There are so many exciting decisions to make when putting together a programme like Boost Your Knitting, but one of the really fun ones is picking yarn ranges. We’ve got a few criteria when choosing yarns for such a big undertaking. First and foremost, we have to LOVE knitting with the yarns. They also need to be widely available, and produced by companies that have a range of options in terms of yarn weight and fibre mix. There’s beautiful variety in the yarns for Boost Your Knitting, so whether you love a silk mix with sheen and drape, or the crisp crunch of a traditional Shetland wool, you’ll find plenty to get excited about in the yarn line up!
We are so pleased to be working with Fyberspates again — their yarns, with their vibrant colours and terrific textures, are a firm favourite with us! From their beautiful Scrumptious range, which features silk and merino, to their bouncy Vivacious yarns, we are thrilled that Fyberspates’ ranges feature in Boost Your Knitting!
The glorious shades of Socks Yeah! DK. Image © Jesse Wild.
Another cool aspect of Fyberspates is their work with independent designers to develop their own yarn lines, and we’re also really excited to be featuring some of these ranges! Coop Knits Socks Yeah! lines, with their happy heathered hues, are yarns we come back to again and again!
A selection of Nua shades. Image © Fyberspates.
We’re also pleased to be using Stolen Stitches Nua, a yarn line developed for Carol Feller. Nua is a unique blend of wool, yak, and linen. The presence of linen, which takes the dye differently than the animal fibres, and the yak, which lends a light brown colour to the yarn base, result in a finished yarn with a tweedy appearance and shades that have loads of depth and complexity!
Schoppel Wolle pioneer unusual spinning techniques as well as incredible gradient and space-dyed yarns. Image © Schoppel-Wolle
Two more favourite yarn companies from A Year of Techniques are making a second appearance for Boost Your Knitting. We love the fun gradients and unique textures of Schoppel Wolle — look out for the yarn’s first appearance in the programme in March! And with some really fun colourwork techniques on the roster for this coming year, you better believe we’ll be making good use of classic colourwork yarns from Jamieson and Smith! I love the crisp feel of Shetland wool and the beauty and variety in their massive colour catalogue!
2ply Jumper weight from Jamieson & Smith. Image © Jamieson & Smith
In addition to all of this, our own Something to Knit With yarns, of which we’re enormously proud, will feature as well! Made from a blend of 70% Peruvian highland wool and 30% superfine alpaca, our deliciously squishy yarn, available in 4ply and Aran, is a real workhorse, singing in everything from cables and lace to colourwork and stocking stitch. And both weights comes in a cheerful rainbow of shades!
Jim and I with your Something to Knit With 4ply. Image © Jesse Wild.
Something to Knit With Aran Rainbow! Image © Jesse Wild.
We’ve got a limited quantity of Boost Your Knitting Spring Kits in the shop, which include all the yarn you’ll need for the first three projects, as well as a few Ultimate Boost Your Knitting NOW SOLD OUT packages, which include the Boost Your Knitting programme and all four seasonal yarn kits. And we’ll also be stocking all the yarns featured in Boost Your Knitting in our online shop throughout the duration of Boost Your Knitting.
While we’re so thrilled to have such great yarn support for the patterns and techniques in Boost Your Knitting, accessibility is important to us, and I appreciate that not everyone can afford to purchase the called for yarn, seasonal kits, or even the book itself. I love seeing what people come up with when they choose to stash dive for one of our projects! And all the tutorial videos from Boost Your Knitting will be free to use on YouTube. So you can join in all of the knitalongs and learn with us this year without making a purchase if that’s where you are at, and that’s absolutely fine. If you want to support us there are lots of other ways to do that without having to spend… from reposting and sharing what we are doing with your friends, telling your local yarn shop about us, favouriting our patterns on Ravelry, liking us on Facebook, and so on. Our business is the sole source of income for our family, so your support, no matter how big or small, means a great deal to us!
We’re so excited for the first pattern release 1 March — not long to go until we start boosting your knitting!