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I think she likes wool: gifting for the uninknitiated

Published by louise

Hi. I’m Clint. I’m actually in the picture below with my brothers. I won’t tell you which one is me: I’ll let my jumper do the talking.

I thought my imagination had tricked me into believing I had such a jumper in the 1980’s, but Mum found the photographic evidence. She liked to knit even back then, perched on the brown chequered couch watching Crossroads, Dynasty and The Colbys. And Dallas, up to the point Patrick Duffy’s hairy chest emerged from the shower.

I remember the thick plastic needles that I used as drumsticks – until voices were raised. The thing-with-the-holes to tell you how thick the drumstick-needle was. I remember the pattern pamphlets. The pictures spoke for themselves, but inside: K2tog? K2P1? RSVP? … all very confusing, so I opted not to get into all that and play on my BMX instead, my mullet flapping in the breeze.

That changed when I met my knitting fiancee. Christmas approaches and some knowledge is helpful.

The question is when you don’t understand knitting, what do you get someone? Do they already have it? Is it the wrong size or type? Is it bad quality or just a bad idea? Doubtless the same questions Louise may ask herself if buying me a new doo-dah or wotsit for my video camera.

Me circa 1981, wearing a House Of Mum® forerunner to Liz Hurley’s plunging Versace dress.

My Mum always bought what I later learned was acrylic ‘wool’. This is handy when you have children who possess the ability of movement. But we’re onto Knitting British this year, so knocking those out of the equation there’s only 10,000 more types to fret over.

In order to be able to get something each year i’ve had to go by Three Woollen Commandments:

1: Ask. “Oh, but where’s the excitement?” Well you can always ensure there’s a large shortlist (like an Amazon Wishlist) of acceptable wools so the element of surprise remains.
2: Research what’s already there in the stash. How about something from the same woollen family. Do any shades appear to be favoured? If Fluorescent wool hasn’t been a feature of the wool collection till now – odds on it may not be the right choice!
3: The accessories. There are consumables like Stitch Markers – which may or may not be like a bookmark, but for where your page is a stitch… Or how about places to store wool projects? Books (again best to go by list – a How-To knit is most likely not going to go down well unless you’re as knowledgeable as me). Needles themselves are another minefield.

I have taken a gamble with a particular type of wool gift purchase this year. Two weeks until I find out whether I have been wise…

So all this has most likely been of no help. If you aren’t told explicitly, well then you just have to Sherlock Holmes an idea…

…may or not be a present…. 🙂

Merry Christmas from your guest blogger!

Giveaway Tease: it’s not all baa baa baa

Published by louise

I am really enjoying reading your comments on my giveaway entry post. Even if you don’t want to enter the prize you should take a minute to read about the love out there for home grown wool.
It seems that there is a huge love affair with sheep’s wool and a real care to support local producers and rare breed wool. That makes me so pleased! The whole point of writing this blog and knitting British is to share the joy of local fibre.
Today’s tease to the stash giveaway is a reminder that there is more to knitting British than with sheep wool… (Although with this yarn there is a nice relationship between the two!)

Added to the stash is……..

TITUS MINI SKEINS!!

Titus from Baa Ram Ewe caused a wonderful stir of excitement when it was launched in its natural shades last year. This year, when the dyed shades were launched I, for one, was near hysteria!

Titus is a cloud-soft yarn made from 30% UK alpaca, 20% BFL & 50% Wensleydale -literally the cream of British fibres!
The range is spun in Yorkshire and so is even more British!

There is just over 250m here – plenty to practice your colour work. I think they’ll look beautiful in Tin Can Knits Fancy Baubles or For The Tree socks by CoopKnits.

Currently these are out of stock, so how much do you love me that I bough one for me and one for you at Woolfest in June

Also in the stash prize is 100g of John Arbon Alpaca Sock, so there is no excuse! If you haven’t already entered you are missing out on the chance to try out some lovely home grown (and spun!) fibre.

Enter here!

I will further tease you in the weeks to come before the closing date on Dec 31st!

Gift Ideas: We knits you a British Christmas

Published by louise

…and a woolly New Year! (Oh, ok! It’s not the best pun, but I did try!)

My lovelyfella has sweetly been trying to think of British-based knittery things for my Christmas, Gorgeous thing that he is! I did give him a few starting points, but I will be excited to see on Christmas day what he has picked out! (can’t be too hard, right?!)

With only another couple of weeks of gift buying time left, if you have a knitter in your life and you are not sure what to buy for them, or you are a knitter yourself and you want to treat yourself this Christmas then I have a few gift ideas for you. All lovely makers, sellers and artists are UK based and most of the items are made in Britain, too!

I have recently been introduced to Kettle Yarn Co via the wonderful world of Twitter! Linda is a Canadian dyer living in London. She dyes predominantly in British yarns and the colours have a real lustrous glow. Linda’s BFL mini-skeins are really something. Get a load of these colours!

Linda says on her blog that she will even wrap the skeins up for the person you are buying for and send them directly! You cannot say better than that in terms of a quality present and attention to detail! The skein pairs are £14 each and numbers are limited, so get in there quick!

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I have been coveting a pretty yarn bowl for a very long time. I think they are not only practical, but they are very pleasing to look at! I think some of the prettiest bowls are from Little Wren Pottery. Based in Northallerton, Yorkshire, there are lots of styles to choose from and prices range from £12 to £18 – a very reasonable price for a beautiful, hand made item! You can even have them personalised with the giftee’s name. Please be aware Little Wren Pottery have last date orders for Christmas gifts, please check the shop out for details)

Fyberspates also have a wonderful line of pottery yarn bowls, very local to them and if you miss out on the posting deadline for Little Wren, you definitely should check out these very special bowls. They retail at £25 and again I think they’d be so beautiful on display as well as a practical tool!

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I have been showing lovelyfella these pins at every opportunity! They are felted Shetland jumpers and they are the creation of Shetland designer Donna Smith.

Donna has a beautiful range of felt items from scarves and bags, to hair pins and brooches and also really lovely festive tree decorations. You can visit her store at Not On The High Street. Prices range from £5.95 for hairpins to £11.95 for the jumper brooches.

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Of course, if you are giving woolly gifts, you may also like to take the theme further!

Angela Simpson’s sheepy Christmas cards are really quirky and fun and you can buy them from the Highland’s based illustrator for £2.50 each or pick and mix the entire range for 5 for £10

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And, if you do not mind spending a little bit extra on the stuff that often gets ripped off and screwed up in the bin you can get this super cute wrapping paper. I think it doesn’t necessarily have to have snowflakes, snowmen and Santa on it to make it festive – I mean, woolly jumpers are VERY festive.

Mary Kilvert, based in Frome, has this wrap and so many other lovely sheepy goods in her Etsy shop – from cushions, bags and mugs to charity Christmas cards. The gift wrap is £10 for 5 sheets and, actually, don’t you think it would make a lovely addition to a knitter’s wall, if you put it in a clip frame?!

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Back to the wools now! I have been really eagerly awaiting the launch of John Arbon’s new Viola range. The 100 % merino DK yarn is spun at their new mill and costs £12.50 per 100g hank. I love how the yarn look almost hand-painted look – those flecks of light are very lovely indeed.

The skeins are not in the shop yet, but will be available very soon. You can register your interest in the yarn via the website.

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If you are unsure of the knitting ability of the gift-getter then the The Little Knit Kit Company is a good place to go! Based in West Glamorgan, they have a range of kits, all made in Britain, that will appeal to many knitters. The kits are all aimed at knitters with a beginners ability, but show you just what kind of wonderful things you can create with simple techniques! I adore the seaside cottage and the gingerbread house kits

The kits – of all shapes and sizes – start at about £10 and go up to around £30. They even have British made needles to knit them with!

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Let us not forget that spinners need gifts too! I am a very occasional spinner, but one of these kits from Hilltop Cloud would encourage me to pick up the spindle a bit more!

Gorgeous colours and textures, a spindle and beginner instructions to spin your own wool – and at £15, this is a really great and thoughtful gift idea for the fibre lover in your life.

I really like the spinners project bags available through the Hilltop Cloud etsy store too.

And – as a small aside – if spinning is your friend’s bag one of my favourite podcasters, Nic from Yarns from the Plain has opened an etsy shop selling British fibre tops and yarn, which she has dyed herself. This is a relatively new venture for Nic, please keep checking the shop for updates. All the very best with the new shop Nic!

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And of course, knitters do like project bags! I do really like the styles and print choices of AndSewToKnit, like this groovy model!

Finally, do not forget the notions! We knitters love our stitch markers, buttons, finishings, tapes, etc and they really make great stocking fillers.

Stitch Markers and Tin from Rosie Retro on Etsy (Click on pic)

Tape from Fripperies & Biblots

Buttons from Owl Print Panda

I hope this has given you a few ideas; it is very satisfying to buy things which were made, grown, dyed or sourced on your own doorstep! Happy shopping!

And don’t forget that right here on KnitBritish you can win an entire British wool stash. Over 1 kg of British wool! If you have not already entered in the various ways GO HERE, Comment and enter!

Do you need another sneaky peak of what is inside the stash? Maybe I will tease you tomorrow!

Smitten by mittens

Published by louise

I quite like the cold weather. I like to wrap up warm. I used to be a gloves or wristies kinda gal – I loved mittens but I used to smoke, and it was difficult to do that with mittens! Thankfully I gave up and now I can wear mittens with pride! The pattern for these are Tin Can Knit’s Maize, from their Simple Collection and I knit them in New Lanark Donegal Silk Tweed, in ochre. I bought this wool at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival and so I can think of no better place to model them than Edinburgh! (This is me goggling at the height/speed of the star flyer ride at the Winter Wonderland!)

I do like me a bit of New Lanark, but I am more than just a little obsessed with the ochre – I could eat it up!

The pattern is indeed simple and knitters, both beginner and more advanced, will find the purl and knit pattern very pleasing to watch knit up. Maize comes in mittens and fingerless gloves (that’s two patterns for free!!) and when the lovelyfella requested some wristies I couldn’t think of a nicer pattern. Ok, so we are slightly matchy, but who cares?! His are made from a slightly chunkier wool, a Shetland/merino handspun blend, which I bought at a craft fair recently. It is hand dyed too, using an onion and a rusty nail!

I am including samples of the natural dyed merino tops in my British wool stash giveaway! Merino dyed with marigold, dock plants and woad! These colours really sing out to me. When I learned to spin on a drop spindle I used tops from the same company, Shetland Spindrift Crafts!

To enter the giveaway, which runs til 31st, please go here for info on what’s in the stash (so far!)

No doubt I will bore you with tales from my recent Edinburgh trip soon, suffice to say we ate very well & I went yarn shopping!

Thrapple

Published by louise

“Aw! In the name of the Wee Man! Your thrapple is out!”

This was the cry of my wee Glasgow mammy* when I came through her door one day, when the wind was blowing and the air was chilly.

I hadn’t heard the phrase before, so the first time she said it I checked to make sure I hadn’t had some dreadful wardrobe malfunction.

“Naw!”, she proclaimed, pointing at my chest area.

“Your thrapple. It’s bare naked!

I realised it was my décolleté she was pointing at – where my coat was open at the neck.

“The wind’ll get right in there! – you need to get your thrapple covered”

Thrapple has always been a favourite word ever since and I usually champion year round scarf/shawl wear in the interests of keeping ‘thrappled’.

Upon doing a little googling I discovered that the word was commonly used in Scotland to mean gullet or windpipe and one would wet or fill their thrapple accordingly, however one could also be ‘thrappled’ in an act of violence too! I guess also it could be used as a unit of measure too, according to the Ettrick Shepherd, James Hogg (1831) anyway.

“Do you ken the big village of Balmaquhapple?…

…T’is steeped with iniquity up to the thrapple!”

I like that! Instead of saying I have had something “up to here” *indicates place on body where I’ve had it up to* I am going to say I’ve had it up to my thrapple…or a thrapple-full!

Anyway…recently I was playing about with some yarn and was trying to think of some one skein projects for Christmas presents. The idea of a little thrapple warmer was a bit too cosy to resist.

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I used Artesano British Chunky in Forest – a delightfully robust and bouncy yarn, which I will be talking about in a later blog and also Sheepfold Suffolk and Jacob Marl DK, which I used doubled to get gauge. The sheepsfold yarn is such a yummy sheepy yarn and I just love the knitted fabric it makes – I can see me using this again and again (and at £2.95 it is an amazing price!)

The pattern is a really quick knit, it is reversible and I added a bit of texture and interest by dropping stitches.

I hope you are all managing to keep your thrapples warm…it’s cooled down quite a bit hasn’t it?

Thrappled

P.S. oh! I wanted to bring you one of my giveaways before I head off on holiday for a few days, but due to time constraints it is not going to happen, but another one – dare I say, even better – will be winging its way to you very soon! Watch this space around the 1st!

*(not my biological one. actually my best china’s mum. But I call her Mammy too!)

Excuses Excuses

Published by louise

I have been a little bit quiet. Sorry about that! Here are some excuses…

1) A good percentage of this silence is down to preparing for TWO giveaway blogs for the very near future. One is exciting enough, but the second may blow your KnitBritish minds! But I am not going to tell you any more until next month!

2) I am also planning some exciting things for KnitBritish for 2014 and that is keeping my mind ticking too.

3) This month I have gone full time at my job and while I am super stoked to be working full time for the first time since graduating in 2011, I am trying to come to terms with losing out on knitting and blogging time. Be patient with me, won’t you?!

4) Even though my knitting time has considerably lessened, I am amid finishing items for two swaps with folk in the Caithness Craft Collective and The Owl Print Panda groups on Ravelry. It’s been great fun – my first ever swaps!

If you haven’t checked out both Louise’s podcast (CCC) or Amanda’s blog (OPP) then you are missing out. They both have a lovely, warm and humourous personalities and their podcast/blogs are just braw.

5) Also I have knocked up a little pattern using a yarn I will be featuring in a future blog – more about that one soon too!

6) I have also had other blog posts on my mind – ones that don’t quite inhabit a woolly space, but while I am writing them alright, I am finding it very hard to push ‘publish’.

I really hope to get the first giveaway to you before I nip off to Edinburgh at the end of the month. In the meantime, if I have whetted your appetite enough with all these future blogs, you can now sign up to KnitBritish by email and get posts to your inbox – that’s if I get the time to write one.

Hope all your Chrimbo WIPS are coming along well!

Made by Ewe winner

Published by louise

How was everyone’s Wool Week?

I have just visited randomresults.com to draw the winner of the wonderful Made By Ewe knitted sheep kit!

Congratulations Corrie! I have forwarded your details on to Made by Ewe and Linda will arrange your prize.
I hope you enjoy knitting Fraser!

Thanks to everyone who entered and to Linda for a lovely prize. I will have another British wool giveaway very soon!

Knitting with Jacobs

Published by louise

Having played about with washable yarns recently I felt the need to get a bit sheepy and went stash-diving for a breed specific yarn.

The first thing I happened upon was some Jacobs yarn, which I bought from Laal Bear’s etsy shop.

Closely related to an ancient, Middle Eastern breed of sheep, the breed was established in the Uk in the 17th century. Generally piebald, the small sheep can have up to six magnificent horns!

The wool that I have is grey and I believe that colours in the fleeces are are separated and blended. I do have some natural coloured Jacobs in my stash, but for now it is evading me.

The wool has a medium soft handle and although there are no coarse outer hairs, there is a little kemp in the wool.

When knitting with the wool these longer white hairs come loose and shed a little. It gives the working wool a very fine, soft, gritty feeling – which is not coarse, nor unpleasant, but those with aversion to shedding yarns may wish to avoid.

I have heard that spinners like Jacobs as it is an open fleece and easy to draw, making it a great fibre for beginners to spin. I actually have some raw BFL and Jacobs to spin, but I have to admit that it smells very strong and I would need to give it a good airing first!

I knitted the Castiel hat in this wool. I wanted a slouchier hat, so knit with a looser gauge, but to be honest its lost a bit of the definition of the pattern. Its more of a loose cats paw than the more defined lace of the original…

But knitting gauge-slash-lack of definition howlers aside, it is still a perfectly functioning hat.

There is a definite whisper of lustre on the Jacobs wool and I really like the texture of the longer white hairs that wisp throughout the knitted fabric.

To be honest I haven’t seen Jacobs used in lots of designs; I wonder if that kemp makes it seem coarser than it actually is? I would definitely like to experiment with it more. I think it would be great for outerwear and I think with that slight lustre gansey patterns might be lovely in this breed yarn.

While getting lost on Pinterest I saw some lovely work with handspun Jacobs. Remember what I said about separating the colours? Well, how magnificent is this?

http://www.heartstringsfiberarts.com/jacob.shtm

A work of art and such a lot of dedication has gone into making it. Do click on the picture and read about how the piece was made.

If you are interested in trying your hand at knitting with Jacobs wool you can find yarn in shades from creams, browns, grays and blacks and yarn is priced around the £5 mark for 50g. You can find yarns at West Yorkshire Spinners, Blacker yarns and Sheepfold, to name but a mere few!

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Brought to you with grateful thanks to the British Wool Marketing Board and their brilliant publication, British Sheep and Wool