As I'm writing this, we are just a few days from closing pre-orders on Issue 1 of our new Making Stories magazine, and it's been such a fantastic week. If you have been following our adventures over on Instagram, you will have seen that Hanna Lisa had an amazing time at EYF and for all of us who couldn't make it, we had fun chatting about the new issue and partaking in the giveaway we ran! Your response to this new step in the Making Stories journey has been so overwhelmingly positive and we really can't thank you enough for your love and support. As we prepare for the official launch, I thought it would be nice to take a closer look at how the magazine came about and just what you will find on it's pages.

The idea for starting the magazine came from a desire and a need for change. Over the past two years, Hanna Lisa and Verena had created some truly amazing work. The three books in the European Nature series; WOODS, BREEZE and JEWELS, had been such a joy to develop and along with all of our digital collections, we had created a considerable body of work in a relatively short space of time, and it's no secret that it had become a little overwhelming. At the same time, it had become evident that we wanted to be able to create a less restrictive platform, a place where we could continue to tell the stories of amazing makers and writers and to use that space to contribute positively to the changes we so desperately need in our community.

And so, Issue 1 was born. Aptly centred on change, we purposely chose to keep the concept as open to interpretation as possible to allow the issue to be guided by the multi-faceted perspectives within our collaborators. Within the pages of issue 1, you are taken on a journey from sustainability in the world of knitwear design, to capturing the concept of an open mind in a pullover, to the realities of disability and self-care in the knitting community. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. We wanted to open our pages to the plethora of voices that create this community we love so much, and we can't wait to build on this from issue to issue.

The Designs

In Issue 1 we have nine beautiful designs knit in stunning natural yarns. Instead of focusing on seasonal knits we instead wanted a collection that would work no matter which hemisphere you happen to be in, pieces you could wear alone or layer together in a woolly cocoon.

Borobila

Rainfall

Inverse

Traversing

Columella

Tidal

Rimy

Pilier

Fluent

The Articles

We are so proud to feature four original written pieces and one visual art piece in Issue 1. Opening up our submissions to written pieces was something we were extremely passionate and excited about, and we couldn't have been happier with what our amazing authors brought to this issue.

From Need by Rhiannon Owens

Queering The (Knitting) Status Quo by ash alberg

Disability, Knitting & Self Care by Felicity Ford & Lorna Hamilton-Brown and yarn contribution by Ocean Rose

Change by Skeinwalker

How My Body Became My Home by Camille Rosselle

The Magazine

One of the things we are extremely proud of is that (to our knowledge) we are the only ad-free knitting magazine on the market. We believe in preserving our independence when it comes to deciding who we feature and work with through not accepting any ads for this magazine. As for the magazine itself, we wanted to make sure that all of the beautiful content we had put together was given the vehicle it deserved. It is printed on 100% recycled paper, one of the few that's certified not only with the EU Ecolabel and the Nordic Swan Ecolabel but also with the Blauer Engel certificate.

If you have a copy of Issue 1 of the Making Stories Magazine we'd love to hear what you think of it, so please do share your thoughts in the comments or by email! If you haven't got your copy yet and would like to, you can purchase single issues and subscriptions in our web-shop.

Until next time, woolly greetings!

Claire x