welcome to
sanquhar pattern designs

Let Us Share a yarn

In November 2014, Upper Nithsdale Arts and Crafts Community Initiative (UNACCI) also known as A’ the Airts launched a major new knitting project with the hope of making a positive impact on the economic climate of Upper Nithsdale, in South West Scotland. The project known as "Sanquhar Pattern Designs” supports the long-term  goal of producing high-quality knitwear using the traditional distinctive Sanquhar pattern.

The project is now seven years old and has grown in popularity, gaining the approval of the local people in the town of Sanquhar and admired by overseas visitors alike.

Initial funding was granted from Santander's Social Enterprise Development Awards scheme. The funding is given to social enterprises and trading charities to grow their businesses and to improve the local community both economically and socially. It continues with assistance from the National Lottery Communities Fund, the Upper Nithsdale Community Trust and the Holywood Trust.

From its humble beginnings with only two electronic knitting machines and only one linker the four founding knitters; Kate Sloan, Elma Clark, Jean Ramsay and Sheila Crompton started producing high quality knitwear which would be sold through the local communities arts and crafts centre, A' the Airts. Over the past six years there have been over thirty knitters who have come into the training facility arm of the project to learn how to knit the world famous Sanquhar Gloves and other knitted garments.

The initiative focuses on producing quality machine knitted and handknitted goods with the Sanquhar pattern, the patterns being an important part of Sanquhar's heritage. The sales of such goods are reinvested back into the organisation which in turn trains up local individuals with the skills and knowledge to produce machine knitted goods of a high standard. Our goal is that the skills developed by our knitters provide the foundation of re-establishing a cottage industry where locals can subsidence their income by producing knitted goods.

With the outbreak of Covid-19 there were some challenges for the project and different ways of working had to be implemented, whilst still meeting the demand. Knitters worked from home, going back to the ways that garments would have been produced in the 1700s.

Items knitted in our workshops have appeared on the catwalks of 2016 London fashion week, commissioned by fashion designer, Samantha McCoach (creative director of Le Kilt) and in the exhibition "Sanquhar" by Jennifer Kent held at Lighthouse museum in Glasgow.

Half-day tours have now been a popular element of the project, with overseas visitors from Canada, America and Denmark visiting the craft shop at A’ the Airts to see the knitwear and how it is produced. There are on average four tours per year with visitors loving the knitwear, the Centre and Sanquhar.

We see several day trip tour groups stop at A' the Airts to learn about the history and heritage of a traditional way of knitting, presented by the Sanquhar Pattern Designs team with captivating presentations and hands-on demonstrations, along with a taste of South West Scotland at A' the Airts Café.