It’s been a super-exciting few days as we’ve prepared for the release of batches of Old Maiden Aunt & Fab Funky Fibres hand-dyed yarn in our online shop! Lilith and Elaine both contributed special hand-dyed yarns to Confident Knitting (OMA yarn is featured in this month’s Burnished Mittens and the FFF yarn is to-be-revealed), so we were so excited when the opportunity for a more sustained collaboration presented itself.

But I’m also going to level with you, the past few weeks have also been HARD. There I was, contentedly working away on my Golden Wheat shawl, giving myself all the gold stars for picking up an old project and knitting on it monogamously. And suddenly, this turns up…

I tell you, I went weak in the knees (and then giggled uncontrollably when I saw the label). Those perfect stripes, the soft grey background and those cheery but ever so slightly muted rainbow shades divided over the two socks. It was all I could do not to drop everything and cast on with our exclusive colourway right away.

And then, no sooner than I’d had a stern talking to with myself, this showed up:

What, I ask you, is a knitter to do? The richness, the depth of Old Maiden Aunt’s shades … they are just begging to be knitted with! The complexity of Old Maiden Aunt’s colourways is really second to none … and I love that the shades she selected for us all work together beautifully! Given I have not one, not two, but three OMA projects on the knitting needles at the moment and that we have limited quantities of each colourway (in fact, at time of writing, one or two have already sold out!), I firmly forbade myself from taking any pretties from the OMA pile.

Having been twice tested, little did I know my biggest challenge was yet to come: an absolute motherload of Fab Funky Fibres sock yarn arrived on my doorstep. Sets of 100 gram skeins (pre-divided for perfectly matching socks), 80 gram sets with or without 20 gram minis for cuffs, heel and toes, the absolutely amazing Come Together sets (in sizes ranging from enough to make a fun rainbow project, to sufficient for socks for a whole family) and of course heaps more of our exclusive colourway.

For the last two years at least, Fab Funky Fibres have been my go-to for a special birthday gift to myself. I really think FFF are second to none when it comes to creating self-striping yarns that are just so creative, but also amazingly consistent. These are treat yarns, to be sure — self-striping yarns are enormously time intensive to hand-dye, so do cost more than your average sock yarn. But the absolute joy I have in knitting and wearing my self-striping socks has repaid the investment … you can imagine how hard it’s been to resist casting on a pair in every colour now that we have a whole range of them on site!

Resist I have though — because, after all, these aren’t for me, they’re for you! Our special hand-dyed update went live this morning and, somehow, my WIP pile managed to not grow over the past week, despite all my daydreaming of perfect patterns for this range of perfect yarns. I’ve gone about Monday, slightly giddy from yarn fumes, but mostly sticking to business as usual. And then this arrived.

I’ll leave you to guess if my willpower has withstood this final temptation…

Confident Shopping for our EU Customers! We are now set up to collect VAT for European Union customers (excluding Czech Republic and Romania) so that you will no longer face additional charges as your parcel passes through customs on all orders up to €150 (approximately £128). You can select to see prices in Euros in the shop so that you can keep an eye on the total. Should you wish to spend more than the threshold, you’ll need to make more than one purchase. We are also currently offering flat rate shipping on orders under the €150 threshold, £6 untracked and £12 tracked. We are so pleased to now be able to offer you the opportunity to shop with confidence from our range of yarns (including the new hand-dyed stock), books + accessories without the worry of unexpected customs bills!