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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!

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.

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.

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!

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

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!

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.

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.