About Us

The Knitting Companion was founded by Janet Sigley, who has been interested in knitting since she was just eight years old. Now a recently retired mental health nurse, she loves using her free time to pursue her passion!

With a particular interest in Fair Isle knitting, she started attended a workshop at Black Sheep Wools (based inear Warrington, Cheshire) where her now good friend Bev Hodgkinson taught her the key knitting skills. Eventually she felt confident enough to tackle her own personal knitting project, but what to knit? See the blog for the interesting challenge.

Janet is an active member of Ravelry and has been reported in mainstream knitting magazines. “Knitting” magazine, issue 180 were very enthusiastic about her products, and “Knit Now” magazine, issue 80 also mentioned the innovative book. Her main inspiration come from the designs of Marie Wallin, who encouraged her when meeting at “Wonderwool” in 2017, advising her to take her time and enjoy the whole process! Great advice which lead on to an awareness of knitting meditatively – providing more interest into knitting mindfully. Janet studied Mindfulness on a short course at Bangor University and underwent further training within the Trust where she worked. This philosophy of “being” was incorporated into her everyday life and her professional practice. Now she uses it in her knitting and crochet, and has provided a section within this site which will enable you to participate in simple and straightforward mindful practices.

Her favourite project was working on Marie Wallin’s Maple  cardigan (but using her own colour scheme) and the recommended wool, Rowan felted tweed (DK weight).

During completion of this Maple cardigan, Janet made a number of observations about the process:

  1. The tremendous sense of achievement felt when completing a project;
  2. The value of sharing her aims with friends who were able to then encourage and advise on how to choose colours that contrasted and looked good together;
  3. The need to find pads of paper of ready printed numbers;
  4. The total concentration required to follow a complicated knitting chart.

The above observations caused a chain of events which led to Janet developing her range of knitter’s companion workbooks. Her aims were to save time in planning the project, while also consolidating all her knitting knowledge and project details (both past and present) into one convenient place.

Her vision was to make her workbooks accessible to everyone, so that we can all share the benefits she and all her knitting friends obtain from using them.