We are busily preparing for the Great London Yarn Crawl – Pop-Up Market Place at the Old Chelsea town hall this weekend.

We will be exhibiting at the market place which kicks off the great crawl, before all you crafty adventures set off to wonder round some of London’s greatest yarn and haberdashery shops.

The market place is open exclusively to yarn crawlers, before being open to the general public (12noon til 7pm).

You can find more information about the Yarn Crawl and Pop-Up Market Place here. Details of all the exhibitors and info about which crawls will visit where. Should be a fab yarntastic day!

To get you tingling, here’s a bit of what we are bringing!

PLUS, a few new Tops! We love a surprise…

…It is that time of year again where the nights start drawing in and the mornings have that chill … which can only mean one thing … that the Christmas elves are starting to get busy and we here at John Arbon Textiles are putting our latest catalogue to bed.

So, drum roll please, for the new John Arbon Textiles catalogue number 10 (out very end of October)…

Here is the cover

We have had so much fun putting together this year’s catalogue … there are lovely new yarns and socks, and lots of new fibre tops!

Two days with lovely photographer Ray and fab foot model Charlotte where Juliet and Frankie ran around styling, tweaking and sock matching … So many colour combos!

Our favourite socks to shoot were definitely the new and improved Alpaca Bed Socks (we have slightly adjusting the knitting and made the yarn even softer and created brand new gorgeous shades) … this is why they are proudly on the cover.

The new pastel tones are just so pretty and look so whimsical against the shrubbery and steps.

We also have new colours of our Stanbury Walkers and have a re-designed and improved version of our Exmoor Socks (both made from our wool of our local sheep, the Exmoor Blueface).

The new catalogue will be ready for the end of October.

And, if you are on our mailing list, you will automatically be sent one in the post.

If not, and you would like one, simply request one on our website HERE.

And, if you can’t wait till then, here is a sneaky look at behind the scenes photos…

Its official, we are now well into the run up to Christmas and festive cheer is starting to bubble…

With the unveiling of our updated website this morning and the impending arrival of our new catalogues on your doorsteps

…We are getting very excited here and are now starting to prepare for our next show – Bath Christmas Market!

On our up-dated website and in our new catalogue you will find a number of new scrummy things!

In sock world we have brand new and improved Alpaca Bed socks! A more snugg and cosy fit in lovely new colours, these socks are perfect for wearing when relaxing (or knitting) in front of the fire and or cosy in bed. The new colours are available in size 4-7, and select colours are also available in size 8-10 too.

We have also re-styled The Exmoor Sock, still in the fab and fun colours, but now a neater, less baggy and slouchy sock.

And we are introducing a number of new colours to The Stanbury Walker … we love the Walker and our local Farmer, John Stanbury, who has the very sheep who provide the wool these socks are made from.

The new Stanbury Walker colours are tonal and autumnal to complement the zingy bold original shades.

Our new yarns include Alpaca Delight – an incredible soft and luxurious pastel range with natural colour complements. This yarn is a blend of Alpaca and Merino and is a fingering weight so perfect for shawls and wraps or light weight jumpers.

Harvest Hues is another new yarn range. Made from our dyed Merino tops blended with the bouncy and characteristic Zwartbles. Frankie at the mill designed them by blending coloured tops together and adding a hint of Zwartbles and the outcome is a beautiful mottled range of rustic fingering weight yarn.

And if you would like to spin your own yarn, we also have Harvest Hues in Tops. This Merino / Zwartbles blend is also perfect for felting and other crafty thngs!

Happy Wovember wool lovers!

With each November, comes Wovember … and Wovember is about celebrating all things WOOL.

Instigated by designers Kate Davies and Felicity Ford, the movement celebrates real wool, whilst highlighting the misuse of the term wool in product labeling – campaigning for clear and non misleading terms, such as wool rich, and adopting clear and concise compositions.

At John Arbon Textiles we love to use pure wool. There is no substitute for it. We produce lovely knitting yarns and fibre for spinning, felting and other crafts from wool. We also have our sock range using yarn we spin, made here in the UK. Our production concept is simple – a return to old style textile manufacture sustainably sourcing raw fibre locally wherever possible and converting it in Britain into high quality tops, yarns and textiles.

We support our local community by using the Exmoor Blueface Sheep fleece in some of our hand knit yarns – Excelena, a yarn created by John and used by designer Susan Crawford and our Exmoor Sock yarn, and 3 of our sock ranges – the hard-wearing, cushion soled Stanbury Walkers, the everyday Exmoor Socks, and the knee-length Exmoor Country Hose. We also use our local Zwartbles sheep in a few of our yarns!

We are very passionate about the cause, and endeavour to raise awareness of why wool is good. You can find out more information about Wovember and read the numerous wool posts covering every aspect of the wool market here.

Louise from KnitBritish is doing a fabulous swatch along, where by you are invited to knit swatches using 100% British single breed yarn. Knit a swatch, and give it some rigorous testing.

British wools have so much character, bounce and depth to them. The natural tones are so exciting and can be mottled and full of depth, which makes them amazing for hand dying or crafting in natural shades.

You can find yarns spun by us using British fibre at our specialist worsted mill in south Molton

Excelana
Exmoor sock
Harvest Hues
Zwartbles

Or if you are a spinner / felter or other crafter and want to get crafting British for Wovember, we have a number of single breed and blended Tops made from British wool including

Zwartbles

Exmoor Blueface
Exmoor Horn
Scottish Down Cross
Exmoor / Zwartbles
Gotland
Jacob

Have fun experimenting with different fibres and embrace all wool!

Happy Wovember!

We are very excited to be doing our first woolly trunk show of the year!

We will be visiting the lovely Rachel at Sitting Knitting at her yarn shop in Sutton Coldfield.

We will bring with us from Devon a selection of our yarns, scrummy tops, and some socks…

It will be the first ever outing for the complete range of ‘Harvest Hues’ … a fingering weight Merino yarn blended with our local Zwartbles wool. The natural dark brown Zwartbles in the blend creates a rustic and buoyant yarn.

Also making its first appearance is our Alpaca Delight fingering weight yarn … a super soft yarn with a beautiful drape when knitted. The colour range includes some lovely pastel to compliment the natural shades.

We will also be taking along some trusty stalwarts … a selection of colours from our beautifully blended Viola range, our Alpaca 2-3ply heavy lace, our Exmoor sock yarn (made from our local sheep) and our Zwartbles range in 3 natural shades.

So, John and Juliet will be at Sitting Knitting between 10.30 & 4.30 on Saturday 23rd January.

Address:

Stable Gallery, to the rear of 7 Belwell Lane, Sutton Coldfield, W Midlands B74 4AA

tel: 0121 308 4205
http://sittingknitting.com/

Hope to see you there

John has now confirmed which tops we can squeeze into the Van alongside the Yarns when he visits Sitting Knitting for the trunk show (Sat 23rd Jan, 10.30-4.30!)

Sitting Knitting
Stable Gallery, Rear of 7 Belwell Lane
Four Oaks
Sutton Coldfield
West Midlands
B74 4AA
United Kingdom
Telephone: 0121 308 4205
Email: Rachel@sittingknitting.com

So if you are a spinner, felter, or any other type of fluffy crafter you can look forward to this splendid list of tops we will be bringing along!

Our Natural coloured tops include…..

Alpaca superfine in brown.

The incredible Alpaca Supreme, a blend of Alpaca, Merino & Silk (in white and anthracite) … just breath taking and glorious.

And the rustic but amazing and bouncy Zwartbles, in its natural dark brown colour.

Natural White Tops include…

Organically Farmed Merino & Silk blend.
Organically Farmed Polwarth.

Our local fleeces the Exmoor Blueface Lecister & Exmoor Horn (great for spinning begginers and felting).

Wensleydale, a luxurious long wool fibre (amazing drape).

And the Dyed and Blended Tops

Knit By Numbers (100% merino) – in Orange, Purple, Turquoise and Teal

The Knit By Numbers range is fab for if you want to experiment with making our own blends and colours.

Harvest Hues, the Merino & Zwartbles blend, in all 7 colours – you will be able to see what colours they spin up as by comparing them to the finished yarn!

We look forward to seeing you there…

Again, we wont be able to take everything with us, so if there is something you were wanting or expecting might be there, drop us an email (Juliet@jarbon.com) or phone 01598 752490 and we can let you know!

A week or so ago we had some very special guests pop into the Mill in South Molton… the BBC’s Countryfile team.

They had heard tales of our Stanbury Walker socks and wanted to learn more…

So John told them how his dream of making a sock from the fibre of his local sheep, the Exmoor Blueface, started over 10 years ago after many a chat in our local pub, The Rising Sun, with our neighbourhood Lynton farmer, and friend, John Stanbury. They both agreed that it would be amazing to wear socks made from yarn spun at our Mill in South Molton from the fleeces of the very sheep that Farmer raises on the rambling hills of our home village of Lynton. And so John (Arbon that is) set to work… and now, a few years later, proudly produces a comfy, yet strurdy, cushion-soled walking sock knitted from local Exmoor Blueface wool. And he has rightly named these after the farmer who tends the sheep that produce the fleeces … so they are called the STANBURY WALKER.

As Countryfile came so far to hear this tale, they decided to see more for themselves.

They spent a blustery January morning up on the hills in Lynton with Farmer John Stanbury – they visited his farm and flock of Exmoor Blueface Sheep, finding out about the farming and history of our local breed.

They followed this with a visit to our John (Arbon) at the Mill and saw local fibre being processed and spun into yarn – they were introduced to each of our vintage Mill machines in turn and learnt how the fleece of a sheep that lives just up the road can be transformed into a beautiful yarn and sock.

We all had a splendid afternoon showing off the Mill machinery that John has spent the last 15 years lovingly gathering, re-conditioning and transforming to full working order.

Ellie, the lovely Countryfile presenter, asked John many a question. And John even knitted a sample Stanbury Walker sock on an 100 year old, hand operated knitting machine in front of her eyes – and then Ellie had a go at knitting one herself!

So there you have it, a truly fab day spent sharing the process of turning our local fleece into a comfy sock.

And, so you can share in the wonderful time had by all, the Countryfile team filmed Ellie’s visits to both the Johns and are showing highlights of the days happenings during their programme on BBC TV on Sunday 24th January at 5.30pm…

We would just like to end by thanking the Countryfile team for visiting and sharing a moment in our wondrous world of wool deep in the heart of beautiful North Devon.

Our next show is coming up in only a couple of weeks … and it is Wonderwool. You can get tickets here.

We love Wonderwool as it has such a range of exhibitors and a wide array of customers, loads of you who love fluff and fibre – so much so we have to check the fibre cans regularly to make sure there is no one hidden in them!

So this year’s Wonderwool is going to be pretty special for us. After suggestions from you lovely woolly folk, we have under taken the massively gigantic task of making all the Knit by Numbers colours in 4ply. So not only will we be taking the 91 current shades in DK hanks but all of these colours will also be there in 4ply as well! And oh my, it’s something to behold!

So, Wonderwool is going to be the first place ever that the 4ply we will have it available … fresh off Kevin the spinning machine.

The 4ply, which is 400m per 100g, is perfect for Fairisle, lace, light weight garments… you name it! It knits up beautifully, and is a light weight loveliness.

Our Knit By Numbers is made from 100% Organically Farmed Merino and the 4ply will sit alongside the DK (250m per 100g) in all its colourful glory!

Phew, but as well as the Knit by Numbers excitement, we will also have all the usual Tops and fibre, plenty of broken Top bags, and our other lovely yarns.

We are so excited to be able to share the 4ply KBN with you and it will be put up on the website in May after our Open Weekend, (more info here). So until then you will only be able to get it in the flesh … or hold tight a little while longer for the website if you are unable to make it to either Wonderwool or our Open Weekend.

Here are some photos of the 4ply Knit by Numbers being prepped as we speak if you cant wait!

Look forward to seeing you!

The John Arbon Textiles Team x

Last year for our Open Weekend we invited you to bring your crafted goodies made from something we produce which entered you into a competition to win a Mill Membership.

This year, we are once again inviting you to bring along something crafted with our fluff or yarn. But this time you will be entered into a raffle draw to win one of a few goody bags! Entry is FREE, you just have to register your crafted wares in exchange for a raffle ticket.

We love to see what you have all made – it is always a treat!

So we will be looking forward to seeing you (and your items) and wish you luck in the raffle!

Here are some photos of what the lovely people entered last year…

Wonderwool Wales was the very first outing of our brand new Knit by Numbers 4-ply. We took it along in it’s beautiful new display cabinets (hand made for us by the joiners down the road from the mill in South Molton).
Having the huge range of colours in DK and 4ply side by side on our stand looked amazing … 91 different shades of each creating a glorious colour experience!

We had our regular yarn ranges as well, including Viola and Alpaca 2-3 ply. Along with Frankie’s Sweet Clementine shawl pattern … knitters are now starting to finish their projects and share their photos, the shawls are looking great.

We also took along our Harvest Hues 4ply range – a blend of beautiful shiny Merino and rustic Devon Zwartbles. And also our Alpaca Delight 4ply – soft, powdery pastels with punchy limited edition colours.

John and Becky dis a fab job maning Top island. We had so much Fibre with us, more than ever before at a show. All the colours and fibre blends we could possibly cram into our trailer! We know you Wonderwool folk love your spinning and fibre crafts, so we always took some extra special things along, including James’ crazy Haslem Super Gills where he blends numerous dyed Merino shades into colourful limited edition blends.

If you couldnt make it to Wonderwool this year, here are some more photos of our stand, and a lovely photo of John and Juliet recieving the prize for best big stand. And as always, thank you very much to the lovely organisers for doing a great job and having us again.

Love John, Juliet and the entire team that worked so hard to get the Knit by Numbers 4ply a reality!
XX

Our 3rd Mill Open Weekend is now just around the corner (Sat 14th and Sun 15th May)!

We are busily polishing our most prized machines – they will be standing proud waiting to show you what they’re capable of!

Here are a few photos of our machines in action to wet your appetite!

If you have booked onto a mill tour please arrive at 10 mins before your tour is due to start.

All the pre-bookable slots for tours are now taken, but you can still come along if you haven’t booked onto a tour. We will be holding more tours (shorter and simpler ones) on both days but sadly we are not able to give specified timings or pre-book any spaces on any of these … spaces will be allocated on the day on a first come, first served basis. And, of course, if you just want to come along, buy some goodies, have a look see, eat some cake and not go on a tour at all, of course this is also fine. We are not sure how busy we will be, but it will definitely be quieter on the Sunday.

The whole team will be with us over the weekend – they will answer any questions you might like to ask, plus helpers from the village will be serving tea and cake. The Mill team are very knowledgeable and passionate – you will know who they are as they will be wearing their dungarees. Plus the shop and office team, less knowledgeable about the machinery, but equally as enthusiastic about everything woolly, will be identifiable in their blue pinnies.

All the cans will be brimming over with fibre, we will have huge amounts of yarn, plus baskets of socks … and very special offers and limited edition goodies available too over the weekend.

We will also be running a raffle to win a goody bag. There will actually be a few goody bags up for grabs, just bring along something crafted out of our yarn, fibre, or even a creature made from an old sock! We really love to see what people have created, your talent is never ending. The raffle is free to enter – all we have to do is see your item and log you in and you will get a raffle ticket.

We can’t wait to see you and show you how the mill has developed even in the last year! We are hoping for beautiful weather, but if not, we have a super marquee and tables and chairs where you can sit, knit and natter.

If you need further directions or information we have a page on our website here.

Love John, Juliet and the team XX

Thank you to every single person who came to visit us at our Mill Open Weekend … it seemed to be a great success and we have had lots of positive feedback.
We hope you had a fab time being shown around the mill and have more of an idea about what goes on behind the scenes here!

There was tea and cake aplenty! We were very lucky with the weather, and it was great to see lots if happy knitters, spinners and crocheters not only visiting but enjoying the sunshine outside the marquee whilst partaking of their crafts. Thank you.

Lovely guild member’s Brenda and Jean spent the weekend spinning up our fibres on their wheels and answering many a spinning query!

John and Sara did an amazing job of showing everyone around the mill and letting people in on a few secrets! I’m sure the biggest gasps come with the splicer demo – it’s like magic, not a knots in sight!

Here are some photos of John giving tours and explaining how the fibre process works…

John shows how the machine with no name works…. Clint is working on the Daughter of a Shepherd yarn, Hebridean with a hint of Zwartbles.

Going on to explain how Ralph works, he is working on blending The Little Grey Sheeps Gotland yarn. Yum!

We had lots of entrants to the goody bag raffle! We look forward to sharing the photos of the entries with you! Everything was spectacular! The winners will be drawn when John and Juliet return from there holidays, so keep your eyes peeled and we will let you know if your a winner!

A special thank you to the mill folk who made the machines look so sparkly and were willing to share some of the their tips! And also a big thank you to the extra helpers we had come along (you know who you are)! And to Andy of Wooltops who came along to share his undyed white yarns. And for Amanda Perkins for putting 2 of her beautiful crochet blankets on display for all to see.

We had such a lovely weekend sharing our Mill with you all … and are now feeling more inspired than ever, so lets get spinning!

Lots of love, The John Arbon Textiles weekend team!

John, Juliet, Frankie, Daisy, Sara, Becky, James, Lorraine, Judi, Ginette, Sandra, Pat, Alan, Rowan, Julia & Lewis. X
And thanks to Amanda, Andy, Pauline, Amy, Brenda & Jean! X

Beautifully spun Corino Top

A beautiful cardigan made from a Alpaca and Silk blend.

Hand spun Light Steel Alpaca Supreme yarn.

A lovely cardigan made from Alpaca Supreme, and with other Alpaca yarns.

A fab hand spun and hand knitted shawl by charming regular Russell.

The cutest Russet Bear, hand spun and crocheted.

Little Mitts made from Blueberry Alpaca Delight yarn.

At hat made using Viola, modelled by her super cute dog.

Katies beautiful cardigan, near enough finished made from last years special Open weekend yarns in Bluebell.

A denim style waist coat using Knit by Numbers denim shades.

Hand dyed and knitted lace shawl.

Hand spun and hand woven fabric.

Juliet is presented with a hand spun skien made from Merino / Zwartbles Bracken, formally Fibrestarter. By Brenda who also entered…

A great story of this ladies first attempt to knit and felt something. It didnt turn out quite right! The second attempt is a successful beret!  Made from hand spun Blue Spruce.

Hand spun sections of this lovely scarf using Merino Silk Siren.

This lovely lady had used her time in hospital very well knitting her Powdered egg Excelana Balero.

Incredible little felted sheep. The lady has been trying really hard to create a Herdy sheep, she now has a whole flock she jokes. I would say she is there!

Incredible hand spun and hand knitted shawl.

Hand spun The Three Supremes. The blend looks just incredible when all spun together.

A lovely sock and mitten set made from Alpaca Sock yarn in Avocado.

Lovely Knit by Numbers jumper, good colour on you!

Two lovely girls who had knit hats for their bunnies!

And finally, and hand felted shawl using Siren.

Good luck to everyone!! We look forward to drawing the winners, thank you all for putting hard work into your projects and willing to share them with us.

Love John & Team X

As part of our bustling Mill Open Weekend on the 15/16th May this year, we invited you lovely woolly folk to bring along anything you had crafted using something we made at the Mill – be it hand spun, knit, crocheted, felted, sewn, or everything all at once!

The winners were not based on our favourites (cos lets face it, that would be all of them), but were drawn from a hat (or should I say fibre can!). So, when John & Juliet returned from their holidays we set up the special prize draw fibre can and John plucked out 10 lucky winners (there were only supposed to be 8 but we loved everyone’s entries so much we thought we would pull another winner from each day, Saturday and Sunday, to make it a round 10).

The lucky winners will win a lifetime Mill Membership which comes with a needle gauge, button badges, access to a secret web page and discount opportunities on for future purchases. However, if you are a winner and already a Mill Member, you will be receiving other treats in your goody bag.

So, without further ado…
Drum roll please…
The lucky winners are…

no.64 – Christine – A lovely cardigan made with a Alpaca and silk blend yarn

no.44 – Isobel – A crocheted hat for a very cute toy

no.43 – Honor – A crocheted hat for another very cute toy

no.49 – Megan – A sunny yellow bolero

no.61 – Judy – An intricate intarsia Alpaca Supreme cardigan

no.46 – Susan – The beginnings of a herd of fantastic needle felted Herdwick sheep

no.63 – Gillian – Lots of hand spun yarn, which will become a hand knit fairisle jumper

no.48 – Christine – An array of hand spun / hand knitted yarn and shawls

no.59 – Russell – Hand spun, hand knit hap shawl

no.56 – Katie – A cardigan using last years mill special yarn

A massive congratulations to all the winners and a huge thank you to everyone for making it such a special weekend … as always, we love to see your finished wares so please feel free to share them with us!

Rightio, back to packing for WOOLFEST this Friday and Saturday (hope to see you there).

Love John, Juliet & the whole team

Earlier this year we were featured on BBC’s Sunday evening tv programme Country File. They told the tale of our lovely Stanbury Walker Walking Socks, a trusty hard-wearing cushion-soled sock, which we are proud to say is named after our local farmer, and friend, John Stanbury who rears the very sheep that produce the fibre for the socks!

In celebration we have now released a selection of limited edition colourways in our Stanbury Walkers.

You can find them here in the specials section of our website.

As these are limited edition colour combinations, we will not repeat them, however we are aiming to stock up our regular 8 shades for the autumn. The Mill is busily spinning more yarn for the socks right now so it can then be knitted up like crazy into a huge mountain of socks.

Other new things this week on the website include the Knit by Numbers range in 4ply! An incredible feat took place to get all 91 colours spun into a beautiful fully worsted 400m per 100g yarn. Go team! And it wonderfully compliments the original double knit range in the same shades.

We also have a few new Fibre Tops for hand spinning, felting, or any other fibre craft … including Corino (a cross breed of the Merino and Corridale sheep) and Perendale.

And, if you are a Mill Member, you will have first look at our Stanbury Walker Sock hand knitting yarn in natural white, and brand new Corriedale Cross Top which is in a rich natural brown colour.

Lots of new treats to share…
Enjoy!
Over and out!

We had a busy time between us at the beginning of July here at John Arbon Textiles… John and Juliet went up to Durham Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers, whilst over the same weekend Becky went to the Exeter Guild who were hosting their annual fleece fair (she is a member of the guild but this month she took lots of treats in the form of fluff!) Becky was exhibiting with lots of other talented Devon fibre crafters and John was giving a talk to the guild in Durham, explaining how he began his life in the textiles industry and eventually became the master of spinning at his Mill that he is today. A lovely weekend at both ends of the country.

Other exciting things … new to our secret Mill Members page on the website we have the natural Brown Corriedale Top, and also a new Top which is a blend of said natural Brown Corriedale with 20% Mulberry Silk which makes a super classy, silky, dreamy Top. They are currently only available to Mill Members, however will make their way over to the main website after a period of time when a new run is made up at the Mill.

OK, so we are currently busy preparing lovely woolly things for Fibre East, our next show at the end of July.

Ampthill, Bedfordshire, MK45 2NU – 30th and 31st July 2016
Saturday 10:00-17:00, Sunday 10:00-16:30

Find there website here!

We hope to see you there!

Drum roll!

After 2 years of waiting, we have managed to locate the perfect fibre to produce a beautiful Devon bred and processed Bluefaced Leicester Top. And we hope you will agree it was worth the wait!
It has been selected from breeders on Exmoor and then graded and sorted at the South Molton Wool Board depot. Our wool agent, and close associate, Andrew Bowman of Wooltops, has then sorted the wool again removing 20% of unwanted kemps and inferior fibres.
The result is an exceptional BFL at 26 micron with superb lustre and a handle, unlike any other BFL on the market at the moment.

We took this magical Bluefaced Leicester Tops for its first outing to Fibre East, and it went down a treat!

We had a ball at Fibre East as always. So, thank you to everyone who came to see us there and all those who worked so hard to make the show happen! We had a fab time!

Our next show is Yarndale at the end of September, more info nearer the time!

But, for now though, you can find our lovely Bluefaced Leicester on our website here. And here are some lovely images of the actual sheep the fibre came from. Aren’t they just adorable!?

Last week was a flurry of organising and tidying in the Mill before the arrival of two special Italians! One was human, and one, not so much.

So, without further ado, let us introduce you to out newest member of the team… GINO! He is the non-human Italian and is our first ever brand new piece of machinery (all the others being 2nd hand and re-furbished). Gino is a lovely and shiny new cone winder. He goes super fast and is very clever. And he came with the human Italian – an engineer who came to install Gino for us and teach us all the finer points on how to use him to his utmost! We have let the human go now (thanks Massimo!) and Gino is now settling in quite nicely.

So, here are some photos of him being moved into his new home.

But, never fear, Rupert Lee (our current cone winder) has been temporarily retired (but only for a sabbatical) until John gives him the spruce, polish and detailed re-furb he deserves. He will back with us, all systems go, before we know it!

Thank you so much for everyone who came to visit our stand at Fibre East! We had a wonderful time.

If you couldn’t make it here are some photos of our stand to show you all the woolly treasures we took with! And a close up look of a few of the Tops we took along too.

Harvest Hues Top in Pomegranate

Temptation

Devonia Top in Ocean Rain

Alpaca Supreme Top in The Three Supremes

Alpaca / Polwarth Top in Cappuccino

Jane Rumsam visited our stand and kindly brought along her beautiful shawl knit in our Alpaca 2-3ply yarn in kingfisher – she has made this gorgeous lacy shawl…

Thank you so much to all the organisers of Fibre East who made it such a wonderful show.

Our Knit by Numbers range is what we would consider our most show stopping display. We are, therefore, going to share a brief history of KBN before we tell you the really exciting news, (by the way, it’s small and cute.)

A small idea with big potential created by John almost 7 years ago. The Knit by Numbers range is named after one of John’s fun pastimes when he was a child – Paint By Numbers, whilst at the same time being a homage to the celebrated Pantone colour charts.

Paint By Numbers, for those too young to remember, were essentially painting kits – drawings of light blue or grey lines indicating areas to paint … each area had a number written in it and a corresponding numbered colour paint to use.  This very activity inspired the naming system of our Knit By Numbers colours … each shade being allocated its own number, rather than a name.

Meanwhile, in John’s later youth, the Pantone colour charts became one of his staple tools – a gorgeously elaborate colour matching system depicting samples of colour after colour, with tonal matching shades alongside.

And this colour selecting delight inspired the tonal colour variation that Knit By Numbers has become.

John and Juliet took their new concept to Unravel 2011 where they revealed their Knit By Numbers 100% Merino DK gradient range for the first time. Back then there were only a modest 9 base colours in 6 different gradient shades. This photo is from the outing and we are happy to say we have improved our presentation a bit since then.

We are now up to 17 different solid base colours all in 6 different gradient shades, plus white (a total of 103 different colours).  But there is always time for a new set of colours – a constant expansion to supply every colour the heart desires!

Last year we had the excitement of spinning the entire range in a 4ply / Fingering weight in all the same shades – which now sits proudly alongside the DK range (both available in 100g hanks).  This opened up so many more possibilities taking it from a stash jumper or cardigan staple to the potentials of light weight shawls and garments!

And now for the grand unveiling…

Adding a new dimension to our Knit by Numbers range, we now have the long awaited KBN mini in 4ply weight!  These super cute little bundles of joy are sold in 25g / 100m mini skeins, with the idea you can create your own gradient sets, fades and Fairisles!  We have photos some of our favourite combinations to give you an idea how the colours can work together, where accents are great and how understated neutrals can be.

We have taken these out to a couple of shows so far this year (they travel in a trusty rustic apple chest)

But now you can find them on our website here.  Each skein is £4.25 or a selection of any 6 for £24.  There are currently 103 colours to choose from.

Here are some of out most favourite patterns that use gradients to get you inspired… We cant wait to see your colour combo’s, be they crazy medleys or modest gradients.

Aranami Shawl

© olgajazzy

Winterlight

© AtelierMeg

Spearmint Tea

© Kateryna Golovanova

Changing Light

by Jennifer Weissman

Changing Light
by Jennifer Weissman

Fragmentation

© Amy Gwatkin

Nakarra Wrap

© Ambah