spinning a yarn

I thought it was about time for a knitting and yarn related post and tell you about what's on my needles at the moment and some of my latest discoveries.  Coincidentally this is also the weekend that the new yarn company Hill View Moments launches on line, and I have been fortunate enough to try their yarn myself. It is hand dyed in beautiful muted tones.

As always, whether sponsored or not, I only ever recommend products that I have tried and tested myself, and I want to point this out as some companies expect bloggers to feature their products just for a fee without ever having tried it. I never use stock photos, only my own so that I can prove I have had the product in my hands before I recommend it.  If I don't like it I send it back.

On my recent trip to Loop in London (a beautiful yarn shop in Islington's Camden Passage) I fell in love with some lace shawls they had there, the pattern for one is a free Loop pattern and the yarn is an exquisite hand painted Freia Californian lace weight, the free pattern is available here.

This is a perfect pattern for a beginner and I'm now completely hooked on knitting lace, so I've ordered a book with more patterns and bought some Madelinetosh lace in a gorgeous pale silvery colour.

I popped to see Natasha at Hill View Farm to show her the things I had knitted with her chunky wool, this jumper is from a pattern written and designed by Renee at East London Knit and is worked from the top down.  I usually alter patterns to fit me, being a bit shorter in the body and smaller around the head than most average sizes.

The Starflower Sweater has a discount on the pattern so pop over to East London Knit's blog post here for more information.

the Hill View Farm yarns are hand dyed in the most exquisite colours

Madelinetosh lace weight

Freia hand painted californian wool with free Loop pattern.

As I adapted the Starflower Sweater to be shorter than suggested with a longer rib, (finishing at the waist), I had enough left over for some hats and fingerless gloves.  I'm going to write a rough guide for these and let Natasha at Hill View try them out.

Natasha kindly took these photos of me wearing them when I popped over to her new premises this week.  Hill View Farm will be hosting retreats when the building work is finished, the bespoke luxury accommodation is currently being built, it will be a unique experience where you can meet the sheep that provide the wool and see how the yarns are dyed.

I can't wait to try out the other weights of yarn from Hill View, keep an eye out at https://www.hillviewmoments.com/ as I know Natasha is busting a gut to get them all up on the site as soon as possible.

Keep those needles clacking and let me know if you have discovered any mind-bloowingly beautiful artisan yarns.  This is a 'no acrylic' zone.  

Love and bunnies from Janice x