More Colorful than a Silver Lining

When we brought out our organic Green Line yarns earlier in the year, the colorways were very limited. We were working with natural dyes and that didn't give us much in the way of choices.

If you remember, not long after their debut, we realized that the natural dyes weren't working as we'd hoped and we had to shift gears. Crazy as it seemed, our more conventional dye process ended up using far fewer natural resources.

When I was at TNNA in June, I talked to another company who had gone down that road as well. It turns out that they ran into exactly the same issues we did! While I certainly wouldn't wish those frustrations on anyone else, I have to admit that it felt good to find out that we weren't alone. That it wasn't a matter of us having a fundamental defect. I wish I could say I'm above it, but misery does love company.

We've been getting lots of emails and phone calls asking us if we can dye the Green Line in the other Lorna's Laces colors. There isn't any reason why not, so I'm delighted to announce that we're now offering them in ALL of our colorways, both the nearly solids and multi's!

Just think....Rainbow, Gold Hill, Sunshine, Devon, Tickled Pink, Happy Valley. Mineshaft, Motherlode, South Shore, Pilsen, Bittersweet, Glenwood, Franklin's Panopticon, Iris Garden, Ashburn, Red Rover, Somerset, Winona, Peach, Edgewater, Cool, River, Black Watch, Tuscany, Child's Play, Camouflage, Lorikeet, Jeans, Carol Green, Denim, Carrot, Navy, Irving Park, Sand Ridge, Amy's Vintage Office, Jay Pond, Sweetie, Black Purl, Icehouse, Watercolor, Daffodil, Tahoe, Old Rose, Chocolate etc etc. Woohoo!

small things add up

Last week I made a Costco run. There are a handful of essentials that we get from them. Paper towels, dish washing liquid, chocolate.

At the risk of giving out a big trade secret, we use dish washing liquid in our dye process. For the longest time, it was Dawn. A few years ago, when I went to pick some up from Costco, they were all out. We'd never used anything else and I was nervous that the outcome would be different so I bought three or four different brands and brought them back here to test.

Lucky for us, it turns out that they all worked just fine. We ended up picking the one that we liked the smell of best. There were one or two that would have smelled just fine in a sink full of dishes that smelled gawdawful in the larger amounts we use around here.

So anyways...last week I got to the dish washing liquid aisle at Costco and our current soap was nowhere in sight. Instead, I found this:













The ingredients are "Water, plant based cleaning agents, natural citrus scent and 100% biodegradable preservatives". The old stuff's ingredients list included sodium laurel sulfate, sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate, magnesium chloride and about six more equally pronounceable items.

Now I'm no chemist, and it may all be smoke and mirrors, but somehow that first list sounds friendlier. So, if you notice that your Lorna's Laces smells different, this is why.

Oh So Beautiful Socks!

I spent the weekend a little under the weather. Thank goodness I wasn't so terribly sick that I couldn't do anything but lie in bed and complain. I was lucky enough to be that perfect sort of sick where I was able to lounge on the couch for two straight days knitting and watching mindless TV. (Sex and the City movie, The Starter Wife to name just a couple.)

I finished a pair of Oh So Beautiful Socks! in Amy's Vintage Office. This is a great little pattern that Judy Sumner designed for us way back in 2000. The Little Tent Stitch does great things with hand painted yarn.



It seems like there's been quite of bit of the Amy's Vintage Office on these pages lately. Most of that stems from the fact that we've been busy designing new colors that we can't show you yet.

Friday we sent the first round of samples off to Clara Parks from Knitter's Review. We also just finished up a few things for CookieA to peruse.

We're also working on new colors for TNNA in January. Yikes! That's just around the corner and we've barely begun to scratch the surface of everything that needs to be done to prepare. I did spend some of my weekend couch time working on a new sock design using one of the new colors.

Does that mean I can say I worked all weekend?

Made me giggle

From this week's New Yorker.

The Winding Mill

About a week ago, I went to the computer to look up the address of the mill where we get most of our yarn wound from cones into skeins. The computer fairies had deleted their zip code from our records, so I googled them to find it.

I stumbled across this Wikipedia entry. There were a few things I learned that made my heart sing. Like the fact that the building is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

And that the owners had the tenacity to keep going even after it burned down. Not once, but twice. That takes some real courage.

But my favorite thing is that its primary source of income these days comes from its role as a
hydroelectric plant. They've harnessed the power of the river to create electricity AND yarn. They actually make more power than they use! How cool is that? I'm just tickled pink about this.

Isn't it nice when surprises are good?!

An enchanted evening

Sam's wedding couldn't have been more perfect!

It was at this cool venue that's all urban-y...exposed brick, concrete, metalwork etc. Very hip. It was lit with candles and uber romantic. It made me wish it had been around when I got married back in the dark ages.

Sam was a vision. She had a very specific idea of what she wanted her dress to look like so she had it custom made. It was the palest shade of green and looked just right with her coloring. And, it wasn't white. Sam did not want a white dress.




If you look very closely at the picture of their first dance, you can see that Ben is wearing red shoes. They are easier to see here.













But, there was no way the groom was going to steal the shoe show.













One of my favorite things at the wedding was the tower of cupcakes. (That's Amanda and her beau Derek.) Stephanie, Kylie and Caitlin made them all. Red Velvet, Carrot, Lemon, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Guiness Stout, Chai, Gluten Free Vanilla, Pumpkin.....I think there was a baker's dozen of flavors. It was only with the utmost discipline that I was able to resist trying them all.

The newlyweds are off on their honeymoon. Best wishes!!

Here Comes the Bride

We're outta here early today. Sam is getting married tonight!

The wedding has been quite the buzz around here for months. From all the talk about what to wear you'd think we were all the bride. Not just dresses either. We've dithered about stockings and shoes and hats and.....

With any luck, I'll have pics tomorrow.

P.S. We have heat!

P.P.S. It's going to be in the 70's for the next five days. Of course.