June was another busy month at ECY!
It is truly a pleasure to work with people from all over the world - it’s one of the biggest things that I’ve always loved about my job and I get as excited about it now as I did back in 2011 when I got my first international stockists and knit/crochet designers getting in touch. On that note this month’s wholesale orders have gone off to Loop in London, Seam in Exeter, Yarnaholic in Japan and Joy in South Korea. Loop and Yarnaholic are shops I’ve been working with for many years now, Seam is a bit newer, and Joy is a brand new stockist for us. So as well as the variety of places we also have a variety of long-standing, medium, and brand new relationships there. How cool is that?!
Moving on to designers, there were two notable pattern releases using our yarn in June. First of all there was the More Than Crochet cardigan by Hanna Gough (in the pic below). This is a long cardigan which uses our Keld Aran (superwash merino/linen) and looks like it’s going to be brilliant for layering. I can see me wearing it as a single layer in summer but then over more layers in the colder months. I am planning to make one and have decided on the yarn but haven’t started it yet - it’s next in line though! Hanna has been holding a CAL for this, and if you’d like to know more about her we have a great interview with her on the blog HERE. She’s designed a couple of lovely accessory sets in our yarn too.
The next design was Four Seasons Fair Isle Throw by Michael Harrigan. This is an incredible piece - it’s four panels knitted using stranded colourwork (and steeking) then sewn together to make a good sized blanket. Each panel represents a season, so the pattern is the same on each one and the contrast colour is the same but the main colour changes to reflect the season. This truly is an heirloom piece and what an honour that it uses my yarn. The yarn is Keld Twist which is (coincidentally) also superwash merino/linen in a 4ply thickness but made with two plies. I think any 4ply yarn with a bit of grip/structure/bite to it would work the best for this project although I must admit I’ve done colourwork with our Titus 4ply before which is smooth and silky merino/silk and that worked out fine!
Update news!
We actually only had one update in June and that was Keld Fingering plus Eldwick Lace. It was a big one though! Keld Fingering is of course our superwash merino/linen fingering weight (like 4ply thickness but slightly finer) singles yarn; and Eldwick Lace is our super-kid mohair/silk 2ply laceweight. “Super-kid” is the mohair equivalent of saying extrafine merino or baby alpaca - it means it’s the finer and softer fibres. I have to be honest I can only wear our mohair because of this. I’ve tried others and found them too itchy. Anyway, that was a big and exciting update which went well thankfully. We’ve still got both yarns in stock and they are gradually selling. I appreciate that deciding on yarn for things like sweaters and bigger projects is a bigger decision than buying one skein on a whim, and I think I can tell that that’s what happens when I’m picking the orders. The sweater quantities are often at least a few days after an update goes live and I always wonder if the person has been pondering over colours and stuff. Gone are the super-stressful days of releasing an update and everyone clamouring to get armfuls immediately then complaining if they miss out or our website glitching and overselling something then having to email to explain.. it’s far more civilised these days, regardless of the reasons for this change in buying habits.
There were of course projects and FO's in June too, but I'll leave it there for now!
