NEW YARN: Emily C. Gillies
The yarn of your dreams has arrived! A beautiful collection of hand dyed, curated colour of Emily C. Gillies’s BFL Sport with 30 colourways to choose from.
Emily, the dyer behind Emily C Gillies, is an artist and fibre enthusiast based just outside of Toronto, ON. Creating a curated palette of hand dyed colours is key to her practice as a dyer.
Her 100% untreated BFL Sport is a special yarn. It is a 3ply non-superwash sport weight yarn that works up smoothly with excellent stitch definition. It holds structure wonderfully and is toasty warm. It’s not as slick as a superwash merino, and has all the beneficial qualities of non-superwash wool. It works well for accessories, sweaters, and more.
- Fibres: 100% untreated BFL
- Gauge: 24 stitches = 4 inches (10 cm)
- Needles: 3.4 mm (US 4)
- Weight: 3-ply Sport (2) / DK (3)
- Length: 115 g / 255 yards (233 m)
Take care of the yarn by hand washing in cold water and laying flat to dry. As with other hand-dyed yarns, we recommend purchasing sufficient yarn for your project in one go as tones may vary between dye lots and from skein to skein. In case you are not already aware, but Baaad Anna’s has a very lax policy on yarn returns (allowing returns of many months past the regular purchase return date, to allow for people to purchase plenty more than their project requires, as a just in case!). Another great trick with hand-dyed yarn is to alternate your skeins as you knit to avoid any striping if you are using multiple skeins of one colour in a project.
BFL you ask? Blue Face Leicester is an English longwool breed sheep, they get their name from the appearance of dark blue skin showing through the white hair on their heads. It is the finest of all the longwool breeds and is incredibly durable and lustrous, making it ideal for longevity and softness. BFL also takes colour beautifully.
We cannot say enough about the colour.
To show off just how beautifully this yarn works in colourwork we chose out the incredible Scout Shawl by Florence Spurlingvmade by our own Cheryl for our store sample. Our sample is a heavier version of the shawl which calls for fingering-weight in the pattern.
She found the yarn to have a good sturdy hand feel while still feeling lofty and squishy, which again speaks to that soft yet strong quality of BFL. Not quite merino next-to-skin but soft enough for her to wear around her neck. Something to note is although labelled Sport weight we find this knit up to a DK gauge.
If you haven’t given Emily C. Gillies a follow on Instagram yet make sure you do. She is an absolute joy to follow and has a strong and supportive commitment to Social Accountabilty, Diversity and Inclusion.
You can purchase your BFL Sport in the online store or in person, we are now open seven days a week from 11 – 6pm!
