Book Yarn, Part X
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 [...]
Book Yarn, Part IX
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 [...]
The Three Rs, Part Three
So day one was rowdy, and day two was reverent. Day three can perhaps best be called raucous. It was knitting with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, it was the final day, and we were all more than a bit slap happy. Things started out well enough. There was learning, there was sharing, there was swatching. We got to try out all the yarns we had dyed on the first day and several more as well. The wisdom of my decision to buy piles and piles of Silkie Sock was confirmed. My resistance to sweater knitting was substantially undermined. (Ya see that silvery [...]
Book Yarn, Part VIII
Next up is Silk Crush Sock by Sweet Georgia in Cypress. I'm going to take a dramatic and unexpected position here and recommend you not click on those links. Not, that is, unless you want to fritter away the next 45 minutes and who knows how many dollars in a sweaty, sticky, yarn-drenched daze. Sweet Georgia is new to me. I'd not seen their yarn or even heard of them before I started the book project. Then someone involved with the book sent me the link. I don't really remember the hour or so after that. A bit later yarn [...]
Book Yarn, Part VII
You thought I forgot, didn't you. Or perhaps you thought I forgot my Roman numerals. Somewhat to my surprise, I actually do remember them up through the thousands, which is really all you need. The delay in presenting book yarn has been entirely due to other distracting things going on. It's back now. This is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Fjord. Now I've not actually worked with Shepherd Sock myself. It's a teeny tiny bit too thin for me to use comfortably. Of course knitters vary, and this is actually a fairly classic sock weight. Scads of people use it [...]
The Three Rs, Part Two
So if day one was rowdy, day two would have to be described as reverent. The second day was spent spinning with Judith MacKenzie. Now you all know that spinning was the thing I was most concerned about. Just days before the class was announced, I had declared that I was done with spinning. It's only due to an entirely uncharacteristic delay in getting rid of stuff that I hadn't chucked all my spinning fiber the week before the class went public. I had put it all in a pile to go away, but just never got around to finding [...]
Shamelessly Blatant Self Promotion
Well the title really says it all. This is a fairly flagrant moment of self promotion. Feel free to look away if you're easily distressed. Once again someone was kind enough to nominate me to be one of the designers of the month for next year's Sock Knitters Anonymous (SKA) schedule. For those who don't know SKA is a giant ravelry group composed of obsessed dedicated sock knitters. Each month they have a featured technique (like cables, lace, beads, or knitting while standing on your head) and a featured designer (Yarnissima, Wendy Johnson, Janel Laidman, Cookie A). If group members [...]
Winner!
Congratulations to Jolene. I'll be in touch to arrange getting her favorite, Sky Pirate, out to her. That color was a favorite for lots of folks and I'm sure Jolene will enjoy it. Thanks so much to everyone who entered. I love reading all the things you have to say! I've got lots to share, and alas not much time to share it. I'll be back shortly with more of the silk retreat, I've got a new sock almost finished, and more book news. Alas, doing all this stuff is rather cutting into the time needed to write about it. [...]
Quick Reminder
Just popping in with a quick reminder that tomorrow is the last day to enter the giveaway for some of Suzan's lovely yarn. I'll be back Wednesday with a winner and the next installment in my trip.
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