A small studio. A slow rhythm. A big love for fiber.
Loop & Thread has lived in many apartments, through two cats and one very patient partner, across seven seasons of yarn. This is where I share the stitches that make up my days.
Hi, I am Alba Martim. Textile designer, tea drinker, long-walk taker.
My grandmother taught me to knit in her kitchen when I was nine. I taught myself crochet in my twenties, when my first big-city apartment felt far too quiet. Today I design soft, wearable patterns for makers who want their handmade things to feel like home.
Loop & Thread is the journal I wish I had when I was learning — warm, unhurried, beginner-friendly, and generously photographed.
How a tangled skein became a little studio
A kitchen, a ball of wool, and nine-year-old hands
My grandmother Rosa sat me at her small pine table, handed me a pair of her bamboo needles, and said: “Two sticks and string, querida. Anything soft starts here.” I made a lopsided square that she framed.
A quiet apartment and a secondhand crochet book
My first flat in Lisbon was too quiet, too grown-up, too full of deadlines. I picked up a crochet hook in a bookshop, watched videos at midnight, and made a wonky granny square that I still keep in a drawer.
Loop & Thread begins
I posted my first pattern — a soft pink washcloth — on a Sunday morning, half-expecting no one to notice. A hundred and eleven people downloaded it that week. I cried, laughed, and kept posting.
A studio in Porto, and you on the other side of the screen
Today Loop & Thread is 150+ free patterns, a gentle Sunday newsletter, and a small community of makers from forty-two countries. It still feels like writing letters from a kitchen table.
Five soft values that shape this little place
Slow
One pattern every other week. One honest photo. One kind email.
Kind
No gatekeeping, no shaming, no rushing. Beginners belong here first.
Thoughtful
I only recommend yarns I would work with myself — usually natural fibers.
Generous
Every pattern is free. A tip jar is optional, never required.
Warm
A handmade thing is a tiny act of love. Let us treat it like one.
A little tour of the studio
Where the yarn lives, where the thinking happens, where most of my tea cups end up.
“Fiber crafts are not about making things. They are about making time — for your hands, your breath, and the people you love. The scarf is just the lovely side effect.”— a line I scribbled in my 2021 notebook
Say hello — I really do write back.
Pattern questions, yarn crushes, studio collaborations, or just a note about your latest finished object — my inbox is a cozy place.