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#yarnfictions ~ perfect summer book club ~ small pleasures

3 x 100g ~ pightle | fingering/4ply ~ fluid fade
£60.00
£60.00
  • description
  • yarn specification

{pre-orders close at 10am bst Monday June 16th. Club parcels will be posted by July 1st. Extra ready-to-ship skeins will be in the shop mid-July}

It's June, the sun is shining, and I'm settling into a summer of reading! 

Or to be more precise, re-reading... I've been thinking about books that evoke the perfect summer for me. Whether it's their setting, where/when I read them, or just a general vibe that conjures long, hot summer days and warm, wistful evenings, some books were just made to be read in the summer. There are obvious 'classics' - The Go-Between, Cider With Rosie, and Tove Jansson's The Summer Book – but I'm recalling more recent novels that instantly make me think of summer. I thought about Deborah Levy's 'Hot Milk', 'A Theatre for Dreamers' by Polly Samson, and Marina Kemp's 'The Unwilding', all books that transport me to instantly to a perfect Mediterranean beach, or a shady taverna terrace, but I've decided to stay closer to home... 

I'm going to use three of my favourite UK-based summer reads to inspire a summer yarn club that will have three instalments spread across June, July, & August (and maybe a little bit of September...) and the first instalment finds me re-reading one of my favourite books of recent years...

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

It's 1957 and Jean Swinney, a journalist on a local newspaper, is sent to investigate a supposed 'virgin birth'. Building over the course of the summer, it's a superficially gentle tale, about women and their place in the home, workplace, and the family. But it also deals with ideas around generational roles and expectations, sexuality, trauma, and how we protect the people we love. 

Beautifully written with evocative descriptions of Jean's life, her clothes, food, home, work, and travel, I read it in the summer of 2021, when we were emerging/recovering from an exhausting year of lockdowns and loss, it struck a chord and has stayed with me as a 'perfect summer book' ever since...

I'll be conjuring yarn from a palette inspired by London in the 1950s, Jean's trip to Broadstairs, the fashion, and the decor. Head over to Pinterest to see my mood board for palette inspiration...

The yarn...

I've intentionally offered as many options as possible on a variety of yarn bases, so you can shop according to your budget, your preferred fibre, and project style. Sock knitter? We've got you covered; love to knit large shawls? Same. Collect mini-skeins? No problem... Pick as few or as many options as you like.

{note; where yarn bases are grouped, the shades will be the same across the various options}

the 'small pleasures' instalment includes:

a fluid variegated three-skein fade dyed on;

  • 3 x 100g pightle | fingering/4ply  {100% superwash merino} or;
  • 3 x 100g pightle | DK {100% upcycled sueprwash merino} or;
  • 3 x 50g pightle | fingering/4ply {100% superwash merino} or;
  • 3 x 100g cade | singles {90% superwash merino, 10% linen} 

a complex tonal semi-solid sock set dyed on:

  • hoo | sock set – 100g plus 20g contrast mini-skein {75% upcycled merino, 25% nylon} or;
  • hoo | DK sock set - 100g plus 20g contrast mini-skein {75% merino, 25% nylon}

a variegated mini-skein set dyed on:

  • 5 x 20g miniPightle | fingering/4ply {100% superwash merino} or;
  • 5 x 20g miniCade | singles {90% superwash merino, 10% linen}

a fluid variegated fluffy skein dyed on:

  • 1 x 50g bray | lace {64% kid mohair, 36% silk} or;
  • 1 x 50g aker | lace {65% baby suri alpaca, 35% silk}

 

See the 'yarn specification' tab above for full details of the yarn bases.

The 'extra' offered with each instalment will be carefully sourced to compliment the book & yarn and might be something that smells lovely, tastes wonderful, compliments your knitting beautifully... or it might even be more yarn!

Simply purchase the yarn options you'd like, choose whether to add an 'extra' to your parcel (not available for ready-to-ship extras) and we'll do the rest, while you sit back and wait for your parcel to arrive...

Running through summer 2025 in three instalments, it’s a super-flexible club; just choose your yarn options and purchase them each time – there's no 'sign up', so need to cancel, and no pressure to repeat purchase. Pre-sales will be open for 10 days from each launch, yarn will then be dyed and dispatched to 'club' purchasers within a fortnight.

Not a fan of yarn clubs? There will be extra skeins! Each month, there will be batches of extra skeins across all the yarn options that will be available to buy ‘ready to ship’ once the club subscriber parcels have been sent out/delivered. So, if you’re not a fan of mystery yarn, you can wait and see if it grabs your heart (but you might have to be quick!)