Excitement

We've got a lot of reasons to be excited just now. First of all, there's new yarn in the shop, and it's amazing! There's Jamieson and Smith Jumperweight in the subtle undyed colours you can see above. Shetland wool has Protected Geographical Status under EU law just as Roquefort cheese and champagne have: wool can only be legally sold as Shetland if it's actually from the islands. This is beautiful yarn - it's what traditional Fair Isle is knit in, so it's strong enough to steek and soft enough for garments. Just a few days ago, we got our first delivery of Skein Queen yarn, which is just as lovely but utterly different. We've got sockweight, laceweight and cobweb, and the colours are as vibrant as the Shetland's are quiet. The sockweight comes in two blends, one that's half merino, half silk, and one that's merino with some nylon for strength and wear. The laceweight (they call it Delectable, and they're quite right too) is half merino and half silk, with generous yardage of 700 metres. But for yardage, the cobweb wins: 2600 metres of merino/silk/cashmere in colours that have to be seen to be believed. But our greatest reason for bouncing up and down in excitement just about now is that Kate Davies is coming back to This Is Knit to give a workshop on steeking tomorrow. The event's been booked out pretty much from the moment it was announced, though some people were lucky enough to get a cancellation place last week (it really is worth putting yourself on the waiting list if an event's booked out, you know). Kate was here for the Yarn Tasting last September, and it was very very hard to let her go away again. She's an excellent teacher and a very talented designer, and we're very honoured to host her workshop. Some of us simply can't wait.