Calomel Gloves

Even though she was wearing three shirts, Marlene couldn't seem to shake the cold from her early morning walk. Belinda stepped up and have her a big hug, hoping to get Marlene's blood moving and warm her up a bit.

(Interweave's Weekend 2010 online preview is up!

Calomel Gloves are designed by Victoria Myers. The photographer is Kathryn Martin. They are knit in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock. The blue pair is a combination of 92 River and 21ns Powder Blue. The brownish pair is is knit in Intrigue and Solitude.

I like the look of these, especially the brown ones. I'm guessing that's because my current winter coat is dark, chocolate brown and they'd work nicely with it.)

Bored yet?

I am a little but surprised with myself. I am still going steady with the small shawls. Under normal circumstances, my attention span is far too short to knit such similar projects over and over and there would have been a tragic break up months ago, but for some reason, I cannot get enough of these. Hmmm, what's the definition of an addiction again?

I guess part of it is that they are infinitely useful. Having a little something around your neck really does warm things up so they can almost substitute for a jacket in the early fall. When winter comes in earnest, they are a great layering piece either as a scarf for the winter coat or just as an accessory to wear all day long.

Who am I trying to kid? They are just stinkin' fun to knit! The lace provides a little intrigue, the edging is always a bit different, and after you have a few under your belt, they are a nice comfortable knit. Most of the time I can watch TV without a disaster.

This time around I decided to do Jolene Mosley's AeRang. I was attracted to the straight lines of the lace. So much lace is curvy and floral, these angles made me happy.














My AeRang is knit from one hank of the new 100 gram put up of our Shepherd Sock yarn in 56ns Fjord with plenty to spare. Blocked it's 45" x 19".

I'm prepping for a class later this month at Wild Purls in Billings, Montana so much of my knitting for the next couple of weeks is going to be dedicated to swatches for that, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to squeeze in a Xeriscape. Or at least get it on the needles.

Xeriscape

Huh, what's a xeriscape?

















That's what I said to myself when Mary-Heather from Ravelry told us the name of the little scarf/shawlette that she designed using a single skein of our newest yarn, Honor. So, I jumped over to dictionary.com and checked it out. It turns out that a xeriscape is the environmental design of residential and park land using various methods for minimizing the need for water use.

Aha! That makes perfect sense when you consider that Mary-Heather lives in the high desert of Albuquerque, NM. As she mentions in her blog, her daily walks through the rock gardens in her neighborhood inspired the scalloped edges of this design.




















One of the great things about this pattern is that it looks great in our nearly solid colors like the Patina you see above as well as multi-colors, like the Turtle Rodeo below. That's because not only is M-H cute as the dickens, but she's clever too. The shaping that creates that edging makes the colors sing together.























We got a chance to see the model at market in June, and have been waiting impatiently for the test knitting and tech editing to finish up. We're delighted to see it out in the world for everyone. The pattern is up on Ravelry now.

The Evolution of a Color

Way back towards the first of the year, I started a conversation with Alice Yu of Knit Nation fame about her sock club, Knit Love Club.

The original idea was to have a color that was a Viking Blue - a sort of ocean-esque soft blue - the softness you get with Swedish light. She was leaning towards one of our nearly solids because the pattern she had in mind involved Viking cables. I dyed a few things up and sent them along.


















In addition to the blues we'd discussed, I also did one that leaned a little more towards green. There was something in one of the inspiration photos she'd sent that made me want to include a choice that leaned a little more towards green. I don't know what in particular it was. But that's not really unusual. Quite a bit of my color creation revolves around things I can't articulate.

Alice got busy swatching and realized things weren't quite right. The colors were pretty and what she had asked for, but she wanted something with just a little more pizazz. She'd been doing a bunch of colorwork at the time and the nearly solid seemed a little lifeless and flat.

I revisited some of the pictures she'd sent and read over our email conversations again. There was a mention of turquoise and duck eggs that I'd overlooked. So, back to the dyepots for me with visions of Vikings and oceans and duck eggs. The next set of samples were variegated and bolder.

















I'm always a little nervous when I send a customer color samples. There's a piece of me that worries that I'll disappoint. Color is such a personal thing. Everyone sees something a little different in their mind's eye when they say "I want a deep, rich blue" or "Just like the red at sunset". And there is so much emotion tied in with color too. It's hard sometimes to create emotion with dye.

I turns out I didn't need to be worried. One of the colors I sent hit the nail on the head. We decided to call it Bleen and Grue. Alice created the 2luvcrew sock in honor of the Knit Nation volunteer crew.






















So, there's a little peek into how this particular colorway was created. They all come to life differently. This is certainly not how they all evolve, but I wouldn't say it is atypical either. Most of the time it's a collaboration where pictures and conversation and a vision collide with yarn and color ensues.

Good Day/Bad Day

Today is one of those very best kinds of days and very worst kinds of days all rolled into one.

The very best parts:

1) My brother is coming for the weekend.

2) Stitches Midwest opens.

3) Carl and Eileen from Bijou Basin Ranch stopped by the studio.

The very worst parts:

1) The house needs to be clean and I think he expects sheets on the bed.

2) Stitches Midwest is here and I need to be in two places at once.

3) There is no bad here. Carl and Eileen are all good parts. (Did you know they have an Irish Wolfhound named Bear? Not a Great Dane, but still.)

Mary Jane's Afternoon Excursion

Last weekend, Mary Jane got a little stir crazy. After a long hot summer in the city, the crisp fall weather got her itching for some fresh country air. Even though it was a little cool, she knew if she put her Sugar Maple Shawl over her favorite corduroy jacket, she could still put the top down on her vintage MG convertible and skedaddle out of town. Forty minutes and one speeding ticket later, she found herself wandering in the lush woods just outside a little town famous for its sheep and wool festival.

(The preview of Interweave Crochet's Fall issue went live today! Sharon Ballsmith used our Shepherd Sock in #610 Zombie BBQ to create the Sugar Maple Shawl.

This colorway has been an absolute runaway hit. It was originally designed for Sock Summit last year and it was so popular that we decided to make it part of our regular line up. This shawl certainly shows it off beautifully.)

The Surprise

My sister came through town a couple of weeks ago. She and her husband were catching a train here and then heading west to visit my nephew and his family out in San Diego. I'm not quite sure why, but the prospect of a train trip always seems desperately romantic to me.

Like any good grandmother, she spent a fair amount of time reading books with her grandkids. One of them was Sylvia van Ommen: The Surprise. (You should really take the time to click on that link and peek at some of the other illustrations.) It's a fabulous picture book about a sheep and the dyeing and spinning of wool and the making of a sweater for a friend. She was captivated by the book and sent me a copy. I am captivated too.

It was originally in Dutch but has been translated to a bunch of different languages so the copy I have actually says "the surprise" rather than "de verrassing" on the cover. Not that it would really matter since the pictures tell the story without the need for words.

It's been a long time since I've been so taken by a book. Do you think there's any shame in having a children's book front and center on my coffee table?