3 August 2010 · No Comments
Last, but definitely not least, this is the lovely Nate Sock Yarn by Briar Rose Fibers in the color 110 (such a romantic name). It’s a slightly rustic fiber with just a tiny bit of variation in thickness from one spot to the next.
I’ve worked with Briar Rose before. I first heard about it on Brenda Dayne’s marvelous Cast On podcast. I sought it out at last year’s Great Lakes Fiber Festival. I bought three and immediately turned one into Propitiate for The Boy. I just cast on with the second a few days ago for an (as of yet) secret project. It’s lovely to work with, and just gets better with washing.
So that more or less sums up the book yarns (there may be a tiny last minute addition, but this stuff will all be there for sure). Now that all that’s taken care of, I’m free to let you all know the theme of the book. And I shall. Very soon. Just not today.
31 July 2010 · 2 Comments
This lovely temptation is Classic Merino Superwash Sport by Knitting Notions in the color Dark Rose. My camera decided to lie the day I took this picture. The yarn is actually a bit darker and, well, rosier, in person – more pink and less red.
Knitting Notions shows at several of the fiber events in my area, and I’ve been lucky enough to see all of Catherine’s yarns in person. Her booth is unmistakable and irresistible. She does a really beautiful job of displaying all her yarn to its best advantage. If you’re going to any of her upcoming events, you should be sure to stop by.
I already had a small stash of her yarn when I started the book (this one was among them), and knew I wanted to use it if I could. Catherine was marvelous, as expected, and even indulged my fit of shameful indecisiveness. I know you’ll love this, it’s worth seeking out!
29 July 2010 · 6 Comments
These are wicked good fun. Let me explain. I believe I may have mentioned my feelings about colorwork. I just don’t do it. I don’t get it. I don’t (generally) like it. I don’t know how to do it well. It eludes me.
But I do occasionally go ‘ooooooh, pretty colors…I want pretty colors’ (admit it, most knitters are swayed by pretty colors). So this seems like the perfect compromise.
These are part of the gradiance collection by The Unique Sheep. The gradiance collection is sets of different yarns in colors that shade subtly (or not so subtly) into one another. They come in groups of 4 or 6 colors and are available in all of The Unique Sheep’s base yarns. There are examples of lovely socks and shawls over on the page for them. It seems like the perfect way to get some of the fun of different colors while not actually having to master the technical challenges of the more traditional approach.
I got myself a set back at Sock Summit (I obviously need to stop buying yarn and start using the yarn I already have) and knew right away I wanted to use it for the book. Two more yarns to go, and then I’ll finally tell you what the book is all about!
28 July 2010 · No Comments
This is the marvelous Dream in Color Smooshy in the color Chinatown Apple. I love this yarn. It is a perfect example of truth in advertising. It is absolutely totally 100% smooshy. That is exactly the right word for it. It feels marvelous and knits up beautifully.
Now somehow, I’ve yet to make my own pair of socks out of any of the Dream in Color yarns. A quick perusal of my stash reveals at least half a dozen skeins (including one duplicate color that I apparently loved enough to buy twice). I will have to do something to remedy this. I just wound up Cloud Jungle and I think it will be my next sock.
27 July 2010 · 3 Comments
This is Serenity 20 by Zen Yarn Garden in the color Cherry Garcia. And unlike last time, there are no lies here. Zen is exactly the right word to describe this yarn. It’s a lovely merino, cashmere, nylon blend, and it’s just about irresistible.
Zen Yarn Garden is another new company for me. I noticed that an awful lot of the socks I was clicking on on other people’s sites were made with their stuff, and I had to check them out. I’m glad I did. Their blends are lovely, they have a beautiful color sense (reds…lots and lots of reds), and their customer service is phenomenal. This is another one I’ll be returning to when the (massive, never-ending, ever-growing) book project is done.
26 July 2010 · 2 Comments
This picture is a blatant lie. It shows the lovely Shibui Knits yarn in Sock in the color Honey. That part that’s all well and good. The lie part is the color. In a fickle moment, I ended up switching from the Honey you see here to the equally lovely Sand. Alas, I shamefully neglected to take a picture of the yarn in Sand before sending it off to get knit. I’m really hoping that this is the biggest organizational snafu I encounter in doing this book. The chances are small, but a girl can dream.
I first found Shibui Knits last year in Maine. I just went and looked for the picture I took of all the yarn I bought on that trip. I was sure I’d posted it, but I couldn’t find it on the website. Since it’s my site, and I totally use it help keep track of when and where I bought what, I’m posting it now. You can see my inagural skeins of Shibui Sock just there on the right, one up from the bottom. They were the first. They were not the last. It’s excellent stuff, and it comes in a whole host of marvelously wearable/reasonable/grown up colors. I love purple and pink and sparkle glitter fluff as much as the next girl, but blue and gray and brown fit a whole lot better in my wardrobe. Shibui makes those colors and they make them well.
On a side note, do you see all that yarn? That’s a fair bit of yarn. That picture was taken in the hotel room the night before we flew home from Maine (note the extra ugly hotel upholstery fabric visible in the upper left corner if you doubt me). That was the trip where I managed to cram all that yarn, plus 12 bottles of adult beverages, plus all the unimportant stuff we had brought with us like clothes and shoes and books into two wee suitcases. The sort of suitcases that would have been carry on bags until about five years ago. Not one thing broke. Everything fit just perfectly. When I said I was good at packing, I meant it. The resentment over the honey incident is apparently still with me.
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