Birthday Yarn Haul

My birthday was earlier this month and I took the bait from The Studio Knitting and Needlepoint shop where they give me 20% on a single purchase before my birthday. How could one waste that!

I took a fiber friend with me on this adventure and we chatted whilst shopping. We also got tacos afterward and it was amazing. Apparently I was in a grey and green mood that day, lol. I ended up with:

  • Flying Goat Farm Zephyrette – an alpaca, silk and cashmere blend in a 50 gram skein. The color is called Basalt
  • Two skeins skeins of Yarns Northwest Silk and Merino in a teal color for 100 grams total
  • Two skeins of Malabrigo Rios, one in the Gris colorway and the other in Vaa (deep black with green pops)
  • And finally two more skeins of NOrdic Yarn Eco Cashmere in the light grey color for a total of 100 grams

Shocker of shockers, this will all be for hats. I just can’t quit! And I as I am spending more time in KC these days, I will be sure to check back in this shop for new colors or yarns next time!

Happy Knitting!!

Habit Bundling

I completed my annual mammogram and check with my physician. Not my favorite thing to do but very important. So I decided to bundle a necessary thing with a fun thing….habit bundling!

I stopped at the The Studio yarn store in KC after my scan and I treated myself to some yarn. I grabbed a gold skein of Malabrigo Rios, two skeins of Potion Yarns cashmere DK and two skeins of Nordic Yarn eco cashmere for more hats. It was a wonderful wind down for that day. I also picked up a felt glasses cash to keep my sunglasses safe in my car and purse.

And the bonus? I mentioned to the yarn shop ladies why I was shopping and I had done my mammogram and they included some shop swag to celebrate! I received a pen, phone stand, tape measure and cup.

Do you habit bundle?

Can’t Quit Chiefs Hats

I just can’t quit with the Chiefs hats…..so I bought more themed yarn.

It has been quite hard to find appropriate colors in yarn shops. Understanding that stores can’t stock every color or large footprint yarns. But I think I managed! Above is some Malabrigo Worsted, a singles yarn, in Sauterne and Sealed Wax. I was able to find the “traditional” colors in the yarn base.

My options were more limited in the Rios base. I ended up with a variegated black called Pearl Ten and then a traditional red called Freza. This will be more of an abstract hat but I think it will still work! And I’m super excited to show you all some updates I made to some of my finished hats tomorrow!

Happy Knitting!!

Orange Dopamine

I was having a bummer of a week at work, so I put on my tennis shoes and went for a walk on my break. My feet just so happened to take me past the yarn store and I decided I needed a dopamine hit.

I’m still all about the hats and I decided to try the singles that Malabrigo makes. It is still a worsted skein so my hat “recipe” should work. I had the yarn store wind the skein and I think this will be one of my first Pigskin Party 2024 KAL cast ons. It will qualify for extra points since it is a NFL team color!

Happy Knitting!!

Bliss Yarns Haul

On one of my breaks from SSK classes, I hopped in my car and navigated to Bliss Yarns in nearby Brentwood.

It was a lovely store where there was a knitting group going on. They were so delightful and we shared lots of regional crafting information. Turns out the shop owner grew up in Kansas and was delightful.

I walked away with a skein of Twisted Ambition Yarn Sweet Sock in the “Gold Rapture” colorway, a skein of Big Sky Yarn Squish DK in the “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” colorway, and finally some Whimzee Stitches Yarn Co Select Worsted in the “Love My Tennessee colorway”. And as a SSK bonus prize, I got to pick out some needles stoppers and I chose cacti.

I would highly recommend this yarn store to anyone. It has a great selection, easy location and great customer service. Happy Shopping!!

Restocking Hat Yarn

With all this hat knitting, I needed to restock my worsted yarn. I stopped by YarnBarn in Lawrence and grabbed three new skeins. All Rios but in English Rose, Hojas, and Medusa.

The Hojas color is already on my needles per yesterday’s post. I tried to grab some colors that were different that what I already had made. And I love that YarnBarn already wound these for me. Worsted doesn’t take that long but it sure makes it easy to start another hat super easily.

Happy Stashing!!

KITH Yarn Haul

In between Knitting In The Heartland events, I did some time in the market. After an initial lap around the vendors I decided to focus on mini skeins for my scrappy granny stripe blanket.

I have all my scraps organized and I noticed some gaps in the color wheel. So I tried to pour through booths and find colors to help fill out those missing areas. Mostly I need the warm colors of red, yellow and orange and some more jewel tones.

I think I did well! I also nabbed a tshirt going out on clearance, a knitting book for my friend and a couple of worsted skeins to replenish my hat stash. I am pretty proud of myself and saving most of my yarn funds for SSK this summer!

Happy Yarn!

This Could Mean Trouble

My new job means a new commute. The silver lining? The new area I work in has a LYS! And on a break this week I fell down in the store and my card bought new yarn.

Am I going to Knitting in the Heartland conference in less than two weeks? Yes. But I was feeling good this day and the yarn fumes got me. I picked up three skeins of Malabrigo Rios in Matisse Blue, Cian, and Purpuras. Then one skein of Malabrigo Arroyo in Sea Slug. All of these skeins are destined to be hats. My brain cells are taken up by the new job some easy hat knitting feels good.

Next up was two skeins of 316 Dye Studio in their House DK and graffiti colorway. I have some of this in my stash for a sweater and my post COVID body needs more yardage. They are different dye lots so I will have to shade/alternate. But I’m okay with that. Lastly are two bunches of fiber from Malabrigo Nube in Solis and Indiecita colorways. I think I will spin each as singles and ply together. They coordinate nicely.

Someone asked me what I was making and I said ‘Happiness’ because you should never ask a knitter about their stash!

Tubes For Jellybean

Jellybean really hit my heartstrings this winter by asking to wear my handknit socks. Like full commitment….to school and everything. Even to the point I had to pull them off his feet to wash them. Now, he’s a kid so I don’t trust him with just any pair but I found a few that he could keep as his own and he was delighted.

Admittedly, my socks aren’t perfect for him. But his feet are still growing so it’s hard to invest too hard in his current size. I settled on finding some already cranked sock snakes on Etsy. These are 64 stitch tubes in hardwearing sock yarn. They are Jellybean approved colors and I just need to find contrast yarn for heels/toes/cuffs. This way we get to finished socks for him without hours and hours of knitting by me. Win win.

They are really long tubes so I should be able to get a few pair out of each tube. I tried to get Jellybean to tell me if he liked long/tall socks and how he wanted the finished pair to feel. He didn’t 100% understand what I was asking, so I will try again another day, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Worsted Haul

The Hat Mojo is going strong into 2024. And I have worked up almost every single worsted weight skein that is not handspun in my stash. Therefore, I got more. This time from Treasure Goddess Yarn, which is local (ish) to me.

My hat stash over-floweth here at Casa Rachelle so these hats will definitely be donated or gifted. So I went with some basic and easy to coordinate colors. I totally understand my color sense doesn’t always jive with other peoples.

The tonal black skein on the right is going to be a pony tail hat for a coworker friend. In 2023 my proverbial tanks were so low that trying to work on “duty bound” knitting really had me avoiding it. And towards the end of the year I just worked on project that were easy and gave me joy. I was much happier and more engaged. So that’s the plan for 2024.

No lists, no duty…..just knitting joy. Even if it’s 1,000 basic beanies 🙂

Happy Knitting!!