Wishing you and yours a wonderful weekend, whatever you’re doing. We gathered this week to celebrate the solstice and getting two new books to the printer. There was delicious cake, we exchanged gifts and we took this extremly dorky photo with the my tree, not that you can really see it. The matching outfits were completly unintentional! Sarah dyed, spun and knit my Damson, it’s so pretty.

We’re all taking a few days off to spend time with our families so please give us a little time to get back to any emails or comments next week. Make some merry x

{ 26 comments }

The Oxidize hat pattern is now available to purchase as a pdf, on Ravelry and on the website. The pattern will be part of Whimsical Little Knits 3, which we’re working really hard on getting to press. However, since it isn’t quite there yet I don’t want to open up pre-orders. At the same time I don’t want those of you who think you’ll want the whole book to have to wait for Oxidize so I thought we’d try something new. Included in the pattern is a coupon code that will give you a 25% discount on the book when it comes out (note that this will only work if you’re using the same Ravelry account or email address).

By wonderful coincidence I’m writing this post sitting in the dye studio at A Verb for Keeping Warm, where the yarn featured in Oxidize was dyed. The blue is indigo dyed which is an incredibly fascinating process, it isn’t like any other dye. I was going to have Kristine write a little about it, but then I realised I could record video with my camera so it seemed like a fun idea to record her giving a little introduction. It’s a little dorky and poorly edited but I hope you enjoy it.

If you’re interested in this really unique yarn Verb are offering a coupon for 15% off of the Slick yarn (which does come in a range of other beautiful, naturally dyed, colourways if the indigo blue isn’t your thing). To receive your discount enter the code “ysolda15%” at the checkout. This offer is valid through the end of December, perfect for holiday gifts. If you make the shorter version in the smaller 2 sizes you can even make two from one skein. Or, if you prefer the two colour version, you can make two hats from one skein of each colour. It might be fun to do fraternal twins using a different MC for each hat.

We’re also working on something secret with the indigo that I’m excited to show you in a couple of months.

{ 12 comments }

One of the best things about visiting Fancy Tiger Crafts was that, since they do all kinds of crafts, they have sewing machines set up in their classroom. The well appointed space combined with an inspiring fabric selection proved too tempting and one day I put my computer away and started playing instead. I love sewing, but don’t have much time to do it these days, and just like knitting I like to make up my own projects. Jamie and Amber ended up joining my skirt making and it’s thanks to them and their experience making sewing tutorials that you can make a skirt like mine too. Click through to their blog to download the free tutorial that they put together! I really love that this gave me a way to use a small amount (a fat quarter) of wonderful handprinted fabric by a local artist. Now I’m excited to get home and look at the other special little pieces I have stashed.

{ 10 comments }

I was greeted in Denver with a snowstorm, which was a little shocking after Austin but within a few days we were driving out to visit the yaks in brilliant sunshine. The yaks are from the Himalayas so Colorado’s crazy high altitude climate is perfect for them (running in Denver was er… interesting!). I’ve admired Bijou Basin’s yarns for a long time and there’s a pattern coming soon(ish!) in one of their yarns so it was really interesting to meet a few of the animals that provide their fibre. And we really did meet them, they were super friendly and eager to eat treats out of our hands.

We even snuck in a little photoshoot – the yaks were rather too interested in the socks though!

{ 16 comments }

Visiting Bijou Basin Ranch was one of the highlights of my trip. So much so that I know have 1000+ photos of yaks to go through, here’s just a glimpse at the cuteness.

{ 12 comments }

I had a wonderful time in Portland, shopping, visiting Lantern Moon to talk about something super exciting, teaching at Happy Knits, an awesome early Thanksgiving party. It was so fun and busy though that the only photos I actually took were on a walk I took yesterday.

Hotel’s wifi was down, or I would have posted this yesterday. You might have gathered that I’m once again attempting to blog everyday in November. I’m not going to let tech problems put me off though, since the challenge isn’t really about succeeding but in getting back to this space a little.

{ 21 comments }

Today, via a knitter who had just returned from one of her retreats, I received an awesome gift from Cat Bordhi. You might remember that she tried to freeze my mousie at tnna in dry ice so this is a little mouse. And, because this is Cat, h’s has a nest that jingles.

{ 2 comments }

Thank you to The Knitting Nest, Lizzy and Fran for making my time in Austin so wonderful. Cupcakes, bats, boots, yarn bombing and weird old stuff pretty much sums up my trip.

{ 11 comments }

On my recent travels and in support of Little Red in the City, I’ve been teaching sweater workshops. I always begin with a question, asking students to share their sweater knitting experiences and pointing out that failures make better stories. Of course, this is a lead in to talking about some of the common pitfalls (inappropriate yarn, gauge issues, fitting, etc) but it’s also resulted in some great stories and opportunities to learn from others’ experiences. So it seems like it would be interesting to open up those questions here and see what stories you have to share.

I’ve probably told this story before but my first sweater was from the first version of A Stitch in Time, meaning that it was really from a 1940s pattern. Luckily the single size it was written for turned out ok but I was very disappointed when I realised that the front was two different shades of black. And so I learned that when the nice but intimidadingly experienced woman in the shop who’d probably been knitting for fifty years tries to help you be asking if you checked the dyelots that you should admit to not knowing what she’s talking about. Don’t just say yes. My only excuse is that I was a teenager.

So how about you? Did you make a sweater with 3 sleeves or that was big enough for two of you? Or maybe you made some really great modifications to make something fit your body and style perfectly. Either way I’d love to hear about it.

{ 79 comments }