Few yarns have earned the sustained devotion that Rowan Felted Tweed commands. Since 2002 it has remained one of Rowan's best sellers — and understanding why requires understanding what the blend of merino, alpaca, and viscose actually does, how the light pre-felting process creates its distinctive tweeded character, and why the Kaffe Fassett colourways produce results in colourwork that smooth, single-tone yarns simply cannot match. In this post we cover all of it — including what projects it suits, how to wash it, and why we stock it at Craft and Canvas in Hebden Bridge. £10.50 per 50g ball, seventeen colourways.

Oil paint stays wet for hours, blends effortlessly, and produces a richness and luminosity that five centuries of masterworks testify to. Acrylic dries in minutes, layers quickly, cleans up with water, and is far simpler to set up. Neither is better — they are different, and the right choice depends entirely on how you paint and what you want from the medium. This guide gives you an honest comparison of both, covers their genuine limitations, and helps you decide — including whether, as many painters do, working with both makes the most sense. Wallace Seymour oils from £9.95, Sennelier Abstract acrylics at £3.95, all at Craft and Canvas.

Picking up a pencil is easy. Drawing with confidence and control takes technique — and most beginners are never taught the five fundamentals that make the biggest difference. In this guide we cover hatching and cross-hatching for structured tonal work, tonal gradation for smooth transitions from light to dark, blending for seamless soft passages, subtractive drawing using the eraser as a drawing tool, and contour line quality for edges with presence and life. Each technique is explained clearly with practical guidance on how to practise it. Faber-Castell 9000 pencils stocked individually at Craft and Canvas.