We're here to help you stitch sustainability into every aspect of your making.
With our carefully curated selection of non-superwash, plastic-free yarns and notions, we have everything you need to get started on your next project - and the one after that.
Here's to a wardrobe of knits we love and want to wear for years to come!
Get To Know Garthenor Beacons
In our last blog post, we introduced you to one of our favourite sustainable yarn producers, Garthenor, chatted all about their gorgeous sock yarn, Snowdonia Sock and did a little project planning to get the sock inspiration flowing! If you missed that post, you can catch up on it by clicking here.
Today, we want to take a look at another of their yarns; Beacons! This DK weight yarn has been a firm favourite ever since we introduced it into the webshop, and there's a good reason for that.
"Our Polwarth comes from Dunbar Island, part of the Falkland Islands, famed for the snow-white superfine fleece. These sheep produce a long, smooth fibre that has excellent stitch definition and soaks up dye like a sponge. Adding some depth and texture to the Polwarth is some long and lustrous Romney and stunningly rich Hebridean in Cinder, our grey base." - Garthenor
It's the grey undertones of the base yarn that give the colourways so much depth and complexity and combined with the stunning stitch definition and next-to-skin softness, Beacon's has fast become our go-to yarn for just about any project!
If you are looking for a little project inspiration for this yarn, we have a whole Pinterest board with lots of ideas, but if Pinterest isn't your thing don't worry! I've shared a few project ideas with you below also.
________
Our New Beacons Video:
We've also recorded a new "Get To Know" video where Hanna Lisa talks about the story behind Garthenor and Beacons, so if you're looking for a little woolly entertainment to accompany your knitting, check it out below!
________
Our Favourite Patterns for Beacons:
If Pinterest or YouTube isn't your thing, check out our favourite patterns for Beacons below!
The colour combinations for the Coloring Book Raglan by Aimee Sher are endless with Beacons, but it would be particularly lovely with Cinder and Gorse!
The Florence Tank from Sari Nordlund is stunning, and works for both warm and cold weather knitting! One in every colour would be best, but here I've paired it with Wild Olive, and it's sure to become a wardrobe staple.
Radiate by Joji Locatelli is so much fun, and it looks like a super satisfying knit! How pretty would it be paired with Marble and Koi?
Pando Shawl by Amor Esperanza has a stunning stitch pattern that would really shine in Beacons. I've paired it with the gorgeous grey/blue Cadet!
________
What do you think of my project planning?! My summer project list just grew by quite a bit, but I'd love to know, do you plan to try Beacons? Or if you've already had it on your needles, do share your pattern recommendations with us below!
Leave a comment
Comments will be approved before showing up.
Also in Blog
Thoughts on closing down a knitting magazine
As a lot of you might have suspected I have, at last, made the decision to definitely close down Making Stories Magazine after Issue 14, our 2025 Fall & Winter issue. This means we still have two issues to go - Issue 13, coming out in March (Confetti & Rainbows!!), and Issue 14, coming out in September. I wanted to share this decision with you bright and early as I don’t feel like holding this in when we publish our last Spring and then our very last Fall & Winter issue. I want to celebrate those issues, and the work that we have done over the last eight years, and I want to be able to share the bittersweet feelings that will inevitably come up when the list of “lasts” still do be done gets shorter and shorter.
Read More
All the knits I finished while recovering from surgery
About three weeks ago, I had surgery. Nothing major, and it was planned - but it was my first time undergoing general anaesthesia and facing an uncertain recovery period, both of which made me quite nervous. I knew that I was going to be in the hospital for two days, if everything went well, but then it was between one and three weeks of recovering at home, depending on how fast my body was going to heal.
Needless to say, I packed knitting for the hospital, but I didn’t feel like picking up my needles until my second day in the hospital. And then I knit. I knit, and knit, and knit. Curiously enough, I always get the urge to clear off my needles this time of the year - something about the weather changing, sweater season approaching, maybe? And this year, this urge coincided with me wanting to do something while watching copious amounts of Netflix without having to think very hard about what I was going to knit. Win win!
Art Nouveau Sample Preview Video - Issue 12, Fall & Winter 2024
Let’s wander the streets of Brussels and Paris, searching for the hidden architectural Art Nouveau gems – houses, doors, windows, street lamps. Let’s explore Berlin’s Jugendstil tile art, marvelling at the colors and shapes taking form. Let’s get lost in the work of water color artists, glass blowers, jewellers, embroidery artists, and myriads more, who dive into the shapes and curves of plants and flowers, moving, flowing, mirroring.
Read More
