HRYC

For ages i'd been casting about for an excuse to order in this yarn. At long last a customer asked specifically for it, I did a little dance, and joyfully went about selecting colours. I'm absolutely going to knit a great big squishy something with it. Here's a few other ideas.

Shroom by Lee Juvan 

Leaf Blanket by Susan B Anderson for Spud & Chloe

Chevron Baby Blanket by Purl Soho

Now that we have our hands on it, it's a gloriously robust, springy and assertive yarn. It's perfect for NZ winter woollies, too. You get the bulkiness that's so in fashion, but the the cotton helps keep things a little cooler for our mild winter days. Couldn't ask for more!

 In all the excitement of last week, we didn't have the chance to share some scrummy new colours that we ordered in...

Blue Sky Alpaca Silk Alpaca in Crabapple and Papaya

Silk Alpaca is a gorgeous sport weight that is peeeeerfect for fingerless mitts. You can get a pair out of one skein, but with a range of colours that pair up so beautifully, this yarn is a dream match for the Dream Mitts. 

Spud & Chloe Sweater in Firecracker, Splash and Grass Green

Spud & Chloe Sweater wants to be squished. Soft and plump and absolutely fantastic for knitting into baby blankets. Even better: it can be thrown in the machine. It can be tricky to get cotton mix yarns in NZ as we don't produce cotton, and Sweater is a glorious combo of cotton and wool so it's great in summer and winter. 

Spud & Chloe Fine in Dolphin, Cricket, Goldfish, Popcorn and Sassafras

A clever mix of silk and wool, Spud & Chloe Fine is like any good sock yarn - durable enough to wear on your feet, but versatile enough to be made into absolutely anything. The new shades we got in are lovely soft Spring colours - a nice to way to brighten up cold winter days.

Adding new colourways to the ranges we stock is super exciting. Slowly but surely we're getting in every colour of every yarn base and it fills the shelves with joy. There's a simple but perfect pleasure in being in a shop filled with shelves where the yarn speaks for itself. If there's ever any colour of a yarn that we don't have in stock, just let us know! We're more than happy to order it in for you.

xx Tash

When Spud & Chloe Fine arrived in the shop, I was more than a little taken by one of their colours: Glow Worm. You could go so far as to say I was quite enamoured with it. The only thing I didn't like was that, sadly, it doesn't glow in the dark. BUT IT LOOKS LIKE IT SHOULD.

Spud & Chloe Fine in Glow Worm

And you know what else I can't help myself with? Stripes. Why oh why do I do this to myself? Every time!

Spud & Chloe Fine in Wildberries, Lipstick, Glow Worm and Sidewalk

A conversation followed about how great these four colours looked together. And then I stumbled across the Nova Dress pattern. Fate? I'd like to think so.

It was a great, quick and straight forward knit - I made the size 4, and cut the yarn at each stripe change rather than carry four colours up the side (I felt that would be messy, and don't mind the weaving in). 

Hooray! Finished!

The problem when the dress was all done though - the leftovers! Oh noes! They sat forlornly on the stash shelf for weeks. Solution: kid sized version of the Leftovers Cowl.

Instead of doing 70 stitches as with the adult version, provisionally cast on 50sts on 3.25mm needles, and follow the instructions for the bigger size. Easy peasy!

If you're one of the many many people now addicted to Pinterest - I've pinned a whole bunch of awesome Nova dress projects found on Ravelry. Great way to pick up ideas on colour combos and peek at cute kids!

PS - we're out of stock of lots of Spud & Chloe Fine colours at the moment, but a bumper order will be with us in about 2 weeks. Yay! Let us know (shop@hollandroadyarn.co.nz) if you'd like us to pop any aside for you when it arrives.