A fun yarn has come to join our selection of yarns from John Arbon. A yarn with the love for music at its core, a yarn that takes its colour names from the very music that inspires it. That yarn is Yarnadelic. So turn up your speakers and read on.

John is a big music fan with an eclectic record collection and wanted to channel that love for music to inspire a range of yarns. Using John’s records which cover everything from punk to funk, the mill team had an evening of wine drinking and music. While listening to each track a colour was given by each member of the mill. After that the hand carders were used to physically create shades to illustrate the sentiment of each song. This led to a collection of yarns that are directly inspired by music.

Each of the shades in the range is named after the track that inspired it. John Arbon have created a Spotify Playlist and a Soundcloud Mix with some of the songs that inspired the yarn so you can listening along as you knit.

So we’ve seen the inspiration, now let’s take a closer look at the yarn. Yarnadelic is a 100g Sport weight, 100% Falklands Corriedale. The Falklands Corriedale breed was derived by crossing the Merino and Lincoln Longwool and is around 100 years old. The Corriedale fibre has the best of both breeds. Softness and bounce from the Merino and slight lustre and long staple length of the Lincoln Longwool. It feels satisfyingly woolly but still soft in the hand. In feel I would liken it to Devonia, if you are familiar with that other yarn from John Arbon. It has a rounded three fold structure which gives the yarn strength as well as enhancing textural stitches like cables. It would lend it self to all sorts of projects. Simple cosy cardigans, elaborate cabled jumpers, a multitude of colourwork designs and complicated lace.

The colour range is beautiful and has a slight vintage feel about it and is created by blending the dyed fibre. It is the sort of yarn you can keep staring at and still see something new in its depths. The more you look the more you see. Dark greens made up of blues, yellows and pinks. Pale greys made up of yellows and purples and every shade being complex and interesting.

So what to knit with this yarn? Here’s some suggestions below:

Lehto by Anna Johanna – Lehto is one of the designs from Anna Johanna’s Strands of Joy book. Its knit in Yarnadelic and showcases its ability to hold up to good stranded colourwork. It uses the colours The Beautiful Ones and Harmonium.

Cat’s Eye Cowl(link to designers website) by Amy van de Laar. Can you sense that I’m itching to use this yarn for some spectacular colourwork design. This quirky cowl also calls for Yarnadelic and I love its rich design. Knit in the colours Sunflowers in my Garden and Indigo Dust.

Blank Slate Tee(ravelry link) by Winter’s Weather Knits. I love the graphic look of this simple but unusual tee. A creative idea to use that one special skein, it would also look great in any Yarnadelic colour combo.

Shore Stones(ravelry link) by Francesca Hughes – A pretty but simple shawl to really compliment and enjoy the knitting. Garter stitch is the perfect way of just appreciating the process of knitting and when you have a yarn you like that is made even better. Knit in Yarnadelic in the colour Nobody Knows.