Love Knitting: Big July Sale

In case you hadn’t noticed, Love Knitting* are currently having a big July sale, with lots and lots of yarn available at bargain prices. As an affiliate for Love Knitting, they let me choose some sale yarns to review, and this is what I chose.**

The Yarn Collective Pembroke Worsted* in Bumblebee Jasper

This yarn from The Yarn Collective is one I have been eyeing for a while. It’s a plied 100% Merino worsted weight wool (somewhere between DK and aran for those not familiar with the worsted term) that has beautiful stitch definition, making it perfect for cables. The yarn comes in ten colourways, all named after and inspired by gems and minerals, and is hand-dyed in small batches to give amazing depth of colour.

The yarn is beautiful to touch, it’s soft and bouncy, and the colour is really rich. One small reservation is that I found it hard to picture the colour from the shots on the website, as the colour samples are really small, which can make it hard to see what tones will be in the yarn when you receive it - the Bumblebee Jasper has a slight green hue to it on the website that isn't there in the skein I recieved (which is absolutely not an issue as I like the more yellow tone better!).

What’s this yarn going to become? Probably a Beeswax Hat by Amy van de Laar. She’s running a KAL for the pattern over on Instagram and Ravelry over the next few weeks (July 28th to August 18th 2018), so I’ll be casting on for that. The yarn calls for DK weight, but my head calls for a slightly larger hat, so I’ll play about with the gauge and make it work as the colour is perfect!

Beeswax hat by Amy van de Laar. Image copyright Amy van de Laar

The yarn has 30% off in the sale, taking it to £11.83 for 100g, which is very reasonable for hand dyed yarn.

Cascade Heritage Prints* in Lights

I am always keen to try out different sock yarns, and while I’ve used Cascade Heritage Solids* in the past, I’d not tried the prints, so thought this would be a good opportunity. I am a sucker for bright colours, and the pink and purple in this yarn really leapt out at me on the website.

The yarn is the same base as the Solids (75% Merino wool, 25% nylon), and you get a full 400m of sock yarn per 100g ball, which means you should be able to get a full pair of adult sized socks out of a ball. The yarn has a nice twist to it, and that in combination with the nylon means it will be good and hard-wearing. It’s also super-soft, which will make it perfect for even the most sensitive feet.

To be honest, I am not 100% sold on the colourway - it has three solid stripes and two fairisle-style ones, but all the solids are next to each other, which I think will annoy me; I’d prefer the solids to be alternated with the fairisle. I do always have socks on the needles though and this will make an excellent choice for my socks for the Winwick Mum Yarndale Sock Line, so I’m going to knit it up for that.

Selected colourways of this yarn have 25% off in the sale, taking them down to £6.74.

Fancy browsing all the sale yarns? You can find the sale section here.*

*Affiliate link.

**Love Knitting supplied the yarn to me to review for free; all opinions are my own.

Meow! New design: Ray the Cat blanket square

Earlier this year, I got asked to work on a collaboration with Love Knitting and Battersea Cats and Dogs home, and here is the result: the Ray the Cat square.

The Ray the Cat square is a collaboration between Vikki Bird Designs, Love Knitting and Battersea Dogs and Cats home. Battersea Dogs and Cats Home is an animal chalter that rescues animals in need and looks after them until they can be rehomed. Every cat at Battersea is given their own blanket to snuggle in, and when the cat is rehomed, the blanket is sent home with the cat as a comforter. The cat featured on the square, Ray, is a cat who found a new home through the charity.

The square is knitted in a single piece with a moss stitch border, and Ray is incorported using the intarsia technique. The square can be expanded into a blanket by knitting several squares featuring Ray, or one Ray the Cat square and several plain squares. Alternatively you could knit a single square and use it as a wall hanging or make it into a cushion cover. If you don't have anyone to knit the square for, or fancy doing some charity knitting, Battersea are always taking donations so anyone can make the Ray Square into a blanket and donate directly!

The Ray the Cat square is knitted in Paintbox Yarns Simply Aran, which is a 100% acryllic yarn, for easy care. The yarn comes in 60 colours, so you could change the markings to make your square match your favourite feline.

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Ray the Cat isn't the only pattern produced for the project: Love Knitting have created eleven dog and cat patterns (six crochet and five knitting), each based on a real dog or cat that was once at Battersea, and has now been re-homed to a loving family. All the patterns can be found here, and 100% of the pattern proceeds go directly to Battersea Dogs & Cats Home to help find homes for even more lovely little pets.

Each of the patterns has an associated colour pack, making is extra easy to pick up everything you need in one go. The kit for Ray the Cat includes full 100g balls of each of the colours you'll need, so you'll be able to knit two squares from each kit, or you could pick up an extra ball of the background colour and knit four squares.

 
The patterns are available here, and can be purchased until the end of November. 100% of the pattern sales will go to the charity.

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Want to share your Ray the Cat square on social media? Use the hashtags #stitchfurbattersea and #vikkibirddesigns I can't wait to see what you come up with! Ypu can also share your projects on Love Knitting and Ravelry by creating a project page.

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All photos were taken at Battersea Cats and Dogs home and copyright remains with Battersea and Love Knitting.

 

Indie June at Love Knitting

June is here, already! The sun is shining, the washing is out and it's time to look ahead to the new month.

This month is Indie June at Love Knitting, an annual event to promote independent knitwear designers. Love Knitting have done a huge amount for indie designers since they helped Ravelry out a few years ago when new rules on VAT on PDF patterns came in, and do an excellent job of promoting patterns written by independent designers.

Indie June banner, copyright Love Knitting

Throughout June, a number of designers, myself included, are offering a selection of their patterns with a discount (the prices shown are the discount codes are needed). All the discounted patterns can be found here, and I'm offering 10% off my Fluffy White Clouds baby blanket, the Rudi jumper, and any of the socks in my Knit Night Collection (Lynda, Sara Elin and Amy). There will also be other offers relating to Independent Designers over the course of the month, so keep checking Love Knitting to find out more.

Fluffy White Clouds

Rudi jumper

Knit Night Collection: (L to R) Sara Elin, Lynda and Amy

As a further incentive to get involved, Love Knitting are offering the chance to win a £100 Love Knitting voucher for anyone who shares a project knitted using a pattern by an independent designer with the Love Knitting community and tags the project #IndieJune2017. You'll need an account with Love Knitting to enter; full details can be found on the Love Knitting blog.

**Disclaimer: I am an affiliate with Love Knitting, and all of the links in this post are affiliate links - if you buy something from Love Knitting having arrived there through one of the links on this page I will be paid a commission. I am a huge fan of Love Knitting and would recommend them and their work even without being an affiliate.**

The Flock: the launch party

This weekend I went to London to catch up with my siblings, an event that doesn't happen very often as we are rather spread out across the country. I'd had the date in the calendar for a couple of months, but hadn't made any fixed plans, so when an email came through from Love Knitting inviting me to the launch of their blogger ambassador programme, The Flock, I jumped at the chance - I would be in London anyway, so it would be rude not to!

The event started at 17.30, at Love Knitting's very shiny new office. It's in Holborn, not an area I know well, so I allowed plenty of time to find the building, and ended up arriving a few minutes early and being the first one there. I wasn't totally sure what to expect, the invite had said there would be nibbles, networking and a couple of presentations, and I was a little nervous when I arrived. I needn't have worried though, there was plenty to do, and everyone there was happy to talk about yarn, knitting and crochet all day!

Tiny cupcakes

There was a pom pom making station, and I duly added a neon pink and yellow pom pom to a cardboard sheep (whilst chatting to Justyna Lokowska, a huge knitting name, about her pattern, Maya's scarf, which I am currently knitting); I chatted to Karie Westermann, who knew who I was, which totally made my day; there was a table of delicious and very cute snack food; I met lots of people, including a few familiar faces and lots I hadn't come across before (and a few really big names that I was too shy to talk to), who were all as enthusiastic as me about all things knitting; and we got to squish a lot of yarn: every table in the room had baskets of yarn on them, which we were allowed to play with, stroke, cast on, take home; obviously all there for promotional purposes, but it was paradise.

This was even brighter in real life!

There were indeed some talks about Love Knitting and the rest of the Love Crafts family, as promised, and a little quiz, which had prizes: I came away with a Paintbox yarns advent calendar, containing lots of little balls of yarn that will become some form of (as yet undecided) bunting over the course of December.

I am so excited about this advent calendar

The whole event was only two and a half hours long, and the time whizzed by. When we left, we were each given a goody bag containing some more yarn (I also had some pom pom makers in mine; I think everyone got something different), which my sister and I pawed at on the train back to hers. Huge thanks to Love Crafts for hosting the event; and if you ever get a chance to go and visit their office, go, it really is a little yarny paradise!

I did come home with a *little bit* of yarn

*This post is about a promotional event hosted by Love Knitting and Love Crafts; all yarns shown were donated for PR purposes; the post contains affiliate links, see the Disclaimers and policies page for more information.*