UPDATE: I can no longer host the audio files here, please listen via links below
This week we have a lot of yarny love, including a review of Blacker’s Cornish Tin and a give-away of Yarn Garden Teeswater lace!
You can listen on iTunes, your favourite podcatcher or my Podgen Page
BritYarn specialises in the very best wool that Britain has to offer. This week Isla has been blogging about her #GBSocksaway KAL and you can find out more in the show.
To share and celebrate in a love of British wool, click the logo!
| My Tour of British Fleece
This has been a little pitiful but I am spinning a little a day with Fondant Fibre Toffee Pudding blend.
| Blacker Birthday and Cornish Tin Review
This month Blacker Yarns are celebrating their 10th Anniversary. I think everyone at Blacker does a phenomenal job of creating yarn that speaks volumes about rare and native breeds, of sustainability and a range of yarns that really understand knitters and what we want out of their wool and cares about what we do with their yarn.
I give a little review of the Cornish Tin yarn which launches on 18th September to celebrate this milestone. It contains ten breed wools which have all been selected for their softness, lustre and are also representative of the spinning work done at the Natural Fibre Co. This is a really special yarn which is going to be available in DK (100g/220m) and 4ply (100g/335m) and in 5 fantastic colours and do listen in for the full yarny appreciation of this wool. I found it soft with a great stitch grip and incredible for lace and texture.
| Yarndale
This year Yarndale is going to be on 26th & 27th September. I can’t go this year, but I definitely wanted to give you a heads up of my top stalls to visit. My main tips though are to buy your tickets online, plan out the stalls you want to visit because it is easy to let the yarn fumes over take you! Make sure you go see Ginger Twist, Midwinter Yarns, Eden Cottage Yarns, Yarn Undyed, Laura’s Loom, The Knitting Goddess, Gam Farm Rare Breeds, Hilltop Cloud and Yarn Garden!
| Woolly Events
Check out Highland Wool and Textile Festival on October 17th for a great opportunity to meet some of the best makers and see some of the best quality textile arts in Scotland. The Geeky Puffin Knit Palooza retreat is happening in Edinburgh on 29th Oct – 1st Nov. Shetland Wool Week is 26th Sept – 4th Oct and I will talk more about that next time!
| Yarn Garden: Teeswater Lace Give-away
I have a skein of wondrous rare breed pedigree Teeswater yarn from Yarn Garden. This yarn comes from a flock in Teesdale and is a light fingering lace yarn. A 100g/425m skein will be perfect for shawls and more will make a wonderful drapey garment. I review the yarn in the skein and ask you to think beyond this skein to what it might become! Kudos to Louise and George at Yarn Garden for creating such depth and layering in the colours of these yarns, but keeping the natural lustre. Listen in for the full yarny appreciation.
You can win this amazing skein, in the colour Brookside Hardy Geranium, worth £16. To be in with a chance go to Yarn Garden’s shop and tell me in the comments below the colourway that calls to you! Entries close at midday (UK) on 6th October and soon after will draw a winner at random. And if you can’t wait until then I suggest you seek this awesome yarn out at Yarndale and grab a skein!
| BritYarn #GBSocksaway KAL
Isla launched plans this week for a sock KAL and with Socktober soon looming we will all be encouraged to cast on for some cosy socks. The rules are very simple; you can use any sock pattern and any yarn BUT the yarn should be grown in Britain, or local to you if you can’t get British wool where you are. Cast on is 1st October and to be eligible for a prize you should post an FO image in the BritYarn group by 8th November. Sign up in the BritYarn group on Ravelry and tell everyone what you plan to knit. Isla has a great range of sock patterns and sock yarns if you’re not sure what to knit and watch out for her blog post on her top sock patterns next week!
| Next Week
Next week I have Clare Devine and Jess James around to mine for a tea party to celebrate the forthcoming Tea Collection. Get your tea set out, it’s gonna be a lot of fun!
| Information
Music: opening music was Soundmaker by Gabriella & Roderigo on NoiseTrade. Party sounds from freesound.org. Ending music was G of the Bang By Doctor Turtle on Free Music Archive.. Cornish Tin images courtesy of Blacker Yarns.
| UPDATE 9-10-15 The winning comment drawn at random.org for the teeswater yarn is Lynda Thompson!
The very delicate ‘Sweet Benjamin Artemisa’ is my favourite
They’re all beautiful subtle colours but ‘Golden Japanese Forest Grass’ caught my eye, maybe because of the evocative name!
Cranberry Echinacea would protect me from the cold this winter ! It is such a beautiful rich dye !
I think that I will vote for Little Heath Pieris as my favourite
Another great episode as always. You’ve got me really excited about Yarndale. I’m going to dig out all my single, undyed breeds in my stash for the upcoming KAL and have a look at Yarndale for breeds that I don’t have. Yarn Garden has not been on my radar before, so thanks for the introduction. I am IN LOVE with the colourway Brilliance Fern – it seems the perfect early autumn colourway – light orange leaves on a pale blue sky. Love it!
Great podcast! Lovely yarn, and from near where I grew up too 🙂 I usually go for brighter shades but I’ve taken a liking to Short Stalked Catmint. Cats take a liking to it too, I remember meeting someone who said she had planted it to keep cats out of her garden. I bet she wondered at the cat shaped indentations that appeared.
Great new episode! I love Burke Marx Begonia & Winter Hibiscus! Also, looking forward to buying Cornish Tin next week!
I really like Vision in Pink Astible simply beautiful.
Double scoop cranberry echinacea is calling to me as its a colour way that I’ve neglected until now!
I love the Double Scoop Cranberry Echinacea but would love this Brookside Hardy Geranium to knit some socks for a chap who is well overdue something knitterly!
What amazing choices! I’ve changed my mind seven times, but finally settled on Cream Delight Mountain Flax. These are truly beautiful yarns.
So many wonderful colours!! So hard to choose. I like the deeper colours best. Going through the pallete, the first one that jumped out at me was the “Cherry Tart Sedum” – my favorite.
Cherry Tart Sedum has my vote! Yummy…..
Loved the podcast, the colourways that calls to me is Short Stalked Catmint. Love my cats all three of them.
Golden Japenese Forest Grass is speaking to me!
This is tough – so many beautiful colors but Cherry Tart is absolutely lovely.
I like them all, particularly the “clear” colours, but my favourite is actually Brookside Hardy Geranium.
http://yarngarden.co.uk/shop/warm-colours/winter-lights-hibiscus/ Winter Lights Hibiscus is to die for! Going to the Yarn Garden website was traumatic!! I’m on a strict yarn dirt and they have so many gorgeous skeins I could have bought in a heartbeat!! Ah well, Christmas is coming!
Yarn diet even., ????
That Teeswater longwool is lush! That deep dark purple Globemaster Allium colourway is gorgeous – the same colour as the plums I’m picking from our garden tree, lovely.
This was my first time listening to a knitbritish podcast – certainly won’t be my last! Such a lovely range of colours on the yarngarden site, but I’d have to say Cheery Tart Sedum is my favourite; what a lovely rich colour.
Just the names were tempting enough and then I couldn’t make my mind up between colours…at this precise moment I think I would go for silver dust ragwort and I’m going to publish this comment before I can change my mind again! Thanks for giving me somewhere to head for as soon as I reach Yarndale 🙂
Beautiful! I love all of them – and so many colours! – but I think I’ll have to go with Double Scoop Cranberry Echinacea, for it’s amazing colour & name!
I love listening to you Louise, and that you make me think more about what I’m actally knitting with.
My favourite Yarn Garden at the moment is Jenny Kaey Clematis, I love all the colours and how they go together.
I really love the Brookside Hardy Geranium and nearly didn’t bother going to look at the shop. Cherry Tart Sedum is my other favourite.
So many gorgeous colorways! I love Pewter Pan Lily????
WOW! I only recently started to get drawn into the whole “Knit British” thing, so have spent a lot of time looking around seeing what is on offer – these colourways and names seem to me truly unique. I like the solid colours, especially the vibrancy of “Marsh Spurge Euphorbia” but the variegated is so delightful and different that I am definitely more drawn to them – “Coconut Lime Echinacea”, “Stone Age Hibiscus” and “Jenny Kaey Clematis” are all calling to me!
I love the look of the Edelweiss Leontopodium. A mouthful to spell but a beautiful looking colour
Arabian Princess Hibiscus! Definitely.
All beautiful colours, but I particularly like Burle Marx Begonia. Thank you for a great giveaway!
The Beatrice Watsonia is sooo lovely….
I absolutley love Blondy Euonymous…which I first read as bloody Euonymous…i don’t know why I am always drawn to boggy mossy greens but the sing to me luring me into them. So many lovely colours tho!
Globemaster Allium – what a fabulous purple! That yarn looks completely luscious and I think I may have to give it a go.
Many beautiful colours, but of a couple of favourites I’m going to go for Beatrice Watsonia
I was lucky enough to meet George and Louise at Fibre East and they’re fantastic! I love all of their colours but the one that’s really speaking to me is the Golden Panda Corydalis. I love blues and greens anyway but this is blue blue and more blue! Thanks for this wonderful giveaway, and I can’t wait for the next episode 🙂
I just love the Winter Lights Hibiscus!
Thanks for all you do and I hope you are enjoying Edinburgh. Just returned from Shetland and I love it there.
My choice is the glorious Winter Lights Hibiscus because it says Autumn to me; just like the panful of blackberries I have just picked to make crumble and jelly!
For me it has to be the Burle Marx Begonia because it comprises both my favourite colours in such subtle shades. Some kind of delicate neckwear would be perfect in this.
Wow, all the colours are fab but to liven up a dullSeptember Id go for Double Scoop Cranberry Echinacea. Thanks for the giveaway.
I loved the winter lights hibiscus, such depth of color, it’s gorgeous
Cream Delight Mountain Flax, nice masculine color for my socks. I soooo much want to try this fiber and color! 🙂
I really love all the colours but my favorite is phenomenal lavender. Thank you for the opportunity to win! I would make a cowl or shawlette.
Ruby Grass
[…] I was able to knit up a lovely big swatch and give it a little review. You can hear that review in episode 39 of the KnitBritish podcast. Since then I have washed and blocked the swatch and I wanted to share […]
It’s tricky but cream delight mountain flax has both my favourite colours.
You still have to name one to be in with a chance of winning!
I love Phenomenal Lavender, tho part of me wants to just say “one of each, please”
What wonderful names – but Winter Lights Hibiscus for me!
The Brookside Hardy Geranium is very lovely, but in the end it has to be the Globemaster Allium.
It’s a tough decision to narrow it down to one, but I would have to plump for Winter Lights Hibiscus. I didn’t think I would love one as much as the clear blue of the giveaway, but they are all absolutely gorgeous.
As somebody who enjoys and is inspired by gardening, I LOVE the colours of Yarn Garden. If I have to choose it would be a close call between Short Stalk Catmint and Medusa Head Rye. However, I’m entering this give-away for a friend who has has the most luscious ability to combine colours, so speaking with her voice I’d have to go with Forncett Fletton Yarrow.
Any of the reddish purple colours are yummy.
GIVE AWAY IS CLOSED NOW. NO MORE ENTRIES