The Loveliest Yarn Company: shop profile

Earlier this month I was delighted to meet Michelle from The Loveliest Yarn Company while I was visiting the Knitting & Stitching Show at Ally Pally. A new online yarn shop located in the Midlands, The Loveliest Yarn Co. has been stocking Knit Play Colour since opening this past summer. I hadn’t realised how many samples Michelle had made with her yarns using patterns from the book! Her yarns are wonderful and a couple of very pretty balls of West Yorkshire Spinners found their way home with me. I am still thinking about the gorgeous Life in the Long Grass though… You know I love to share a good yarn-y find so I knew I had to share this shop with you! Read on for my interview with Michelle.

Michelle chatting with a customer on her stand at Ally Pally

The secret is out: Yarn porn for Yarnporium

It’s no secret that I love a secret. And a secret that involves delicious yarn? Well it’s almost too much to bear!

Happily, my secret is out! Last week Countess Ablaze revealed on her Instagram that I will be bringing a selection of her yarns with me to the Yarnporium happening on November 5th and 6th in London. As if that weren’t enough of an announcement to cause yarn-y delirium, I’m also bringing a variety of yarns from Eden Cottage Yarns too!

I’m really thrilled to be bringing both of these ladies’ amazing yarns with me. While it’s great to bring my book and patterns I really love helping knitters choose their yarn for the project. It means I can help answer questions about yarn choice or the pattern, or a combination thereof. And really, if you’re getting a pattern and want to get started right away, what’s better than being able to get the perfect yarn in the same place?

So what am I bringing?

Wool Week Workshop

A scene from Rams

Ha! Try saying that three times fast! (wool week workshop, wool week workshop…) Apologies, but I may be just a wee bit excited that there’s finally more than barely-there nip in the air on the school runs in the morning. It must be October!

October is one of those months that seems to catch me off guard completely. We’re no sooner settled into the new school routine when all of sudden there’s the Knitting & Stitching Show and UK Wool Week back to back. The minute there’s time to catch your breath it’s Wovember and then the steady downward spiral right towards Christmas. This year there’s even more going on than usual as I’m preparing for the upcoming Yarnporium show in November where I’ll be an exhibitor (more on that in another post!).

YARN – the movie: what more could I ask for?

But before all that can happen, I’m delighted to be part of a day-long line-up of events celebrating UK Wool Week at the Maltings in Farnham this Sunday, 9th October. I get to kick things off with my workshop on playing with colour and then enjoy the rest of the day’s offerings. Emma Boyles of The Little Grey Sheep will be giving a talk in the afternoon about her small family farm that I’m really looking forward to hearing. Then there are two woolly film screenings: YARN the movie, and Rams, about two Icelandic sheep farmers.

Let’s have some fun playing with colour

If you haven’t had a chance to take a workshop with me before and are curious about playing with colour in your own knitting projects we’ll be looking at choosing colour combinations with confidence. With a nod to Wool Week, we’ll also discuss how fibre type can influence colour. This is also a hands-on, playful class so bring your yarns or scraps that you’ve had a hard time deciding how or which colour combos would work best and we’ll work through them together.

It’s going to be a great day out on Sunday – I hope you can join me!