Category Archives: Yarn

A Purple Present

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I have been mum about this but I recently received a promotion at my job. It’s been in the works for a couple of months and I didn’t want to count my chickens until they hatched but its official now. I went from a staff level accounting to a manager of accounting operations. I have four direct reports and new boss who is….challenging…to say the least. It’s been a ton of work and I have a lot to learn. But I’m excited to have gotten this opportunity. I’m 35 years old and this is my first promotion ever.

My husband decided to get me a little congratulatory gift. He asked for yarn suggestions and I said anything from KnitCircus. So he and Jellybean made an order. And shocker, since Jellybean helped its ALL PURPLES. That is Jellybean’s go to color. I don’t mind because they made beautiful choices.

The top skein is a Trampoline base in the Dream a Little Dream colorway. It’s 440 yards of a light fingering weight and the same kind of yarn I made my Sherwood Forest Wrap with. The bottom two skeins are the Greatest of Ease base in two matching 25 gram gradient sock skeins in the Knit Sky colorway.

My favorite part of these yarns? They are already wound up and ready to use! I like when that less than fun part is done for me. KnitCircus may be in my top five favorite dyers. Do you have a favorite dyer?

Boxing Day

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I fell down a bit on Boxing Day. Now I live in the United States and it’s really not a thing here. But you know where it is a thing? The UK where the wonder dyer from the The Corner of Craft podcast Chromatic Yarns lives. And she had an unprecedented 20% off sale. And I was flush with Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket..

All of her yarns are Dungeons and Dragons themed. I have never played and know next to nothing about it. But what I do know is that I LOVE this purple speckle madness. I picked up three skeins of her Sturdy DK in the Eldritch Blast color.

And Hannah tucked in a small package of tea from Bird and Blend Tea Co. It was Dozy Girl, a chamomile bedtime blend and it was AMAZING.

As for the yarn it is going into my stash. I’m feeling like I want to track down a solid contrast color in DK and make striped sweater or shawl/blanket thing. For now I’m content to admire and pet the pretty skeins while feeling glad I supported an independent dyer who busts her butt to make a quality product.

Just curious, did anyone else score any kind of Boxing Day deals?

Teal Torch Knits 12 Days of Christmas

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Man….January is getting away from me!  I opened a box on my office desk at home and saw the beauty that was my Teal Torch Knits 12 days of Christmas advent. I haven’t been able to put it away since opening the last box because I just love it so much!

This was my second “advent” calendar of 12 minis. I didn’t have the budget on hand this summer to buy a full 24 skein advent from any one dyer but I did manager to sleuth out two 12 skeins advents for less than price of a full one. And boy did this one not disappoint!I keep smelling the soak and having to hid the stitch marker from my children.

Teal Torch Knits dyed their 12 day advent to be a rainbow. And not just any rainbow but a rainbow with speckles!! I have zero ideas what to knit with this one. Someone recommended the Fuss Free Festival Shawl by Louise Tillbrook. But I think I need more time to marinate on this choice.

Any good pattern suggestions from out there in blog land?

I Almost Forgot LMFA!

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You guys…I almost forgot to tell you about something totally last minute and totally crazy I did before Christmas. I ended up needing to drive into Kansas City from Topeka to help out a friend on December 20th. I was off work anyway so it wasn’t a big deal. Well…I was scrolling Instagram earlier that morning and saw the Leading Man Fiber Arts was doing a trunk show at The Studio (a LYS) in Kansas City. A quick consultation of a map told me that I would less than 15 minutes away from my friend’s place.  So I went!

I had never been to the shop before and I was excited to meet Steve and Andy from LMFA. I watch the podcast and so I tried to hold in my inner fan girl. Well it was AMAZING. The shop had snacks, champagne cocktails and a beautiful setup. I had a wonderful conversation with Andy about their yarn and knitting in general. And I might have fallen down hard with my wallet in their yarn racks.

I picked up (from left to right):

  • Three Show Stopper mini skeins (fingering weight) in Mary’s Jam, It’s Cold Outside, and Bend & Snap
  • A Soliliquay skein (fingering weight)  in Koi Pond – this skein is over 650 yard and 100% BFL
  • A Box Office skein (100% merino in worsted) in He Will Have His Revenge
  • A Callback skein (100% merino in sport weight) in The Great Sweater Debate

I know the BFL will be at least one pair of socks. And the worsted and sport weight skeins will be hats or accessories to go with my new navy winter coat. And the minis will likely head straight for my memory blanket.

All in all I got to meet some really cool knitters, fan girl over some awesome dyers and kind of have some self care time before the hectic holidays. It was kind of perfect. 10 out of 10 would do it again!

Happy Knitting!!

12 Days of Christmas Advent

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Merry Christmas to all!!! It’s just before noon and we have thoroughly exhausted ourselves with snuggles, brunch and presents. I opened up my second advent Christmas box after the kiddos crashed for nap to start my “12 days of Christmas”. This one was from Teal Torch Knits in Oregon. I learned about them from the Pigskin Party KAL and they had an affordable 12 day option for advent mini skeins.

You guys, this one was beautifully packaged! It’s gold and cream tiny boxes with neatly wrapped treats…

My kids are going to want to steal these boxes HARD. I think I might need to keep these under wraps until they are empty of yarn, lol.

Because it’s Christmas I made the executive decision to open all the treats at once. I got nibbles, sips, some yarn soak and a beautiful christmas tree progress keeper. I think I may slip away and slip some whisky into the peppermint cocoa and just watch the fireplace

May each one of  you have a peaceful day full of the things that bring you joy. Merry Christmas!!

Twisted Project Plans

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Alrighty….let’s talk some wishful knitting! I have had some time to think about my purchases from Twisted in Portland, OR and here is what I’m thinking….at least for now. I reserve the right to change my mind as many times as I want.

Hazel Knits Lively DK in Acquarius, Paisley and Sea of Tranquility

Chubbs & Squeak Tweed DK in Colonel Mustard and Scabbers:

This might be the next shawl on my needles because I literally lay in bed thinking about this beautiful tweed yarn. And how gorgeous it would be with a black or grey tunic top…

Knitted Wit Smarties in assorted colors: I picked these up to add to heels, toes and cuffs stash for my hand knit socks. I tried to get colors I didn’t have in my stash but that matched the color palette of my stash.

Twine. Sock in the Wild Abandon colorway:

Knitted Wit Sock in Unicorn Giggles. I think this will be just a fun pair of blueberry waffle or vanilla toe up socks for me. The rainbow colors just make me happy!

I have dutifully logged all these ideas on Ravelry and in my stash pages lest I forget. Do anyone of you have an patterns to suggest with these beauties? I’m always open to suggestions and falling down the rabbit hole that is Ravelry!

Happy Knitting!!

A Visit To Twisted

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While in Portland my friends graciously offered to help me find a yarn store. And we wandered our way into Twisted and y’all….it was amazing.

They had a well curated shop of lots of amazing mainstream yarn lines and many indie dyers. And with no sales tax in Oregon….I fell down hard and basically handed them all my birthday money. The staff was knowledgeably and helpful but just let me shop and squish yarn in my preferred way. They had Quince & Co and Brooklyn Tweed, neither of which I had seen in person before. I think I lapped the store three times just taking it all in! My friends were so great and helped me shop. They asked some very thoughtful questions and really took an interest in how the whole knitting culture worked.

I came away with quite the haul. There were two skeins of fingering weight, five skeins of DK, five mini skeins and three enamel pins. And I did actually try to thoughtfully purchase so that I didn’t just buy pretty yarn to linger in my stash. I bought yarn in color combinations that went together and with projects in mind.

The tweedy yarn will be a two color shawl, the Hazel Knits in green hues will be some sort of a faded project, the Twine will be combined with existing stash for a shawl and the Knitted Wit will be happy socks for my feet.

I can hear Jellybean rustling in his bed so I need to get moving this morning. I’ll try to get up a separate post where I geek out a little harder over this yarn haul.

Happy knitting!!

Winding Frenzy

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I was on the receiving end of a day off work Monday. This coupled with the Grandparents corralling the kids for a portion of the day led me on a WINDING FRENZY. The cooler fall temperatures have set in and I’m absolutely craving more hand knit sweaters.

So obviously the only logical thing to do was wind two sweater quantities of yarn!? The top lot is my Treasure Goddess Yarn DK Treasures and some newly aquired Hedgehog Fiber Merino DK in the Deep End colorway. I hope to turn these skeins into a Radiate by Jojo Locatelli. My expanded ramblings on this obsession can be found here.

The second lot is the Malabrigo Rios I purchased on Local Yarn Shop day. Its the Fresco and Seco colorway and I hope to turn into into a Weekender by Andrea Mowry.

I know some knitters don’t wind up their cakes until their cakes until they ready to knit it. But in this house I just don’t have that time luxury. So I have adopted a technique to try and negate the “stretching” that happens to yarns under the tension of sitting in a cake.

I hand wind the skeins into a loose ball (right) and then use that ball to wind on my ball winder into a cake. I use my free hand to monitor and keep consistent but gentle tension on the yarn as it goes into the cake. So far this this has worked for me and none of my yarn seems worse for the wear even after *cough* years *cough* of sitting in a cake.

Do you have any idiosyncrasies about winding yarn?

More Radiate Options

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I have this sweater I can’t get out of my head. I think I talked about the pattern when I was stash diving awhile back. It’s Radiate by Joji Locatelli. After letting my options marinate for awhile I decided that none of them really made my heart sing. So I swung by my LYS the other day and they had a few skeins of Merino DK left from Hedgehog Fibers.

I ended up gravitating towards a variagated speckle kind of color. Its called Deep End but the jewel tones just CALLED to me. And I thought they served as a nice pop with a black background.

And it passed the contrast test in a black and white photo. Yay!!

I of course didn’t know how much I would need of the contrast color because I haven’t swatched to know my gauge. So therefore I bought both skeins they had of this color. Only logical right? I mean extra Hedgehog yarn can’t be a bad thing?

I have a few things I need to clear off the needles and then this sweater might jump my arbitrary and only in my mind knitting queue!!

Happy knitting!!

From Across The Pond

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Hi, my name is Rachelle and I’m a sucker for beautiful yarn and the creative people who dye it. I have fallen down the rabbit hole of watching Amy Florence’s Youtube Podcast “Stranded“. I am working my way through her back catalog and I succumbed to the wool fumes. So here is my pretty little skein that made its way to my stash from across the pond.

I bough a skein of her BFL nylon sock base in the Antagonist color to make myself a pair of socks. I haven’t worked much with BFL but word in the Knitti-sphere is that it is very hard wearing. And that intrigues me. And the color is just so gorgeous. It’s a grey base with little speckles and blips of pinks, greens, yellows and all kinds of loveliness.

I’m not sure where this skein will land in my current sock queue but for now I’m just going to pet the pretty and smell the sheepy smell. Maybe I can start a pair that I only work on when I’m binging her back episodes? Hmmmm, I’ll have to think on that!

Happy Knitting!!