Spring Newsletter
Tue 11th Mar 2008
Here we are in March and the days are certainly getting longer, if not warmer. A big thank you to everyone who visited our new West Bow shop and our Grand Opening. Debbie Bliss charmed everyone with her warmth and friendliness, and we had a veritable fashion show in the shop with everyone trying on samples of her latest designs! And the cupcakes were delicious!!
Spring is construction season in Edinburgh and barely a street in the city is free of road works these days! Nevertheless our Edinburgh customers are undeterred and seem to take the mini-diggers (the machines, not the men) in their stride! However the Grassmarket conversion is now in full swing and by summer we will have a host of events including classical concerts, farmers market and craft markets (yippee) happening on the weekends just outside!!!
K1 now has the latest in spring yarns and more are arriving every week. At our West Bow Grand Opening Debbie Bliss showed off her new Prima yarns, a blend of merino wool and bamboo. This yarn is perfect for summer knits as it gives you the best of both worlds; the forgiveness and softness of wool with the silky shimmer of bamboo! The new Prima Pattern book has designs that look great on everyone!
Also new for this season is our larger selection of Rialto, 100% super wash merino wool in a DK and Aran weights. This yarn is super soft and also great for children's garments due to its machine washability! One of the best value pure merino wools around, now available in the new spring colour range at both of our shops and online!
Fyberspates continues to provide the shop with some of our most glamorous and exciting yarns. This spring Fyberspates have produced some very beautiful DK weight 100% silk yarns. The yardage on these yarns is amazing and with the current trend for shawls and stoles these hand-dyed silk yarns will give you a rapid result! New and very very exciting yarns will be arriving from Fyberspates in the next few weeks, including something very near and dear to my heart, but more about that soon.
One of the best selling yarns in our new Edinburgh shop this spring has been our favourite Old Maiden Aunt (aka Lilith Green from our Glasgow shop) beautiful silk and cashmere 2ply hand painted yarn and Lilith’s 100% merino sock yarn (loads in a skein). This locally produced yarn is exquisite! I have to say, that the 'K1' colour (created especially for us) has been a big favourite, selling out in Edinburgh in both the silk and cashmere and the 100% merino sock yarn in a matter of days! If you haven't seen these yarns yet then you should soon!!!
Scottish yarn lovers will also be excited to hear that we have expanded our range of Jamieson’s Shetland yarns. And, we now have the entire colour range from Orkney Angora in their beautiful St. Magnus DK. This has long been a favourite with us and now I am happy to say that it is one of our hottest selling yarns! It is official, angora is the big fibre for 2008/09! Orkney has the best range of colours I've seen, and now also available in gossamer fine 2 ply pure angora! Pure luxury!
At the moment I have two (only two) projects on the go. Last Friday the new spring colour range and pattern book for Araucania’s chunky cotton Patagonia and Chacabuco yarns arrived. This has to be the perfect yarn for summer knitting projects. If you, like me, are always in a race to get that summer project finished in time to actually wear it in the summer then these brightly hand painted chunky cottons are for you! I immediately grabbed some of the luscious tangerine coloured chunky Patagonia cotton and started to knit ‘Ines’ from Jean Moss’s new book Wandering Spirits. It is wonderful to have a summery, soft cotton yarn but in a chunky weight that knits up so quickly. For once I will be ready for the summer even before it arrives (when is that again). And it is chunky enough to keep me warm through those chilly summer months!!! Also perfect for the ultimate non-scratchy children’s knits.
I have also been working on a new design for our Habu Shosenshi yarn. I am happy to say that our Cricket pattern continues to be one of our biggest sellers. This spring I decided to create a new design combining our Linen paper Shosenshi and Habu’s Silk and Stainless steel yarn. The results are extremely exciting and a textile the likes of which I have never seen before. Stay tuned and I will let you know as soon as it is on our display!
Oh dear, there is so much more that I want to tell you about all of our new yarns! However I must leave some room for news about our new spring range of Knitting and Crochet Classes. Our Learn to Crochet classes were the big hit of the season in Glasgow, due mainly to Susan and her wonderful projects. In this mini course Susan will have you crocheting in no time and her magic pocket bag is so cool that you will have to have one of your own (see our Classes page for details).
In Edinburgh we have started our first series of Sunday afternoon Learn to Knit classes. These classes, taught by accomplished designer and extraordinary knitter Ysolda Teague, are selling out quickly so book your place as soon as possible!
Also new for spring: Knitting Clinics! Our lunchtime clinics on Mondays will offer mini classes to help you sort out all of your knitting woes. Whether you are having a specific problem with a particular project or just hoping to move on to the next level there will be a knitting clinic especially for you. The topics change weekly so have a look at our Classes page to find out more!
Finally, I just wanted to thank all of our customers for being so supportive during the past 6 weeks and helping to make the Grand Opening of our second shop such a huge success. In particular I would like to thank our Glasgow customers for being patient with us while we worked to double our staff size during February! Now that everyone is trained up I am very happy to announce that we are now open again on Mondays in our Glasgow shop. Our temporary Monday closure was due to my not being able to be in two places at once (sorry), but now that Marissa and Sarah have joined the team in Edinburgh I will be back in Glasgow once again!! Looking forward to seeing you all again soon!
