Knit Play Colour!

We love to see unique new books from indie designers here at Fyberspates so we were really excited to be included on the blog tour for Louise Zass-Bangham of Inspiration Knits interesting new book; Knit Play Colour.


The idea behind Louise's new book is not just to give knitters a strict set of instructions to follow, but to encourage them to be a bit more adventurous and make the projects their own.  With a collection of ten patterns for cowls, shawls and even a cosy blanket, this book could help to give you a little nudge out of your comfort zone and try something a little different. 

This colourful cowl uses four shades of Cumulus (Moonlight, Bottle Green, Magenta and Turquoise) and traditional undulating Old Shale lace. 


There are lots of ideas included for how to make the patterns work with different types and weights of yarn as well as adding beads, working extra pattern repeats and advice on choosing colour combinations that will really make your projects shine.  The book is really clearly laid out and many of the versions of each pattern are photographed together showing just how much of a difference your yarn choices can make.  It's a really nice idea which reminded me of my habit of browsing Ravelry projects when I'm choosing a pattern to help me decide on yarns.  You could have so much fun making different versions of the designs to suit different people, perfect for knitting gifts for the festive season and beyond! 


Most of the projects can be knitted with just a couple of skeins so they'd be perfect to make as a guilt free new project or for using that odd variegated skein in your stash you've been waiting for just the right pattern to use with. 


I had a really hard time picking out my favourite design and yarn combination from all the different variations in the book, but in the end I chose this lovely version of the Affinity shawl, knitted using Cumulus and Scrumptious 4ply both in Water.  While the other versions of this pattern use bright semi-solid and variegated yarns for a bold fun look, the self-coloured stripes of this version teamed with a few beads give the shawl really sophisticated vibe, making it the perfect finishing touch to an outfit. 

I've been thinking about some of the other possibilities for colour combinations like this one.  If you want to go for a bold bright look, how about using the Magenta shade in both yarns, or Jen's Green in Scrumptious 4ply and Bottle Green in Cumulus?  If you prefer deeper shades, how about Scrumptious in Cherry and Cumulus in Ruby Red or Teal Scrumptious with Cumulus in Moonlight?  Or you could even combine a paler shade of Scrumptious like our new Glisten shade with Cumulus in Silver or a couple of paler shades like Oyster and Camel for a pretty, delicate effect.

Louise has kindly offered us a digital copy of Knit Play Colour to give away! 


To have a chance to win, leave a comment telling us your favourite design from the book and which Fyberspates yarns you would knit it in before midnight UK time  on Friday 16th October 2015.  You can see all the designs in the book on Ravelry here.  Good luck!  :)


Louise is also hosting a knitalong for the book in her Raverly group, check it out here! 


The next stop on the blog tour is Sweet Georgia Yarns on Monday. 

New Colours in Vivacious and Gleem & where you can purchase them from!

So this week we have been previewing our new colours in Vivacious and Gleem on Facebook and Instagram.

We decided to choose colours a little different to the current palette, but that would work perfectly for stripes contrasted with the brighter colours, and also add a softer more subtle dimension. I am so pleased with how the colours came out, its always hard when you are not dyeing yourself to make sure they are as nice as you would want them to be. This process was a little agonising for me, I went through rather alot of yarn getting the colours right. Once I had perfected the recipes and timings, the yarn went off to the dyers for them to match. When I got the trial samples back in the post I was ecstatic, they did such a beautiful job, and the colours were perfect.

So... I present to you a round up of this weeks previews the new 6 colours of Vivacious and Gleem!

We started with the only new bright addition, which went down a storm Crocus, if you know tweed imps, our most popular colour, the best way to describe it is a pink version of this, its has pinks purples and soft greens in it, I am not a pink person, but I LOVE IT.

Next up we have Pebble Beach, I love this so so much,  its something a little more subtle, here we venture into grey territory. Pebble Beach was one of my most requested hand dyed colours and so it was a no brainer to add this to the palette. Pebble beach is a soft mixture of sea foam blue and drift wood on a pebbly beach:

 For the next two I wanted proper greys, but there are many types of grey, and I think that sometimes different people suit different shades, so I produced 2, a cool and a warm, both would work great with stripes with other colours etc as well.

This photo using the gleem shows best the difference in the two colours:

 

Elly is wearing Hermes Baby from the Vivacious collection in Dove stone. Damn I love that hat!

Ok, so up next we have moving on from the grey, a green grey, this is called Lundy Island because it reminded me of the green rocks and landscape of Lundy Island. Stunning!

Again the difference in the different yarns always makes me happy, this colour in the Gleem is almost ethereal in nature, its the sort of colour I would call magic, because I can't quite grasp it and yet its mesmerising. We have a wonderful had fora future collection knitted in the DK in this colour and despite being slightly multi coloured, the cables pop like crazy.

Next up, is probably my favourite, its Verdigris, this colour just makes me think of the green bloom that occurs on Copper, its rich, dark and has a metallic quality. The fact I managed to get this colour in, after alot of practising makes me so so happy, I was worried we couldn't replicate it.

So the following shops have pre-ordered the new colours and will be stocking them:

UK:

I knit - London

Darnit & Stitch - Oxford

Purlescence

Stash - Chester

Be Inspired - Edinburgh

Handmade Studios

Folly Fabrics

Laughing Hens

Coastal Yarns

Wild & Woolly 

Europe:

Laine Et Tricote - France

Wereldwol  - Netherlands

                                                Yarn Design & Co - Switzerland

 Selvstrik - Denmark

Strick & stick - Germany

Australia

A Chronic Yarnaholic

Palette - The perfect collection for those special hanks of hand dyed yarn.

We've all done it at some point; consumed with yarn fumes, we spot the most incredible skein of hand painted/hand dyed yarn at a show or in a shop, and we just can't resist. On one hand the skein is a piece of art in itself, on the other hand, the possibilities run through your head at a thousand thoughts a second. There is no option other than to buy it and take it home, it would literally be a crime to leave it on the shelf unappreciated!

Once its home, you put in your very favourite stash place, because lets face it, its risen to the top of the pile of the most coveted yarns in your stash.... (for now... until the next one!). We start to think about what it's going to be, we imagine it as a pair of socks... nah, its too nice for that, a shawl... well perhaps, but the colours might get lost on any lace patterning. That's where Louise comes in of Inspiration Knits, she has a talent and an eye (yes, she LOVES a pretty skein of yarn does Louise) for creating patterns that work super well with hand painted yarns, she uses simple stitch patterns and graceful shapes which allow the yarn to come to life and get the best out of your super special skein (or two) of yarn.

Her new collection Palette contains 2 patterns, Painted and Fresco, both perfect for using your special hand paints on.


                               

Painted is perfect for that one skein of treasure you have, and Fresco is wonderful if you just happened to be tempted by those two skeins ;)

This is shown in our very own Vivacious 4ply, in Peacock, one of our more variegated colours in this range, as you can see the stitch patterns breaks up the colour changes really nicely:

Louise is hosting a KAL (knit along) here for this collection... I'm just off to stash dive right now, I know just the perfect skein...... ;)

Happy knitting
Jeni x