I was tempted by the siren’s call of yarn again. I watching my normal YouTube podcast and just happened to catch the Tommi’s first Moonstone Dyeworks update after her maternity leave. I was powerless to resist a base that I have never tried before: yak sock.
The color is called Hecate and its a wonderful chocolatey brown. The skeins is 100 grams and 437 yards/399.6 meters so that is a pretty good put up. The fiber content is 70% superwash merino, 20% yak and 10% nylon. The yarn feels soft in my hand and I can detect the darker undertones that the yak brings to the blend.
This yarn has a specific purpose (aside from trying a new yarn blend) and that is to join the Musselburgh Hatt by Ysolda Teague. The whole world seems to be making them and LOVING them so I want to see what the fuss is all about.
My Etsy saved searches got my right in the wallet again this week. A previous destash shop on Etsy just loaded more new yarn and I opened the notification. So two new skeins of yarn followed me home.
I chose a Stellina Sock skein from Moonstone Dyeworks in a Christmas-y colorway. She’s a fantastic dyer and this was a base of her I had never tried. Next up was a merino singles skein from Mrs. Crosby in a deep green/blue saturated variegated/speckled skein. I don’t normally buy singles but the colors drew me in on this skein.
This is definitely not helping my “more out than in” goal for 2021. But sometimes yarn just happens, lol.
My mom surprised me with a gift she picked up on her travels through Missouri last month.
There are two skeins of Jawoll Twin in Turquoise Tiger Stripes from Lang yarns. This is definitely sock yarn and hopefully makes a nice matching pair of socks. Next up is a unicorn tape measure that PB has already claimed as her and has disappeared into her toy stash. And last but not least is a muslin project bag that reads Peace Love Craft. Pretty sure that is a crochet hook but I love the sentiment nonetheless.
Moms who are also crafters totally pick out the best crafty gifts! Happy Knitting!!
Recently I cast on my All My Stitches, which is a project where I am holding a white sock yarn double with an advent calendar to get a big squishy shawl/wrap. Honestly, it makes projects go fast and I am actually getting my advent calendars used!
So I did a little online shopping for some more neutral sock yarn to hold double with my other mini skein calendars. This led me to WEBS and my first Cloudborn Yarn purchase.
Thanks to some sale prices, I snagged two skeins of Cloudborn Fibers Highland Superwash Sock Twist in the grey and black. And then I couldn’t decided on the Superwash merino fingering so I got both cream and off white. I did mess up a little here and I didn’t realize the merino was a singles…whoops. I still think it will serve my purpose.
So as close as I was getting to being “yarn in/out nuetral” this year….this purchase but me back a fair bit. Guess I’d better get cranking on those advent projects!
Pretty yarn destashes get me every stinking time! I fell down on Instagram when I saw a knitter was culling her stash on Etsy. There were two skeins that just needed to come to my house.
First up was a single skein of Chromatic Yarns Sturdy Sock in Druidcraft. I have a lot of greens in my stash so this will fit in nicely. I have really like mixed, matching and marling my sock yarns to make bigger projects than socks. Plus Hannah of the Corner of Craft is one of my favorite dyers.
Second (and last) was a single sock skein from The Lemondade Shop, a dyer out of Colorado. This reminds me of cotton candy but I didn’t buy it for the colors. I bought it for the name……”Only Strippers Shave Above The Knees”. I cackled laughing at this one.
My hat mojo seems to be outstripping my worsted weight yarn stash. So of course more yarn had to follow me home!
This yarn is dyed by someone I met in the Wet Coast Wools zoom knit night. She is Kelsey of K-Zip Knits and is a Canadian indie dyer. She had a 20% moving sale last month and I jumped on it.
I picked up a silver skein called Sterling, a purple skein called Black Light and a brown skein called Cocoa. These for sure are headed for my hat bin but for right now they are marinating in my stash until it is their turn.
I got another wild hair to cake up a bunch of yarn. I think this might be the leading edge of a fit of “cast-on-itis”. But hey, I have to go where the knitting mojo takes me.
The project started with six skeins of yarn, some lemonade and the Down Cellar Studio podcast in my ear buds.
I ended the afternoon with nine skeins of yarn and many dream knitting projects I can’t wait to cast on. I hope to turn this pile of yarn into:
Three skeins of green yarn that I will plan another Into The Light
Three skeins of pink yarn for a third Into The Light
That is A LOT of knitting. And I’m heading into busy accounting/audit season at work so my energy and free time about to be sucked up. But maybe if the yarn is ready and waiting I’ll have a better chance to keep projects going?
Oops, I also went on an accidental yarn crawl this weekend while with my mom. My mom needed to pick up her BOM (block of the month) quilt packs from a quilt shop that is sponsoring a remote quilt along. Not only did this fabric store carry yarn….there was a full fledge yarn shop on the way to the fabric shop.
Our first stop was Stitch and Chatter in Stockton KS. It was an bright and fun little shop with a small yarn selection in the back. I ended up coming away with two vegan pompoms, some KFI painted sock and six KFI minis for heels, toes and cuffs. Everyone was masked it was nice to peruse the almost empty shop because we got there right at opening.
Next up was the Shepherd’s Mill in Phillipsburg KS. This is a yarn shop AND working mill. They mill custom yarns for their shop as well as mill yarn for other fiber producers. There are long windows so you can see the mill working even. Of course we were there on a Saturday and they only mill during the week.
But I came away with quite the yarn haul. Starting in the top left I got some Lanaloft worsted weight in a camo colored single for another stockinette hat. Then I picked up a 2 ply fingering weight yarn that has mohair blended with wool, alpaca and nylon (grey). Next up are two skeins worsted weight for more beanie hats. The red/purple one is a 3 ply marled worsted while the teal skeins is a 2 ply tonal worsted.
Next up, at the bottom, are some custom gradients. The dark blue/purple is a 2 ply fingering gradient with alpaca, rayon, wool and nylon. And the pink skein, which my mom picked out for a hat, is a 2 ply DK yarn made of wool and nylon.
I really want to go back to this shop when we have more time. They offer classes and aren’t a bad distance from my parents house. I want to take some in person spinning classes after my vaccine and while I have childcare. I’m so excited I almost can’t wait!
I have been zooming every Monday evening with the ladies from the Wet Coast Wools LYS (Vancouver, CA) for their knit night. I enjoy it very much but I was WILDLY enabled this past month.
The shop ran a huge sale after Christmas on their yarns and add to that the favorable exchange rates for Americans…..I fell down the sweater quantity hole. I ended up giving Glenda all my Christmas monies (and then some).
I picked up six skeins of Lagom by Katia in a wonderful heathered grey color on a worsted weight. That is roughly 1,300 yards of yarn to make a nice nuetral sweater. Next up is eight skeins of Holst Garn Coast in a brown color. This is a fingering weight yarn I intend to hold double for a garment of sorts. Lastly I grabbed five skeins of Briggs and Little Regal in a heathered blue. This is another worsted weight but this one is pretty sheepy feeling. I think this will need to be a cardigan to be worn over an under layer for my princess skin.
All in all it felt nice to add some heavier weight to my stash. I have a TON of fingering/sock but I tend not to buy the heavier stuff to have on hand. I’m working on that in 2021.
I have completely unboxed my 2020 Advent calendar from A Girl and Her Wool. I ended up with the quite the collection of minis!
I have hemmed and hawed over what to do with these. I did some pattern searching and pulled down some possibilities. I had been leaning toward a cowl of some sort because the minis are all 10 grams I need something small-ish so that I can see good sized blocks of the different colors.
But then I threw that all out the window and I decided to make my own “advent” socks. I am going to use the full skein to make the heels toes and cuffs. And for each mini I will split in half and knit concurrent socks on two different needles. I think I won’t attempt any color management and will just use them in the order the dyer presented them.
And to keep myself motivated I am going to make myself finish my Carbon Sprinkles Vanilla Socks before letting myself cast on this new project.
