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Sheep(ish) Makes the Move to Bernat

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sheepish bernatI don’t know how much you know — or care to know! — about the business side of the yarn world, but last year the yarn company Caron was acquired by Spinrite, the company behind Patons, Bernat and Lily (which also bought the Elmore-Pisgah Company, producer of Peaches and Creme yarn, not too long before that).

One thing that has happened as a result of that is that Vickie Howell’s Stitch.Rock.Love. line of yarn is moving under the Bernat umbrella rather than continuing to be a Caron yarn. (So far the only yarn in the line is Sheep(ish), but at least one more is in development.)

Howell says on her blog that nothing is changing about the way the yarn is produced, the colors that will be available or the way she interacts with users of the yarn through online knitalongs and crochetalongs.

To celebrate the change, Bernat is offering a sale on Sheep(ish), which means you can snag it for 25 percent off the regular price. The yarn regularly retails for $3.99 for a 167 yard skein. Enter the code GIFT4YOU upon checkout to receive the discount. The offer is valid through the end of the month.

Are you a fan of Sheep(ish)? Spill it!

[Photo by Bernat.]

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Comments

  1. I actually find it really interesting. I collect old knitting pattern books and you can see over time companies that were separate and had their own line of books merging. Based on the dates of the books I could probably make a timeline that shows when the different companies merged with each other. One of these days I want to do that.

  2. I crocheted all of the items ordered from my friends for Christmas gifts last year using Sheep(ish). The fingerless gloves, scarves and wraps turned out so nice and my friends told me the recipients loved them. I appreciate the yarn is soft and durable. The single-ply makes it a no-fuss yarn to work with.

Have you read?

Book Review: Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary

Stitch dictionaries are a fun way to learn new-to-you knitting stitch patterns or to take a deep dive into a particular technique. Debbie Tomkies offers 100 cable stitch designs and thoughts on how to incorporate them into projects in her Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary.

Each stitch pattern is shown in a large swatch photo and with written and charted instructions. Any special stitches are included on the page. The stitches are rated on a difficulty scale of 1 to 3, and the pattern notes also indicate how many extra stitches you should add to a project if you’re going to work this cable (since cables pull the fabric closer together you need to compensate for that) as well as how many stitches and rows are in the repeat if you want to design a project yourself.

The cables are arranged into sections: classic cables, combinations, all-over panels, creative cables, motifs and panels and cabled edges and borders.

It’s fun to flip through the designs to think about projects you can add a single cable or two to or make with an allover cabled design. Or you could make swatches of different cables and sew them together into a pillow cover or a throw.

At the back of the book there’s a section on general cable knitting techniques, reading charts, working swatches and avoiding errors (though it mentions working the wrong number of rows between cable turns, it doesn’t share how to count rows between cables to avoid this mistake).

It also talks about how to design your own cables, combine cables in a project, choose the right yarn and needles and determine how many more stitches you need to cast on when working cables instead of stockinette stitch. There’s also a glossary of symbols and abbreviations you may find in cable knitting and other patterns.

The book provides a good overview of things you can do with cables, as well as some fun things you might not have tried like infinity cables and horizontal cables. It’s a great book for a designer who likes to work with cables or a knitter who wants to play with different stitches in their projects.

About the book: 176 pages, paperback, 100 stitch patterns. Published 2024 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $26.99.