Welcome to Miniature Knitting
About miniature knitting
The craft of full-size knitting seems to have been in
decline over the past few years, the same however, is
definitely not true of miniature knitting. Every fair
that I attend will produce several more people who decide
to "give it a try."
There's nothing mystical about the process - you use
fine needles
and thread to make knitted items for 1/12 scale dolls.
I wouldn't recommend trying miniature knitting unless
you are already a "full-size" knitter. Unfortunately
being a full-size knitter doesn't automatically mean that
you can knit in miniature. Although the process is the
same you'll need to adjust your technique and have plenty
of patience and perseverance to keep practising until
you are happy with your work. I've put together a few
hints that may help you.
How I started
My mother taught me to knit when I was a child and,
although I enjoy other crafts, knitting was always my
first choice of hobby. When I first came across miniature
knitting in the early '90s it was used mainly for making
adult clothing using 1 ply wool. I was never really happy
about using wool as its fluffiness seemed to me to be
out of scale for babywear and I felt I could never get
a clean cast on or off edge. I was, however, completely
hooked on miniature knitting by this time and so I had
to spend several months trying to find thread that I was
happier with. Luckily it was relatively easy to find even
though its original use was not for knitting but for crochet,
lacemaking and machine embroidery.
What began as a hobby soon developed into a pile of tiny
outfits that needed to be sold in order to provide me
with the means to buy more threads, beads and ribbons.
With the support of Marion Fancey (now retired editor
of Dolls House & Miniature Scene Magazine and organiser
of Dolls House Fairs) and her husband Edward, I began
to attend fairs in 1993 and started to produce my own
range of patterns in 1994.
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