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Scollayalong: British wool

There have been a lot of suggestions and showing off of yarns in the KnitBritish ravelry group of the yarns being used in the Scollayalong, which casts on on the 17th July. I wanted to share with you some of my personal yarn favourite British yarns. It isn’t mandatory that you knit your Scollay in British wool for this KAL, but there will be a prize at the end of the KAL for a Scollay made in UK wool…just saying!

All of these yarns are ones which I have personally knit with and all are available from KnitBritish sponsor BritYarn!

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!

 

 

| Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Shop DK
– £7.45

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100% Wensleydale wool from the heart of Yorkshire, this is a really delightful yarn! I used this yarn for my Lush cardigan and really loved the stitch definition. The knitted fabric has a soft halo and gorgeous lustre and the best bit is that I find it hardly pills! Wensleydale wool has a slight crisp hand-squish-grab, but feel of the knitted fabric is quite soft – everyone who saw my lush at EYF were pleasantly surprised that while it looked rustic it was soft next to the skin. 

| West Yorkshire Spinners BFL
– from £4.85 – 6.90

BFL is a truly classic British breed wool for hand-knitting. It is available in natural colours, as well as 7 gorgeous dyed shades and you will find this a soft, bouncy and a really strong yarn. Cashmere-soft against your skin there is a little lustre on this too. I have knit a lot of items in this yarn including a baby lush and a nursery pillow – texture just works so well in this yarn.

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 | Blacker Westcountry Tweed
– £6.00

I adored reviewing this yarn last year and I always envisioned knitting a sweater in it.

It is a blend of Black Welsh Mountain yarn and Teeswater cross and is full of woolly character; soft, lofty and with lovely neps that really bring the knitted fabric to life. Check out that stitch definition! I reckon the reverse stocking stitch and lace will look great in this yarn

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| Wendy Ramsdale
– £3.85 

Ramsdale is 100% wool made from a blend masham fleece and is available in 10 really fantastic colours.  It is a single ply yarn and so makes a slightly different looking knitted fabric than the other yarns mentioned here. With a slight fuzzy halo it is incredibly tactile and again the colours, all named after Yorkshire towns, are really delicious. A budget friendly yarn too.

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| WYS Aire Valley
– £4.75

Aire Valley is a workhorse of a yarn that packs a mighty punch in its 100g/230m ball. This is a 75% British wool, 25% nylon blend, machine washable wonder. Fantastic for knitting garments that are a little easier to care for. I knit a Vivid blanket in this for my new-phew and its a cracking yarn, which seems to only bloom and get softer with each wash despite that little dash of man-made fibre. This yarn is also BritYarn’s yarn of the month for July! There is a great range of colours and lots of choice for your Scollay cardigans!

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It’s not too late to sign up. We will be casting on the KAL on Friday 17th July and we will be KAL-ing right up to 25th September.

Which yarn are you going for yourself?

Scollayalong KAL

Ever since Karie Westermann released her Scollay cardigan I have had lots of you asking me if there would be a KnitBritish KAL to coincide. Myself and my cohort-in-British-wool Isla, from BritYarn, have been planning this for weeks and you can now sign up to the Scollayalong KAL!

We will be casting on this gorgeous cardigan – designed in wondrous British wool – on Friday 17th July and running the KAL until 25th September.

If you are not familiar with this design you can read about it on Karie’s blog, but here are a few details to whet your appetite. Read More

episode 33 Scollayalong KAL and IBYC

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!)

ooh! what a lot has been going on since last we spoke! Get in here for a right wee blether with me, BritYarn, all things IBYC and a KAL!


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

There is a wee dip in the volume in this podcast….I nearly lost the whole shebang, but managed to rectify it, though it is a bit rough around the edges…like meself!

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!

Indie Burgh Yarn Crawl 

This was held in Edinburgh at the weekend and featured Kathy’s Knits, Be Inspired Fibres and Ginger Twist Studio. I had a list and on the top of it was Sock Anatomy, by Clare Devine. I also bought sock sized chiaogoo from Mei and inevitably went off list to buy some Signature yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners for a FoolProof cowl. Read More

Sponsored by a genuine love for British wool

I spoke on this topic on the podcast last week and I thought it would also be an important post, to share with you some of my feelings and ideas around sponsorship; 

I have often thought about having sponsors on KnitBritish, but two things would often stop me going further: having a focus on British wool as I do, it could be counter-intuitive to introduce show sponsors who didn’t also have this as an interest or focus. For a long time sponsorship just wasn’t an idea for me, because I didn’t think there would be an ideal fit.

new itunes image

Read More

Introduction: Make It Fit

If you listen to the podcast, or spend time on the KnitBritish ravelry group you will have heard about Make It Fit. This is a planned series of posts curated by Jo Milmine, of the Shinybees podcast, and myself on the issues, hurdles and questions that arise from trying to knit garments which fit your body. The whole idea arose out of various twitter conversations on the subject of being proud to knit to our own fantastically unique proportions. We asked questions of ourselves; why do we choose the pattern size closest to the size *we think* we are? Shouldn’t we embrace our own measurements? We can knit and we can knit well, so why shouldn’t there be more emphasis on knitting to fit? Read More

five questions for BritYarn

Meet Isla Davison, owner of the brand spanking new BritYarn and sponsor of KnitBritish!
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I asked Isla if she wouldn’t mind swinging by to answer a few questions so you can get to know her, her love of British wool, her favourite projects and about her BritYarn adventure.

Read More

episode 32 BritYarn

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!)

I am delighted to announce BritYarn as the first ever sponsor of KnitBritish!

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!

You can also listen on iTunes, via podcatchers or my Podgen page

Tales from the WIPs including more hap horror and dreaded SLEEVE knitting. I also mention the prizes for the hap KAL.

| Sponsor 

Why have I decided to introduce a sponsor? Well, when Isla approached me it seemed like the most natural fit! Look out for a blog post on this soon. Isla and I have been planning some exciting content coming your way soon, so keep your ears peeled!

| BritYarn 

Isla opened the doors to BritYarn this week and opened them onto a whole world of love for her new shop which .shares with you her love of British wool. From Jamiesons & Smith, Blacker, Wendy and Wensleydale longwool Sheep Shop and with yarn from dyers such as Knitting Goddess, Eden Cottage and Yarns from the Plain there is an amazing array of UK grown wool at BritYarn. You will also find patterns by UK based designers Karie Westermann, Rachel Coopey, Jo Scrace and Inspriation Knits, to name a few.

This month’s Wool of the Month at BritYarn is Blacker DK Lyonnesse, which you might remember is the yarn I reviewed a few weeks ago that totally changed by perception of linen yarns; drapey, lustrous with great stitch definition it will be awesome for your summer garments and accessories. 

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You can visit BritYarn by clicking the image above or visiting www.brityarn.co.uk, you can also join the BritYarn group on Ravelry, read the blog and sign up for email updates too.

| Indie Burgh Yarn Crawl 

IBYC is next weekend (13-14th June) Are you coming? There are some spaces on some fabulous Clare Devine workshops. Check out the availability here. I am really looking forward to the social aspect of this weekend and I will be armed with my mic, so if you want to stop me and talk about anything on the podcast then we’ll have a little KB open mic!

Bee teaser

| Knit 1 Bike 1

Later this month Janet Renouf-Miller is undertaking a very special project travelling around Scotland on a Brompton folding bike and she joins me to tell me all about it.

As well as cycling 850 miles, Janet is going to be knitting and crocheting the things that she sees and which inspire her on her journey and offering workshops and tuition in return for a bite to eat or a bed for the night. The journey will see her travel up the west of Scotland, as far north as Ullapool, and then down the east coast and she has an itinerary which you can view here. Janet already has some mini workshops organised, some are closed groups, but others are open to the public and if you know Janet is coming to your area you can even get in touch with her – either via her Create With Fibre site or facebook to arrange a crafting session or meet up.

The Knit 1 Bike 1 journey will culminate in exhibitions next year and also a new book about her experience of the journey and some patterns.  If you would like more information on Janet, Knit 1 Bike 1, or to donate to support the project then please visit createwithfibre website.

| Next Time I’ll be back after IBYC and Isla and I have some exciting BritYarn/KnitBritish news! Also watch out on the blog for a Q&A with Isla too!

| Information 

You can find me on twitter and Instagram as @Knit_British; Raverly as Leira and you can find the KnitBritish Ravelry group by clicking here.

Music is Slippy-Peppy-Falco-Fox by Mason Jar Music and Mind’s Made Up by Antiqool, both available on NoiseTrade.com.

Bicycle bell sound courtesy of bsumusictech on freesound.