Tips and Tricks

How to convert a knitting pattern to your size  You have found a great knitting pattern for a jumper but it doesn’t come in your size – what do you do? I get quite a few enquiries for help with adjusting knitting patterns, so I thought you may find these instructions useful. It is possible to convert most patterns so that they suit your requirements. Here are the most important steps: Step 1: Make a tension square Before you do anything else, you need to knit up a tension square in the yarn you are planning to use and in the stitch pattern...

You may have noticed that some cotton yarns are described as combed, mercerised and gassed. But what does it mean? Combed CottonWhen cotton is harvested, it first needs to be cleaned to remove dirt and seeds. It is then carded, which separates the fibers and makes them all line up in the same direction. The cotton is divided into hanks of raw cotton which can then be spun into yarn. Combing is an additional process, whereby after carding, the fibres are brushed with very fine brushes to pull out all remaining impurities plus any short cotton fibers. This means that up to another...

Each ball of yarn carries a colour code and a batch number on their label. Yarns with the same batch number have been through the same colour run. Sometimes (not always) you may get very slight variations in tone if you have balls with different batch numbers. In most cases, the differences tend to be very minor and often hardly noticeable (it is still the same colour!), but we nevertheless aim to ship out yarn with the same batch number whenever possible. Unfortunately sometimes different batch numbers simply can't be avoided for a variety of reasons.  Does it actually matter? The answer is that it depends...

If you are like me, you probably enjoy reading knitting books and magazines from all over the world. And that's where it can get really confusing. Have you ever despaired over trying to work out which kind of yarn you should use for a pattern you like, or which needle size is required?