Welcoming Kindred Knits and Aitor Saraiba’s Winter Window

Aleks Byrd’s Kindred Knits is finally here! We’ve been awaiting the launch of this lovely collection with bated breath and the day has finally arrived. We can’t wait to get cosy with this new volume.

We’ve always adored how Aleks pays homage to her Estonian heritage through her work. Her beautiful patterns are helping keep traditional techniques like Roosimine and Baltic Braid alive, and it’s always a joy to see all the meaning and history that feeds into her work. In Kindred Knits, Aleks looks even more closely at her own heritage, drawing inspiration from family heirlooms and the vintage sketchbooks of her grandmother, Hilja.

The seed of this book was planted when Aleks found a treasure trove of her grandmother’s old sketchbooks at the back of her great-aunt’s closet. This collection had survived the Second World War and a number of moves, but there they all were, showing little snipets and motifs of patterned knitting Hilja had stitched in her prime.

Aleks calls Hilja her “silent collaborator” on this book, and has described how meaningful the project became for her: “Knitting stitches many things together, far beyond the literal loops of yarn. In this book, it has stitched together generations of my family.” 

The book itself contains 15 patterns, including sweaters and gorgeous, intricate accessories for your head, hands, and feet. Some of our favourite yarns are used in the book — John Arbon Textiles Yarnadelic, Gepard Woolia, Gepard Kid Seta, and Isager Alpaca among them — and we have loads of good options for all the fibres used in these patterns.

Kindred Knits will ship from today (including pre-orders), but we also have an option to pick up your book in store at our Booking Signing Meet & Greet with Aleks Byrd on November 9th! We are so excited for this visit from Aleks. She’ll have the full trunk show of book samples along with her and be on hand to talk about all things knitting and family traditions from 1–3pm at Loop. If you’re planning to join us, select “store pickup” when you order your book and it’ll be ready for you to collect on the day!

See you there!

Aitor Saraiba Window Painting and New Kits

We’ve been having such a blast with Aitor Saraiba over the past few months. We adored collaborating with him on a special kit for our 20th anniversary and we were delighted to welcome him to the shop last week to host a series of workshops. Now, we’re over the moon to welcome him once again to decorate our front window ahead of the holiday season! We’re thrilled that our shopfront will be decorated with one of Aitor’s warm, wonderful, whimsical creations, and we can think of no better spirit to bring into the festive months. Aitor will be painting the shop window on Monday 20 October, and it’ll be a sight to behold. We welcome anyone to come watch him create his magic. Then, even though Loop is usually closed on Mondays, we’ll do a super rare opening of the shop from around 1:30 to 2:30 (ground floor only) when for the first time we’ll offer a new batch of kits from Aitor, the Pink Snippet Roll Kit, Scapular Kit, and Mini Woodland Quilt Kit. These will be available to purchase online from 5pm on Monday. We can’t wait to bring you all these beautiful things.

Charity Prize Giveaway and Sample Sale

Don’t forget about our upcoming Charity Sample Sale and Charity Prize Giveaway in support of The Trussell Trust and MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)! On Saturday the 25th and Sunday the 26th of October we’ll be putting up some of our most treasured shop samples for sale to benefit these really wonderful causes, and from Friday the 24th October to Friday the 7th of November we’ll be accepting £10 entries to our Charity Prize Giveaway, with fabulous prizes worth around £140. We’ll have more details on the blog next week!

Handy Haberdashery Bags by Petra Boase

We totally adore new Handy Haberdashery Bags and Cases by Petra Boase. With bright colour-coded zips and a see-through body, these are ideal for organising different projects (or bits of projects). The larger pouches can hold a full skein of yarn and needles up to around 30 centimetres long while the smaller ones in pink are perfect for keeping together the bits and bobs you always want to have to hand. And since they’re see-through you won’t have to rummage around to grab just what you need! Keep your favourite haberdashery and your on-deck yarns and needles nearby!

Darning Socks by Hikaru Noguchi

It’s no secret what huge fans we are of Hikaru Noguchi. Her books on mending and her tools for mending are totally covetable, and we always treasure her trips to the shop. We are so so pleased this week that her book Darning Socks, which was originally released in Japanese last year, has been translated to English! Beautiful photos meet practical ideas in this phenomenal guidebook — and the methods for sock mending can be applied to so many other garments as well! We can’t wait to get stuck in.

Bisous!