Tag Archives: New yarns

WOWZER – Noro’s Rainbow Roll is here!

January 13, 2016Felting, Knitting, New in!, Spinning, Weaving, WoolFelting, Knitting, New yarns, Spinning, Weavingknitonedolgellau

Sorry about the overenthusiasm, but Knit one… is a huge fan of Noro, and its latest offering, Rainbow Roll, is amazing. It’s not available everywhere, so Knit one… is very honoured, and it won’t be around for ever. Rainbow Roll is 100% wool pencil roving – for non-spinners out there, that essentially means it’s unspun – in the usual wonderful Noro colours.

Here’s a close up so you can see how soft it is, which also explains why most of the shots in the gallery below had to be taken through the plastic.

It can be spun with, naturally, but it can also – carefully – be knitted, and there are examples on Ravelry of hats and shawls, together with some helpful information. Of course, not everyone is on Ravelry (worth joining, though, and free), so here’s the most important tip: go gently and don’t pull at the yarn.

It’s great for felting (the colours are sensational), and the first picture shows what it looks like when woven – the warp is another Noro yarn, Kureopatora, in the same colourway. Combining the two yarns (here’s another colourway),

gives blocks of colour, and the Kureopatora adds stability. Some knitters have suggested holding the Rainbow Roll with another yarn, too.

Anyway, whatever the use Rainbow Roll is put to, it’s fab. Here is a gallery of the colours which are available, not including the two in the main pictures; just click on an image for a slideshow. What else? Oh yes. Each disc is 100g in weight, and costs £12.95.

Fluffy yarns aren’t just for Christmas…

November 5, 2015Crochet, Knitting, New in!, Winter, YarnsChristmas, Crochet, Knitting, New yarns, Yarnsknitonedolgellau

… but they really help when you’re thinking about presents, especially when they’re chunky and knit up quickly!

Every year there are some ‘novelty’ yarns, and every year many of them sink without trace. But there are always some that have lasting value, and here are three which are going down well. Very snuggly.

First comes one that looks as though it’s been sprinkled with snowflakes, Sirdar’s Boufflé, a cotton, acrylic, wool and nylon mix:

It sells at £3.75 a ball, and there are 100 metres to each 50g ball.

Then there’s a new addition to the popular Flutterby line from James Brett, called ‘Animal Prints’. This red one is so strokeable – well, they all are, but this seems particularly appealing!

Flutterby is particularly popular with people who crochet, incidentally. It really looks great, and the texture is brilliant in whether you prefer to use sticks or hooks (OK, knit or crochet). It’s £3.99 a for a 90 metres, 100 gram ball.

And this last one is another from Sirdar, Touch, one of the best of the ‘fur’ yarns. It’s incrrrrrredibly soft:

It knits up on 10mm needles, so a simple cowl (one skein, and the pattern’s included) can be done in an evening. Perfect, and at £4 for a 100g and 67m skein, pretty much ideal!

There’s a bright pink example in the shop window, where it’s attracting a lot of interest…

New yarns for the UK, part two…

October 4, 2015Knitting, New in!, YarnsKnitting, New yarns, Patterns, Yarnsknitonedolgellau

And there’s more yumminess. There are two more delights from Juniper Moon, and one amazing yarn from Lotus Yarns. First, here are a couple of tempting delights from Juniper Moon’s Herriot range.

First up is their Herriot DK. This is possibly the softest yarn in the shop (possibly – testing may be needed) as it’s 100% baby alpaca. Each 100g skein has 200 metres of yarn and sells for £13.95.

We did have five colours but one sold out almost immediately – a deep jade / petrol blue. These, refreshingly after their Findlay range, have simple numbers: 1002, the maroon; 9, the natural; 1016, the almost-limey green; and 1019, the mid-blue.

Again, we’ve got some patterns specifically for them,

but they’ll knit well to anything appropriate.

The other Herriot yarn we have is the the 4 ply, Herriot Fine:

This is also in 100g skeins, each one 420 metres long, and is a mix of 75% alpaca and 25% polyamid (for strength). Again the colours are numbered. From the top: 2001 is the grey; 2004 is the soft brown; the soft denim blue is 2010; 2011 is the maroon and the lovely charcoal grey is 2006. The retail price is also £13.95.

And yes, again there are patterns. There’s also a Juniper Moon pattern book, which has some lovely designs in it.

Herriot Fine patterns

Juniper Moon book

The other new yarn in stock is from Lotus and it’s called Tibetan Cloud Fingering:

It’s a laceweight. As you can see, there’s a lavender (shade 14), a soft grey (02) and an olive green (13), and it’s – wait for it – 100% yak. Spinners may have encountered yak fibre and will know how very soft it is, but this is probably new to most knitters. Let’s have a close up:

Beautiful. Now for the details: the skeins are 50g, 450 metres long, and sell at £11.95.

And yes, there are also patterns for this:

The two waistcoats are particularly effective, and are proving popular. Perfect for what might be (hopefully) a mild winter…

New yarns for the UK – part one…

October 1, 2015Knitting, New in!, YarnsKnitting, New yarns, Patterns, Yarnsknitonedolgellau

After a really busy summer, It’s wonderful to be able to just concentrate on a couple of new finds. Juniper Moon are a small American company (you can find some information about them here) whose yarns are just becoming available in the UK. They are gorgeous. See what you think!

The first one is a beautiful variegated laceweight called Findley Dappled. It’s in fat 100g balls, with an amazing 750 metres on each ball – meaning that one ball has easily enough for a whole lace shawl. It’s 50% merino, 50% silk, it’s sooooo soft and it’s £16.95.

and these are the five colourways in Knit one… They are Aurora, Roast Turkey (!), and here you can see what Roast Turkey looks like as crochet:

(who comes up with these names?), Macaw, Sea and the rather more descriptive ‘yellow/green/pink’. Well, it’s a better name than Roast Turkey.

Here’s what Findley Dappled looks like when it’s knitted:

Beautiful!

The other yarn from their Findley range in stock with Knit one… is Findley DK. This is a 50:50 mix of extra fine merino and a mulberry silk blend; there’s a generous 199 metres to each ball and it retails at £6.95. It’s lovely to knit with, by the way – and one ball will make a pair of fingerless mitts like the ones below (pattern from Knit one…).

It’s available in Green (an olive shade), Garnet, Graphite and – wait for it – Rappahannock (otherwise known as a beautiful petrol blue). The light in the photograph doesn’t really do the colours justice – they are beautiful.

We do have some Juniper Moon patterns for this yarn:

but it’s a fine double knitting, and can easily be used in any appropriate pattern.

More soon!

Newly in!

July 18, 2015Katia, Kits, Knitting, Winter, YarnsKatia, Knitting, New yarns, Winter, Yarnsknitonedolgellau

Just a quickie post to introduce two new – well, things.

The first one isn’t just a thing, it’s clearly going to be a ‘Thing‘ with a capital letter, inverted commas and italics, given the number of people who seem to be producing – er – things along similar lines. It’s a kit – well, let’s have a picture, and then everything will become clearer:

These kits – cat kits – are from Katia (appropriately!), who generally have their finger right on the pulse of what’s about to happen. What you get is a ball of wool and some pre-made parts: the cat head, legs and tail. You then use the ball of wool to either knit a cute hat or scarf, or crochet a sweet backpack, and attach the parts in the right place according to what you’ve knitted (or crocheted). They are rather cute, and come in different colourways. They’re £13.50 and are perfect for any small girls in your life!

(And – incidentally – no sooner had some gone in the window, than one sold – to a doting grandma, to knit up into the scarf for Christmas. )

Also from Katia is this cowl kit:

It will be a really quick knit, and a very satisfying one. Katia do these self-striping yarns so very well (we – everyone who visits Knit One as well as those who work there, including Bramble – all love their sadly discontinued Tobego, which we sometimes manage to get, cough, cough), and this should be another winner.

And a satisfyingly swift one to complete, too – and again, bang on trend, as they say. Apparently BIG cowls – and big knits all round – are going to be in this winter. You heard it here – if not quite first, then early enough to get those needles out!

Linen and cotton and silk

March 11, 2015Crochet, Rowan Yarns, Summer Yarns, YarnsCrochet, New yarns, Rowan Yarns, Yarnsknitonedolgellau

Rowan 57 is at last in the shop. I have been tempted by one of the designs and seduced into learning how to crochet properly. There, you now know my secret. I cannot follow a grown-up crochet pattern yet. But am I going to let this stop me? NO! And why is this? Because I have been taken over by the luscious colours of the Pure Linen range Rowan offers.

This is the pattern that has tempted me away from my usual knitting activity, as you see I am working on my crochet using scrap yarn ‘cos I don’t want to muck up the delicious linen while I learn.

Now, where is my friend Eileen – mistress of the hooked needle? I am hoping she will correct my tendency to misread instructions. Surely she will, she adores lovely yarn. I will keep you posted on my progress.

New arrivals!

February 3, 2015Knitting, YarnsKnitting, New yarns, Yarnsknitonedolgellau

It’s been popular in the US for years, but Red Heart Yarn is coming to the UK, and specifically – surprise, surprise, to Knit One.

The orders were placed early in the New Year:

and the stock is just now in, unpacked and out in the shop (and some are displayed in the window). It’s already proving very popular – the bright colours of their Anne Geddes line of baby double-knitting wool have been an instant hit – and other yarns have now arrived, too.

Red Heart have a lot of free patterns available on their website, and their yarns are particularly effective for crochet. They’re economical without looking it or feeling it, which is a difficult trick to pull off… but they’ve managed it!