Tag Archive | Holiday Yarns

Trenches Cowl

Jan5

I’m continuing my trend of knitting things that are not socks, and enjoying it quite a lot. After I finished a project on the first day of the year, I thought I needed to start a new project on the first day too. And not just any project, it was going to be a Wonder Woman project! I had a skein of Holiday Yarns Super Sheep DK in the Wonder Woman colorway from a recent road trip to True Blewe Yarns, and I was eager to knit it into something I could wear.

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Choosing the type of project was easy. I don’t wear hats, I just made new mitts, and I didn’t have enough yarn for a scarf or shawl. But I wear a cowl almost every day. I put all the filters into Ravelry to narrow down my choices (don’t you just adore Ravelry??) and discovered a new pattern called Trenches, just published on December 31st. This is how my mind works when picking a pattern: Trenches…hmm, there were trenches in World War I…Wonder Woman fought in the war in the movie, and was in the trenches for the amazing scene at No Man’s Land, so yeah, this is the right pattern! It might be a bit of a stretch, and it’s not really the best yarn to show off the ridges in the pattern, but for me it’s also about the connection between the yarn and what it’s becoming, and this connection pleased me.

It was a fun pattern to knit. Simple but not boring, easy enough to do while watching TV. There’s quite a bit of purling, but I don’t mind purling, so that was fine. Really, it was quite comforting to knit something that didn’t make me think too hard. The only modification I made was to do 10 rounds of ribbing instead of 12 on either end. I wanted to make sure I had enough yarn for all the pattern repeats. And in the end, I had plenty of leftover yarn and could have easily done the full 12 rounds.

I blocked this one pretty aggressively to smooth out the “background” so the trenches might stand out more, and also to shape it evenly. The yarn responded well to the Eucalan wash and the blocking, and it drapes nicely. I’d like to make this pattern again, but in a solid tan/light brown or olive green next time to highlight the texture. But for now, I’m on to another non-sock project!

Pretty pretty yarn

Dec10

Recently we spent a day in Columbia, MO. I knew of one yarn store there that we visit each time we’re in town, but on a whim I did a google search and found another one. I only had time to visit one LYS, so the new one won. It’s called True Blewe Yarns and it was marvelous! The selection wasn’t deep but it was delicious. They carried a few favorites, like Madelinetosh, Manos del Uruguay and some Cascade superwash but they also had some new (to me) lines like Holiday Yarns and Three Irish Girls, and I fell in love.

My husband found this yarn. It didn’t jump out at me at first because it’s not my usual combination of colors, but then I looked at the name:

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YES! It’s Wonder Woman yarn!! And I do adore Wonder Woman. So this was my first pick. It’s from Holiday Yarns and it will be either a long cowl, to wrap twice, or a shawl/scarf thing similar in size to a Hitchhiker. I had a hard time resisting the Twilight, Batman and Black Widow colors. You can check out all their yarns online here.

Then I had to pick a multicolor skein from Three Irish Girls because they were beautiful and felt good when I petted them. This was the winner.

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It’s Adorn Sock in a colorway called Piazza del San Marco and I have no idea what it will become.

I admired this color because…well, purple, but wasn’t going to pick it up until my husband pointed out how nicely it went with my dark purple winter coat. (Oh, yes, I know I’m very lucky to have a husband who helps me spend money on yarn!)

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It’s Holiday Yarns FlockSock, 400 yards of fingering weight. Definitely a scarfy-shawl thing.

Then my daughter found these scrumptious beauties and I loved them so much I had to have two! It’s like Malabrigo Rasta only SOFTER. AND you get 109 yards per skein!!

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The gray is going to become a big cowl (for ME) and the cream will become a hat with a BIG pompom (for…I don’t know who).

I had to quit after that but they liked me enough that they put my yarns in a nifty tote bag, and that’s happy because what knitter doesn’t need another tote bag??

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So if you’re in the Columbia area, I highly recommend you check out this jewel of a yarn store!