Sneak preview: JCA/Reynolds

Next stop on the fall preview: JCA/Reynolds, which includes the labels Reynolds, Artful Yarns and Vittadini.

Reynolds, home of the hallowed Lopi, is introducing three new yarns. First is Whiskey, a sport-weight 100% wool in ten autumnal colors. Rosie's should have this one on the shelves soon. The sample garments we saw at TNNA got us excited about Whiskey. (I'm still having trouble loading photos, so I guess we'll make do without photos for now, but if Blogger fixes itself, I'll add some later.) Revue is 100% extrafine superwash merino, worsted weight, and a palette of 22 colors. Smile is 72% acrylic/28% wool, 2.5 sts per inch, and comes in what look like self-striping or melange-ish colorways. My promo materials only show 3 colorways for Smile; I'm not sure if that's all or if there are more that weren't shown. Four new colors -- three brights and one deep charcoal -- for the popular Blizzard (also a Rosie's fave), which is the 2.25 sts per inch alpaca/acrylic blend.

The glimpses of patterns under the Reynolds label look quite nice: some fair-isle inspired patterns but with more contemporary shapes, many of them in Whiskey, some cabled patterns and even a pleated skirt in Rapture (which is a silk/wool blend and a very lovely yarn).

Artful Yarns introduces Heroes, 60% nylon/40% acrylic, a sort of novelty-ish looking yarn with a thread-like binder, knitting at 4.5 sts per inch. All multicolors, with names like "Rosa Parks", "Mother Teresa" and "Jonas Salk." Soap is 80% wool/12 acrylic/4% poly/4% nylon, again multis but with a metallic binder. Names are all soap operas, natch. (I'll have to check out "Days of Our Lives," my ancestral soap opera.) Last is Reality, 51% wool/40% acrylic/2% nylon, which, colorwise, looks very much like a Noro yarn with long stretches of deep tones melding into one another, but a chainette construction. It knits at 3 sts per inch, with 8 colors named after .... reality TV shows. (sweater made in "Survivor" anyone?) New colors in Heavenly, Portrait, Broadway, Circus and Serenade (Serenade is a 70% pima cotton/30% angora blend that is quite nice to work with, and now AY has added four non-pastel shades, to increase its versatility).

Adrienne Vittadini's got a new booklet of patterns, with that Vittadini look, and three new yarns: Chiara, a novelty-ish metallic yarn, looks to me like two plies, one with a halo of fuzz (cut me some slack; I'm trying to discern what the yarn looks like from a 1.5-inch cutting). Knits at heavy worsted/aran gauge. Mia is 100% wool, looks like a lofty singles to me, with chalky pastel colors reminiscent of Rowan's Big Wool Fusion. Rosie's will have this on the shelves soon, too. It's 100% wool and about 2.75 sts per inch. Lucia is 53% wool/47% cotton, also heavy worsted/aran, looks like it has a fairly tight twist.

So there you have it. If I can update with a few photos, I will later. In the meantime, I'm dyeing and swatching and trying to finish a teeny baby sweater for my friend's newborn (before the baby outgrows it).

Coming soon: Rowan sneak preview and more sleeve talk (as soon as I can load photos), and maybe a review of some of the fall magazines I've been getting...