TIK Knits

It's not possible, we've found, to look at this wee cardigan without smiling. The happy colours, the smart Argyle pattern on the fronts, the gently gathered shoulders - ah, just the charm of it. It's the Pia cardigan, from MillaMia's Little Rascals pattern book, and it's made in their Naturally Soft Merino. Unlike a lot of children's patterns, MillaMia's designs...

It's St Patrick's Day here in Dublin, and we'd like to wish you a very happy day, wherever you are. And wherever you are, we hope you get to sit down and have a nice quiet cup of tea and a bit of yarncraft. We're so fond of tea round here that we make clothes for it - there's proof...

It's always particularly satisfying when a pattern comes together with a yarn in an unexpected way. We were so impressed with this project that we couldn't wait to show you. It's Wrenna, one of the eighteen stylish patterns from French Girl Knits by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes. It's designed for super bulky yarn, so four skeins of Debbie Bliss Paloma stepped up...

It's with some pride that we present this lovely cardigan. It's the first ever garment made by Jen, its delighted owner, and it's an overwhelming success. The pattern is Golden Wheat, and it's yet another Veera Välimäki pattern. If her name seems familiar, it's because we can't stop making her designs: Folded, which we blogged here, is another of her...

Well, Christmas is upon us: the shopping's done, the wrapping's almost done and the rest will be done tomorrow. That picture's a fair idea of what we'll be up to until the New Year begins. Unsurprisingly yarn, festive food and armchairs will feature prominently. So we had a quick survey of what we're relaxing with, patternwise. Lisa's going for Golden...

The shop's been echoing in the last few days to one sound: "Awww!". The cause, you won't be surprised to learn, has been this baby jacket, made recently by Lisa. It's a present for a little baby called T, whose mother is herself a fantastic knitter (we've marvelled at her projects on these pages before). It's a free pattern on...

We've been hit by a sudden dusting of snowflakes here! They're all over the place, and they're the simplest and most festive things. It's all because of this excellent book, which we've just got back into stock in time for Christmas. It's called 100 Snowflakes to Crochet, by Caitlin Sainio, and it's just that: a hundred pretty, easy to crochet...

It's so easy to get dazzled by choice at this time of year - either by what to buy in the first place or what colour to get. Well, we're on the case, and the answer, we've found, is kits! Whether you're buying a present for a loved one or for someone else, we've got convenient little packages all ready...

There's a lot of gift knitting going on just now, and most of it has been carefully planned for ages. But it happens to all of us: the need for a last-minute yarny present hits, and we look around for something that is fast and lovely (with particular emphasis on the "fast"). It's with this in mind that we bring...

This is one of the most impressive début projects we've ever seen. It's the Hoodwink hooded scarf, knitted by a new and rather talented knitter. It's made in Debbie Bliss Paloma, that delicious blend of baby alpaca and merino that makes the warmest and softest cold weather garments and accessories. It works up really fast, too - the cables keep...

That's not really the name of this cowl - it's actually called the Willow Cowl, but it's got that nickname in here because it's the most delightfully elastic, tactile object. It snuggles round your neck and gives you the gentlest, warmest hug. It's such an easy knit too, with rounds of stocking stitch alternating with a very very simple eyelet...

You know that part of a pattern where you're instructed to "put the next (however many) stitches on waste yarn", putting them aside to be worked later? The part where you have to put down the knitting and find the yarn needle, only to find it's disappeared down the sofa cushions? Well, we've come across a way to simplify the...

One of the biggest stars of last week's Yarn Tasting was this little poncho, the Little Emilia Poncho from Sublime Book 663. When we displayed it, it received such oohs and ahhs that we thought we should share the details with you today. It's the simplest garment imaginable: just two rectangles joined together. One of the pieces is a lovely...

Isn't that lovely? It's Lisa's Fan Jacket, knitted as part of the This Is Knit Spring Knit ALong. It's just recently gone on display in the shop window, and it's attracting a lot of attention. She knitted it in Debbie Bliss Bella (it took ten balls), and the pattern can be found, with five others, in Debbie Bliss's The Village....

Back in May, when Carol Feller gave us her workshop on novel techniques for top-down construction, we had a sneak preview of her hundredth pattern, a lovely cardigan called Ravi. To celebrate Carol's pattern centenary, she's organised a knitalong, with the pattern being released in four "clues" over the summer. It's huge fun, and there's people taking part all over...

A couple of weeks ago, baby E was born to friends of ours, and she's beautiful. Babies, you will agree, deserve handmade garments more than anyone else in the world, so we looked for the nicest one we could devise. It had to be Owlet by Kate Davies. This is the baby version of O w l s, from this...

Now that the winter looks like it's over, we've been able to think less abut warm snuggly things and more about light versatile knits. We've two to show you today, one lovely accessory and one charming jumper. The accessory's in the photo above. It's the Flukra shawl, designed by Gudrun Johnson using traditional Shetland lace patterns. Since the lace is...

A week or so ago, we showed you the Rivendell cowl, just designed by Jacqui, and intimated that she was working on a matching hat. True to our word, here it is: this is the Rivendell hat. It's a lovely slouchy tam made with a simple lacy stitch, and it's a really fast knit - in fact, you could easily...