GB Socks Away KAL 17

Yes the GB Socks Away KAL is returning for a third year! The chatter has already started in the BritYarn Ravelry Group but don't worry as we don't cast on until Friday 22nd September 2017.  There is plenty of time to place that little BritYarn order or to have a stash or patten rummage. Also in the chatter thread are the rules but for those that have taken part previously they are the same as previous years. 

A selection of socky yarns available at BritYarn

There will be prizes for both FO's and for chatter.   If you have never knit socks before come and join us.  This KAL in previous years has been the starting point for lots of new sock knitters.  Also it is not just knitting socks..... crochet socks are of course always welcome.  

For pattern ideas you can browse the special sock section of the BritYarn website.

Look forward to chatting with you in the BritYarn Ravelry Group.

Blacker Cornish Tin 11th Birthday Blend

Many of you will remember this time last year we were all getting very excited about Blacker Yarns 10th Birthday and their very special limited edition 10th Birthday Blend.  It sold out so quickly, it wasn't long before both the shelves at BritYarn and Blacker were looking quite bare. 

Cornish Tin II in all its glory.

The wonderful people at Blacker have decided, as so many of you missed out last year, to create another unique limited edition blend to celebrate their 11th birthday - Cornish Tin II. 

BritYarn is delighted to be stocking this amazing yarn in both 4 ply and DK.  The yarn comes in 100g skeins (350m for 4 ply and 220m for DK).  This time there are seven rich dyed shades and one undyed natural grey all named after Cornish Tin Mines.  

The 11th Birthday Blend has been created by blending together Alpaca, Portland, Saxon Merino, Gotland, Jacob, Shetland, Black Welsh Mountain, Mohair, and English Merino.  All the sheep live in the UK and come from Blacker Yarns favourite small producers. 

I was very lucky to be sent a little sample to have a play with before the big boxes started arriving at BritYarn.   

To the squish the yarn feels very bouncy and has a silkiness to it but not a squishy soft silkiness (if that makes sense!).   As different fibres (and their natural shades) react differently to dye the seven dyed shades have lovely subtle variations and you can still see some of the amazing darker fibres.  The undyed Levant Grey is a stunning silver shade with lovely hints of lighter and darker fibres.

My little skein of Poldice Pink.

I wanted my swatch to test out as many things as I could. I picked out the Cascading Leaves pattern from 750 Knitting Stitches.  I decided to alter the background stitch for the bottom and top sections to stocking stitch rather than reverse stocking stitch.  Sadly I ran out of yarn so that last few rows and cast off was actually done in my leftover sample mini skein of Cornish Tin 10th Birthday Blend.

The yarn was a real pleasure to work with.  It flowed through my fingers really smoothly (the 10th Blend had more of a rustic and sticky feel to it).  While knitting the yarn felt substantial and strong and I am sure it would love being ripped out! 

The stitches in my unblocked swatch look wonderfully defined and sit nicely together making the yarn brilliant for colourwork projects. My unblocked swatch was noticeable softer then my precious blocked 10th Birthday Blend swatch. There was a slight halo to the swatch and it had a lovely drape.  I should add my yarn was DK and I used 4mm needles.

Unblocked

As we all know giving our projects a nice bath and a block does magical things.......

My blocked swatch

Now I loved the 10th Birthday Tin but I have to be very honest and say I love this even more!  The yarn has bloomed and my swatch just feels devine.  It has a substance to it that is really pleasing but a lovely softness to it (I don't mean buttery BFL soft but I can't think of the right word).  

Cornish Tin II would be amazing for pretty much everything.  It would be great for open work, colourwork and cables.  It would equally be just wonderful in relaxing garter or stocking stitch projects.  Accessories would be amazing such as hats, shawls, gloves.  It would also make a very special garment.  I am thinking jumpers and cardigans by Tin Can Knits especially.  The only thing I personally would not use it for is socks..... why you ask?  Because this yarn just needs to be shown off to the world and not hidden in shoes and boots! 

Cornish Tin II 11th Birthday Blend goes on sale Tuesday 20th September 2016.  Remember this yarn is limited edition and will only be made this once.

If you are thinking about using Cornish Tin II with perhaps Tamar or Classic 4 ply I highly recommend you check out the amazing blog by Erika Eccles.  

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British Wool Marketing Board - Part 3

Part 3 covers the tour of the Wool Grading Department at Bradford.  The same process happens across the BWMB eleven depots.

The sheets enter the depot, either from a sub depot or direct from a producer dropping off their packed sheets.  All the sheets are weighed as they enter the depot and are marked with the producers information.

Drop off area and Grading

The sheets are moved into position ready for the fleeces to be hand graded and sorted.  The fleeces are graded according to their type.  The grader takes around 5 - 6 seconds per fleece to access this is looking at among other things staple length, colour, breed and cleanliness.  That fleece is then placed in the appropriate blue tup (skep) depending on decision the grader makes.  The breed of the sheep is not always the main consideration when a grader sorts through the fleeces although breeds like Bluefaced Leicester are always sorted and kept together.

Grading

It is after this point that the fleeces are no longer farm specific (the weights and grades for each producer are recorded so that accurate payments can be made) but instead classified by their grade.  Every grade has a grade number which classifies it into one of the six categories (fine, medium, cross, lustre, hill and mountain) which are then broken down even further (hogs, ewes, breed, colour etc).  

Full Skeps (you can see the grade numbers above)

Once eight skeps of the same grade have been gathered they are then baled into large green bales using the machine below.  The machine compresses the fleeces and wraps them in plastic. 

Green bales

The green baler machine

The green bales are then placed in the warehouse area.  Once there are roughly 24 bales (around 8000kg) this can then go to auction as one lot.  Before the sale a core sample from each bale is taken which is scientifically analysed to provide additional information for potential buyers.  

Other things to note relating to grading and auctioning the wool

• A producer has the option to drop off their sheets at a depot or one of the 14 sub depots.  If they choose not to do this then they are changed a fee depending on where the fleeces are collected from.
• Here is a link to the different grades of fleece (scroll to the bottom of the page).
• There are eighteen auctions a year.  They are all held at Bradford.

If you have any questions let me know! The next few blog posts will all be focused on answering the questions we had over in the BritYarn Ravelry group.

British Wool Marketing Board - Part 2

In Part 1 I talked about a very informative presentation by Gareth Jones BWMB Producer Communications Manager.  In this second post about my visit to the British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) I thought I would share some of the things I learnt during his talk.

I mentioned a few stats last time but another interesting and thought provoking one was in 2014 only 1.3% of the fibre produced globally was made from wool.  62.9% was synthetic, 29.1% was cotton with cellulosic, silk, flax and other animal fibres making up the other areas.  

When the board was established in 1950 there was 130,000 sheep farmers (producers) registered with the board.  The board was created to encourage farmers to keep sheep for wool after World War Two.  There was a price guarantee set by the government which dictated the price the farmers would receive for their fleeces.  

Sheets

Currently there are approximately 45,000 sheep farmers registered with the board.  The demand for cheaper man made fibres certainly is a massive contributing factor to the decline in numbers of sheep farmers and the demand for wool globally has dropped in the last 15 years.  However, some of this decline in producers can be attributed to them not being registered with the board and instead using their fleeces for their own business ventures.   

An area which surprised me was just how much the BWMB try and help registered producers regardless of size of flock (58% producers produce less than 500kg fleece) or their location in the country.  

One thing we all need to remember is that sheep must be sheared for welfare reasons, and so those costs are part and parcel of keeping sheep.   The board provide an end to end service from providing the sheets (see part 1), collection of the fleeces from a farm (or a farmer can drop them off at a local depot), grading and auction.  

In theory 'all' the farmer has do once a sheep has been clipped is to ensure their fleeces are packed into the sheets ready for collection.  These sheets are huge and must be packed according to BWMB instructions.   Having seen them being manually moved on a recent BBC programme 'This Farming Life' and read how unpopular they are on social media I can understand why producers might not be happy.  Not just with the physicality of using them them but also in the time taken after a sheep has been sheared to correctly pack the fleece into the sheet.  However, I can now appreciate and better understand why the BWMB insist on them having seen the process in action (more in Part 3). 

The BWMB aims to achieve the best possible market price for British wool for the producers (don't forget the board is made up of farmers) and to make buying British wool as attractive prospect as possible to merchants.  It does this by assisting merchants with things like haulage services and storage.  

Also each and every green bale in an auction lot is scientifically tested to provide additional information to a buyer such yield, vegetable matter, micron count and colour.  This not only ensures quality control but also provides much needed information so a buyer can make an informed choice on auction day.   The services the BWMB provide make then unique.

A lorry being loaded with sold lots

Like I mentioned in part 1 British wool is such a tiny percentage of the global market. The BWMB are trying to go one step further and get British wool noticed on a global market by working together with producers.  For that they certainly get my respect and thanks.

Part three will all be about the grading side.

A Visit to the British Wool Marketing Board - Part 1

An introduction to the day.
A few weeks ago I was invited to go on a Wool Processing Tour at the British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) depot and Head Office at Bradford.  It was an opportunity I jumped at due to having mixed feelings about the board.  There were many things I wanted to get a better understanding of and answers to.  Over in our BritYarn Ravelry group we also had lots a great discussion in the run up to me going.  Many of your questions and thoughts reflected mine.  

Before I went I grouped these thoughts and questions together into themes.  I will take each one in turn in separate blogs posts over the next few weeks.  A big thank you to each and everyone of you for your input.  

This post is a summary of the day at the BWMB.   I am not sure how many parts there will be as there was a lot to take in and I want to be able to share with you as much as possible.

The day was roughly split into two. The first part around the BWMB and the work that they do.  The second, after lunch, was a visit to Haworth Scouring (owned by Curtis Wool Direct).

On the tour were people from lots of different backgrounds.  There were yarny people like myself, a journalist from BBC Radio York, two farmers and the carpet industry was also represented.  I thought this was really good as it gave different points of view and knowledge. 

After introductions around the table, Gareth Jones BWMB Producer Communications Manager gave a presentation on the work of the board including its history, lots of statistical information about the global wool market and the work the BWMB undertakes today.  Again a lot of information was talked about here which warrants a blog post of its own.  

Some thought provoking stats like British wool (by this they mean greasy wool straight from the sheep) only accounts for 2% of wool produced on the global market and globally 2.1 million tons of greasy wool is produced per annum got me thinking. Globally British wool is a very small player in the wool industry and while our sheep breeds are very special, merchants could easily survive without us.  For me, this makes it even more vital that we all do everything we can to buy British and support the British wool industry.

Gareth also explained that the BWMB is a farmers cooperative and receives no financial support from the government.  It is fully funded by the producers (the farmers whose fleece they process and sell).  The BWMB takes 1p ker kilo off the farmer to provide an end to end service (collection to selling at auction).

At the end of Gareth's presentation he explained how merchants buy wool at auction.  We then went into a live auction which was like no auction I have ever seen,  the auctions are all digital.  All bids are placed by just click of the mouse button.  It is all really, really fast!  While we were not allowed to take any photos inside the auction room for privacy reasons this little video clip shows the screen the merchants see at their desks in the auction room.  

Grading and sorting

After this we were taken to where the fleeces are graded, sorted, packed and stored.   Again this warrants a more in-depth blog post on this.

The set up at Bradford is mirrored across the 11 national depots although the Bradford depot is the largest.   Every single fleece in the country that comes into a depot is hand graded.  This was something I didn't appreciate before my visit.  The grading and sorting is undertaken by a skilled Wool Grader who has undertaken a 5 year apprenticeship.  It takes a grader around 5 - 6 seconds to grade each fleece.  

We were shown where the fleeces enter the BWMB from either sub depots or farmer drop offs.  The fleeces are packed in sheets (big white bags similar to what you might use to store things under your bed but a lot bigger).  A sheet is emptied out to a table, graded and then sorted into the blue containers (skeps) you can see in the photo.  It is after this point that they are no longer farm specific but grade (and sometimes breed specific).  Once sufficient skeps of the same grade (8) have been gathered they are then compressed into green bales.  Everything here is uniformed by size to maximise storage in the warehouses.  The green bales are auctioned in roughly 8000 - 9000kg lots! Like I said getting your head around the sheer volumes was really hard.

The BWMB part of the day was rounded off by a talk from Tim Booth BWMB Marketing Manager.  It is at this point I had to keep reminding myself that the carpet industry dominate the British Wool industry (55% of British wool goes into the making of carpets).  So a lot of the marketing around British wool is influenced by this.   

I hope that this first post has helped share some of what I saw and learnt during my tour.  Look out for more posts about my day over the coming weeks.

   

Save the Date 30th April - A BritYarn Trunk Show

The fantastic Countess Ablaze is opening her Manchester dye studio doors for Yarn Shop Day and has invited BritYarn to join her in the studio with a Trunk Show.

I will bring along a big selection of yarny goodness including the new Blacker Yarns Tamar and WYS Signature 4ply.  There will be hand dyed yarns from The Knitting Goddess as well a range of undyed yarns breed specific yarns for you to squish, plus pattern books, stitch markers and Ethel canvas bags.  

The Countess will be dyeing up lots of her British breed yarns (The Countess always advises where her yarns have been grown and spun).  It will be an amazing British wool extravaganza! 

BritYarn and The Countess

There will be tea, coffee and cake throughout the day and lots of chatter about all things yarn related. The doors will open from 10am until 5pm.  

The studio is really easy to get to from Manchester.  The address is 101 Chorley Road, Swinton, Manchester, M27 4AA. For further information on how to get there take a look at the Visiting the Countess Ablaze Dye Studio.

I really do hope you can make it on the 30th April.  I have started a thread in the BritYarn Ravelry group and the Countess has created an event in Ravelry.

Images used with kind permission from Countess Ablaze.

A new hand dyed yarn from The Knitting Goddess

Long time readers will know I am a big fan of The Knitting Goddess (run by Joy and Bobbie from their studio in Harrogate).   Not only do they dye amazing colours but they all also passionate about British wool.  So imagine my excitement when an email popped into my inbox about their new yarn launching at Edinburgh Yarn Festival!  Then quadruple that excitement as they wanted BritYarn to help launch it!  

The yarn will make its debut on Friday 18th March at The Knitting Goddess stall at Edinburgh AND in BritYarn's shop! 

Silver

Now let me tell you about this amazing yarn.  It is 4ply and a blend of 85% Wensleydale and 15% Shetland (both British grown of course).  Each 100g skein is approximately 400m long and will cost £18.50.  The yarn has been spun (in Cornwall) to a high twist making it a great option for socks without nylon.  

I had a massive amount of fun swatching with this new yarn, it has lots of character and I just wanted to keep on knitting.  The high twist not only gives the yarn additional strength but also allows the stitches to stand out beautifully against the slight halo of the Wensleydale. 

Navy

It is not the softest of yarns to squish (it has a good sturdiness to it which I love).  I happily wore my blocked swatch next to my skin.  I had to smile when Joy told me she gets Bobbie to 'itch test' new yarns.  I do the same with Mr BritYarn!  Mr BritYarn is pretty sensitive to things which might itch / tickle.  I am pleased to report he wore the swatch for several hours and I had to remind if I could have it back..... a big thumbs up.  

The Knitting Goddess Wensleydale Shetland yarn is perfect for so many different projects.... not just socks and shawls but I am also thinking lightweight but warm garments ready for Spring! 

My blocked swatch

My unblocked swatch

Orders will be posted as usual while I am away at Edinburgh, thanks to Mr BritYarn.  So if you order early enough on Friday you could be casting on with this new yarn on Saturday! 

Images of the yarn used with kind permission from The Knitting Goddess.

A chat with Sue Blacker from Blacker Yarns

Could you introduce yourself to BritYarn’s readers?  (Who you are, what you do, little bit about your background)

I’m Sue Blacker, Managing Director of The Natural Fibre Company and Blacker Yarns.  The two businesses are partners so that we both spin for many crafters, farmers, smallholders and commercial customers as well as designing and making knitting and crochet yarns for the Blacker Yarns brand.

I was born and grew up in Cornwall, UK, and then after university worked for many years in London, mainly in the City as an investment analyst.  Eventually the call of Cornwall grew too strong and I came home and worked on community and economic development projects for partnerships and charities.  While doing this we also got some sheep to keep the grass down around our holiday cottages and so I got into wool production.

I sent the wool for processing to Myra at The Natural Fibre Company, then in Wales, and eventually when she wanted to retire, I managed to buy the company and relocate it to Cornwall, where we have been busy ever since …

How and when did Blacker Yarns come about?

In Wales, Myra had a business called Naturals, which made yarns and textiles from her own and bought-in wool.  So there was a pattern for doing this.

After we had fully established our spinning operation for The Natural Fibre Company, we looked again at the idea of making yarns for sale, carefully distinguished from those of NFC customers, who sell single farm yarns.  For the quantities we knew we need to buy from several farms and we also recognised that we could support the British breeds this way, and regional wool, without cutting across the single farm producers.  Also some of our best producers were either growing more wool than they themselves needed, did not want to set up a yarn or craft business, while some continued with the animals but retired from their yarn sales business, so there was a ready supply of really high quality wool.

So we set up Blacker Yarns, initially focusing on individual breed yarns, which is still our key emphasis.  We specialise in ensuring that the yarn is the “right” one for the style of fibre, as working with single breeds means we need to be very specific to maintain the quality and best performance of the fibre through into the corresponding yarn.

As we have grown we have developed a series of blended ranges, Classic, Swan, Lyonesse, Tweed, our Birthday Tin and the new Tamar, as well as maintaining a selection of limited edition rare and regional breed yarns, and also patterns to support the style of each yarn and blend.

What does your ‘typical’ day look like?

There’s really no such thing!  When I’m at home, the day always includes one or more visits to my Gotland flock of sheep, depending on the time of year.  Then some days we are away at shows or visiting customers, some days I work from home when writing or designing or planning and the other 25 days a week are spent at our mill!

Here the work can be anything from answering the phone, responding to enquiries, loads of email (of course), proof reading copy of our newsletters, planning new yarns and products, training and supporting staff, working with our Production Manager on scheduling, buying in fleeces, paying the bills, making the coffee … we are a small team of only 15 so we all do multi-tasking!

What are your favourite woolly / fibre crafts?

I do like knitting best – less keen on crochet, though it’s very useful structurally and very portable!  I also love sewing, embroidery and tapestry. I’m less keen on making felt though I love working with it.  I also enjoy, but am very bad at, hand spinning!

If you were only allowed to knit with one British grown base what would it be and why? (a blend or 100% pure)  

If I were limited like this I might have to give up knitting all together!  Part of the joy is the enormous variety of styles of yarn which are possible with British breeds.  Generally I think a woollen spun  Gotland is pretty useful though, for most things … which is why I also love our Classic and Tweed … and then …

The stunning Tamar has recently launched….. could you tell us a bit more about the base and how you decided what breeds of sheep to use?

We felt that there was a gap in our range, and the market, for a lustre yarn which was not too “shiny” or mohair-like but which would take dye as stunningly as Gotland and Mohair.  We wanted a leaner yarn with drape, to complement our bulkier and lofty yarns, while of course seeking the softness we know people love.

We also knew that any serious volume of yarn would require quite a lot of lustre fibre, and generally the lustre long-wool sheep are amongst the smallest of flocks and breed populations so we decided to create a blend of several lustre breeds.  

This meant that we could help promote rare breeds and encourage their survival and possibly even growth in numbers, while not having to rely on a tiny supply from just one breed.  Teeswater and Wensleydale in particular are relatively few, while there are more Cotswold but even so they are not numerous.  Adding the Leicester Longwool also gave us the opportunity to include naturally coloured fibre, which is one of our major trademark attributes, giving our yarns a softness and depth of colour whether natural or dyed, which is very attractive and natural in appearance.

So in the end it was a bit of a mixture, based on what was available and at the right quality.  We then needed something with a bit of bulk to reduce the slight tendency to hairiness from a pure long-wool yarn and also hold the yarn together better and give it some body, so we added Cornish-sourced Mule wool, which is around half Blue-faced Leicester and half local sheep, blended at the breeding stage, rather than in the wool! 

Tamar comes in fifteen dyed shades and two natural shades…… what was your inspiration behind them?

Seeking a locally inspired name for a flowing, draping yarn, it seemed our local Tamar river, which is a lovely word anyway, was the right choice for the range name.  The Tamar is also the largest local river, so when deriving the colours, it seemed fairly obvious to go for complementary rivers or even tributaries of the Tamar!  And some of them also have great local names …

Then it was a question of seeking the names to fit the colour palette.  We wanted to make the shades all able to mix and match either complementing or contrasting with each other, as with our other ranges.  We started with the idea of having two bases, one slightly darker and one more silvery, and then aimed for a dip-dye range of greys, purples, pinks, greens and blues, plus a stand-out gold.  This was based on our experience of what our customers like in our other ranges, the current popular colour trends and of course a few local likes and dislikes amongst the team!

We shall aim to refresh the range in the future, so will be keen to hear suggestions?

It’s tea break time…. What is your favourite biscuit?

I’m slightly lucky in that I don’t like many biscuits, or my waistline would be even more disastrous.  I have a weakness for oat and raisin cookies and for the Bahlsen or Co-op chocolate-covered biscuits, which disappear all too quickly when I’m around!

Are there any future Blacker Yarns plans / projects you can share with BritYarn’s readers?

At present we have just updated our Classic colour palette and have plans for refreshing the Swan shade palette, adding some more colours to Lyonesse and possibly Tweed, updating our worsted spun Jacob yarn and adding a few shades to our main Shetland. Gotland and Blue-faced Leicester breed yarns.  We have several new rare breed limited edition yarns in the pipe-line too.

In addition …. Well, we did enjoy our 10^th birthday so we think it will be good to have an 11^th birthday this year, and then there might be another new range to come early next year.  Plus we have some very interesting plans to work with more partners, along the lines we started with Blacker Swan: so watch this space!!

Many thanks Sue for taking the time out of your busy day to answer out questions.

All images featured in this blog post are used with kind permission from Blacker Yarns.

West Yorkshire Spinners Jacob Yarn of the Month November 2015

As November is the month of Wovember, a celebration of all things 100% wool our Yarn of the Month is West Yorkshire Spinners Jacob.

Despite Jacob sheep moving off the Rare Breeds Survival Trust watch list, it is still a yarn that you don't hear many people talking about.  Which is why I am delighted to invite three friends of BritYarn to share their thoughts and experience of knitting with this yarn along with my own.

West Yorkshire Spinners Jacob Aran

West Yorkshire Spinners Jacob is a pure breed yarn.  It is worsted spun and available in DK and Aran weights.   This yarn is quite lofty so looks thicker than other yarns of the same weight.  Both the DK and Aran are available in four undyed shades ranging from Ecru, to a deep rich brown.  As the natural shades get darker you can see more of a heathered effect.  

In the skein the yarn feels soft to the touch and to knit with it feels really pleasing and substantial.  I could wear it next to my skin but I know some people might need a layer underneath.  It is slightly loosely spun so I did have a few problems with cabling without a cable needle (it was also my first time which perhaps didn't help!) as I could not aways see my loose stitches clearly.  

I recently knitted Woolly Wormed's Lexie hat in Jacob Aran weight. The Lexie hat was the perfect project for seeing how the yarn behaved due to the different sections of the design.  
In the skein you can see some longer fibres which gave my finished Lexie hat a slight halo.  
The textured moss stitch and cable areas have amazing definition and if I turn the hat inside out the stocking stitch has me itching to cast on a winter jumper with this yarn!  It is also a very warm yarn and I know this hat will be used a lot this winter. 

I will now hand you over to three friends of BritYarn who have very kindly shared their thoughts on the West Yorkshire Spinners Jacob DK.  By coincidence they have all made cardigans!  

Neuroticbunnylady on Ravelry was the first person to buy Jacob yarn from BritYarn.  I followed with great excitement the progress of her Owls cardigan.

"I found Jacob DK a real pleasure to knit with, it is a little rustic feeling, but is also fairly soft. I found it knitted up into a lovely fabric, plus was extremely glad that if I dropped a stitch, it was extremely easy to pick that stitch up again, which has made me think I should try colourwork and maybe steeking with this yarn. The Jacob DK has amazing stitch definition, I am amazed at how well the lace pattern on the back of my cardigan shows up. 
As far as the finished cardigan goes, I find this yarn makes a very warm and snuggly garment, it is lovely to wear. I would have to say its become one of my favourite knits, and I would put a lot of that down to how the Jacob DK has knitted up into a really nice looking and feeling fabric."

Doksi used the yarn to knit her Scollay Along KAL cardigan.....

"The West Yorkshire Spinners Jacob DK is not the softest yarn you could image. So if you are very sensitive I wouldn't recommend this yarn.

But if you like a little course and woolly feeling in a yarn this will give you fine texture and durable clothes. I have no problems to wear it next to skin. And after I got my cardigan ready, I have worn it almost every day - no pills at all.

I found it much thicker than what I would call DK".

Last but no means least is MmedeBeavoir, who is on the final stretch of knitting a Portage cardigan.

"The Portage pattern had been calling to me for ages; but, as with all such projects, which yarn to use? I dithered and pondered and swatched with what I had in my (admittedly considerable) stash, but didn’t find the perfect yarn. I wanted something warm and soft and squishy, but I also had it in my head that I wanted to knit a natural, undyed British wool that was traceable and sustainably produced. 

There’s so much to love about Jacobs wool. It’s sturdy without being coarse, soft without being slippery, and it knits up beautifully: the stitch definition is gorgeous and the honeycomb stitch that makes up the back panel of the Portage cardigan is gloriously squishy. The result is both understated and striking. Looking closely at the knit, you notice the natural heathered look to the wool, the beautiful twist in the yarn… Plus it smells slightly sheepy, which is how wool should smell! For sweaters and cardigans, it’s the perfect choice."

I hope you have found this post interesting.  If you fancy learning more about breed specific yarns Louise at KnitBritish is currently holding a Breed Swatch Along in her Ravelry Group.

Happy 10th Birthday Blacker Yarns

Blacker Yarns is 10 years old on Friday 18th September, so it is only fitting that September's Yarn of the Month should be their new celebratory birthday yarn, Cornish Tin.  Not only that, read on for details of a giveaway!

Cornish Tin, launched on the 18th September will be a limited edition yarn celebrating all things Blacker Yarns and British wool.  It will be available in 100g skeins in both 4 ply and DK weights.  Cornish Tin will only yarn be made once so when it has gone there will (sadly) be no more. 

Cornish Tin
Photo used with kind permission from Blacker Yarns

The yarn is woollen spun and is a blend of ten of the highest quality fibres Blacker Yarns knows and loves.  These are Alpaca, Mohair, Gotland, Jacob, Shetland, Black Welsh Mountain, Texel, English Merino, Falklands Merino and Gotland / Romney Cross.

Cornish Tin comes in one natural shade (a gorgeous silver) and four stunning toning, dyed shades all named after Cornish minerals.  I was very honoured to be one of the first people to see this yarn outside of Blacker Yarns and yes I fell in love with it at first sight.   It was not long before I cast on my first swatch! 

Unblocked stocking stitch swatch

Textured unblocked swatch

The yarn was nice and smooth to knit with and feels nice and springy in the skein.  I particularly liked the darker fibres still being visible.

The two swatches were knit in DK in the Dolcoath Turquoise shade.  They were a pleasure to knit and I was busy planning projects in my head as I was knitting them! The stocking stitch swatch has produced a really even square with great definition and it has some drape.  I really love how the textured swatch has turned out.  Not only does the pattern really stand out it feels really bouncy.

I didn't notice a massive difference after blocking. There is a slight halo on both swatches and both have formed a really nice looking and feeling knitted fabric.  The swatches have a medium softness to them.  I think if you are a sensitive to woolly yarns then this might not be suitable for next to the skin wearing.  However, worn with layers it will make a brilliant winter garment or accessory.

After blocking

Negatives? I wish, as it is coming up to winter, that there was an Aran weight version and that this yarn would be around forever!   

To celebrate Blacker Yarns 10th Birthday, BritYarn will have a little giveaway during September.  From the 1st September to midnight on 30th September (GMT) any order which contains two or more balls of any Blacker Yarns wool (not including Cornish Tin) will be automatically popped into a prize draw. The winner will be selected at random and will receive 1 skein of Cornish Tin 4 ply and a BritYarn canvas shopping bag.  I will announce the winning order number here on the blog and over in our Ravelry Group.

Image used with kind permission from Blacker Yarns

Cornish Tin will be available to buy from Friday 18th September.