Hand dyed yarn | Hand dyed British wool from Wales

Introducing Mama Qucha

Recently, I took the opportunity to try out some Peruvian Highland wool yarns from Chester Wool. And I'm in love. Peruvian Highland Wool is a non-Superwash wool sourced from small farms in the mountains local to the mill in Peru where the yarn is spun. The sheep are merino/Corriedale crossbreeds and the fibre has a 27 micron count. As it's not as fine and soft as merino, the fleeces would otherwise just go to waste - everyone wants the superfine merino. However, Andy and Jeni at Chester Wool have bought up the clip and given the local farmers a source of income they wouldn't otherwise have had. Whilst it may not be as soft as merino, the yarn is actually perfect for socks, and indeed for any garment or accessory that needs a bit of extra wear. It's comparable to any other Corriedale yarn I've come across: smooth spun, with a beautifully crisp and squishy handle, and is wearable next to skin for me. The sock yarn (4-ply/fingering weight) isn't high-twist, but has a sturdy twist suitable for socks - I've knit a pair up at a 8 sts per inch gauge, and they're very durable and cosy. The yarn is *incredibly* bouncy and springy, with a lot of body - masses of squish - and the staple length (from what I can see from pulling fibres out) is fairly long, which means less pilling. Also, the Corriedale side, with its lustre longwool heritage, yields wonderfully luminous, soft colours with my acid dyes. The stitch definition is superb, making for lusciously smooth stocking stitch and spectacular cable definition. In addition to supporting the incomes of the Peruvian farmers, we're also donating 10% of all profits from this yarn base to a selection of ocean-based environmental charities, with a spread of education, science, conservation and activist organisations. As many of you know, marine conservation and protection is close to my heart, with a proportion of Triskelion Yarn's profits every month going to the Sea Shepherd charity. Given these links, we chose the name of the Mayan goddess and protector of the oceans and marine life to be the name of the new base: Mama Qucha. I'm also currently testing out the sport, DK and worsted weight versions of this wonderful fibre, but the sock/4-ply was just too good not to do at least a small initial release of it for Triskelion customers to try out. The inital release is of ten oceanic colourways, some reworked old favourites, some new colour additions. I hope you'll love them as much as I do! [rl_gallery id="22245"]

Triskelion Yarn Out and About

Come and see us at the following shows ...

Triskelion Rewards

We've reinstated a major, much-missed feature to the website as of today: Triskelion Reward Points.  It's a points-based system, like Airmiles and other store/credit card type rewards, that gives you a discount on any future Triskelion products bought through the website (and hopefully in-person at shows, in time). We did have a system running in 2013-2014, but due to circumstances beyond our control, the whole thing went belly up and took everyone's outstanding points with it. Rest assured, that won't be happening this time, as the same people who power our website have provided the framework for the new Rewards system. Initially, it will operate pretty much as a 5% discount, i.e. for every twenty pounds you spend, you'll get one pound off of your next order. £1 spent on the website earns 10 Rewards points, and you get a £1 discount for every 200 points. As a caveat, there may be times when the baseline £1 = 10 earned points rule may vary, so selected product lines *may* offer a lower rate, whilst others may operate at a higher rate. Triskelion Reward points accumuate and can be cashed in at any time - when you go to the checkout to pay, it'll give you the option of using your earned Rewards points against up to one third of the total order value. The product pages and the cart all show how many reward points you'll get, and you can check how many reward points you've earned by going to the Reward Points tab on the My Account page once you've logged in. Triskelion Reward points are redeemable against anything in the shop except for shipping. In a nutshell:

• You get around 10 Triskelion Reward points for every pound spent (usually)
• 200 Triskelion Reward points equates to £1 discount (usually)
• Points can be used to discount up to 33% of an order's value

Anyone registering with Triskelion as an online customer from now on will also get 600 points thrown in for free (i.e. £3 off your first purchase from us if you want to cash your points in straight away) and, if you review any products you buy from us, you'll get 1000 points for your first review as a thank-you. If you want to register with us as an online customer and haven't, you can register here. At the moment, this only applies to online customers buying through the Triskelion website. We want to be able to offer Rewards to customers buying at shows, so we're currently assessing the feasibility of this. We're hoping to have something in place by the time we get to the Fibre East show in July. And now for the really good news... If you're an online customer of Triskelion Yarn, all of the orders you've placed with us since we started our online shop are now retrospectively eligible for Rewards, and we've assigned a large proportion of those points to your balance. If you go to your Rewards page, you'll find a tasty stash of points ready for you to splash out on your next order (or more!) with us. This would pretty much recover any losses during the Great Points Catastrophe of 2014, and ignore any points you redeemed. So, a bargain! The points scheme is just one part of a more comprehensive Triskelion customer loyalty program coming in the near future. The full Triskelion Rewards program will require being a newsletter subscriber, so please do make sure you're registered and have opted in. To be clear, the basic points scheme doesn't require you to be a newsletter subscriber; only the full Triskelion Rewards program will have that requirement. If you have any questions about the scheme, please do get in touch with us via email or any of our social media channels. Happy shopping! Caerthan

Suri Sport at Alpacas of Wales

Now this is something really special! Take a look a this gorgeous yarn from the wonderful welsh alpacas of Alpacas of Wales! It is 70% Baby Alpaca and 30% Suri Alpaca so is incredibly soft, with a superb handle and a silky suri sheen. It is a completely unique, designed by Caerthan (Triskelion) and Susan (Alpacas of Wales), and dyed here at Triskelion with its own set of colourways. Suri Sport is a beautiful knitting experience - ideal for small projects and accessories, and would be a perfect Christmas  present for the discerning knitter, although once you have your hands on it you won't want to give it up! It's available in the following colourways, but with limited stocks, so don't hang about ...  Alpacas of Wales Online Shop [gallery order="DESC" size="medium" ids="10653,10646,10650,10652,10654,10655,10645,10647,10651,10649,10648,10657"]