September has been and gone in the blink of an eye and we have been so busy! We were at the Unravel autumn yarn show at the start of September and it was so great to be back out amongst fellow yarnies. At the show we launched our newest yarn and it was added to the website after we got back. Brimham Bio Fingering is a gorgeous new yarn which blends Superwash extrafine Merino with biodegradable nylon. Biodegradable nylon fully breaks down in five years in landfill conditions but until that point will be as durable as normal nylon. You can wear it and wash it in the same way as you normally would. There is a blog post about the biodegradable nylon — and the yarn in general — in production, which should be released soon. This yarn has 430m/100g (it’s being marketed as a 3ply “light fingering” by our suppliers) and is a little finer than your standard 4ply/fingering weight but still works up really well in 4ply/fingering-weight patterns.
A group of members of The ECY Garden Facebook group have tested this yarn for us and found it to be soft as you would expect from the extrafine Merino but also that it has great stitch definition and gives good drape. A few people said they found that it doesn’t have a lot of give when knitting (possibly if tension is tight? Claire and I haven’t found it to be the case so I’m wondering if it’s a tension thing) but it does bloom when you wash it for blocking. It has been used in hats, mitts, socks, shawls and a top, as well as both knitting and crochet. The projects included lace, cabling, brioche and colourwork, all of which the yarn coped really well with. More information about these projects will be in the blog post which is coming very soon! The overall verdict: they LOVED it!
Two other yarns recently restocked on the website are Hayton 4ply and Keld Fingering. These are both very popular yarns and we are thrilled to have them both available at the same time. Keld Fingering is a blend of Merino and linen. This yarn has a really unique appeal in that the linen does not take the colour in the same way as the Merino wool. This gives the yarn a rustic marled effect which is more prominent in darker colours. The yarn is soft enough for next to skin wear and you can’t feel the linen; despite it visibly sticking out it isn’t itchy at all!! The update is very autumnal with some seasonal colourways alongside many others. Hayton 4ply is Merino, Cashmere and nylon, making this yarn soft, strong and warm. It is one of our all-time classic yarns and is perfect for garments, shawls and accessories. There is a mix of autumnal shades, variegated colourways and semi-solids. We will be adding colour combinations and yarn packs over the next few days. There are lots of other yarns in the schedule for the next few months so please do keep checking back with us!
The next update after that will be Brimham 4ply and Victoria has gone pretty Halloween-y with it (well, let’s say “October-y/spooky”). We are really keen to get these on the website as soon as possible but we have been hit by Covid so are out of action for a few days (apart from admin that can be done remotely by me, Laura). We will get orders shipped when it is safe to do so but there may be some delays. If you would like to support us while we are not able to be fully operational you can do so by purchasing digital downloads of our patterns. You can find these on our website and on Payhip.
In our constant attempt to keep the stock fresh and current we have added some more older stock to the Reduced to Clear section of the website. This now also includes older dyelots of Milburn 4ply and DK so do check out the colours available in that section for a discount. As mentioned previously we are having to increase the price of Milburn when our next batch arrives. It is in production and we hope to have it in stock in October so you might get purchases in ahead of the price increase! We have also recently moved all hand-dyed dyelots from 2021 into the Reduced to Clear category so there is plenty to choose from!
Please be aware that Royal Mail have announced several more strike dates between now and the end of December which will impact the length of time orders will take working their way through the system.