YOTD: James C. Brett Twinkle DK

Hi All!! Happy Thursday Everyone!! Hope you are all well!

Today's YOTD is James C. Brett's Twinkle that I picked up at last years Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in London. It is probably the only show that is really all about knitting in the UK and I always try to go in October when it is on. I love to go and surround myself with yarn and books, and drag the Blattman too- he secretly loves it!!!

James C. Brett Twinkle is a DK yarn and it comes in 100g balls and you get a huge 300m on a ball. It is made from 97% Acrylic and 3% Polyester and has a beautiful glitter strand in colour of the main yarn in the ball. It is a really nice yarn and comes in lots of colours. It has a tension over 10cm of 22sts over 30 rows. One ball of this will cost you about £2.99 and again this is great value for money, because you get a great meterage, and it is a great yarn to work with.

With a glittery yarn expect it to be a bit scratchy, but this is probably the least scratchy of my glittery yarns with the exception of maybe Tivoli Pearl. It knits very well, like a normal acrylic yarn, and the glitter strand does not catch or split away from the main ply of the yarn. It blocks and wears like any other acrylic yarn and I would use it in the same way

Normally I would use this yarn just for add ons for my toys but I decided I loved this pink enough to make a hat from it- just a shame it is too small!!! Never mind!! I have this yarn in 6 different colours, this pink above, Teal, Silver, Red, Purple and white with the pearl glitter through it. I love these for adding glitter to my Christmas toys and decorations as it really adds something, and makes them much more festive.

This is the white version and I will feature this cute angel pattern soon as it is really easy and makes a great gift for anyone who needs a little pick me up. I love the iridescent part of this yarn, it just creates such a beautiful piece, and I've also used it in my latest pattern for a nativity for the angel. Here is a sneak peek at some of the other colours I own in this from the Nativity.

Aren't these wise guys cute? I love them!!! I'm only showing you their backs because you can see the glittery yarn better. This yarn is also machine washable, tumble driable and you can iron it too, should you really want to! Great yarn, great price, great finish!!

Have a great day all, enjoy this lovely weather we are having in the UK, and for those of you abroad, hope you have sunshine too!

YOTD: Tivoli Pearl DK

Hi everyone!! Bit later today, because me and the Blattman have been out and about. Today is a actually a yarn I used last year and bought when we went to Shropshire for my birthday last year, (when I was all young!!) I thought it was time for a bit of glitter frankly, there is not enough of it on this blog yet!!

Tivoli Pearl DK is a glitter yarn and is made from 95% acrylic and 5% wool and has a lurex glitter strand running through it. These come is fab big 100g balls and you get 300 metres. A ball costs around £3.85 too so you get a lot of yarn for your money. Tension over 10cm is 22sts over 30 rows on 4mm needles. It is machine washable and tumble dryable on cool too, so a great yarn for anything really.

Now my swatch is on slightly bigger needles than it says because I was making a shawl, so the tension square above is bigger, and creates a slightly looser fabric. I have made some toys with the yarn left over and the tension has been fine. Because of the way the yarn is made, with a twist in the spinning, it creates more of a slubby yarn effect, which I am not a fan of really, but for shawls its fine. I dont think I would use it for clothes really, but my christmas angels liked it and the shawl looks great.
On most of the websites I've read, they describe it as a soft baby wool. I would not want to be the baby wearing this. It is so very very itchy. The lurex is not soft, its really quite scratchy when you are knitting it, and if you are in contact with it for a lot. It has got no softer with blocking.

Now for the question- would I buy it again? No, I wouldnt, unless I needed knitting for toys. I dont mind scratchy yarns for toys so much, because a lot of the toys I knit arent for holding, like the nativity. There are much nicer yarns out there for glitter and softness, like Rowan Romance.

I am using the white glitter (160) and there are 5 pale colours in the original line up of Pearl, and now another 4 deeper shades have been released too. The others include pale baby yellow (161), baby pink (162), Baby blue (163) and lilac (164) in the pale shades, and Purple (165), Navy (166), Black (167) and Bright Red (168). Today's website of choice is the fantastically named Togs and Toggles!! I liked the name, and they have a lot of good information about each of the yarns and some new yarns I havent seen so they are worth a look at.

And Finally, as always, the last word from the Blattman: Scratchy.