January 2012 – a new year & new colors!

It’s the heart of gloomy winter. Everything is barren and brown. I miss the brilliant hues of spring and summer (This is probably not surprising after last month where I dyed colors after flowers, huh?) So I’ve dyed up some highly saturated colors, but this time from the cool side of the palette. Show off your sophisticated, inner Ice Princess with these regal colors.

This month’s yarn is very similar to December’s yarn base (Charlotte Bronte Fingering) with one difference – this month’s yarn is superwash treated. So if you loved the thinner sock weight, with that distinctive, two-ply nubbly texture but need machine washability, this is your month!

Each skein is 4 oz, 560 yards, 100% superwash merino. Need an extra skein or three? No problem – they’re $21 each plus shipping.

If you’re new to the club, remember to follow the link you received in your club email to submit your color choice & order additional skeins!

Green with Envy

A monochromatic progression in green! Spring green, kelly green, emerald and deep blue green march along the length of this skein. Green has been quite popular with club members in the past, and this one is sure to please all the green-lovers! Pair this skein with navy, grey, or black for a classy color accent to your winter wardrobe or welcome spring with brilliantly green socks! (St. Patty’s day is coming!)

Ice Princess

This skein is mostly blue, but with a pop of purple and mustard to brighten it up. Dull mustard, teal, sky blue, brilliant blue, and a blueberry dance across this skein. If you like jewel tones, you’ll love this skein. It’s regal enough to satisfy the pickiest princess!

Meet Ruth of Rock + Purl – now with a pattern giveaway!

Meet Ruth from Rock + Purl. This is Ruth here, isn’t she lovely?

She’s awesome, and so are her designs. I got to know Ruth via Twitter and Ravelry. I immediately loved her design aesthetic and her quirky personality. She’s full of good information; I’ve heard her discuss everything from the proper way to cook a paella to how short rows make a sweater awesome. If you follow me at all, you know I love all things food and knitting related. You can easily see how Ruth quickly made her way into my heart.

For November’s sock club colors, Ruth provided me with a photograph as a starting point for a brand new colorway:

Then I translated it into yarn form:

Since I try not to double up on colors for the sock club members (just in case they don’t like a particular hue) I created a second color choice that follows the same theme, in a different palette.  Just Before Dawn follows the sunrise/sunset theme, and mimics the way the sky looks out my window at dawn:

Now a little more about Ruth. She has many beautiful designs. In particular, I fell in love with her She Wore Blue Socks, and knew I just had to interview her for the blog. If you’re a member of the Sock Club, you’ll be receiving a free copy as your November goody!

If you’re not a sock club member, no problem. Ruth has generously provided a copy of the pattern to one lucky blog reader. Simply comment below to enter!

My questions are bolded, and Ruth’s answers follow. Without further ado, here’s more about Ruth and how she designs!

K: Where in the world are you located?

R: I was originally born in Spain but have spent my adult life in the UK – I live in West Sussex, a mostly country-side county in the South of England.

K: How long have you been designing, and what inspired you to start?

R: From the start, I added my tweaks and preferences to other people’s designs (I was one of those knitters who know how to manipulate measurements to make things fit me), and with a father in fashion, it’s always been in the back of my mind. When I found myself out of a full time job and wanting to take more control over my life, I chose to start small (all my first designs are accessories) while I “honed” my skills at grading/pattern writing!

K: What inspired you to design She Wore Blue?

R: I was playing with yarn – initially it was only lace, and browsing through stitch dictionaries, I found a way to include the cable in my lace!

K: What is your favorite color?

R: Oh, that’s too difficult to say!! I love anything bright – I don’t like dull colors or colors that don’t inspire a smile!! I guess if I had to choose it’d be red or yellow.

K: What’s your favorite knitting technique?

R: Cabling without a cable needle. Many of my designs feature cables, and it’s the fastest trick in the book!!

K: How can we keep up with you & your designs?

R: I love hearing from people on twitter (@rockandpurl) but I recently opened my Facebook page (http://on.fb.me/rockpurl) and can’t wait to see more knitters joining!

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A huge thank-you to Ruth for teaming up with me on this month’s yarn, taking the time to participate in the interview, and providing a great pattern giveaway. If you haven’t yet, comment below for your chance to win!

Yarn Love: The Sock Club – October Colors

Are you reading for a vibrant spot of color? October is here, bringing with it cooler breezes and fall foliage. The intensity of this new season is reflected in both color choices for this month. The vibrant reds of Mulled Wine are juxtaposed against the cool, neutral tones of Feathered Nest. Both are sure to please!

This month’s base yarn is a heavy fingering weight cashmerino blend. It’s soft as a cloud and supple as silk, with a warmth that will keep you toasty during the coming winter. 80% superwash merino / 10% mongolian cashmere / 10% nylon; 375 yards per 4 oz skein. The nylon content helps improve durability and balance out the delicacy of the cashmere. $26.50  per additional skein.

Mulled Wine – semi solid

We start out with the boldly saturated hues of Mulled Wine. Deepest crimson swirls around vermillion and Bourdeaux; with tiny hints of current and raspberry.

Feathered Nest – variegated

Feathered Nest is a kettle dye variegation of steel grey, coffee brown, inky midnight, straw gold, teal and clear aqua.

Sock Club: August Edition

It’s August & it’s time for an amazing new yarn and two new colorways! This month’s yarn is truly unique: Grace Kelley is a 100% superwash Blue Face Leicester wool, tightly spun into a lightweight sock yarn. Blue Faced Leicester, commonly abbreviated BFL, is a British breed of sheep with wool that is nearly as soft as merino but more durable and less pilling. It is one of my personal favorites, but is often hard to get because there are far fewer Blue Faced Leicester sheep in the world than Merinos.

The yarn itself is a delight! It is plied and spun much more tightly than most commercially produced sock yarns. It reminds me of handspun yarn more than millspun. For garments like socks that will see heavy wear, this is a huge plus. They’ll keep going, going and going. You can see the active twist in the photos – look for the gently curls along the outside edge of the skein. The yardage is higher than most other Yarn Love sock weights – putting right between fingering and lace. Grace will knit up beautifully into silken socks or a dreamy shawl. The twist gives stitches lovely definition and is perfect for intricate stitch patterns.

Extra skeins are $23 each, plus shipping. Order extras by August 7th via the Sock Club email link.

Silvered Waves

Ice blue, silver-grey, lake blue, and true navy blend with blush and barnwood as the colors lap and swirl over the surface of the skein. This colorway is kettle dyed, which allows serendipitous color combinations during the dye process. Silvered Waves is a calming skein, sure to provide a relaxing and luscious knitting experience.

Silvered Waves Inspiration:

Carrot Tops

Bright fresh green plays long this skein with hints of avocado, carrot and marigold. A refreshing and uplifting green – also a great transitional color from summer to fall. According to the Pantone Fall 2011 color forecast, you’ll be seeing lovely greens like this all season long.

Carrot Tops Inspiration:

Happy crafting!

Knit and Crochet Personal Color Service From Yarn Love

Have you ever stared at a display of yarn looking for the perfect color combination for your Fair Isle yoke?

Or wondered if the colors you’ve chosen for your striped socks will look as amazing as the pattern photo?

Second guessed a color combination that you picked out from an online vendor….will the colors look good together in person?

I know picking out colors can be hard. There are so many pretty ones to choose from and there is also the inevitable wondering about what your project will look like if you stray from the suggested and photographed sample. These difficulties are compounded if you are purchasing your yarn online – due to photography and monitor display settings it’s impossible to know exactly what your yarn will look like prior to its arrival on your doorstep. Which means that your color selection might be brilliant or it might look a little flat.

I am here to help! No, I can’t change the issues of photography and monitor display. (Wouldn’t that be amazing?)  No, I can’t knit your Fair Isle sweater for you. (I have a baby, my knitting time is disgustingly little at the moment.) But what I can do is make sure the colors you purchase provide the most bling for your buck! “How?!?!”, you say?

Simple. I put the colors together before I shipped them off to EatSleepKnit. (Simple + brilliant! Why didn’t I think of this before?) All you need to do is grab your favorite Rainbow Pack and pair it with a pattern.

I named them Rainbow Packs – not because they all contain the traditional rainbow of colors, (Think back to grade school ROYGBIV: red,  orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.) but because I had a rainbow of colors to choose from when I put them together. 14 colors in fact; which is more than double the selection of your traditional rainbow.

Each Rainbow Pack has a different feel and contains a different combination of colors. I carefully selected colors both for overall visual impact and also so that they would provide enough contrast to work well in intricate colorwork.

If you’ve ever worked complex color patterns, you’ll know it’s not an easy thing to do. You must include enough contrast so that the each stitch is clearly visible but with an eye to how all the colors will appear together. If there’s too much contrast you’re garment ends up looking like you randomly selected the component colors without a thought to how the final sweater would turn out. Too little contrast (Hey, all my colors match!) and all the hard work you put into working the intricate pattern fades into the fabric because the individual stitches don’t have enough contrast to draw the eye.

You have two choices in Rainbow Packs from EatSleepKnit: small and large. I like to think of the small one as the “Stripey Sock Pack” because it contains four 1oz skeins, each with lots of contrast. That way you can make the most amazing pair of striped socks you’ve ever seen.

Your second choice is the Large Rainbow Pack; each contains between 5 and 8 full skeins (50 grams each) of Elizabeth Bennet. These are intended for Fair Isle sweaters, hats, or any larger project where 1oz just isn’t enough. The large packs have different moods – some are very bright and cheerful while others are really saturated and regal. All of them are beautiful.

Stop worrying whether your color combination will “turn out” in the end and get yourself a Rainbow Pack. It’s got my dyer (and knitter!) seal of approval.  Your project will look amazing and you will astound your knitting friends and muggles alike with your color genius!

P.S. – Here’s a peek at some of my preliminary color combinations, just in case you’re curious.

Yarn Love: the sock club!

Yep. Finally. It’s been about 5 years, but Yarn Love finally has a sock club. I’m excited, and if chatter on the Ravelry group is any indication, you are too! We’re keeping it as streamlined as possible. You choose your favorite of two colors per month (Yes, you can buy an extra skein or two if you need!) and we send it out 2-3 weeks later. Extra notions, treats and patterns won’t be a regular part of the club. Why? Well, while I absolutely love to shop etsy for fun knit/crochet related goodies, my boss cracks the whip when I spend too long on there. Something about needing to dye yarn. And two, my house is cluttered. No, seriously. Even though I love the extra goodies when I get them, I hardly ever use them….and it’s too wasteful to throw them away….and so they live somewhere in the jumble of my craft closet. So I’m saving you from the same fate. The best part is when you run across that perfect yarn notion on Etsy (because I know you’re going to shop!) you can buy it without guilt since you didn’t already spend that money via the yarn club.

Sign up via Etsy – there are only 15 spots left. We’ll continue to sell memberships until we hit our cap, but I wouldn’t delay too long…..we sold 14 spots yesterday.

P.S. – Do you like that pretty green? So did nearly everyone else who saw it! It’s one of the color choices for March.

Yarn Love Sale!

It’s Cyber Monday, and since everything else is on sale, I’ve decided to offer an additional 20% discount on our overstock yarn. Now you might now realize that last week I put up an overstock/seconds/one of a kind store on Etsy. My studio storage space is way overcrowded. Most of what’s there is beautiful yarn leftover from a canceled wholesale order more than a year ago. The yarn is perfect and lovely, but I can’t use 30 lbs of yarn for my own knitting, and I’d much rather you gave it a good home. The “overstock” discount runs about $3-5 per skein off retail.

Today, November 29th until midnight use the code CYBERCRAFT for an additional 20% off.

Why? Because getting a good deal on a quality, handmade item makes me feel good…and I want to pass that onto you. I’m not going to offer this price on an ongoing basis, because a lot of discounting undervalues my work. But a special sale every once in a while – that’s a good thing.

I hope you find something you love in the etsy overstock shop!

Wednesday Morning Randomness

Wednesday Morning Coffee ™

f you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed a recurring theme. Every Wednesday morning, I post about what cup of coffee I’m enjoying. Since I am pregnant, I severely curtail caffeine intake. This puts quite a dent in a coffee lover’s drinking habits, as you might imagine. I limit myself to 3 cups of 100% decaf coffee per week. If you’re also a coffee lover you might be thinking, “What’s the point? Decaf coffee has no FLAVOR!!!!” And in most cases you’d be right. Caffeine is a flavor enhancer, and when removed from products (i.e. Coffee, Coke, etc.) a sensitive nose can literally smell the difference.

Thankfully, about a year ago I got into roasting my own coffee. I’m a bit of a food hedonist – I simply love great food – and do a lot of cooking and baking. (Not to mention brewing my own beer, and roasting my own coffee….) I discovered that you can roast your own coffee beans very easily with only a small investment of $$$. All you really need is a cheap air popcorn popper, a little info on what to look for when you’re roasting coffee, and green beans. The taste difference between freshly roasted beans and the ones you buy in the store is incredible. Almost like a completely different product!

If you want to roast your own coffee or just learn more, go see the great folks over at Sweet Maria’s. They have an amazing amount of information on their site, plus everything you need to roast your own coffee.

New Yarn – just shipped

I have a rather sizeable shipment of yarn going out to EatSleepKnit today. It’s a big box full of Elizabeth Bennet loveliness. Erin and her helpers stock every single color I dye on this spectacular base, so if you’re in the mood for an elegant shawl, sinfully decadent socks, or a whisper light cardigan go see their selection.

Elizabeth Bennet: 65% superwash merino/20% bamboo rayon/15% silk. 50 grams, 195 yards. Fingering weight. Recommended needles US 0-3.

I’m off – to an appointment this morning & then back into the studio to dye yarn this afternoon!

New Yarn Love: Semi-Solid Colors!

My wonderful friend (& photographer Sarah) has finished up our pictures from last week’s photo shoot. They’re gorgeous. Yes, I’m biased….but in point of fact I think Sarah has never taken an ugly photograph and these are no exception.

I’m so enamored with these new colors, that I’ve started working on an enchanting yoke style baby sweater in rainbow hues. I’m holding fingering weight yarns doubled, and changing a single strand at a time so the color shifts subtly from one to the next. Photos soon – it’s sort of lumpy looking on the needles at the current moment.

Photoshoot!

Yesterday was a photo shoot  for our upcoming Twist Collective ad. I like photo shoots – I really do. They’re always exciting but a little nerve wracking, too. So many questions like “Did I bring everything we’re going to need?” and “Will the shots I’ve dreamed up in my head actually look good?” Of course, having an amazing photographer on hand to do all of the heavy lifting takes a huge load of responsibility off me, the lowly dyer/designer. Fortunately, I have one of those. Sarah (of Sarah Signature Photography, Des Moines)

Some of you may remember way back when, to the Brilliance (That’s a Ravelry link) and the Twinkle Mitts/Cowl – Sarah took those photos. They turned out to be so lovely that we had to repeat the experience. This time, we were photographing 17 brand new semi-solid colors which will be introduced into our regular line up very soon! We’re very excited!

We also took many “beauty shots” of the colors so they look their best for the upcoming 1/2 page ad. Big ad = pretty pictures! I’ll keep you updated about the new colors. I still have to create color cards for shipping out to our wonderful retailers. With all the preparations for the the photo shoot this week I haven’t quite gotten everything I hoped accomplished…..yet.

And in case you were wondering this photo is of the new colors, but isn’t a professional shot. That’s them cooling onmy deck railing in preparations for their final rinse after a productive dye day. Don’t the 50 gram skeins of Elizabeth Bennet look so cute?

We also took shots of the long languishing Grecian Goddess socks! (That’s a Ravelry link, too.) It’s been about a year since I finished the design and sent it off for technical editing. (All that happened right before Sock Sumit & our dye schedule has been a bit frantic since then…) So after many months, Grecian Goddess will soon be released in all her prettily pictured glory. (Sheesh! It’s about time!)

For now, I’ll leave with a couple more shots of photo props and yarn……