Four years of development work
Our three book universes and the new website did not come into the world quickly.

It has taken year after year – and at one point I was actually embarrassed that, again and again, I had said that we were almost finished. And then we still were not. So what happened during all those four years?

Well, first of all, it was such an exciting process to be part of that the stop button we perhaps ought to have pressed when we reached pattern number 40 in the bag book was not quite so easy to find.

Because there were still ideas we wanted to include. Not only more patterns, but also the graphic and digital possibilities that opened up to us along the way during the very focusedwork.

We have learnt an enormous amount. Not least from Kim, who in 2025 won the award as Denmark’s best teacher within the vocational schools. His expertise lies in photography, video, animation, multimedia – the whole field where ideas have to be turned into somethingthat actually works visually.

It has been a huge gift for us to work under such strong professional expertise. And greathumility is due from us here, because we have learnt things we never imagined possible whenwe began.

That is also why we are happy to show some of the work behind it. Not to make the processbigger than it is – but because it should be possible to feel when something has taken time, required people, required technique, required patience and required the will to try again.

How we work with patterns
All Go handmade patterns are a team effort and start from many different situations – from long-standing wishes, such as the three books we are now publishing, to sudden ideas thatalmost seem to appear out of the blue.

The ideas are then placed in the hands of experienced crocheters and knitters, test-crochetedor test-knitted and reviewed with professional eyes. It is very much the hands, the experienceand the understanding of the craft that form the foundation and centre of Go handmade.

But after many years of working with patterns, we also know that people alone cannot ensureas error-free and consistent a pattern as possible. That is why, over several years, we have built our own professional database in 7 languages with the terms – meaning words, phrasesand instructions – that recur in our knitting and crochet patterns.

The database has required the skills of many people. Skills within each native language, an understanding of the craft – and yes, the art of compromise has also had to come into play at times.

Once a pattern has been written, tested and reviewed, it is then checked against our database. Not to replace the human work, but to strengthen it. To catch errors, inconsistent wording or places where an instruction could be made clearer.

Our whole world springs from our patterns, and I can guarantee that it means everything to our small team, who must continue the work with, for example, the graphic layouts, to knowthat we have built it as thoroughly as we have.

For us, it is not people or technique. It is people and technique.

Hand-drawn illustrations
All illustrations in our books are our own. They are drawn entirely from scratch and developed with quite a large dose of perseverance. Already early in the work on the books – where the doll book was the first to have the illustrations incorporated – we could feel that the illustrations became an important part of the universes.

It is not something that is “just quickly done”. It is a huge piece of work. But for us, it is alsoa large part of what makes the books special. The illustrations are not decoration. They arepart of the stories in the books, and we ourselves feel that they help lift both the craft, the atmosphere and the whole experience around the projects.

When the universe comes to life
Our animations and small living elements are based on our own illustrations, our ownuniverses and the ideas we have developed ourselves.

In our small team, each of us has special skills, and they have all been brought into play to build what is now ready. It is the sum of our ideas, our craft, our graphic work, ourexperience – and the modern digital tools – that allows our illustrations to begin to move, and our universes to be experienced as living.

This means that Basse can be seen taking a walk in our showroom, climbing up onto his shelf, finding his bed and saying goodnight and thank you for a lovely day 

It is exactly these small living moments that we feel make a big difference. Not because the technique in itself is the point, but because it helps us give our figures, books and projectsmore life.

When we show colours digitally
In some places, we show the same model, bag or knitwear in several colours. We do thisbecause it helps show the possibilities – and because it would be impossible for a small company like ours to produce, photograph and film every imaginable colour variant physically.

The starting point is always our own products, our own models and our own material.

When, for example, we show a knitted dress in several colours, it is based on a real knittedproject and the real yarn colours. The graphic work helps us show more colour expressions, so that there is a better sense of the possibilities of the colours – and of how differently a dress, for example, can present itself in different colours. It is professional image work – and we are actually proud of that.

How we share our work
We are happy to show how we work – because we are proud of the work behind it. And because we know how much human work it has required.

But we will not be explaining every single internal method or process. Some of it is Go handmade’s special development work, many years of immersion and our own engine room.

We hope there is understanding for that.

Hanne