September is here and the mornings are already feeling cooler. Renovation work is still underway at ECY Shedquarters but I am managing to work around it so far. Moving the kettle into the dye shed was a great choice. ???? Our most recent update went live on Wednesday but you haven’t missed out! New batches of our tweedy Keswick Fingering and Keswick DK are ready and waiting for you. If you want to know more about these yarns check out the Shedcast introducing it on our YouTube channel. You can also find all the information covered in the Shedcast in our handy blog post which you can find on our home page.
In the few weeks before this update we had added a few different yarns to the website, including Hayton DK (Merino/Cashmere/nylon), Tempo 4ply, Brimham 4ply (both Merino/nylon sock yarns), Pendle 4ply (pure Merino), Titus Lace (Merino/silk), Keld Fingering (Merino/linen singles yarn) and Coniston Fingering Merino/mohair singles yarn). ???? Coming soon we will have updates of Titus 4ply, Keld Fingering, Rosedale 4ply and Nateby 4ply with plenty of sparkly mini skeins so sign up to our newsletter to find out about the timing of these updates!
Over the past few months we have been working on a revamp to the pattern for Chromium. Designed by Mr ECY, David O’Kelly, Chromium started life as a really nice, versatile scarf but has evolved into a generous, snuggly wrap. This versatile pattern is ideal for beginners to get to grips with knitting on a bias and simple increases and decreases; as well as for more experienced knitters who want a nice, easy, satisfying project. The small contrast bands are handy for using leftovers too. It uses seven skeins of DK yarn, two of each main colour and one skein for the contrast bands which gives you plenty of scope to really personalise your wrap. The pattern is currently only available as a download from our website. We sneakily added a handful of Pendle DK to the website last week so make sure to have a look at those if you need yarn for your Chromium. Pendle DK has a lower meterage per skein than Bowland DK so you may need more yarn if you choose to use this yarn but you can also combine it with any of our other DK yarns.
We are often asked about colour combination suggestions, you may be considering putting two Milburn 4ply colours together to personalise your Droppe Sweater by Emmy + Lien which was recently released. This is a gorgeous and practical crochet sweater that will go nicely with a range of outfits. The pattern is written for 10 sizes (71 – 162cm / 28 – 63¾in bust) and being worked from the top down is easily adaptable at all stages. The pattern is available on the Emmy + Lien website (https://www.emmyandlien.com/pattern-shop/droppe-sweater-crochet-pattern) and also on Ravelry. I love the idea of Charcoal as the main colour and then Fern as the border for a lovely pop. I had great fun putting together some of my suggestions for this stunning design and they have been added to the Milburn 4ply album in flickr. I have also added some ideas for creating rainbow effects. This album is really useful for getting an idea how the different shades of Milburn work together!
As the weather starts to get cooler and the nights start to draw in you may be looking for larger projects to keep yourself busy or you may even have your eyes on some winter accessories. We can help with both of these! We have a few multi-colour yarn packs still available on the website. These are three-, four-, five-, and six-colour packs in DK and 4ply/fingering yarns, perfect for those multi-skein projects if you find it difficult to choose colour combinations. In each pack you get 100g per colour, so this is either in single 100g skeins or two 50g balls of Milburn and all yarn packs come at a lower price than ordering the individual yarns separately.
We also still have many colours of Aran and Chunky yarns available on sale, perfect for if you want to be prepared for the cold months. There are great selections available in the Reduced section of the website. This also extends to out Cat Knits Yarn Packs so now would be the ideal time to get cracking on a Cosy Cat Sweater by Marna Gilligan. We also still have copies of the Cat Knits book available.
While on the subject of yarn packs, do you remember the Woodbine Sweater by Fiona Alice? We know a lot of you loved it and as we are out of stock of the original yarn packs we thought it would be fun to pull together some new alternative colour combinations. These are very limited in numbers but we are sure you will love them!