We're on a year-end shipping break - shipping will resume on Jan 6. The webshop is open though, and we're available via email!

0

Your Cart is Empty

Yarn
  • Our Favorite Fall Yarns

  • All Yarns

  • Spinning Fiber
  • Frau Woellfchen's Hand-Dyed Braids

  • John Arbon Appledore Tops

  • All Spinning Fiber

  • Notions & Gifts
  • Katie Green's New "Crafty Sheep" Tea Towel

  • Needle Stoppers & Stitch Markers

  • All Notions & Gifts

  • Books, Magazines & Patterns
  • Issue 12 - Art Nouveau

  • All Books & Magazines

  • About Us
  • We're here to help you stitch sustainability into every aspect of your making.

    With our carefully curated selection of non-superwash, plastic-free yarns and notions, we have everything you need to get started on your next project - and the one after that.

    Here's to a wardrobe of knits we love and want to wear for years to come!

  • Our Sustainability Pledge

  • Our Blog

  • Our Podcast

  • The Making Stories Collective

  • 3 Super Quick Gift Knits

    October 30, 2023 3 min read 2 Comments

    Hi lovelies!

    As I was finishing up Aurin's Joy Cardigan over the weekend, I started thinking about what I could cast on now that one of my current WIPs is almost done. And then it hit me - the holidays are just under two months away, and I have this dream of knitting a few sweaters for my nephews. Will I manage it in time? Who knows. But it would be nice to gift them the promised sweaters in time for the end of the year so that they actually get a little wear out of them still this winter!

    Are you already deep in gift knitting mode or, like me, just starting to plan? If the latter (or the former, if you still need a few ideas!) I might have just the thing for you: Three super quick gift knit ideas!

    Weod Hat Kit

    1. Weod Hat (even available as a kit!)

    One of the quickest (and most fun) things to knit in my opinion is a DK-weight colorwork hat. DK-weight yarn knits up super fast, and the colorwork means your knit is engaging and you just want to get to that next round!

    We've recently added a few Marina Skua Kits to our webshop, including one for her fabulous Weod Hat. Botanically inspired, it would make a great gift for anyone who likes plants or the outdoors. Or, if you ask me, a warm and cozy hat!

    You can pair any of the Mendip DK colors we have in stock for the kit, but I am partial to Sheep (Sunny) as the main color and Beech (Sunny) as the contrasting color. There's just something about these two that feels festive, but they're neutral enough that the lucky recipient could wear the hat year round!

    Scintillation Stars

    2. Scintillation Stars

    I adore Hunter Hammersen's work. She is the queen of "Tiny Nonsense", and her patterns are impeccable – and Scintillation Stars is one of my absolute favorites!

    Every year, when the holiday season starts, I start thinking about the people who make our day-to-day life a little easier. The DHL guy who always meets me with a smile halfway down the staircase. The Ur-Berliner who comes twice a week to sweep the corridor, stairs and make small repairs in our apartment building, and who always has a kind word for Aurin. The folx at my local Kiezshop / post office who will sort subscriptions with me and let me drop off your parcels any time of the day.

    The holiday season feels like a good time to thank all of them, and so I put together little care packages. Some years, it's tea and chocolate. Others, it's a hand-drawn picture from Aurin and a little Amazon voucher. If you like to do the same, and add a hand-made touch, a small Scintillation Star would just do the trick!

    While I could recommend any yarn that we have in the store for this (you can work them at any gauge, with any yarn), I won't because chances are you - like me - have lots and lots of scraps of yarn around the house. These are perfect to make one, two, a million stars.

    Cellular Mittens

    3. Cellular Mittens

    Your mother-in-law who always has cold hands. Your brother who is typing away at his laptop for work 12 hours a day. Your babysitter who is out walking with a stroller for most of their week. All of them - and everyone, basically! - could use a pair of Cellular Mittens.

    This sweet design is knit sideways and flat, with a bit of short-row-ing to get those lovely stripes! A combination of garter stitch and stockinette means they're engaging and fun to knit, and squishy and warm to wear.

    I love mittens as holiday gifts if I'm knitting for folx whose size I don't know. They're stretchy and will fit anyone! The design is fabulous in De Rerum Natura Ulysse, and with their wonderful rainbow range of colors, I'm sure you'll find a wonderful combination that the lucky recipient will love. You only need 1 ball of each color to make the Cellular Mittens in any size.

    Tell me - are you gift knitting this year? If yes, have you started already?

    2 Responses

    caroline
    caroline

    November 08, 2023

    Thank you for the beautiful yarn and excellent customer service!

    Leanna
    Leanna

    November 02, 2023

    Thank you for the ideas! Knitting time has been in short supply in the last few weeks, so beautiful and quick knits are needed!

    Leave a comment

    Comments will be approved before showing up.


    Also in Blog

    Thoughts on closing down a knitting magazine
    Thoughts on closing down a knitting magazine

    November 19, 2024 12 min read

    As a lot of you might have suspected I have, at last, made the decision to definitely close down Making Stories Magazine after Issue 14, our 2025 Fall & Winter issue. This means we still have two issues to go - Issue 13, coming out in March (Confetti & Rainbows!!), and Issue 14, coming out in September. I wanted to share this decision with you bright and early as I don’t feel like holding this in when we publish our last Spring and then our very last Fall & Winter issue. I want to celebrate those issues, and the work that we have done over the last eight years, and I want to be able to share the bittersweet feelings that will inevitably come up when the list of “lasts” still do be done gets shorter and shorter.
    Read More
    All the knits I finished while recovering from surgery
    All the knits I finished while recovering from surgery

    October 28, 2024 8 min read

    About three weeks ago, I had surgery. Nothing major, and it was planned - but it was my first time undergoing general anaesthesia and facing an uncertain recovery period, both of which made me quite nervous. I knew that I was going to be in the hospital for two days, if everything went well, but then it was between one and three weeks of recovering at home, depending on how fast my body was going to heal.

    Needless to say, I packed knitting for the hospital, but I didn’t feel like picking up my needles until my second day in the hospital. And then I knit. I knit, and knit, and knit. Curiously enough, I always get the urge to clear off my needles this time of the year - something about the weather changing, sweater season approaching, maybe? And this year, this urge coincided with me wanting to do something while watching copious amounts of Netflix without having to think very hard about what I was going to knit. Win win!

    Read More
    Art Nouveau Sample Preview Video - Issue 12, Fall & Winter 2024
    Art Nouveau Sample Preview Video - Issue 12, Fall & Winter 2024

    June 26, 2024 1 min read

    Let’s wander the streets of Brussels and Paris, searching for the hidden architectural Art Nouveau gems – houses, doors, windows, street lamps. Let’s explore Berlin’s Jugendstil tile art, marvelling at the colors and shapes taking form. Let’s get lost in the work of water color artists, glass blowers, jewellers, embroidery artists, and myriads more, who dive into the shapes and curves of plants and flowers, moving, flowing, mirroring.
    Read More