If you are a member of the popular community site Ravelry, then come and join the Hulu group that I’ve just set up!

Ravelry is a free community site for knitters and crocheters where you can chat in one of the many forums as well as browse a vast database of yarns and patterns and show off your latest projects.

Here at Hulu, we’ve just celebrated our first birthday and we’d really like your feedback on how we’ve been performing.

If you have a few minutes to spare, please go to our customer survey and let us know your thoughts on our website and the service we’ve been providing.

The survey can be found by clicking on this link.

To say thank you, we’ll enter you in a prize draw to win a £10 gift voucher. The draw will take place on 30th April 2010.

Fans of Amy Butler fabrics and sewing patterns will be very interested to know that Amy Butler is launching a range of DK and Aran yarns, in collaboration with Rowan.

Called “Belle Organic“, the yarn will be a organic wool and cotton mix.

To accompany the yarn, Amy has also written a book called “Midwest Modern Knits”: a collection of fashion, accessory and home knits.

My rep will be showing me the yarns next week and they will be available in April.  More details will follow as soon as I have more to share!

We’re now selling Yarn Forward Magazine in our shop and the brand new issue has just arrived at the office.

Here’s a preview of what’s in this issue: (click to enlarge)

Yarn Forward always features original patterns and is only £4.49. Pick up a copy on our website.

Essentials Cotton DK is another of the new yarns we’re stocking from Rico Design.  This cotton DK is fine and smooth, so the stitches show up clearly with a slight sheen because it is mercerised.  Rico Essentials Cotton DK is relatively low in price and the fabric is light and smooth, making this yarn ideal for affordable babies’ and children’s garments. It knits up into lovely little matinée jackets and cardis for days when wool or acrylic are too warm.

Simply Knitting Magazine asked some of their readers what they thought of this yarn.  Here are some of their comments:

“Love the colour. Has a lovely feel and sheen due to mercerization. Good stitch definition.”
“Bold colours, interesting texture, bouncy.”
“Gorgeous colours. Lovely soft feel.”
“Love the colour. Not as nice knitted as on the ball, perhaps. Good sheen though.”
“Feels soft and I like the colour but worry about it being a bit crunchy when knitted up.”
“Cotton is lush – bananas colour though!”
“Perfect for crochet – it’s tightly spun and mercerized so it’s not splitty. Love the range of colours.”
“Lovely shimmery yarn. The high cotton content comese as a bit of a surprise. Because it’s polyamide around a cotton core, the stitches are even but not completely smooth when knitted.”

Why not try it for yourself? Visit our website to see the shades we have in stock.

I thought you might like to see a photo of a jumper that a customer recently completed. I think it looks great and really suits her.

The pattern is called Maeve from the Rowan Lima Collection and uses Rowan’s Lima yarn. If you’d like to know yarn quantities, then just ask and I’ll look it up for you.  I reckon a sleeveless version would look rather nice too.

I love to see what my customers are making, so do feel free to send me a photo!

That title is a bit of a mouthful isn’t it?  But that’s what I’ve got… some new shades of Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk 4 Ply.  I think this yarn is exquisite.  It is just so soft and feels so luxurious and delicate.  I love it!

The new shades are:

Sublime’s book 635, “The second irresistibly Sublime baby 4 ply book” contains patterns for this yarn and uses some of these new shades.

Pictures of the patterns in Sublime book 635 are available on the website

Here in the UK, we’re currently in the middle of Fairtrade Fortnight: the annual nationwide campaign to promote awareness of Fairtrade and encourage people to buy products which carry the FAIRTRADE Mark in order to help farmers in developing countries.

So I thought it might be a good time to remind knitters about the fairtrade yarn we sell.  Manos Del Uruguay is the only yarn company to carry the World Fairtrade Mark and we stock their lovely Silk Blend yarn.  Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend yarn is a beautiful double knit yarn that is alight with colour and knits so well.  It is a blend of 30% Silk, 70% Extrafine Merino Wool.

The mission and the social objectives of Manos de Uruguay are of creating working opportunities for the women’s groups in order to assure the personal development and let them acces the civil society as an active member. This permits to the women to remain working in their own villages and avoid the migration of these families from the country side.  This cooperative provides much needed income to approximately 350 women working in 17 locations.

Coming Soon from Manos Del Uruguay – Laceweight yarn.

We’re very excited about this new yarn, due in the middle of April.  The Manos laceweight yarn will be 5% Cashmere, 75% Baby Alpaca, 20% Silk in a sumptuous 12 colourways both solids and space dyed.

Watch this space for more details!

I had a delivery today which included some Regia Hand Dye Effect Sock Yarn plus a brand new pattern booklet to accompany the yarn.

The Regia Hand-Dye Effect sock yarn is a soft 4 ply yarn which has been dyed using a technique which gives it a hand dyed appearance as the gorgeous saturated colours blend into each other.

The pattern booklet, Regia Journal 608, has just been published and contains 12 patterns specifically for this yarn, although you could easily substitute another 4 ply yarn if you preferred.

So if you’re still feeling the chill, why not whip up something to keep you warm and cozy.

Just ask if you want to know the yarn requirements for a particular pattern.

The new spring issue of Interweave Knits has everything you’ve been looking for to help you transition from chilly winter nights to lovely spring days.

There are 23 patterns to help you say goodbye to Winter. Refreshing lace in cardigans and t-shirt-style projects and directional knitting with a twist will make you happy to pile on the layers until winter says its last goodbyes. And simple spring-y knits next to simply-processed yarns will keep your needles busy while you perfect your Kitchener stitch techniques with step-by-step instructions from TECHknitter. Get inspired to dive into historical and global knitting with a profile on Nancy Bush and her new Estonian lace stole.

Here are just some of the patterns featured in this issue:

The full preview can be seen on Interweave Knits website and you can purchase a copy from our site here.