Review of Baa Baa Brighouse's March Birthstone Box + Daughter of A Shepherd News!

Monthly boxes are growing in popularity at the moment. Beauty boxes, where you pay a monthly fee and receive some surprise goodies in the post, started the trend and now many more have sprung up, such as stationary, books and even one for your period. Yes, really.

I usually like seeing what I'm going to get before I buy. Die hard fans of them say they love the surprise when they open their box each month, but I don't want to be disappointed if there's nothing that floats my boat inside.

One yarn company that so far has hit the spot for its wool boxes each time is Baa Baa Brighouse. Last month I reviewed their Valentine's box and this month I was thrilled to receive their March Birthstone Box for review.

Each month Baa Baa Brighouse hand-dyes 200g of of their Baa Baa Brew British Bluefaced Leicester DK yarn in an exclusive colourway inspired by the birthstone for that month. March's is aquamarine.

The first thing I noticed when opening the box was a wonderful soapy aroma coming from a little bag containing two bath bombs. The wool even smells of it too! The other non-wool goodies inside the box are:

• A traditional oat flapjack baked in Yorkshire (delicious)
• A bag of small buttons in the colourway
• A birthstone fairy
• Two aquamarine stitch markers.

The birthstone fairy is the only item I won't use but that's a matter of personal taste. Now to the main item - the wool!

The colours that make up the skeins really are beautiful. The aquamarine hues have shaken me out of my usual reds, pinks and greys yarn shade choices and are perfect for Spring. The skeins are soft and squishy and I'm looking forward to knitting them up. The difficulty when you buy yarn without a pattern is thinking of what to knit with it. I'm told that Baa Baa Brighouse have some patterns suitable for their yarn boxes waiting in the wings.

The Birthstone Boxes cost £37 each plus P&P. Baa Baa Brighouse sells a number of yarn boxes on different themes. See the currently available ones here.

Daughter Of A Shepherd Pattern News

Rachel Atkinson, who really is the daughter of a shepherd, has won many fans with her Hebridean/Zwartbles DK and 4ply yarns in their natural colours. In her email newsletter she has announced the exciting news that her first pattern book to support the yarns is now available for pre-order.

Image courtesy of Daughter of a Shepherd

Volume 1: Beginnings will contain 10 knitting and crochet patterns designed by a host of favourite names such as Rachel herself, Rachel Coopey and Sarah Hatton. The patterns will be accompanied by essays and photography of the flock.

Pre-orders are now open priced at £19.99 plus P&P on the Daughter of a Shepherd website. Each print copy comes with an ebook download code. People lucky enough to be going to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival between March 15th and 17th can buy their copy there.