Tag Archive | indie dyers

Sock It To Me Monday

I finished my rainbow shorties late last week, which meant it was time to cast on another sock … even though I still have one sock WIP on my needles. Two sock projects at one time is fine, right? This pair is with new DK yarn that Shannon sent me, part of her new yarn business, Ewe Turn Dyeworks.

The pattern is a simple purl chevron that I got from a book, like an actual book in my knitting library. I’m trying not to use Ravelry and since I have four sock books, I should make good use of them! The DK feels so thick and squishy after doing fingering weight socks but I did have some size issues. Last night I got to the toe and realized the foot seemed larger than usual. It probably would have been okay, but I decided to frog back anyway. I pulled back to the end of the gusset decreases and just did two more decrease rows. Should be a better fit now!

Yesterday Sarah and I tried for one of our outdoor knitting dates, but our excitement about “spring weather” was a little early. Instead of sunny and temps in the 50s, by 1:30 it was only 46, and it was sunny but windy. We survived two hours and even though it wasn’t as long as we’d hoped, it should tide us over until it is actually warm enough!

Hope you had a good weekend too. Happy Monday, friends.

Estonian Lace Cowl

Sep16

I spent the last three days working on donation knitting, but today I need to share a cowl I finished over a week ago! I was just really slow taking pretty photos. This is my Estonian Medallion Lace Cowl.

This is some of my most recent vacation yarn from Colorado, from a local dyer called Herd of Cats. If I read the tag right, the base is Streets, and this might be the Champion Street colorway. Because it was only around 181 yards, I had to modify the pattern a little bit, just by casting on fewer stitches. Toward the end, I was afraid I was going to run out of yarn so I only did 2.5 repeats of the lace instead of three. (Probably could have done all three, though.)

Anyway, the important thing is that the yarn is delicious! It’s thick and squooshy and so soft that I really thought it had some cashmere or silk, but it’s all merino. I believe they sell under the name Road Trip Sock Yarn on Etsy, and this looks like what I had. But also, if you’re ever in Denver, stop by the LambShoppe and check out their yarns!

Finished Faery Socks

Sep8

After casting on so many new things last weekend, this weekend I was good and finished one of my older WIPs. I had a second sock that was mid-foot, so I pulled it out during the women’s tennis final last night and sped through to the toe, then finished the toe this morning. I’m delighted to have a pair of new socks for the fall weather that is sure to be coming soon!

fullsizeoutput_2348 You might notice that they don’t match exactly. I made extra-long green cuffs (a full 2″) and when I got to the heel of the second sock, I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough of the green left for both the heel and toe. I wanted a green toe more than I wanted a green heel, so that’s what I did and since Perfectionist Bonny and Knitter Bonny apparently live in two different worlds, I don’t care a bit. I ended up with 2.5 grams of the green left over; I wonder if that would have been enough after all?

I don’t usually wash my socks before wearing them, but I think I should for these. If you look closely at the needles, especially that bottom one, you’ll see a slight dark green tinge. I’m wondering if I’ll end up with green feet if I don’t get some of that excess dye out!

Pattern: Vanilla Latte Socks (modified slightly)

Yarn: Apothefaery Fabrications Middle of the Road Sock, color

I had to, it was purple

Jan31

I have an unexpected day off today. That darn polar vortex hit us yesterday, but it wasn’t until this morning that we discovered our hot water pipes had frozen. Yes, we should have left water dripping. Alas, we forgot, and I am not a fan of cold showers. In trying to get the pipes warmed up, we redirected a duct from the kitchen, which made the kitchen and dining room pretty cold. And that’s where the dogs stay when we’re not home. So not only did I feel unshowered and gross, I would felt guilty leaving them in the coldest part of the house all day. So! Day off for me, and I hope to have knitting to show for it tomorrow!

Today, I’ll show off my new yarn. Yep, I bought yarn recently. But I say it without guilt or shame, because it was just one skein, it was carefully considered, and we’re doing really well with our budget this month. I knew I wouldn’t go that long without buying any yarn; I just wanted to get away from the mindless, retail-therapy, “buy it all because it’s pretty” mindset. And I have to say, so far it feels really good to break out of that habit.

This skein is a colorway I’ve had my eye on for at least a month or so. It’s from Lolodidit and it’s her newest purple colorway. She teased us with it on Instagram before it was available, asking for name suggestions, and eventually decided on Prince. Her first photo sold me, but I waited a while after it went on sale, just to make sure I really wanted it.

Spoiler: I did.

It is STUNNING. My photo doesn’t come close to doing it justice. I bought it on a basic sock base but when I saw it, I knew I couldn’t just put it on my feet. No, this needs the perfect shawl pattern so I can wear it all the time and show it off.

So this is my call to you: what’s your favorite one-skein fingering weight pattern?

Two-Hour Cowl

Dec18

Yes, you read that right: two hours. I’m home sick with strep throat (thanks to the brother whom I saw at a birthday party on Saturday) so I spent the morning watching West Side Story and knitting a simple cowl with my new LB Art Yarn. I tried a pattern with a dropped-stitch pattern but it was making me irritated and I wanted to just enjoy this yarn, so a plain stockinette cowl was what I needed.

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I cast on 56 on size 15 needles, did 4 rows of 2×2 rib, and knit until it felt right. Somehow I guessed perfectly because I ended up with less than a yard left over! And I love my new cowl…but now I need more of this yarn! It’s LB Art Yarn on Etsy and this color is called Star Stuff. She doesn’t have any of that color right now, but I’m hoping for more in the future. What’s your favorite sick-day project?

Girl Power Socks

Apr22

It didn’t take me long to cast on some of my brand-new yarn from Knitting in the Heartland. I wound three skeins and cast on two yesterday. Two will be socks, and one I quickly set aside for lunch-break knitting this week. One will be a shawl but I haven’t decided on a pattern yet. And the last will be my new favorite socks, I’m pretty sure.

The Show Me Yarn booth was full of self-striping sock yarn, and they had wonderful samples out so you could see how they worked up. It was brilliant, because then I wanted all of them. One of them had a gray border on either end, and I knew instantly I needed to make socks like that, with gray cuff/heel/toes. I bought a skein of gray, but then decided it needed to go with the set of neon rainbow mini skeins for a fabulous striped shawl. (You can see them all in this post here.) However, luck was on my side because I had most of a skein of Knit Picks Stroll Glimmer in Chrome, and it would be the perfect accent yarn for this skein of Girl Power!

No big dilemma on pattern with these: they’d be my favorite Vanilla Latte socks, only this time I’d follow the pattern as written. I had to push myself through the gray cuff because I was so excited to get to the rainbow, but once I did? WHEEE! It started zooming along and I just wanted to keep knitting to see each color come up. I’ve got a good chunk of the leg done and I’m sure I’ll get down to the heel today because that’s all I want to knit right now.

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The yarn is fabulous, richly colored and soft, and I’m so glad I have three more skeins of their sock yarn in my stash!

Wonder Woman Socks

Jan17

I kind of found some more yarn recently. I was idly looking for self-striping sock monkey yarn, and Google very nicely took me to the website for Artistic Yarns by Abi, and I found lots and lots of really fun self-striping yarns. She does have a super cute sock monkey yarn, and I was all set to purchase some, but then I kept scrolling and found THIS: self-striping Wonder Woman yarn!!

I was trying to be good so I didn’t let myself order two skeins, and of course I had to get Wonder Woman, so that sock monkey yarn will wait for another day. (Or not, since I found yarn to make my own sock monkey socks.) In any case, the yarn arrived yesterday and I was so happy with it. It came in a cute shipping bag, the yarn was packed in a skein-sized ziploc bag, and I even got the cutest bumblebee stitch marker as a gift!

I pulled out my swift and got it wound so I could cast on immediately. I could already tell that the colors were perfect; I especially love the bit of stellina to give it sparkle.

Sorry, just realized that photo isn’t very good. I’d take another…but I’ve already cast on! These are going to be simple vanilla socks for me so that the yarn can be the star of the show. Can’t wait to have more time for these!

These might replace all four other socks I’ve got going right now as my favorite! Yes, four. I’m officially crazy, I think. Or a sock addict. Or both.

Nerd Girl Field Trip

Oct8

I’m lucky enough to have a fantastic indie dyer only thirty minutes away: Nerd Girl Yarns. Her colorways are exactly what you’d expect (Doctor Who, Harry Potter, superheroes, and much more), the colors are gorgeous, and the yarn is always a treat to knit with. In the recent past, she’s been primarily an online seller, without a brick and mortar retail location, but she’s in a new space now and had a Grand Opening this weekend. Of course I had to go, and I haven’t gotten to hang out much with Knitting SIL lately, so she joined me. We weren’t disappointed: the new location was beautiful!

The wood glass-fronted cabinets are stunning, especially filled with yarn. She also carries a bit of tea, so we saw tea accessories too. When you first go in, you see a cabinet full of crystal teacups and flasks, each holding yarn.

But as pretty as it all was, we were there mainly for one thing: yarn!

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Her selection of already-dyed yarn is limited, but it’s all tempting. There was pima cotton in bright pinks and oranges and yellows, plus plenty of merino in a variety of colors. There were also tie-dyed sock knitting bags, which I resisted (It was hard), and dyed wool for spinning. (Is that called roving? I don’t know.)

There was plenty more bare yarn, and if I dyed my own yarn, this would be the place to go, since she had all different weights, plus some with sparkle!

So what did I get?? This was my little impulse purchase, rainbow scissors up by the register. Love them!

This is merino worsted in a color called Too English to Say Anything. I think I want to look for a solid or two to go with it.

Originally my goal was to only buy one skein. But then I found this one, a fingering weight called Queen of the Amazons, and of course it had to come home with me.

It was a fun little field trip in an otherwise busy weekend. I’m glad we were able to squeeze it in!

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!!

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!