Knitting in Ireland

Alexa and family are on tour!

I recently took a trip to Ireland to visit my cousin. My partner and I took our two wee babes on a 9 hour flight to Amsterdam, then a 1.5 hour flight to Dublin and a 4 hour drive (on the wrong side of the road) to the little town of Remelton.  How much knitting was accomplished during this epic travel day?  Zero!

It was a great trip full of visiting and sightseeing (and yarn buying).  We stayed in the picturesque town of Remelton (County Donegal) and we also visited the windiest place in Ireland.

My cousin took me first to the yarn store nearest to her.  Browsing acrylic yarns in the basement of a department store was disappointing to say the least.  Not up to my yarn snobbery standards!  When we took a trip to Dublin to check out the city I knew this was my chance!

This Is Knit is located in a posh little mall with an adorable cafe just outside its doors.  The shop has many samples and a great selection of Irish yarns.  I was originally looking for a tweed but in the end I didn’t stray TOO far from my usual faves, and came home with some beautiful hand dyes!

I picked up some Hedgehog Fibers sock yarn to make Hunter a lightweight sweater for spring. The colourway is Nutmeg and the yarn is superwash: perfect for a jumper for a 2-year-old. It is a very warm dark brown, scrumptiously soft with subtle hints of green running through it.

Next was a dyer I hadn’t heard of before : Coolree yarns. The shop gal told me the dyer is a 25-year-old local gentleman who has only been in business for a few months but is already producing pretty amazing colourways. I picked a sock yarn in ‘Midnight Blue’ that came complete with a lovely hand-written tag. The buttery soft yarn is 50% silk, 50% superwash wool, and is destined to be knit into one of the designs from our upcoming lace collection Handmade in the UK.

After a great two weeks in Ireland, we have moved on to Emily’s flat in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Besides the odd kitten / 2-year-old confrontation, the family has settled in comfortably, and it has been amazing to collaborate across the kitchen table rather than across 8 timezones. Tomorrow we are driving northward to see some more of the Scottish countryside… more photos to come soon!

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Great patterns for Chilly Winter Weather: