourful motifs — mushrooms, strawberries, wildflowers, bees and skulls — a quiet ode to time, patience and joy. Each piece takes many days to complete, carrying humour, precision and time in every stitch.

Last word (x3) - yummy, yummy, yummy.

the knitting chair
My first job out of business school eons ago was with Knoll International, the preeminent American modern furniture maker. Our first two weeks of training was literally a ‘schooling’ not only in American contemporary furniture but about design overall. So I was rather surprised recently when looking for a patio table to come across this ‘knitting chair’ designed in back in 1951 which up until then had never crossed my radar.

This ‘knitting chair’ was designed by architect Ib Kofod-Larsen (1921-2003) whose very successful career spanned the 1950s and 1960s when Danish design was flourishing across the world. A large part of his vast furniture catalogue was designed for the non-Danish market and manufactured abroad. This chair was specifically designed for knitting; It has cut-out armrests so you can rest your elbows comfortably while working, and a low, angled seat and curve back for long periods of sitting

The sheepskin covering comes in three colors. It’s now considered a Danish modern design classic.

friends who travel
…just in from a friend who visited the Victoria & Albert Museum and came across this mended sweater, which reminded her of the ‘The Whirl’ post # 11 - how to deal with sweater moths and holes. This sweater was mended by Bridget Harvey, East London-based maker and activist over a number of years.

Her work questions buying habits and celebrates the idea of mending more, buying less. For Harvey, ‘repair-making’ is social as well as material: a field of exciting actions, communities and politics, changing objects, mindsets and habits. The intricate darning (repairing holes using thread) gives the jumper its unique character, capturing Harvey’s personal relationship with it as wearer and ‘repairer-maker.’

No one escapes the vagaries of nature : ) Thank you C. Chamberlain 🙋🏼‍♀️

Scandinavia House (NYC)
For those of you who live in New York City or are in the area on May 12, Hillary Snell will be teaching beginning knitting at Scandinavia House. This organization promotes ‘Nordic Life’ (including the Baltic countries!) and also has lots of other activities for all who are interested and an excellent film series. A nice Christmas shop as well.

Beginning Knitting with Hillary Snell
May 12 / 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

58 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10016

Phone 212-779-3587

eye candy
As of late we’ve been watching financier cum house burglar, Jon Hamm on ‘Your Friends and Neighbors’ (Apple TV). A sweater becomes him - he’s never looked yummier.

Q what state has the most yarn shops?

State / Population / Yarn Stores

California / 41.30 M / 516

Texas / 21.76 M / 326

New York / 34.36 M / 310

Pennsylvania / 7.54 M / 267

Her use of hand knitters eventually gave way to mechanization as demand for designs grew. Initially, when Schiaparelli had to scale production, multiple knitters were employed to produce a single sweater, still hand-knit, but in small workshop-style production rather than one-off pieces. In later decades (and in modern revivals), trompe-l’oeil knitwear was often machine-knit using jacquard techniques, which can mimic the same illusion much more efficiently.

Designers specializing in hand knitted sweaters today

Circa 1980, while living in Washington, D.C., I did ‘production knitting’ for a small shop in Georgetown. I can’t remember the name of the shop or the woman who owned it, but I do remember picking up chunky cotton yarn which she had dyed and which I would then knit up into a simple tank top that she was selling like hotcakes. I can’t even remember exactly what I got paid, I am guessing around $25 to 30 per top - and I think she sold them for about $100. She couldn’t keep them in stock. Since I knit continental ‘fast’ style, it was a nice way to earn some sorely needed cash at the time. My take home pay working at a think-tank in economic research was $650 monthly (after tax) - $90 of which covered my monthly student loan obligation. So knitting three simple tank tops was an easy way to pay off that monthly debt.

That experience was my initial exposure to hand knit production work. And I have since kept an eye on those who are courageous enough to jump into a slow production and tight-margin craft market. A very iffy proposition indeed. They are to be lauded. That said, all the hand knit designers mentioned below produce for the higher end of the knitwear market, which reflects in the quality of their materials and labor. Across the board, these makers produce simple designs made with very high quality yarns. Here are some of my favorite makers. Because I am limited in space, I suggest you link to their sites for more details in how they got started.

Wommelsdorff (Germany)
Last December, the New York Times did a fascinating write-up of the German company Wommelsdorff, ‘Knitted by Hand’ Is Important to this German Brand.
Anne Schramm, the owner of Wommelsdorff, employs two senior knitters to oversee a team of 30 women knitters who knit her luxurious bulky cashmere sweaters, seamlessly, in-the-round.

Schramm sources cashmere yarn from the Italian manufacturer Cariaggi, and she works with them to develop proprietary colors. What is particularly fascinating about her process, is how she ‘finishes’ her sweaters: Completed sweaters are machine washed separately and ‘dried in various ways so the cashmere softens and the sweater’s form shrinks to the desired size.’ Schramm says:

It’s like baking. You need experience and know all the exact timings. They differ from style to style and from color to color in order to receive the perfect fit, and the feeling of a little weight but lots of volume.

Schramm’s mother taught her how to knit, sew, and crochet. Later on, in 1981 she completed a tailoring apprenticeship in Germany and subsequently moved to Paris to work as a pattern maker at Christian Dior. Her decades-long career as a designer and consultant in Paris, London, New York and Munich included brands like J. Crew and Escada before she settled in Berlin in 2008. Thereafter she started to develop Wommelsdorff.

Her sweaters sell for $1,500 to $2,880 each and stateside can be found at La Garconne (NYC), Sante Fe Drygoods (NM), and Amaree’s (CA) - and more. The company does not have a website, but just googling ‘Wommelsdorff’ will reveal more retailers. For just 30 hand knitters, her market reach is impressive.

Daniela Gregis (Italy)
I first fell in love with Daniela Gregis’ oversized, flowy, dresses before I ever realized she incorporated hand knitted sweaters (and bags - for another post!) into her collections. DG isn’t known as a ‘trained knitter’ in the conventional, pattern-writing sense. Her relationship to knitting comes more from craft culture, material practice, and an almost rural/atelier tradition than from formal knitwear training. It’s the ultimate in artisanal knitting.

Daniela was born in 1959 in Bergamo (northern Italy), where she developed her collections outside the big fashion system, opening her own shop in the late 1990s and building slowly from there. Her approach is rooted in handwork traditions—loom, needles, crochet—rather than industrial knitwear design. She comes out of a craft-first mindset, not a technical knitwear-specialist pipeline like Central Saint Martins or Missoni-style industrial knitting. Moreover, she doesn’t treat knitting as a separate discipline. Instead, it sits alongside weaving, patchwork, fabric manipulation and upcycling and recomposition. Her collections often include hand-knit cardigans and accessories, crocheted or braided elements and hybrid garments combining knit and woven fabrics. But these are always integrated into a broader textile vocabulary rather than presented as ‘knitwear collections’ per se.

Gregis’ sweaters range from $1,375 to $4,785 stateside and can be found at Santa Fe Drygoods (NM) and her own website Daniela Gregis. Her sweater production is smaller than Wommelsdoff; so too is DG’s hand knit distribution, since the emphasis is on her sewn garments - that said, DG sweaters can be found on Ebay, new and used as well.

Album di Famiglia (Italy)
Album di Famiglia does not position itself as a ‘knitwear brand’ in the traditional sense either; most of the collection is cut-and-sew. When they do produce handknits they are made in Italy in small quantities, executed by specialized local artisans and workshop knitters.

The brand began in 2000 with Monica Rusconi, in the small Lombardy town of Lomazzo. It wasn’t launched as a typical fashion label with a big commercial plan—it started as a personal project centered on making simple, lived-in clothes. Very quickly, it became a true family enterprise, when her sister Patrizia Rusconi immediately joined and then later on her brother Giovanni Rusconi did as well.

From the beginning, their guiding idea was stripped-down and almost anti-fashion, ie make clothes ‘in which you can live.’ That ethos still defines the brand—minimal shapes, muted colors, and a strong emphasis on durability, tactility, and emotional attachment, often described by them as clothing that should last like a family bond.

Album di Famiglia emphasizes simple forms and fine fiber (cashmere, alpaca, cotton blends) in continuity with its broader approach to ‘quiet crafting.’ Compared to Daniela Gregis, there’s a key philosophical difference in the way view hand knits: Gregis emphasizes the maker’s hand more explicitly, while Album di Famiglia tends to submerge authorship into the brand’s quiet, collective identity. Both Daniela Gregis and Album di Famiglia employ local Italian hand knitters. Album di Famiglia’s high-end cashmere line ranges from $700 to $1,000 plus.

never enough space
I planned to feature more designers, but there was not enough space this time - so there will be The Real Deal: part 2 and maybe more in the future. As a designer myself, it’s interesting to see what these small businesses are doing. Most of these particular sweater makers perfect designs that are simple silhouettes knitted up in chunky or bulky luxurious fibers, like cashmere & alpaca. The details are subtle. Look closely, and you’ll see that Daniela Gregis often puts the reverse side of a stockinette stitch facing outward, or the varied ways that Wommelsdorff uses stitch increases and decreases.

Hand knitters who will want to replicate these simple bulky designs for themselves might have a challenge sourcing the heavier luxury yarn weights. Jadesapphire Yarns offers chunky cashmeres, which can be ordered through Fabulous Yarns, but they often don’t have the amounts a sweater project requires. But do ask anyway - a number of yarn stores, including Fabulous Yarns, will place special orders with the yarn seller for you. Prices will be steep as well. But what a gorgeous thing to have, no?

And finally, because I knit! - I really don’t buy these designers’ sweaters for myself. But I find their work inspirational. The only other hand knits I buy are real hand knitted Shetland sweaters, each a work of art. However, I do have a thing for Daniela Gregis dresses - she’s genius in this regard - and I have been known to knit my own pullis and cardigans to accompany them.

Stay tuned for The Real Deal: part 2 in the coming weeks…

Addendum

Just after I posted this article, my daughter sent me this photo of Lily, our granddaughter in a cashmere sweater I bought her in a cute little shop on Madison, on sale! An homage to Elsa Schiaparelli’s ‘bow sweater’ 🙌🏼 ‘must have been at the back of my mind?

Elsa Schiaparelli at the V & A Museum (London)
If you find yourself in London this year May 21 to November 8:

Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art

“For me, dress designing is not a profession but an art.” – Elsa Schiaparelli

The UK’s first exhibition on Elsa Schiaparelli spans the 1920s to today, celebrating the innovative designer’s influence. It traces the fashion house’s groundbreaking origins and its evolution under current creative director Daniel Roseberry.

Knitting is such a preoccupation, that I not only want to wear my sweaters as much as I can, but I like to complement them with jewelry inspired by the craft as well. Today, such pieces can either be purchased or commissioned as ‘new’ or more intriguingly, repurposed from antique knitting implements. I’ve done both.

Repurposed knitting implements

I’ve gotten my greatest kicks out of surfing the web for beautiful antique pieces, usually knitting guards or what we would call ‘point protectors’ today. I like the idea these objects were once actually used by someone while crafting. They are tools and they were meant to be used - but also admired. Most were made in either Europe or the United States at the onset of the 19th century Industrial Revolution and into the early 20th century; The rising prosperity of this period created greater disposable income, allowing middle and wealthier women to indulge in fanciful knitting gear. Today, these pieces can be readily found on Ebay or Etsy and sometimes in antique shops and shows. I am not a constant ‘hunter’, but over the years, I have been able to snag a few fun pieces.

One piece is this double-sided, ‘love bird’ knitting needle guard (see below). To be honest, I wasn’t sure how I would wear it when I first bought it, but found the lovebird motif charming. The birds split apart so that a set of double-pointed needles can be inserted between the two ends and snapped tight when knitting needles are not in use. The lower chain hanging from the lovebirds is original. To make it wearable, I bought another longer silver chain and laced it through at each end, so that it could be worn around the neck.

Most 19th century guards were made of silver plate - but occasionally, silver ones pop up in the market, like the one below, however because of their small size, they were rarely (silver) marked and tend to be a tiny bit costlier as well, but not by much.

Solid gold or even gilt knitting tips are rare and the few that I have seen or bought came from either Germany or Holland. Neither of these slipper pairs came with chains:

Here’s a pair of carved carnelian and gold guards on Ebay this week, which would lovely necklace indeed:

Knitting needle guards were also made out of bone, resin and wood. Claudia DiFabrizio, a dear friend and also an estate jewelry dealer at Hays & Worthington, suggested to me to string vintage charms on ribbons for a less formal, romantic look - and I think a very thin ribbon would also work on some of these needle guards.

If you’re thinking of purchasing a pair of knitting guards to wear, the big question is how to reconfigure them to make them actually wearable. The lovebird guards and the gold slippers only required purchasing chains to string them on, but fine satin ribbon would have done the trick as well. Seek out a jeweler to replace shorter chains with longer ones. Another idea would be to attached multiple pairs of guards - which would harmonize with each other from a design point-of-view to a single chain necklace

One can’t help wonder who owned these pieces originally: What did they knit? Did they join knitting groups or was knitting a more solitary activity? Were the knitting guards gifts or did they buy it for themselves? And did they also have had a lovely knitting bag to carry their knitting project and guards?

Newly-made pieces

Other than my wedding ring, the jewelry I wear daily are two rings commissioned from Natalia Uribe Wilson of Malojos, a jeweler most knitters are probably familiar with especially if you’ve traversed a large knitting fair where she might have a booth set up. Her innovative designs mimic a knitting gauge in-the-round. No matter where I go, they’re conversation starters, but rarely can anyone guess what they represent.

I bought my own set of rings years ago and since then Natalia has innovated new iterations of the knitting gauge idea - like adding serious diamond bling between the needle sizes. Have a look-see.

Another ‘fine jewelry’ idea, is an elegant ‘yarn’ bangle by jewelry designer Ilaria Icardi. It’s simple, crisp and modern:

And I am including Tiffany’s iconic Knot Wire Bangle because although it was not inspired by knitting per se, it can remind one of it. The wire bangle design was derived from an archival 1889 bow and is crafted of 18k yellow gold, representing ‘love’s unwavering bonds’.

There’s so much more out there! I was hoping to include some interesting modern pieces made of unconventional materials but ran out of time and space - for another post! I’d love to know if anyone else has either ideas or who has actually repurposed knitting implements as well.

Enjoy the hunt 🏹

Boston-based graphic designer Megan Lam became the envy of fashionistas and transit nerds alike last week when she debuted her latest creation: a hand-knit sweater adorned with trains from the MBTA’s commuter rail and Orange, Green, and Red lines.

And she knits while riding as well - Watch.

Celebrating Cowichan sweaters

In British Columbia Canada,

A plaque was placed in a Duncan, B.C., park on Thursday that acknowledges the significance of the Cowichan sweater to the local Quw’utsun Nation.

Parks Canada says the plaque, which featured artwork by Coast Salish artist Stuart Pagaduan, was installed on a metal stand and honours the “national historic significance of the Coast Salish Knitters and the Cowichan Sweater.”

It’s the Silhouette

It almost goes without saying, but knitting design is all about fashioning a shape, in essence to create a silhouette.

The New York Times ‘LOOK OF THE WEEK’ was Not Your Average Sweater and Jeans. “I’m not a minimal girl,” said Astrid Lonsdale, a 30-year-old content creator. “I think fashion needs to be more fun.”

A native of Scotland, she explained that her relationship with style has evolved since she left the country: She now lives in London, where she has been inspired by the variety of wardrobes. “You just feel a bit more free to wear what you want,” as she put it.

She favors clothes with exaggerated silhouettes, like the shoulder-padded sweater and flapped jeans she was wearing while shopping on a Thursday in March in the Shoreditch area of East London.

When she first put on the outfit, she thought it was boring. “But I guess you can’t really be boring with shoulder pads, can you?” she said. Her jeans were from Y/Project, the now-defunct French label known for clothes with innovative fabrications. “I miss Y/Project dearly,” she added.

Also from the New York Times several months ago, but worth a mention, new generation of fans knitting sports and crafts together with handmade jerseys.

Read about how women are inspired to knit their team colors:

Yarn Bombing Remains ‘A Thing’ -
Colorful “yarn bombers” turn downtown McKinney into a kids’ scavenger hunt

A new wave of public art is brightening North Texas as the Dallas Yarn Bombers wrap trees, lampposts, and benches in vibrant knitted designs. Their latest installation in downtown McKinney features six “monster benches,” and kids are being urged to find them all before the weekend — because once it rains, the yarn gets heavy and starts to sag.

Update on post #7 Sublime & Ridiculous

Several weeks ago, I wrote about knitting at the Shaker Museum in upstate New York, and recently the WSJ reviewed a new Shaker exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, A World in the Making:The Shakers’ Review: The Art of Simplicity.

A World in the Making: The Shakers explores the design legacy of the Shakers, a religious group whose values of community, labor, and equality shaped their furniture, architecture, and everyday objects. Through works by contemporary artists influenced by the Shakers, alongside original Shaker-made pieces, the exhibition considers how their design principles remain relevant today.

Founded in 18th-century England and later established in the U.S. across more than twenty distinct communities, from Kentucky to Maine, Shaker communities developed a distinctive visual language—marked by simplicity, innovation, and purpose. While often celebrated for their aesthetic, Shaker designs were rooted in spiritual practice and collective life.

Looks like there’s a hand knit sweater in the show - which closes August 6, 2026

SCOOP

From Reddit 20 hours ago: Which yarn store banned the pink hat of 2017?

In 2017, everyone was crocheting and knitting a specific pink hat. One local yarn store made a statement that they wouldn’t sell pink yarn to people if they were going to make that hat. Anyone remember what store that was?

“With the recent women’s march on Washington, I ask that you if you want yarn for any project for the women’s movement that you please shop for yarn elsewhere. The vulgarity, vile and evilness of this movement is absolutely despicable. That kind of behavior is unacceptable and is not welcomed at The Joy of Knitting. I will never need that kind of business to remain open. Two wrongs will never ever make it right.”

https://www.newschannel5.com/news/yarn-shop-owner-turns-away-womens-movement-knitters

But the fight continues according to The Pussyhat Project

FUN FACT

Which country is the largest producer of yarn?

China - 333,624 tonnes

With a production of more than 333,624 tonnes of wool in 2020, China accounts for approximately 19% of the global wool clip!

On a ‘Clear’ day you can see forever

Clear’s plot involves a clergyman, John Ferguson, who gets hired to remove the last remaining holdout, Ivar, from an otherwise abandoned, desolate and — for all but him — ‘cleared out’ island off of Scotland’s eastern coast. I read the book twice. The first time was rather quick. Davies’ writing is descriptive and delightful so it was easy to do. She not only paints the scene but makes sure the reader hears the gusts of ocean spray, the birds cawing, as well as smells the brine and earthiness of Ivar’s cabin and his person. But since I had to present the book for my book gathering, I read it a second time, more slowly, listening closely to how Davies wove in the Norse language Ivar used, laid out the difficulty of life decisions each character had had to make and, of course, really paid attention to Ivar’s involvement with wool and hand knitting, which was an unexpected pleasure for me.

Ivar’s knitting is a recurring motif in Clear, symbolizing his self-sufficiency and tenderness. He knits as a vital part of a daily routine that sustains his lonely island life. He uses his own homespun wool to craft or mend essential clothing against the harsh environment. In the book, knitting first emerges when Ivar tends to the unconscious John Ferguson, who has been in an accident. Injured badly, John is wrapped in a knitted shawl Ivar made. And as John convalesces, Ivar mends John’s tattered black coat—even knitting new coat sleeves!—using yarn from his own spun wool. Ivar also wears his own hand-knitted sweater throughout, into which at one point, he tucks a photo of Mary, John’s wife, to hide it from John. During their shared evenings alone, waiting for John to heal, Ivar knits while teaching him the Norse words for things such as sea birds and yarn types, which deepens their fragile friendship. These acts underscore Ivar’s resourcefulness and quiet tenderness, bridging his world with John’s as their bond grows stronger.

Of course, Clear is hardly just about hand knitting, but I enjoyed Davies’ use of it as a metaphor for self-sufficiency, healing and lovingkindness. The book has layers of ideas and themes about the power of nature, religion, sexuality, family, and an individual’s state in the world versus private interests and the government. It’s a compact thought piece, well worth a read.

Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These & Foster

This month, our book group is reading two short novels by Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These (2021 - shortlisted for the Booker Prize) and Foster (2009 - Davy Byrnes Short Story Award). It’s not surprising that an Irish author would insert references to hand knitting. In Small Things Like These, it’s the nuns who knit Aran jumpers to earn money for the abbey. But even better was a new way to test a cake-in-the-make. William Furlong, the book’s main character, awaits the slow bake of his family’s Christmas cake and then gets up to test its done-ness:

At some stage, the need for sleep came over him but he made himself sit on, dozing and waking in the chair, until the hour hand on the clock hit three and a knitting needle, pushed down deep into the heart of the Christmas cake, came out clean.
“Well, the fruit’s not fallen anyhow,” Eileen [Furlong’s wife] said, pleased, and baptised it with a Baby Powder.

But was it really a ‘knitting needle’? Researching further, I found that some cake testers are referred to as a ‘knitting needles’:

knitting needle cake thermometer typically refers to a specialized, reusable cake testing probe designed like a thin metal rod (similar to a knitting needle or skewer) that checks for cake doneness. These tools, often called cake testers or cake thermometers, are designed to test the center of a cake without leaving a large hole, unlike a knife or toothpick.

So which type of needle was really used in the book? I am guessing it was a real knitting needle, because the family was not exactly poor, but wouldn’t necessarily have used their meager funds to buy a specialty cooking item. Lack of resources can make one innovate!

Our second Keegan reading was her novella Foster, where she uses hand knitting to cushion an emotional and even painful scene. It’s about a young, unnamed girl who is sent to live with distant relatives, the Kinsellas, on a farm in rural Ireland for the summer while her mother gives birth. In their care, she experiences an unfamiliar warmth, affection, and stability, blossoming under their attention.

After a calm and restful summer in the country with her temporary caretakers, the young girl is told that her mother has finally delivered the baby and that she’s to leave her loving, temporary foster parents to go back home, which she finds upsetting. The foster mother Edna is a knitter and she’s been looking to make her ward a sweater:

We go into the parlour where she [Edna] is sitting with her feet up, looking through a book of knitting patterns. There’s a coal fire in the grate, and little plumes of black smoke sliding back down into the room.

The young child anticipates that she is about to be told she has to return home:

I stand there and stare at the fire, trying not to cry. It is a long time since I have I have done this and, in doing it, remember that it is the worst thing you can possibly do. I don’t so much hear as feel Kinsella leaving the room.
‘Don’t upset yourself,’ the woman says. ‘Come over here.’
She shows me pages with knitted jumpers and asks me which pattern I like best - but all the patterns seem to blur together and I just point to one, a blue one, which looks like it might be easy.
‘Well, you would pick the hardest one in the book,’ she says. ‘I’d better get started on that this week or you’ll be too big for it by the time it’s knitted.’

Interestingly, there’s no indication on the internet that author Keegan is a knitter, but it’s clearly swimming around in her ‘woolly’ Irish consciousness.

Do let me know if you’ve bumped into knitting in your own reading!

The Hail Mary Sweater

If you’re a knitter, I am guessing you’ve already read the article about the Hail Mary Sweater published in The Wall Street Journal this week. Ryan Gosling wears this Mary Maxim design in his new film Project Hail Mary, and natch, it’s gone viral. For sure, it’s all about retro-ness: A big chunky, cardigan evoking the tough, rural backwoods - a place he’s not going - but rather to a place potentially even more dangerous.

I was a tad amused by the news, given that my #5 post on ‘horse sweaters’ was linked to Mary Maxim and here we are again - wolves! MM is a long-time survivor of yarn market vagaries! The WSJ writes:

Could it be the most famous cardigan since Mr. Rogers’s? The hit Ryan Gosling movie Project Hail Mary has fans craving the cozy zip-up emblazoned with foxes that his science-teacher hero wears on a mission to save Earth.

But there’s a snag to obtaining this sweater. Gosling’s costume was handmade, customized from a mail-order pattern from the 1950s. If you want one, you have to knit it yourself.

Oh dear, here’s your advantage hand knitters - you can get viral fashion before the fashionistas. Even sounds like a business opportunity - custom knitting! Then again, before you can say, ‘Nana-Banana’ - you can snatch up one of these goodies on Etsy starting at $117 to $125. Someone in Canada is busy? Cowichan Indians have traditionally made similar Salish sweaters 🤷🏼‍♀️are they knitting these?

The sweater’s cute, but I wanted to know if there was a religious aspect to the movie, given that it used the phrase ‘Hail Mary’; it turns out, not so much. Here’s AI’s take:

Project Hail Mary uses a religious-sounding title, but it’s fundamentally a science-driven survival story, not a religious film. The “Hail Mary” idea is about taking a huge risk when everything else has failed—not about religion itself.

The title sounds religious, but it’s mostly metaphorical

“Hail Mary” comes from the Catholic prayer, but in modern usage it also means a desperate, last-ditch effort (like a long pass in football). The story uses it in that second sense—a final attempt to save humanity.

So, just in case non-Catholics are wondering, here’s the prayer itself:

Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen

As for the prayer’s source: the Hail Mary prayer did not come from one single book; the first half comes from the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament, and the second was added much later. The key scriptural lines are Luke 1:28 and Luke 1:42. The earliest printed source of the prayer as a complete form, appears in Girolamo Savonarola’s writings in 1495, before becoming standard in the Catholic liturgy in 1568.

In the end, the movie, ‘The Hail Mary Project,’ has nothing to do with religion - it just copped the phrase and spawned a mini-chunky cardigan-boomlet!

Final aside: In addition to knitting, the three books mentioned and the film all tangentially ‘bump into’ religion and belief too! A topic for another day.

The oft-quoted, “God is in the details” is attributed to the German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), one of the leading figures of modernist architecture, who used it to emphasize that meticulous attention to small, crafted elements is essential for achieving beauty and excellence in design. Nothing could be more true than in the following tale.

Circular garment construction
My 22-year knitting career has been based on designing garments to be knitted in-the-round (ITR) seamlessly. Why? Because to me it’s elegant and harmonious. When garments are fashioned in-the-round, the knitted stitches move together across the fabric, which feels wonderful when worn. But, once a seam is inserted, that movement, that dancing and stretching, stops. Moreover, even if one knits well, sewing seams can be a challenge; knitters have been known to pay to have someone else piece their garments together. And then there’s the unsightliness of a seam in the middle of gorgeous stitching. So I much prefer ‘circular, seamless knitting’ which also offers infinite ways to shape garments. It’s all just a math equation away and I never tire of coming up with new formulas and shapes.

So naturally my ears perked up when, in a recent Bible Study class, our Reverend pointed out that Jesus wore a ‘seamless tunic’, referred to as the ‘Holy Tunic’ or ‘Holy Robe.’ In the Bible, John 19: 23-24, even mentions the tunic’s seamlessness which is interesting in and of itself - as if the garment was somehow made of magical or supernatural means. So how could such a garment have been seamless in his day?

Of course my first thought was, could it have been knitted? Using multiple long, double-pointed needles would do the trick; circular needles, a more modern invention, were out of the question. But that didn’t seem possible because hand knitting, as we know it, didn’t appear until hundreds of years after Jesus lived. It emerged in the early medieval period, with the earliest known knitted artifacts dating to around the 11th century, especially in Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean. In Europe, the earliest clearly datable knitted pieces show up in Spain and Italy in the 13th century, as the technique most likely traveled through North Africa and Spain, and possibly also through contacts during the Crusades. So, Jesus’ tunic must have been woven, but how exactly, when looms usually just weave two-dimensionally creating a flat piece of fabric that would then have to be seamed together to create a garment?

The seamless garment in question was the under tunic (chiton) to Jesus’ overcoat (himatia) that he wore when he was taken to be crucified. It was written that at the time of the crucifixion, four Roman soldiers guarding him removed both of these garments from his body. They tore the overcoat and divided it between them, but they wagered for the more valuable seamless tunic. From the Bible, John 19:23-24, one reads:

²³ When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, ²⁴ so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.”

Interestingly, these events were said to be prophesied in Psalm 22 in the Old Testament:

¹⁶ Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce my hands and my feet.
¹⁷ All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
¹⁸ They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.

Seems like, the Roman soldiers realized the tunic’s value, which was a rare piece in its day. Only those more economically prosperous, the rich, would have been able to afford a seamless garment, which was more labor-intensive and costly to make than a pieced and seamed tunic. One wonders if someone like Mary Magdelene, one of Jesus’ followers who was believed to have dealt in textiles, procured such a valuable garment for him?

But, for me, the question remained: how was it technically possible to weave seamlessly ? So, I sought out my go-to source - which I read 32 years ago when it was first published! - for information on ancient textile production - Elizabeth Wayland Barber’s excellent book, Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years. It remains a great read. Her focus is on women’s involvement in textile production and the economic life of ancient communities. The answer was on page 263:

By New Testament times, weaving technology was changing again, to the more advanced looms and methods gathered together by the Roman Empire. One of the new techniques, known directly from Coptic Egypt, was that of dividing the warp into two layers and weaving with a circular weft, so as to produce a seamless tube big enough for a tunic. Judicious manipulation of the weft, at the sides and top, make it possible to build in armholes and a neck-hole without any cutting or stitching; the sort of “coat without seam” mentioned in John 19:23 as belonging to Jesus. Wool still dominated the economy, as we see from reference to moths as the corrupters of earthly treasures.

So weaving in-the-round really was ‘a thing’
Ancient sources suggest such garments were woven on upright or vertical looms, often starting from the neck and shoulders, continuing downward as a continuous tube or shaped piece. Similar seamless or minimally seamed tunics appear in ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Near Eastern textile traditions, where skilled weavers used warp-weighted or frame looms to create complex structures.

Researchers have even recreated seamless tunics using modified or mini vertical looms. One approach uses a U-shaped frame loom. Warps are arranged so half run to each side (front/back). Weavers use multiple shuttles to form the neck and shoulders first, then switch to weaving a tubular body below the armholes. This creates a true one-piece garment with no side seams. These methods are highly manual and labor-intensive, requiring precise control of sheds and weft insertion. They’re documented in textile research papers on seamless woven garments.

The Holy Robe resides in Trier, Germany - or maybe not?

Today the ‘Holy Robe’ or what is believed to be Jesus’ tunic at his crucifixion is located in Trier, Germany. According to legend, Helena, mother of Constantine the Great (the man who ‘legalized’ Christianity by convening the Council of Nicaea), discovered the seamless robe in the Holy Land in 327 or 328 along with several other relics, including the True Cross. According to different versions of the story, she either bequeathed it or sent it to the city of Trier, where Constantine had lived for some years before becoming emperor.

The Trier ‘Holy Tunic’ is not normally on public display and is preserved in a shrine, shown only during rare pilgrimages, the last of which was held in 2012, when it was venerated by 700,000 pilgrims who came to view it (see photos). Unfortunately, the conservation of the garment has been less than optimal; sections of taffeta and silk have been added to the robe, and it was dipped in a rubber solution in the 19th century in an attempt to preserve it! The few remaining original sections are not suitable for carbon dating. Alas.

However, there are also other purported ‘Holy Tunics’ located in various cities in Europe, the Middle East and even the Caucuses. In the Basilique Saint-Denis d'Argenteuil, a 19th-century Roman Catholic basilica in France near Paris where, according to tradition, Charlemagne entrusted a ‘Holy Tunic’ to the Argenteuil abbey around 803 AD. Despite debates over its authenticity, the relic has long drawn pilgrims, displayed only during solemn ostensions (religious procession festivals) roughly every 50 years, most recently in 2025. Scientific analyses confirm its seamless woolen weave and ancient Middle Eastern origin, enhancing its devotional and historical significance. There’s said to be other ‘tradition-linked’ tunics elsewhere which you can read about here. Today the ‘Holy Tunic,’ wherever it resides, symbolizes unity, the Church, and Christ’s role as High Priest.

Circularity
So seamless garment construction whether weaving or knitting is special indeed and seemingly always has been, even back to ancient times; Its circularity is a metaphor for infinity - a state of no beginnings and no endings.