Brand New Arne and Carlos Regia Collection

I hate to have to tell you this (actually I don't, I really, really don't) but the brand new Arne and Carlos stuff is nearly half sold out. Before I get to the deets of the matter, I suggest if you need this in your life but can't get to the shop, order online by clicking here and either just have it sent to you or click 'collect in shop' and it'll be saved for you until you can get in and you won't be charged the postage.

So, there's a vlog uploading about this as we speak, so you can go and see me chatting away about it but I know some of you either don't like the vlogs, don't know about them or need to know the details without stealing all of your internet minutes. I understand. And it's my job as a yarn shop owner to get the info to you in as many ways as possible. AND I've finally got my blog foo back. I think. Don't quote me on this, but I even have an idea for Pattern of the Week tomorrow (don't mention not having any time... at all... ugh, I'll get there) and if I can get that done then I even have an idea for the next pattern of the week! Boom! Anyway, wool, yarn, socks, ooooooooh:

There it is. The stuff we've all been waiting for. It should have got here by the shop party last week but it didn't. I got the invoice for it on Friday while we were moving the shop around and when I rang them up it turned out that the box had got missing. So it actually was sent in time for the party but somebody somewhere messed it up. Gah! Anyway, they resent the box on Monday and then I got the box on Tuesday and didn't have any time to do anything with it... And then another box turned up on Thursday which turned out to be the box that they resent so the original box was the original box! Bloody nightmare.

Anyway, it doesn't matter because it looks this good. Another photo? Oh go on then:

 

How gorge is that? So, first things first. It's a sock yarn, that means it's 4ply and it's made with 75% wool and 25% nylon and tightly spun so that it's really hardwearing. You still need to be knitting your stitches nice and tightly so where a normal 4ply would be knitted on 3mm needles, a sock should be knitted on at least 2.75mm but more like 2.5mm needles preferably. It depends on what you can stand. ;)  There's 100g per ball (lots of people have missed this because the last lot came in 50g balls so don't miss it!) and 420 metres. This means that you can get a good pair of man socks out of one ball or three smaller woman pairs of socks out of two balls. Each ball is £10. If that price makes you hyperventilate (and I get it), firstly, that's a standard price for 100g of sock yarn (the Zig Zag is just really cheap) and secondly all Regia sock yarn comes with a 10 year guarantee. That means that if you knit socks on the needles and gauge specified and wash it like they suggest, if you get a hole in your socks within 10 years you get to send the socks back and they'll send you some yarn back. Of course, then you miss out on the joy of funny coloured darning patches... :)

100g - 420m - 75% wool, 25% nylon - £10

The Regia Arne and Carlos Collection.

And now we should talk about colours shouldn't we? Because that's what we're alllllll about. Ahhhhh.
So, these are all fauxisle. The idea is that the yarn, when knitted as a sock or on a similar amount of stitches, will work up to look like fairisle. I know a lot of us are familiar with this technique (especially as so many of you have been struck by the gorgeous King Cole Drifter) but it's still a bit magic isn't it? Here's a close up of the socks that they sent us to show off the yarn: 

 

That's the Forest colourway and isn't it stunning? Ahhhhhhhhhhh. I love the little hint of green.

So I took a load of photos for the shop page because Regia hadn't provided any good ones but I am a bit disappointed, especially with the Fields colourway. But there was no helping that. I'll either swap to Regia photos when they get some or the yarn will be sold out (I strongly suspect it will be the latter, haha). Here:

Fields - Garden - Iris - Islands

Forest - Orchard

 The one that upsets me the most is the Fields colourway because you miss the purple altogether. Here's a much clearer photo of what it looks like: 

 

But is it that much clearer???? Ooooooh, I'm having a bit of a crisis. Haha. Yarndale is weighing heavy on my mind at the moment. Everything's paid for. Everything's happening. No need to worry. It's just that people are cancelling left right and centre and needing money back and some people that were on the waiting list now can't go. And then I forgot how many people we could get on the bus - is it 64 or 65 - makes a massive difference if I'd overbooked and then somebody wouldn't be able to get on.... Wouldn't that be awful!? Cue stress and panic. No, it's okay it's 65. And then everybody's asking me when they'll get tickets or when we're setting off or coming back but times that by like 65 and I keep saying 'it's coming in the e-mail' and it is but I have to have a minute to write the e-mail but I had to get this yarn on the internet, and on the vlog and here and then up on the shelf and then of course there's the Boucle than came in last week to do all of that for (and a sample) and then an order from Cygnet came and then I had customers and then they wanted stuff right from the back of the shelf and orders on the internet and trying to keep the facebook page looking sane and normal and forget about Instagram. And then apparently becoming Tourist Information for Mansfield Road. Ahhhhh. Sorry. Slight detour into my brain. 

So, Arne and Carlos Collection for Regia. This is a first come first served thing and it's nearly half gone so get to it!

Love Eleanor. xxxxxx