yarn Archives - Triskelion Yarn | Hand-dyed yarn from Wales

Posted on March 20, 2020March 20, 2020 by Caerthan — Leave a comment

Announcing Lludd DK – our new organic Merino yarn

We were going to launch our new Lludd DK organic Merino yarn at the Wonderwool show, but due to the show’s cancellation (see previous blog post), we’re going to be bringing it forward to today. As people will be missing the show deals, we’re offering the same deal on sweater quantities of Lludd that we would have offered at Wonderwool, and with free UK postage (non-UK orders get free postage if you spend over £110). We may all be missing the show, but you can still get the new base at show prices.

Lludd DK is a beautifully squidgy, springy and bouncy yarn, as you’d expect from Merino, but because it hasn’t been superwash treated and coated with polymers, you get to experience the wonderful true handle of Merino fibre: still lusciously next-to-skin soft, but with a slight ‘tooth’ and velvety tactile character. The shine and brightness of the unadulterated fibre yields a superb depth of colour, and I’ve come up with a palette of luminous semi-solid colourways to take advantage of that.

Lludd DK would normally retail at £20 a skein. In keeping with our Wonderwool launch offer, you can buy sweater quantities of four or more skeins at a 10% discount (while my current stock lasts). On top of that, you’ll get free UK postage. Just like being at the show! Even better, you can also use your reward points for up to 10% of the order value for a total 20% discount. You can order whichever colour (or combination of colourways) you like, as I’ll be dyeing them as a single dyelot for you as soon as you place your order. So, no rushing to grab the colourway you want before it sells out – you’re guaranteed to have the exact colourway you want!

We’ll also be doing a similar deal on our luxury Rhiannon 4-Ply base (a luscious 50/50 blend of extra fine non-superwash Merino and silk), with a 10% discount on three or more skeins, also with free UK postage. Just select a colourway from the new Rhiannon palette, and I’ll get a single dyelot on the go just for you.

On top of that, if there’s a sweater quantity of a particular yarn base/colourway combo that’s not on the website, just get in touch with me via the Contact Us page. If I have the undyed yarn in stock, I’ll happily give you the same deal on it, i.e. 10% discount, free UK postage.

To order either the Lludd DK or Rhiannon 4-Ply ‘virtual show’ deals, just select your yarns as normal on the website, and then you’ll see an appropriate coupon code added to the checkout page. Just click on all coupons to apply them, and then select the Free Postage option when it appears.

Free postage will apply from now until the COVID-19 crisis is done to all UK orders over £55, and to all non-UK orders over £110 – jut select the coupon code on the shopping cart page.

There’ll be some special, one-of-a-kind projects released over the next few weeks, so keep an eye out on our social media channels!

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Posted on August 10, 2018July 10, 2019 by Caerthan — Leave a comment

Announcing Scylfing Sock

We’re very pleased to announce Scylfing Sock, an addition to our range of British wool yarns. Spun to our own specifications, it’s a yarn with a single purpose in mind – hard-wearing, eco-friendly and dazzlingly beautiful socks.

Scylfing Sock is a blend of 50% Bluefaced Leicester, 25% Gotland and 25% Wensleydale. The fibre is from British sources, non-superwash, and the yarn is spun by Laxtons in Yorkshire. It’s a 2/7Nm yarn (the same as our Scylfing 4-Ply yarn) but spun at a higher twist than normal, which makes for strong, long-lasting socks with great wearability. The yarn is firm and crunchy in the skein, and knits up with a smooth, squishy handle at 8 to 10 stitches per inch, giving a chunky fabric with a wonderfully woolly character. The combination of three lustre longwools gives Scylfing Sock a superb lustre and colour responsiveness, with the grey Gotland fibre giving the colours an unparalleled depth.

Initially, Scylfing will be available in 18 colourways. Most are based on our current Scylfing production colourways, but we’ve adjusted them a little to show off the Wensleydale bling. Expect a little brighter, a little more intense. We’ve also included some neutrals for formal business and more understated socks, and a handful of colourways inspired by Pantone’s Fall 2019 palette for more trendsetting toes.

Scylfing Sock will be available from the Triskelion Yarn website from Monday 13th August, and will be available in person at the Swansea Festival of Stitch, where we’ll have a stand at the Maker’s Market on the 18th and 19th August in the National Waterfront Museum.

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Posted on May 3, 2018May 3, 2018 by Caerthan — Leave a comment

Triskelion Sock Club

Subscriptions are now available for the Triskelion Sock Yarn Club!

A monthly delivery of a range of fabulous non-nylon sock yarns, hand-dyed by us in West Wales in a range of colourways and dyeing styles. Subscriptions can run for 3, 6 or 12 months, and as with all Triskelion yarn clubs, they can be paused, restarted or cancelled at any time, and are £18 per month (£15 for non-EU customers) plus postage.

The wool fibres planned are Corriedale, BFL, Wensleydale, Gotland and Masham, with some other strong fibre breeds in there too. Other fibres include alpaca, mohair, organic cotton and linen.

Most of the yarns will be a 2-fold sock weight construction (2/7Nm and 2/8Nm, i.e. 4-ply/fingering/sport range), some with a high twist, with a DK or two thrown in for decent boot socks. A couple will probably be luxury-type sock yarns for lounging around in at home, and we have a wonderful organic cotton and linen yarn for a lightweight summer sock.

All of these will be hand-dyed here in Talog in a range of colourways, some semi-solids and some variegateds, using low-impact acid dyes.

Subscriptions can run for 3, 6 or 12 months, and as with all Triskelion yarn clubs, they can be paused, restarted or cancelled at any time. You can pay via PayPal or Stripe at the checkout, but we highly recommend using Stripe, as it gives you far greater control over your payment times and dates. Payments made in one calendar month will be for the delivery in the next calendar month (e.g. July’s payment will be for August’s yarn) and delivery is usually at the end of the second week of the month. You can put your subscription on pause at any time by going to the My Account page on the Triskelion website and following the instructions, or restart or cancel a subscription in the same manner. If you pay via Stripe, you can also change the day of the month when your subscription payment is made.

When you book your subscription, we’ll also sign you up to our monthly Triskelion Sock newsletter, which will give you details about the month’s yarn and colourway, and will include recommended patterns and the occasional competition and giveaway or two! We’ll keep you in the Sock Club even if you don’t renew after your subscription expires (as long as you’ve completed three months of a subscription) so you’ll still have access to any offers we may have, however you can, of course, unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time.

We hope to see you in the Triskelion Sock Club soon, and remember, there’s always a place to humblebrag your latest Triskelion projects in the Facebook Triskelion Yarnies group!

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Posted on September 9, 2016September 9, 2016 by Caerthan — Leave a comment

Some Pricing News

I’ve had a couple of emails and social media questions about whether or not my prices will go up, now that the pound has been somewhat devalued post-referendum.

Over the last year or two, I’ve been building up my yarn bases to include yarns which are spun in the UK – Arthur, Elmet, Olwen and Elen being the key ones. Obviously, as these are all ‘in-house’, as it were, being British fibre spun in the UK, the cost of buying these yarns from my suppliers hasn’t gone up. Also, all my dyes and sundry items are also bought in the UK, and as yet I’ve not seen any changes in my suppliers’ prices.

Many of my yarns, though, while all being British wool fibres, are spun elsewhere. Some in Italy, some in South America, some elsewhere in the EU. The prices charged by my suppliers for these yarns have indeed taken a hike – some sharper than others.

Now, while the non-UK yarn base prices on their own would probably necessitate a rise in my retail and wholesale prices, I’m happy that my investment (continuing investment!) in a solid base of UK spun yarns will be able to buffer those non-UK price rises enough for me to be able to absorb the hikes myself.

In short, I won’t be putting my prices up due to the post-referendum fall in the value of sterling.

As always, I’ll be reviewing my prices in the new year, but for the moment it’s business as usual with no added surcharges.

Some good news, for a change!

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Posted on October 24, 2014October 24, 2014 by Caerthan — Leave a comment

‘Gwythyr’ – A Limited Edition Yarn

Having been able to secure the last remaining stock of this limited run from Laxtons mill in Yorkshire, I’m pleased to be able to offer Gwythyr to Triskelion customers as a limited edition yarn. I’ve only sixty skeins left, so get in quick!

‘Gwythyr’ is a gorgeous blend of Blue-faced Leicester and Masham – a Yorkshire breed crossed from a Teeswater. As with the BFL, it’s a British longwool with a fine lustre. The combination of the two fibres yields an unparalleled depth of colour, absolutely stunning. The yarn is woollen spun at 4-ply/fingering weight, and is a ‘singles’ yarn, i.e. a single lightly-twisted ply. It’s next-to-skin soft, but with a wonderfully woolly, characterful handle. And on top of all that, it’s superwash!

I’m making it available in most of the current Triskelion production colourways, and some new autumnal colourways created just for the Gwythyr base. Some have already been dyed in anticipation and are available immediately on the website. If you place an order with your chosen colourway and it goes in on back-order, I’ll get it dyed up immediately for you. When the stock runs out, though, that’s it.

For this particular base and its passion for colour, I’ve selected colourways where I can really push my multi-glaze technique. Most of the colourways are two or three glazes over a base dye, and with the addition of resist techniques, I can really push the colour depth with bright sparkles, moody low-lights and subtle colour transitions. If you fancy it on another Triskelion colourway, just email me and I’ll see what I can do.

Each 100g skein is approximately 360 metres, and you can knit it on your usual 4-ply/fingering needles – I generally use 3.25mm – or you can knit it on 4mm-4.5mm for lace projects.

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Posted on October 18, 2013November 1, 2013 by Caerthan — Leave a comment

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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Posted on October 17, 2013November 1, 2013 by Caerthan — Leave a comment

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.

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‘.

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.

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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Posted on March 26, 2013October 30, 2013 by Caerthan — Leave a comment

Alpacas of Wales Yarns

I know some people are waiting on news about the forthcoming alpaca/suri blend I’m going to be producing in association with Susan Myerscough of Alpacas Of Wales – well, we may have found a mill who’ll provide exactly what we want at a decent price, with the quality and consistency we demand.

While the previous mill’s yarn was very nice, the consistency just wasn’t there, and we had to reject quite a number of skeins. However, this new mill has given us samples of a suri 4-ply, spun from a 7-year-old, below-average quality suri fleece, and they’re lovely. If they can do a good job with those materials, then we can have a high confidence in them producing a fabulous yarn with our baby alpaca and baby suri clip. We have 20 kilos left from Susan’s 2012 baby alpaca and suri clip, and we’re champing at the bit to get going before this year’s clip comes along.

What we’ll be aiming for is a blend of 75% huacaya/25% suri in a range of DK, 4-ply and 2-ply weights, with a defined colour card developed by myself and Susan, dyed here at Triskelion, and then sold through both of our websites and at UK yarn shows. I’ll hopefully be bringing you good news about this next week.

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Posted on March 26, 2013November 1, 2013 by Caerthan — Leave a comment

Possible New Yarn Base

We’re getting in some samples of a possible new yarn base this week – a 50/50 blend of BFL and baby alpaca in a 3-ply/heavy lace/light fingering weight, 475m per 100g skein. I’ve loved the BFL/alpaca blends I’ve come across before, so I have high hopes for this one as our supplier is pretty damn awesome. Keep an eye out for the first ones going up in the shop – I’ll be giving it a workout in dulls and brights, and saturated and soft colours.

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