The Knit Show: an Autumn preview

This weekend saw me travelling to Bradford for The Knit Show – a trade show for yarn shop owners.  It was an opportunity for the manufacturers to tell their stockists about what’s coming this Autumn.

Chunky yarns seem to be very “in” this Autumn.  Everyone seems to be launching them and whereas the chunky patterns from last year were quite big and a little shapeless in my opinion, this year the patterns for chunky yarns are a bit more fitted, which I much prefer.

The Sublime stand was my first stop and they haven’t disappointed with their Autumn collection. There is just one new yarn this season: Chunky Merino Tweed.  It comes in 10 shades and is 80% merino wool. It has an accompanying pattern book with several designs that I quite liked.  It should be in stock in early August.

There are new shades in the baby cashmere merino silk 4 ply and DK, cashmere merino silk DK and extra fine merino DK and new books for each: all of which I’ve got coming.  Many of the new shades are very Autumny – golds, browns, greens, reds.  I really liked the overall tone for this season.  In particular there was a baby blanket, knitted in an olive green, which was simply beautiful.  I’d love to try it.  I wish I could show you a picture of it.

I spent a lot of time on the Rowan stand too.  I’m sure that many of you will love Magazine 48.  I particularly loved the Russian Doll story (cover image) and if you like, or would like to try, fair-isle, then you’ll definitely be inspired by one of the patterns.

Rowan Magazine 48

There are four new Rowan yarns:

• Drift: a 100% merino chunky, much like Big Wool; in fact the pattern book Winter Drift contains patterns that use both Drift and Big Wool.
• Silky Twist: 53% silk, 30% wool, 12% superkid mohair and 5% polyamid and it is an aran weight in 10 jewel-like colours. The pattern book contains some classic designs by Martin Storey.
• Renew: a recycled wool that is a sort of tweed.
• Rowan British Sheep Breeds Boucle: a single shade in natural cream.  A pattern book combines both this and the Renew yarn.

There are some new shades in many of the other yarns, including last year’s new ones Lima and Alpaca Cotton.  Another Martin Storey book called Homestead Classics contains patterns using these yarns.