I’m surrounded with my new fibre discoveries for the season, a bit of eco wool alpaca, an uber chunky Alpaca blend roving and a fabulous alpaca chainette, and then something occurs to me? It’s all about the alpaca... I know I’m drawn to it because I have an unhealthy relationship with luxury yarns, having spent a large proportion of my career surrounded by cashmere. But this season it just seems like everyone is pushing it. And I couldn’t be happier, it creates just the right balance of bulk without the extra weight and adds a soft halo to everything that’s produced in it, much like cashmere but a fraction of the cost.
It’s especially cost effective as it works up very light and I’ve found that I can usually work my designs in a needle or two sizes bigger to give me even more air and loft. I put in my yarn order today and have already started to mutilate the yarn cards that have tiny shreds of my favoured fibres. Armed with a new sketchbook and with my mood boards taking shape I’ll be counting the days until my yarns arrive.
31st August 2011 - Found myself in Edinburgh for my wedding anniversary and just had to do a bit of window shopping. First stop was Harvey Nichols to check out what designers are up to. Stores switched from summer to Autumn in early July so all the Fall collections were in.
There were lots of oversized beanies and super chunky cable knits, lots of cape like silhouettes and plenty of snoods. It’s always a wee bit of a relief to see my designs are on trend and are in keeping with what’s on sale.