We are excited to have a brand new, hot off the press book in the shop. East London local Fiona Alice has created Take Heart: A Transatlantic Knitting Adventure. It is a book of 11 accessories for Pom Pom Press, all inspired by her journey from growing up on the east coast of Canada to living in England. We will be be featuring this book over the next few weeks in advance of a KAL for Ketch Harbour in collaboration with Kettle Yarn Co.

The KAL will cast on on Monday January 4, which gives you a few weeks to choose some yarn for it. We carry the stunning Kettle Yarn Co Islington DK called for in the pattern. To help you get started we are offering a 15% discount on the yarn and book. You can send this along as a hint for a gift from someone, there’s still time! Or, if it hasn’t arrived wrapped up it is a wonderful treat to yourself. Three skeins of yarn and the book would regularly retail for £78, but we have them here for you for £66. Closer to the day – as usual we will set up a Ravelry thread to talk about our projects and to show of the finished results – and one lucky winner will win back the the value of the kit as a Knit with attitude voucher to spend on even more yarn!!!

In our usual fashion, we are once again doing a pairing post of all the yarns we think would work best with the gorgeous patterns from this book.

First up we have Ketch Harbour, a new take on the shawl shape. The pattern calls for 3 skeins of Islington DK from The Kettle Yarn Co., which we have in 6 lush shades.

Next up we have the cover headband, Queensland Beach. It features simple but elegant cables. We think that it would be cozy and warm knit up in Hexa, an alpaca chainette.

There are two sets of hat and mitts in the book. The first set has a leaf stitch motif on the back of the hand of the fingerless mitts, and on the top of the hat, with twisted rib details. These textures would sing in Scrumptious 4ply, a wool/silk blend from Fyberspates.

The second set is Chester Basin. This features two colours of a tweedy aran yarn knit up in an all over stitch pattern. Our pick is Terra, from The Fibre Co., a lush baby alpaca/merino/silk blend. The closest colours we have would be Shale and Yarrow.

Martinique Beach is a stunning colourwork snood knit in 4 colours. It is long enough to wear doubled up. We would have a lot of fun picking 4 colours of Blacker Swan to knit it in! 

Next up is this pair of legwarmers, Pennard Castle. The pattern is written for both a thigh-high and regular length. We would knit it in Vivacious 4ply, a fantastic sock yarn from Fyberspates. It has great stitch definition for the texture and comes in many neutral and bright colours. 

This book includes a reprint of the Take Heart hat. Originally published in Pom Pom Issue 7, it is the only pattern available on its own. It is the hat that started Fiona’s path towards the book, so it is only fitting that it is included here! We would love to knit it up in Scrumptious Aran, with a Du Store Alpakka pom pom for the top. 

Last but not least is Three Cliffs, a wide scarf that is perfect for wrapping up in. It features a subtle chevron rib pattern. It would look wonderful knit up in a yarn with a bit of drape and lots of warmth like Rooster DK. 

What are you looking to cast on first?