Finally, finally, it is cool enough to wear a woollen sweater and obviously, from the point of view of a yarn shop owner that is a great thing. I welcomed the weather on Saturday morning with relief, even though I know that it means that the shop will become much colder for the next few months.
It had an energising effect on our customers too. Yesterday afternoon, apart from hosting a lovely buzzy afternoon of people casting on the Ranunculus top, we were kept busy with people asking for advice about sweaters, or bringing in patterns in order to find the appropriate yarn. So I thought I would tell you about what jumper patterns seem to be hot right now, and what yarn we have that might work for them.
Firstly, Petite Knit is the go-to for many people. We are now stocking a range of her patterns in hard copy, but I have had to order in more of the two current favourites: the Ivy Sweater and the Novice Sweater. In fact they are quite similar garments, except that the Novice has ribbed neck, sleeves and hem. Both are knitted in the round from the top down but are very simple in look and construction. Both can be knitted in our fabulous new yarn, Snefnug which is flying off the shelves. One of our customers on Saturday afternoon was knitting the Olga Sweater which is striped and it looked fabulous. This would be knitted in a DK, which is a standard yarn weight for jumpers. I reckon it would look amazing in the Stylecraft Pure Wool which has recently arrived and which is proving to have amazingly good stitch definition. All these patterns are available on Ravelry. The photos below show the Ivy, Novice and Olga.
Mandy was wearing her new favourite pattern yesterday, the Dead Easy by Karen Fernandez. This is a t-shirt, but Mandy cheerfully lengthened the sleeves and made it into a jumper and swears that it is very easy to do. I hope so, because it is a gorgeous light sweater which can be knitted in any 4ply/fingering weight yarn of which we have a variety in the shop, from my own hand-dyed yarns, to Malabrigo Sock and not forgetting Knitting for Olive’s Merino. It is knitted in only two sizes – small to medium and medium to large, and it will need a maximum of 200g by the looks of it. I have added it to my wish list, that is for sure.
I could spend the entire day listing gorgeous sweaters – cabled ones, patterned ones, high necked, bulky, aran. So many amazing things to knit. I am going to stop here, however, and instead say that we are in the shop Tuesdays to Saturdays and very very happy to help you find what you need. We look forward to seeing you!