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#yarnfictions ~ perfect summer book club ~ instructions for a heatwave

pightle | fingering/4ply - 100g / ~ fluid ~ layered variegated
£20.00
£20.00
  • description
  • yarn specification

{pre-orders are open until Monday July 14th 10:00am. Club parcels will be posted by Monday August 4th. Extra ready-to-ship skeins will be in the shop mid-August}

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 using three of my favourite UK-based summer reads to inspire a summer yarn club; three instalments spread across June, July, & August (and maybe a little bit of September...) and the second instalment finds me re-reading a favourite author...

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell

Set in the summer of 1976, the legendary UK heatwave is the backdrop to a family saga written with Maggie O'Farrell's uncanny insight into human dynamics in times of crisis. When their father mysteriously disappears, three siblings converge in London, each with their own personal relationship/life troubles. As they try to find him, family secrets are uncovered, relationships unravel and are repaired, and the relentless heat builds to a crescendo...

I love Maggie O'Farrell's writing, she just has a knack of channelling whatever mood I'm in and providing the perfect reading accompaniment! I have only fragments of memory of the 1976 heatwave – I was seven, I had chicken pox, and my mum made me a huge loose-fitting dress to ease the discomfort that I can still picture perfectly – and this book creates the oppressive heat, the water shortages, the feeling of being suspended in something glutinous that is inevitably about to 'break' perfectly. As I type, it's cool and damp here, but yesterday was one of the hottest days I can recall, and I am sure there are more to come. As I re-read this story set in a now-legendary heatwave, it seems likely that we're on the verge of something similar...

I'll be conjuring yarn from a palette inspired by the fashion, architecture, transport, and food of the 1970's, from London, New York, and rural Ireland. Head over to Pinterest to see my mood board for palette inspiration...

The 'instructions for a heatwave' yarn options:

This time I'm dyeing three shades; a ~flash~ variegated shade, a complex tonal semi-solid ~core~ shade, and a ~fluid~ variegated shade (*see below for more info about the different dye techniques). Perfect used together or individually.

Whether you're a dedicated sock knitter, love a single skein shawl, want a sweater quantity, or just fancy a skein of fluff to squish, you can choose any combination of the three shades, in any quantity, across our favourite fingering/4ply/sock, DK, and laceweight yarn bases as follows:

pightle | fingering/4ply - 100%  superwash merino - 400m/100g

pightle | fingering/4ply - 100%  superwash merino - 200m/50g

pightle | DK - 100%  superwash merino - 225m/100g

cade | singles - 90% superwash merino, 10% linen - 366m/100g

nest | fingering - 50% non-superwash merino, 50% silk  - 400m/100g

hoo | sock - 75% upcycled superwash merino, 25% nylon - 425m/100g

hoo | DK sock - 75% upcycled superwash merino, 25% nylon - 225m/100g

holt | singles - 100% superwash merino - 366m/100g

aker | lace - 65% baby suri alpaca, 35% silk - 400m/50g

bray | lace - 64% kid mohair, 36% silk - 420m/50g

eynd | lace - 80% superwash merino, 20% natural bamboo - 800m/100g

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

* a bit more about the dye techniques:
~flash~ shades are 'space-dyed' meaning they have irregular bands of colour around the skein that merge and overlap to create intentional tonal interest, and a high-contrast 'flash' that will pop through your knitting fairly regularly. As the bands of colour are fairly evenly spaced, colours may pool, 'flash', or even stripe, depending on your gauge.
~fluid~ shades have the dye applied in multiple complex layers, in a much more free-range way, so they create fabric with random, often subtle, variegation and are much less likely to pool/flash at most gauges.
~core~ shades are semi-solid, complex tonal shades that have subtle variations in hue, or depth of shade within a narrower colour range.

 

This instalment of the perfect summer book club will automatically include a little treat or two!

 

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 10-14 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!)