Nathan Taylor

Connect and Follow

Nathan Taylor, (aka Sockmatician on Ravelry, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter) is obsessed with double-knitting! He has been knitting seriously since 2011, and designing since around the same time. His passion is for sharing his knowledge of DK with as many people as possible, and pushing the boundaries, and furthering what is possible within the realms of this addictive and beautiful technique.

His first published design was in Knit Now! Magazine, and in 2015, he was approached by Vogue Knitting Magazine in the USA to design a DK Shawl for their Fall 2015 issue. That design has recently been included in the book Vogue Knitting: Shawls and Wraps 2. He was especially proud in 2016 to be able to contribute a design to the very first issue of the new knitting magazine for men, Rib Magazine. The start of 2017 saw him being contacted by The Knitter Magazine to design a DK/brioche hybrid hat for them.

Nathan hosts a very popular knitting podcast on YouTube, and particularly champions male knitters, with a view to getting not only more men into knitting, but also getting more patterns aimed at men out there. His YouTube channel also has many tutorials for the many and varied techniques involved in knitting his patterns, and Nathan is dedicated to making these tutorials as friendly, and as easy to understand as possible. As a result of his work in these fields, Nathan was named as Knit Now Magazine’s Knitter of the Year, in the Online Innovator category.

He has been teaching double-knitting classes for the last couple of years, and enjoys nothing so much as seeing that lightbulb moment, when someone’s brain clicks, and he knows that a new DKer has been born.

2017 has seen Nathan teaching the DarK Art of Double-Knitting at knitting retreats and yarn shops across the UK, as well as giving classes and workshops at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, Birmingham’s Yarningham show, and the Perth Festival of Yarn in Scotland.

Taking a class with Nathan is not the same as sitting at home watching one of his tutorials. He has a boundless enthusiasm for the subject, and limitless patience with the process. His knowledge and understanding of the subject far exceeds what can be put into a short video, and he knows that every knitter is different, and everyone needs different things in order to be able to pick something up effectively. Understanding this is the key to good teaching, and Nathan has spent a lifetime studying human nature, in his other life as a West End actor, so adapting his teaching methods to the individual knitter in front of him comes easily. Be it clear and succinct description and explanation, or where appropriate and comfortable, hands-on demonstrations, Nathan gives the kind of teaching that just can’t be found anywhere else, and he makes each knitter feel like that are being taught in a one-to-one session, regardless of the size of the class.

Throughout 2017, Nathan taught DK classes at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, Birmingham’s Yarningham Show, Perth Festival of Yarn in Scotland, Nottingham Yarn Festival, Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Show in New York, and many other places.

Nathan hosts a very popular knitting podcast on YouTube, and particularly champions male knitters, with a view to getting not only more men into knitting, but also getting more patterns aimed at men out there. His YouTube channel also has many tutorials for the many and varied techniques involved in knitting his patterns, and Nathan is dedicated to making these tutorials as friendly, and as easy to understand as possible. As a result of his work in these fields, Nathan was named as Knit Now Magazine’s Knitter of the Year, in the Online Innovator category.