Let's Start at the Very Beginning

A very good place to start!

I do love this timeline, because it will climax almost exactly one year to the date that it all began.

On November 29, 2016, I sent a proposal to The Fibre Co (maker of many of the very best yarns on the planet). I hoped to be selected as one of their Autumn/Winter 2017/18 designers.

That did not happen. Yet I was placed on a TFC potential designer list to receive an email announcement for their "Yarn Support for Indie Designers - Request no. 1".  

The request came in March.

My proposal went back in April.

Early in May, the email to let me know that my (really cool, uniquely reversible) hat was selected.I was selected as a designer for The Fibre Co’s Fall 2017 Yarn Support Programme!

I proposed the hat be knit in the yarn I used for swatching, the amazing lofty and light, bulky weight, Tundra, and TFC sent two skeins in the Taiga colorway.

(Note: Both photos in this post were taken July 26. My love of flowers, and color, and hummingbirds, and summer, all distracted me and lead me to take that first photo.)

The Fibre Co requested a late fall date for the release of my hat pattern. I selected November 28. It will be my grandmother's 110th birthday. I hope she knows how much she gave to me and how often I think of her.

The hat pattern will be available on Ravelry, November 28, 2017.

More to follow.  

NEW Knitting & Unicorn Tails

Over the summer, I spent a good deal of time designing (fun) (yet, challenging) and just knitting (always relaxing).

One day last week, I finished binding off the second of Mr K's 2015 socks, and I finally blocked that little shawl that I named Atmosphere, as well as my latest Paper Lanterns.  And then I realized that I really did need something NEW to knit!

Within 24 hours, I cast on two new projects (using other designer's patterns) (I still do that) (I learn from everything that I knit) (and, sometimes I like to just relax and knit with less of that "thinking" thing having to happen).

First, I cast on a project that I named Shirttail Pullover.  This will be a mostly mindless knit for me.

 

 Pattern: Tongshan Sweater by Kiyomi Burgin

Yarn: Classic Elite Yarns MountainTop Crestone

Then, I cast on a "Silkie Selkie" (a Selkie Sock made with Silkie Socks That Rock) but I was not happy with it.

In the photo above the cuff of the top-down Silkie Selkie sock is OK, but there is not enough contrast between the 'obsidian' and that 'dusk' blue, in Knitpicks Fingering Stroll.  Every sock that I made in the last few years has been a toe-up sock from my own Fingering Weight TATU Sock Pattern.  In this instance, I did eventually decide that I did not want to use this cuff-down pattern by another designer.  (I would have had to modify it by reducing the stitch count.  I found it a bit wide even on size 0 needles, and I refuse to knit with anything smaller than size 0.)  I am going to design a toe-up sock with a gansey type all-knits-and-purls stitch pattern and a band of Fair Isle at the top.

I will use my first skein of Unicorn Tails in 'antique lace' for the Fair Isle.

My purchase of a bundle of Unicorn Tails at Gosh Yarn It! was a bit of a splurge, but I know I will be using them here and there on many projects with great joy!  Hope all of your knitting is happy!  I'll be back soon.
  

Really Rockin'

Rockin' Sock Club® Spoiler Alert--

This post includes some details about the January 2014 yarn club kit.

I really cannot wait any longer to start talking about my latest design!  I am very proud of this one.  It was one of those designs that happened effortlessly... like it was meant to be...

First, some background on the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin' Sock Club®... This is a sock yarn club that is going strong in its 9th year.  I learned from a Blue Moon Fiber post (by Tina Newton who is the creative spirit that founded and runs BMFA) that the current membership number is in the thousands.  Members in the club receive six shipments each year which include one 405 yd skein of Socks that Rock® lightweight or mediumweight yarn in a unique club colorway, along with two patterns commissioned exclusively for the club.  In the early years of the club, only a sock pattern came with each kit.  Beginning a few years back, a second non-sock accessory pattern was also included.

I learned from a March 2011 Knitter's Review post by Clara Parkes, that, in that particular year, she was one of the designers along with Lucy Neatby, Cat Bordhi, Mary Scott Huff, and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

I learned from this October 2013 Call for Submissions thread in the Designer's Group Discussion Board on Ravelry that in 2014, for the very first time, Blue Moon Fiber Arts would be sourcing designs for their sock yarn club through an open call.  The submissions call for January included a link to this inspiration board.

"Designer Inspiration Board - January 2014 Sock Club Shipment

We're taking our inspiration from the Chinese Zodiac. 2014 is the year of the wooden horse. Since wood is about trees, it is also considered the year of the green horse. Which makes it the Year of the Green Wooden Horse.

  Lanterns. Wood. Green. Horse. New Year. Luck. Hope. Number 7."

Do you see that little bit of an image of paper lanterns all-in-a-row on the right?  It totally reminded me of "The Queen's Edging" from Babara G. Walker's A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns that I had been swatching.  And that, along with some recent design exploration in a sideways-knit shawlette, clicked in my mind... I quickly put a submissions proposal together.

Not so very long later... my design was selected as the RSC non-sock pattern for January!  This makes me one of the very first "open call" designers, and I am both proud and exceedingly humble to join the ranks of other RSC designers such as those named above!

I am sharing my design "spark" before the design itself.  Let's just say that I am putting my green-wooden-horse in front of my cart until the end of the spoiler period.  I am looking forward to next time (in just about a week) when I will introduce you to my "Paper Lanterns".  

Cool Yarn

This yarn is from Juniper Moon Farms.  On the left are two (of six) skeins of DK weight yarn from my full CSA share of 2013 Spring Cormo yarn which I elected to have dyed "Providence Red".  On the right are two (of my seven) skeins of the 2013 Colored Flock worsted weight yarn which I ordered separately.

I will be winding these skeins into balls very soon, but I wanted a "skein" photograph.  I felt like I needed an outdoor photo, and I wanted it against the stone wall with some snow.

Cold yarn.

(looking forward to swatching)
 

Just a Few and Just a Bit

I took just a few photos at Rhinebeck yesterday.

These are the ones I like best.

 

I bought just a bit of yarn.

The four small skeins are Bartlett Yarns sport weight.  They came as a "Swirls" color pack with four 1 ounce skeins.  The larger skein is worsted wool from Hope Spinnery in Hope, Maine.  It was unlabeled, and on sale.

It was a beautiful day at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, New York.  As I said in a blog post last year, "It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday with some of my knitting friends and many thousands of like minded individuals."

This morning I decided to find the yarn in my stash from my last two trips to Rhinebeck.  I was pleased to find that because I have been a regular enough blogger for over two years now, I was able to find photos of my past Rhinebeck purchases in my archives.

2012
Yesterday Was...
(Lots of photos in that post.)

 

2011
Photos Not from Rhinebeck
(No Rhinebeck photos in that one.)

Would you believe that I have not yet knit with any of the yarns I purchased at Rhinebeck in my last three trips there?  I hope to use some very soon!

 

Reds

Would you put these two reds together?

I plan to.

The colors are Crimson Red (left) and Garnet Red (right).

Two of the skeins are Reynolds Lite Lopi (which has been discontinued), and the other two are Ístex Létt-Lopi.  The Lite Lopi (one of each color) was leftover from this Fair Isle Zipper Sweater I made for my daughter more than three years ago.

I actually had a whole skein of each of these two colors left.  Though I do not think that I would ever have thought to put them together (just the two of them) I kind of like the total redness of the pair.  This fact came to me when I pulled them out for my Taiga #1 and #2.  (See them in my recent posts here and here.)  I used the crimson for my temporary crochet on Taiga #1 and the garnet for my actual crochet on Taiga #2.  My appreciation of their paired redness lead to my ordering another skein of each color from Webs.  They are all different dye lots, and in the case of the crimson, they are even two different color numbers.

I don't think that will matter.

I plan to make a simple vest, bottom up, using each skein of the garnet followed by each skein of the crimson.  I enjoy planning projects like this even when I do not know when I will get to them.  (It will not be any time soon.)

I am happy to have this redness to look forward to.
I love the honest purity and light woolen goodness of Lite Lopi.
These colors have really grown on me.

"If one says 'red' - the name of color - and there are fifty people listening, it can be expected that there will be fifty reds in their minds. And one can be sure that all these reds will be very different."   ~ Josef Albers

My Current Palette

A swatch for my 'Mineral' Beauty.

I am making this as I teach a series of classes on knitting and finishing garments from the Knit, Swirl! book by Sandra McIver.  The yarns are Stacatto and Silk Cloud by Shibui in the color 'Mineral'.

Still to be scheduled at Gosh Yarn It!, will be classes on making a Taiga Cowichan vest, by Svetlana Volkova, with my own modifications including steeking the colorwork.

 
My photo of the class/shop sample is not the greatest, color-wise, but it gives an idea... I wished to stay with the green and purple of the original...

For my own Taiga, which I will be making while I teach, I decided to use Berroco Blackstone Tweed Chunky.  I quickly fell in love with this color combination...

'Cranberry Bog' and 'Steamers'.  (Interesting that Steamers is close to my Mineral colored Shibui.)  Unfortunately, the Steamers color has been discontinued.  The Cranberry Bog had already been ordered by Gosh Yarn It!, so I had to pick a new color to go with it.  None of the other neutral tones worked as well with the Cranberry, so I thought maybe a blue, but which blue?

First I decided it would be 'Narragansett'...

But then at the last minute, I picked 'Salt Water'...

It was a hard choice.  After it arrived I was having some second thoughts.  Then one night last week, I had a skein of each color on my little table, awaiting swatching, when I noticed that they closely resembled the colors of the latest issue of Vogue Knitting.

 It was like a vote of confidence.
 

Minerals & Steel

While at Vogue Knitting Live I purchased minerals and stainless steel.  And then I came home and purchased more minerals.

I would say that the way that Art Yarns packages their kits for a "Shawl for All Seasons" totally adds to the appeal.

 
I have always been a sucker for attractive little kits of all kinds.  This one made me want to buy it just so that I could see the yarn outside of the (sealed and taped closed) box.  The kit came in five different color groupings.  I liked this "Minerals" colorway much more than any of the others, and the vender at the VK Live market place had only one.  I was sure that if I walked away, it would not be there when I came back.  In spite of its price, I had to buy it.

The box has been opened.  The yarns are Silk Rhapsody Glitter Light and Beaded Silk and Sequins Light.

My other purchase at VK Live was at the Habu Textiles booth.  I have wanted to try knitting with some of their 69% silk, 31% stainless steel ever since I first learned that it existed.  I will use it with the (darker color) fine merino to make a "Kushu Kushu" or a "Hakusa".

While I look forward to working with these yarns in the future, I have started another, much larger, project.  I am now teaching a four session class in knitting a swirl sweater from the book Knit,Swirl! by Sandra McIver.  This is a repeat of a popular class that I taught last year.  If you have been reading my blog long enough, you might remember that I truly enjoyed working with a very enthusiastic group of swirl knitters, but I had some mixed feelings about the two finished swirls that I made.  Eventually I gave the one that I liked the least to my sister and she LOVES it!  I have decided this time around to make "Sheer Beauty".  I just bought the yarn at Gosh Yarn It! on Tuesday.  It is Shibui Staccato and Silk Cloud.

After I selected it, I noticed that the color is named "Mineral".

My BLOG GIVEAWAY (in honor of my two years in the design world) continues until February 5.  Please see this post and comment there if you would like a chance to win some yarn!

 

Putty (in my hands)

I am not certain that I have enough time, but I am considering a new design submission with this yarn.  This is a skein of Wool Clasica, by Manos del Uruguay, which I won in the Wool Clasica design contest.  It is the color 'K', which is named 'putty'.

I have a little inkling of a feeling that I might know what this yarn wants to be.  Anni Albers said, “Being creative is not so much the desire to do something as the listening to that which wants to be done: the direction of the materials.”  This yarn is singing something soft and low and solid and smooth and I am trying to hear it.  Putty...

Photos Not from Rhinebeck

While at Rhinebeck, I made only two purchases.  (I have a very large stash.  In fact, it is SO large that, lately, I rarely forget that it is SO VERY large.)  I bought a hat kit in a jar from Hope Spinnery.

I have seen this yarn before, and I love its quality of purity.  It was great to get a lovely sampling of colors and the "Tree Line Hat" pattern all in a neat package!

Purity shines in the additional skein of yarn I purchased with the kit.  This is Hope Spinnery's Wind Spun Yarn blend (75% ME wool, 25% ME alpaca) in a color called "SNOW".

It is pictured with my second purchase, a skein of OPAL sock-weight yarn, dyed like faded denim, called "INDIGO".  A yarn search at Ravelry, and a general googling, have returned nothing.

Cool!  I will think of it as a limited edition yarn that was waiting for me.  "in Handarbeit kunstvoll coloriert" on the label, translates to "in hand-crafted artistically colored."

"jeder Strang ist ein Unikat und somit einzigartig in seiner Schonheit und Brilliannz" on the label, translates to "each strand is unique and therefore is unique in it's beauty and brilliance."  (So much for online translation.)

The above photos were shot on my deck.  This photo was shot from my deck.

Not from my deck, but nearby...

Ten Skeins of Wool Clasica

A package arrived on my doorstep this week.

This is my prize for winning the Manos del Uruguay Wool Clasica Design contest!  I choose eight skeins in French Blue (I have a design idea for a sweater) and a skein each in Pewter and Putty (I am a little stuck on Fair Isle in neutral colors, but not sure what I will make).


This is the card that was in the box.

And by email I learned that the winning patterns (after tech editing and formatting by Manos) will be ready for release in just a few days!