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Triskelion Yarn Clubs 2017

Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) / Masham aran yarn. Hand-dyed by Triskelion Yarn

Given the success of last year’s yarn clubs, I’ve decided to continue them on in 2017. The contents of the clubs won’t be changing, however the format will. Instead of a large payment up-front, you’ll be able to pay by monthly (or bi-monthly) subscription, in addition to a small one-off sign-up fee of £5. The core Triskelion yarn clubs will be the British, Luxury and Lace clubs. Other clubs almost certainly will come into operation later in 2017, possibly one for a pattern/yarn combo, and another for fine, cobweb-type lace yarns.

Subscription payments will come out of your account every month or every other month. A payment made in one calendar month is the payment for the next month’s yarn, which is generally sent out mid-way through the month, and you can adjust the day of the month the payment is made to suit your payday. You can cancel, adjust or put your subscription on hold at any time via the subscriptions section on the My Account page. When your subscription comes up for renewal, you’ll get an email telling you, and your subscription will be put on hold until you confirm you want to renew or otherwise. You won’t get a surprise automatic renewal without your consent.

The British Yarn Club is a monthly delivery of some of the finest British yarns – British fibre, spun in the UK, and hand-dyed in West Wales. The fibres planned for this year will include Blue-faced Leicester, Masham, Wensleydale, Whitefaced Woodland, Southdown and many more. Most of the yarns will only be available through the club. The colourways will generally be exclusive to the club, and will be in the usual Triskelion kettle-solid and semi-solid styles. All of the yarns are hand-wash only, i.e. no superwash yarns.

Every other month in the Luxury Club, you’ll get a delivery of some of the most sumptuous, luxurious yarns. Yarn weights range from laceweight through to aran, and fibres planned for this year will include silk blends with Bluefaced Leicester, yak, cashmere, and baby alpaca. Again, most of the yarns and colourways will be exclusive to the club, and will be in the usual Triskelion kettle-solid and semi-solid styles.

Finally, the Lace Club will deliver of some of the best lace yarns, every other month. Yarn weights are mainly laceweight, but also include heavy lace/3-ply weight yarns and extra fine 1200m/100g yarns. The fibres planned for this year will include Blue-faced Leicester, silk, baby alpaca, cashmere, suri and more.

Places on all yarn clubs are limited, so you need to get in quick, particularly for the British Yarn Club! 3-month, 6-month and 12-month subscriptions are available on the British club, with 6-month and 12-month subscriptions available on the other clubs. If or when any other Triskelion clubs happen this year, you’ll be given the option of moving across to those clubs if you’ve already signed up for one of the core clubs, in which case the sign-up fee for the new club will be waived. You’ll also have guaranteed places on the new clubs if you’re a current clubber, so you might want to join one now if you know you’ll be interested in one of the prospective clubs I’ve outlined.

If you’re currently in one of 2016’s clubs and are worried about getting a place on the corresponding 2017 club – don’t panic! A place is already reserved for you on the corresponding 2017 club. Just let me know that you want to renew, and then you can sign up to the new subscription club in March (for the British club) or April (for the Luxury or Lace clubs) without the sign-up fee.

Happy clubbing!

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Introducing Gwyn

Gwyn is a stunning woollen-spun 4-ply/fingering weight singles yarn, in a luscious superwash blend of 20% Blue Faced Leicester and 80% extra fine Falklands merino. The blend of the two fine wools in a singles yarn results in unparalleled depth of colour, combined with a soft, cosy handle with lots of character. Each 100 gram hank is approximately 360 metres of yarn, is from 100% British sources, and spun in Yorkshire.

It’s on the heavier side of 4-ply/fingering weight, and can be doubled up to use as an aran/worsted weight yarn – I’m just finishing up a sweater for myself using Gwyn held double on 5mm needles.

The Gwyn base is released on Friday 13th February, and will be available in almost all current production colourways. Additionally, there’s 10% off for the first week as an introductory offer.

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New Yarn Bases!

I’m pleased to announce the addition of five new yarn bases to the Triskelion stable. All of the yarns are from British fibre (other than the silk) and are spun in Yorkshire to a very high quality. Three of the yarns are luxurious singles-style yarns, one is a super-bulky BFL, and one a high twist 100% wool sock yarn.

Elen Sock is a very sleek and glossy high-twist superwash Blue Faced Leicester yarn. Blue Faced Leicester is a British longwool, with a rich lustre that yields very bright and rich colours. It’s soft, springy, and the high twist makes it hard-wearing without the need for nylon. Each 110 gram hank is approximately 390 metres of yarn, and is from 100% British sources. A great yarn for durable, comfy socks.

Branwen 4-Ply is a stunning 4-ply/fingering singles yarn, in a sumptuous 50/50 blend of extra fine Falklands Merino and silk. Branwen has stunning depth of colour, combined with an extra soft, cosy handle. Each 100 gram hank is approximately 500 metres of yarn, and is spun in Yorkshire from British sources. Please note that, due to the high silk content, Branwen runs quite fine for a 4-ply.

Branwen Rime and LlyrOlwen is a 4-ply/fingering singles yarn, spun from extra fine Falklands Merino. Olwen’s ‘matt’ appearance gives colours an intense, immediate presence, combined with an extra soft, cosy handle. Each 100 gram hank is approximately 500 metres of yarn, and is spun in Yorkshire from British sources.

Pryderi DK is a very cosy roving/singles yarn, spun from Blue-faced Leicester. It has superb depth of colour, combined with a soft, ‘woolly’ handle, with that Blue-faced Leicester lustre.

Finally, Ysbaddaden is a squishy, soft super-bulky yarn, spun from Blue-faced Leicester. Ysbaddaden has wonderful depth of colour, a soft lustre, and a soft, cosy handle. Each 100 gram hank is approximately 50 metres of yarn, and is spun in Yorkshire from British sources.

As an introduction to the new bases, there will be a small mini release of all the new bases with a subset of my current production colourways. More colourways will be arriving in the first release of 2015.

The Pryderi yarns all feature the Triskelion Neutrals colourways, and there be a special introductory offer of 15% off them if you buy five skeins or more in any of the colourways. Just use coupon code PRYDERI2014 at the checkout. The special offer will be available while current stocks last.

The release will be up on the Triskelion website at around 6pm GMT tonight (Sunday 7th December). This is also a good opportunity to get yarn at current prices, as there’ll be a slight increase in the new year.

I hope you find something that catches your eye!

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Gift Vouchers

Gift vouchers are now available in the Triskelion shop, as requested.

When you buy the vouchers, I’ll send you a pdf certificate with a coupon code on it that can be used on anything in the shop. If you want the certificate either emailed or snail-mailed directly to the recipient, just specify at the checkout (postage is free).

When you buy the vouchers, the reward points will go on the buyer’s account, not on the voucher recipient’s account. If you want them transferred to the recipient (i.e. you’re buying for your partner and you don’t knit, etc.), just add a comment at the checkout.

When you buy with a voucher and don’t spend up to the value, you’ll get another coupon code sent to you for any remaining money. In other words, you don’t have to spend the whole of the voucher all at once!

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The Next Stage

Well, the time to get a dedicated workshop has come a bit sooner than I anticipated. The kitchen stove and outside laundry room just aren’t cutting it anymore. Triskelion has grown so quickly over the last six months – I’m spending most of the day going in and out of the house, carrying pots of dye and yarn, and the rest of the day in the garden room (my ‘workroom’), pre- and post-processing it all. Horribly inefficient. So, we’re going have to bite the bullet, gut the garden room, and turn it into a proper dyeing studio. Only to what we can currently afford, but still… five-burner gas hob, double drainer sink plus associated plumbing and drainage, extractor, new worktops, all that good stuff.

Rick is a bloody star. He’s doing all the building and plumbing work himself, in between his own stuff, just so I can keep on top of the orders coming in. Some hard budgeting is going to be necessary, and some reuse of stuff we have sitting around in the barn. It’s not going to look like ‘Homes and Gardens’, but it’s going to save me so much work, and enable me to plan my time much more efficiently. I can’t wait. Studio ahoy!

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Triskelion ‘Winternights’ Collection

After setting out my first unofficial stall in the Triskelion ‘Croeso‘ collection, ideas were coming thick and fast for the next. Given that ‘Croeso‘ was all about vibrant summer colours for me, the natural follow-up would obviously be a collection of colours for autumn and winter.

My starting inspiration for the collection was an accident, a misreading of my ‘Red Dragon‘ recipe that resulted in a smouldering yarn of rich, fiery reds, oranges and russets – hearth colours.

Once reworked, I decided that the yarn, dubbed ‘Cofgod‘ after the hearth gods of Anglo-Saxon folklore, would become the model and centrepiece of the developing collection – yarns that had the same ’ember’ quality to them. Caramelised colours. Darker, more shadowy, saturated colourways for winter, yet still retaining the Triskelion character.

The result is the Triskelion ‘Winternights‘ collection: ‘Sloe‘, darkest blue-violet dusted with frosting; ‘Winternights‘, umbral, inky blue-blacks; ‘Elf King‘, cool Otherworldly grey-blues; ‘Nicor‘, deep water teals; ‘Wodwos‘, bole-shadowed wild green with hints of gold; ‘Beowa‘, aged barley yellows; ‘Cofgod‘, the fiery hob of the hearth; ‘Idisi‘, vibrant dark rose and crimson; and finally, the slumbering dark winter earth of ‘Landwight‘. Nine ’embers of colour’, inspired by the cofgodas, given an Anglo-Saxon articulation and made ready to be knit and crocheted into cosy pullovers and shawls, hats and scarves, mittens and socks.

 

The yarns are all kettle-dyed using resist and multi-glazing techniques to yield highly detailed semi-solids with a superb depth of colour. Additionally, the colourways have been developed alongside the Triskelion Neutrals range, so that there are cooler foils for the ‘Winternights‘ embers – ‘Landwight‘ being a shared colourway. Both collections are available immediately in Taliesin DK (shown above), Emrys Aran, Gofannon 4-Ply, and Amaethon 4-Ply. In a week or two, they’ll be followed by Gofannon DK, Rhodri Sock, Emrys Lace, and Ceridwen Lace and 4-Ply.

Just in time for Winternights itself!

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Triskelion Neutrals Collection

In addition to the forthcoming Triskelion ‘Winternights’ collection, I’m introducing a more formal collection of Triskelion Neutrals that will be available in the full range of yarn bases in the Triskelion portfolio.

The initial selection of four greys, three browns, a beige and a rich cream have been carefully formulated to provide complementary foils for the stronger colours of the Triskelion family, with some in particular developed alongside the ‘Winternights’ collection. Additionally, groups of the Neutrals themselves can be used in tonal projects as they’re formulated using identical proportions of the same base pigments. Depending on the yarn base, the Neutrals are all dyed as semi-solids, using techniques that give an elegantly detailed, almost ‘heathered’ look to the yarns.

Rime‘ and ‘Anvil‘ join the popular ‘Graphite‘ and ‘Coal‘ to make up the initial selection of greys. ‘Rime‘ and ‘Anvil‘ are brighter, cooler greys, whereas ‘Graphite‘ and ‘Coal‘ are slightly creamier, more complex greys.

Taliesin DK Greys

The browns and beige are neutral in temperature, tending slightly toward the cool side. From light to dark, we have ‘Pebble‘, ‘Woodcut‘, ‘In That Quiet Earth‘ and ‘Landwight‘.

Taliesin DK Browns

Finally, we have a rich, warm cream – ‘Buttermilk‘ – which is a very slight darkening and enriching of the natural colour of the Blue Faced Leicester used in the Taliesin and Emrys yarns.

Taliesin DK Buttermilk

I hope you can find something to suit you, and more are definitely being planned. Triskelion greys, in particular, have proven to be very popular, so you can definitely expect more of them. Also, more cooler and warmer browns are on their way in the early New Year. As always, if you have any specific needs or variations on the colours available, just ask.

Enjoy!

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