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Friday 22 April 2016

New Shade Inspiration



After a cheeky sneak peek last month of our 24 new shades, we finally released them this week, and couldn't be more excited about the feedback we've gotten from you!

There's really so many to choose from now, that the possibilities are almost endless, so we decided to give you a round up of our favourite combinations incorporating our fabulous new shades.

Our Naturally Soft Merino has grown by a total of 10 new shades and here are the shades inspiring us right now:



MillaMia greys are so versatile, there are so many of the new shades that can work amazingly with them. Haze Grey (107), Ice (125) and Fuchsia (143) work together so well in this bright mix, especially for a little girl.





Using new shades like the frost-fresh Ice (125) and a periwinkle like Rain (165) with Berry (163) creates an almost autumnal and elegant look. A combination that is sure to work again and again.




We also love the combination of the vibrant Butterscotch (168), bright Scarlet (140) and the gloriously deep Ink Blue (106), which work together to make a bright and playful addition to any child’s wardrobe.




For more serene pastel inspiration, try Cloud Grey (127), Petal (122) and Sky Blue (126). These subtle tones compliment each other so nicely, a more calming and neutral choice but one that is so versatile across MillaMia designs.



Our Naturally Soft Aran range has grown by a staggering 14 shades with Denim (a favourite in our Limited Edition Naturally Soft Merino range) now being part of the core shades! Have a look some of the lovely combinations below:





We love this fresh and colourful combination of Aqua (243), Cloud Grey (227) and Shocking Pink (244). The vibrant pink is sure to be an eye-catcher in any iteration!




The Paradise Orange (245) makes this mix of muted Denim (206) and Mist (225) almost autumnal, but we think the brightness of the orange will fit to any season.




We've always loved some pastel baby tones and Blush (229) makes a beautiful pastel palette when combined with Haze Grey (211) and Stone (202).


We'd really love to hear from you which shades are your favourites, and how you're combining them! Let us know in the comments below or on our Facebook, Instagram or Twitter account.

Wednesday 16 March 2016

All about colour!

One of the things we know our customers love about Naturally Soft Merino and Naturally Soft Aran ranges are the vibrant colours. Every now and again we like to shake things up a bit by adding new limited edition shades. We love how adding only a few colours to the range can refresh the entire palette and lead to completely new colour combinations in our pattern collections. This season, our stunning new shades Denim, Coral, Lemon Twist and Raisin are providing a whole new range of inspiration for our knitters and we hope they will inspire you also to try some completely new colourways.


We always want the colours we create to really reflect what MillaMia stands for; modern design influenced by our Swedish roots. We’ve gotten some lovely compliments on our shades in the past and so thought we would share the process that goes into creating every single one of our colours.


All of our colours start their journey on the drawing board. Our colour palettes often come from inspirations we have picked up in Sweden - bright shades that remind us of long summer days, or more muted tones reminiscent of cosy winter nights by the fire. Inspiration for a specific colour is often organic - Helena might see a painting she likes, a flower in a bouquet, an accent colour on an item in a magazine. You are never quite sure where she will find the perfect shade of blue, pink or green….. Depending on our inspirations and the tone we want to set with the palette, the first decision that needs to be made is how many colours are going to be added and how many of each colour family, so how many blues, reds, greys, greens etc. will exist in the range. While we like to start our process with a rough framework of the colour families we want to include, this often changes as we get closer to deciding on our final colours.





The Pantone book then plays a crucial part of this process as we literally choose first colour schemes from it, using the colour chips to create shortlists of shades within each colour family - often seeking to match a small fragment or picture Helena has provided as her original inspiration. Then we start playing around with the colour chips to find colours that complement each other well and will work together in our patterns. Even the smallest gradient differences in a shade can determine whether the shade will fit into the range or not, so this step is crucial in making sure we create a coherent range of colours that will bring out our collections in the best possible way.


Only then can the lengthy process of turning these colours into yarn begin. First off, our colour selections are sent to the mill who begin mixing their dyes to match our colour chips as closely as possible. The mill will then test these colours on small portions of our yarn to see how the fibres take on the colour - this is called a lab dip. Lab dips are what we essentially base our final decisions on, as often the original Pantone colour we picked can come out looking completely differently when applied to our fibres. The mill will send the initial lab dips back to us and we will liaise with them closely on any alterations that need to be made to the dye so that the yarn ends up fulfilling our exact specifications. The mill will send new lab dips every time a change needs to be made, and often times we’ll do multiple lab dips before we finally achieve the colour we want. We are perfectionists after all! Once we are happy with the lab-dips, we sign off on them, and off they go into production to create those lovely coloured yarns that inspire our knitters every day.


Speaking of colour inspiration - we’re really excited to share some big news with all of our knitters and followers this month. Both the Naturally Soft Merino and the Naturally Soft Aran ranges are growing, with about 15 shades being added to each range! They have been a long time coming and we really can’t wait to finally share them with you. In the mean-time, enjoy this little sneak peek of what’s coming soon - can you guess their names?


Thursday 11 February 2016

Sharing the Love

We know we’ve been quite silent on our blog recently, but just in time for Valentine’s day we’re back to share the love with a brief snapshot of what we’ve been up to.


Christmas and the New Year have been quite busy for us over here, as we are still settling into our new home and focusing on our grand long term ambitions for the future of MillaMia. Most importantly though, we’ve been working away at some exciting new projects which we can’t wait to share with you!


First off, we’re very excited to have recently launched our new limited edition shades. Our Naturally Soft Aran is now available in Lemon Twist (401) and Raisin (400) and our Naturally Soft Merino is now also available in Denim (184) and Coral (185). You can buy all four of these exclusively on LoveKnitting, but hurry as we have a feeling these shades will be very popular! Why not surprise your loved one with a Woolentine and knit up a last-minute valentine’s heart in Coral?

Naturally Soft Aran in Lemon Twist
Naturally Soft Aran in Raisin


Naturally Soft Merino in Coral
Naturally Soft Merino in Denim



We’ve also hand picked a few of our favourite patterns and are currently updating them with our new shades so watch this space for news on when these will be live on the site.

There is more news coming soon, so stay tuned to make sure you don’t miss a thing!