In January a brand NEW crochet magazine is going on sale called ‘Simply Crochet’. We are all very excited here at the Black Sheep to see what it has to offer. I am sure it will be full of fantastic patterns and advice! I found this cute little Angel pattern available to download for free from their blog page. There are lots of posts to inspire your crochet projects and even a sneaky peak at the magazine itself!

Have you seen all of the gorgeous Lantern Moon accessories now available on the Black Sheep website?
There are a selection of fun tape measures including detailed hand crocheted designs such as the cat and pig. Pop over to the website now to see even more knitting accessories including the cute stitch markers and many more tape measures.

 The latest edition to our Lantern Moon range are the shawl pins, priced at £11.99 each. The pins are hand carved from buffalo horn and will add an exquisite finishing touch to any garment. I can imagine one looking great on a waterfall wrap cardigan or a delicate scarf. Carol has recently finished knitting the one ball scarf in Rowan Kidsilk Haze Stripe, so we decided to try out the ‘Calla Lily’ shawl pin. It looks really pretty don’t you think?

Another handy accessory to help out with your knitting is the ‘Knit Out Box’ £32.99. This will keep your ball of wool in one place and avoid any tangles. The box is made from silk and is lined in a contrasting shade.

Rico Creative Reflection is a yarn that we were all already too excited about before it even arrived here at Black Sheep Wools HQ. Sample balls of each shade had been floating around for a while, so many an idea for potential projects had been considered. Once the yarn arrived along with 6 pattern leaflets the project decisions had been made for us, well apart from deciphering between the various designs. It had to be one of these. The yarn is multi – tonal with a metallic thread running through. Up to now two finished projects have been completed.

Catherine has knitted the pom pom scarf using shade – blackberry 002, following pattern 138. This leaflet contains 4 varying scarf designs.  

Stacey has knitted a lacy wrap in shade – forest 005, following pattern 140. A little different to the other shades with a gold metallic thread as opposed to silver. The great thing is you don’t need that many balls. For example this wrap takes just 3 balls to make.

Rico Creative Reflection is available to order on line now for £2.99 a ball.

Back in May we went to visit Sirdar to see the new Autumn / Winter yarns and patterns. Now the yarns are available to order I wanted to share the photographs I took while we were there. It is nice to see what the garments are like off the pattern page and from different angles. If you see anything that takes your fancy head over to the Sirdar page here.

Faroe & Softspun Chunky

Montana Dk

Folksong Chunky

A list……..this has got to be the best option when it comes to deciding on your new season projects. My list is growing by the day and I would imagine come the end of September it will be so ridiculously long, if I were to make everything on the list I’d be busy until Winter 2014 (at least)! I guess this is what happens when you are surrounded by yarn everyday. Whenever I see something that catches my eye – a yarn or new pattern it goes on ‘the list’. There are so many tempting new yarns arriving by the day including……..

At the moment I can’t get enough of the new Rowan Tumble yarn. The shade palette is like an array of sugary sweets, so tempting and delicious. Although we are still in the month of August and the ‘season’ we like to think of as Summer I have already knitted a Winter hat! Completely inappropriate for now but something I look forward to wearing come Winter. It knitted up really quickly with its chunky rib and simple cable. The only thing is I now want to knit my way through whole of the Tumble book.

Emma who works here at the Black Sheep is knitting the hat in the cream shade 560 – Marshmallow. Even the names make the yarn hard to resist.

 SMC Tendance – This is an unusual, wool blend, textured yarn from SMC. I can imagine a loose garter stitch scarf knitted in this yarn showing the tufty texture and bobbles beautifully.

Debbie Bliss Blue Faced Leicester Aran – This is a new yarn from Debbie Bliss and comes in a selection of traditional shades including shade 08 – red which has to be one of my favourites. I like the idea of the ‘shadow cable sweater’ from the accompanying Debbie Bliss book. Knitted in the red shade this would make a fab Christmas sweater.

These are just a few ideas going around my head at the moment. When I do eventually decide and start knitting I will be sure to share any finished projects with you here on the blog. Have you started any Winter knitting yet? Maybe even one of the new yarns. I would love to see any photographs of finished projects. Please email them to amy@blacksheepwools.com and they will go up on the blog. It is always inspiring seeing what everyone has been up to. Possibly making ‘the list’ even longer!

Sirdar Aruba has just arrived in stock here at the Black Sheep. This is the new scarf yarn that I mentioned seeing at Sirdar in last weeks blog post. There are 8 gorgeous shades to choose from including the two shown below Bahama and Mosaic. The Aruba is only £6.48 a ball and one ball knits one scarf. There will be an easy to follow instructional video up on our website later today.

We have just added this gorgeous new yarn from Katia called Azahar to our website. The yarn is very versatile and can be knitted / crocheted in many different and creative ways. Katia have made easy to follow instructional videos to help you out. They are available to view on their website. Click here to take a look.

The ruffle scarf pattern only takes one hank to knit using 4.5mm needles. The yarn can also be used as a trim and crocheted within a garment. Take a look at some of the patterns in Katia Elegance book No.70.

Have you seen the new yarn from Sirdar?

Sirdar Raffaella is a beautiful new yarn for Spring / Summer 2012. Choose from the perfectly pastel shade palette of lilac, pink, lemon……….click here to see all of the shades.

There are a range of patterns to accompany the yarn including the ones featured below.

We have just added this gorgeous scarf yarn from Rowan called Kidsilk Haze Stripe. To knit the scarf you only need one ball. The pattern is featured on the ball band and is also available to download for free at www.knitrowan.com. There are some beautiful shades in this yarn all of which are available to order online now for only £15.99 a ball. Click here to see all of the shades.

If you sign up on the Rowan website you can download many more free patterns including two designs knitted in the Kidsilk Haze Stripe yarn.

Have you you seen these cute cross stitch cushion kits by Vervaco?

There are 3 different kits to buy to complete the tractor and trailer set. The kits are available to buy from The Black Sheep priced at just £21.99 each. Take a look at the cushion kits here!