Latest Posts

Let’s have a breed swatch KAL!

One of the things I hinted at last time I blogged is a project that KnitBritish readers and listeners can get involved with this autumn to REALLY get to grips with British breed wools and to discover the unique characteristics of our native (and long-term lodger) breeds.

Very soon I shall be launching a single breed swatch KAL where we will knit, spin and crochet our way through the British breed wool available to us. We will be going way beyond the skein on a journey of woolly discovery!  Read More

Romney Marsh Wools: Review and giveaway

I’ve had some lovely feedback from my interview with Kristina from Romney Marsh Wools, in episode 36; even one or two of you telling me you visited their stall at recent woolly events. Thanks so much for your lovely feedback.

Kristina was very kind to send me some of her Romney yarn to review and it was a special skein as it is the first yarn from her coloured Romney to be spun. It is so special that it isn’t even on their website yet – but, don’t worry, I will give you the details of how you can get it at the end of this post! Read More

episode 37 gusset-fantasticness and tardis proportions

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 below, to listen in a new tab (y’know, so you can also refer to the shownotes whilst you listen!)

Back at the mic again after a short break. Many thanks for all your good wishes, emails, DMs and tweets – I can’t quite say how much it means. We’ve got a bit of catching up to do, there is a lot of woolly news in our midst!

You can listen on iTunes, via any podcatcher or via my Podgen Page

brityarn

BritYarn specialises in the very best wool that Britain has to offer. In addition to a herd of wondrous wool there is a veritable flock of modern patterns by indie designers like Kate Davies, Karie Westermann and Clare Devine.

To share and celebrate in a love of British wool, click the logo!

 

 

| Hygge Collection by Karie Westermann with Midwinter Yarns

HyggeCollection_medium

I was really excited when this mini-collection was announced last week. Hygge is a concept of cosiness, happiness and comfort and the collection is subtitled “Knit the things you love to wear”. You can pre-order Hygge now for £11.40 £9.50 (at time of writing)and patterns will be released throughout September.I already predict this will fuel the need for autumnal knitting. When I think about this collection I remember the excitement over Doggerland and the anticipation of those patterns dropping and delighting in the designs.

| Blacker Survey and 10th Birthday 

Blacker Yarns currently have a survey and they would love to hear your thoughts on their products. The survey ends on 23rd, so please give them a few minutes of your time and your opinion.

September is going to mark the 10th birthday of Blacker and I have a sneaky peek at their 10th anniversary celebratory yarn called Cornish Tin. I will tell you lots more about this limited edition yarn next time!

image: Blacker Yarns

image: Blacker Yarns

| BritYarn News

Isla has got fantastic new bags which I went a bit cock-a-hoop over on IG when it arrived with all it’s gusset fantasticness and tardis proportions. You can buy a BritYarn bag here but there is also a giveaway in the BritYarn ravelry group where you can enter by naming the BritYarn sheep!

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The yarn of the month is Eden Cottage Milburn 4ply and if you remember back in episode 26 I reviewed this yarn. 85% BFL and 15% silk this yarn has an amazing twist and creates a gorgeous knitted fabric with drape and shine. I loved the garter stitch in it. It costs £8 per skein and there are 7 great colours. 

Isla is also going to be helping celebrate the Blacker 10th birthday and throughout September when you buy two or more balls of Blacker yarn you will be entered into a prize draw to win a skein of that limited edition Cornish Tin, which BritYarn will also stock when it is released. Check out the range of Blacker yarns and good luck in the prize draw!

| Scollayalong 

Tonight we are having a virtual knitalong on Twitter, Instagram and in Ravelry from 7.30-8.30pm (UK). Get your Scollay WIPs out and join us for a little get together. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #Scollayalong on twitter and IG! How are your Scollays going? I have let mine languish a bit after a bit of sleeve woe ( I am now on my third!). I am hoping that I won’t end up playing yarn chicken with my Toft Ulysses.

My Toft Scollay in rest mode!

My Toft Scollay in rest mode!

| Tour of British Fleece 6-13th Sept 

A new ravelry group has grown out of the UK Spinners group on Ravelry and they are encouraging us to spin along with them during the Tour of Britain cycle race. There are no rules, you can simply spin each day that the race is on regardless of breed, OR you can try and spin a sheep breed specific (or close to) the location of each leg of the tour! For those of you who fancy taking on the breed challenge you can find here the legs and the sheep breeds associated with those locations. I am going to aim to spin a little each day of the tour, with the fibre I have (as I have banned myself from getting more), but the sky is the limit. Join the group today and get involved.

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| Wovember 2015

Felix and I have been thinking about this year’s Wovember and have opened a thread for your suggestions of what you want to see this year. As always, we welcome your submissions too. If it’s got 100% wool at it’s heart then we want to hear from you. In addition to your woolly content, we are really interested to hear from you if you are a small producer or working with wool in any way in a small production. email wovember@gmail.com or louise[at]knitbritish.net.

| Great London Yarn Crawl 2015 

The annual London yarn crawl is imminent! It is happening on the 5th September and they’ve hit the motherload this year with more routes and more MORE. There is an exciting vendor market place and workshops with the awesome Kate Atherley. Check out Yarn in the City for all the info you need!

| Hellos and thanks and see you soon 

I will be back in September where we might just have a podcast a week what with all the exciting stuff I have for you! See you then!

 

 

| Information

Music: Carefree by Kevin McLeod on the Free Music Archive. 

reasons to be cheerful: Scollayalong Party 2

| There ain’t no party like a Scollayalong party!

tour dates

Those taking part in the Scollayalong with myself and Isla from BritYarn will remember that we had a very chatty Scollayalong party to mark the cast on date. We are excited to announce that we will be having another little virtual knitting hour this Friday from 7.30pm. We will be on twitter and Instagram, and you can also chat in the group on Ravelry. The chat group is on tour this week in the BritYarn group, but on Friday the chat will be in the KnitBritish group. Read More

episode 36 – A wool journey with Romney Marsh Wools

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!)

In this episode, recorded a few weeks ago, I chat with Kristina Boulden who is one half of the team behind Romney Marsh Wools.  

www.matildarosephotography.comThe Romney Marshes are situated in the South East corner of England and cover an area of approximately 100 square miles. Paul Boulden’s family have farmed on the Romney Marsh since the early 1880s and have kept the indigenous Romney sheep breed since then. The Romney breed is a longwool which dates from the 13th century; it is a hardy breed which has adapted to life on the marshes. Read More

episode 35 kiss my British wool!

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

 

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!

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| 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.

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| 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! 

tour dates

 

| 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]

| Hapalong prizes

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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! 

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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.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

| 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

episode 34: clap along if you know what hap-piness is to you

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 below, to listen in a new tab (y’know, so you can also refer to the shownotes whilst you listen!)

This episode is an hour-long retrospective of the hapalong. Please visit the links to see the haps I am talking about and do visit the Finished Object thread to see the wondrous haps. These are not shownotes as such, you will need to listen in for the full hap appreciation!

Preview:

Read More

Vintage Shetland Blog Tour

Today sees the launch of a blog tour and crowdfunder which will travel from Shetland and back with the news of a very special book and how you can help it on it’s journey. I am delighted to be stop one on Susan Crawford’s Vintage Shetland blog tour!

For the last four years designer and knitting anthropologist Susan Crawford has been working on recreating 25 hand knitted items from the archives at Shetland Museum. With the help of textile curator, Dr Carol Christiansen, Susan has had access to the many items donated to the museum and has chosen to recreate a selection of garments and accessories for women and men, in both Fair Isle and lace. Read More