Tag Archive | Appalachian Baby

Review: Appalachian Baby Organic Cotton

Last year I got to work with Appalachian Baby Design to review their Organic Cotton yarn, so when another opportunity arose, I accepted with pleasure. This time they offered a pattern as well, so I chose the Boho Baby Blanket, knowing I have a friend expecting a baby late this spring. I’m not usually a fan of knitting blankets, but I make an exception for new babies. They are totally knit-worth small humans, so they get blankets!

I could choose between pink and silver, and indigo and silver, and I chose indigo, thinking it might be the more versatile color. The yarn came beautifully packaged in a gauze bag, along with the pattern printed on sturdy cardstock. It would certainly make an attractive gift! The kit came with four skeins of indigo and two of silver, and one of my favorite things about this yarn is how easy it is to find the center-pull end! (It may not seem that important, but truly, it is.) The pattern was clear and well-written, and I quickly memorized the pattern repeats.

Though I’d originally planned to space out the knitting over two months, this soon became my nightly TV knitting project. I didn’t have to think about the pattern, and the yarn was soft in my hands, so it became kind of soothing. The yarn was rather splitty, but I find that to be true of most cotton yarns, so I could just roll with it.

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The yarn is a 4-ply sport weight, with 194 yards per ball, and I used almost all four indigo balls and about one and a half of the silver. My final product had the correct dimensions, but I only had 13 repeats of the pattern instead of the 17 that were written. Gauge, y’all. Thank goodness it doesn’t matter that much for a blanket!

My finished blanket went in the washer on cool and delicate, then in the dryer, and it came out even softer. I love using easy-care yarns for baby gifts! I also love using yarns without harsh dyes: Appalachian Baby uses a low-impact, earth-friendly dying process that I feel good about using for a baby.

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I just love the wavy chevron stitch! What a perfectly cozy blanket for a new baby boy, right? I probably should wait for a baby shower, but I wish I could give it to her now. If you need some soft cotton for a baby gift, be sure to check out the Appalachian Baby assortment!

Sending a special thank you to Stitchcraft Marketing and Appalachian Baby Design who sent me The Boho Baby Blanket Kit (retail: $73.00) for free. I received no other compensation for this review. All opinions and photos are my own.

A new blanket

Jan8

Along with all the smaller, quicker projects on my needles, I have one more ambitious project: a blanket. Now, it’s a baby blanket, so it’s smaller and hopefully quicker, but still, there’s a reason I don’t make very many blankets. (They take me forever because I get bored. Or I get bored because they take forever. Chicken or egg?) But this one is a review project, and a gift, so I have extra motivation to complete it. I’m making the Boho Baby Blanket by Appalachian Baby Design in Indigo and Silver. It has sixteen pattern repeats, so I did some math and determined that I just need to do two repeats per week to finish on time. And I am right on track!

I usually work on this on the weekend, so that I also have time for my selfish knitting, and I’ve memorized the pattern so that the knitting has sped up. It’s a pretty pattern, and I think the baby’s mom will appreciate it, but I don’t think blankets will ever be my favorite thing to knit!

I miss knitting

Jul13

It feels like I haven’t been knitting at all the last three weeks. We’re pondering the idea of stepping away from the fixer-upper life that we’re immersed in, so I’ve been spending most of my spare time doing a lot of heavy cleaning in preparation for listing it. I swear, this house hasn’t been this clean since we moved in, and it’s nice to see it all pretty and shiny. But man, I’m tired. Tired of cleaning and tired of not knitting. I get to do a tooth on my NGY Hitchhiker here and there, but most of my knitting has consisted of a little bit of sock knitting during lunch breaks at work. As a result, my second Jungle Boogie sock is looking pretty good.

Yarn: Bootheel by Show Me Yarn in Jungle Boogie. Pattern: Vanilla Latte Socks.

If you haven’t already entered, you’ve got a little over four hours to enter my Appalachian Baby Organic cotton giveaway! Go now before it’s too late!

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.

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!