Beautiful Sock Yarn & Wool for Your Next Project
Imagine tossing a stone across land from the Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea. We stopped at Mavis Grind on our way to Northmavine, where Shetland Mainland is at its narrowest point measuring only 33 metres. So if you are a good aim, it should be possible. I’m not sure if that would be feasible anywhere else. It was windswept. It was cold. It was beautiful and wild.[Read More]
I was really looking forward to seeing the Shetland Sheep when we visited Shetland. I love Shetland wool, it is so soft and beautiful.
I’ve knit accessories for myself as well as garments for the Sasha dolls. I adore wearing the wonderfully soft, light and warm hats, fingerless mitts and scarves that I knit using shetland wool.[Read More]
When we visited Shetland, I knew I’d want to bring some wool-related souvenirs home. But I’m sure that is on the top of every knitter’s wish list when they are going to the home of Shetland sheep and Shetland wool… Especially if they love doing any fair isle or colour work knitting.
So please join me on my week of Shopping in Shetland…[Read More]
In the week before we left for our holiday I knit a fair isle tam. I chose 15 different Shetland yarns using a triad colour scheme in purples, teals and a hint of orange to add a little bit of zinginess.
The pattern I used was Tam No 12 designed by Mary Rowe and published in her book Knitting Tams: Charted Fair Isle Designs. I adore this book. It has a short section at the front on the construction of a tam followed by the charted patterns for all 17 tams. I had so much fun deciding how to use my colour choice in the pattern.[Read More]
No one can have escaped notice of the popularity of the Harry Potter books and films over the last few years. However, have you ever considered how many knitted items are prevalent in J K Rowling’s series? I thought that I’d read the second book in the series for the umpteenth time!!
Despite warnings not to go back to school, Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts to find that there is a threat to the students from a beast that has been held for decades in a hidden chamber somewhere within the school.[Read More]
In September we went for a long anticipated holiday to Shetland… I’ve wanted to visit Shetland for a very long time and eagerly read blog posts about Fair Isle knitting, the Shetland Wool Week and also love reading 60 North Magazine. October is going to be Shetland month on the Knitting Squirrel as I share the wonderful experience of a week spent walking and exploring Shetland Mainland.
“60 North Magazine – A quarterly publication which covers stories about all aspects of life in Shetland – bringing you inspiration, interesting information and stunning photography.”
We’d decided to treat both of our long drives as road trips. Why you are probably wondering, did someone who gets sea sick decide on a holiday involving four ferry journeys when she could have flown? Well it really all comes down to wool… Shetland wool… and how much you can squash into luggage for a flight? So we needed to bring the car. It also gave us an excuse to spend a week in the Cairngorms National Park on our way back! You’re going to love November… red squirrels… lots of red squirrels!
So join us for our Journey to Shetland! We left home in Belfast at 2:00 am to drive to the Stena Line ferry terminal to take the Stena Superfast VII to Cairnryan. It sailed on time at 3:30 am and we arrived in the port at Cairnryan pretty much on time just before 6:00 am. I usually take sea sickness tablets but made do with wrist bands on this leg of the journey. I curled up under my quillo and tried to snooze on the ferry. Neil couldn’t sleep and spent most of the time reading his novel.
We drove north along the South Ayrshire coast for about 30 minutes, pulling into a car park near Girvan with a view of Ailsa Craig.[Read More]
I love the colours of these lovely socks. They are comfortable and warm. I love the autumnal colours in the rusty metal. I photographed this sheet of rusty metal a while ago when I was walking on the beach. It had been washed up near the old boathouse. Amazingly rich colours of the rust and the interesting textures and jagged holes in the metal really appealed to me and had me reaching for yarn and needles even though these colours aren’t ones that I usually work with. I love purples and blues and greens so working with russets and golds are slightly outside of my comfort zone. But it is fun doing something different and I enjoy exploring different colour combinations.
I used one 50g ball of Crystal Palace Sausalito 8107 Fall Herbs and one 50g skein of Artesano 4ply Alpaca 8774 Ecuador to knit these socks. These socks would be equally beautiful knit using two solid-coloured Opal or WYS sock yarns. Imagine how glorious they would be combining a Crazy Zauberball with one of the solid-coloured sock yarns.
[Read More]
The Sekku and Kidsilk Striped Scarf is a beautiful scarf for wearing on a cooler summer day. It is a light airy scarf knit using 3 lace weight yarns in the beautiful colours of a summer meadow.
The lace yarns are truly beautiful. They are held together so the Noro Sekku yarn is knit throughout while the stripes are created using 2 colours of Rowan Kidsilk Haze.[Read More]
Cameo Shawl is an elegant shawl designed by Paulina Popiolek. This shawl was on my wish/to do list for ages. It is a beautiful shawl that I really enjoyed knitting.
I chose 2 colours of Hand Dyed Merino 4ply sock yarn. The first yarn is a gorgeous rich purple/mauve colour and the second contrasting yarn is a soft rust/violet colour combination.[Read More]
In the third Knitting Mystery book, Kelly Flynn investigates the death of Allison Dubois, a talented young “fibre artist” on the rise.
It is Autumn and Allison is about to make it big with a move to New York to take up a lucrative studio job as a designer with Sophia Emeraud. But when Kelly and her friend Megan arrive at Allison’s apartment to take her to the airport, they find her lying dead by her packing boxes and office desk. Allison had taken numerous sleeping pills and so the police do not suspect foul play.[Read More]
Hello, I'm Nicolette Kernohan. I love sharing unique knitting projects, exploring colour & inspiring your creativity. Knitting Squirrel sells knitting wool & sock yarn in glorious colours & fibres.
