Celebrating the Season with Craft Beauty

Winter is a season that means so many different things to us. It’s a time of festivity, bright sparkly lights, and time with loved ones, and also a time of cosy evenings, early sunsets, and retreat. All these elements combine to make it a magical season for creativity, and we always spend winter falling even more deeply in love with craft!

December is a month infused with folk tradition, with so many cultures marking the darkest time of the year and looking forward to the return of the light. So it’s the perfect month to welcome Folkish, a collection of contemporary folk art celebrating ancient traditions. The gorgeous full-colour illustrations in this volume are so evocative of ancestral craft as well as contemporary and future traditions, inviting reflection on how craft has shaped who we are as humans, and how it will continue to do so!

Restocked Kits

We always love how fabulous the festive season is, but it can also get a little hectic sometimes. Wherever we can, we’re looking for ease. And what’s easier than a kit that gets you totally set up to unwind with a knit? We’ve restocked so many of our favourite kits, so all you need to do is unbox and cast on! Tiny Tassels (Qing and La Bien Aimée yarns) are a perennial favourite for a reason. The pattern is very simple to get a hang of and the restult is stunning! We also have more floral Florence Shawl Kits by Florence Spurling in John Arbon Textiles Yarnadelic. Anemone Scarf Kits, Pop Spots Shawl Kits, Soundwave Static Cowl Kits, so many knits we love! If it’s mittens you’re after, Pinwheel Mitt Kits and Late Bloomer Mitt Kits are stocked up as well. Check out our full Kit collection! (Psst — we’ll have more Uneek Sock and Uneek Sock Mini kits soon as well!)

A Few of Our Favourite Things

So much of what we love about craft is in the detail and the care given to our materials, and we’re so lucky to be surrounded by beautiful things made by people who care deeply about what they make and how they make it. Mette Mehlsen’s exquisite Natural Dyed Yarn is the result of Mette’s own foraging in Jutland, Denmark, where she lives, with gorgeous subtlety of colour. This wool is wonderful to knit or crochet with, and it can also be used for embroidery. We always admire the work of Minä Perhonen, and we love their ethos of wasting nothing. Their totally unique buttons are made from the leftovers of larger projects, meaning their quality is just stunning and they feature serendipitous little motifs from the larger cloth. These seriously elevate any project. We also adore Sajou Caudry Cocoon Lace Threads in brilliant colours, with a subtle shimmer. We’ve long loved having boxed collections of these incredible threads in both both pastel and bright tones, and we’re so thrilled to be able to offer some of these colours à la carte as well!

ChiaoGoo 3-Inch Tips

We’ve been loving new 3-Inch Interchangeable Tips from ChiaoGoo, which are brilliant for knitting smaller circumferences in the round. These are part of the wider ChiaoGoo TWIST Interchangeable collection, widely considered to be among the finest knitting tools around. If you love making socks and mittens or keep getting stuck on sleeve island because you can’t find the right needle, you need these in your set!

Knitting SOS

Are your holiday knits going a bit wrong? Fear not! This Sunday we’ll host a special extended Knitting SOS session in the shop from 10:30am to 1:30pm. This is your chance to have the Loopettes help you work through any issues you’re having with your knits (whether they’re going to be wrapped up under the tree or keep your hands busy over the holidays). There’s no need to book, but give us a heads up if you require help with a specialised stitch like baltic braid or brioche.

Don’t forget, Loop Gift Cards also make a brilliant gift for anyone who loves craft and textiles, and our Email Vouchers can be delivered almost instantaneously! Both types are available in increments between £10 and £500, or you can email us before we close for Christmas if you’d like to give an amount not listed on the website. It’s the perfect last-minute option!

Christmas Hours and Last Shipping & Collection Dates

We’re half way through the advent calendar, and gift-giving days are nearly here! Our international shipping deadlines for Christmas delivery have now passed, but there is still time to order for UK delivery. Royal Mail’s official last posting day is the 19th of December, but orders placed after 12pm on Friday the 19th are not guaranteed to ship the same day and might not make the last postal pickup. To be safe, please place your order by Thursday the 18th of December for delivery by Christmas with Royal Mail Tracked 48.

For those who can make it to London, we’re pleased to say we’ll have extended hours during the week before Christmas! From the 17th to the 20th of December (Wednesday through Saturday) we’ll extend our opening times from 10:30am to 6pm. Sunday the 21st of December will be our last open day before Christmas, and therefore the last day to pick up any click and collect parcels. We’ll observe normal opening hours of noon to 5pm on the 21st.

We’ll close for Christmas from the 22nd to the 27th of December and for New Year from the 29th of December until the 2nd of January — however, we’ll be open as usual on the weekend of the 27th and 28th of December. Our normal schedule will resume from Saturday the 3rd of January.

Make merrily!