Lino is a 100% linen yarn and it comes in 36 colours. BC Garn is a Danish brand (company =Kremke Handelges, mbH). It is a non mercerised yarn, so it isn’t slippery. I tried out this yarn with the intent of knitting a summer tank top with a central cable design This is the second time I am using a summer yarn from BC Garn. Some people say knitting with linen is hard on the hands, but to me this is not very different than knitting with cotton. The first summer yarn I used from BC Garn is Allino, which is 50 % cotton and 50 % linen. I love this Allino yarn and will have plenty to say about it soo ..read more

Do you know how a custom-fitted garment is made? By a process of trial and error. Usually, this involves using loads of pins to connect the different parts of the not-yet-entirely-sewed-up piece. But you can’t do that with knitted fabric because pins tend to fall off. So, what do you do? You use locking stitch markers instead. Use lots of them to connect the different pieces of your knits before sewing any seams. Then, try your pinned garment on. Stitch markers mimic the effect of your seam without producing a seam allowance, which is convenient since knitting generally doesn’t use seam allowa ..read more

Again, this is somewhat of a contentious issue. In our day and age, ‘body positivity’ is the norm, and according to this line of thinking, stating that some knits are more flattering than others due to our personal body shapes is viewed as bigoted. I somewhat agree, but I also want people to be truly free. In my opinion, this necessitates people being able to make informed choices. So, this is a conversation I am starting here—this blog is, after all, about unsolicited advice! Yet, before I delve into the heart of the subject, let me start by telling you how I am framing this conversation. To ..read more

Hobbii is out of 34 of their 56 colours for their Friends Wool Medium It’s been so for weeks and they don’t even have basic neutrals such as white or navy left. I looked up how much wool I would need for a weight 3 wool here. Based upon this, I thought I was being generous by buying 10 skeins for a size L sweater), but alas, I’m a mere half-skein shor . For the full story and my previous evaluation of Friends Wool Medium by Hobbii, read my update here. Have you also encountered restocking issues wih Hobbii ? Was it with yarn from their own brands? Let me know in the comments! When you’re kni ..read more

Scandinavia has a rich knitting tradition, but this tradition doesn’t date back to the Viking age (roughly end of 8th century-mid 11th century). Vikings didn’t knit. Therefore it makes no sense to publish books with titles such as Viking knits or Viking Patterns for knitting, etc. It’s a pity, really. Vikings had lovely sheep and were so good at spinning their fleece and weaving it into huge sails, you’d think they could have used some of it to knit some warm garments too. But they didn’t. They did a little sprang and quite a bit of nalebinding (naalbinding). In fact, the tradition of naalbind ..read more

These last months, I’ve been experimenting with AI. Quite naturally, I decided to test available free AI tools to see whether artificial intelligence knows anything about knitting. Over these last 20 years, knitting bloggers have written thousands of posts about their knitting experience. Surely, enough content to train AI on, so what’s the result ? Quite good indeed! I’ve experimented with Bard, ChatGPT (free version), Copilot + Perplexity AI. Perplexity AI and Copilot I found pretty much useless. The only thing that’s good about them is that they give you their references. But it remains rea ..read more

Maybe it’s just me and old age setting in, but I’ve got a number of swatches that I have kept…without labeling them. If I look up on my notes on Ravelry or my bullet journal, I’ve got a fair chance of recalling what yarn it was and even its colourway. But not the size needle I knitted it with, nor – more importantly – whether this swatch has been blocked or not. And let’s face it, I’m not very consistent with my note-taking. I’ve been known to scribble a little something on any odd bit of paper (the margin of a newspaper, a used envelope, etc) and then not remembering to note this information ..read more

I am being inundated with adverts for Temu. I awatched a few youtube videos of Temu yarn hauls. I know that China has its own wool production and that some of the wool comes from the fleece of breeds specific to China, such as the fine-wool Gansu breed. .I also know that there is a Chinese sheep breed called Chinese Merino, as well as another one, created in 2016 that is called the Alpine Merino sheep. So plenty of reasons to wonder if I might find some interesting (and cheap) wool on Temu. China is the the world’s number one wool exporter and where almost all the wool processing is done. As w ..read more

I followed through with my plan of experimenting knitting with inexpensive non superwash wool. I waited for black Friday to get a deal, but having visited Hobbii’s website more often, I realise I needn’t have bothered. This wool is almost always on some sort of sale, especially when you are buying pullover quantities. As of today, Hobbii’s Friends Wool Medium is at 2.65 euros per 50g. I live in Switzerland, which my IP address indicates. I’m unsure if people elsewhere encounter different (lower !) pricing, but it wouldn’t surprise me much if they did. I I purchased 10 skeins of Friends Wool Me ..read more

We put a lot of work and love into our knittings. We wish that the recipients of our creations will take good care of them and wear them often. But with wear comes tear and sometimes (heartbreakingly) moths! All is not lost. A little darning can go a long way. Provided….you have the right wool for it! And that’s why providing some extra wool in a small plastic bag alongside our homemade creations is a thoughtful gesture. In the same way expensive clothes come with one extra button, I suggest our knits could come with some extra wool. If you are knitting for customers, offering that little extr ..read more