On Our Needles – Brontë

This week we introduce a brand new series to our blog. ‘On Our Needles’ will be all about the Loop staff, what they’re working on and how they use the wonderful selection of yarns at Loop.

The staff at Loop are all incredibly knowledgeable and enthusiastic about knitting and crochet, and are all very talented makers, so we want to showcase that here on the blog.

We’re always talking excitedly in the shop about what we’re knitting and what we want to knit or crochet next, being inspired all the time here, so we thought it would be fun to share this with you once in a while.

First up is Brontë! Brontë writes our blog and helps with our social media, as well as working in the shop. She’s been at Loop for over 4 years! Brontë has a degree in Textile Design from Chelsea College of Art, where she specialised in knitted textiles (of course!). Her favourite things to knit are garments – sweaters and cardigans and tops of all kinds. She also sews and crochets; amigurumi is her new crafty obsession!

What are you knitting?
I’m currently working on a Shifty sweater by Andrea Mowry. I knew I had to make this as soon as I saw the preview photos – it’s perfect! I’m using the Madelinetosh Merino Light, and Qing Fibre Merino Singles.

Why did you choose this yarn?
I mainly decided to use it as I had enough for the sweater in my stash, and I also had the ‘Joshua Tree’ colour leftover from a shawl, and they sat together so well I knew I had to use them in the same project. My four colours are ‘Meet Me In The Basement’ (main), ‘Matcha’ and ‘Joshua Tree’ in the Madelinetosh, and ‘Honeycomb’ in the Qing Fibre.

How did you choose your colours? Do you enjoy picking palettes?
I love picking colour palettes; helping customers put together ‘fades’ is one of my favourite things to do in the shop! I chose colours based around the main one (‘Meet Me In The Basement’), which I chose because it’s a Stranger Things colour – it’s my favourite show! The speckles in ‘Matcha’ match perfectly with ‘Honeycomb’, and there are wonderful green speckles in ‘Meet Me In The Basement’ that tie it to the others, which are all green tones. I’m very pleased with the combination!

Are you enjoying the project? If so, why?
Definitely, because it’s very meditative to work on. The body is almost done, and then I’ll just have to knit the sleeves. I’m very much enjoying the thought that once it’s finished I will be able to layer it over summer dresses on cooler days.

Do you have any tips for knitting this?
Probably that you can very easily substitute the Spincycle for a different yarn, and that it can be a good project to use up scraps and leftovers in your stash! I would recommend pulling everything out and having a sift through, you’ll definitely find things that go together.

We love Spincycle and stock their Dyed In The Wool in the shop (and in the Autumn we’ll also have their Dream State yarn!) but it is harder to keep well-stocked in the shop as we get fewer deliveries and it’s so popular.

Are you especially excited about anything in the shop at the moment?
I’m dying to try out the new Daughter of a Shepherd Hebridean Lace – I really love the undyed colour, and it has a wonderful texture.

What will you cast on next?
I’m planning on starting an Altair crochet shawl by Joanne Scrace of The Crochet Project, originally in Pom Pom Issue 17. I saw Rachel of Daughter of a Shepherd’s version on Ravelry and fell in love with it. I think it’s going to look good with my winter coat!

Find Brontë on Ravelry and Instagram as bronteswannick.

We hoped you enjoyed the first instalment of ‘On Our Needles’! Keep your eyes peeled for next month, when we’ll be back with another post.

All photographs copyright of Susan Cropper and Loop Knitting Ltd unless otherwise stated.