Hello from ECY Shedquarters! Today is a yarn pack news extravaganza, but before I get into that I have important information about holidays during May. Here in England we have three (yes THREE) public holidays in May. This means we will be closed on Monday 1st May, Monday 8th May and Monday 29th May and so we will not be processing orders or answering emails on these days, plus Royal Mail will have delays during this time. In addition to this we will also be closed on Friday 19th and Monday 22nd May. Please take this into consideration when ordering in May as it may take longer than normal for you to receive your orders.
We know it can be dauting choosing colour combinations and so we like to help you out with our suggestions. Yarn packs are also cheaper than buying the individual yarns separately. With so much choice available in the recent mini skein update we have put together a number of mini skein bundles. There are sets of three, four, five and seven minis so check those out if you have projects needing those quantities. We also still have Rainbow sets and sparkly Fade Sets available. There is a mini skein collection on the homepage of the website which also includes a mini skein lucky dip listing with options for five, ten, twelve and twenty four minis!
As promised we have been adding more Milburn 4ply options for the Kismet yarn packs to the website, you can find a link to this collection in the main Yarn menu. There are more to come but with all the sizing options they take a little while to set up. Oakworth 4ply packs for this design have been slightly delayed and will now be released next week. Kismet by Rachel Illsley of Unwind Knitwear is a stunning colourwork design featuring small repeats of pattern to give a striking finish. The sweater uses four colours, three colours in a vague fade with the final colour as a contrasting pop. The pattern is available on Payhip. Our yarn packs have size options that correspond with the sizing in the pattern from XS to 5XL to 83 to 157cm / 33.25 to 62.75 inches, with recommended positive ease of 7.5 to 25cm / 3 to 10 inches at the chest circumference.
Janie Crow’s Magic Circles scarf has had a revamp to account for the discontinued Autumn Fields, this has been replaced in the pattern with Dusk and we have added this as a new choice on our website. Jane has very kindly allowed us to use her images of the new sample and you can see those below. You can choose between buying the Yarn Pack Only if you already have the pattern, or the Yarn Pack & Pattern if you don’t. We now have SIX palette options on the website: the new Dusk palette, Claire’s Autumn Woodland palette, the original palette with either Black Tulip or Compost in place of Autumn Fields and our Version Two which has Black Tulip and Rain or Compost and Natural in place of Autumn Fields and Althaea. Find all Magic Circles listings through the link in the main Yarn menu.
While we are talking about Janie Crow, you may have seen her Earth Day post on Instagram which featured a granny square inspired by a beautiful landscape, the image of the granny square has been used with Jane’s permission. The yarns used in that square were Milburn DK in Thyme, Althaea, Dusk, Compost, Natural and Black Tulip. They work so well together that we obviously had to create yarn packs for the combination. You can choose from MIlburn DK or Milburn 4ply and also between 300g (one ball of each colour) or 600g (two balls of each colour). Find these on the website HERE.
I am photographing this yarn today (Thursday) and will get it live on the website as soon as possible. Pendle Sport is our only sportweight yarn and is 100% Superwash extrafine Merino yarn. If you have used any of our Pendle yarns before you will know how soft and bouncy this yarn is. Our testers did a great job with their products and let us know that it is ideal for both garments and accessories. It has great stitch definition making it ideal for cables and also has lovely drape. We will be releasing a blog post with more information about this yarn in the next week or so. When the yarn goes live it will be on the home page of the website and through the Yarn menu.