vanessarama.net

After my trips to Lincraft and Clegs last week, I’ve discovered some interesting stuff.

1. Clegs have begun stocking accessories from Clover. It’s obvious that someone who Knows About Knitting is acting as their buyer, as they have a really good range of knitting stuff across all sorts of price ranges now. There’s everything from your cheap wools and acrylics (Cleckheaton Country Wool, Colour 4 Me and some Panda yarns) through the nicer basic yarns (Totem, Country Silk, etc) up to some very pricey Anny Blatt novelties. They have wool-silk, they have mohair blends, they have hand-dyed from NZ and they even have several varieties of sock yarn (as well as Patonyle, they now have some Naturally 4-ply and some self-striping imported yarn I’ve never heard of, but which looks quite good). Their prices on Clover stuff are pretty reasonable.

They have a good variety of needles too; nothing fancy, but basic plastic, metal and bamboo, straights, doubles and circulars. They also have some inexpensive shawl pins - I bought a round shell circle-and-pin, and a straight dark wooden one, for about three bucks each.

2. Lincraft have also been stocking up for autumn/winter. Fortunately, they seem to have fewer appalling frou-frou novelties than in previous years, and more interesting ones. They’re still stocking a range of Katia, including the self-striping one (Mexico?) and some chunky ones. There’s also a couple of Lincraft branded yarns with interesting qualities - one is a metallic viscose blend which comes in silver, gold, black/silver, black/gold and I think a bronzy colour, and the other is a basic slightly fluffy acrylic with holographic sequins in it - that comes in black, raspberry, teal and one other colour which I’ve forgotten. I got some of this to make some kind of flashy evening scarf (in the black, naturally…)

Lincraft also have some cotton dishcloth yarn eminently suitable to making the Mason-Dixon ballband cloth, and they’ve also got recyced silk in a number of different colourways.

There’s some interesting new yarns from the Patons/Cleckheaton stables - Shadow Tweed looks rather interesting.

Of course, I’m doing my best to knit from my stash at the moment, so the point is moot. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself…