Truly Myrtle

I imagine that as a maker, you’re a bit like me; full of more dreams than time to bring them all to life. I’m never short of new adventures to try and projects to make, and it feels like most of my ideas bubble up from somewhere inside of me, but I suspect that’s only partly true. As a visual person, and a super-curious one to boot, my eye is always drawn to new, shiny, tantalising things and I have a feeling that instead of being completely inventive and original, my brain sifts through

I’m trying to make a new skirt. I want to wear it for an upcoming photoshoot so I’ve got a loose-not-so-loose deadline in my head for when it needs to be finished. But, to be honest, my skirt feels more like a mountain and less like a piece of clothing at the moment, and I’m feeling a little daunted. I’m not sure how to fit it in around all the other things that have to be done; new designs to be knitted, blog posts to write (!), dinners to be cooked, groceries to be bought and kids to

What happens when you can’t get hold of the same yarn used in a knitting pattern? Knitting your project with different yarn can be a daunting prospect, especially if you’re trying to make patterns work for yarn from your stash. How do we know if it’ll work out? Thankfully, even without a crystal ball, there are a few great tricks to figure out whether your yarn will work for the pattern you want to knit.

If you’ve been following me for a long time, you might remember that I also sew and I love to make my clothes. It’s been a while since I sat in front of my sewing machine … but I knit every day and dream of making every scrap of clothing that I wear, and I’ve decided to go back to my roots, carve out some time to sew, and put together the wardrobe of my dreams.

My knitting design business has just turned FIVE years old and in those years I’ve done an awful lot of knitting and an equal amount of frogging and ripping back. I’ve uttered a million swear words, a zillion sighs in frustration, and countless squeals of delight. And, after all that knitting and re-knitting, I’ve come to realise how knitting reflects real life, and how, if we let it, knitting can be a wonderful teacher.

I'm a restless, pacing, fidgety person without something on my needles. I daydream about my next project before my current one is finished, and have more plans than hands, hours or even years. I’m not sure whether I was born like that, or whether years and years of non-stop knitting has made me this way? Whatever the cause, the holiday season is upon us, and I've been wondering what knitting I'll take with me when we head away.

I work hard at writing Truly Myrtle patterns clearly so they're a breeze to follow, even if you’re fairly new to knitting. I include both written instructions & charts (where possible) as well as links to tutorials to help you learn new stitches. But how do you figure out which patterns won’t be too tricky for you?