British Company Offers “Year of Yarn”

Toft Alpaca is a British concern that includes a herd of alpacas, a knitting shop and craft workshop, even a cottage where you can stay on the farm.

The company has come up with a fun package called the Year of Yarn that would be a great gift for the knitter in your life (or yourself, of course!). The package includes seven shipments of yarn in a range of weights that will arrive throughout the year. There are options for beginner and intermediate knitters as well as more advanced knitters, so I assume that means there are patterns included as well.

The Year of Yarn runs £180, or nearly $300 (though I don’t know if they’ll ship it overseas). What a lovely way to help the British yarn industry and learn more about these wonderful alpaca yarns at the same time!

[Photo by Toft Alpaca.]

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Why should the fireplace get all the fun? Instead of knitting stockings this year, why not whip up a pair of Christmas themed socks? These Christmas sock knitting patterns are lots of fun to make and you can wear them to holiday gatherings for years to come.

For our friends in the southern part of the world, there are the Christmas in July socks from the Kiwi Lodge – Kylie (Ravelry link). These shorty socks are covered in Christmas trees and have bright pink heels and toes for a tropical feel. There’s also an option to make a longer sock if you celebrate somewhere it’s colder.

Twin Stitches Designs (Ravelry) has a fun pattern with mix and match colorwork motifs you can use to build your own cozy Christmas socks. From the sample socks I see Christmas puddings, trucks hauling trees, Santa belts, ornaments and a couple of different borders. There may be more patterns included but the listing doesn’t say. Make a pair that matches or use different motifs on each foot for extra holiday cheer.

If you want to stick to Christmas puddings on your holiday socks, check out this cute pattern from Stone Knits. These lovely socks feature a band of puddings around the leg and a bit of holly by the toes.

These vintage holiday light socks from Grey Owl Knits by Sarah are classic looking and lots of fun at the same time. I love this color combination but of course you can make your lights and stripes whatever colors you like or have on hand. They’re worked using stranded knitting.

And if you’d like even more of a mix of patterns for your socks, try Barbara Ceglédi’s Christmas Chaos socks, a free pattern on Ravelry. The pattern includes 25 little motifs you can choose from, ranging from snowflakes and Christmas trees to elf hats, reindeer and hearts.

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