Home • RiverKnits

Loading...

hand dyed colour - adventures in the making

Shop Now

HomeMarkus & Becci2021-07-24T14:33:35+01:00

Hi and welcome to the online home of RiverKnits! RiverKnits is run by us, Becci and Markus, and we dye British wool yarns from our studio by the Grand Union Canal in Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire.

RiverKnits is all about hand dyed colour, combining the traditional material of wool with original dyeing techniques to create exciting new ways of making. We have a strong focus on sustainable sourcing and natural fibres. That’s why all RiverKnits wool yarn is grown, spun, and dyed in Britain.

We are currently CLOSED for our summer holiday.

We are still shipping online orders once a week.

We will be back in person on Tuesday 31st August and you can see our opening times below:

Tuesday – Friday: 10am – 4pm

Saturday: 10am – 3pm

Please wear a mask, sanitise your hands, and observe social distancing during your visit.

We are currently shipping orders on shop opening days.

Nene is here

Marl Magic

Discover the Full Range of Mini Skein Colours

Patterns & Kits

Featured Products

riverknitsuk

👋 Becci & Markus
🧶 Hand-dyed British wool yarn
⚓️ Life on our narrowboat home
🏡 Studio & Shop Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire

Milton Keynes turned out to be a fantastic place t

Milton Keynes turned out to be a fantastic place to moor. If you’re only passing by, you can stop on the 48hr moorings in Campbell Park. Really nice!

No substantial update on the engine yet. We had a local boat mechanic come and look at it today and we’re now waiting for a compression test. The guy remembered me (Becci) from when I bought the boat and he even remembered the model and make of motorcycle I was riding at the time!
🏍💨 😂

#RiverKnitsBoatTrip2021 #MiltonKeynes #CampbellPark #FloatsMyBoat #Narrowboat #LifeOnTheCut #GrandUnionCanal #LifesBetterByWater

Thanks so much for all the lovely messages on our

Thanks so much for all the lovely messages on our last post. 💕 There was one major benefit to coming back early… I got to celebrate my birthday with my family. 😊 And on top of that, they made me an incredible mini skein cake! 🍰🧶😍 Look at those gradients, some of them have been paying attention. Thank you to my very creative siblings and siblings-in-law. 🥰

(If you look really closely you can see how old I am!)

#YarnCake #ItsMyBirthday #HappyBirthdayToMe #KnittingOnMyBirthday #IndieYarn #YarnLove

Day 3 Sad news we’re afraid: we have a poorly e

Day 3

Sad news we’re afraid: we have a poorly engine. ☹️

We continued south from Milton Keynes until we reached Leighton Buzzard, by which point the engine really wasn’t sounding happy. We pulled into a boatyard to get a second opinion, which confirmed that whatever’s wrong isn’t an easy fix and it wouldn’t be wise to carry on travelling further away from “home.” We couldn’t turn right where we were, 60 ft boats need winding holes! So we carried on to Slapton, wound, and came back to Leighton Buzzard for the night. We found excellent takeaway pizza for tea! 😋🍕

Since then, we have nursed the engine back to home territory, we even made it back through Blisworth Tunnel without breaking down (can you imagine?! 😳). Our narrowboat is a mature lady at 40+ years old, so problems are to be expected, but we are naturally gutted to not be doing our summer trip. 😔

We still have 3 weeks left of our holiday, so we’re going to spend it working out if we can fix the old girl and hopefully get some chill time too. I have a few more photos to share, which I will do over the next few days!

#RiverKnitsBoatTrip2021 #ShipHappens #TroubledWaters #PoorlyEngine #Narrowboat #LifeOnTheCut #SoulburyLocks #GrandJunctionCanal #GrandUnionCanal #LeightonBuzzard

Day 2! There’s no easy way to tell you that our

Day 2!

There’s no easy way to tell you that our trip started going awry soon after this point. ☹️ Everyone’s ok, so please don’t worry. I’ll share more info in the next post ‘cause there’s still canal stuff to talk about!

We set off down Cosgrove Lock first thing and from this point on, we were in new waters. Exciting! 😁 The next thing we saw was an aqueduct over the River Great Ouse. Not exactly the Pontcysyllte, but still with the sheer drop on one side.

It wasn’t long until we reached Milton Keynes. MK is a place we have only ever visited because we have to, and I’ve got to say approaching by boat gives you an entirely different perspective on the city. You wouldn’t even know you’re in one for starters, the canal is green and leafy and set back from most of the hustle and bustle. It’s also quiet for boat traffic, which we found odd, but there were a lot of moored boats so it was slow going*. We stopped around midday near Campbell Park to do some much needed shopping. That was not very exciting, but the park is lovely!

After grabbing our essentials (and a new Lego set for Bryn) we untied and continued out of MK. The lock at Fenny Stratford surprised us as we’ve never seen a swing bridge across a lock before. It took me a moment to figure out what to deal with first, lock gates or bridge, but we got through it nice and easy. Out the other side, we did one more lock at Stoke Hammond and stopped for the night. It was a gorgeous evening and we sat outside to play some tunes. 🎶

* It’s customary to go at tickover past moored boats, otherwise your wake can drag them off of their moorings. We’ve had it happen to us before, woke up one morning with our mooring pin ripped out and our boat sat sideways across the cut!

#RiverKnitsBoatTrip2021 #Cosgrove #MiltonKeynes #GrandJunctionCanal #GrandUnionCanal #CanalJourney #CanalMemories #LifeOnTheCut #Narrowboat #OffGrid #SlowLiving

Tunnel Tunes 🎶. Becci playing the melodeon whil

Tunnel Tunes 🎶. Becci playing the melodeon while enjoying the acoustics of Blisworth Tunnel. 😁
The tune is Shimmer by @melbiggsmusic - Mel recently brought out an album and it’s BRILLIANT, do check it out.

#TunnelTunes #Melodeon #CanalTunnel #BlisworthTunnel #FolkOnABoat #FolkMusic #reverb

Day 1 of #RiverKnitsBoatTrip2021 We went south! W

Day 1 of #RiverKnitsBoatTrip2021

We went south! We set off from Weedon on the Grand Union (technically the Grand Junction canal at this point) and made it to Cosgrove by the end of the day.

We went through Blisworth Tunnel, which is the longest wide canal tunnel on the network. It’s a long time to spend in the dark, but I played a tune, which I’ll put up in a bit! Blisworth Tunnel was particularly tricky to construct, the original collapsed, killing several men. The rebuild took such a long time that the rest of the canal was finished well before and they put a horse-drawn tramway over the top as a stop-gap. That was technically Northamptonshire’s first railway! When the tunnel was opened, they reused the rails to take goods down from the GU to the Nene in Northampton, until the Northampton Arm was built.

Straight after the tunnel are Stoke Bruerne locks - there’s a fantastic canal museum at the top. And then it was a straightforward and pretty cruise to Cosgrove and its ornamental bridge.

#GrandJunctionCanal #GrandUnionCanal #LondonBound #CanalJourney #CanalMemories #BlisworthTunnel #StokeBruerne #Northamptonshire #Cosgrove

Load More ... Follow us on Instagram