Homebody's Friend Knitting Kit

A hot water bottle is an absolute essential for us during the colder months. Winter in our fancy pants new shop might be a different story, but our mini hot water bottles - the shopkeeper's friend - have been a lifesaver on many a flippin' freezing day of working in the shop.

When the shop is shut, though,  you can bet all we want is some cosy warm comfort tucked under the blanket with us when we're on the sofa doing some knitting. Yep, we'll admit it, we're big fat homebodies. If you're a homebody too, you'll love this super duper hot water bottle knitting kit so you can make your own with some real real nice hand-dyed yarn from our Alice at Woolmatters. 

What's included in the knitting kit?

Our special edition knitting kit contains all the essentials you need to start knitting your own Homebody's Friend in one convenient bundle. You will get:

• A 100g cake of Woolmatters hand-dyed DK yarn in 1 of 2 specially dyed colourways
• A matching 2L Hot Water Bottle to pop inside your knitted cover
• A printed postcard with a QR code that takes you to The Homebody's Friend Knitting Pattern on the No Frills Knitting blog.
• An original No Frills Knitting tote bag to keep everything nice and tidy.

Knitting needles aren't included in the kit, but should you need a pair we've got a few circular needle options available. For fans of wooden needles, the KnitPro Basix Birch 80cm are a lovely place to start. For metal lovers, we'd recommend going for the KnitPro Zing 80cm.

You may also want 2x different clip-on stitch markers (one for the beginning of the round, one for the halfway point) if you are relatively new to working in magic loop.  Our stitch markers come in a mixed-colour tin, perfect for this.

About the hand-dyed yarn

We have a whole selection of Woolmatters hand-dyed skeins in the shop, but Alice has created these delicious, 100g cakes especially for us. Made from 100% Pure Falkland Wool sourced exclusively from Pebble Island and spun by Laxtons, it's a bloomin' lovely wool that's lovely and strong and exceptionally soft. 

Colourways include:

Pink Mix
Blue Mix

Please note: because of the nature of hand dyed yarn, no two skeins will ever be exactly the same, even if they are from the same dye lot.

Each skein has also been pre wound into a neat little cake so you can get knitting straight away.

About the knitting pattern

The Homebody's Friend is designed for knitters with experience knitting in the round or those ready to take on a new challenge. The knitting pattern includes several techniques such as:

• Magic Loop in the round (small circumference knitting, in the round, on a long cable)

• Judy's Magic Cast On

• Directional increases

• Directional decreases

• I-cord bind off

Some of these knitting techniques may be new to you, but fear not! We’ve included helpful video tutorials for each step, ensuring you have all the knitting knowledge you need to complete your project. As always, we recommend reading through the entire pattern before casting on to avoid any surprises.