Knit Picks Gloss

I thought I'd tell you a bit about the Gloss range. These are the least expensive of both the lace and the sock yarns from Knit Picks. At £3.99 a skein, this is very good value. A blend of merino and silk, this is a lovely yarn. The colours are solid and I hope Ive chosen a reasonable variety.

The only thing about this yarn, was that it wasn't as soft as I had expected at first squeeze. After a few squeezes, it did get softer! I think this probably more to do with the spinning and dyeing processes and that once washed it will soften up considerably. The solid black seems a little harsher than the other colours and so I suspect my theory is correct. Don't let this put you off though - it really is excellent value for money.

Knit Picks Wool of the Andes

I thought that as Knit Picks is new to the UK, a little explanation and information about some of the yarns might be a good idea. So, I'll start with the Wool of the Andes. Knit Picks offer this yarn in a worsted weight, a bulky weight with solid colours and these lovely hand dyed yarns.



The yarn is 100% Peruvian Highland Wool. I'll be honest, I was expecting this to be a bit stratchy and hard. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that it is extremely soft and easy to handle. This hand dyed version is very, very pretty and the colours blend extremely well. The solid colours match the hand dyed and so can be used together. I think these yarns will be perfect for hats, mittens and because of its excellent felting qualities, for bags, and anything else you might like to felt. (You can tell that felting isn't something I'm particularly familiar with).



The suggested tension for this yarn is 3 - 3.75 sts per inch on 6 - 8mm needles, so it should knit up to most chunky type patterns. Knit Picks have a wide range of patterns on their website that you can either buy as a download, often for low prices such as $1.99, or, even better, for free.

I am considering making some hats for Christmas presents out of this. My nephew, aged 6 would love the Rolling Hills colour which looks like a camouflage colouring. He is very keen on Toy Story at the moment and so this would be great.



My niece (aged 8) would of course like the Galaxy colour way as it is the closest we have to pink and purple which are about the only colours she recognises.

Knit Picks has arrived!

Hurray! At Last! The Knit Picks order arrived on Saturday morning. I had thought it was going to arrive Thursday morning, but I was sadly mistaken. The consignment of 23 boxes on two palletts had come all the way from Vancouver, Washington, USA and then the problems started. On Thursday, the freight company admitted that they had keyed in the delivery date incorrectly and that it would now arrive on Friday morning. The disappointment was severe, but I got over it. Friday morning, I was up bright and early (not usual for me) and excited. We got to lunchtime, no order. So I rang the freight company again. It appeared an error had been made. They had keyed in Rainham, Kent, instead of Bath. The shipment had turned up in Rainham and had nowhere to go. Easy mistake. So, we could have it first thing Saturday morning. More disappintment. However, it arrived and here is a photo of Ian with the boxes.

I am very, very pleased with the yarn. The colours really are very beautiful. The yarn looks as though it is of a very good quality. I spend a very happy Saturday opening and checking off all the yarn. It was great fun. I really hope you all like it!

New Look

We decided to give Great British Yarns a bit of an overhaul and asked Adam of Flipside Studio in Bath to design a lovely new logo. This is what he came up with:



We love it - what do you think?