Strands of Joy and a beautiful new shawl kit
Strands of Joy is the latest book from Laine Publishing which means you know it will be full of gorgeous photographs and insightful information and patterns. Anna Johanna is the designer from Muurame, Central Finland. Known for her often romantic knits with a lot of love for details, textures and colours, Anna has brought us 20 versatile stranded colourwork patterns that are not only beautiful but a joy to knit.
Stranded colourwork is seen in many knitting traditions worldwide and continues to inspire creative colour combinations and motifs. It is a technique we love when it comes to playing with colour, and it is much simpler to work than it looks.
With colourwork motifs worked in the round, you only knit in plain stockinette, letting the colours and motifs be the star. It is a great way to experiment with colour and adds a layer of warmth and durability to your garment that you don’t get with single colour knitting.
Strands of Joy is currently on pre-order and will be launching mid-February. We have some beautiful yarns perfect for this style of knitting. Let’s look at some of the patterns and yarns that inspire us to knit with colour.
The lovely retro inspired Flower Power’s yoke takes centre stage on this cropped cardigan. Originally designed in a Finnish DK weight wool we think the De Rerum Natura Gilliatt would make a great substitute. Gilliatt is a woollen yarn of soft French and European merino produced in France in an ethical and ecological way and is available in a beautiful and varied colour palette of heathery shades.
Lehto is a boxy cropped sweater with a leaf motif through the yoke. We love the little charming details like the small leaf pattern around the cuffs. Lehto was designed for a 100% wool sportweight. Lots of choices on this one. De Rerum Natura Ulysse, CaMaRose Hverdagsuldand BC Garn Semilla organic Light DK would all be beautiful choices for this design.
Sprout is another top-down sweater with a “sprout” motif in the yoke and hem using the super soft but rustic Le Petit Lambswool. We have lots of Biches& Buches Le Petit Lambswool in stock at the moment and have more colours on the way including the dark green grey and beige used in Sprout.
There are so many colour possibilities and a whole bunch of beautiful new colours have just arrived this Winter 2021. Candy, Dark Green, Green, Pink + Turquoise, Light Brown, Light Pink Violet, and Spring Green.
Woodland is a sweet, oversized cardigan with the cutest little woodland colourwork at the hem. Biches & Buches Le Petit Lambswool, Brooklyn Tweed Loft and Jamieson’s Spindrift would all be lovely for this one.
Everything’s Coming Up Roses and Juxtaposition are two of the beautiful top down sweaters using hand-dyed and variegated fingering weight yarns. Everything’s Coming Up Roses makes the most of the subtle variegated colour in La Bien Aimee’s Merino Singles . Juxtaposition’s stunning colour work uses a gradient set fading from dark to light,starting the main colour from the light end and contrast colour from the dark end. You could also use a variegated colour for the main and a more solid colour for the contrast or vice versa. So many possibilities!
And of course, there is Thistle, on the cover of this beautiful book of patterns. Thistle is a boxy cardigan worked in the round before both the arms and front are cut open to finish making a super cosy beautiful cardigan that you can wear with everything. Using a 100% wool in fingering weight we think the Biches & Buches Le Petit Lambswool , Le Cashmere & Lambswool, Jamieson’s Spindrift, Brooklyn Tweed Loft and De Rerum Natura Ulysse might work well for a more rustic look. For a smoother plied yarn, CaMaRose Yaku would make a great substitute.
Recent Arrivals
If you’re working on stranded knitting projects you know the importance of a good pair of snips for all the cutting of threads and steeking you’ll be doing. We just received these lovely and excellent quality snips from LDH in Canada. A family run business for the past 30 years, LDH stands for love, dedication and happiness. What a perfect acronym for all of our crafty endeavours! We have lots more scissors and snips to choose from in our haberdashery sections.
KOKON Autumn / Winter Shawl Kit
This beautiful new Aki Fuyu KOKON Shawl kit designed by Eri Shimizu in collaboration with KOKON yarns was inspired by Autumn (aki) and Winter (fuyu) and the many shapes and colours that can be found in nature in these seasons. The shawl is an engaging knit using brioche, cabling and smocking stitches for lots of interest and showing off that beautiful hand-dyed colour. The kit has 3 skeins of KOKON merino fingering and a skein of KidSilk and comes all wrapped up in a special commissioned cotton bag with a printed illustration by Karolina Skórka.
Sneak Peek!
We are super excited to bring you a new kit for this gorgeous sweater called Talvinen from Caitlin Hunter of Boyland Knitworks. Using Biches & Buches Le Petit Lambswool, we’ll have a few inspiring colour combinations for you to choose from. We’ll keep you posted with new info soon!
Temaricious Threads
Temaricious threads are back in single cakes as well as our special thread sets, Sashiko kits and special edition boxes . All naturally dyed with seasonal Japanese plants and organic matter. Great for embroidery, temari, visible mending ,darning, sashiko and any other stitching projects you can think of!
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