Yarn Stories

2016 was the year of the Stash Yarn Story Collection. As the consumer it was a really fun project, with each month building to the release of an exclusive colorway with an indie dyer or spinner. Some I had already heard of and loved (hello Spincycle Yarns) and some were new to me. Either way, it was a special colorway, and an accompanying interview with the artisan to get a little peek into their process.

I can't even remember which social media connection brought Sonia Ruyts, owner of Stash Local in Corvallis, to my attention but I'm oh-so-glad that it did. Her genuine enthusiasm for not only fiber artists, but people pursuing their passions in general, is evidenced in her writing and via her podcast.

Once the last selection of the year was announced, I waited eagerly to see if she planned to continue the project into 2017, but she had something else up her sleeve. On May 15th, you'll be able to purchase the Yarn Story Collection eBook, as well as kits made up of a selection of the limited release yarns featured in the book. The book is a gorgeous collection of photographs, accompanied by interviews with the artists, and insight into Sonia's passion for the craft. I was actually able to purchase almost all of the yarns, and was surprised when I looked through Instagram, how many of them I had already incorporated into projects. If you search the hashtags #StashYarnStory and #YarnStoryCollection you'll be rewarded with a gallery of gorgeous projects.

My Prairie Glass Mitts from Huckleberry Knits and the Whitefish Ripples cowl I made with my skein of Bumblebirch Quill in the colorway Trailhead are two projects just waiting for the blocking mat. I'll be sure to share them when they're done!

But perhaps my favorite project from my Yarn Story Collection was Shannon Cook's Feyre Shawl. It had held steady in my queue from it's publish date, but I hadn't found the yarn I wanted to use for it, or the time to knit it. Then came the last two selections for the Yarn Story, and I knew I'd found my combo. Lomo Love by Sweet Georgia is a super deep, jammy purple, tonal in nature with some highlights of an almost bright pink. I wasn't positive they'd be the right fit when the Fiber Seed color was revealed, but I took a chance and was so happy when I opened the package and put the two skeins together. Serendipity is part moody grey, part creamy base with a riot of speckles and together they made the most beautiful shawl.

It took awhile to knock out my list of projects that were queued ahead, but she's off the needles now and all blocked, and I love the result. Shannon's patterns just don't disappoint. Ever. And the combination of color and texture made this crescent shawl such a fun knit that can be styled in a number of ways. (and I love the horn shawl pin!)

Spin Raglan Test Knit

Stella was in great spirits, as you can see.

Yep, if you're looking at the dates, it's been almost a year since I posted. In that year I've knit a lot of things, cooked a lot of meals, survived solo parenting during a deployment, having babies grow a year older, and moving to a new house, which was awesome and a ton of work all at once-just think of all the gallery walls I've had to throw together. Totally not kidding. Bottom line: we have room for friends and family to come stay now, don't be shy!

Instead of trying to catch everyone (ha ha, because I have such a large audience) up, I'm just gonna start up again and you'll figure it out as we go along.

I've said it before, but I love being a part of the process of test knitting. My most recent test was no exception. I got to combine two of my favorites: Designer Andrea Mowry of Drearenee knits and Independence from the ladies of Spincycle Yarns. The heavy worsted weight, dyed in the wool, yarn knit up into a sweater at no time and blocked out like a dream! It is super warm and cozy and now I'm ready for late fall and winter so I can wear it day in and day out.

My favorite detail, and really what sets it apart from other raglans, is a garter stitch detail from the collar down to the top of the bicep. I was worried that it would add a bulk that was unflattering, but I was pleasantly surprised after I'd blocked it and slid it on for the first time.

I double heart the new blue Fringe Field Bag, and my growing mug collection from Fox and Clover (on etsy).

Even more than the garter shoulder detail, I love that the sleeves are loooong, which is hard to find in ready-made sweaters.

Me and My Arrow

I can't believe I didn't post about my test knit for Hometown Knits! In my defense, baseball is in full swing and the days have seemed awfully short and speedy. After alluding to it in my last post, I left you hanging...since I know you were waiting with bated breath. Anywho; Me and My Arrow is another pattern with the gorgeous combination of Pepperberry Knits and Spincycle Yarns.

I got to choose my color combination and I love how they look together; Granny Smith (PBK) and Kimono (SY) were the perfect balance to each other and it almost makes me want to speed through summer to the crisp fall days when I can be swathed in cashmere. 

Knit in the round and grafted together with kitchener stitch to finish, this knit is seamless. It's also more than a little bit hypnotic. I've found that I really enjoy colorwork, and the best part-no purl stitches! 

I had already purchased yarn to make her colorwork cowl Dynastid, so when Simone sent out the call for testers, I jumped on it! 

Hop on over to my ravelry page for more photos, but here are a few. I really, really love it and hope you cast on too! 

whoops! See on the left that I forgot to put the extra rows in the last repeat? 

I LOVE the color changes of Dyed in the Wool!

I have some more goodies in the works right now, and will try to share them in a more timely manner.

My Three Sons

Each time I'm knitting something, it never fails that one of the boys will ask me 'Is that for me?' The answer has always been no .There are loads of adorable patterns for kids, an entire ravelry group devoted to people who knit for their kids and even knit for their male children. I felt like a loser. All this time spent making knots with two sticks and never anything for my own chitlens.

Through a random string of instagram likes (Hello, Big Sister Cardigan KAL), leading to pattern searches, led me to Kate Oates of Tot Toppers. I have seen her 'Gramps' cardigan everyeon, and it has been in my queue for ages, but this one, Boys Can Wear Pink, is T'Shirt style with raglan sleeve shaping, and knit in the round with nothing but a little underarm grafting in the way of seams; I knew I was on to something. A quick glance at the calendar showed Easter as being a few weeks away. I definitely had time to knock out  three sweaters for them. I know myself well, I am quick to jump to the 'Meh, not enough time. I can do these for another event.' So I told the boys and let them pick from some color options and from there I had a lot of fun playing with making the colors work both for the pattern yardage needs and for their personalities.  I made their current clothing size (10, 6 and 4-yes, Jack often wears 4's already...) and all three of them fit perfectly. The yardage requirements were correct and I made zero modifications-that in itself is pretty awesome.

This all kind of started with purple sparkly Toms. Charlie desperately wanted them when they went up on Zulilly because they were purple. Wouldn't you know, it's hard to find things that are purple for a six year-old boy that weren't 'designed' for a girl. I was talking about it at bookclub and a friend who knows Charlie said 'What about purple Chuck's?' Yes. That was the ticket. Those were also found in the 'girl' department, but nobody would ever know, so there was no risk that someone would hurt his feelings. It's a fine dance to honor who your kids are while protecting them the smallest bit. Some kids wouldn't care what others think, but Charlie does, and I know that. I happened to have some Violet colored Cotton-Ease that I called 'Dusky Purple' to appeal to his fashion sensibilities and the most fun and funky hand-dyed yarn from Republic of Wool in the colorway Wanderlust (hailing from Portland) for the tie. (And they matched his purple shoes to boot)

Henry and Jack are much more subdued, and their sweaters were as well. Utilizing two of my coveted YOTH ooak gradient sticks (with an added skein of Big Sister in Hazelnut for Henry's in order to meet the yardage requirements) for them was perfect. I love the finished hem and sleeves, which was also super simple but makes for a really clean-edged finished piece.

 Paired with button-downs they already had in their closets, twill pants and Chuck Taylors, they were perfectly presentable for the country club brunch and egg hunt and now I have the itch to make lots more fun and funky pieces for my kids. Usually having an itch isn't an awesome thing, but in this case I'ma scratch it.

why yes, that is a tattoo on his face...isn't that where all moms want their kids to put them?

Because I'd been so fixated on finishing their sweaters, I realized yesterday that I hadn't put much thought into Stella's outfit. I went out to the six month bag and found there were several adorable spring dresses. Sadly, I didn't realize until today that I have zero pairs of tights for her cold legs. Girl mom fail. She didn't even have a bow in her hair. Ah well. Baby steps.

always a sweet smile from Miss Stella June

Thanks to Kate for such a fun and simple pattern that leaves loads of possibility in customizing for personalities. Next up, I have some fun sweaters by Tin Can Knits up for Miss Stella and Mr. Jack for next Fall and Winter and even the remainders of this spring. Check out their new Max and Bodhi collection, the first release is adorable. These also count as sweaters 1-3/12 for Twelve Sweaters in 2015.

Happy Easter, all!

Still Sally

I'm just going to pretend like there hasn't been a four month break in posting and pick up where I am today.

Miss Stella June just one week old. Photo by Gigi Hickman Photography

The fam just before Stella joined the ranks. Photo by Gigi Hickman Photography

Adding baby girl on November 30th made me mom to four, she is a fantastic baby but I had a much harder time with my recovery this time around both emotionally and physically (especially in hindsight).

After that first six whirlwind weeks, I slipped back into my old shoes pretty comfortably; feeding my brood, driving a monster SUV, wearing uggs and leggings (and not just in the privacy of my own home), reading a great book here and there, working on shedding those pesky lbs once and forever, pretending like there'll be a day when I run long distances again, knitting some really fun new things...and finally drinking wine again. Oh vino, how I missed you.

My first day as the mama of a baby girl.

One of my favorite projects was this Pine Bough Cowl knit with Pepperberry Cashmere and Spincycle Dyed in the Wool which was a KAL that started the day after Christmas and was my first real colorwork project. You already know I'm a huge fan of Heidi's cashmere, but it was even more beautiful when worked with the changing colors of the spincycle. That vibrant green just popped as the background to the motif worked in rusted rainbow. After being super intimidated by it for too long, I am now a huge fan of stranded color work! You can bet I've added quite a few projects to my queue.

Last month, I was chosen by Melanie Berg as one of the test knitters for her new shawl pattern The Joker and the Thief using a gradient of our choice. The pattern was knit with Sunshine Yarns, so we had the chance to work with Dani of Sunshine Yarns to pick our own. I love Melanie's aesthetic. I never thought I'd be a shawl knitter, but she has absolutely changed that for me.

This yarn was so wonderful to work with and it was dyed just for me! I said I wanted the finished piece to feel like a day at the beach and she worked her magic-it's gorgeous.

All of Melanie's patterns have great lines, are clean, and can be styled in a number of ways with a million color combinations that somehow all end up looking absolutely stunning. Now that I've knit one, I want to knit them all. She recently released a knew set of patterns, Five Shawls, which are all knit in Owl by Quince & Co.

I finished The Joker and the Thief late last night. The two things I like least about knitting are seaming and weaving in ends but, alas, they are necessary evils if you want pieces that are actually finished. So for the next hour or so, I'll be tangled up in blue, and then it's off to soak and block and I'll photograph the finished shawl.

Speaking of tangles, my mom came two weeks ago and helped me corral my crazy yarn hoard stash once and for all (or for now). I can't wait to show you my bonus room because it's gone from the dumping grounds of which we did not speak to an organized guest room/office/crafting wonderland. All of my yarn is now sorted, labeled and contained so that it's easily accessible and I can actually see what I have. Which is a lot. And that is a very good thing. Have you tackled any big projects in your organizational life lately?

The weekend of March 6-8 I'm headed to the Rose City Yarn Crawl with a girlfriend and I'm trying to go with a short list of projects for which I can buy yarn so I don't succumb to the swoon-worthy displays and buy all of the things. Stay tuned...

Seamless Transitions

I wrote this post yesterday, because as you're reading I'm probably busting around the house, packing the lunch I'll likely forget to pack tonight and trying to get my new third grader out the door on time and stress-free with photos taken, backpack remembered and kisses placed tenderly on forehead. My kinder has another week before he starts, so this is just my warm up. Happy Fall y'all!

Remember what I said about hating seaming? This sweater was started during last summer's SSKAL (summer sweater knitalong) hosted by VeryShannon. I took a hiatus from it because I got chosen to be a test knitter for her Antrorse sweater which was SO much fun to knit and required no seaming. Bliss.

I kept picking the sweater back up and would work on a few rows at a time, but life happens and this pattern was like picking a novel with too many characters back up after a month, so by the time you're up to speed you've spent your allotted time on it. Anywho, the SSKAL for 2014 rolled around and I decided I was going to finish my sweater for reals this time.

The front and back are knit separately and then a three-needle bind off along the tops of the live arm stitches (right sides together) seams them effortlessly.

Still love my purty spindle.

'All' I need to do is seam the underarms

The horseshoe cables and pretty orange color scream 'fall'. Now I just need a PSL to sip while wearing it.

I'm happy to report that there are no longer any live stitches in sight and all that needs to be done in order for me to finish the sweater during this year's time period is to seam the underarms on each side. Right, there's the catch. I have until September 24th to create two approximately three foot lengths of stitching. Simple, right? Who wants to place a bet that I'll be sweating it out on September 23rd creating said seams? Me. I'm the world's worst procrastinator, especially when it comes to tedious tasks that I don't wanna do. There are so many other things I'd rather be doing. Like cleaning the toilets. Folding loads of cloth diapers. You know, the really enjoyable tasks in life. Stay tuned to see if I get 'er done and photographed in time to be included in the 'Featuring You' post at the end of the knitalong this time around!

Over the River

A friend saw a photo that had been repeatedly popping into my newsfeed as well, of a hooded cowl that was full of cables, ribs and button detailing. She tagged me and asked if I could make it for her. When I clicked over, it was a kit on craftsy that had been sold out, but reading through the comments the pattern for Through the Woods was available on ravelry for only four dollars.

The construction was intriguing to me, and it was knit with Cascade Eco+, which I'd been wanting to try for some time. At $26 a skein for bulky yarn, I wasn't expecting to get so much yardage (478!); definitely a great value for 100% wool.

After finishing I can say this; the construction is a little fussy (and it's not a quick one to two evening knit like most cowls) because you're seaming the cast-on edge together, then picking up stitches along the new top and bottom to create the ribbed bands. The plackets are then knit separately and seamed onto the sides of the hood. Have I ever mentioned that I hate seaming? Most knitters do, but this project certainly reminded me of that fact. However, I have learned to embrace it, because most garments will require at least an underarm seam and, well, practice makes perfect. Also, it's kind of like doing dishes or folding laundry; you waste more time dreading it and thinking about it than the two minutes it actually takes to sit down and do it.

seaming the cast on edge from the inside changes the direction of the cables

stitches picked up and knit along the inside of the hood to make the ribbed band that will fold over

stitches picked up and knit along the bottom for the ribbed edge

awaiting the button and flat plackets.

Now that it's on the blocking mat I can say it was worth the tedium because it's really pretty. After it dries, I just need to affix the buttons and it's ready to go!