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Cornish Tin II

Published by louise

Today Cornish Tin II from Blacker Yarns is launched!

This special, limited edition yarn has been created to celebrate Blacker’s 11th birthday and the blend of wool and fibre contained in this woollen spun yarn is 100% UK based fibre. The natural steely grey colour of the fibres have been dyed in 7 shades and are all named after Cornish Tin mines. The fibres include Saxon merino, Shetland, Portland, mohair, Jacob, Gotland, English merino, Black Welsh mountain and alpaca. The yarn will be available in DK and 4ply and its what I call a very luxury workhorse yarn on the latest episode. You can listen to me review this yarn on episode 66 of the podcast.

Also launching today is a pattern, designed by Sonja Bargielowska, specifically to celebrate this limited edition yarn. The Polgooth socks use three shades of the DK and don’t they just look the comfiest cosiest kinda socks?!

Do not forget to visit Blacker, if you are heading to Yarndale this weekend – where you can scope out this yarn and the new St Kilda, dyed by The Knitting Goddess.

To celebrate the launch of Cornish Tin II, I am going to give a skein away! I have a skein of the Poldice Pink, in DK, kindly gifted by Sonja.

To be in with a chance of winning please leave a comment here telling me what pattern you would cast on in Tin II and WHICH colour/s?*. As I am going to be busy over the next couple of weeks I shall keep this open until 12pm (UK time) on 7th October and reveal the winner soon after. Good luck!

* Only comments which answer this question will be entered in to the draw. Please do not say “Oh! I don’t know?! All the things?”, or something similarly vague, as that is not what you are asked to do.

Louise Scollay, strict with giveaways since 2013

UPDATE!

Random number generator picked entry 10 – Isa! I’ll be in touch soon, Isa! well done!

episode 66 – clickety click

Published by louise

Today I am talking about my own meaningful knit and show sponsor Joy McMillan talks about an exciting new yarn collaboration between The Knitting Goddess and Blacker Yarns! (Today’s episode title is purely a bingo reference, which I have been waiting 65 episodes to get out there haha!)

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 open the podcast episode in a new window

You can also listen on iTunes, the podcast app, or search your favourite podcatcher, if you prefer!

Podcast sponsor

This month KnitBritish is sponsored by Joy dyes luxury yarn in her studio in Harrogate and is committed to supporting British breeds and fibre in all her bases. In addition to incredible yarns, such as Britsock and Wensleydale and Shetland 4ply you will find screen-printed bags and books, hand-crafted stitch markers and exclusive yarn clubs in her online shop. Click on the logo!

| Show Notes

| The Big WIP Rip

Saturday was the #bigwiprip and we had a great day at Fluph, as well as enjoying hearing about the big wip rips at Wild and Woolly and happening on social media! Well done to everyone who ripped out their unloved knits and freed their yarns. If you found you had WIPs that you still want to knit and didn’t want to rip you should check out lovescraftsandbeer’s #Thebigfallfinish on Rav.

| My meaningful knit

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| St Kilda Lace weight

laceweight mini skeins!

The wondrous Blacker yarns have collaborated with Joy McMillan on the St Kilda Laceweight range. Here is the official word from Blacker on the make up of that glorious wool…

Blacker’s St. Kilda yarn is a unique and rare homage to the Scottish archipelago and World Heritage site on the outer edges of the Hebrides. The islands’ native Boreray and Soay sheep are two of the oldest and rarest of all British breeds, so there is only enough wool to make a limited amount each year. These fibres are hand blended together with Shetland to create a beautifully delicate and textured yarn with plenty of bounce. Our St. Kilda has a real grip, so it is exquisitely suited to lace knitting and textured shawls. …

Hand dyed yarn possess a great depth and intensity, which is particularly striking over the subtlety shaded St. Kilda yarn. This collaboration between Blacker Yarns and The Knitting Goddess came about from a desire to recognise the importance of this country’s rich textile heritage and elevate the fibre from such rare and beautiful sheep.

Joy skyped in for a chat about dyeing this yarn and we also talk about working with Blacker on this collaboration. The St Kilda will come in ten dyed shades, it will be available in 50g skeins/ 350 metres and will be on sale first at Yarndale (24-25 September) at both the Blacker and Knitting Goddess stands. After Yarndale it will make it onto both the Blacker and Knitting Goddess websites for sale

Sonja Bargielowska, from Blacker, has designed a new shawl specifically for this yarn and there are testing opportunities available. Testers will be able to get the yarn before it goes on general sale so get in there quick! Details are in the Knitting Goddess Ravelry group.

| Cornish Tin II – launching 20th Sept

Thanks so much to Sonja, who sent me some Cornish Tin II to play with. This is a special birthday blend which is made up of 100% sourced British fibre – it comprises of a collection of the highest quality British fibres including Alpaca, Portland, Saxon Merino, Gotland, Jacob, Shetland, Black Welsh Mountain, Mohair, and English Merino. The yarn has been dyed in shades named after Cornish tin mines. When I saw this yarn I knew I wanted to knit a cosy item with it and I felt like it would be an awesome luxe workhorse yarn for allthethings! I cast on Kate Davies Striped Bunnet. (photo when I get some good light!)

The yarn is smooth and plumpy in the ply. It has a squash in the skein and a soft lustre that really catches the light. The working yarn in the hands has a crispness and there is a beautiful light halo on the yarn and knitted fabric.

As always, you need to listen in for the full appreciation but in three words this is versatile, workhorse and lustrous! The breeds and fibre in this yarn are really well chosen for making items with a long life. Well done, Blacker Yarns, and happy 11th birthday!

The yarn launches in a DK and a 4ply on 20th September and will cost £16.20/100g. I would be happy to knit everything from hats to sweaters in this great yarn; anything with texture will totally pop. I particularly fancy knitting a Woodsy hat, by Mandarine’s, in the 4ply.

| Online Places

Please do check out the KnitBritish Ravelry group and join in there, if you haven’t already. There are also a couple of new threads, which may be of interest to hap KAL knitters. I also had some really lovely reviews recently on itunes. Thanks so much for taking the time to do that – it is not only very kind, but it helps other people find out more about the podcast.

| Next Time

You really need to come back on 23rd to hear about The Knitting Goddesses brand new exciting yarn, sourced from Yorkshire. There is also a very exciting KB collaboration within that and something that KnitBritish listeners will be able to get involved with!

Thank you so much for listening!

| Information

Music: Carefree by Kevin McLeod and Singin’ in The Rain (demo) by David Mumford – Both are on FreeMusicArchive and are both shared under Creative Commons Attribution license. The Knitting Goddess Logo is copyright to Joy McMillan; wool images are copyright to Blacker Yarns, other image copyright belons to those as stated and the other images belong to me!

The Big WIP Rip is coming

Published by louise

On Saturday, 3rd September I will be at Fluph, in Dundee, where myself and the lovely Leona Jayne Kelly are hosting the #bigwiprip!

I have spoken on the podcast before about how we can let UFOs (unfinished objects) overwhelm us. We leave them in the darkest corners of our house and hope that they will either go away or magically become knit, but whenever we happen upon them we get that sense of doom…that, oh! that lovely yarn is just going to waste! Either that or we berate ourselves for not finishing it, thinking about the reason we couldn’t get it finished and sometimes doing ourselves down for not getting it cast off. Well, no more!

The Big WIP Rip
From 11-3 on Saturday 3rd September, whether you can get to Dundee or not, we would like you to join in with us. At Fluph we will be there to provide steadying tea, hand-holding and moral support whilst you rip. If you can’t do it, we will!

Host your own Big WIP Rip!
Can’t make it to Dundee? Get your knitting pals together round your place, or local knitty meet up place and rip together! Rip with wild abandon, my lovelies. You are going to free your yarn up just in time for sweater season! At Fluph we will be asking for a small donation to p/hop and if you are having your own BigWIPRip perhaps you could have a w(h)ip round too – just think of all the hours of pleasure you will have knitting on that freed yarn! Read More

episode 64 – worsted deliciousness

Published by louise

Back once again in the podcasting corner – and this episode I am on cloud 9 of worsted! I have a review of Jamieson and Smith’s new heritage natural range and a look at the new book Knitskreig: A call to yarn. All that and even more squishy wool too!

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 open the podcast episode in a new window

You can also listen on iTunes, the podcast app, or search your favourite podcatcher, if you prefer!

| Show notes

| Jamieson and Smith Heritage Naturals

I was so excited to be asked if I wanted to try out the new Shetland Heritage yarns from Jamieson and Smith. You can imagine my excited answer! I‘ve knit with the dyed shades of the Heritage yarn before. These were developed with the Shetland museum, to create a yarn range that was a close to original yarns used in Shetland’s knitting past and dyed in colours which complemented the original shad Read More

#bookofhapsalong progress and prizes

Published by louise

There are fewer than two weeks of knitting in the #bookofhapsalong KAL, if you are taking part in the competitive element and using a British wool (if you are in the UK) or (if you are not in the UK) a local-to-you wool. I thought I should share the prizes with you!

I have a prize for each and this is the prize for the project using British wool…

The lovely Joy – The Knitting Goddess – has given a gigantic KnitBritish HAPpy bag as a prize (rrp £25). The bag is made from heavy Fair Trade cotton and uses inks approved by the Soil Association. This bag holds 600 grams of wool! Enough for the biggest of hap projects. I will find a wee woolly addition to include with this prize (and which will probably fill the tiniest corner of this huge bag!)
Read More

episode 63 – a little bit of balance

Published by louise

We could all do with a big of balance at the moment, couldn’t we? With so much up in the air and so much of the skewed in the world at large – I aim for us to have a wee bit of balance over here in our little corner! I have got a meaningful knit story for you, (which was recovered from the big laptop death!) last year I spoke to Joanna Mouatt about two pairs of mittens her late Grannie made for her. There is also a Tale of the WIPs of Dooooom – cos balance! – from my woolly mucker Felix Ford. All of this and Book of Haps-along and more!

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 open the podcast episode in a new window Read More

yarn review: The Border Mill Alpaca Silk

Published by louise

If you listened to the last episode of the podcast, you will have heard me talk about the new yarn from The Border Mill, which is launching next weekend at Fibre East, Ampthill, Bedfordshire. The eagle eyed among you though may have seen that this yarn, in 12 gorgeous colours, is available now from the online mill shop.

The Alpaca Silk feels and looks exactly what you may think off when you think of these two fibres – soft, luxurious, silky, strong, drapey…and that is just the yarn in the skein!

Alpaca and silk are of course amongst the finest fibres out there and combined in this laceweight yarn they absolutely beg to be knitted into something lacy, well I think so!

I really wanted to see what this yarn could do in lace stitches and set about finding a nice stitch pattern, finally settling on a pattern called English Fern Lace (but is also called leaf patterned lace). I also knew that no 4×4″ swatch would do and I needed to go longer to really savour this lovely yarn. I cast on 46 stitches on 4mm needles. I knit a row or two of garter and commenced the lace pattern, beginning and ending with a couple of garter stitches at either side.

| The Yarn

This fine 2ply laceweight has a very fine delicacy about it. The blend is 70% alpaca and 30% mulberry silk and a ply of dyed silk is spun with a natural shade of alpaca. This gives the yarn a real depth of colour, with shimmering highlights. Through my fingers the yarn just glides! I did like using the bamboo needles so that there was a bit of grip when knitting. I found that the yarn knit very smoothly – as you might expect – and there was virtually no splitting between the plies.

I had to tear myself from knitting on this swatch once it reached 6 x 10 ” unblocked (too many other projects pulling focus!) and when I cast off the final stitch it the swatch fell to the desk with a velvety “pfft” sound!

| washing, blocking and wearing

I blocked this out to the dimensions 9.5 ” by 12.5 ” (though I could have blocked it narrower and longer). When I unpinned it I was surprised that in addition to being soft and silky it has a strength and an incredible stitch definition and structure.

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against the skin? well, let’s just say anyone who suffers from the merest fibre prickle will have no issue with this yarn! Lush is the word!

Most alpaca yarns have little memory, and little elasticity – blending this with silk hasn’t made it any more elastic, of course, (though the swatch has an ever-so-slight spring back to it when stretched), but what it gives the yarn – and fabric – is hold and structure. I just love how these ferny diamonds are so well defined.

| Which projects will this yarn be suited to?

I love the idea of creating a gorgeous lace top in this yarn, like a hitofude – the yarn will be lustrous and give glorious structure to the lace. I just finished a Talavera, by Amanda B Collins and can imagine that this yarn would be incredible in a second! Also the delightful cowl lace neck detail on Tin Can Knit’s Bonny would be beautiful, maybe in the Lagoon colour. Of course, the alpaca silk would be incredible for shawls too. I think perhaps I need to get some more of this glorious Sirius shade for Donna Smith’s Houlland, from The Book of Haps!

| The Details

The Border Mill Alpaca Silk
70% British alpaca, 30% silk
2 ply laceweight
50g / 250 metres – £9
500g cones – £80

Thanks to The Border Mill, who gave me this yarn to play with. If you are heading to Fibre East next weekend, do find them and squoosh some yarns. If you can’t make it to Bedfordshire then scoot over to the mill’s online shop for a nosey.

episode 62 – The Border Mill

Published by louise

Welcome back to the podcast after a lovely wee break. I am jumping straight back into the action with a really wonderful tour of The Border Mill.

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 open the podcast episode in a new window

You can also listen on iTunes, the podcast app, or search your favourite podcatcher, if you prefer!

John and Juliet Miller decided to make a career change 5 years ago. They already had a 2 acre walled garden where they kept their growing herd of alpaca and, after long waiting times to have the fleece spun (and often large minimum batch size requirements) they decided they would set up their own small scale fibre mill, specialising in alpaca. John and Juliet take minimum fibre batches of 1.5kg and as soon as they opened it was clear that there were a lot of clients who also wanted to spin small batch alpaca fibre, sheep wool and other fibres.

It wasn’t until 2013 that they started to produce their own alpaca yarn, for the first Edinburgh Yarn Festival and their own range has grown exponentially since then. The Border Mill range now includes a lopi-style yarn, blended with Falkland merino, alpaca and mohair, alpaca and BFL, alpaca tweed and the forthcoming alpaca and silk. The Border Mill also works closely with clients to ensure that the fibre they send to the mill becomes the best possible yarn for their needs. Their clients include Sariann Lehrer, who produces the single breed, single flock Chopped Ginger project and Hooligan Yarns, who sell single sheep yarns – if you have worked with, squished or seen these particular yarns you will be well aware of how special these yarns are.

John gave us a tour of the mill and the entire process. Please listen in to the episode and join is on that tour – grab your WIP and drink! Read More