HEATH – 100% Ethical Merino | From the Purl Side

I just realised that I forgot to mention that the shop will be closed tomorrow Friday July 25th and will reopen Tuesday the 29th as I will be at the aforementioned Fibre East.

I am going to leave you with these shots of a super satisfying project I haven’t had time to post about yet, my Bailiwick Pullover by Courtney Spainhower. I finished this in May, but just haven’t had any spare time to blog on it yet!

Knit top down with a saddle shoulder this was a new construction for me and absolutely fascinating to see form.

Kettle_Yarn_Co_Bailiwick_saddle

I will never get tired of trying new knitting techniques and how marvelous they are! 😉

I knit this one a bit smaller than recommended gauge as I wanted to bring the neck in and also removed the eyelet detailing at the bust. It turned out beautifully in my HEATH 100% ethically farmed merino…the colourway is ‘Nutmeg Marl’.

An un-superwash merino, this yarn is truly unique as it has a toothy feel, but remains super soft. The stitch definition is DIVINE!

You can see all details on my Ravelry project page.

Happy weekend all!

I wasn’t sure I would have time to get this up on Ravelry before Unwind, but managed to squeeze it in this morning!

I have a new pattern for autumn. Super simple and super quick, the Brownlow Wristwarmers developed out of a successful swatching session with a beautifully bouncy, super-twisted Bluefaced Leicester blend that I fell in love with and became TWIST, as my day job – located in London’s Bloomsbury – was a stone’s throw from the historic house of Charles Dickens, author of the famous Oliver Twist novel!

While swatching this blend with my new naturally heathered HEATH – 100% ethical Merino – I couldn’t help but notice how perfect it is for garter stitch variations and decided to design something that would showcase both the yarns’ hardwearing qualities, while echoing the Dickensian brick and cobble lined streets filling my daily cityscape in London.

Mentally, I’ve always pictured Fagin’s crew wearing ratty fingerless gloves in Georgian London, however, these wristwarmers are less street-urchin and much more more elegant! Worked in a delicate garter rib with a flattering stripe of stockinette up the inside wrist to add texture contrast, these are simply knit in the round. The thumbhole is created by simply turning the work and working flat for a number of rows then rejoining to continue in round.

These beauties are really simple and perfect for knitting t wo at a time magic loop or for beginners and knit up in a couple evenings.

The pattern is available for download now on Ravelry and will be available free with yarn purchase of both TWIST and HEATH yarns for the pattern till the end of the month as a special promotion for those of you that can’t make the yarn fairs coming up here in the UK! For those of you at Unwind and Fibre-East I will have the yarns available and will email you the pattern on purchase.

I am hoping to have a Knit Along with these in August, so stay tuned for details!