lovely yarn, almost dry, sock pattern written, second prototype sock, the pattern testing sock, almost knit; should be shipping on Tuesday, a few places left if you would like to join in…
September Sock Club shipping soon
August 29th, 2010
Sylvia 4ply
August 20th, 2010Trying out one of the new luxury sock yarns at the moment – Sylvia 4ply. There’s only one colour of Sylvia available just now; I am saving most of the Sylvia I have for the September sock club.
So, it’s lovely! Soft, silky, robust, glistening, slightly nubby, gorgeous texture, totally luxurious. I love it even more than Stellar, which is what it really is, but with a bit more of a twist. Not high-twist, but higher twist than a standard 4ply. Perfect for socks; I used to knit with Stellar and think that really I wanted to make socks out of nothing else, and Sylvia makes me feel the same. Of course, different yarns are more suitable for different socks. But while I’m knitting with this I’m wondering if I ever will want to knit with anything else. Here is a glimpse of the sock-club-sock heel poking out of my knitting bag; the colour is Belemnite, of course.
August 2010 Newsletter, & more lace on the way…
August 11th, 2010Did you receive the Violet Green August newsletter?
August news from Violet Green ~ www.violetgreen.co.uk
- New knitting patterns:
- Stella Stole/Scarf: a textured, lacey stole/scarf, which can be knit in any weight yarn. Although this looks rather as if it was knit freeform, the pattern is systematic & repetitve, with a difficulty rating of medium.
- Hobgoblin gloves: cosy textured gloves, for DK weight yarn. The textured banding on these gloves gives them great elasticity, so they sit close to the shape of your hand, and thus are not a saggy pair of gloves! Difficulty rating for these is low to medium.
- New luxury sock yarn #1: Sylvia merino, bamboo, silk & nylon sock yarn, a silky, smooth, cool & luxurious feeling 4ply sock yarn.
- New luxury sock yarn #2: Christabel merino & nylon sock yarn, a very soft & cosy 4ply sock yarn. (Note: Christabel has sold out since I sent the newsletter yesterday)
Discounts!
- We are offering a 20% discount on our Panda Superwash 4ply sock yarn until the end of August.
- And, on our knitting patterns only site www.vgknittingpatterns.com, where all the knitting patterns are available for immediate download only (as PDF files), we are offering a 25% discount for all orders over £5, and a 50% discount for all orders over £10, again until the end of August.
That’s all for now!
Thanks for reading. We will email again in September with more VG news, but until then,
Happy Knitting,
from Violet Green
p.s. if you have been waiting for Gloriana Richmond, please see here…. & I’ve kept some aside for people who’ve specifically asked for this, so, if it runs out before you get to it, please drop me an email
And then: more lace yarn is on the way, maybe later today, maybe tomorrow…
Sereia DK & Hobgoblin Gloves
August 4th, 2010For over a month I’ve been dying to try out our new DK weight yarn: Sereia DK, a luxurious double knitting weight yarn made from 58% Merino & 42% Mulberry Silk, and finally found the time to do so this week.
Sereia DK is a single spun yarn, but it’s pretty tightly spun, so it isn’t splitty – in fact, it’s less splitty than any other yarn I’ve used. Tick.
Then, it is soft, & smooth, and has a subtle sheen; not too shiny, but something of a lustre. Comparing it to Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend, another Silk & Merino DK yarn, which I like, but find a bit too shiny (so do not choose to knit with it), I prefer Sereia. Of course, it is my yarn, I have chosen it because I like it! But anyway, Sereia contains Mulberry Silk, the finest quality silk, and I think that shows in the way it looks and knits.
Not so many colours so far; it’s a pretty new yarn…
Then lastly, and very importantly, one skein makes a pair of adult gloves. See my Hobgoblin Gloves, (knit in Amabie colour, a gorgeous rich orange splattered with pink, which doesn’t really show in the pictures), made in the small adult size, which took just 70g of Sereia:
So, Sereia DK, in fact I liked it even more than I anticipated. Not too woolly or fluffy, not too shiny. Not too bulky. Soft. Just right!
Summer Lace Club Project
July 27th, 2010The VG summer l
ace club project was a lacey, textured, freeform-style stole, or scarf, (the Stella Stole) which, however, was designed to be knit in a systematic and pretty straightforward way. I love the result.
As well as the complete Stella Stole pictured, there is an early prototype Stella Stole in a gorgeous deep reddish-purple with orange & blue flashes (Muse 4ply “Synthesis”), which I am hoping to find time to complete as a Stella Stole proper. Would love to make a patchwork blanket using this technique too – it’s a really fab pattern for using with oddments of yarn.
The club yarn this time was two 55g skeins of a truly luxurious 55% silk & 45% cashmere 2ply. We made sure that of the two skeins sent to each club member, each skein was a bit different to the other, although they all came from the same dye batches and dyeing session. The idea was that club knitters could mix up stars from the different skeins.
I can show you the remaining club yarns here, though I only have these four with a gold bias; the contrasting skeins had more green & less gold overall:
These four, no longer needed, are available to buy.
One more lace club project to go; the Autumn project will be sent out in mid-October.
July Sock Club Project
July 16th, 2010- Emergent Complexity Socks knitting pattern, a complex looking colour pattern that emerges from only 6 simple & repetitve pattern lines,
&
- 2 x 50g skeins of luxurious Muse 4ply sock yarn, in a variegated zingy orange & a deep purply black. Nice!
There are just two more VG 2010 sock club projects left to be sent out: September and November. There is currently an option available to join in these last two sock club projects.
Since it is looking unlikely that we will be able to run the project clubs in 2011, a new six month rolling sock yarn club has also been set up, which will consist of an exclusive hand-dyed high-quality sock yarn for each of your six months of membership; each yarn will be different. There is an equivalent lace yarn club too.
The July lace club project will be posted up here next week: the lace project was sent out more recently and likely has not arrived at every one of its destinations yet…