I love designing hand knitting patterns, from acessories to decorations. Here is a selection of my patterns available in the Woolly Brew yarn shop, Pittenweem, Fife, on Ravelry and from Di Gilpin.
My current collection is all knit in 100% natural fibres (mostly wool, with a little silk and alpaca), materials that compost away completely after a long and useful life of giving warmth and happiness.
I use different yarns for different effects- some drape beautifully and create crisp texture while others are better for a bouncy, traditional feeling fabric with a soft halo.
I use some lovely British yarns like Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift, Pennine Collection and Hinchliffe's British Wool, that are spun in the UK from wool grown by British sheep.
Marshmallow-soft Lalland is a truly local product from Di Gilpin, based just a few villages away. It's made using only the finest diameter fibres from Scottish sheep, spun and dyed on the shore of Loch Leven, in colours inspired by the local landscape.
I use Fyberspates Vivacious for its glorious shot-silk hand dyed colours and, also, for it's practicality, being machine washable. It's spun from non-mulesed merino and is silky soft. Fyberspate's Gleem is spun from British Bluefaced leciester wool and silk and hand-dyed in glowing shades with a subtle sheen and flowing drape.
Another 100% merino yarn I use for pops of vivid colour is Colliston Yarns Merino Singles- hand-dyed in intense and complex colours up the coast, near Arbroath.
I am always on a mission to hunt down more skin-friendly local yarns and hope to include
more in my collection soon.
Scroll down for more...
Fyberspates Vivacious 4-ply
This is the glamorous workhorse of my collection, from British company, Fyberspates. I use it for it’s glorious colours, which have a shot silk effect through being hand dyed and over-dyed to give light variation in colour and tone. This is 100% merino (not mulesed) and is very soft and silky. As well as being lovely in every way, it’s also a practical yarn as it’s machine washable.
To make the yarn machine washable, it has been ‘superwash’ treated.
Colliston Yarns hand-dyed merino singles
These yarns are hand-dyed in small batches by Eilidh, up the coast, near Arbroath. She dyes her yarn with layers and speckles of colour to make gloriously rich and complex yarns. The yarn is soft mulesing-free merino wool.
Hand wash.
Lalland
This luxurious yarn is a truly local product from Di Gilpin, based a few villages away. It’s spun and dyed on the shore of Loch Leven. It’s made from only the finest diameter fibres of Scottish lambswool and makes marshmallowy-soft knitted pieces. The yarn is very warm and cosy, with a matt finish and shows knitted textures beautifully. Di Gilpin has dyed her yarn in glorious colours, inspired by the local landscape. Di Gilpin has worked some good magic to make this incredibly soft Scottish yarn- Lalland is the softest Scottish wool by far that I have been able to find, after squidging lots of wool at local yarn stores and yarn fairs.
This yarn has not been superwash treated- please handwash.
Fyberspates Gleem
A gorgeous laceweight blend of 55% British Bluefaced Leicester wool and 45% silk, hand-dyed in glowing, shimmering layers of colour. This makes fine, lacey fabics and I also knit two strands of this together to make more substantial fabrics. Bluefaced Leicester is probably the softest British wool, due to its fine fibres (25-26 microns) that have very few scales, making it smooth and lustrous. Spun with silk, this knits up into beautifully soft, flowingly drapey pieces, with a suble silk sheen.
Hand wash.
Jamieson's Spindrift
This is made from Shetland sheep wool and is grown, spun and dyed (in about 225 beautiful shades!) in the Shetland Isles.
It makes a traditional-feeling bouncy fabric with a lovely bloom.
Hand wash.
Hinchliffe's British Wool
This is dyed, spun and finished in Derbyshire, UK from British wool. Lovely, lightly marled colours.
Not superwash treated- please hand wash.
Pennine Collection British Wool
This yarn is dyed, spun and finished in Yorkshire, UK. It is made from a blend of wool from British Suffolk and Jacob’s sheep, giving a subtle marl. The wool fibres in this mix are 31-33 microns thick, with a beautiful bloom- a furzy halo of fibres on the knitted fabric.
This yarn has not been superwash treated- please handwash.
Fyberspates Cumulus
Cumulus by name and light as a fluffy cloud by nature, this baby Suri alpaca and silk mix is gloriously light, soft and floaty. The alpaca forms a soft halo of fibres around the yarn, giving warmth without weight, while the silk core occasionally gently glimmers through the haze.
Baby Suri alpaca comes from the first shearing of Suri alpaca, so makes the finest, softest fibre.
Some sensitive people (like me) who wheeze with other fluffy fibres like mohair find that that this fluffy alpaca is fine for them.
Cool hand wash gently with similar colours, do not wring, dry flat away from direct heat.
