Have you heard about the fabulous knitalong hosted by Kristen of Kristenmakes and Sarah from Rhinestones and Telephones? I am so excited! It is for both complete beginners (like me!) and experienced knitters.
We will be knitting the Cadence pullover by Jordana Paige, which is free from Knitty. I'm super excited to jump straight into knitting a pullover with Kristen and Sarah's help. The knitalong will begin in September but will be a nice slow pace. Kristen's already posted some amazingly helpful pieces of information about yarn on her blog. I want to make the pullover in a lovely teal wool to go with my new pencil skirt (and maybe a cute peter pan collar or other type of blouse underneath?)
What's even better for me is that Kristen and I both live in Edinburgh! Whoohooo--super happy that I can pick her brain, get lots of help and of course go shopping for yarn together! We did the latter this last weekend. Being a complete newbie to knitting, it really helped to have someone in the store with me explaining the weights and difference between all the yarns.
One of our first stops was the yarn section of John Lewis. The great thing about the store is that they have a section of the yarns already knit up so you can see the consistency of the yarn, feel it in a semi-worked up state and see the entire colourway.
One of the yarns that caught my eye was the Rowan 'silk twist'. It comes in such pretty jewel tones colours. Luckily, they had a sample patch knitted up and it was really luxurious to the touch!
It also came in a yummy teal colour! Hmmm...this is definitely in my top 5 potential yarns for this sewalong. The only downside is that it is quite expensive. Each ball costs about £7 and we need quite a few balls of this for the sweater (about 8). EEP! That definitely adds up. I'm keeping this one in mind but I'm going to keep looking for other wool yarn I love.
The next place we hit up during our shopping trip was K1 Yarns Knitting Boutique--an independent yarn shop in Edinburgh. Shopping at an independent yarn store appeals to me more than a big chain store and K1 is really lovely. The staff are very personable and they have classes and tutoring sessions at the store. As an added bonus, they also have a very limited supply of really neat batik and wool fabrics!!
The owner of K1 makes a lot of her own patterns. This jumper in the window is one example. This is my second favourite yarn as well. It's called scrumptious :) Unfortunately, they didn't have it in teal in their store--but they had lots of other lovely colours. I did end up finding the same yarn (scrumptious aran) in teal on a website called Fyberspates and it looks like it is almost the exact same price as the the twisted silk yarn. Hmmm... I might still hold out for something cheaper??
I really love how the yarns are arranged at K1! These are some of the lace yarns--so soft.
Are you doing the knitalong? What are some of your favourite yarn shops/online retailers?
