UPDATE: Due to space I can no longer host the audio files on the blog, please use your favourite podcatcher or right click the Podgen link, to listen in a new tab (y’know, so you can also refer to the shownotes whilst you listen!)
From the new studio location in Edinburgh, it’s episode 35! This episode I’ve got cast on/cast off, yarn review of British Wool & Alpaca from The Knitting Goddess, news from the Scollayalong and I announce the winners of the #hapalong! All this and a yarn give-away too!
BritYarn is a brand new online yarn shop specialising in British wool.
To share and celebrate in a love of British wool, click the logo!
| News
Are you heading to Fibre East this weekend (25-26 July) in Bedfordshire? Amongst all the fantastic vendors you will also find Romney Marsh Wools and I have been speaking to Kristina for a future episode!
I’ve also recently took part in the Vintage Shetland blog tour. This is for Susan Crawford’s Vintage Shetland Pubslush campaign, which people have supported in force. Do visit the page to see the progress of this amazing project and how you can help bring the book into being.
| Cast on/Cast off
I’ve cast on the Scollay cardigan in Toft wool DK (used to be called Ulysses), but I haven’t gone too far due to moving mayhem. I managed to finish Game of two haps.in time for the end of the hapalong! It has the centre of the hansel hap and the edging of Kelpie and I used J&S Jumper Weight in the edging and for the main colour I used Knitting Goddess British wool with alpaca, which I review in this episode!
| Yarn Review: British Wool with Alpaca from Knitting Goddess.
Joy recently sent me some of this yarn to review and what a lovely yarn this is. Listen in for full yarn appreciation.
It is a blend of 50% Polwarth, 40% alpaca and 10% Zwartbles. Essentially this is 90% of very soft and silky wool and fibre with a dash of zwartbles which gives amazing stitch definition and structure. The hand-squish-grab has a soft, woolly yield and there is a delightful light halo of long alpaca fibres. It has an amazing softness and drape and begs to be be made into shawls, hats and scarves. Each skein is 400m for 100g and costs £15.50 for the dyed skeins and £10.50 for the natural. If you can’t make it to Fibre East to see Joy this weekend then do check out her website, sign up for her newsletter and check out her shop update on Friday 31st!
I will be chatting with Joy for a future episode about her British bases, so watch out for that.
| Scollayalong
We had a cast on party on Friday 17th on social media and i hardly knit a stitch due to the good chat. There is such a lot of awesome wool going into these cardigans, designed by Karie Westermann. The chat is over in the KnitBritish group this week and will swap with BritYarn weekly on a Friday. We hope to bring you another Scollayalong social media hangout soon too!
| BritYarn news
Isla has been busy since I last podcast. BritYarn is featured in the current issue of KnitNow (issue 50) and also has a new yarn on her shelves. UK Alpaca Baby Alpaca and Silk is a tremendously soft, yet strong yarn. The alpaca is hand-sorted so only the finest fibre is selected for spinning. at 80% baby alpaca and 20% tussah silk this is going to be the kind of luxuriously soft yarn that your skin will really love to be wrapped in. Check out this yarn, and all of the fantastic British wool and patterns Isla has in store over at BritYarn.
![babyalpaca]](https://woolwork.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/babyalpaca-528x528.jpg)
| Hapalong prizes
Not pictured: Romney Yarn courtesty of FiberTrekTV
Please listen to the podcast to hear the winners of the prizes. I will contact the winners and then publish the winners names in the KB ravelry group. Most of the prizes were random drawn via random.org. (I will make the screenshots available when I publish the winners names) and thelovelyfella drew the winner of the Grand Prize of a Jamieson of Shetland hap shawl kit, live on the show. Thank you so so much to everyone who donated prizes and to everyone who knitted haps. Every single hap is totally prize worthy and hearty congrats to you all.
| GIVE-AWAY!
I have a skein of Knitting Goddess British wool and alpaca to give away to one lucky person!
Please enter via the rafflecopter entry form – do not go straight to the comments (as with past give-aways, anyone not following the correct entry will be not be entered.)
The give-away opens at midnight on Saturday and closes at midnight on Sunday 16th August.
| Next Time
I will be back soon with an interview with Kristina at Romney Marsh wools and then our regular schedule will kick back in. Enjoy Fibre East if you are going and whatever you do get up to make sure you have fun.
| Information
Music: duckduckduckduck-Goose by Mason Jar Music available from NoiseTrade. Jonesy’s Jukebox by StressBitch Music Alley
Pretty sure all of the Knitting Goddess’ bases sound delicious, though I think my favourite is BritSock in dog rose colourway.
I have some of this lovely yarn in my stash and it is every bit as good as it looks but the violet colour is a gorgeous colour.
I love the violet that’s up for giveaway.
From the website I like the Britsock Take Fives, particularly the shaded violets colourway.
I’m making a note about that alpaca/silk!
Thanks one more time for hosting the Hapalong, Louise – it was great fun to be a cheering spectator, and then even better when I finally took the plunge and made my Simmer Dim. Just good fun all round. So much inspiration!
The Britsock semi-solid in dog rose would make wonderful socks or shawls!
I want the Britsock self-striping in the Violet Meadow colorway (I’ve been on a bit of a self-striping kick lately).
I like the undyed British wool (Polwarth), alpaca and zwartbles yarn
I like the 4 ply in Jade
Most of the semi-solids are wonderful colours – my favorite would have to be the heather semi-solids as the cardigan knitted out of that (in 4 ply wool and nylon base) is in constant use and still holds up nicely despite being …what ??? 5-6 years??? something like that
I like the silk/merino in lime.
: : IMPORTANT POST : :
WE HAVE 13 COMMENT ENTRIES BUT ONLY 10 ENTERED VIA RAFFLECOPTER.
YOU HAVE TO LOG IN WITH RAFFLECOPTER TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY.
I WILL NOT APPROVE COMMENTS WHICH HAVE NOT DONE THIS.
Sorry to be pedantic, but thems the rules!!
I love Knitting Goddess yarns! I have yet to try Britsock, which looks great in Blackened Green.
I’m currently knitting a cardi in 4ply 100% British Wool, Charcoal colourway – it’s wonderfully sheepy & has gorgeous tonal variation. I’ve yet to find a Knitting Goddess yarn I don’t like!
Love the merino and silk 4ply in the grape colourway
Feeling tempted by the lovely silk and merino in copper.
Hard to choose, but today my fave is 4ply cashmere in green.
My favourites is the DK merino and nylon – raspberry on charcoal 15G
£10.50 – a wonderfully bright shade that will warm up the Autumn months to come.
Love the violet wool & alpaca!
The wool and alpaca has such wonderful colours that it’s hard to pick one. I think I’ll go with gold, though.
Gorgeous – all of it! One favourite is the wool and alpaca in blue! <3
Yum yum to Chocquoise 4ply
There are some lovely colours to choose from, but I really like the lavender field in 4ply wool and nylon.
I’m going through a sock yarn phase at the moment thanks to the lovely shinybees and have fallen head over heels in love with the Self Striping DK merino and nylon – Bright Stuff.
Stripy socks should be made compulsory for everyone, they just cheer me up no end.
Lovely podcast once again and a lovely surprise to hear my name :o)
Oooo, I love the Raspberry 4ply in 100% British Wool 😀
I’m hoping I’ve done this correctly. I love the look of the Britsock in both the Raspberry and Turquoise. Think they will make very Happy Socks. ????????????
Very hard to choose one favorite because the yarns are all so lovely. Since I am on a sock knitting spell this week, I would choose BritSock in the blackened blues colorway. The yarn with the Polwarth, alpaca, and Zwartables blend also sounds very intriguing. I think I will have to card up a similar blend to see what happens – could be nice for knitting some fine cables.
Thanks for the giveaway and all the great podcasts.
The turquoise Britsock is just exquisite!
Funnily enough I was on Joy’s website yesterday looking at yarn!
I am currently dreeaming about a grey cardi with rainbow stripes, so I think at some point I will be purchasing some of the 4ply wool and nylon in the gunmetal colour way, along with one of her mini skein sets in the rainbow colours. I NEED this cardi in my life’!
Great podcast as always, and I love your kelpie. Stunning. And also, a very very well deserving winner of the hap along. It was one of my favourites too 🙂
Interesting podcast. Thank you. Just a tiny point of information: the strong pink New Lanark DK is, in fact, called Verona. The name mentioned, Milano, is a glorious purple yarn. Both are wonderful.
I love Joy’s yarns but I’ve not tried the 100% British Wool and really want to because it looks and sounds amazing. I recently knit a DK weight shawl in her Walnut colourway and it’s fantastic, so I would chose that colourway on the 100% British Wool base!
Long time fan of Joy’s yarns, but I couldn’t get to Fibre East this year, and hadn’t seen this new yarn yet – it looks so beautiful! I don’t know how anyone could choose a favourite colourway, but as you said on the podcast the British wool gold is really stunning.
love violet meadow
My wife loves the plum colour – DK 100% BFL – Plum 14AKS
I love Violet colourway, it is definately my favourite. I really like the look of that colour on the 4ply 100% British wool, it looks lovely and sounds like it would be a great yarn to knit with.
I always wanted to try the Britsock base. colourwise I love the Lime colourway.
Love the Wool and Nylon – used semisolid before, but really like the multicolour Lavender Field 15V ( I’m a purple kind of girl)
It was hard to chose between the Britsock and the Cashmere 4ply as they are both fabulous yarns, but in the end as I’ve just finished a 3 Color Cashmere Cowl it the latter yarn, I have to say that it is DIVINE. So my favourite yarn at the moment is the Chocolate Cashmere ☺
Just discovered your podcasts through The knitting goddress, and I’m working my way through all your podcasts starting with Number one, at no 6.
Really enjoy listening to your lovely voice and your laughter brightens my day.
Also discovered lots of lovely things to knit and fabulous wool.
Well done and look forward to listening to the rest.
Thanks for the chance to win a skein.
Just joined two of Joys sock clubs.
Carol x
Love the 4 ply Cashmere and the silk, simply couldn’t say which best!
The gold 4ply wool and alpaca is magic.
I love the Britsock semi solid colours. Hard to choose a favourite but I think it is orange.
4ply BRITSOCK
I love the violet yarn in your giveaway! From her website I love the sock yarn in the self-striping colourway. All of her yarn looks yummy though!
Tough choice! But, if I could only choose one item, it’d have to be a Britsock take five set, shaded slates, or maybe the shaded pinks! I’m really loving the take five sets, they are very inspiring and soooo beautiful. I’d probably make a colour block cowl, switching between simple lace patterns for each colour and narrowing slightly at the top. Loose guage and drapy so it rumples nicely around my neck. Not that I have given it much thought….
Love the raspberry, cheerful yet sophisticated.
I’ve never tried any Knitting Goddess yarn but have heard so many good things about it!
I’m hoping to get my mitts on some Britsock at yarndale, ideally self striping – love them all but I think flower power is my current favourite.
Britsock is my favourite base, I love how it knits up.
My favourite colour at the moment is Semi-Solid Orange 14AA. Because nobody does oranges like Joy!
Not sure if the if I did the rafflecopter thing right…I think I did…It said I have 1 entry so fingers crossed. I love the wool and alpaca base you are giving away and all the colours are beautiful but I especially like “chocolate”
Lovely podcast 🙂 I enjoy it very much. I had to look up what kind of sheep “zwrbls” was (I don’t know that one?) and had a hearty laugh when I saw it spelled out here… that one I do know! 😉 keep it up!
I was told it was pronounced that way. Apologies if that is wrong.
I don’t think you’re wrong, it is probably pronounced that way in english? I just didn’t recognize it. I found this fragment which might explain why: http://nl.forvo.com/word/zwartbles/
I love the britsock in lime x
4 ply silk and merino in grape…. though it’s hard to choose – so many delicious yarns.
I love the copper color in the 4ply British wool and alpaca yarn. Thanks for the chance to win the lovely lilac skein. It is lovely too.
My favourite is 4ply wool and nylon – self striping – Cherry Tree Bark 15E because it would be lovely for making socks.
I think the British Wool and Alpaca in Electric Blue is utterly gorgeous and makes me want to knit right now!
Love the British wool and Alpaca in charcoal would look great combined with the copper.
I like the sound of the 4ply silk and merino and the orange would make a lovely change for the autumn from the blues and greens I tend to go for usually.
Love the silk and merino 4ply in grape 🙂
I love the Brit Sock in Stormy Sky – subtlety of colours gives lovely depth to it
The adorable Electric Blue 4 ply has stolen my heart :
Ooo silk and merino in copper….
I would like to try Britsock semi-solids first!
I love the 4-ply 100% British wool in jade and I would be tempted to mix it with the blue or electric blue. Lovely!
I love the lovely silk and merino in copper.
I like the ‘4ply wool and nylon – Laughing Herdwick ‘ 🙂
Violet meadow is lovely
4ply BRITSOCK – Blackened Blue is my favourite
I love the look of 4ply wool and nylon – Baby Rainbow
Love the 4ply wool and nylon silver sage, so different
Love the raspberry sparkle
I love the “Almost a Rainbow” 🙂 So bright and colourful
4ply BRITSOCK