If you've been on our website you'll know that we run Knitting Classes. The new dates for this year are still being arranged but will be published on the site shortly. Last year the Learn to Knit class was very successful. We like to keep the numbers small so that every individual gets the attention they need. And it's with this in mind that I thought it would be good to let everybody (that wants to) see a lovely little garment, knitted by one of last year's attendees.

  Sue is a young working mum who came to our first Learn to Knit class. She had never tried knitting before and had never even looked at a knitting pattern. Her first project was knitting a simple little cardigan for her son but unfortunately we do not have a picture of this. It was agreed that we would be allowed to take a photo of her next finished project. She elected to do a baby cardigan, for a friend of hers who had had twins; The Pattern was Sirdar  1359 and the wool she chose was Sirdar Baby Speckle DK (shade 121). Sue then came to our Tuesday evening Knit and Natter (every second Tuesday) for a bit of support with reading the pattern and to pick up some helpful tips from other knitters. As you can see from the picture of the finished Cardigan (only her second garment remember), she's a natural. We think it's brilliant. Well done Sue!

Wasn't last week's weather awful? Here we are in June and it's wet and cold. Many of our customers are still buying winter weight yarns like Wendy's Mode Chunky. But it will change!  So here are a couple of Summer weight yarns that knit up rather well.
 

 








































Firstly, there's Sirdar's Sublime Egyptian Cotton. I took a couple of shots of this garment so that you could see the detail. The pattern is Sirdar Sublime 6075. Just look at the shot on the right; you can see every stitch. It's lovely to knit with as well.
  And secondly, Freedom Echo Recycled Cotton from Twilleys of Stamford. This pattern is Twilleys 9164

Freedom Echo DK is the product of a brilliant idea. It is produced by recycling old shredded denim jean fabic and cotton. The old denims are cut ( after removal of zips and bottons ) into pieces which are reduced into fibres and spun into a soft yarn. There is no further dyeing process as the colours are produced by either using 100% recycled denim or 20% recycled cotton with 80% recycled denim. Echo has no harmful impact on the environment. We have 5 superb colours. These colours are "muted"  so when knit up, garments look like they've been "washed" several times. And when you do come to wash your garment, it won't lose its shape.

Here at Twist & Purl we encourage our customers to bring their finished garments to us so that we can publish the results and find out if they encountered any problems with the Pattern and if they enjoyed knitting with whatever the chosen yarn was. The feedback that we get can then be passed on to others. A case in point would be this garment, below. 

The Pattern is Sirdar 9429 and it is a Simply Recycled DK Pattern, but Lynn, a lovely customer of ours with a wealth of experience and knowledge, chose to knit it with Raffaella DK (shade 480). She brought this Top in on Saturday morning to show us and to let us know what she thought of Raffaella. She said that it was "Lovely to knit with" and that it "washes superbly and hold its shape really well." We value feedback like this,  especially from a lady who has, in our opinion, the fastest needles this side of the Pennines. Thanks Lynn, for letting us photograph this beautiful top and for the practical feedback.

Friday again! One of our lovely customers called in to let us see her latest creation. Margaret knitted this for her granddaughter. It's  Sirdar Pattern  9120 ( pictured left ) and as Click Aran has been discontinued, she thought she would try Hayfield Bonus Aran ( colour 0823 ). Margaret then went through our button collection
( soon to be included on the web ) and selected a bright contrasting summery button. We think the result speaks for itself but we'll say it anyway; It's brilliant!!!

Well, the Tuesday morning Knit and Natter group have gone and so have some of our Aruba Scarves http://www.twistandpurl.co.uk/Aruba-p885/ picture on the left. Everybody that comes into the shop seems to like the Aruba Scarf. I suppose it's because, of all the scarf yarns that we have in stock, this one is the softest.

 Another really good soft yarn ( and it's on offer at the moment on our website http://www.twistandpurl.co.uk/Patons-Valiani-p66/ ) is Patons Valiani. It is an Aran weight yarn with soft brushed-effect fibres to create a gossamer like lustrous sheen. The picture doesn't really do it justice ( you can just see the sheen ) but it knits up really well. 

Welcome to our Blog. Twist and Purl has been open now for 14 months and we would like to thank all of our customers for their support. We have just launched our new web site http://www.twistandpurl.co.uk so that our customers can purchase online.
 For people just joining us, Twist & Purl is a wool shop in Scholes village near Cleckheaton. We stock yarns from Sirdar, Bergere de France, Patons, Stylecraft, Wendy, Twilleys, James C. Brett, Jenny Watson and Cygnet. As you would expect we also have a full selection of Knitting Patterns, Needles and general knitting accessories. Our range of Buttons is very popular and is growing by the month. The Buttons are not on the Website yet but we hope to have them on presently with a selection of Knitting Bags.
  Scarf Yarns have been very popular this year and we have just added two more;
Aruba from Sirdar http://www.twistandpurl.co.uk/Aruba-p885/
and Rococo from Wendy http://www.twistandpurl.co.uk/Rococo-p886/. Both are very easy to knit and look fabulous when done.
  Please keep checking our Blog and Web site  http://www.twistandpurl.co.uk as we are introducing new items all the time. Every time we get a new line of Yarn or new Patterns, I will post it on the Blog.