Let's Knit Magazine Knit British Special

October 2014's issue of Let's Knit magazine is dedicated to what readers of this blog love - knitting British. It's a celebration of British yarn and design talent and comes with two gifts: a kit to knit a penguin or bow wrist-warmers, and a pattern book with seven knits for Christmas.

As I love to find out about new British yarns and designers I went out straight and bought the issue. Certainly I wasn't disappointed. Let's Knit is aimed at new and intermediate knitters, and sometimes I've found that, as someone who already has enough hats, scarves and gloves, there's not much in there to interest me. This issue was different. I doubt I'll knit the penguin or Christmas gift patterns, but the editorial in the magazine excels with its array of knitting news and the latest British wools, some of which I hadn't heard about before. There are also some wonderful shopping pages with ideas for gifts for knitters (I want nearly all of them myself) and an abundance of competitions.

My favourite section is the Beautifully British review of eight UK yarns. I've already used Titus and Excelana, but have yet to sample the delights of Jillybean's hand-dyed yarns - I adore the look of the shade pink passion - or King Cole's Masham DK.

There's also a great round-up of what's new in the Autumn-Winter 2014 season from your favourite knitting companies, although this feature does include brands from overseas as well as home-grown ones.

In next month's issue there's knitted Christmas jumper patterns. I'm just about to cast on Susan Crawford's Perfect Christmas Jumper, having had the pattern and yarn for over a year. Hopefully it will be finished in time for the festive season. Watch this space!