After a conversation between team members and a closer look at the world around us, we realised we were witnessing thousands of beginning knitters discover the craft for the very first time.

Then, another surprise appeared.

A guest post from iconic heritage knitwear and yarn brand Icewear.

Amsterdam, the beautiful city of canals, heritage and bicycles has several cosy yarn stores, 5 of which I am going to share with you here. I encourage you to visit as many as you can, with the full knowledge that each one will tempt you with delicious yarn begging to come home with you and spark your creativity, making your must-knit list a little more exciting and that phone and laptop, a lot less captivating.

Spring is a funny time of year in terms of clothing, the sun is shining but it can still feel pretty fresh, bordering on chilly out there. Layering is key so you can adapt your comfort to whether you are experiencing sun or shade, or when the evening starts and the cooler temperatures set in.

In the hope of inspiring you to pick up your knitting and enjoy creating yourself some items to wear and enjoy throughout Spring, I have listed some spring seasonal project ideas to add to your dream knitting list:

A simple and straightforward, step by step guide to the Wraps Per Inch method to help identify knitting yarn without a label or knitting needle indication.

My little family and I were recently in Alicante, Spain. It was our first holiday abroad since having our little girl nearly 4 years ago and it was fantastic! We had such a wonderful time and were able to resurrect some old holiday traditions that my husband and I had when we used to travel relatively often, such as visiting a local yarn store and finding some local yarn treasure for me to take home and knit up as memories of the holiday.

As you build your knitting confidence and embark on more knitting projects and patterns you will inevitably accrue yarn and build what is known as a stash. If you are anything like me you will end up buying yarn because it is simply too squidgy and gorgeous to leave in the store and then you end up with a large collection of yarn, sitting pretty and waiting for a knitting pattern to be allocated to...and so the stash grows.

Buying yarn to knit can be both exciting and overwhelming, with these 4 simple steps I hope to help make it a productive and fun experience for you.

Going from 'thin to thick' yarn, I shall take you on a tour of all the variations of yarn weights, the category names they are known by, the knitting needles they use and the projects they are typically used to knit.

A knitting teacher’s guide for beginner knitters on how to easily and quickly identify which knitting needle you need for the yarn in your hand.

Recommended needles are the size of knitting needle which commonly achieves a medium tension for that specific yarn weight (you may think of it as yarn thickness).

For me yarn is inspiration. The feel of it, the colours (as many of my students will know, I am partial to some hand-dyed delights), the weight...it all spells out exciting knitting potential.