I never say no to a Little Cake, do you? Louisa Harding has come up with another lovely collection, including sweaters, vest tops, cardigans, waistcoats and accessories, using two new yarns, Thistle (60% Merino 40% Baby Suri Alpaca) and Willow Tweed (40% Alpaca, 40% Merino, 40% Silk). Thistle is incredibly soft whilst Willow Tweed adds texture. The two complement each other beautifully and really are used to best effect in these patterns. Personally, I rather like this dress called "Whightwizzle", I'll have to stop eating little cakes and start knitting from Little Cake!

To see more of the patterns click here, I'll also be posting a few on the Yarn Box Blog soon.

New from Artesano comes Silk Embrace, an interesting combination of Silk (47%) with Suri Alpaca (53%). It knits up as a chunky on 6mm needles and produces a warm, soft, fluffy, lightweight fabric. A 100 gram ball gives an amazing 225 metres so to knit a sweater can take as little as 4 skeins! Silk Embrace comes in 7 on-trend brights (Disco, Chachacha, Fandango, Conga, Foxtrot, Lambada and Hip-hop) as well as Tango (cream), Waltz (black) and Charleston (grey). Get your dancing shoes on, turn on "Strictly Come Dancing" and knit with this rather special yarn.

Fyberspates Scrumptious DK was our Alexandra Palace bestseller. This scrumptious yarn is 45% silk and 55% wool and just glows with gorgeousness. Another show favourite was Artesano's Hummingbird DK. Two new colours have just arrived: Robin and Peacock.

Dream in Color Smooshy and Baby have arrived, much to my delight. The veil dyeing process used by Dream in Color gives subtle colour variations which won't distract from intricate stitch patterns.  Cables, twists and bobbles standout beautifully, which is why Smooshy is so popular with sock knitters worldwide. Both are Veil Dyed Superwash™ yarn (100% merino): Smooshy is a sock weight and Baby is a laceweight yarn. If you would like a colour that isn't on the Yarn Box website, please contact me and I'll add it to the next order.

I'm pleased to say that I have another Yarn Box first for you - Stricken Smitten hand-dyed yarns, dyed in Seattle by Désirée who says, "My favorite colors are those which have a little bit of mystery to them. Something you can't quite put your finger on right away that keeps you looking again and again." I love the names of the colours as well as the yarns. Currently available are Smitten Merino Twist, Smitten Boo and Smitten Sock . They come in batches of 2 or 3 skeins per colour and colours are not usually repeated unless as a special request so you know you'll have something just that little bit different.

With less than a month to go, I know many of you will be looking for Christmas gifts for friends and family. Our range of beautiful silk bags make lovely gifts either on their own or packed as a gift set with needles, yarn and notions. They look pretty good with jeans and fit the bill for somewhere to keep your purse, lipstick and mobile phone so would make a pretty treat for non-knitting friends too! (More bags will be going onto the website in the next few days.) If you'd like a gift set made up, contact nicola@yarnbox.co.uk

Signature Needles have to be ordered to requirements, so I have to let you know that the last order date to guarantee delivery to a UK address before Christmas will be 30th November to allow them to travel from the USA and be packed and posted to you.