Name: Madbird Bags & Accessories
What They are all about: Alecia and Rob Miller make fun and functional project bags, project clutches, totes, spindle bags, needle and hook rolls, and zip pouches- with a wide variety of fabrics, you’re sure to find the right size you need in a fabric you love. Project bags come with interior yarn guides that have a snap on them, so your yarn feeds through cleanly, but you can change out the yarn or project any time you like. And 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.
A Few of My Favourite Things, from Left to Right: The Les Amis large project clutch has a sweet little forest animal print, and I adore the lining fabric with the woodgrain- such a great fabric pairing! The Night Grove project bag is actually completely reversible- so it’s like getting two gorgeous project bags for the price of one, and the Kamakura large project tote features beautiful Japanese style fabric, a magnetic close and a matching notions pouch. Perfect for big projects like sweaters!
Name: Bijou Basin Ranch
What They Are All About: Carl and Eileen have a family-run Yak ranch in Colorado. The sell amazing yak fiber and yarns that are both 100% yak and blended with other fibers (like bamboo or merino) to give the yarn strength and variety. And if you haven’t tried yak fiber before, you are missing out- it’s very soft, and very good for those that have wool allergies.
A Few of My Favourite Things, from Left to Right: Lhasa Wilderness of a Yak (75%) and bamboo (25%) blend, this is shown in a tartan colourway of Fraser’s Ridge. Don’t you love that they have tartan colourways?! And check out this awesome argyle sock kit– it comes with yarn to make two pairs of argyle socks, with variations! Worth clicking through to check it out. And this Shangri-la laceweight in ‘Ruby’ is absolutely stunning- it’s a blend of 50% yak fiber and 50% mulberry silk for a shimmery, beautiful yarn perfect for shawls and wraps. Oh, and when you click the link, there is a pop up to sign up for their email list and it gives you a code for free shipping. Now who doesn’t love free shipping?
Name: Agrestal Yarn
What They Are All About: Agrestal yarn is a new Toronto-based indie yarn company that is all about plant-based botanical dyes and Canadian raised fiber. Agrestal offers yarn in both a fingering and worsted weight, and you can check out the bases page to find out more about where the fiber fo reach comes from.
A Few of My Favourite Things, from Left to Right: This is wool blend Worsted weight in ‘Lakeside’, which has lovely teals that are perfect for summer, then the fingering weight ‘Peace Slice’, which is a blend of wool and mohair for strength. Then we have another wool blend worsted weight in the ‘Obscurity’ colourway- gorgeous plums and grape tones in this one. And you know what else is awesome? You can use the code KNITTEDBLISS for 10% off your order!
Name: Sweet Sheep Body Shoppe
What She is All About: Alicia makes luxurious all-natural lotion bars and lip balms using skin-loving ingredients like lanolin, cocoa butter, almond oil, and vitamin E and mango butter. If you haven’t tried a lotion bar before you are missing out! it’s non-greasy and great for air travel (none of this liquid limit problem on planes, where the air is super drying).
A Few of My Favourite Things, from Left to Right: Adorable sheep soap, people! I’m in love with these super cute moulded goat’s milk soaps (this one is the peaches & cream scent) made with all-natural moisturizing ingredients. For a lotion bar, this Crisp Pear scent is made with skin-softening lanolin, and the lip balms (I’m a big fan) has a new addition to Alicia’s offerings with the Strawberry Vanilla scent/flavour.
Name: Knit Circus
What She is All About: Dyed-to-order gradients are her specialty, there is a whole range of colours, weights, and yarn bases to choose from. If you’ve been eyeing some lovely knits featuring gradients, you should check this out.
A Few of my Favourite Things, from Left to Right: This incredible deep blue gradient (‘Blue Hawaii) is so entrancing, I feel like anything made with it would have no choice but to result in an unbelievably beautiful knit. Jaala has designed the great River Cowl kit that pairs one of her pretty gradients with a natural white shade, and the high textured stitch makes this cowl totally reversible! For Cookie A sock lovers out there, the Race to the Cookie Jar colourway was designed with socks in mind, and has fun yellow, green, and teal shades in it. Perfect for socks, of course!
Name: Yarn in the City
What They Are All About: Rachel and Allison are North American expats who have been living in London, UK for a while, and created Yarn in the City, which plans and creates yarn-themed crafty get togethers and events all around London, UK such as the Great London Yarn Crawl, Pop Up Marketplaces, workshops with awesome designers from around the globe, and . And don’t think that this is just for people living in the UK because they are also super tourist friendly! Later this year they will be launching a Crafty Guide to London, featuring great routes and info on all the best knitting and craft supply stores in the city, and include patterns and tips for knitting and crafting while on vacation.
A Few of My Favourite Things, from Left to Right: Coming up September 5th is the annual Great London Yarn Crawl, a non-profit yarn tour of the several London knitting shops with all funds going to charity. You can sign on to join a team and travel a route of London via public transit with your new knitting crew! And check out the list of incredible vendors at the next Pop-Up Marketplace (also on Sept. 5th) September 6th, Kate Atherley will be leading two workshops on Pattern Writing for Knit Designers, with the morning session dedicated to introducing the basics of knitwear design, and the afternoon on increasing your pattern writing skills. People, if you are travelling to London around those dates or happen to live there, you won’t want to miss these events!
