Tag Archives: stash

Mystery Box Surprise

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I really need to unsubscribe from my newsletters or a bit after my last purchase or two. I am a SUCKER for a yarn deal. Oh well, my bills are paid and my family is fed. I’ll just die in a well insulated craft room some day!!

KnitCircus yarns was having another mystery sale. This is where you get to pick a yardage amount and number of skeins but nothing else. And you get a super good deal because they are clearing out the discontinued colors, short skeins, skeins with knots, or happy dye accidents. I picked a 150 g skein plus a second skein that would be tonal or semi-solid. I ended up with these two beauties…

The first is a 150 gram skein of Trampoline gradient yarn in the Sherwood Forest color. This is a discontinued color on their fingering to light fingering base. This should make a really lovely and large shawl some day. Off the top of my head this might be a good use for the Vamping Shawl I tried and failed earlier.

Next up is a skein of worsted weight Ringmaster in a prototype autumnal color on a skein with knots. Orange isn’t usually my color but this should make a wonderful hat. Maybe a Barley by TinCan knits or a Quick Ombre Hat by Emily Dormier. I have been meaning to dip my toe into colorwork.

Have you ever bought mystery yarn?

Emotional Purchasing

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I am normally a pretty even keeled person and I can let stuff roll off my back fairly well. I really do have a very good life in the grand scheme of things. However, my work life has been more stress and less success lately. I had a professional opportunity get postponed at the last minute that left me kind of bummed. Jellybean got me flowers which made did make me feel better. But later that same evening I got an email notification that a local to me dyer was having a 40% off and free shipping sale. I caved like a house of cards….I succumbed to emotional purchasing.

The Treasure Goddess Yarn shop sucked me right in. I am feeling the sweater mojo here lately so I picked up five skeins of her DK Treasure yarn in the “Gunpowder” colorway. It is black without being all black so that I can’t see to knit with it. It is hand dyed yarn so I will have to alternate skeins not matter what pattern I pick. But I feel like this should make a staple wardrobe kind of sweater.

Now I find myself slowly cruising Ravelry to find my next sweater pattern….but I’ll save that rabbit hole for another day. Happy Knitting!!

Happy Anniversary to Me

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As of June 30th, the husband and I have been married 12 years. We’ve added two dogs and two kiddos over those many years and boy are we exhausted! I’ve said this before (with all due respect and love) that my  husband is a terrible gift picker outer. So these days I keep a google doc where I link to things I would like to have. He then only has to click and purchase from a list of things hes certain I want. It has served us both well.

This year he picked out some wonderful things from Tuft. He chose a sock soap, bath bar and some hand balm. I think the sock soap is just natural scent, the body bar is honey scented and the hand balm is definitely blueberry lemonade. They are all heavenly and this is my first Tuft experience and I’m not disappointed so far!

And he managed to throw in some yarn from String Theory Colorworks. This is Stark Effect on their Inertia base (80/20 blend of merino and nylon). It’s crazy rainbow bright and should make some brilliant socks.

P.S. Don’t worry I didn’t forget the hubby. He is getting his car professionally detailed to rid it of kid crumbs, dog hair and about 7 years of Kansas mud and dust!

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?

Winter Woolfest 2019

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The Christmas season is over and it’s back to real life. And that real life has involved a lot of germs and coughing around here. So I made sure to take some time away from nursemaid duties and re-charge my batteries a bit. I made a trip over to Wamego, KS for Winter Woolfest 2019!

First I’ll flash all the goodies I found with my Christmas cash. I focused my monies on independent dyers and especially those I haven’t seen before. I grabbed a Little Lamb children’s book with pattern from Melissa Dallke. And four 20 gram mini skeins from her Acorn Willow yarn line for my scrappy blankets. Then I snagged a speckled DK yarn from Leon Alexander in glorious shades of purple. Next up is a dark grey and rainbow-y skein of sock yarn from the Wichita Woolery. It’s called Prism Break and it should micro stripe if I get the gauge right. Finally I finished up at a LYS booth that had several indie dyers. I gravitated to the speckles again. I picked up some Super Sock 4ply from Twisted Owl Fiber Studio in the Razz-ma-tazz color. I listen to their podcast, the Worsted Knitting Podcast when the occasionally drop episode and it’s hilarious. And lastly I picked up some Pebble Sock from Black Trillium Fibers in the Happy Fun Times color. I didn’t go overboard and I was very pleased with my purchases.

It was a beautiful sunny and weirdly warm January day here in Kansas. The attendees were slightly sweltering in their knitwear this year!

This year’s theme was Classic Rock N Roll. It wasn’t quite as cool as last year’s female super hero theme but still adorable.

And this festival has really grown. This place was PACKED by 11 am after the doors opened at 10 am. It was honestly hard to move around and get into most of the booths. This kinda triggers some anxiety in me and was my least favorite part.

P.S. This Wamego is kind of Wizard of Oz themed because they have the Wizard of Oz museum. And the whole town has kind of rolled with it. They have a tulip themed Toto that made me smile!

Happy Knitting!!

Goodbye One Twisted Tree

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One of my favorite podcasts is Prairie Girls Knit and Spin with Danie and Susie. Danie is also the dyer behind One Twisted Tree….a fabulous indie dyed yarn. I was killing time on Ravelry at the dentist when I saw Danie post that she was going to discontinue One Twisted Tree. Her family life and health has changed over the last few years making it very difficult for her to manage both a family and her shop. So she is closing….insert tears here…

She posted that she was going to put her remainder of inventory on discount in her shop. And I needed purchase (okay…hoard) some of this yarn because her color sense is like a perfect match to me. I really don’t need more yarn but this was 100% an emotional purchase and my last chance to support a small business I loved.

I got some Prime Fingering in the Forest Floor color. This is a 75/25 merino nylon blend in fingering weight. And I have several green skeins kicking around in my stash that I’m seriously contemplating a Free Your Fade by Andrea Mowry next year.

I also picked up a skein of Lavish base in the Chaotic Neutral color. This is 100% merino at a DK weight. And almost assuredly going to be a hat or pair of mitts. Possibly for my sister next year for Christmas? Or I may just hoard this as a golden skein that makes me happy as a pet skein of yarn. Time will tell!

RIP One Twisted Tree!!

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!!

Mini Madness

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Happy Birthday to me!! I received some birthday money and decided to splurge on another month of Row One Yarn Carnival of Color club. (I didn’t quite meet my healthy lifestyle goals this month…but I didn’t back slide either. I’m just going to continue to make better choices every day.)

This month’s yarn is from Emma’s yarn in her Hella Hank base. Guys…this is like a 17 year old entrepreneur. She has a great website, excellent marketing and amazing yarn. Oh if only I was that smart as a teenager!

Happy Knitting!!

New Old Yarn

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My mother works part time at an antique store come lunch dinette back where I grew up. And because she is an employee she gets to peak through all the goodies that come in. And recently a wooden crate came in that was full of yarn. The antique box sold quickly but the yarn got tossed aside.

Most of it was really old squeaky acrylic but she found a few skeins of actual wool and decided to grab them for me. This is Pace by Universal Yarns and it’s fingering weight made of 75/25 wool to nylon blend. And with five skeins this is just over 1,000 yards in the chocolate color. And I can tell that someone got this yarn at Tuesday Morning.

Will I knit with this? I really don’t know. It doesn’t feel bad when I squish the skein and the color isn’t terrible. But it doesn’t really grab me as yarn that says “knit me now!”. So after a careful freezer and heat cycle to kill any weird hitchhikers I will tuck this into my stash for a rainy day. Or maybe I’ll list it as willing to trade on Ravelry. I’m just happy my momma knows the way to my heart!

Happy Knitting!!