Oh my stars, are you having as crazy a week as I am?!?  Not only are we right in the middle of three back-to-(almost)-back shows (so fun but also, so hectic!), but we’re also dyeing like mad before the contractors come in next week to rip out and replace our water-soaked ceiling and dry walls in the studio.  And then, just for fun, winter made a remarkable return (on the first day of Spring, no less!) and dumped 7″ of snow on us yesterday!

(I’ll be honest with you — even though the snowstorm did a number on everyone’s schedules, I absolutely loved being in a snow-globe world again.  The flurries were swirling around and around in circles as I looked out the window and, in the morning, I realised that the accumulated snow actually mimicked the spirals of a candy-cane.  Here, take a look at what I posted on my IG story yesterday…)

(how cool is that?!?)

Ok, it’s time to get to this week’s fiber news but, before we do, I just want to share something that means so much to me…  The InterStellar Yarn Alliance opened last week and we’ve had a bunch of new members join (so awesome, so glad to have you aboard!).  But here’s what really got to me:  we’ve also had a whole bunch of our existing members renew and looking down their names, I suddenly realised, most of them had renewed for the full twelve months!  Whoa!  Do you know what that means?  It tells me that we are doing something right, and they are really enjoying being part of the club!  And, seriously, that means the world to me.  Thank you all for being on this colour adventure with us!

Ok, ready for your weekly fiber update?  Snow or not, grab a nice hot cuppa and here we go!

Whether you knit, crochet, or spin, this quick post called “Why Plying with a Center Pull Ball Doesn’t Work for Me” is well worth reading.  I’ll be honest, I’ve never been able to work from the center of a cake (it always falls into a big tangled mess on me!) and I’ve felt like that somehow made me less skilled.  But reading this gives me a legit reason to work from the outside. Awesome!

(that’s Lyra in Troublemaker)

Pom-poms are so popular right now, but multicolour pom-poms that mimic spring flowers?  Yep, I’m on board for that.  This easy tutorial gives you a wrap-by-wrap recipe to make yours come out perfect!

You know those little silica packs that come in new shoes and handbags?  I’ve always thrown them out but, after I read this article with a ton of ideas for reusing them, I changed that old habit.  The one idea they didn’t come up with is using silica packets to help keep yarn and finished objects moisture free in humid climates.  I think I’ll be throwing a few in amongst my stash once the summer temperatures hit!

Photographic knitting tutorials are all well and good but I do love a well drawn illustration so I can see things really clearly.  This article on different types of increases is a perfect example — it’s so easy to tell what the stitches are doing.  I’ve book marked it for future reference.

The InterStellar Yarn Alliance is open to new subscribers right now!  This is our premiere yarn club, all in fingering yarn and all about bold adventures in colour.

Because exploring great new colourways is tons of fun… and even better when you do it with friends!  The InterStellar Yarn Alliance is your a chance to dive into amazing exclusive SpaceCadet colourways and share it with a fabulous community of folks who are just as excited as you are! 

(Ooh, two other quick things about the Yarn Alliance.  First, lots of folks have asked if they can use a credit card instead of PayPal and the answer is… yes, I’ve been able to make that change! Woot!  And the other great thing is that, because of the wonderful success of this club, I’ve actually been able to lower the price a little — not by much, but a bit and I’m delighted to be able to pass that savings on to you.  Because, honestly, that just feels right)

So, doesn’t the Yarn Alliance sound like fun?  (It is SO much fun!)  Click here and join in now!

Upcoming Shows

		Indie Knit & Spin Saturday, March 24 NEW COOL LOCATION: Ace Hotel 120 S Whitfield St, Pittsburgh, PA 5206 Admission is FREE!
		Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival Fri-Sun, April 6-8 David L Lawrence Convention Center Downtown Pittsburgh PA Featuring books by double-knitting master Alasdair Post-Quinn! (Live in the Pgh area? Check your inbox for a special discount on a class with Alasdair!)

 

When the weather is as crazy as it’s been lately — from early Spring’s chill to Winter’s cold and back again — a cowl is suddenly my best friend.  Here are three I’d love to wear this week…

Consilience by Hunter Hammersen

Hunter Hammersen’s intricate and subtle stitchwork makes for a cowl that is perfect for spring.  And the shaping creates piece that softly hugs your shoulders as well as draping around your neck.  And what’s more, to celebrate her (excellent) blog’s ninth birthday, you can download this pattern for free when you join her mailing list!

Trelliswork by handmade by SMINÉ

This beautiful crocheted cowl caught my eye for two reasons.  First, I love what the the openwork trellis stitches do with a variegated yarn, moving the hues around and creating stunning colour-texture.  And second, it’s got that amazing contrast colour lining, meaning its doubly warm and can be worn two ways.  Wonderful!

vesica piscis cowl by Jenny F

And if the ground where you are is still as snowy as it is here, this might be the perfect cowl for you.  Stranded colourwork makes it extra warm and a modern motif brings it right up the minute.  Just the thing to help you hold out until Winter finally (finally…) loosens its grip!

all image © the respective designers and used with permission

Oh, one quick thing before I go — we had a ton of folks come up and introduce themselves at Homespun Yarn Party last week and it was just lovely!  To all of you who did, thank you so much — it was so nice to see you!

Ok, that’s it for this week.  We are dyeing yarn for one of our favourite yarn shops today and then packing for Indie Knit & Spin this weekend, so I’d better get going.  I hope Spring is in the air for you at least a little (and maybe for us here in Pittsburgh too!) and, until next time, all my best!

 

 

Even though I rarely get to meet them (you!), I always feel an intrinsic connection with the knitters and crocheters who use our yarn.  I absolutely love the creative process of standing in front of the dyepots and bringing some abstract colour-idea come to life but, to me, the story of the yarn never seems complete until I get to see the project that it eventually becomes.  Because there lies the continuation of my work as it flows into our customers’s projects, our creativity merged with yours.  When I hear from our customers and can close that circle, it’s such a satisfying feeling.

And I mention this because the past week has been just wonderful in that way.   This week, I received some emails that have just made my heart so happy: I’ve heard from members of the Yarn Alliance renewing  their subscriptions and customers who are coming to see us at our shows, and the things they’ve said have been absolutely lovely to read…

“Can’t wait to see you and your crew… Selecting which of my fabulous SpaceCadet yarn garments to wear is my biggest challenge”
“I can’t tell you how much your weekly newsletter brightens up my life… Do know that you have a number of fans out here.”
“Woohoo! I’m SO happy to sign up for another year! Thanks to you all!!”
“I love the yarn I’ve received. I often interrupt a project to start a new one with SC yarn!”

So first, I wanted to thank everyone who has taken the time to write in and say hi — it completely changes the way the workday feels!  And I want to pre-thank (is that a thing?) everyone who will be coming to see us at our shows — can’t wait to see you.  And I especially want to thank everyone who is part of our clubs, because dyeing for you guys is the most fun (and interactive) of all.  Standing at the dyepots is a pretty great way to spend your days, I’ll admit, but when it’s because you’re dyeing for customers who feel like friends, it’s downright fantastic.

Please stay in touch, won’t you? By email, Facebook, our Rav group, and (best of all for photos) Instagram.  And of course, another way we stay in touch is through these newsletters — I love getting the chance to share all the great fiber news I’ve come across with you!  So grab a cup of tea or coffee (after the clock-change this week, mine is definitely coffee) and let’s dive in.

This week, I’m changing it up and starting with SpaceCadet news because there’s exciting stuff!  The InterStellar Yarn Alliance opens to new subscriberss today!  This is our premiere yarn club, all in fingering yarn and all about bold adventures in colour.

Because exploring great new colourways is tons of fun… and even better when you do it with friends!  The InterStellar Yarn Alliance is your a chance to dive into amazing exclusive SpaceCadet colourways and share it with a fabulous community of folks who are just as excited as you are! 

(Ooh, two other quick things about the Yarn Alliance.  First, lots of folks have asked if they can use a credit card instead of PayPal and the answer is… yes, I’ve been able to make that change! Woot!  And the other great thing is that, because of the wonderful success of this club, I’ve actually been able to lower the price a little — not by much, but a bit and I’m delighted to be able to pass that savings on to you.  Because, honestly, that just feels right)

So, doesn’t the Yarn Alliance sound like fun?  (It is SO much fun!)  Click here and join in now!

Upcoming Shows

		HomeSpun Yarn Party THIS WEEKEND! Sunday, March 18 Historic Savage Mill 8600 Foundry Street, Savage, MD 20763 Just off I-95, plenty of parking! Admission is FREE!
		Indie Knit & Spin Saturday, March 24 NEW COOL LOCATION: Ace Hotel 120 S Whitfield St, Pittsburgh, PA 5206 Admission is FREE!
		Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival Fri-Sun, April 6-8 David L Lawrence Convention Center Downtown Pittsburgh PA Featuring books by double-knitting master Alasdair Post-Quinn! (Live in the Pgh area? Watch your inbox for a special discount on a class with Alasdair!)

Next month sees the first annual Local Yarn Store Day, a chance for knitters and crocheters to show their support for the shops (and shopkeepers!) who foster and grow the love of fiber crafts in each local community, and a chance for those LYSs to celebrate the customers who make it all possible.  Here’s a list of shops participating, or check with your LYS to see what they’ve got planned.  And then stop by your LYS on April 21 to have some fiber fun!
(And if your LYS doesn’t carry SpaceCadet, I’d be so grateful if you’d recommend us to them!  As I always mention at the end of my newsletters, we’ve met some of our favourite shops because our customers asked them to carry our yarn. If you recommend us to your local yarn shop, please do email and tell meI’d love to get in touch with them to follow up!)

This made me laugh out loud: right there in the Guggenheim, right under everyone’s noses, a toilet is yarn-bombed.  And not just decoratively, but in a way that makes a real artistic statement.  It’s pretty awesome.

We all know that the field of machine learning is moving forward at an incredible pace, but it appears there are limits.  When a neural network was trained to create knitting patterns and they were then test knit by members of Ravelry, the results were perplexing, intriguing and hilarious!  Click here to read the rest (and, even better, see the swatches).

 

Winter Romance by Elise Dupont

Sometimes pattern names leave you scratching your head and sometimes they are just perfect.  This beautiful shawl, with its oh-so-delicate edging and sweet, sweet embroidery-style colour (it’s actually “woven” in while you knit) is absolutely the latter.  A perfect use for your Mini-Skein collection (choose the softest, sweetest shades) and a beautiful neutral such as Sliver, Drizzle, or Gentle, the result is a project as delicate as springtime.

 

Agamenticus Cowl by Beatrice Perron Dahlen

I don’t know what it is about this shawlesque cowl, but I want to wrap myself up in it forever.  Is it the eyelets?  Maybe.  Or the way it falls over the shoulders so cosily?  Perhaps.  Or it might be the grey — always a perfect choice.  Work it up in SpaceCadet Sliver, Drizzle, or Dark Skies for that same sublime feel.

Cables are Cool by Barbara Benson

I have one assistant who adores cables and another who has recently fallen in love with colourwork.  …Might this be the perfect project for the two of them?  Even better, the colourwork in this pattern does not involve stranding yarn. Knitting stripes with strategically slipping stitches creates the illusion of two separate cables weaving in and out of each other.  Sound intriguing?  I think so too!

all images © the respective designers and used with permission

Aren’t those great patterns?  Each one of them just jumped out at me this week and I had to share!  But now I’ve got to run — we’ve got a busy day of packing for Homespun Yarn Party this weekend (I’m always so worried I’ll forget something important!) and then I’ve got some fun dyeing to do this afternoon.  I hope your day is just as exciting (but without the worry about forgetting things) and, until next time, all my best!

Did you notice that no newsletter arrived last week?  I kept trying to sit down and write it but it turned out that the week had different plans for me…

A few months ago, a tree came down on the hill behind our studio and, while it was moved and made safe, what no one realised at the time is that the branches had actually reached down and pierced the waterproof seal of our roof.  After that, we did have rain and some snow but nothing seemed amiss in the studio.  But then about two weeks ago, a series of huge storms brought Pittsburgh some incredible, torrential rains and…  the holes in the roof suddenly made themselves known and the studio began to act like a giant sponge!

Here’s how the studio ceiling looked when we walked in.  What you can’t see from the photos is just soft the ceiling and walls were.  If you pressed your fingers against them, they actually sank a little into the drywall.  Yeeeeeahhhhh….   that’s not good.  We all backed up slowly.

Fortunately, we have a great landlord whose first concern was keeping us safe, and quickly got to work putting the roof  right.  Now that that is all done (yay for no more leaks!), there will be a contractor coming in to replace the ceiling panels, remove the damaged drywall and carpeting, look for mold, and then replace it all again with better (moisture resistant) materials.  I’m excited to get the studio back in shape again!

The contractor says that the work will take a week and we should be able to keep using the studio during that time (but you and I both know that things rarely go that smoothly!).  We are working hard right now to get as much dyed as possible before the repair work begins and then I’m hoping to be able to leave the contractors to do their work in peace.  This might be mean some delays to club parcels in the coming weeks and, if it does, I will let you know.  But if you would kindly keep your fingers crossed for us, we’re going to knock as much of that dyeing out as fast as we can before the studio gets pulled apart!

Ok, enough about our adventures in studio spongedom(!), it’s time to dive into all the fun fiber news in this week’s newsletter.  Grab your cup of tea or coffee, find a comfortable stop, and let’s go…

Crochet can be daunting if you think of yourself primarily as a knitter but, really, it’s like riding a bike — not in that you never forget but in that there’s a moment when it clicks and then it’s awesome and fast and so much fun!  If you’d like to improve your crochet skills with a great instructor to cheer you on, check out Kim Werker’s new class, Zigzag Crochet: A Beginner’s Guide to Ripples & Waves.  And click here to find out how you can win one of three free spaces in the class!

If you use Pinterest for knitting and crochet inspiration, they came out with a bunch of cool new features that let you reorder your pins how you like, organise your boards alphabetically, and archive old ones.  Click here to see all the new stuff you can do.  (And hey, while you’re at it, click here to follow me on Pinterest and get lots and lots of awesome pattern inspiration!)

Did you see this?!? Last week on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, “Jessica Jones” star Krysten Ritter brought needles and yarn on to the show and taught Stephen to knit — on air!  Well, she tried anyway.  He went into the stitch the wrong way, wrapped his yarn around backwards, and didn’t successfully complete one stitch, but it was seriously cool and highly entertaining nonetheless.  I was both cheering and chuckling at the same time!

My sewing skills are poor at best but I have a much-loved pair of jeans that really really want me to read this and this in great detail and repair them with all the skill demonstrated.  Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such invisible mending!

Non-fiber arts, but still:  I just finished reading Death in the Air, by Kate Winkler Dawson.  While the writing didn’t blow me away, the subject matter was fascinating — and did me no good whatsoever (I’m prone to nightmares: click here to read exactly how it did me in).  Next up I’m taking a break from the macabre and reading Internal Time : Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You’re So Tired by Till Roenneberg, and 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam.  Serious question: I’ve never really found a satisfactory way to hold my pages open so I can knit while I read.  What do you do?

 

The Yarn Alliance Opens on March 15!

Being part of the Yarn Alliance club is all about coming on a colour exploration — in gorgeous yarns dyed in exclusive colourways (that you can’t get enough of!), and shared with a wonderful community of fellow club members who are all part of the adventure too.  Plus we create beautiful coordinating skeins to double the fun.  And each parcel contains a wonderful club gifts created exclusively for the club by our community of amazing handmakers.  Oh, and a 15% coupon!

The Yarn Alliance is available for subscriptions only twice a year, and we always give early access to folks on the club mailing list. There’s not much time, so click here and make sure you’re on it.  You’ll get an email a few days before subscriptions go live so you can nab yours before anyone else!

In the meantime, please feel free to drool a little over some past yarns..

Upcoming Shows

		HomeSpun Yarn Party Sunday, March 18 Historic Savage Mill 8600 Foundry Street, Savage, MD 20763 Just off I-95, plenty of parking! Admission is FREE!
		Indie Knit & Spin Saturday, March 24 NEW COOL LOCATION: Ace Hotel 120 S Whitfield St, Pittsburgh, PA 5206 Admission is FREE!
		Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival Fri-Sun, April 6-8 David L Lawrence Convention Center Downtown Pittsburgh PA Featuring books by double-knitting master Alasdair Post-Quinn! (Live in the Pgh area? Watch your inbox for a special discount on a class with Alasdair!)

 

Illusion, Squared Cowl by Marianne McKinnon

Here’s what caught my eye about this cowl… First, it’s so eye-catchingly graphic. Second, it’s the kind of stranded colourwork that I like best: simple, easy to memorise, and with delightfully short floats.  And third (and most important), if you look closely, the sample is knit in two variegateds, which sounds counter intuitive but they work so well together.   A great option when you’re looking for a pattern for a wildly-variegated yarn from your stash: find a contrasting gently-variegated yarn and cast on a swatch.  You might be surprised how well they work together!

Sidereal by Hunter Hammersen

Its the stitchwork I noticed first about this hat…  intriguing, innovative, and so delicately beautiful.  And then I loved the sweet way it spirals to the left and creates movement across the body and, of course, a perfectly formed crown.  But the thing I love most about this hat?  The name!  Sidereal (adj) – of or relating to distant stars or constellations.  I mean really, how could I not?

 

12 Pains Scarf by Corrine Walcher

I love this scarf (and hat and mitts) for busting right through your Mini-Skein collection!  Here, it’s a riot of colour, so imitate it with your Multicolour minis but imagine it in our Ombre & Gradient minis, either with a semi-solid as the coordinating colour or even with a second set of contrasting minis flowing through in the opposite direction.

all images © the respective designers and used with permission

Just want to share this quickly: over on Ravelry, Samantha is in search of a few yards of Lucina in the colour Breathless to finish a project, and Michelle is hoping someone has a spare skein of the Yarn Alliance colourway Grounded so she can increase the width of her scarf.  If you have either of these in your stash and could help them out, please hop over to the ISO thread on Ravelry and help them out.

Ok, it’s time I got myself down to the studio.  There’s lots of dyeing on the schedule for today  and I’m working on two new colourways that I’m super excited about, so I’m ready get started.  I hope you have an exciting day planned as well and, until next time, all my best!

Here’s something you might not know unless you’ve done a lot of dyeing: when the weather does crazy things the way it did this week in Pittsburgh, it completely changes the way our yarns take our dyes.  In the last seven days, we’ve had below freezing temperatures and some beautiful snow, then a thunderstorm and torrential rain, a wee bit of flooding, and finally two days in the 70s and summer-like humidity!

And how does that impact our dyeing?  Two ways: first, all the snowmelt and rain changes the chemical composition of our water, and the rapid change of temperature affects the speed with which the dye adheres to the yarn.  The result is that even our most reliable recipes can come out all wrong — and that makes for some pretty ridiculous results and some pretty frustrating dyeing sessions.

But it also makes for some amazing and unexpected colour combos!  Whenever this happens — whenever the weather goes crazy and seems bound and determined to drive us nuts — there’s always something that comes out of the dyepots that takes our breath away.  Then I try to replicate it later when the weather has calmed down and sometimes I’m lucky, but often I’m not.

I can’t change the weather.  And it’s no good getting frustrated.  So I think perhaps the key is to step back and relax, accept the weather, accept the results, and just embrace whatever beauty the dyepots decide to create.  …And maybe to not try to dye really specific colourways when the weather is not cooperating!

Regardless of the temperatures, there’s always good fiber news to share.  So grab a cup of tea or your coffee, and let’s dive in!

Some days you win and some days you…  fail.  This week I had a studio day in which all my creativity left me and everything I tried seemed to come out wrong (see below).  So when I spotted this article on 6 Ways To Get Your Brain In Create Mode, I knew I ought to share it.  Number 4 (embracing boredom and single-tasking) is especially clever!

(Speaking of failing, sometimes I miss the FailWhale.  It made me smile even as  tech let us down.  Do you miss it too?)

You may have seen tutorials for making pom-poms or made a few of your own.  But I’ve heard that the very best pom-poms are from Germany, grown on trees in the world-famous Hanover pom-pom orchards.

Remember last week when I told you that I’d just learned that Claire Danes knits on set?  A reader got in touch to let me know that Amanda Seyfried knits too.  But my question is, does she weave in her ends?!?  (…which I say with no judgement, as I am currently using this pretty tea cosy which was knit in November with the two ends just wrapped around the handle instead of woven in.  Ahem!)

There is a yarn emoji coming to an iPhone near you in late 2018!  Along with a whole bunch of others (which you’ll use a lot less often than yarn, right?).  Click here to see them all, but skip forward to 1:41 if all you care about is yarn.

Even though the idea of male knitters is nothing new, I enjoyed this article nonetheless (although really…  “the new yoga” again?).  I know a ton of male knitters and crocheters, and I’m all for increasing their numbers!  Speaking of male knitters, have you heard of the Knitting Monk?  I really enjoy his Instagram posts (cables galore!).

 

There’s a Giveaway in the Works!

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned on Instagram that we had one extra Sweater Set in our Limited Edition colourway (the topmost set in the photo below) that hadn’t gone into the shop updated, and mused that perhaps I should do a giveaway with it.  The response was overwhelmingly positive, so that’s what I’m going do!

I’ll be announcing the giveaway early next week so, if you’d like to enter, make sure you’re keeping an eye on my Instagram posts to get yourself entered!

The Yarn Alliance Opens on March 15!

Being part of the Yarn Alliance club is all about coming on a colour exploration — in gorgeous yarns dyed in exclusive colourways (that you can’t get enough of!), and shared with a wonderful community of fellow club members who are all part of the adventure too.  Plus we create beautiful coordinating skeins to double the fun.  And each parcel contains a wonderful club gifts created exclusively for the club by our community of amazing handmakers.  Oh, and a 15% coupon!

The Yarn Alliance is available for subscriptions only twice a year, and we always give early access to folks on the club mailing list. There’s not much time, so click here and make sure you’re on it.  You’ll get an email a few days before subscriptions go live so you can nab yours before anyone else!

In the meantime, please feel free to drool a little over some past yarns..

Upcoming Shows

	HomeSpun Yarn Party Sunday, March 18 Historic Savage Mill 8600 Foundry Street, Savage, MD 20763 Just off I-95, plenty of parking! Admission is FREE!
	Indie Knit & Spin Saturday, March 24 NEW COOL LOCATION: Ace Hotel, 120 S Whitfield St, Pittsburgh, PA 15206 Admission is FREE!
	Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival Fri-Sun, April 6-8 David L Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown Pittsburgh PA Featuring book signings by double-knitting master Alasdair Post-Quinn!

 

Grid Toque by Jenise Hope

Did your mother always tell you that you lose most of your heat out of your head?  Y’know, I never believed it but, if you live in an area where winter is doing its worst, I’m loving this gorgeous, simple toque from Jenise Hope.  It might be the pom-pom (strictly for the extra insulation, of course) or it might be the simplicity of the grid stitchwork.  Either way, a super-quick, super-cute knit.

Così Fan Tutte by Valentina Cosciani

Valentina Cosciani’s Così Fan Tutte shawl didn’t catch my eye just because I love opera (really, it didn’t) — it jumped out at me because it’s a wonderful design for combining yarns.  Look closely and you’ll see it’s actually worked in two yarns to create a subtle colourplay and draw distinction to the changes in stitchwork.   If you live in a place where winter is warm, try it in SpaceCadet Celeste and Maia, two different fingering yarns that work beautifully together and create gorgeously contrasting textures (click here to see what I mean)

 

all images © the respective designers and used with permission

 

Ok, today is forecast to be in the 40s — not too hot and not too cold! — and pretty steady all day, so I’m going to head down to the studio and see what I can conjure up.  I hope your weather is just as steady and your day just as colourful!  And until next time, all my best.

February makes me want to hibernate, every year. The mornings are so cold, the roads are so often icy, and I just want to curl up with my knitting and my tea, and watch the world warm up from the safety of my couch. Now, I don’t often get the chance to do that (…except one very very icy morning last week when I watched cars literally sliding down my hill backwards!), but today I’ve got a whole bunch of fun fiber news to share with you, so let’s make an exception! Go grab your cup of tea or coffee, find a comfy spot, and hang out with me a little while…

(By the way, that very very icy morning? It was incredible — everything was almost laminated in ice. If you’re on a mobile device, tap here and then on “Made In Pgh”… you’ll see it when pictures 5 & 6 appear.)

image © Joanna Nakamura www.bluebearvending.com

Do you ever look at your unfinished projects and wonder if they feel abandoned? …disappointed? …maybe even resentful? (If so, I’m in a heap of trouble!). I fell in love with this print (above) by Joanna Nakamura when I read the description: “In Japan, it is believed that pretty much everything has a spirit and demands respect… Failure to do so often has an unwanted side effect – those things can become malevolent or mischievous spirit beings who can cause havoc around your home… Have you ever had a sweater that developed a hole even though you’d only worn it once? And how is it that the brand new cardigan has already got bobbles all over it?…” Hmmm… maybe it’s time I finished some of those projects!

I love this more than I can possibly express to you: Finland’s snowboarding coach knitting at the top of the slope during the competition. Apparently the world is going wild over this but, seriously, what else is he supposed to do? Just stand there with his hands doing nothing?!?

Speaking of famous people knitting, you can add Claire Danes to the list of celebrities who knit on set. When Stephen Colbert asked how she stays balanced while playing her mentally unbalanced character, she replied, “I knit!” (skip to 8:08 in the video). And then she tried (and failed!) to explain what rib stitch is. Either way, I’m always glad to add another famous face to our tribe.

Brioche is everywhere right now but, I’ll be honest, I’ve never tried it. When I do, I’ll probably use this tutorial to guide me (and this yarn to make it extra smooshy)

 

Upcoming Shows

HomeSpun Yarn Party
Sunday, March 18
Historic Savage Mill 8600 Foundry Street, Savage, MD 20763 Just off I-95, plenty of parking!
Admission is FREE!

 

Indie Knit & Spin
Saturday, March 24
NEW COOL LOCATION: Ace Hotel, 120 S Whitfield St, Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Admission is FREE!

 

Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival
Fri-Sun, April 6-8
David L Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown Pittsburgh PA

 

Herringbone Hat by Kelly McClure

When I shared this photo (+ this one) of the awesome custom messenger bag that was the season-end gift for the SpaceMonster club, lots of folks emailed to ask about the pattern for Jade’s adorable hat. She adapted it from Kelly McClure’s Herringbone Hat, showing off that gorgeous texture in Capella (in “Life Was Better in Black & White”) and simply adding a ribbed edge and a cute fake-fur pom-pom. Whether you follow the pattern exactly or add in a few adaptations, it’s sure to look fabulous!

Scarf de Triomphe Paris by Sharon Silverman

I have been lucky enough to work with Sharon Silverman a few times now (including her amazing Moonmist Shawl) and I always love what she comes up with. The beautiful arches in this easy crocheted scarf is no exception and, in our gorgeous bamboo-rich Maia, the drape is incredible! (Also, just between you and me, I hear she has another book in the works and there may be another SpaceCadet design in it — so exciting! Watch this space for news when I get it)

Pincha shawl by Pinpilan Wangsai

Short rows make for interesting shawl construction but the way this shawl is constructed is downright fascinating. The effect is like feathers (or flowing water… or fish scales…) and I absolutely love the way it redistributes the colours of a variegated yarn. If you’ve got a skein in your stash that is so wild you just don’t know what to do with it, cast this pattern on and watch a little magic happen!

images © the respective designers, used with permission

Speaking of magic, I first noticed this design when KatMacPet shared her beautiful version of it over the SpaceCadet group on Ravelry. She’s using a crazy-variegated One-of-a-Kind skein she picked up in our booth last year at Homespun Yarn Party and the result is breath-taking!

The other week I suddenly had a brainwave: just because it’s obvious to us how our Linking Sweater Sets make it easy to expand a gradient for larger sizes, that doesn’t mean it’s obvious to everyone. So I wrote a quick post to explain it. If you missed it, please click here and let me show you how they work!

There’s been a very interesting discussion in this Instagram post around the impact of free knitting and crochet patterns. Designer Ash Alberg posits that the way the way we phrase things affects our sense of value about designers’ work, and requests that dyers and yarn shops stop highlighting free patterns, be they free-standing or part of a kit.

I see her point but I feel that “free” has its place, whether it’s for the purpose of creating higher visibility for a new designer, giving crafters an easy opportunity to try out a new skill or style, or adding extra value to a yarn kit. So this week I have a really simple question: Do you feel talking about patterns in terms of “free” devalues the work of the designer behind it? Click here to participate in the original discussion and please click here and give me the quick answer to that simple question.

Ok, I’ve got an awesome day ahead and first on the agenda is heading down to the studio to see how this yarn looks now that it’s dry (fingers crossed it looks as awesome as it did when it was still wet). I hope you have something fun planned for this morning as well! And so until next time, all my best.

Ok, really quickly…  I just want to show you what our Linking Sweater Sets do.  Because you know how it is when you know a thing about something, but nobody else knows it, and it feels like it should be totally obvious because you know it, but then you realise it’s not?  That’s kind of how it is with our Linking Sets.  We dreamed them up so they make total sense to us, but if you weren’t there for the dreaming…  well, maybe it’s not so obvious.  So I should probably explain.

In a nutshell, our Linking Sets are sweater quantities of our sport-weight Lyra in gradient colours that flow from one of our standard colourways to another of our standard colourways.  Why is this important?  Two reasons:

First, it makes adding extra skeins for larger sizes super-easy.  There’s no trying to match in an extra colour, no calculating extra stripe sizes.  Because both ends of the Linking Set are one of our regular colourways, you just grab an extra skein from our stock, knit a little further in the pattern, and that’s it!  Here, let me show you… the first image below shows a Linking Set in Veracity, just on its own, on the left but if you need a six or seven skein set, the skeins on the right are  that same set of Veracity with an extra skein of Longing and Feather at each end.   And below that, the exact same thing with a set of Transcendence.  See how easy that is?

Second, it means two sets can link together for a real showstopper of a project.  Take for instance Veracity, which flows from the colourway Longing to Feather, and Transcendence, which goes from Feather to Frigia.  Put them together and the flow looks just stunning, and you’ve got an amazing gradient big enough for a truly epic project.

Or pair Veracity with Turpitude. Or Ardent.  And then Ardent flows into Perilous.  Or Debacle.  Which then goes into Infatuation.  You see how this works? So fun!

(Oh, and there’s third reason too: when the colourways you start with are this rich and gorgeous, then the new colours they create as they blend into each other are just mouthwatering.  Honestly, I cannot get enough of these Linking Sets!)

What can you make with them?  There are tons of amazing designs.  Of course there’s the Comfort Fade Cardi by Andrea Mowry, but try Santa Rose Plum by Carol Feller, the BlueSand Cardigan by La Maison Rililie, or Cross Country Skiing by Carol Sunday.  And if you’ve got something even better, I’d love to know!

There, you can see why we’re so excited about these sets, right?  And now you know that thing that I thought was so obvious (they link together like puzzle pieces) and just how cool it really is.

And once you start linking them together…  it’s kind of hard to stop.  Even when they’re just lying in the studio on the packing table…!