How lovely are these Noro Silk Garden Aran and Sekku lace yarns? I think they are really inspiring and just seeing them makes you want to get knitting!

There’s lots of quite unusual colour variations especially these lovely spring greens, just right for that really special lace weight scarf or shawl or perhaps an aran jacket. There’s some lovely patterns too in the Noro City Girl Pattern Book especially this fabulous and very stylish jacket.

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Daffodils are everywhere now around the fields and gardens of Cornwall, certainly Spring is on its way! The evenings are getting lighter, very slowly, and hopefully the worst is over – fingers crossed!

My choice for the ‘Yarn of the Week’ is the Lang Merino 120 which is a DK yarn, it’s so soft and made from 100% Merino wool. It comes in a 50g ball and has a length of 120 meters. Just right for knitting a cardigan or jumper for the coming months ahead. There is a lovely choice of shades and colours on the website so just have a look and be tempted!

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Dear followers of my ‘News’ page – Just so that you don’t think I have deserted you for good I apologise for my absence during this month which has been due to a family breavement. However, I am now back from Yorkshire and will be following this bit of news with something much more positive and cheerful. In the meantime have a look at the changes on the home page of the website and although there are some mentions still of Christmas and gifts & presents it is also taking on a new image for the early months of 2012. ‘Daffodils’ which are all around us now in Cornwall – ‘lovely’, it just makes the heart ’sing’ to see fields full of them.

Also the January sale has not taken place as planned but all those of you who have left your email address will be getting a February Newsletter with information on the discounted yarns. So please watch this space!

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Our prize draw closes tonight and so make sure you leave your email address on the website today!

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There’s lots and lots of lovely, ‘Christmas last minute’ knitting ideas in this month’s ‘Knit Now’ Magazine from hats and mitts, lovely chunky shrugs, desk tidies and coffee cosies to Sadler’s Wells leg warmers – so all you need to do is raid your stash of yarns and get knitting. These small projects can certainly be finished in time for Christmas if you get going now!

Featured also in this issue is our very own Cornish Eco Leicester Longwool 4ply which is hot listed on page 21 and also on the ‘Wish List’ one of our very own Terry Pearson’s lovely and unique Spalted Beech wooden buttons. The pattern Vandit Hat and Mitts on page 72 uses the truly fabulous Schoppel Wolle Zauberball which is also available on our website in a number of shades, I think this could be my very next knitting project in the making! I just love knitting with the ‘Zauberball’ !!

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For me this is such a special knitting wool and certainly one to covet! It is so so soft because of it unique construction which looks like a very fine and very light rope. The shade is magical, it has a silvery soft iridescent freshwater pearl effect and would make the most wonderful gilets, sweaters and accessories. It is a chunky yarn so would make a very light extra layer for these chilly Winter days when the cold winds seem to get everywhere. Fabulous for hats, gloves and scarves too!

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If you’re Cornish born, love Cornwall or just have a special place in your heart for this wonderful County that is Cornwall, then you must read this feature in the latest issue of ‘My Cornwall’ magazine. Megan Westley unravels the history of Cornish knit-frocks and guernseys, it’s a totally facinating comment on a very important part of Cornwall’s social history.

With it’s roots firmly set in the fishing industry, the Cornish knit-frock and Guernseys were originally made by local Cornish women from tightly knitted wool which provided vital warmth and protection from the sea-spray and blustery winds. They were made with individual village or family designs so that lost guernseys or fishermen could be identified.

Today the tradition continues, in not quite the same way but the book ‘Cornish Guernseys & Knit-frocks’ by Mary Wright is available and has lots of traditional patterns and so is Frangipani 5-ply Guernsey yarn which is produced from 100% British Wool and has it’s home right here in Penzance. This fabulous guernsey knitting wool will be available very shortly on our website as will Mary Wright’s book but if you want to know more in the meantime then send me an email and I can send you some samples and you can order over the telephone if you wish.

Get your copy of Issue 9 December11/January12 of ‘My Cornwall’ magazine and read this really interesting feature. This magazine is excellent value at £2.95 so why not subscribe and treat yourself or give a gift subscription as a Christmas gift – to do this contact Morag Cunningham on morag@mycornwall.tv and please say you heard about the magazine from Cornish Wools.

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Yesterday when thinking about this news section on the website I had the idea to share with you some of the fabulous yarns we have in our ‘Knitters Heaven’ of a shop. Everytime I go down into the knitting gallery my heart gives a leap at the gorgeous knitting wools that are now available and so I have decided to choose one each week, quite at random but one which tugs at my sleeve – so here is my very first ‘Yarn of the Week’.

For this first weeks sharing I have chosen King Cole Romano in shade 383 ‘Firebrand’ and isn’t just that. It’s such a gorgeous, unusual looking yarn and so inspiring for Christmas knitting or for a very special Christmas gift for someone special. There’s lovely cherry red silky sections mixed with bits that look just like they have just come off the spinning wheel, looking all knobbly and bobbly like its been hand spun and then there’s lovely fluffly plummy bits – it’s an amazing yarn, really one to covet and a real ‘must have’.

Romano Chunky comes in 50g balls, each ball is 60 meters or 65 yards long and is made from 25% wool, 62% nylon and 13% polyester. You will need to knit this fabulous yarn on size 8mm needles and the tension is 12 stitches and 16 rows (10×10mm square)

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Look out for the Christmas issue of ‘Knitting’ magazine because on page 17 you will find this lovely feature on Cornish Wools. It tells about the quaint and quirky little Cornish village of Perranuthnoe in which Cornish Wools is situated, on the Lynfield Craft Centre, it also shares with you how this ‘knitters and crafters paradise’ has become a ‘must visit’ and a ‘destination’ place for many, not only local customers but very much for knitters from around the UK and Overseas alike. It also tells about my ‘Old Piggery Dye & Soap Workshop’ which is where I can often be found concocting a new batch of Cornish Artisan hand painted yarns or some truly gorgeous hand made and totally natural ‘Cornish Palm’ soap. It also tells how I can often be found dressed in my finest and oh-so-stylish dyeing apron chatting to customers in the shop having just nipped around from the back where the Old Piggery is to be found.

There’s also a run down on just some the many and varied gorgeous traditional, exotic and luxury yarns and accessories to be found in our Knitting Gallery. We are fast becoming ‘known’ and ‘certainly the knitting shop to visit’ so come and find Cornish Wools in Perranuthnoe if you’re looking for something inspiring, interesting and different.

Come and find us – there’s directions on the website but essentially it’s just a turn right off the A394 Marazion to Helston road, so, turn right, head for the Sea at this point and when you arrive in the village you will find us on the left, there’s lots of signs and you just can’t miss the Cornish Wools flag.

We’re here and waiting to meet you – do come and see us.

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Here’s a simple crochet pattern to make with either a 20mm crochet hook or ‘fingers’.

Giant chain crochet scarf, 1.5m in length – you will need 1 ball of Maxima and a crochet hook or your fingers.

Method: Make a chain 1.5m long = approx 90 sts. 2 turning chain, turn and form bobble by working htr into the 3rd chain from hook. *Ch 4, 1 htr into 5th ch from hook*, rep from * to * to end. Fasten off ends neatly.

The Lang Maxima Accessories Pattern Book has some lovely ideas and patterns and the extreme 20mm needles seen here are available from our shop in Perranuthnoe so just give us a call and order over the phone. Terry Pearson our resident wood craftsman, makes the extreme needles and also 20mm crochet hooks so for the most unusual Christmas gift why not give a ball of Lang Maxima and either an extreme crochet hook or a pair of knitting needles.

The Lang Maxima pattern book and the Maxima yarn are both available on line.

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