About the service
I knit by hand, on needles, one piece at a time. Before we talk about cables or ribbing I ask two plain questions: who is this for, and what weather will it live in? A town scarf for damp autumn and a snood for a windy January under a down jacket are not the same thing — different yarn, different gauge, different length. I work from your measurements: head circumference (a snood has to go over the hair without dragging it), neck circumference, the length you want, and what the piece will be worn over — tucked inside a coat collar or sitting on the shoulders.
Yarn we choose together. Wool holds warmth and keeps its shape; alpaca is softer and noticeably warmer at the same thickness; merino blends do not prickle at the face, and the face is where it is decided whether a thing gets worn or hung in the wardrobe. If there is a wool allergy, tell me at the start — a different yarn is chosen then, cotton and silk, plant blends or a good soft acrylic, and this is settled in advance, before anything is bought. The stitch has a character too: cables make a dense, sculpted fabric and eat up length, English rib comes out lofty and stretches sideways, seed stitch lies flat and never curls at the edge, a plain 2x2 rib pulls a snood into a neat collar.
Two things I say out loud before we start. For a child under three I do not knit a long scarf with hanging ends — only a closed snood or a collar: a loose end is dangerous on a slide and in doorways, and that is not over-caution. And about time: handwork takes weeks, not days. Yarn also shifts colour slightly from dye lot to dye lot, so for a large piece the yarn is bought all at once, in one lot.
What the work includes:
— measurements taken from your figures and a gauge calculation;
— a knitted swatch approved by you before the main work starts;
— a snood in one or two loops, a scarf with fringe or without;
— fingerless mitts with a turn-back cuff or cut to the knuckles;
— a matching set in one colour family — scarf, snood and mitts;
— blocking after knitting: damp finishing and shaping to the final size;
— a care note — hand wash, dried flat and spread out, never hung;
— repair of a pulled thread or a snag during the season.
Yarn we choose together. Wool holds warmth and keeps its shape; alpaca is softer and noticeably warmer at the same thickness; merino blends do not prickle at the face, and the face is where it is decided whether a thing gets worn or hung in the wardrobe. If there is a wool allergy, tell me at the start — a different yarn is chosen then, cotton and silk, plant blends or a good soft acrylic, and this is settled in advance, before anything is bought. The stitch has a character too: cables make a dense, sculpted fabric and eat up length, English rib comes out lofty and stretches sideways, seed stitch lies flat and never curls at the edge, a plain 2x2 rib pulls a snood into a neat collar.
Two things I say out loud before we start. For a child under three I do not knit a long scarf with hanging ends — only a closed snood or a collar: a loose end is dangerous on a slide and in doorways, and that is not over-caution. And about time: handwork takes weeks, not days. Yarn also shifts colour slightly from dye lot to dye lot, so for a large piece the yarn is bought all at once, in one lot.
What the work includes:
— measurements taken from your figures and a gauge calculation;
— a knitted swatch approved by you before the main work starts;
— a snood in one or two loops, a scarf with fringe or without;
— fingerless mitts with a turn-back cuff or cut to the knuckles;
— a matching set in one colour family — scarf, snood and mitts;
— blocking after knitting: damp finishing and shaping to the final size;
— a care note — hand wash, dried flat and spread out, never hung;
— repair of a pulled thread or a snag during the season.
