I have tried knitting with pure silk in the past, but never been that satisfied either with the result or the knitting experience.  I have always found the yarn too slippery and have not enjoyed working with a yarn with so little "give" - a bit like working with pure cotton - it can be hard on your hands.

However, when I was contacted by my yarn supplier to say there was a new 4ply silk coming on stream next year, I decided to try a hank to see both how it took to my style of dyeing, and how it knitted up.

Well, the yarn took the dye beautifully. I dyed it one of my very intensive shades (red, red wine), and the shade worked wonderfully well on the 100% silk base.  This base has some texture to it, so it is not as slippery as other silk yarns that I've knitted with in the past.   It is quite hard to describe what I mean.



The pattern I chose to test knit the yarn with was Ginkgo Shoulderette Shawl, a free download.  The pattern is relatively simple, and quick to knit.  The silk knitted up evenly and with wonderful stitch definition.  In fact the definition is so good that one stitch that I twisted by mistake in the stocking stitch section of the shawl is glaringly obvious!



The yarn has beautiful drape, and took really hard blocking very well indeed.



It will be available from mid-January onwards, and I can't wait!  I have pre-ordered a fair amount of this yarn, as the distributor warned that a large chunk of the silk had already been pre-sold to a dyer in Germany.   And I didn't want to miss out!  It will be available both in 4ply and in laceweight.

And finally, I hope you won't mind a wee bit of a boast.  I received my subscription copy of The Knitter yesterday, and was flicking through Issue 40 when a photograph which I use for marketing caught my eye:

I was thrilled to read that the editor of The Knitter magazine, Juliet Bernard, had selected Ripples Crafts yarn as one of her "must have" yarns for 2012, alongside famous names such as Noro, Malabrigo Lace, Rowan's Felted Tweed (one of my favourite yarns!), Alice Starmore's Hebridean 2ply and Fyberspates Scrumptious range.  I was very excited, and very proud.   Juliet very kindly says "I was struck by how evocative her colourways are - Heather Peat Rock just says it all really!  Her eye for colour is so artistic."  Thank you for the kind words, Juliet.   It was the cherry on top of what has been a very exciting year for Ripples Crafts.