Marketplace

Friday will see the unveiling of our latest Milburn colourway! Yippeee! The announcement will be made in our newsletter at 1 p.m. and will be on social media shortly afterwards. You will be able to buy this new colourway on 4ply and DK from Monday 1st February at 9 a.m. UK time.

Friday also sees our Oakworth DK update go live at 1 p.m. We had hoped to have this update before the end of December but we ran out of time and haven’t really had suitable photography weather through January. Oakworth DK is pure Superwash Polwarth wool, so it’s more woolly than Merino, and I find it more hardwearing too. It’s a lovely crisp, solid yarn (it’s still smooth though) which softens with use. It makes a really nice addition to our stable as it is quite different to the merino and BFL bases. Colourways shown are Thunder, Twig. and Steel

A little bit earlier in the month we had a large mini skein update including Brimham 4ply and Nateby 4ply. Both of these yarns are Merino/nylon blends with Nateby being our original sparkly yarn also including silver lurex (picture shows Nateby colourways Hyssop, Faded Bloom, Hedgerow, Falling Leaves, Stone and Ash). There were also a few mini skeins of Rosedale 4ply (picture shows Damson, Coal and Tide) and the new Silverdale 4ply — these are also sparkly Merino/nylon blends but with Stellina – Rosedale has gold Stellina and Silverdale has silver! (see what we did there?!????). We had hoped to have a full update to introduce Silverdale 4ply but the yarn is not currently available to us so this is on hold for a little while longer.

I have a couple of bits of shipping admin to share with you. With all the drama relating to shipping delays that the last few months brought us we have added another service level. You now will see the options for Standard shipping (split into first and second class for the UK only), Courier, and now the new Airmail Tracked & Signed option (1st class Signed For in the UK only). Signed For/Tracked and Signed is a way of adding extra peace of mind to your shipping without the extra cost associated with a courier shipment. This is a new offering for us and it may lead to some teething problems but hopefully it will be a positive addition all round. Take a look at our Shipping Info page to check out all the changes.

Customers in Europe are likely to experience delays in receiving their orders as the UK and EU work through the teething problems of the new trade deal. Please do be aware that if you are in the EU and placing an order with a VAT registered company in the UK, you are almost definitely going to have to pay an import tax. This is instead of the VAT that you would previously have paid as part of the order. It is the same system as you would use if you are ordering from America, China or any other non-EU country. Delivery agents (e.g. couriers/postal services) will also add their own fees on top of the import tax to cover their administration fees — we can’t tell you how much it’ll be because we are not given any indication of it at all. Sadly this is not something that we have any control over and is the new normal. Please do take this into consideration when placing orders as it will increase the overall cost of the order and the fees will have to be paid for you to receive your order.

We have also had notification that one of our main (and most reliable!) couriers has suspended part of their European service until they are more able to cope with the increased complexity of the process. When booking courier shipments we always do our best to find an appropriate service for the price charged to our customers. As the courier market is so variable at this time we may in some cases not be able to find a service to suit. In this case we will contact you to discuss possible options, whether this would be an increased cost for the shipment or the use of an alternative service. This is reflected on our Shipping Info page.

That’s the boring bit over with! The lovely Sophie McKane (aka Unicorn Designs) gave up some of her time for an interview with us about her life and designs. She is a fabulous knitwear designer specialising in (but not by any means limited to) garments for children and fingerless mitts. You can find links to the recent patterns she has released using our yarn on the Design Collaboration page but please be aware that some of the older links may be for Ravelry. Head over to our blog to read the interview.

We’re still working differently to how we used to, due to Covid restrictions and being as careful as possible. Between that and Brexit-related delays (which I’m sure will be a recurring theme for some time to come, sorry!) my turnaround time on yarn is about the same as last year – slow! It’s fine and I for one am not unhappy about it; it’s just different. We’re increasingly seeing undyed yarn being unavailable because of Covid and Brexit shipping issues mentioned earlier, and I’m not sure when that’s all going to be cleared up, so in the meantime I’ll just be doing updates of what I can actually get! Here’s an idea of where we’re up to (yarn availability notwithstanding):

Bowland 4ply – nearly ready
Oakworth 4ply – dyed
Pendle 4ply – this is a big one and currently in the dye pots
Coniston Fingering – waiting to go in the dye pots
Lowther Lace – waiting to go in the dye pots
Titus 4ply – planned
A sparkly update including mini skeins (hopefully Rosedale and Silverdale 4ply!) – aiming for mid-March
Bedale 4ply – planned
Bowland DK – aiming for April
Titus DK – pencilled in for May