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episode 65 – K2tog

This episode is a bit of meander through my recent Highland honeymoon (cos, yep! I got married!) I also talk about my holiday WIPs and draw the winners for the #bookofhapsalong prizes!

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

| Shownotes

| K2tog

TheLovelyFella and I got married and happily kept it a secret from everyone *evil cackle*. To us a wedding is about the start of the next chapter of our lives together and not about a massive party, so it was very laidback and just how we wanted it. I put a few photos on instagram, but I won’t be sharing many more. (though thanks to those of you who asked for them and I hope you understand why!) I do want to talk more about my wedding attire and a meaningful knit – but I will do that in a future blog post! Read More

The Big WIP Rip is coming

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

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! 

↓Listen to the podcast↓

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 shades of Fair Isle knitting found in examples in the museum. Unlike the other yarns in the range at J&S, the Heritage range is worsted spun and – if you are used to the awesome woollen spun jumperweight – you truly won’t believe how different the Heritage is until you hold it in your hands. Airy, little clouds of worsted deliciousness is my first description. There are 6 natural shades which have been added to the dyed range (12 shades) and you know how I love the nature’s shades!  Natural white; fawn, moorit, light grey, grey and Shetland black are the most beauteous natural rainbow! Read More

#bookofhapsalong progress and prizes

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…

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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!)
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episode 63 – a little bit of balance

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!

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

yarn review: The Border Mill Alpaca Silk

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!

bordermill_6327Alpaca 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!

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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. IMG_0959Through 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

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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

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. 

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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

HAP-py bags!

You may remember when I was talking about future plans that I hinted at some exciting collaborations….

(c) The Knitting Goddess

(c) The Knitting Goddess

The wonderful and very talented Joy McMillan, aka The Knitting Goddess, as created these incredible project bags! They have generous proportions and can hold at least 6 x 100g skeins.

The bags are made from Fair Trade organic cotton canvas. If you have had one of Joy’s zipped pouches before you will know of the great quality of this fabric. Joy made me a ‘momentum’ bag (my word of the year) in this cotton and it is easily my favourite project bag…and one I like to show off,

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If you are taking part in the #bookofhapsalong, or in last year’s hapalong, been bitten by the hap bug or just love a good looking project bag with TARDIS dimensions then you are going to LOVE this bag…and I just ADORE it!

On the bag of the KnitBritish project bags is one of my favourite affirmations, which often appears on Joy’s bags and books.

“I hold the potential to make beautiful things.”

(c) The Knitting Goddess

(c) The Knitting Goddess

I am such a lover of Joy’s creations – she is such a talented woman – and I am so chuffed with the KnitBritish bag – can you see me beaming from there?

These bags go on sale via The Knitting Goddess website at 1pm (UK) tomorrow! Don’t miss out! If you want to be kept up to date with all things from The Knitting Goddess you definitely should sign up to the newsletter (Always awesome and with lovely treats!) right now!

Quite honestly, between this and hearing three fantastic women (whom I KNOW) on Radio 4 this week, talking about their craft and their inspiring female friends…well, this is put more cheer in my heart than there has been in the last few weeks!

 

Information: apart from the momentum bag image. all images belong to Joy McMillan, The Knitting Goddess.