2013 UK - WHAT A YEAR!

Both personally and professionally, 2013 was a momentous year for me. The course of the year unfolded in a series of life affirming and highly significant events including having my third child, turning forty, growing the MillaMia team and moving into a new office - it really was quite a year!


We welcomed Johan into our lives at the beginning of 2013, and have made good use of his modelling skills ever since. It was rather fortuitous that he came along just as my other 2 children were beginning to outlive their usefulness as models for our kids books! He featured with the blanket we named for him as a free pattern on the Love Knitting blog which you can download here.

MillaMia provided a few milestones of which I'm particularly proud. The team is now 5 members strong, with Maja effortlessly arranging and managing everything in the office, Max managing our wholesale accounts and social media, Tanya replaces Yumiko as our newest intern (more about Tanya in a future blog), and Helena and I providing the design ethos, and sturdy backbone of our company. It's fair to say that we have been incredibly fortunate to have attracted such a high calibre of intern and staff and we are excited to move forward into 2014 with this super team.

Moving the business from my London home to a new office was a memorable milestone for me too. With MillaMia growing as it had we needed to accommodate our team and found ourselves able to spread out and enjoy the space the office afforded. I still marvel at how far we have come in such a short space of time.

Even more exciting later in the year was the overwhelming response and popularity that our new Limited Edition and core colours elicited. I'm incredibly proud of Helena and the team for getting these shades so right and so completely on trend. Of course, 2014 will see 2 new Limited Edition colours which we are all equally beside ourselves to share with you, as well as a collaboration with Anova Books, and a new collection featuring one of our new core shades - all due a bit later this year.

I think that working with established knitwear designers has also been an unforeseen, but very welcome development for MillaMia this year. In some ways it provides validation for the brand when other well-respected designers are excited to work with our yarn, and it also reaches out to a wider audience. Belesama by Michele Wang was stunning in our Limited Edition lime, and was hugely popular on Ravelry in particular. We look forward to seeing designs from other designers in 2014 including Louise Zass-Bangham.

And finally, the best way that I could hope to start 2014 is hearing that an independent review of our Naturally Soft Merino in Knit Now Magazine scored a fantastic 100%! The reviewers described our yarn as 'beautiful, delicious and smooth', and with the nearest comparison yarn coming in at only 85%, I would say that I'm 100% thrilled with that result.

If you are looking to start your New Year with a MillaMia project, why not take advantage of FREE shipping on all orders until 31st January? Head over to www.millamia.com and enjoy a treat for the start of 2014.

(posted by Katarina)