Waiting for Rain by Sylvia McFadden
Posted on by Kim Kearney

Waiting For Rain by Sylvia McFadden

Waiting for Rain by Sylvia McFadden

Waiting for Rain is a lovely, beautiful garter and lace crescent shawl that uses an unusual short row lace technique.  It fits perfectly over your shoulders and drapes in a way which is very pleasing to the eye. It’s worked top down with lacey increases. The pattern shows the single colour version, but the Ravelry download includes a ‘Hacking your Waiting for Rain shawl’ PDF.  This includes instructions for how to do stripes, how to move or add lace panels, make lace panels larger, and how to do the fancy knit-on cast-off shown in the two colour version. To buy the pattern download from the designer on Ravelry, click here.

We used a 100g hank of Whitbarrow Limestone, Heron and Olive Lime to knit this three colour version.  To knit it in one or two colours you will need two 100g hanks.  Whitbarrow is our Fingering weight blend of baby alpaca, superfine Falklands Merino wool and Mulberry silk and is an ideal yarn in which to knit a supersoft, luxurious shawl.   To see all the colours available, click here.

Sous Sous in Thames DK
Posted on by Kim Kearney

Sous Sous by Norah Gaughan

Sous Sous in Thames DK

I knitted Sous Sous in Thames DK which is a luxurious blend of baby alpaca, Falklands Merino and mulberry silk.  The jumper has a boxy shape with loads of positive ease.  You select your size by measuring your upper arm circumference.

Sous Sous is constructed flat in two separate pieces before joining at the shoulders and picking up for the sleeves which are also worked back and forth in rows. Shaping row 3 in the Front creates the bias which in turn sets the shoulder shaping.

You can buy this pattern from the designer on Ravelry here.

Fernet Branca by Thea Colman
Posted on by Kim Kearney

Fernet Branca by Thea Colman

Fernet Branca by Thea Colman

Fernet Branca features a simple textured block motif, bookended by bold ribs and cables on either side of the body. On the back or front of the sweater, is a central spine.  Cables are both charted and written.  The sweater is knitted from the bottom up in 4 pieces (front, back, sleeves) and seamed at shoulders, underarm and sides. Seams are straight and simple.  We knitted this jumper in our Alpaca with Shetland aran yarn in Turquoise.  Although I really like the boxy shape of the pattern, I decided to lengthen it so I didn’t get a cold gap between the jumper and my jeans.

You can buy this pattern from the designer on Ravelry here.

Our Alpaca with Shetland aran yarns can be viewed here.

 

Cascade Cap in Merino Twist
Posted on by Kim Kearney

Cascade Caps by Janine Bajus


Cascade Cap in Merino Twist

We looked for a hat pattern which used as many colours of Merino Twist 4ply as possible and found Cascade caps by Janine Bajus.  The Merino Twist 4ply  yarn comes in ten shades and we’ve used five on each hat.  These stranded colourwork hats are knitted in the round using 3.25mm needles.  The pattern is for one adult size and you can adjust the amount of ease by varying the needle size.

To view or buy a download of this pattern from the designer on Ravelry, click here.

Poet top in Poldale Silk
Posted on by Kim Kearney

Poet by Sari Nordlund

Poet top in Poldale Silk

 

This lacy raglan top was knitted top-down using Poldale Silk 4ply.    I altered the sleeves slightly from the pattern to three-quarter length with a shorter cuff.  The top is knitted in the round with different charts for each size.  The lacy pattern repeat is also written out, but you will probably have to refer to the chart to know where to start each row when increasing for the raglan.  It was quite straightforward once I had separated the sleeves, but took a bit of concentration to begin with.  I knitted a small size and used 2 100g hanks of Poldade Silk and 3.5mm needles.

The pattern may be found here on Ravelry to purchase from the designer.

Posted on by Kim Kearney

Coronavirus Update 25 March 2020

Although our retail shop is now closed until further notice, we are still sending out orders received online, by email or over the phone.

We are finding it difficult to send out orders as quickly as normal due to reduced hours at our local post offices, but please continue to buy from us.

Posted on by Kim Kearney

Free Postage

Royal Mail is increasing its prices from 23 March 2020 and we have taken the opportunity to review our postage.  Because everyone is staying at home where they can, we are offering free postage on UK orders over £35, over £50 to Europe and £75 to the rest of the world.

Posted on by Kim Kearney

Hermes Delivery option

We have decided to suspend the Hermes delivery option at the moment.  We have had a lot of problems with parcels not being delivered.  In addition, their new website has not been working properly, taking up a lot of everyone’s time.  We have added a Royal Mail 2nd class option as an alternative and we will review the situation after Christmas.