Name: The Blue Brick 

Where You Can Follow Them:  Blog, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Ravelry, Flickr, and Crawftgawker

What She is All About: Shireen is a professional photographer; and she takes her yarn inspiration straight from the images she captures. These yarns are all hand-dyed in small batches by Shireen and her husband Tito on a variety of bases and weights, based on her photographic inspiration (you can read more about the yarn here). Each skein is sent out with a copy of the photo that inspired it- a really beautiful detail that makes me marvel even more at how she can dye the yarn to so closely resemble the photos! Shireen also designs beautiful patterns, as well. If you live in Toronto, on May 26th there is a knit night in the Distillery District, with all sort of specialty dyed colourways to match with Fluevog shoes. I’ll be there!

A Few of My Favourite Things, from Left to Right: ‘Sundown’ is one of the beautiful fingering weight palette sets they offer. It’s perfect for striping projects, or all kinds of mini skein knits.  You could also pair it with one of their beautiful neutrals, designed specifically to coordinate with a wide variety of the ombre gradients  and minis that The Blue Brick offers. Speaking of neutrals, this Charcoal tonal (DK and fingering weights) is a rich, deep and dark grey that looks beautiful on it’s own or worked with other colours. Like this stunning gradient Daisy (DK and fingering weights) , which is inspired by brilliant fuchsia coloured Shasta daisies.

Name: Fuzzy Mitten 

Where You Can Follow Them: Instagram, Twitter, Ravelry, Flickr, Blog

What She is All About: Barbara designs the most adorable knitted animal toys, and has patterns for all sorts of clothing for them, too! They are great value, as every pattern comes with instructions for more than just the animal– there’s always something for them to wear, or an accessory or two. She recently finished up a mystery knit along, and it turned out to be an adorable woodland elf! I’m almost finished mine, I’m a bit behind- but so happy with how it’s turning out.

A Few of My Favourite Things, from Left to Right:  I love this bunny puppet pattern, it would be a perfect to welcome a new little one and they can’t grow out of it as fast as they can sweaters and booties. Wooly the Lamb is a sweet little fuzzy knit that includes the pattern for her pretty dress, as well. And if you love alpacas, then you absolutely need to knit Siena the Alpaca– also comes with a pattern for a dress! You could knit yourself a whole herd of alpacas in different colours.

Name: Ancient Arts Fibre Crafts

Where You Can Follow Them: Blog, Ravelry, Pinterest, Facebook, Google +

What They Are All About: Ancient Arts yarns has a huge selection (and just added lots of beautiful new colourways!) of hand dyed tonal, variegated and speckled skeins. Each colourway is offered in a variety of bases (most from bulky to laceweight, plus a variety of fiber bases within each weight), so you can totally customize for whatever project you have in mind. And if you are looking for a new yarn club, next week on May 27th they are opening up for their brand new yarn club for sign ups- will include a skein of fingering weight yarn in a surprise colourway, a pattern, a yummy treat, and something pretty! There is also their very special Meow Collection and Woof Collection, which are inspired by cat and dog breeds and a portion of the sales are donated to Best Friends Animal Society to help animals in need.

A Few of My Favourite Things, from Left to Right: Orange Tiger Tabby is a pretty colourway that reminds me not only of a lively orange kitty, but also of creme caramel and creme brule- it really has that creamy dessert colour to it that feels like it would knit up beautifully in all sorts of projects. Lookin’ Fine in my New Blue Jeans comes in 5 different shades that are perfect for larger gradient projects like sweaters or even baby blankets. Prairie Flower is a beautiful mix of desert hues that are perfect for summer- I can see this colour being just right for a stunning summer shawl or wrap!

Name: Biscotte Yarns

Where You Can Follow Them: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google +

What They Are All About: Biscotte Yarns specializes in self-striping yarns with lots of fun inspiration, but they have all sorts of goodies on offer- fabrics, project bags and kits, patterns, and tonal single ply yarns, as well as a mystery club! They also recently came out with an app that allows you create custom hat and sock patterns based on yarn weight, gauge, stitch preferences and size choices- web based, Android, or iphone. I’m excited to try it!

A Few of My Favourite Things, from Left to Right: This Oliver the fish sock kit (great price for the kit, too) includes everything but the needles to make these amazing socks- including the beads that make the little fish ‘bubbles’! It’s worth clicking through to see a close up of the design. The semisolid sock yarn in ‘Betterave’ is a beautiful colour that would look great on just about everyone, and then this self striping yarn in the Baby Whale colourway is perfect for socks, or even a cute baby sweater!

Name: Madbird 

Where You Can Follow Them: Facebook, Instagram

What They are all about: Alecia and Rob Miller make wonderful project bags, project clutches, totes, spindle bags, needle and hook rolls (even for dpns and interchangeables), and zip pouches- with a wide variety of fabrics, you’re sure to find the right size you need in a print you love. They are all sturdily built, with fleece interfacing and solid bottoms that ensure the bags stand up well on their own, once a project is inside. If you haven’t tried one of their bags, you are missing out- every detail is perfection and you will have this bag forever. I recommend following them on Facebook to get the updates on new items as well as the flash sales they sometimes have! Also, they are offering 10% off everything with the code KNITTEDBLISS.

A Few of My Favourite Things, from Left to Right: This large project bag with the cheery pastel sheep print seems so perfect for spring, I can’t get over it. It’s lined with a light green fabric and is totally reversible as well as has 3 interior pockets and yarn guides for colourwork. For smaller projects, this project clutch with vintage flair has a charming cat & kitten print outside, and some beautiful vintage roses inside. And if you are dreaming about doing some beach knitting this summer, then you can’t go wrong with this beachy palm trees and swim hut print, which is lined with a super cute lobster print inside, and of course is totally reversible like so many of Madbird’s great bags. Your summer knitting needs a summer project bag! Which one of you is going to beat me to the check out for it?

Anything spark your interest? And did you notice that I added in social media channels for the sponsors? So many of them are doing cool things on their social media, I thought you might want to have an easy, direct channel to checking out their feeds and if you like what you see, give them a follow!