From the shop

Few yarn brands inspire the devotion that Malabrigo does — and understanding why requires understanding the story behind it. Founded in 2005 in Montevideo, Uruguay, by two brothers-in-law dyeing wool in a kitchen pot, Malabrigo has grown into one of the world's most recognised artisan yarn companies while retaining the hand-dyed quality, colour complexity, and almost unreasonable softness that made knitters fall in love with it in the first place. This post covers the full brand story — the founding, the kettle-dyeing process, the Uruguayan merino wool and free-range sheep, the ethical production practices, and why we stock it at Craft and Canvas. Rios, Arroyo, and Ultimate Sock all at £14.95 per skein.

Blue Sky Fibres Woolstok Light occupies a particular and valued position in the fingering weight market — a single-ply yarn from 100% Fine Highland Wool that delivers real stitch definition, a soft and lofty character, a notable bloom when washed and blocked, and a palette of rich, modern colours developed specifically for combination and colourwork. In this post we cover the Blue Sky Fibres brand and the Highland wool that forms the basis of the Woolstok range, why single-ply construction gives the yarn its particular drape and bloom, what it is best suited to (colourwork in particular, but also lace shawls, lightweight garments, and fine accessories), how to care for a non-superwash wool correctly, and how the 50g, 218-yard skeins make it a practical choice for building a colourwork palette over time. We also cover the most common questions including suitability for socks, substitution for sport weight patterns, and the difference between Woolstok Light and Woolstok Worsted. Stocked at Craft and Canvas in Hebden Bridge and online at craftandcanvas.co.uk.

Rowan Felted Tweed is one of the most versatile and rewarding knitting yarns available — but it has specific characteristics that are worth understanding before you cast on. In this guide we cover how the tweeded construction affects tension and handle, why it excels for stranded colourwork (including how to manage floats, colour dominance, and working in the round), how it behaves in simple textures from garter stitch to cables to lace, and crucially — how to block and wash it without risking further felting. Project ideas included. Seventeen Kaffe Fassett colourways at £10.50 per ball at Craft and Canvas.

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.

Most graphite pencils follow the same format — graphite core inside a cedar casing. The Caran d'Ache Grafstone does not. It is a stick of almost pure graphite, encased only in a thin plastic sleeve, and it produces marks that a conventional pencil simply cannot match in richness and depth. Available in HB, 3B, and 6B, it can be sharpened for precision, used blunt for broader work, tilted for tonal shading, or snapped to create irregular edges for textural marks. This post looks at what makes it different, how the three grades work, and where it fits in a drawing practice alongside conventional pencils. On sale at £5.60 at Craft and Canvas.

Willow charcoal is soft, erasable, and forgiving — ideal for the loose, exploratory stages of a drawing. Compressed charcoal is darker, harder to erase, and capable of the deep blacks that willow cannot reach — better suited to the later, more committed stages. Understanding how the two types work together, rather than treating them as alternatives, is the key insight that takes charcoal drawing from frustrating to fluent. This guide covers the differences clearly and tells you exactly where to start.

You can paint with oils straight from the tube — but mediums open up a much wider range of control over drying time, consistency, transparency, and surface quality. In this guide we explain the difference between solvents and mediums, then cover each of the main medium types in plain English: linseed oil and stand oil, alkyd mediums for faster drying, retarders for extended working time, impasto gels for texture, and varnish for finished paintings. We also cover the Wallace Seymour Fast Drying Oil Glaze Medium, which is the medium we most commonly recommend alongside Wallace Seymour oils at Craft and Canvas.

Charcoal is one of the oldest drawing materials in existence and one of the best starting points for anyone learning to draw — it is expressive, immediate, forgiving, and capable of extraordinary tonal range. In this complete beginner's guide we cover the three main types (willow charcoal for soft, erasable marks; compressed charcoal for deep, rich darks; charcoal pencil for precise detail and highlights), the tools that make the biggest difference (putty rubber as a drawing tool rather than just a correction tool, blending stumps, toned paper, fixative), and six fundamental techniques including massing in tones, side-stroke shading, blending, lifting out highlights, hatching with charcoal pencil, and using white charcoal on toned paper. We also lay out a clear working method — from general to specific, loose to precise — that gives beginners a reliable framework for approaching any subject. Willow charcoals from £4.80, charcoal pencils and white charcoal pencils all stocked at Craft and Canvas in Hebden Bridge and online at craftandcanvas.co.uk.

Oil painting has intimidated beginners for decades — the slow drying, the solvents, the additional mediums, the technical rules. Most of that intimidation is unnecessary. In this complete guide to starting oil painting we cut through everything that actually matters: what paint, brushes, surfaces, solvents, and mediums to buy and why; the one technical rule (fat over lean) that prevents cracking and keeps paintings stable for centuries; how to begin a painting with a simple earth colour underpainting that eliminates the blank canvas problem; and the four fundamental techniques — blocking in, wet into wet, scumbling, and glazing — that form the foundation of everything else. We also cover ventilation, workspace, drying times, brush care, and varnishing. We stock Wallace Seymour oils from £9.95 per 40ml tube alongside Seawhite canvas boards, Pro Arte Bristlene brushes, and Wallace Seymour oil mediums at Craft and Canvas in Hebden Bridge and online at craftandcanvas.co.uk.

Graphite pencils are the most immediate and accessible drawing tool available — and also one of the most misunderstood. The grade system, the difference between cheap and quality pencils, which grades suit which drawing styles, how paper affects the result — these are things most beginners are never taught, and yet they make an enormous difference to what drawing with graphite actually feels like. In this guide we explain the full grading scale from hard to soft, which grades form the most useful working selection for different approaches, and what to look for in terms of core quality, break resistance, and eraseability. We also give a full overview of the Faber-Castell 9000 — one of the most celebrated graphite pencils in history, admired by Van Gogh and Goethe, made in Germany since 1905, and available at Craft and Canvas as individual pencils so you can select exactly the grades you need. Read on, then find the full range in store or at craftandcanvas.co.uk.