An introduction to the Hygge yarns

When we first started the company, some friends a little concerned about my choice of name. Midwinter. In English mostly prefaced with "In the bleak". Why chose that as a name?
Because I'm Scandinavian. Our winters last longer and are darker than here, but instead of complaining about them, we wallow. We pull on our raggsocks and curl up, surrounded by tea lights and cute lamps , with mugs of hot chocolate and have it "mysigt". We bake cakes and take them to friend's houses with our knitting and have it mysigt with them. Once the darkness creeps in in the autumn, we place lamps on our windowsills to make our homes look inviting from outside...and show off how mysigt our house is. 

So midwinter is not negative or bleak. It is a time to enjoy and indulge in some posh tea and beautiful yarn - to ignore the wind and weather and lose yourself in an exciting knit, be it a challenging one full of texture or a simple one that will make a warming gift come Christmas. 

So when Karina Westermann approached me with the idea to create a truly Scandinavian collection of patterns, it didn't take long for us to agree on the theme of "Hygge". You see, "hygge" is the same  thing as"mys"...just in Karina's native Danish as opposed to my Swedish. 

And as the patterns are about to start being released - starting with Fika on Monday the 31st of August - I wanted to take a moment to introduce the yarns featured in the collection.

We wanted to use yarns in a variety of textures and thicknesses to best reflect our shared Scandinavian heritage. Some are finer, for a more delicate wear-everywhere fabric. Some are big and chunky for a quick, satisfying knit. What they all have in common are natural materials and deep rich colours. 
Some people think that Scandinavian style is all about muted neutrals, but that is far from the truth! Some of our best known designers are all about colour - Marimekko and Gudrun Sjöden. Their palettes are bright, but never shouty, and that is what I love about our Pirkkalanka range. Finnish Pirkkalanka produce a wonderful, crisp hard wearing wool yarn in glorious colours full of depth - the trick being that they are dyed on to a natural grey base rather than a bleached white, bringing life and variety to the colour. 

Hygge features both thicknesses of Pirkkalanka and I think Karina fell a little in love with the Deep Orange featured in the Fika shawl as it comes back a couple of times in the collection. Indeed, it is the perfect Hygge colour - warm like autumn leaves or embers in a wood burner. 

Ohut Pirkkalanka - fingering weight in 314 Deep Orange and 3734 Moss

Vahva Pirkkalanka - worsted weight in 314 Deep Orange and 308 Teal

We also wanted to include some yarns anchored in Scandinavian knitting traditions, namely the chunky Lovikka yarn. This thick singly ply yarn is traditionally used for making mittens in Lapland and is designed to slowly felt with use in snow, wind and rain - I have a pair that my grandmother wore in her youth and they are the warmest, most windproof mittens I own. 

Ullcentrum, who produce our Lovikka yarn, are a company close to my heart. They collect wool from their local farms around Öland island and the neighbouring mainland which would otherwise be incinerated as a waste product (much the same problem we have here in Wales) and turn it in to their beautiful rustic yarns. Along with the Lovikka, they also produce a stunning range of gradients - a yarn that has proven a firm favourite at shows - and we couldn't possibly produce a collection without including one of these proper, woolly, sheep-smelling, lovely yarns....in Autumn, of course!

I do hope that you will enjoy discovering Hygge over the next few weeks, and creating things that will bring you pleasure both in the making and the wearing, and perhaps find a little hygge of your own. 

Fika will be released as a stand-alone pattern on August 31, but you can pre-order the Hygge: Knit the Things You Love to Wear collection now. It’ll cost slightly different things depending upon where you live, but it is 25% off from now until August 31.

Very exciting announcement!

Midwinter Yarns are very proud to announce our collaboration with the designer Karina Westermann:

Hygge (Knit Yourself the Things You Love to Wear) is a mini-collection celebrating a truly Scandinavian concept. It is a concept that can be difficult to translate, but essentially it means “a feeling of comfort, cosiness, and happiness”. It is what I would call "mys" as I am Swedish, but as Karina is Danish, she calls it "hygge". The mini-collection contains five small projects all relating to aspects of hygge – from spending time with good friends to drinking a mug of hot chocolate after a long, cold day. 

The knitting patterns are all small accessories knitted from a selection of our favourite yarns. All patterns use between one or two skeins of yarns. With hygge being the overall concept, Karina wanted the patterns to give joy and comfort – both in the process of making and in wearing. The projects are also designed to make great little gifts for people you love. Spread the joy, the warmth and the happiness.

What is next? The five patterns will be released over the next month and you’ll be able to see more at our stall at the Yarndale wool festival in Skipton this September.

Karina is now taking pre-orders for the collection and will be releasing the first stand-alone pattern very soon, so head over to her blog for all the news! 

July catch up

So, having barely recovered from all the festivities, we've just returned from Fibre East and found that the month is nearly over!

We're ploughing on with married life and married knitting - I'm still getting used to Mark being a knitter as it's only been a year and it still surprises me to find him rifling through the stash and itching to cast the next thing on as soon as one thing comes off the needles!

some members of our household are more disruptive of knitting than others

Some of you may have seen pictures of his mad dash to finish his Rainbow Linus in time for Fibre East...and didn't it turn out stunning?

The Rainbow colour way of the Ullcentrum yarn gets me every time - it is such a deep, rich gradient and it looks fantastic against the solid Anthracite.

I was doing some frantic knitting of my own too. I'd started mulling over Anna Maltz' Sceles already back at Iknit Fandango earlier this year, but it had fallen down the queue behind all the wedding projects. Once all the relatives had gone home and the left overs were all eaten, I realised that I didn't have an urgent project on the needles to fret about anymore, and clearly that couldn't be right?
So, with a little advice from Anna herself, I cast on in two of my favourite linen colours: Turmeric and Gunmetal (2 hanks of each). I used the Gunmetal for colour A and the smaller 4.5mm needles throughout - our Lithuanian linen is a touch finer than the original Kalinka stated in the pattern.

I cast on as for size 3 - the design is intended to be worn with extreme ease which I didn't think would suit my frame, so I chose a size that would give me a reasonably loose layering top. I then added a few repeats to the length as again, I have a bit more to, erm, cover... It's a very well written pattern though, and an easy to adapt shape, so you can really make it work to your own preferences.

Having once more knitted to a deadline, Mark and I suddenly found ourselves away from home, in the middle of a show with...nothing to knit! So we've now done the sickening newly-wed thing of casting on matching sweaters - Summer Green for me and Autumn for him ;)

In the first instalment of what promises to be a very busy autumn for Midwinter Yarns, I am very excited to announce that one of our yarns has been used for a pattern in the forthcoming issue of Pom Pom Quarterly. It is the beautiful, heavily cabled Maude sweater - pictured here in Thick Pirkkalanka in Jade. So much wonderful texture for winter, fantastically complimented by the crisp stitch-definition of the Pirkkalanka wool.

photo by Amy Gwatkin 

You can find all the details of the new issue here - and I believe that they will be running a KAL with yarn prizes to coincide with the launch over on their Ravelry group. We're also celebrating here by offering 10% off all Thick (Vahva) Pirkkalanka in the shop with coupon code POMPOM15, so please feel free to use it if the pattern has inspired you :)

Lastly, just a small announcement to say that we will be on holiday from the 8th of August. All orders placed after the 6th will be despatched on the 17th of August.

Midwinter Wedding!

So after several months of secretive knitting, bunting-making, booze-cruising and crockery-collecting, Mark and I tied the knot (literally) three weeks ago.

What was intended as a simple country wedding did turn out to be a three day celebration - our desire to have an outdoor ceremony meant that we also had to have a legal registry wedding first...twice the fun and twice the outfits!
My most special wedding splurge was the stunning silk and linen yarn from Siidegarte who I met at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, and who dyed this storm blue colour especially for me. The cardigan is Hitofude - a really exciting knit in an unusual but very clever construction.

Then there were gifts for the Mothers,  Best Lady and our own designated High Priestess. Being a summer wedding, the yarn of choice was our Lithuanian Linen - perfect for beautiful lace patterns and easy to wear stoles. The linen holds lace patterns beautifully, and it's lack of elasticity means that the fabric stays nice and flat, and of course drapes fantastically.

The Gunmetal and Ink stole was knitted with the Leaf Lace pattern, free from Ravelry

This Violet one is called Upstairs, also free

There was also one in the Rain on Window as well as the Branching Lace stitch from Eden Cottage Yarn's stitch dictionary...unfortunately we were working on these right up to the wedding and ended up giving them away before we quite got a chance to take proper pictures of them all!

And of course, I also had my own bridal shawl to make, in yarn that was gifted to me specifically by my linen supplier. The pattern is called Elderberry, but I took my inspiration from both the elderflowers that went into our welcome drinks and the hydrangeas in my bouquet and chose clear/silver beads with the green leaves. I also love the pattern because it reminds me of my favourite Berså pottery ;)

We wanted our day to be all about the things we love and this showed in everything, from the lebanese food made by a dear friend to board games, cheese wedding cake and , of course, a knitting corner. All our knitter guests were encouraged to bring their projects, and a few others asked to be introduced too! This resulted in possibly my very favourite picture of the day:

Lots of love
Mrs Midwinter

Woolfest

.. This could be a long one..

First off I should say that this is Mark writing this. Estelle is far too busy networking (shopping) and checking on contacts (Facebooking) and knitting (err... actually knitting!)
And that this is my first ever blog post! Woohoo! only a decade behind the rest of the world!

As this blog is a little behind (I will explain later) we've got a bit of catching up to do.

Woolfest.

WoolFest was a great show for us, not only was it set in the beautiful hills and dales of Cumbria, it was full of nice people who seemed pleased to see us there.
We were in the smaller section of the show, fairly close to the back car park entrance. But there was so much to see, just in that smaller hall, that I have no idea how anyone managed to get around everything in one go. But thankfully there were strategically placed coffee vendors and places to sit down so people could spread the yarn overload out a little.
There was also live music in both halls, which kept my foot tapping throughout and gave the whole show a bit more of an upbeat festival air to it, which I loved!

The view from our room in a bog standard Premier Inn!

                                        Sheep! Herdwicks left and Teesdales right
             

                                                                            

                                           Estelle got far too excited over the sheep as usual

See what i mean? That is the back end of a Valais sheep

                                        
 Along the top wall of the bigger hall, the organisers had arranged a gallery showing a whole range of beautiful things you can do with wool, from stunning pieces of clothing to Art pieces. These two caught Estelle's eye.

Our friend  Fiona from the Edinburgh Wool Festival came along to show us her freshly finished, barely dry Linus! shown here with the hanks they came from- Heather and Blue,Green,Purple.

And of course it wouldn't be a good show without coming away with a little for the stash, now would it?
So we got three balls of Herdwick wool, spun in Laxtons mill. Rug wool from a local mill to complete the giant knitting kit from London. Some chunky cotton destined to become potholders. and  some last minute bargain bin cotton.
And then Estelle ruined the monochrome effect by getting some colourful fabric and a violet bag strap.

I started another Linus while in Cumbria, this time in Anthracite and Rainbow, which is going surprisingly quickly considering how slow I usually am.

So as you can see, much wool and much knitting is still happening, but I'll leave it there and carry on later when we'll get to what's been taking up so much of our time. (not much of a surprise if you follow us on Facebook but still)


To Be Continued ...

Time flies when you have yarn (part 2)

and once again, the weeks have just completely gotten away from me!
It's been a busy month for shows - after Wonderwool, we headed for the big city and iKnit Fandango in London. This was a show on a whole other scale than Wonderwool - smaller in a "carefully selected" sort of way, set in a wonderful Royal Horticultural Hall: light and airy and bathed in daylight from the glass roof, amazing for showing off all our colours.

That said, in terms of glorious colours, we were thoroughly outdone by a rare outing by the ever impressive Wollmeise.

I've not had a chance to oogle her yarns since Knit Nation several years ago, and Mark of course is still discovering the whole vista of yarns out there, so I'm not ashamed to say that quite a few hanks came home with us from there.

My personal little highlight of the weekend though, was the lovely Helen stopping by to show us her finished Raincloud in Ullcentrum Lace in the Cerise Orange colour way, wonderfully offset by her blue linen outfit.

After a weekend breather, it was off to Devon for Proper Woolly. This was a brand new show organised this year, and for a first show, I must say we were impressed! Great venue of the cattle market kind, with the most convenient parking I've ever seen at a show, lovely happy organisers, great selection of stalls and a brilliant food market section, promoting the best of local producers: apricot and roast almond brioches have a lot to answer for!

I don't think Mark is taking the obligatory "picture of the stand" seriously anymore...

I was particularly excited by my first ever stay in a static caravan, and not just any static caravan: one on Noteworthy farm, where you have the benefit of seeing their Angora goats stampede past as you cook breakfast. You know you are camping with yarn people when you all dash out in your pyjamas, mugs of tea in hand, to watch the goats being fed.

I clearly took the whole "Proper Woolly" concept to heart: I do own a spinning wheel, and I spin every so often but tend to lean towards working with all the actual yarn I already have, yet I came home from Devon with nothing but fibre.
First was this biiiiiiig braid of Shetland in beautiful blues from Hilltop Cloud

and as if one sweater amount of fibre wasn't bad enough, I then had a sudden urge to bring home a raw fleece of all things and plumped for this great Zwartbles one from In the Raw.

Yarn show season is still in full swing, of course, and next we'll be heading off to Woolfest in Cumbria - a first for Midwinter Yarns, and one we've heard great things about. See you there?

Time flies when you're having fun! ( part 1)

Well, after the flurry of excitement that was Edinburgh Yarn Fest, along came spring and....it's almost over already! We've been so busy here at Midwinter - we're doing many more shows than last year and have already attended another two since, with a third one just around the corner!

First up was Wonderwool - a show very close to my heart. Situated in the Brecon Beacons just over an hour from Caerphilly, it is our "home" show: one of the very first I ever attended as a customer and, of course, the one that started us off trading last year. Yes, Midwinter Yarns is already a year old!

We've grown a little, of course, carrying a wider range and more colours, and I was so flattered when, this year, we had a whole rush of customers come to us first thing in the morning, telling us that we were on their list of stalls to visit. Compared to last year when we literally were complete unknowns, that meant an awful lot.
Some shopping, as always, did occur. This is me, pretending I haven't just spent a three figure sum on a ball winder from The Threshing Barn ...

but what a ball winder it is...

Solid wood, no skipping cogs, so smooth to use, and it looks so pretty with the industrial red accents!

There was a little yarn, too:

My mother's haul: space dyed blanket pieces for embroidery, the obligatory threads from Oliver Twists, a hank of delicious something from Knitwitches, a gradient ball in Silk and Camel and Angel tears (or something) from Natali Stewart and some chunky art yarn that I hope to make her a hat with...I just love the colour!

My restrained lot looked like this:

Left to right: rainbow bright pure camel yarn for some very fine fingerless mitts, aran weight yarn from Little Owl Crafts from their own sheep reared on Dartmoor, to be combined with the lovely neutral from Five Moons to make a New Caesar Shawl . I spotted this pattern on a customer and it's just so unusual and apparently deceptively simple: it looks like complex colour work but apparently this is all made up of slipped stitches, so now tangling and no carrying yarn! I haven't had a chance to cast it on yet, but I am really really looking forward to it. 

picture by Susan Ashcroft

And whilst I agonised and counted the pennies over the ball winder, there was one thing I dropped everything to go and buy, including possibly a couple of customers: this little sheep brooch from Coastal Colours .

I spotted it on a visitor and just had to have it!

At the end of the weekend, we were exhausted but so thrilled to have come back to where we started, caught up with some of our incredible supporters that have rooted for us from that very first day and met lots of new fans and introduced them to our yarns. There are still many shows to come this year, but I'm already looking forward to next year...when I will hopefully manage to eat something more than just birthday cake during the day...