Anticipation

Take a deep breath, yip you smell that right? The air around here is ripe with the smell of anticipation. The Irish Yarn Club is soon to open memberships on October 24th and last year memberships went pretty fast!

The Irish Yarn Club is now in it’s fourth year and each year brings with it something special. Carol designs 3 items that go with the unique colourway and yarn weight dyed by 3 talented Irish Hand Dyers. This year that will be Hedgehog Fibers, Townhouse Yarns and Dublin Dye Company. There is lots more of the technical information on the Yarn Club page over on ThisisKnit.ie and if you would like to hear about how it all started you can read Carol’s Blog Post from our archives here.

I thought I would showcase some of your fine talent and Carol’s patterns from previous years there are no spoilers in this post I’m afraid and each year Carol has mixed it up and kept even myself and those in This is Knit guessing! First up from 2014’s yarn club is one of my favorites and I’m all about hats at the moment. Tempano is a cabled hat in Hedgehog Fiber’s twist sock. The choice of cable and twist sock base allows the cables to really pop. The Image here is from a lovely knitter, Polli, who joined the yarn club all the way from Finland. (Yes they do post worldwide for the club!)

Handknit hat in Hedgehog fibers twist sock Design by Carol Feller — polli’s Tempano in Hedgehog Fiber’s Twist Sock

It was hard to chose a pictures for 2014’s shawl Dunderry but rkavanagh’s Dunderry in Coolree Silk/Baby Camel fingering snapped it for me. My eye’s just kept going back to it. The silk allows the lace pattern to really open up and it drapes beautifully. You lucky knitters, 2014 was a special year.

The final pattern in 2014 was Talium in Dublin Dye Merino Sock and these are a real treat. The have short rows shaping the heel and toe with an elegant arrow pattern running the length of the sock.

2015 was a new year and brought new exclusive colourways and they do like to mix things up and Townhouse Yarns joined in. Carol designed the lovely Fortune Green Cowl for the Camden Tweed Base and this is to this day one of my favourite cowls and yarn bases. Cowls are a lovely gift knit but also very handy in have in your bag and pull out when the weather suddenly turns a bit nippy. This cowl has a slightly wider base to allow you to really snuggle up in it and the lace and cable panels really add a celtic flair to the knit.

Jazzycath's Fortuen Green Cowl — Jazzycath’s Fortuen Green Cowl

The surprise of 2015 was the pattern Dalchini, it’s a fun lace knit in Dublin Dye Company Alpaca Sport. here kkkkate has made the Flapless version suggestion on the forums by Carol. There is a lot of action in the Irish Yarn Club forum and Carol and the staff from This is Knit will be there to help you out.

kkkkate's Dalchini in Dublin Dye Alpaca Sport — kkkkate’s Dalchini in Dublin Dye Alpaca Sport

The final pattern in 2015 was the Feamainn Shawl in Hedgehog Fibres Silk/Merino Lace. I love the stunning colourway and did I mention that these colourways are never to be repeated?

We are almost all caught up and last year the team behind the IYC shook things up a little. You can read Carol’s blog post for the full background but suffice to say the introduction of yarn from an Irish mill in Donegal was as added to the mix and then dyed by Dublin Dye Company. Carol designed the hat pattern Sheephaven to showcase the beautiful flecks in the Donegal yarn. Yvonne from Dublin Dye chose a lovely subtle colour to bring out these flecks too. That was really something special. This is secretly (or not so secretly) a favourite of so many knitters. The yarn is lofty and just asks you to be cabled (You don’t talk to your yarn? You should, it’s very chatty)

Sheephaven by Carol Feller in Dublin Dye Company's Donegal WSC base. — Sheephaven by Carol Feller in Dublin Dye Company’s Donegal WSC base.

If that wasn’t enough of a shocker, everyone thought that the patterns would just be for accessories right? Oh no Carol designed Kompeito in Hedgehog Fibres Merino Lace which has a very generous 1200M and allowed this beautiful shawl / vest to really shine. There was many an excited squeal when those packages where open, I don’t quite know how the serves of Twitter held up to the tweets and excitement!

Konpeito by Carol Feller in Hedgehog Fiber's Merino Lace — Konpeito by Carol Feller in Hedgehog Fiber’s Merino Lace

The final pattern is one that I can’t believe I missed out on (gasp! I know I missed last year sniffle) Probys is made with Townhouse Yarns gradient mini skeins. The pattern has also popped up later in Knitting with Rainbows because it was loved so much! The mitts below are by the wonderful filidhruadh on ravelry who joined in all the way from Switzerland!

filidhruadh's Probys mitts in Townhouse Yarns Mini Skeins — filidhruadh’s Probys mitts in Townhouse Yarns Mini Skeins

So what surprises are in store for you this year? Well your going to have to head on over to the Irish Yarn Club page to find out!

See you next week

Nadia

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Carol Feller

The Knitting Blog of Carol Feller

Anticipation

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