British grown and British made! Our BFL (Bluefaced Leicester) yarn is grown on the British Isles and spun in the British Yorkshire Dales, promising a delightful tactile knitting experience. BFL yarn is often compared with merino – BFL being stronger and holding its shape much better. Soft and bouncy to the touch, it is a favourite among knitters. With a very low CO2 footprint and naturally dyed in Ireland – how could it get better?

In a nutshell for 1 skein:
100% Bluefaced Leicester yarn
weight DK
100g/ 3.5oz
225m/ 246 yards
Handwash 30° (C), reshape whilst damp
Origin: Britain
Dyed naturally in Ireland

Indigo* - herbaceous plant ( you might get a bit of blue on your hands while
Knitting - that is easily washed of with soap and even healthy!)
Vegan note: please be aware that we use Lac and Cochineal dyes as well, which would be of animal origin ~ Cochineal** - small louse; Lac*** - the casing made by beetles to hatch and protect their eggs.

Lincot is 'rustically spun' - meaning that the yarn is thick-and-thin, presenting like an old fashioned handspun. It takes color beautifully, with lots of subtle, rich variations in tone. And when knitted up, it gives the resulting fabric a captivatingly textured look and feel.

About the yarn: spun unevenly in Germany, the fibres are sourced from sustainable and ethical friendly sources.  The uneven texture of Lincot also has interesting implications for gauge. In meterage, this yarn is a spot-on DK weight, measuring 220m per 100g. However, when it comes to gauge it 'behaves' like a much thicker yarn, and seems to work best in garments when knitted at an aran-weight gauge. This makes Lincot an extremely economical yarn! Meaning, you need far less of it than you would an ordinary DK weight yarn. For example: a sweater requiring 500g of DK weight yarn worked up for designer Albina with only 400g. 

In a nutshell for 1 skein:
70% cotton / 30% linen
weight 2 ply DK
100g/ 3.5oz
220m/ 240.59yards
4-5mm needles

Read a designer's review of LinCot here
Read the review of LB Handknit's LinCot dress knitting pattern, Rusticana, here
Get your copy of Rusticana, here

Due to the fibre content, LinCot is a great option for Vegans with several plant dyed colours!  Curious to read more about our dyes? Click here.

Indigo* - herbaceous plant ( you might get a bit of blue on your hands while
Knitting - that is easily washed of with soap and even healthy!)
Vegan note: please be aware that we use Lac and Cochineal dyes as well, which would be of animal origin ~ Cochineal** - small louse; Lac*** - the casing made by beetles to hatch and protect their eggs.

Creating wearable Colours in a close relationship with nature - this Palette has been inspired by Irish Moors, Mountain flowers and Mossy Woodland Rivers.

Dyed with Herbal & Vegetable Dyes as well as Lac and Indigo.

Light and silky to the touch, Yeti is made from equal amounts of Yak and Mulberry Silk fibres – spun into a fine fingering weight yarn to create garments which are as light as a feather.

This yarn makes a wonderful all year garment – both, yak and silk, are temperature regulators.

Yak is one of the most expensive fibre in the world – with being warmer than sheep wool and still as soft as cashmere, it will keep you warm and cosy when needed.

It is hard wearing, durable, soft, warm and light weight.

Yeti is available as a kit as well.  Check out Criostal, designed by Albina from Lbhandknits, highlights Yeti in a simple delicate shawl pattern. 

In a nutshell for 1 skein:
50%baby yak hair / 50% mulberry silk
weight 4 ply
100g/ 3.5oz
466m/ 509.6 yards
2-3mm needles

Origin: Yak ~ Tibet, Silk ~ China, Spun in Mongolia and naturally dyed in Ireland.

I love this wool yarn, simple, beautifully soft and would make a lovely sweater or other wearable item. 

We're often asked, is, why do we call it Softwool? We originally mistook it for merino for starters! It came up while talking with Albina (LBhandknits) about this yarn and how well it knits up. Upon closer inspection, we noticed that this wool is stronger, has a lot less pillage and is almost as soft. Albina has designed a couple of cardigans, a sweater, and a dress for this lovely yarn and a name was necessary, so Softwool it became. 

Once being aware that it isn't merino, you can just feel a slightly stronger handle, less of the plush and more of a textured smoothness. Perfect for colour work, the Softwool line comes with one of our biggest colour ranges, inviting you to enjoy your favorites when choosing from a broad colour palette, including pastels as well as stronger dominant tones.

Suitable for all kinds of projects, like "Ada" and "Ripple and Bloom" both of which have been custom designed for AppleOak FibreWorks by LBHandknits.

In a nutshell for 1 skein:
100% wool
weight Sport
100gr/skein
300m/328yrds
3-4mm needles

Indigo* - herbaceous plant ( you might get a bit of blue on your hands while 
Knitting - that is easily washed of with soap and even healthy!)
Vegan note: please be aware that we use Lac and Cochineal dyes as well, which would be of animal origin ~ Cochineal** - small louse; Lac*** - the casing made by beetles to hatch and protect their eggs.

ALKANET ~ Dye Colour: Purple

*Cultivated in India

**The dye colour goes more into a purple blue grey, but it depends on how you extract the dye and what mordants you use.

***Please be aware that you will need to extract the dye with alcohol.

Below is an extract from Wikipedia which describes the colour as red...Time to experiment!

Alkanna tinctoria, the dyer's alkanet or alkanet, is a herb in the borage family. Its main notability is its roots are used as a red dye. The plant is also known as dyers' bugloss, orchanet, Spanish bugloss or Languedoc bugloss. It is native in the Mediterranean region.

Alkanna tinctoria has a bright blue flower. The plant has a dark red root of blackish appearance externally but blue-red inside, with a whitish core. The root produces a fine red colouring material which has been used as a dye in the Mediterranean region since antiquity. The root as a dyestuff is soluble in alcohol, ether, and the oils, but is insoluble in water. It is used to give colour to wines and alcoholic tinctures, to vegetable oils, and to varnishes.

Powdered and mixed with oil, the alkanet root is used as a wood stain. When mixed into an oily environment it imparts a crimson color to the oil, which, when applied to a wood, moves the wood color towards dark-red-brown rosewood, and accentuates the grain of the wood.

Alkanet is traditionally used in Indian food under the name "Ratan Jot", and lends its red colour to some versions of the curry dish Rogan Josh. In Australia alkanet is approved for use as a food colouring, but in the European Union it is not.

It has been used as colorant for lipstick and rouge (cosmetics).

In alkali environments the alkanet dye has a blue/purple color, with the color changing again to crimson on addition of an acid. The colour is red at pH 6.1, purple at 8.8 and blue at pH 10. Hence, it can be used to do alkali-acid litmus tests (but the usual litmus test paper does not use alkanet as the agent and its colour change is closer to pH 7).

The colouring agent in Alkanna tinctoria root has been chemically isolated and named alkannin.

ALUM MORDANT ~ necessary for most plant dyes to ensure colour fastness.

Alum is considered the least harmful or safest when it come to mordants used in plant dyeing. What many don't know is that Alum occurs naturally in nature and some plants, like horsetail, contain Alum.

*Alum has long been used as an additive to both foods and drinking water.

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Basic recipe:

Weigh your DRY textile material.

ALUM: Divide the weight of the material to dye by four. Weight out that much alum mordant. A scant two tablespoons equals one ounce of alum.

Add Alum to the pot, and almost fill with warm water. Leave enough room to add the wet textile material. Stir until fully dissolved.

*You can leave the wool in for 24- 72 hours - cold mordanting.

** Or you can heat to 80 degrees Celcius for one hour.

Rinse and dry.

BIRCH LEAVES DYE ~ Dye Colour yellow and green

A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus Betula, in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae.

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Basic Recipe:

Yarn 125 gr.
Alum (mordant) 15 gr.
Dry birch leaves 250 gr.

Soak the leaves for a day before using.

Boil the soaked leaves for one hour and drain. Add the alum to this solution and simmer the yarn for half to one hour.

*If the yarn is dried without rinsing and then placed in a weak birch ash lye, the colour becomes a reddish yellow.

**You can change the colour to green by adding 5% Iron.

BITTER ORANGE PEEL FINE CUT ~ Dye Colour Yellow and Orange

Harvested in PARAGUAY

Wool, Silks, Cotton and Linen can be dyed with Bitter Orange Peel. It gives a light yellow orange, depending on quantities used. 

*The dye is not very light fast and might have to be redyed after a few years. 

**Also suitable for soap making and consumption
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Basic Recipe for orange/yellow:

100gr wool or silk mordanted in 10% Alum and 4% Soda Ash for 1 hour. 
100g Lemon Peel

1.Soak 100gr Bitter Orange Peel with 4% Soda in water over night. 
2.Pour mixture through a cloth, tie off the Bitter Orange peel (dye bag) and keep in the dye bath. 

3.To dye: Simmer wool for one hour. Leave in dye bath to cool (will deepen the colour)

Rinse and dry