One year anniversary YARN-Y Golden Ticket giveaway!

A little over a year ago I loaded my first listings to Etsy and launched the shop. I didn’t really know what to expect but after months of dreaming, planning and preparation, clicking that button and making the shop live felt like the start of an amazing new adventure.

The kindness, support and friendship that has come my way since starting this business has been humbling and and truly inspiring.

I wanted to do something special for Kettle Yarn Co.’s one year anniversary and came up with a Willy Wonka-esque ‘golden ticket’ idea as a huge thank you to everyone who has followed and supported me over the last year!

All newsletter subscribers who purchase ANYTHING from the 1st of September to October 15th will be entered into the draw for … *drum roll*…

5 skeins of WIMBLEDON Sport in Melon Balls!

100% Superwash Merino – ethically sourced
100g = 262 m/ 287 yds

That is 1125 juicy metres of bouncy sport weight to get you started in your autumn knitting – a whole jumper’s worth!

You could also stripe or do some colourwork with this as I’ve got many other hues in the same weight:

clockwise: Fenland, Blue Pictsies, *Black Country, Fog, Ice Queen, Sherbert, Melon Balls, *Red Sky
*not in shop yet – contact me by email to purchase directly

I’d meant to post this earlier and run this promotion from 1st of Sept, so will extend it into October due to my tardiness in getting this out. Bad me. ;-?

The winner will be announced October 15th!

Here are a few recent projects in the blend to get you thinking…

merieb’s M a i l e

Tinkhickman’s Wee Envelope Jumper

actionmole’s Creamsicle

EastLondonKnit’s Effervescence

clockwise: Merieb’s Maile, Tinkhickman’s Wee Envelope Jumper, Actionmole’s Creamsicle, EastLondonKnit’s Effervescence

Actionmole – aka Sarah – recently left the most lovely review for the blend:

‘It’s so lovely to work with: Although the yarn has a lovely and firm twist, it can be knit up at totally different gauges and is lofty and soft at the same time.

I’ve been wearing my FO eveywhere and it holds up to all my adventures with only minimal piling under the arms. I highly recommend this yarn.’

Can’t get a better recommendation than that! Thanks again Sarah!

I am technically still on holiday until Sept 16th so will not be on email until then, but the shop is still open and I will get your new yarn-babies out to you as soon as I am back in action!

Good luck all, and thank you for making this last year such a joy.

Linda x

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Blue Pictsies and other fantastical bits

Some of you may have already seen the 2 new colourways in WIMBLEDON Sport  in Friday’s shop update:

Blue Pictsies                                                            Fenland

Anyone who knows me knows how I agonise over naming things. It is something that doesn’t come easy to me and in the past I have taken years to get the absolutely perfect name for a painting!

Lately I have been rereading the whole Terry Pratchett Discworld series and have always loved the Nac Mac Feegle characters in the books. A tiny, blue smurf-like creature these ‘blue pictsies’ are overseen by a level-headed matriarch, speak with a Glaswegian-like brogue and are a fiesty, trouble making bunch that always make me laugh.   (not least because my partner is a fiesty Scot himself!)

I decided to name these new colourways in homage to the group….

Wee Free Men – Paul Kidby illustration

The green is the kind of landscape I picture them in filled with green fields and mysterious cairns.

Fenland marshes

I have done a couple of interviews in the last couple of weeks and am also helping out some friends with photos, so am feeling very exposed online right now. There is something truly nerve-wracking about having your image and part of your personal story in such a public forum, but I am trying to get myself over the cringe and get out there!

You can read the blog interviews here if you are so inclined:

Zoe – Things Wot I Have Made – now based in Australia
Sarah – Knit York City –  New York (of course!)
(thanks again ladies!)

I will save the photos for another post so I have a bit more time to ‘gird my loins’ for the unveiling! ;-D

 

One – love. Creamsicles for all!

Some of you may have already seen the Creamsicle cardigan kits in the shop.  Featured in the new summer issue of Pom pom Quarterly released last week, this sweet summer layer by designer Sarah Hurwitz of Knit York City has it all – fun colour, elbow length sleeves and, of course, BOBBLES!

photo credit: Juju Vail and Pom Pom Quarterly

Sarah used my WIMBLEDON Sport blend which is ethically sourced from the happiest, most kindly treated sheep EVER…or so they tell me! (the mill, not the sheep) ;-D 

Deceptively butter soft but championship tough this deliciously doughy yarn comes in a generous 287 yds per skein – enough for accessories projects. This is the softest, squishiest superwash merino we have used, so soft and natural feeling you could never tell it was a superwash yarn without the label!

I keep thinking this design is just perfect for a yarn that was named after the tennis capital of the world. Can’t you just see this cardi in the stands for the Championships…or with a little white skirt on the court? (not that I am a tennis player, mind you, but the image is perfect, no?)

This weeks update contains the first batches of my new colourways for this season and a duck’s egg OOAK:

Clockwise from top left: Fog,  Sherbert, Snow Queen, Melon Balls, and a one off ducks egg blue

I’ve also created a little something to help your beloved projects return to you if they get lost – project bag tags!

These little gloss, plastic beauties attach to your bag and allow you to write a contact number or email on the bag so your project can be returned safely to you.

Just what you need if you travel with your projects and worry constantly about leaving them on a train like I do! 

Brioche Hat – officially published!

The Brioche Hat pattern is now professionally tech edited and I feel more confident about releasing it for sale!

I managed to rope in the ever willing(suffering) East London Knit – aka Renee (a talented designer in her own right – check out her new designs here –  and a fantastic photographer to boot) – to help me get some shots of the hat on my actual head!

Most of the photos were unusable…not due to the photographer, but my own seemingly unlimited store of goofy looks! It was a long day in the rain, wind and then sun but she finally managed to catch me not being self-conscious in a few shots!

It feels pretty weird to be splashing photos of myself all over the internet after years of avoidance, but I am determined to suck it up…at least until I can find a willing model, that is! 😉

I have 3 Aran yarns that give the gauge needed for this hat – BANFF Aran – BFL/Baby Alpaca, LOMOND Aran – Baby Alpaca/Merino/Bamboo, and WIMBLEDON Aran – SW Merino.

Just to contrast the two most similar, BANFF (left) and LOMOND (right), you can see how the BFL in the BANFF creates a higher shine and more compact stitches, while the LOMOND is fluffier due to the higher content of that soft Baby Alpaca :

I currently have all of the the Aran blends on the shop at the moment and have released the last two skeins of red from my Boreal  jumper if anyone fancies a bright, happy version like my personal hat!

 

Brightening things up!

I updated the shop this weekend and have a couple of fun suggestions for the new wares!

First off a bit more springy green as I saw some premature Lilies of the Valley poking their heads out last week:
Carpino by Carol Feller with  soft WIMBLEDON DK SW Merino in OOAK (one of a kind ) green

Next some slinky, furry lace richness:

CAMBRIDGE Lace – Baby Alpaca/Silk/Cashmere and free pattern Winter thaw by Beata Jezek

Both colours in shop now along with other new hues…

Quick holiday knits

It is the time of year when knitting thoughts turn to thick, cosy yarn and quick holiday knitting! I have been trying to get in more thicker weight yarns as a result and am slowly adding them to the shop in the next few weeks.

I have been looking at Tin Can Knits‘ fantastic The Simple Collection over the last while, as I met one of the dynamic duo, Emily, a few weeks back. The free collection has some lovely, simple garter patterns – perfect for quick knitting and getting all those holiday projects off the needles!

Rye socks in DK would make a perfect warming gift for someone on my list…

….maybe in bright mustard Waltham DK in ‘Havant’, which is nearly the same hue as the yellow ones above, or a more subdued neutral like ‘Nutkin’ in SW BFL DK, right, for the more conservative giftee:

In the aran/worsted department there are so many perfect patterns right now that it is hard to choose! I recently got another Tin Can Knits design, Barley, off the needles in the softest, thickest, squishiest BFL/Alpaca for holiday gifting and it is the simplest/quickest pattern – merely a few hours and I polished off a child’s hat! A softly saturated and slightly greyed shade up in the shop this weekend, shown to the left.

I recently swatched brioche stitch in BFL/Alpaca Aran and the combo is a match made in heaven!

Blushy-grey ‘Violaceous’ (below left) BFL/Alpaca would be luxuriously fuzzy and hug-able in the beautiful Brioche Scarf by Purl Soho:

I was quite surprised at how easy the stitch actually is – just YOs and k2togs, which are just made to seem complicated with strange abbreviations. Very easy to get into a rhythm with. I love the feel and look much I now desperately want to find the time to make myself their stunning Brioche Vest!

And if I had another 5 hours to the day, or another set of arms…look at this newly released Aran weight beauty by Amy Christoffers! Wouldn’t it be gorgeous in the BFL/ALpaca, too??

I just can’t figure out what I need to give up to make more time…sleep or even less housework…? ;-P