Inspiration Galore! Celia Pym and Much More

We have some true beauties in the shop this week! Old favourites and new treasures are coming together to get us excited for our next projects — plus, our very special visit from Celia Pym this weekend promises to be hugely inspiring.

Celia Pym and Mending at Loop

Visit us this weekend to hear all about Celia Pym’s new book and try your own hand at darning!

We’re so excited to welcome Celia Pym to the shop tomorrow from 4:30 to 6:30 pm to celebrate her new book SOCKS: Imaginative Mending and host a free Sock Mending Salon! This book is so so beautiful and really quite moving. Every copy of SOCKS in the shop has been signed by Celia, and tomorrow is your chance to hear from her personally about how she taught an entire primary school how to mend socks and what she learned in the process. Once you’re full of mending joy, you can put that inspiration straight into practice on our middle floor, where we’ll have a range of darning materials and instructions for you to use.

Spindrift at Loop London — Left: Jamieson’s Spindrift is one of Celia Pym’s go-to yarns for mending. Centre: Hikaru Noguchi’s Darning Jellyfish are unique tools that are perfect for the job. Right: Sajou’s Laine Saint Pierre threads are some of the best in the biz!

Left: Jamieson’s Spindrift is one of Celia Pym’s go-to yarns for mending. Centre: Hikaru Noguchi’s Darning Jellyfish are unique tools that are perfect for the job. Right: Sajou’s Laine Saint Pierre threads are some of the best in the biz!

With Celia on her way, we’re thinking about some of our very favourite darning tools and materials. We love how beautifully Celia uses her yarns when darning. Some of her favourites to work with are Jamieson’s Spindrift, Lang Jawoll and Ito Sensai. In addition to Celia’s brilliant books, we love Hikaru Noguchi’s books on mending — Creative Mending, Darning: Repair Make Mend, and Beyond Darning — all of which have totally gorgeous ideas for how to fix your favourite garments. Hikaru’s handmade Disc, Jellyfish, and Mushroom for darning are some of the most exquisite tools as well. They’re so carefully considered and exquisitely crafted! We also love Sajou’s Wooden Darning Egg and Laine Saint Pierre Embroidery & Darning Threads.

Take a page out of Hikaru Noguchi’s book and take your stitches beyond darning! (left) and Sajou’s lovely darning egg (right)

All of these trusty items are available to order online or to pick up in the shop when you visit us for our Sock Mending Salon with Celia on Saturday 31 January from 4:30 to 6:30. See you there!

Boulettes Scarflette Kits

The Autumn Hues Boulettes Scarflette and kit yarn for Autumn Hues (left and second left), and the Happy Pop Boulettes Scarflette and kit yarn (right and second right).

One of our favourite kits of 2025 is back in stock! We have more Boulettes Scarflette Kits in the colourways “Autumn Hues” and “Happy Pop”. Laines Vilaines Boulettes Solitaires Fing is a dream to work with, and these colourful granny squares are the perfect moreish project to see off the dark winter evenings. This pattern allows for so much creativity, from how you mix and match your colours to how you arrange your squares (the original has 74 granny squares arranged in two columns, but you could also arrange them over three columns or make two shorter scarves!) Each kit comes with a full skein of the main colour plus six boulettes to use in different combinations for each of the squares. The kit also includes a printed pattern and a Loop cotton project bag. Just add a crochet hook and tapestry needle!

The Dictionary of Colour Combinations

Sanzo Wada’s Dictionary of Colour Combinations looks at the subtle art of colour harmonies

Sanzo Wada (和田三造) was an influential artist, teacher, and costume and kimono designer of the early 20th century in Japan, and he published extensively on colour harmonies. His influential work on colour continues to be treasured today by designers, creatives, and students of colour theory who are interested in Japanese aesthetics. We’re so excited to welcome a condensed collection of his original Dictionary of Colour Combinations. The ideas in this book about colours and how to combine them are endlessly useful to crafters. Whether you’re planning a striped sock or selecting colours for a Fair Isle sweater, Sanzo Wada’s ideas about how to bring hues together and play them off one another are sure to be a huge source of inspiration. We’re also expecting a delivery of a Second Volume of the Dictionary of Colour Combinations exploring seasonal palettes and combinations from 20th-century design. Click “notify me when available” to find out as soon as it’s in stock!

Embroidering Natural History Motifs with Atsumi

Stitch the gorgeous motifs of nature with Atsumi’s Embroidered Book of Natural History Motifs.

We’re thrilled to have more copies of An Embroidered Book of Natural History Motifs by Atsumi back in stock! This book is truly lovely. It features embroidered patterns of all kinds of plants and animals that have the look of beautiful nature paintings. Although the text is in Japanese, the illustrations and motifs transcend language. It’s basically a picture book you can stitch yourself! We first received this precious little volume a year ago, and it was so popular we sold out nearly immediately. Make sure to grab your copy!

Freia Shawl Balls

Gorgeous Freia Yarns take you on a colour journey as you knit

Ombré beauty! We have long adored Freia Yarns for their unique dye process, dedication to excellence, and care for the planet, and of course the yarn that results is just gorgeous too. Merino Shawl Balls are our latest yarn from Freia. Gorgeous stitch definition with a little bloom is the hallmark of this yarn, making it perfect for all kinds of stitch patterns. The colours of each ball gently flow into one another, making for truly beautiful and effortless knits. Each cake is a generous 400 yards, meaning you can easily make a medium-sized shawl with one or a large wrap with two. We cannot wait to get this on our needles!

Springtime Classes

Join a knitting class this spring at Loop!

Springtime is the perfect time to take up a new hobby or improve on the skills you’ve been practicing over the winter. We’ve added more class dates for our Beginner and Improvers knitting classes in March and April, plus, we’ve added new One-on-One Tuition dates in on Thursdays in March. These are selling very quickly, so make sure to book in soon!

New Colours of Isager Silk Mohair

Three new gorgeous colours of Isager Silk Mohair: Golden Brown, Light Rose, and Teal Blue

We totally adore Isager Silk Mohair and it’s always a treat to add new hues to our collection. This yarn is brilliant for any of our Lace Weight Patterns and also combines well with other yarns to give your knit a beautiful halo. If you’ve never knit lace patterns before, our free Beginners Lace Shawl pattern is the perfect place to start!

Happy stitching!