Power and Steam | A Walk in the Woods – The Annual 6 and 7

If you’ve been following us for a while, you might already be familiar with our very own in-house mill magazine: The Annual! It’s a delightful concoction of patterns – knitting, crochet, embroidery, and more –, articles, interviews and puzzles. We’ve just wrapped up the photoshoot for the 2025 edition, Annual (issue 5), themed “Seaside Kitch”. Here is a little glimpse at a few of the patterns, we can’t wait to show you the rest soon…
Annual (issue 5) will be available for preorder on August 8, so keep your eyes peeled on our newsletter!
As is usual with magazines, while we’re just about to finish up the layout of The Annual (issue 5), we’re already preparing for the next issues: 6 – Steam and Power, and 7 – A Walk in the Woods! Annual (issue 6) will be published in August 2026, and issue 7 in August 2027.
As we’d love to photograph Annual (issue 7) in its natural habitat – think fall-coloured woods – we’re already accepting submissions for both of them. Deadline for submissions is July 21, and you can read more about how to submit here.
Annual (issue 6): Power and Steam
As you might know, we create all our tops and yarns using glorious vintage machines. They truly are part of our team and we invest a lot of time keeping them humming along smoothly! So it’s no surprise that we are always excited when encountering other forms of vintage machinery, like the steam-powered trains, and fantastic cliff railways still operating in Devon.
For this issue of the Annual, we want to tap into our industrial heritage and celebrate the dynamism and excitement which heralded the arrival of the trains. Suddenly folks were able to travel the length and breadth of the country in just a few hours! Whether it’s the beautiful mechanisms, intricate tracks and architectural structures which grab your attention, the detailed posters and ticket stubs, or the clothing and furnishings of yester-year, we’d love to know what wanders through your mind on long, lazy train journeys.
We’d love to include knitting and crochet patterns that have a link to the forms and patterns of heritage machinery or that might be worn on an exciting steam-train adventure. We’re also open to submissions for articles, puzzles, recipes and illustrations that fit our “Power and Steam” theme!
Annual (issue 7): A Walk in the Woods
A slight chill in the air, the scent of bonfires and decaying plant matter, the crunch of fallen leaves underfoot, the tree canopy above a mass of every shade of orange, red, and brown… a walk in the Devon forests in autumn is a treat for all the senses.
Every walk in the woods is an opportunity to get inspired by the natural world – whether it’s admiring moss gardens, foraging for fungi, conversing with the pixies, collecting leaf skeletons, or the simple pleasure of shutting one’s eyes for a few moments and listening to the sounds of wind rustling the branches.
For The Annual #7, we’re looking for knitting and crochet patterns that can be worn on strolls in the forest, or ones inspired by the forms present in autumnal flora. As well as patterns, we’d also love to see submissions for articles, puzzles, recipes, and illustrations that fit that autumnal “Walk in the Woods” feel.
You can find out more about the timelines beyond the submission deadline (July 21) and how it’s like to work with us over on our Call for Submissions Page. And if you’re wondering how your pattern or article or illustration might look like in print, here’s a little glimpse into the pages of Annual (issue 4):
We can’t wait to see your amazing ideas in our inbox and on the pages of the Annual (issue 6) and Annual (issue 7)!