Loop Launches Its Own Alpaca Tweed Shades

'The Hotel of Bees' image courtesy of Loop

I quietly cheered when I received an email about Loop's alpaca tweed yarn because it's made from alpaca fibre grown, sheared, dyed and spun in Britain. No artificial fibres or multiple air miles here - just a fabulously-soft British yarn - exactly the kind that A Woolly Yarn celebrates.

Alpaca tweed comes in 12 colours - a few which are exclusive to Loop - and is sold as a 100g skein. I received a skein to review and naturally all opinions are my own. My skein is in the colourway 'The Hotel of Bees', which is one of shades to be found only at Loop. At first look it appears to be an acidic shade of pale green, but on closer inspection reveals tweedy hints of orange and yellow.

The yarn is a worsted weight but Loop advises that it is multifunctional and can also used for patterns requiring DK or aran weights.

Each skein feels luxuriously soft but what does it knit up like? I'm going to design a simple pattern for a cowl and report back when the skein has been magically transformed into a knitted accessory.

Loop is a bricks and mortar shop in London's Islington and also also a modern-looking online store. Each 100g alpaca tweed skein costs £22.95 - not cheap certainly but high quality. One small downside is that the alpaca tweed page on the Loop website doesn't link to patterns that support the yarn. There is, however, a separate patterns section but it's a case of searching through to find the garment/accessory you want to knit that requires alpaca tweed's weight.

Check back soon for a free cowl pattern and to find out how alpaca tweed knits up!