Swatches…so many swatches
It's high time I start showing off some of the bits and pieces for the upcoming book! And for me, that means swatches. So Many Swatches. Now, if I were cooler, I'd have this pinned out and under tension for you. Because this is one of those stitches that just absolutely pops when it's stretched a bit (always a good choice for sock patterns, where you generally have a bit of negative ease). But instead you'll just have to imagine me stretching it just a tiny bit and making cooing noises as I revel in the tiny twisted stitches and perfect lines. Yarn is [...]
More incoming…
So at some point here I should probably start talking in detail about Silk Road Socks and how it will be out next month and how it's full of lovely things and how I very much hope you will like it as much as I do. But for right now, I'm just going to show you one of the sample socks I helped sort out (sometimes I put sample knitters in touch with yarn makers to get samples made for shows...which means I get to pet some truly lovely socks). That's one of the patterns in the book (I'll tell [...]
So when I say I knit a lot of swatches
Yeah...so about that swatching thing...I really do mean it. And right now, I'm hard at work on Curls 3 swatches. That's one little doodle with one of the lovely Varigradients from Seven Sisters Arts. The yarn is perfect, the stitch is fun, but I'm not 100% sure I'm sold on the combination. So I try again...and this has lots of promise. And again, this is absolutely normal. It's totally not a sign that anything is wrong. It's just that swatching is sort of the knitter's equivalent of sketching...and you sometimes need to do more than one to find just the [...]
Good Mail (oooooh, aaaaah)
Oh my goodness...my mailbox really is a happy place. That's one of Indigo Dragonfly's Tornadoz sets on Chameleon Sock in the color Cahoots. It's an absolutely delightful merino/cashmere/silk blend, and looks absolutely beautiful knit up...wait till you see my swatch! And this is Seven Sisters Arts newest grand idea, Varigradients. That's three skeins of their beautiful variegated yarns in varying intensities, light to dark. In this case it's the Water Garden colorway on the Matrika base. And oh...oh it's lovely stuff! If you want to follow along and check out all the yarns for Curls 3 (and some swatches too), [...]
Ensnared (plus giveaway)
Do you realize how long it's been since we had a shiny new sock pattern around here? It was back in November. That's just not cool! We need more socks, and I think Ensnared are just the ticket. That's a nice classic sock to jump back in with, isn't it now! There's just something about a perfect ribbed sock that's hard to beat. They fit so well and feel so good on your feet and you can totally get away with them if your sock target insists on fairly sedate socks. And, if you have a yarn as beautiful as [...]
Good Mail
One of the many lovely things about this job is all the good mail it generates. There are few things more fun to find in the mailbox than some yummy yarn. And when it's book yarn selecting time, you get a lot of good yarn in the mail! That's Merino DK by Hedgehog Fibres in the color Construct. And that's Meridian by Seven Sisters Arts in the color Silk Road (the bundle) and Citron (the big skein). They're both for Curls 3, which will be mostly speckles and gradients. I'm having so much fun tracking down fabulous yarns, and have [...]
Play time, part 2
Ok, so I'm not that mean. I won't keep you waiting too long. Because really? No one should have to wait for this. I mean it's practically electric. Totally cannot get enough (and I'm usually fairly immune to the charms of blue, but somehow this totally does it for me). But the thing I find really interesting is how differently each base took the color. From left to right that's Matrika, Zenith, Apex, Meridian, and Corona, all from Seven Sisters Arts. Just as a reminder, they looked like this undyed. And ok, maybe you'd expect the Apex (the gray one [...]
Play time, part 1
My job is awesome. I mean yes, sometimes I spend too much time with boxes and labels and tape. But I also get invited to go visit with fabulous dyers and play with their yarn. And really, that makes up for an awful lot of time spent packing boxes! While we were up in Maine, Karen of Seven Sisters Arts asked if I'd like to come over and play. You know I love her yarn (I used it most recently in Pelagic, and before she opened Seven Sisters Arts, she was half of String Theory, and I've used a ridiculous [...]
Pelagic (plus giveaway)
You know that skein of beautiful, multi-color sock yarn you just couldn't resist? And then it turned out you didn't know quite what to do with it? I totally figured it out. Pelagic is what you do with it! First you grab a slightly heavier, solid-color yarn to pair with it. Then you bring them together in just the right way, the solid-color yarn keeping things orderly while the multi-color gets to be just as wild as it wants! Here I've got Chickadee by Quince & Co playing the role of respectable solid-color yarn (Kumlien's Gull), and Meridian by Seven [...]
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