I firmly hold that one’s “gals” give the best gifts. I had the good fortune to bond very deeply with a work colleague who moved on to another City. And we developed quite the group chat with one of her new coworkers because we missed hanging out. We all three enjoy crafty things and each other’s senses of humor.
This lovely box was delivered to me from those two gals. Without asking they know exactly what to gift me.
This box contained many yummy chocolates and two full sock sets from Amber Waves of Fiber. The color is called “Santa’s Workshop” and the content is 80% merino, 10% cashmere and 10% nylon. I have enough yarn for a large shawl or multiple socks. I need to meditate on what this yarn wants to grow up to be.
Our family finally got caught by COVID. Three out of the four of us tested positive. The hubby and I went on our first real dinner and movie date in two years and came home with COVID. Pretty poetic, right?
We spent all of last week laying low and staying home. We are on the mend but PB can’t go back to daycare for another week yet. It’s been hard, trying to work my busy season from home and keeping two kids in good spirits. So I purchased myself a consolation prize….some Chromatic Yarns/Corner of Craft goodies.
I picked up a sock set in her her Naiad colorway and a beaded unicorn stitch marker. The sock yarn is BFL/nylon mix and I envision it will be socks some day. I have already put my stitch marker on my current Stark Effect Socks.
I may not be knitting much, but that hasn’t stopped me from buying! I am a patron of the Corner of Craft patreon. And that provided me early access to a recent collection launch for Chromatic Yarns. Hannah is a dyer that uses D&D themes. I don’t play D&D but I love Hannah’s colors!
I picked up the entire Resistances Collection on her Sturdy DK base to make a faded something….probably a sweater? From left to right the colors are:
Cold Resistance
Lightning Resistance
Charm Resistance
Poison Resistance
Chaos Resistance
Spell Reistance
I think they are ALL amazing and make me itchy to cast on a DK sweater. I have found that is my most worn weight of sweater that fits my climate both at home and work. Now I just need more time and more energy, lol. That or less adult responsiblities!
In the depths of my knitting ennui, I was week and fell down in the Stranded online yarn shop. I snagged two skeins of mohair and one skein of BFL sock in Jude’s Gloom colorway.
For awhile now I have been thinking of a nice lacy and light neutral colored wrap or shawl. The mohair would be effortlessly light and the greys would coordinate with most of my wardrobe. But I just need the gumption to pick a pattern and actually knit the darn thing.
I was tempted by the recent sale by Nomad Yarns and their mystery yarn box. I did this one before and it was good but this time it was GREAT!
This box came with two sets of needles, one skein of commercial sock yarn, one skein of commercial worsted and a whole smattering of the Nomad Yarns hand dyed yarns. There is some cashmere blend worsted, yak sock, tweed sock, 100% silk lace and some small samples.
I can’t stop thinking bout the tweed sock yarn. It consists of 5 minis in a fade that reminds me of Captain Planet. I need to do a pattern dive and see what I can come up with to make with that fun yarn. Happy Knitting!!
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 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!
Here comes the cast-on-itis! I couldn’t deny it any longer so I threw myself a winding party!
In this pile I wound three skeins for my Into The Light shawl, one skein of DK sock yarn for some bed socks and the full skein from my 2020 Advent calendar. PB even helped for a little bit. He was mesmerized by the swift turning and turning and turning. But then he got bored and asked for the iPad, lol.
I definitely have a theme going here. I’m in a very pinky/purply place I guess. The front three skeins will be faded for my Into The Light garter shawl. I guess the outlier would be the teal DK skein for my bed socks. But that was a mystery skein so I didn’t really get to pick the color.
And true to cast-on-itis I have already kitted up that yarn into bags with patterns, needles and notions. From left to right there is: Into The Light in my TanneCasey bag, DK vanilla bed socks in my TanneCasey sock back, and 2020 advent socks in my Supernatural Yarns project bag.
Now I just need to find the time to get all this knitting done!
My Tangled Yarn Knitting Adventures 