Monday 27 April 2015

Hello and Welcome to BritYarn

A very big, warm and British woolly welcome to BritYarn's first blog post.  BritYarn's online shop will be launching soon (details will be announced in the next few weeks), but first I wanted to formally introduce myself and BritYarn to you all. 

My name is Isla and I live in North Lincolnshire.  I am an avid knitter (and have some basic crochet skills). I will knit anything as long as I love the pattern and the wool (life is to short to knit things you don't like in my opinion).  I like to have several projects on the go including a garment of some description and socks.  

I started to take an interest in finding out where the wool I was buying came from in 2013 as my knowledge of knitting and wool increased. This led me to discovering Ravelry, blogs and podcasts including Knit British by Louise Scollay.  The rest as they say is history!  

BritYarn will be an online shop and will focus on celebrating and sharing my love of British wool.  Following this theme, BritYarn will only stock wool that has only been grown in Great Britain (including the Falkland Islands).  BritYarn will also highlight the journey the wool had made before it ends up on your needles, hooks or looms.  There will be blog posts, tweets and Instagram posts about the wool, the sheep and the people involved in the different processes to share our love of British wool. 

BritYarn will also bring you stunning patterns and books from British based designers, stitch markers and project bags.  All supporting British based businesses.  BritYarn's 'Woolly Principles' underline everything that BritYarn does.

So, to bring you up to date, over the last two months lots of extremely large boxes have been arriving. I have been taking advantage of dry, bright days to take photos for the website. On dull days I have been busy at the laptop writing things up and getting everything ready. There are still a few more pretties to arrive but as I type I am surrounded by an amazing and diverse range of British wool!  It makes me smile just looking at it and I cannot wait to share them with you.  

Here is little sneak peek of what is on the shelves.  Apologies for the wobbly video..... 




You might recognise a few things but expect to see rare British sheep breeds, interesting blends and a selection of yarn in the ever popular Bluefaced Leicester.  There is also some very special British wool in an exclusive range of colourways!  Did you spot one of them?

Well I think that is me done for now.  You can subscribe to the blog through the email sign up option or via Bloglovin. You can also follow BritYarn on Twitter and Instagram to keep up to date with the latest news and to share your British woolly projects.  Links can be found on the right hand side. I would love to chat with you and to hear what you are making with your British wool.  

Lets celebrate and share our love of British wool together!
The best of woolly wishes to you all
Isla

18 comments:

  1. It all sounds very exciting. Will be watching with interest and wishing you all the best.

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  2. It all sounds very exciting. Will be watching with interest and wishing you all the best.

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  3. Ooh, this looks great. I'm a big fan of KnitBritish and knitting with as much local yarn as possible. There are so many great spinners/dyers/designers in the UK, I too want to celebrate them all with my knitting. Best of luck with this venture and I'll be looking forward to seeing what you stock.

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    1. Hello and thank you for your lovely comment. You are so right, we have some amazing creative people in the UK. Lets celebrate!

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  4. I'm visiting my family in the uk in W. Sussex. Any recommendations for wool from that area. Look forward to seeing what you have but postage might be prohibitive to the US and I'd like to get some while I'm there.

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    1. Hi Thanks for your comment. I will be posting to the US and have tried to make the postage as reasonable as possible by setting weight ratio's along the lines of Royal Mail but it will of course cost more than UK delivery. I am not overly familiar with W sussex. I know there are a number of yarn shops including a new one in E Sussex (Brighton) but I don't know what British wool they stock. The Southdown breed of sheep originated from E Sussex so not too far from where you are. They are a dual purpose breed of sheep (meat and wool). If you are on Twitter you can follow @Wolfhangersheep who have a flock of Southdown sheep. Their website is www.wolfhanger.co.uk.

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    2. Thank you! I am on Twitter as Silver_Horde and on Ravelry as Epiphany4sb!

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  5. Looking forward to shopping with you.

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    1. Thank you Pat. That is very kind of you.

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    1. Thanks Annie. The excitement is certainly building!

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  7. Wishing you the best of British, Isla!! xx

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    1. :-) thank you Alison! You comment made me smile x

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  8. Isla, good luck with this venture, I'm definately going to add you to my list of shops of choice

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    1. Hi Claire! That's really good of you. I can't wait to open.....

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  9. I am looking forward to all the wool- living in East Yorks not too far from Lincolnshire!

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    1. Hi Heather. Thank you for your comment very pleased to hear your looking forward to our launch but don't forget we are an online shop I am afraid!

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