Hello, I hope you're all ok. Thankyou for all the lovely comments on social media about our last two posts (Edinburgh and new website). We're still ironing out the odd thing on the new website - tax has been a bit of a pain as I wanted it to show prices both excluding and including vat, so that's still being tweaked to get it correct.
Today's post is all about the next update. It'll go live on Sunday the 2nd of April at 1pm UK time, and everything we add will now show up in the 'recently added' section on the website as well as in its own yarn category. So if you want to just view what's new, that should be really helpful.
If you've had a user acccount on our old website I'm afraid it won't have transferred across. We thought they were doing but it turned out it was only names and email addresses that got moved. So if you would like a user account I would suggest doing it before the update so that you don't get held up during your checkout process during the update.
Ooh, that reminds me - shopping cart hold - your shopping cart will get held for ten minutes, so that you have time to shop without anyone else buying what's in your shopping cart whilst you're still looking. However, the cart hold only kicks in once you start the checkout process. So you need to tap 'checkout', then if you want to go back for more (or if you're like me, find your debit card!) before you complete your order, you'll have ten minutes to do so.
I hope this is helpful, as on our old website it became quite a major issue with it basically overselling items that had a finite quantity, and then we had to just send the yarn out on a first come first served basis and refund who missed out. It was pretty crap and annoying! Anyway, fingers crossed our first big test of this will work out ok.
Right, so what have we got coming up for you? Well we have two yarns that both have been ages since I last dyed any - Tempo 4ply and Bedale 4ply.. also two opposite ends of the spectrum in a way!
Tempo 4ply is our proper sock yarn - it's superwash wool blended with nylon, and let me tell you, it takes a LOT of abuse. It's also the softest version of this traditional blend that I've ever found (which is why I use it, obvs!).
I've dyed five of each shade in order that I'd have a good variety of colours for you, especially if it's mainly for one skein projects - although I made my Boxy in it, so if you need a sweater's worth you'll need three-ish skeins for most jumpers and cardigans and most sizes (small sweaters might only need two; larger ones maybe four).
The colours below are... top left: Dianthus; top right: Rambling Rose; bottom left: Faded Bloom; bottom right: Damson.
The next colours below are: top left: Stone; top right: Woodland; bottom left: Robin Egg (I swear it's a light turquoise, not grey); bottom right: Cottage Original (it's hard to tell in pics but it's grey with flashes and subtle washes of pink).
And the final three batches are... top: Dale; bottom left: Cromer Pier; bottom right: Pennine Mist.
Next up we have Bedale 4ply - this is our luxurious baby yak/silk blend, and it's worsted-spun to reduce pilling. I made my shawl with it and it's such a dream to wear - it basically feels like a cashmere/silk blend but doesn't have the price tag that's you get with the high quality cashmere. It doesn't have much give, so it's very drapey - that combined with the shine from the silk makes it good for the most beautiful lace shawls and other special projects.
Here are the colours - I've dyed batches of ten 100g skeins so that there's plenty to go around.
Top left: Steel; top right: Cromer Pier; bottom left: Cottage Original (it's shades of grey with dusky blues and browns mixed in); bottom right: Dianthus.
And the next lot are... top left: Marigold; top right: Rambling Rose; bottom centre: Dianthus; bottom right: Apricot Tulip.
So that's all the new yarn, and there's still plenty left from the EYF leftovers, plus kits, books, and more. That includes four (at the time of writing) Royal Mile Shawl kits in BFL Sock.
We will send out a newsletter reminder about the update nearer the time, so if you're not already on it you might want to join. :)