I’ve recently completed a postgraduate programme in Scottish History at the University of Dundee in the UK and my dissertation for the Masters of Letters degree involved an in-depth study of the men in their guilds who controlled the earliest hand knitting enterprises known in Scotland. Here’s an abstract of the study: This study examines the male-dominated hand-knitting industry in Scotland from the earliest bonnetmaker guild formation in the late fifteenth century through the introduction of machine knitting in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Specifically, a comparison is made be ..read more

Visit our store which currently features cowls and neck warmers designed and hand knit by me. Traveling is an integral part of my knitting life I know that I’m a lucky man. I love my home life and I love to travel – and I’ve come to realize that my knitting life spans and enhances the two. Our family unit is a small one: in addition to a wonderful spouse I have two devoted dogs – who you can see below. Bella and Mac For the best part of the last 20 years I’ve lived in Thailand and it has certainly become home. After working in Bangkok for many years, I’m fortunate now to be able to spend hal ..read more

I know that I’m a lucky man. I love my home life and I love to travel – and I’ve come to realize that my knitting life spans and enhances the two. Our family unit is a small one: in addition to a wonderful spouse I have two devoted dogs – who you can see below. Bella and Mac For the best part of the last 20 years I’ve lived in Thailand and it has certainly become home. After working in Bangkok for many years, I’m fortunate now to be able to spend half of the week in the big city and the other half at our house by the sea – about an hour’s drive from Bangkok. From the photo below you can see ..read more

The inspiration for this rectangular lace wrap came from a corner of our garden. The colors were too much to resist, so I found an indie dyer in the UK to match the colorways for me. The design incorporates two traditional Shetland lace stitch patterns – Honeybees and Cats Paws – worked on a garter stitch background. If you’d like to knit this with the colorways shown, there are contact details in the pattern for the indie dyer I worked with. Otherwise, any lace-weight or light fingering weight yarns of your choice could be substituted. The wrap required less that one skein of each colorway ..read more

A knitting friend of mine saw my photo of a “visibly mended” park bench and pointed out the diamond pattern in the metalwork. I happened to be working on this accessory and was in need of a name – and that’s how it became Park Bench. The pattern calls for two colorways of Miss Babs KAWEAH: Floyd and Apple Season. You’ll need about half a skein of each for one cowl. If you wish you could knit a second cowl reversing the colors in the chart – and have one for yourself and one for a gift! I used the remaining yarn to weave a two-color scarf on my rigid heddle loom, which you’ll see in one of t ..read more

I am so pleased to announce that Travel-inspired Knits: 10 Original Patterns for Hand Knit Accessories was published on September 15, 2020. The print edition is available on the publisher’s website at: https://anchorandbee.bigcartel.com/product/travel-inspired-knits A digital/ebook version is available on Ravelry at: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/travel-inspired-knits/patterns The post Book Release – Travel-Inspired Knits: 10 Original Patterns for Hand Knit Accessories appeared first on This Man Knits ..read more

Welcome to the Lacy Circles KAL. I wanted to get us started by showing you how some of the more technically complex stitches in the Circles Motif are worked – and here’s a photo of me so you’ll know who I am! As you’ll see I’m using a smooth and heavier weight yarn and larger-sized needles for this demo (photo credits: Wiboon Tantirittisak). On Row 1 of the Circles pattern chart you ‘ll see an unusual symbol that takes in the three center stitches. This is known as a cluster3 and here are the three steps involved: Keeping your yarn in back, slip 3 stitches to the right needle, purlwise.Brin ..read more

This photo tutorial is meant to accompany my Two-Color Fair Isle Wrap pattern in the Fall 2020 issue of Cast On magazine. It may be useful to others looking for basic information on steeking. In this case, the steek is formed by five stitches of alternating colors. As you can see in the image below, the first step is to mark the stitch column where you will cut. The red thread is run along the left leg of the center stitch (column 3). The actual cut will be made in the center of that stitch, just to the right of the red thread. After marking the center stitch, it is important to secure the st ..read more

Get your pattern now for our Winter Holiday Knit-Along that begins on Sunday November 3, 2019 and runs until the end of the month. The price is discounted from today until the KAL actual begins. Pattern on Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/winter-holiday-shawl More information on the KAL: https://www.ravelry.com/groups/winter-holiday-kal Hope you join us! Happy Knitting! MikeH The post Winter Holiday KAL – Pattern Now Available appeared first on This Man Knits ..read more

Although I’ve been publishing patterns for a number of years, this is the first time I’ve organized a knit-along. I hope you enjoy it and hope we can enjoy additional projects over time. This new pattern – Winter Holiday – was designed to celebrate the winter holiday season. It is a triangle-shaped shawl, measuring around 55×20 inches – and includes knit-purl texture, mosaic, and seasonal and holiday eyelet patterns. The yarn for the project is Cascade 220 Sport: one 50g skein each of Ruby, Lake Chelan Heather, and Silver Grey colorways. My thanks to Cascade Yarns for providing suppo ..read more