#yarnfictions ~ perfect summer book club ~ summer
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{Pre-orders have now closed. Yarn will be dispatched by September 8th, and extra sets will be in the shop towards the end of September.}
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...
Summer by Ali Smith
The culmination of the seasonal quartet released between 2016 and 2020, summer was widely perceived as the first proper 'covid novel' and I read it as soon as it was published in August 2020, the middle of that long hot summer of lockdowns and Brexit, and separation. It opens in Brighton in the Spring of 2020 and for the most part follows the fortunes of the Greenlaws, a fractured family with divorced parents living next door to each other. We meet characters from previous novels in the series but it's entirely possible to read this as a stand-alone book. It covers the protests following the death of George Floyd, issues around migration, of course the impacts of Covid, and so much more, using the art of Barbara Hepworth, Tacita Dean, Lorenza Mussetti and others to grapple with themes of time, hope, and protest, all set against the backdrop of Brighton in the summer...
I read a lot of books over the course of that first lockdown summer, and honestly, most of them have merged into a blur, used as distraction from what was going on all around us but Ali Smith is one of my favourite writers and I can still remember the vivid prose, the woven narratives and the stunning insight even five years later (which is quite something because I often can't remember the name of the main character in the book I'm currently reading!) I love this quartet of witty, insightful, prescient books and I couldn't resist making this the final instalment of the perfect summer book club.
I'll be conjuring yarn from a palette inspired by the seaside suburbs, the art, and the weather... see my evolving Pinterest mood board for clues!
The 'summer' yarn options:
This time I'm dyeing three 'fades'; choose between three, four or five skeins that use different dye techniques to create beautiful, wearable palettes that will be perfect for shawls and garments!
Option 1 : three skeins dyed using our ~flash~ dye technique to create a vibrant, bold effect.
Option 2 : four skeins dyed using our ~fluid~ dye technique to create a soft layered palette that fades subtly through a harmonious palette
Option 3 : five skeins dyed in a ~core~ tonal semi-solid gradient fade.
Each option is available on pightle | fingering/4ply, hoo | sock, and cade | singles.
Option 4 : twelve-skein mini-skein set! Can't decide? Opt for all of the above but as a glorious mini-skein set dyed on our trusty hither | sock yarn base. Perfect for scrappy socks, a flambouyant shawl, or just to quish and dream of turning into something beautiful when the mood strikes!
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 also 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!)