The Winter 2011 issue of Interweave Crochet arrived at the shop yesterday.

In this issue, they explore lace for winter with several big, bold winter lace designs and a handful of fine lace designs, to add a light touch of lace to your burly winter garb. And socks! We have three ways to make socks, including fabulous Pamir slip-stitch socks. Maire Treanor’s series on Clones lace continues with two shamrock designs. Add some jackets and vests, as well as a blanket, and it all adds up to 22 projects to cheer you through winter.

Just before Christmas, we started stocking some Adriafil yarns, one of which is called Knitcol.  Knitcol is a self-striping DK yarn. It’s 100% merino wool and being a standard DK yarn, you could use it for so many things, but we think it works best with simple stocking stitch items, which will allow the stripes of the yarn to stand out.

I was dying to try it out myself, so I knitted this little baby hat, using Knitcol.  The pattern is from Sirdar pattern 1242 that includes instructions for 4 different types of baby hat.  Isn’t it cute?

Flora is a beautiful fabric collection from Lauren and Jessi Jung and their website has a free quilt pattern, which uses Flora, that you can download.  The quilt is made with a Moda Layer Cake plus some extra for the border.

You can download this and other free patterns as a PDF from their website.

Interweave’s Spring issue of Knitscene arrived this morning from America.

Here are some of the 23 patterns in this issue – something for everyone I think!

Plus you can learn to work duplicate stitch embroidery and about the colorful world of Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark as well as the difference between kettle dyed and space dyed yarns—and the other basic dye styles of your favorite sock yarns.

Pick up your copy from our shop now.

Just a quick post to let you know that we have 30% off Rico Loopy scarf yarn until the end of January.  (Offer applies only to current stock)

That brings the price down from £9.95 a ball, to a fantastic £6.95… and if you spend over £30 you qualify for free postage too!

Have you tried Debbie Bliss’ yarn called Angel yet?  It’s just like Rowan’s Kidsilk Haze, although a very slight difference in the percentage of fibres and there is 10m less on a ball of Angel. However with so much on one ball anyway, it doesn’t make much difference!

I knitted this shrug using a lovely shade of Angel from the pattern book Angel by Debbie Bliss.  It’s basically 2 sleeves and a ribbed band. Pretty quick to do.

My Mum also knitted this short cardigan, from the same pattern book, using Debbie Bliss Party Angel yarn.  It’s Angel yarn with a touch of sparkle! I wore this cardi a few times of the Christmas season. It was great for parties.

I found the cardi to be a good fit and I will wear it often but one thing Mum did say when she picked up around the edge for the ribbed band, she needed to pick up more stitches than the pattern said, because it was pulling in otherwise.

Jump start into spring with Interweave Stitch Spring 2012 magazine. With 36 fresh projects for outdoor living, wardrobe accessories, and home décor–plus several adorable gifts to make for your favorite babies–Stitch Spring is bursting with the ideas, techniques, and inspiration that will help you welcome back the warm weather.

Makower’s Byzantium collection is a mixture of rich golds and blues, taking the works of the artist Klimt as its inspiration. Part of the collection is composed of golden spirals on various coloured backgrounds, some of which can be combined with the focus prints.

We have 10% off all the fabrics in this range throughout January!

I came across this knitting project idea this week, to knit a sky scarf.  The idea is that every day you knit a row in a colour, that matches the sky outside.  At the end of the year you will have a record of the weather… in your scarf!  A cool idea I thought!

http://www.leafcutterdesigns.com/projects/conceptknit.html#skyscarf

I thought you might like to see these fingerless gloves that I knitted for my brother this Christmas. The yarn I used was Rico Essentials Alpaca DK.

This yarn is a 50/50 mix of highland wool and alpaca and available in 6 natural coloured shades. It feels lovely and soft and of superb quality. I enjoyed knitting with it and my brother likes his gloves!

It is also available in a chunky yarn too.