I’ve spent a lovely few hours over the weekend discovering new to me indie dyers and drooling over their gorgeous yarn, and in particular their mini-skeins. So, I thought I’d write a blog post to recommend some of them to you and suggest which patterns their yarn might work with for our Winter Mini-Skein Knit-a-Long
Eligible KAL patterns: L to R clockwise, starting at top left: Winter Shawl, Choose Colour! Cowl, Patience Cowl, Hover, and Zastruga(Ravelry links)
All of the following dyers are based in UK and all the mini-skeins referred to are of 4 ply / fingering-weight yarn. The dyers are in alphabetical order and I’m afraid that I can’t guarantee that they have mini-skeins in stock at the time of reading.
a Knit Away – Based in York, Emily stocks 20g mini-skein packs and ‘pick n’ mix’ minis in both speckles and solids, in beautiful muted tones. Would be great for any of the KAL patterns.
Brambles and Me – Mia dyes her yarn with naturally derived extracts from roots, bark, leaves and insects, and stocks nylon-free yarns. At the time of writing she is getting ready for the Yorkshire Yarn Fest (30th Nov) but if you get in touch with Mia, she may be able to give you more details about her lovely mini-skeins.
Castle View Yarns – Jen is based in Suffolk and is also getting ready for the Yorkshire Yarn Fest (30th Nov), so keep an eye out for mini-skeins appearing on her website soon, as she dyes lovely solid shades and variegated yarns too.
Easy Knits – Jon of Easy Knits dyes wonderfully saturated skeins and speckled 20g mini-skein fade sets. Would be great for any of the KAL patterns (the two Zastruga samples were knitted in Easy Knits yarn!)
Eden Cottage Yarns – Based in Cumbria, Victoria and her team have quite a few options for our KAL. Their Milburn 4ply in the Charcoal colour way would be perfect for the main colour of the Winter Shawl, they also have plenty of 20g ‘pick n mix’ mini-skeins too, including sparkly minis! Eden Cottage’s 20g mini-skein packs which would be great for any of the other KAL patterns.
Dusty Dimples – Dusty stocks beautiful 20g ‘pick n mix’ mini-skeins which would be great for any of the KAL patterns. She also has gorgeous lighter-coloured full skeins, would be beautiful as the main colour in the Winter Shawl, alongside some of darker mini-skeins – lots of options for all of the KAL patterns.
Hedgerow Yarns – Jane of Hedgerow Yarns stocks both 10g and 20g mini-skeins in cute little sets. They’d be lovely knitted up as one of the KAL cowls, or a Zastruga or Hover shawl too.
Fearless Yarns – has lots of mini-skein sets in both 10g and 20g weights in brilliantly saturated tones. At the time of writing, Aileen also has some ’12 Days of Christmas’ sets available too. You could find great yarn for any of the KAL patterns here!
For The Love of Yarn – If you celebrate Christmas, then Lisa has some lovely little Christmas baubles in her shop with a mini-skein inside and stitch markers too! You could make an amazing single loop Choose Colour! Cowl with three of these and then refill the baubles and hang them on your tree! Lisa also has a beautifully bright rainbow mini-skein set which would make a super cosy and thick Patience Cowl.
Iron Bridge Yarns – Felicity has some lovely 20g mini-skein sets, which would be brilliant for any of the KAL patterns. She also has beautiful pale colourways in full skeins: perfect for the Winter Shawl’s main colour.
It’s A Stitch Up – Susie stocks gorgeously bright mini-skeins in both ‘pick n mix’ form and in packs. She also has wonderfully saturated full skeins: great as the main colour in the Winter Shawl.
Kate Selene – Lots of mini-skein choice over on Kate’s website: 10g packs, 20g packs, solids, speckles and cute packaging too! I think Kate’s yarn would work really well with any of the KAL patterns – you might have a dilemma choosing which one to do!
The Knitting Goddess – Joy and Bobby produce a huge variety of mini-skein sets in both 10g and 20g options on several of their lovely British yarn bases. They even have a Lucky Dip mini-skein option if you’d like to knit yourself a surprise for the KAL!
LoveBugs Yarns – Diana has some cute mini-skeins sets in different sizes, including super-bright rainbows and a lovely birthstones set. She also some 100g dark grey skeins: perfect for the Winter Shawl.
Needle and Fred – Seem to be taking a break at the time of writing but from their Instagram feed, I can see that they have beautiful mini-skein sets in both variegated and solid colourways.
Nellie and Eve – Helen dyes with natural dyes and produces beautifully delicate yarn. Although there don’t appear to be any mini-skeins in her shop at the time of writing, you might like to check back, as Helen got in touch with me to say that she would be adding some very soon.
Pixel Atlantis – has a really great choice of ‘pick n mix’ mini-skeins in both solid and semi-solid colourways, which would be lovely for any of the KAL patterns – you might have a hard time making a choice!
Rainbow Cloud 5 – Kasia has some great ‘one of a kind’ mini-skein mystery sets in her shop and also some beautiful ‘pick n mix’ options (the 10g Christmas 2019 colourways would make a gorgeous fade effect for the Winter Shawl contrast colours – you’d need 2 of each colourway for the full contrast colour yardage!).
Rusty Ferret Yarn – Leona is taking a short break at the time of writing, but she has a wonderful selection of mini-skein sets and ‘pick n mix’ options. I knitted the featured Patience Cowl sample in Rusty Ferret and I’d also recommend Leona’s yarn for the Winter Shawl, as she dyes a beautiful dark grey which would be perfect for the main colour.
Sherry Iris – Although there aren’t any mini-skeins in stock at the time of writing, I can see from Sherry Iris’ Instagram grid that they dye-up the most lovely mini-skeins in pastel and muted tones, so keep an eye out!
Vicki Brown Designs – Vicki has lots and lots of 20g ‘pick n mix’ mini-skeins available on her website in solid, semi-solid and speckled colour ways. They’d work with any of the KAL patterns – I don’t know how you’re going to choose!
wildwoolE17 – Alice sells gorgeous speckled 20g mini-skeins in both sets and ‘pick n mix’ options, including some that are in fade sets. These would look beautiful in any of the KAL patterns.
WitchCraftyLady – Is used Almas’ 10 x 10g mini-skein set in the ‘Not Again’ colour way for my Choose Colour! Cowl sample. These minis are made from super soft Merino yarn and Almas’ dyes the colours so cleverly that the melt into each other in the cowl’s textured stitch section. She doesn’t have this particular set in stock at the time of writing, but she does have another set for sale (which comes with a project bag but there’s only one left, so be quick!), which would work for either of the cowl patterns or make a lovely Zastruga or Hover shawl too!
A grand total of 23 mini-skein yarn dyers – that should keep you busy for a while! Please let me know about any more that I could add in and if you’d like to know more about the knit-a-long (starting on 1st Dec), then have a read of this blog post from earlier this month!
Happy mini-skein ogling!
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