The Last of the Great Viola Merino Fingering

The Last of the Great Viola Merino Fingering

At long last the first half of our summer shipment of Viola yarns has landed! We have been anxiously anticipating the arrival of these beautiful skeins and we are so glad to be able to share them with you.

Viola yarns are lovingly hand dyed by Emily Foden in the front room of an old general store in south-western Ontario. Her dying career has taken her from the shores of Lake Ontario to the windswept bluffs of Exmoor and back to the farms of Canada. She has drawn inspiration from each of these environments and in particular enjoys exploring the subtle shifts between warm and cool tones.

Our latest shipment includes nine colours of Viola Merino Fingering, and we also have two colourways of Viola Sock Mini Bundles. There’s more to come in a few weeks’ time when we expect another two boxes. Merino Fingering is a high twist, two fold yarn that is springy, light and soft. The little bit of extra twist in this yarn gives it a beautiful lustre and colours come out bright and saturated. 

Viola Merino Fingering has been one of our favourites to work with for years and many Loopers and Loopettes have knit up some truly divine pieces using Emily’s unique colours. Both shop manager Carole Downie and Loopette Alex Festenstein have used Viola Merino Fingering to knit Junko Okamoto’s Bright sweater (pictured below) and the yarn is perfect for a huge range of projects, from socks to lace knits.

Emily has been a longtime friend of the shop. She designed a custom colour for Loop’s 10 year anniversary called ‘Speckled Mist’, which will be with us in the last shipment in a few weeks. We were honoured to host the launch of her book Knits About Winter, a collection of 12 cosy patterns. Last year she told us all about her process, inspiration and journey as a dyer in our Meet the Maker series, which still makes for dreamy viewing on IGTV and YouTube.

This bumper crop of Viola Merino Fingering and Viola Sock Mini Bundles is a bittersweet one as it will be our last of these yarns from Viola. As Emily announced on the Viola and the Moon blog earlier this year, she is phasing out chemical dyes in favour of natural ones and transitioning to using local wool suppliers. This shift will deepen her connection to the natural world and the environment around her, but it will also mean a fond farewell to the yarns we’ve known and loved. We can’t wait to see what she creates!

Handmade Wire Words

Lesley McCormick of Wee Bears has made more of these darling wire word sculptures. Sure to be the perfect adornment for any knitter’s home, these lightweight art pieces are about 12-13 cm wide (4.5-5 inches) and 10 cm (4 inches) tall. Hurry though, these are rare beauties!

Pom Pom Press Pre-Orders!

Pom Pom Quarterly Issue 38 for Autumn 2021 is due out 16 August and we are taking pre-orders! This issue celebrates trees, with cable patterns imitating labyrinthine root systems, colourwork imitating dappled forests and patterns drawing on fairy-tale lore. This August will also see the release of Moon and Turtle, the first collaboration between Japanese Canadian twin sisters Sachiko and Kiyomi Burgin, also published by Pom Pom Press. Order both titles now for shipment on 15 August!

Happy crafting, Loopers!

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