Five New Shades of &Make Aran
We’ve just added five new shades of &Make Aran to our shelves, so we thought it would be a great opportunity to take a more detailed look at this fabulous yarn from The Fibre Co, and see what makes it so perfect for both beginners and more experienced knitters.
The &Make Range
&Make is a range of yarn produced by The Fibre Co. Designed for knitters at every stage of their journey, it’s made from 100% natural, sustainable fibres from renewable sources. The Fibre Co. are well known for their luxury yarn blends and beautiful colours, and these are both very much in evidence across the &Make range, which includes an aran, a super bulky and a DK weight option. We currently stock &Make Aran, and are planning to add the other two weights to the shop early next year, so do be sure to keep an eye out for them.
Why We Love &Make Aran
The first thing to note about &Make Aran is how squishy it is! That’s down to its blend of 50% alpaca, and 50% highland wool. The alpaca brings softness, while the highland wool adds sturdiness, and the result is a yarn with great stitch definition that’s perfect for colourwork. It’s a true aran weight with approx 165m to 100g, and projects would work up nice and quickly on 4.5mm to 5.5mm needles. The balls are 100g, and they go quite a long way: you would need approximately one ball for a hat, three for a scarf and five to eight for a sweater or cardigan.
The colours are a mixture of brights and more muted neutrals. They are achieved by overdyeing both light and dark coloured fibre, which creates a lovely heathered effect on some shades and a really bright pop of intense colour on others.
Five New Shades
We’ve added the following five shades of &Make Aran to our collection:
I’ve struggled to pick a favourite from these, but I’m really drawn to the deep blue of Indigo Child, and think that it would be perfect for a sweater. It works really well when combined with Silver Screen, so these two would be great together for a colourwork project. I’ve also seen a lot of lovely projects in Spill the Tea on Ravelry, and I love the boldness of Smiley which I’m definitely going to be making a hat with.
As always, if you’re after a colour that we don’t stock, just get in touch and we’ll order it for you.
&Make Patterns
The Fibre Co. produce a brilliant range of patterns specifically for &Make yarns. They are written really clearly and include lots of information about the techniques used as well as links to further instruction and video tutorials. This makes them perfect for beginners and those looking to learn a new skill. We’re delighted to be able to offer these patterns for free when you purchase the yarn to make them - just let us know which one you want when you place your order.
Purls of Wisdom Sweater
A round-yoke seamless sweater knit from the top down. This is an ideal first sweater and there’s plenty of opportunity to play with colour. The design extremely wearable with a minimal aesthetic and well considered details that would also look great in a single colour.
Warm and Easy Hat by Kate Atherley
The warm and easy hat is a great way to practise knitting in the round. It’s a nice quick project with endless opportunities to play with colour. Requires 1-2 balls of &Make Aran.
Gridland Scarf
A big warm hug of a scarf knit in simple knit and purl stitches. Knit flat and requiring 3 balls of &Make Aran.
Pillow Possibilities
Three cozy cushion designs featuring lots of interesting texture. Including a brickwork, a classic cable and a texture stripe and garter stitch pattern. Knit flat and seamed together to create the cushion cover, each one will require 3 balls of &Make Aran.
Winter Walkway Set
This set uses just four balls of &Make Aran to make all three headband and neck warmer sets. The three different stripe designs are all knit in the round seamlessly.
Check out our &Make Aran Pinterest board for more pattern suggestions for this gorgeous yarn. You can shop &Make Aran here.