Category Archives: Yarn

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!!

Do You Swapless Swap!

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I have a love of all things mini skein. I mean I have not one but two scrap blankets on the go. My Memory blanket which has been around since 2016 and my Northeasterly that I started in February. I quickly understood that I can’t knit fast enough with two small children to generate enough scraps to feed my blankets. And that when I discovered swapless swaps on Ravelry!

I don’t have to make the time to dig up a reciprocal package. I just pay my money and a bag of neatly wound mini skeins from a fabulous dyer shows up at my door. I’m currently stalking all the swaps by YarnMatrix aka RoMillet on Ravelry. I have to limit myself and not go crazy. But I just had to jump on the Leading Man Fiber Arts swap….I mean look at those colors!!

Do you swapless swap?

My Birthday Yarn Haul

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Months ago my mom and aunt went with me to a LYS closing. And my mom let me pick out some yarn as a present. (At 40% off it was quite a steal!) I just had to wait until November to get my lovelies…

I picked up 5 skeins of Berroco Vintage DK in a lovely blue color. And I also picked out 6 skeins of Berroco Vintage Chunky in a dark grey color. I was thinking easy maintenance sweaters to catch all the slobber/boogers/milk and whatnot of motherhood, plus you know the affordability factor.

Unbeknownst to me she also picked out some yarn clips for large projects and sweet little bag. It was so lovely to get yarny goodness for my birthday and to know my mom picked out something special for me.

I think the grey chunky yarn needs to become a sweater for me and get on the needles ASAP!!

Happy Knitting!!

Dryer Ball Experiment

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It was a lovely weekend here in Kansas and so I turned my 3 year tornado loose in the backyard to burn off all his little wonderful energy. I meanwhile wanted to try an experiment. I had been catching up on the backlog of the YarnHoarder YouTube podcast and recently watched her segment on dryer balls. I have had one in the past but I wasn’t impressed. Amber mentioned that she uses several at once and it cuts her drying time in half.

So my 36 week preggo body waddled to JoAnns and came home with some 100% wool to felt. I picked up three different weights to test out….roving, bulky, and worsted.

Jellybean even took play breaks to help me wind into balls!

I got them all wrapped up into balls and ensconced into pantyhose. Jellybean thought this part was HILARIOUS. I wasn’t very scientific about the size. I just split each skein into two balls as best I could tell. They totally didn’t turn out equal. Score one for eyeballing it!

Now I just need to wait for either a load of towels or jeans to pile up so I can pop these into the wash to get them felted!

Happy Crafting!

KITHKC Festival Haul

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I told you about my experience at KITHKC yesterday….now for the goodies! My plan this year was to try out vendors or products that aren’t already in my stash or that I haven’t used before.

I may have huffed a few too many yarn fumes. I was a little carried away but not too terrible I hope!

My first purchase was from Willow Island Designs. I picked up the Xs and Ox sock sack at the top left corner and the blue plastic sock blockers at the bottom. And then they threw in the Xs and Os notion pouch as a free gift. The craftmanship was excellent on these bags and I can’t wait to use them.

Next up, I hit Show Me yarns where I found a wonderful rainbow sock blank (bottom left) and some minis (top center) for my memory blanket. The sock blank is the Gateway Sock Blank in Girl Power and its 75/25 merino and nylon. The minis I think are their Bootheel bases in some random colors I picked.

Then I wandered into the Potion Yarns booth and fell in love with her speckles. I eventually settled on a skein of her Temptress DK weight in the Walk on the Left Side colorway (top right). I think this needs to grow up to be a squishy hat.

After that booth I the McKnittey yarn shop booth. They weren’t an indie dyer but rather an LYS. They had quite the selection but I found some Three Irish Girls that just reached out grabbed me (top right). I must have been in a green/speckles kind of mood because I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving without that skein! It’s their Adorn Luxe 85/15 merino and nylon base in the Rollin In the Clover color. It’s amaze balls….

And finally I felt the need for one more project bag. I hit up the Supernatural Yarns booth and I knew I already had some of their yarn sitting in my sock stash. So I perused the bag selection. I found a nice two skein sized zippered project bag in a delightful woodsy theme. I have a lot of single skein project bags so I felt good about adding some different sized options.

The tote bag and tape measure came with my class registration. I’m really thinking about asking my mom to embroider my name on the bag for me….

And in case anyone likes any of the goodies above…below are the cards I managed to snag while shopping in case the details interested anyone!

Happy Knitting!!