ABOUT

'Knit and Destroy' brings you the knitted accessories you've always dreamed of, from outsize objects to protest slogans...it's on a whole different planet to "traditional" knitting. Founded by knit designer and educator Kandy Diamond in 2006, Knit and Destroy aims to smash stereotypes while spreading the joy of novelty knitting around the world.  

Crafting products that blur the lines between product and art, Kandy has made a natural progression to making non-wearable art pieces as well as products, with work that aims to challenge cultural preconceptions by offering an alternative representation of knitting; creating pieces that are at odds with the embedded stereotype. Kandy’s work often involves a play on scale, with inspiration taken from everyday items, novelty and craft related objects.

The subversion of knitting is key in Kandy's work. Her 'Death by knitting' series examines the use of knitting needles as weapons in film, and more recent pieces use knitting as a vehicle to interpretation of slogans found on badges addressing issues from queer rights and visibility to war.   

As well as seeing international success with knitting, Kandy has written two books and contributed chapters to a variety of other titles. 2013 brought the release of ‘Knit and Destroy…gets handy!’, a book containing 20 hand-knit patterns of Kandy’s designs, and in 2023 Kandy released her second book 'Discovering machine knitting'.