With the picnic-inspired Summer 2026 collection we celebrate a real milestone in TOFT history: it is not only officially our 20th birthday as a company in this quarter, but it’s also a decade since we began producing this magazine of seasonal knitting and crochet patterns. In that time since 2016 our own community and the wider craft industry has transformed exponentially and the world of digital and print media has been turned upside down with everything from the growing power of social media to advances in AI and the counteracting recent response seeing a return to analogue. So after 10 years, 40 printed TOFT Quarterly magazines and 560 patterns created for them it’s time for a change!
TOFT Quarterly was created in a different era of TOFT history. Originally designed to support our yarn on the shelves of many independent and high street retailers around the world, we set out with the intention of providing pattern inspiration but also behind the scenes editorial about TOFT suppliers and manufacturing processes. It began from very humble beginnings, and looking back and reflecting upon those first few issues makes us realise just how far the magazine and we as a team have come in the designs, layout, photography and styling.
Creating each issue of the magazine has always been a collaborative project between the TOFT team, and although gently guided by the odd trend and a commercial eye, more than anything else each collection is a creative brainstorm of what you can do with our yarn. All TOFT team members, whether seasoned knitters, crocheters or beginners of both crafts, have been encouraged to share ideas and try designing things that they want to make and wear themselves. Regardless of the core role the person has at TOFT, whether dispatching our parcels, bookkeeping or the head of sales, lots have turned their crafty hands towards designing in TOFT Quarterly. Many have only ever made one thing, but rightfully felt very proud to have created a pattern they can see in print, whereas others have contributed huge bodies of work over the ten years we have made the magazine. Many patterns are so collaborative that the idea comes from one person, the maths are fleshed out by another to then be made by a third person before the finishing touches, edging, tassels and styling get added by another.
Above all else in whatever theme we choose to create a new collection around, the design brief has always been to have fun with the yarn and see what we can make. Of course it has been hard to find the ‘fun’ through a few periods of running a business over the last decade, but the magazine has always been there as a melting pot of ideas to keep TOFT creating new designs and pushing us in new and unexpected directions.
Over the ten years creating the magazine we have been on some adventures. Although in fact a quarter of the issues were actually photographed here at HQ (perhaps revealing its beating heart) to shoot on location we’ve visited beaches, pine forests, stately homes, a working pottery and even Switzerland.
Please fill in the survey below and help us shape the next chapter of TOFT history by letting us know your thoughts and ideas. Tell us how you now make, where you look for inspiration and most importantly what you’d like to see more of from TOFT to keep your hooks and needles busy. This survey will close on Sunday 7th June.
