Giveaway: Appalachian Baby Organic Cotton

Jul5

Recently, I was given the opportunity to review some U.S. Organic Cotton from Appalachian Baby. I love that it’s grown organically in the U.S. and processed by small family companies, plus it’s pretty cool that they use earth-friendly dye processes. You can learn more here, if you like. Mostly, I love pretty yarn! I got to choose from 3 color combinations, and I selected Indigo, Natural, and Doe. When it arrived, it was a delightful surprise to see the beautiful organza gift bag holding the yarn. I also liked the brown paper labels; they fit the brand perfectly.

Each ball was 194 yards of sport weight yarn, giving me a total of 582 yards. Sport weight isn’t one I use often, and it took me forever to decide what to make with my kit. I don’t have any little babies in my life, and selfishly, I wanted to make something I could use. Finally, I decided on the Diamonds in the Rough cowl, a pattern that’s been in my Ravelry queue for ages. Since it was designed for two colors and I had three, I chose to do the main seed stitch section in stripes. At first I was going to switch to stockinette, but then I remembered the dreaded stockinette curl and decided to stick with seed stitch after all. After refreshing my memory of the provisional cast on, I got started, choosing 4-row stripes so I could easily carry the yarn up the side and avoid weaving in fifty million ends. This project took a month, giving me a finished cotton cowl in plenty of time for early fall.

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I really enjoyed this yarn. The colors were rich and earthy, and the yarn was soft in my hand, with the subtle crispness that you get with cotton. It made for a lovely squishy fabric in the seed stitch, airy and breathable but still with some substance. Given that it’s cotton, it was a little splitty, but I think I (unintentionally) made it worse by choosing the pointiest metal needles I’ve got. Still, I knit easily and quickly, a good thing since I had 30″ of seed stitch to knit! I have to say, I did get tired of it for a bit after about 20″ of neutral-colored seed stitch, but that’s no fault of the yarn, just my own wandering brain. Still, the indigo was my favorite. It’s a deep dark blue, but not hard to knit with like black is.

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My only hiccup in this project was pairing this pattern with this yarn. If you’ve ever tried to p2tbl (purl 2 together through the back loop) with cotton, you know what I mean. Cotton tends to give less than wool, so I struggled a bit with manipulating multiple stitches. I tried to remember to knit as loosely as possible, and that helped. Anyway, cotton and complicated lace are just a trickier mix than I personally like, but I have to admit the end result is attractive. The yarn blocked wonderfully, opening up the lace pattern just enough.

And the cowl even came out long enough to wear doubled!

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I enjoyed both the yarn and the pattern. This yarn, especially since it’s machine washable and dryable, would be fantastic for baby garments and blankets. I also think it would crochet wonderfully! It comes in seven beautiful colors, or you can buy the 3-color set in one of 3 versions: Indigo like mine, Blush, and Woodland. They’re available for purchase here.

But one lucky person can get one for free! Appalachian Baby generously provided a set for me to give away, in the same colors I used. Would you like it to be yours?

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below telling me what you’d like to make with the 3-color set of Organic Cotton!

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 6 pm CST on Friday, July 13th. All entries must be submitted on this blog. Winner will be announced by 10 am CST on Saturday, July 14th. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. (You don’t have to put the address in the comment field for everyone to see, just make sure it’s in the email address field.) I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone. If winner does not respond within 7 days, I will draw a new winner. Shipping via USPS first class. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. US residents and APO/FPO only please.

A special thank you to Stitchcraft Marketing and the folks at Appalachian Baby Design, who sent me one 3 Pack U.S. Organic Cotton Yarn Set (retail $35) for free, as well as one to give away. I received no other compensation for this review. All opinions and photos are my own.

FO: KITH Socks

Jul2

It feels like these socks were on the needles for a long time, but really it was only a little over a month. These are plain vanilla socks with a slip stitch heel, and right now it’s so hot I couldn’t even imagine putting them on my feet so the only photos I have show them on sock blockers.

The yarn is Show Me Yarn Bootheel in Flowers in the Mist, a special colorway for Knitting in the Heartland this year. It came with a matching project bag which I love.

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They really are pretty and they feel delightfully soft and squishy, but as soon as they were done, I was super excited to cast on a new pair of socks in bright self-striping yarn.

This is Show Me Yarn too, in the color Jungle Boogie! I’m adding contrast heels/toes in a lovely indigo from my scrap ball stash. I think I might like bright, crazy yarn like this better than the sedate, subdued yarns.

I’ve had to set my sweater aside for a bit. It’s been so crazy hot, and our A/C keeps malfunctioning, and I can’t have a lump of wool in my lap right now. But I’m on the second sleeve and as soon as it cools off even a little, it’ll be back in my hands!

I made a sleeve!

Jun23

This sweater is going so fast, I can’t believe it! I finished the first sleeve last night, and it went so much faster than with my last two sweaters. I think it’s because before I was managing two skeins all the way through, either doing stripes or alternating skeins. Just having one skein and doing stockinette all the way makes it zoom. And now that I have that extra color on the sleeve, I love the color combo so much!

The girl is still coveting the sweater. I’m waiting to see how it fits me before I decide who gets it. But the nice thing is, even if it fits her better, I could make myself another one!

Since I’m so close to finishing the sweater, part of my wants to power through that second sleeve this weekend. But I’m also drawn to a new skein of yarn…

This was a gift from a friend as a thank-you for helping her with knitting and for taking her with me to a concert recently. She was at a yarn store where Potion Yarns was doing a trunk show and picked out this little beauty for me. It’s Seductress Sock in the color Her Wicked Ways, and they recommended the pattern Changing Staircases for it. Since that pattern was already in my favorites, I figure that’s what this yarn needs to be, and I’m eager to cast that on this weekend too. So hard to choose! Which would you do, sleeve or shawl??

Knitting in Public

Jun23

The boy had an orthodontist appointment this morning, and it was my turn to take him. I almost forgot my knitting, which would have been torturous, but I remembered at the last minute. So there I was knitting along on my sock using my size 1 DPNs, and when the doctor came to check on the boy, he immediately noticed what I was doing. He and the two techs standing by marveled that I was using four needles, and they were so tiny, which of course made me feel very clever even though I truly believe that just about anyone can learn to knit.

Anyway, then the nice doctor said something about how he’s heard about doctors doing that kind of thing (motioning toward me), like “crochet or needlework” to work on their fine motor skills. I laughed and said, “And knitting?” He nodded and kept talking but then one of the techs asked which I was doing, so I got to give a little lesson about the difference between crochet and knitting, and how one uses one hook and the other uses multiple needles. It was a good reminder that not everyone speaks this language called Yarn, and that I should take every opportunity to normalize it and make it accessible. Definitely a good argument for knitting in public!

It has Pockets!

Jun16

My Tea with Jam and Bread sweater is zooming along! Last night I knit the pocket linings and finished the row where I knit the pocket lining stitches together with the body stitches to attach the linings. Today I finished the bottom ribbed edge, and then I won yarn chicken as I bound off, using just one skein for the last big block of color.

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I know the pockets won’t hold anything heavy, but they sure are cute, and I can slip my hands in them to keep my hands warm! The instructions for making the pockets could have been clearer, but I fumbled my way through it and am quite happy with how they turned out. The only thing I would have done differently is left longer tails to sew down the sides of the pockets.

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The color combination still seems a little strange, with that one variegated stripe, but it’s growing on me, and I think once I get the sleeves done with more of that color, it’ll look awesome.

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The gauge is a bit off, since I forgot that I needed to swatch in the round if I was going to knit in the round, but I’m optimistic that it will fit. I’m just not brave enough to try it on yet!

Farewell, Yarn Bowl

Jun12

Guys, something sad happened over the weekend: I broke my favorite yarn bowl. I was happily knitting on my sweater while watching tennis, and I had the yarn in the bowl on the coffee table. Every so often, I would pull out a length of yarn, as one does, and the bowl didn’t move. Until one time it did, thanks to a little bit of yarn that got tangled up in itself and then got caught on the bowl, and I didn’t move quickly enough. I could see it happening but couldn’t stop it.

This was my sheep yarn bowl which was a gift from the mother and it might have been one of the most thoughtful gifts she’s ever given me. Alas. So don’t tell her I broke it, because then she’d be sad too!

Sweater is Growing

Jun11

I’ve been knitting along on my Tea with Jam and Bread sweater, and for the most part I’m very happy with it. I was glad to use almost all the navy on the first stripe, and got pretty bored during that middle stripe of the main color. But the French Open finals were this weekend, so I just knit around and around while I watched my tennis, and I made it all the way through the second contrast color. Once I had a good chunk of it, though, I started second-guessing myself. This new color is a tonal yarn, with a short stripey effect. The colors were great, but since the other stripes were solid, I was concerned that this looked weird.

However, I got validation on Instagram and from the girl, so I kept on with it, and it’s growing on me. It is kind of unusual but now I think I like it. This will be the fun pop of visual interest on the sweater. I’m now on the last stripe and I’ll be figuring out this whole pocket situation soon. I’m not really sure how it’ll work at this point, but if I go step by step, it’ll be fine.

I also have a finished sock, though I have no idea how I managed to get that done this weekend too. But I grafted the toe yesterday after the men’s final (I couldn’t do that while watching Rafa! I’m good at Kitchener stitch but not that good!).

It’s a plain cuff-down vanilla sock with a slip-stitch heel. The yarn is Show Me Yarn Bootheel in the special KITH color Flowers in the Mist. The sock feels wonderful, kind of squishy. I can’t wait to wear these! (Okay, I can, because I don’t want fall to be here yet. But I am looking forward to it.)

Alas, I did not knit in public for Worldwide Knit in Public Day on Saturday. I wasn’t in public at all that day, you see. But I did knit at the brother’s house for a family birthday party, so that’s pretty close.

Finished Sockhead

Jun4

It turns out part of the satisfaction of finishing a WIP is getting to mark it finished in Ravelry. My most recent FO is not in Ravelry, and when I got done, I really missed that final step, much like crossing something off a list.

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Why is not in Ravelry? Because it’s not my yarn, and not my project! A while back I cleaned out the attic and found all the girl’s WIPs from when she was knitting and got permission to finish them. The Sockhead came with me to concerts until I was ready for decreases, and then it got set aside and I forgot about it until today. It took an hour at most to finish the knitting and weave in the ends, and now she has another pretty hat to take to Colorado this fall. I especially like the way the decreases worked out.

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The best thing about this project was that I bought myself some ChiaoGoo circular needles to finish it and I discovered I love them! They have lovely little pointy tips and the join is so smooth. I definitely need some more of those. The yarn is some kind of Malabrigo and I have some left, maybe for if/when I decide to do a sock yarn memory blanket.

This was the last of her WIPs but she still had some pretty yarn, so I think I’ll cast on some socks for her next. Hmm, will a college student actually want handknit socks, since they can be higher maintenance? I guess we’ll find out!

Diamonds in the Rough

Jun3

I recently received a pretty bag of yarn in the mail, some organic cotton from Appalachian Baby. This is another review opportunity, and I got to choose my color palette of the 3-skein U.S. Organic Cotton set. I chose Indigo, Doe, and Natural.

I had a heck of a time choosing a pattern. The yarn would be perfect for baby items, but I don’t have any babies in my life, so I finally chose a cowl pattern that’s been in my queue for months, Diamonds in the Rough. I’m going to modify it a bit to add stripes. I had some quiet time yesterday, so I took the opportunity to cast on. It calls for a provisional cast on, and it’s been so long since I crocheted that it took me a while to remember how to hold the hook and make stitches! But I figured it out and I’ve made a good little start. (The blue is the provisional cast-on.)

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It’ll be nice to have some cool cotton to balance out the wool in my other projects!

FO: Monkey Socks

Jun1

Thank goodness these socks are finally done! They lingered on my needles for four months! Yes, FOUR. That’s eons for a sock, I’ll have you know. The first one went quickly because I was eager to see how it looked. And it was cute! I liked it. But man, the SSS (second sock syndrome) hit hard with this one. Turns out, I don’t really like knitting with brown. Brown isn’t pretty or fun or interesting to me. So I had to force myself to finish it just so I could call it done and put the yarn at the back of the shelf where it belongs, freeing up the needles for yarn that is beautiful! Anyway, bottom line, this squeaked in at the end of the month to become the fourth pair of socks finished in May.

I am quite pleased with them; I think they’re adorable. And I’ll have fun wearing them. But the brown is destined to become an accent color for future socks, and any other sock monkey knitting will have to be self-striping yarn! If you’re interested in details, you can see the project page on Ravelry here.

More fun has been my new sweater project! Despite the continuing heat, I have been merrily knitting along in the evenings and am over halfway through the navy stripe. Eight more rows and I’ll be ready to divide the body and sleeves! I’m looking forward to that; these are LONG rows right now. But look how pretty it is:

My goal is to get the sleeves on waste yarn and a good chunk of the body done this weekend, though I do have a recital and graduation reception for the girl tomorrow. With the exception of the sweater, I have a bit of finish-itis right now, so I think this sweater and the flower socks will be the focus of my knitting efforts for now. That is, if I can resist the siren call of the new Wonder Woman sock yarn I bought from a Ravelry destash…

bonnyknits

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