I’m a little bit excited… I’m a lot excited actually. But I can’t tell you about it because what I’m excited about is the yarn club parcels, which are all finished and ready to be posted out. We’ve spent the whole evening gathering the bits and pieces for them, putting it all together…
And I want to tell you all about it! …And I can’t!!!
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But… I can tease you! I can, for instance, show you this…
(I have to admit, I’m really really excited about that one!)
And I can tell you that this goes along with it too…
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There’s some of this sort of stuff…
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And some nifty stuff to read…
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And something else… Something else….
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Hmmm… Now, what was it?
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Oh yeah! This!
(Wait, you didn’t think I was going to show you the colour, did you?!?)
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So… are you ready? Are you ready?!? ‘Cause I totally am!!!.
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(And… should I ring your postman and just warn him that you’re gonna be stalking him for the next few days?)
If you attended either the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival or HomeSpun Yarn Party this year, you might have met my sister. She was the one running the credit card machine and handing the cash, and she does a great job at that, but she doesn’t know anything about knitting. She lives her life blissfully unaware of all things fiber-related (though I’m not quite sure how that can possibly be blissful!), except when I call and ask if she’d lend a hand.
Celeste yarn in Baroque
So the whole fiber-festival thing was completely new to her, and it took her pretty much completely by surprise. I think she might have been expecting sweet little old ladies and crocheted toilet paper covers…
Her first words, as we walked past the huge line of fiber-fanatics waiting for the doors to open, were, “People are here already?!? They’re waiting?!?” Her eyes were wide with surprise, and I stopped myself from giggling. She really didn’t know what she was in for.
But she got her second clue a few minutes after the festival got started. We were sitting near to one of the entrances and a woman walked in, went right up to my sister, with a face that looked almost frantic, and exclaimed, “I’m so excited!!!” before rushing off into the crowd.
Celeste yarn in Cove
“These people are crazy!” my sister said, looking a little frantic herself. “That lady actually grabbed me when she said that! What’s going on?!?”
I couldn’t stop myself laughing now. When you’re a fiber-freak yourself, when you knit and spin every chance you get, when you’re surrounded by all this all the time, you forget that this doesn’t look normal to outsiders. You forget that it seems a bit, well.. yeah… crazy.
But it’s not. It’s perfectly normal. You and I know that. …And my sister will come ’round in time.
When we think of spring, we all picture clean colours: the clear blue of cloudless sky, the bright shades of new flowers, and new grass sprouting up through the earth. But what we actually get is a little dirtier than that: grumpy dark skies, rain-soaked puddles and lots of mud, and days that can’t decide whether to be kind and warm, or cold and cruel.
Note from the SpaceCadet: My friend Natalie (peacethrufiber on Ravelry and Twitter) is a fantastic knitter and spinner who creates amazing garments with yarns she spins almost exclusively on spindles.
The SpaceCadet and I were talking the other day about summer knitting and summer yarn. She asked me what I knit with most during the warmer months, and I think I surprised her when I answered, “Wool.”
Celeste yarn in a one-of-a-kind colourway
But if you think about it, summer knitting with wool makes a lot of sense.
First there are the qualities that make knitters love wool for winter knitting, such as great stitch definition and memory. These things are just as true in the summer as they are in the winter.
Then there’s the way wool feels on the needles. I knit cotton, linen and other more traditional, cellulose based summer yarns, but I can only knit with them for so long before the stiffness of the yarn starts to tire my hands. Then it’s back to the soft and pleasant hand of wool, with a grateful sigh.
Finally, there’s the fact that, done right, wool is really an excellent choice for summer wearing in addition to summer knitting. People often think of wool garments as cold weather gear but, in fact ,wool is much more versatile than that. It actually regulates temperature, keeping the wearer warm in cold weather, and cool in warm weather. Add in its fantastic moisture-wicking properties, and it starts to look a lot more attractive for summer.
Celeste yarn knit on US size 8 needles (5mm)
Of course, if you pull on a heavy, worsted-weight wool sweater in the middle of July, you will probably end up uncomfortable. Fortunately, there’s no need. There has been a little flurry of garment patterns written over the last few years using fingering and lace weight yarns at a loose gauge to create light, breezy, warm weather garments. I’ve already started a fingering-weight wool sweater for this summer, and am totally enjoying it. I’m using a size 8 needle, and the resulting fabric is soft, sheer and gauzy. I’m looking forward to wearing it on vacation in June!
What are you going to be knitting this summer? Got any patterns in mind that will look great in a skinny wool yarn on big needles?
Spring is a conundrum. One day it’s gloriously sunny and warm, and the next has a chill wind and grey skies. Spring is a tease. Spring is frustrating! Spring is fickle…
And today’s shop update reminds me a lot of Spring. Some of the colourways are light and bright and sunny, full of the colours of newly opened buds and warm days to come. And some of the colourways are dark and brooding, the days of wet and drizzle that are so necessary to process of Spring’s unfurling…
At HomeSpun Yarn Party, we had finished two pieces that got so many comments, so many questions, so many compliments, that I knew they had to be showcased in a Pattern Rollcall!
Paint the Sky
The first was the Paint the Sky wrap by Susan Wolcott of Y2Knit, a beautiful rectangular scarf with delicate yarn overs that rise up the length of it like bubbles through water. Knit in a semi-solid yarn, the pattern would really shine, but done in a varigated yarn, it becomes an absolute gorgeous riot of colour.
We knit ours in one skein of Lucina yarn in a gentle pink-and-purple colourway called Sweet Dreams, and it was gorgeous! But it would look stunning in any of these yarns that have just gone in the shop:
(clockwise from upper left): Lucina sparkly yarn in Most Ardently, Swollen, Carnival, and Baroque
This was knit for me by my friend Natalie (as my birthday present!) using one skein of Lucina in SouthEasterly, a yarn that is varigated but all without a great deal of contrast in the colours. With a more complicated lace pattern like this, it often works best to use a yarn that’s either semi-solid or has a simpler change of colours. Personally, I’d love to see how it comes out in two of our most popular colourways, Sugared Violets and Beguile.
(left to right) Lucina Yarn in Sugared Violets and Beguile
You can see why these patterns got so much attention at HSYP, can’t you? So beautiful!
(Wait, you didn’t think I was going to show you the colour, did you?!?)
