The Wool Dispensary Goes to YarnCon on Kickstarter

If you read my blog, you might already know about a project that I am working on with my friend and yarn co-conspirator, Sam - The Wool Dispensary.

Sam and I have joined forces in order to produce extremely special hand dyed yarns and complementary knitting patterns. We will be selling our yarns in limited quantities online and at selected events and trunk shows in Chicago.

To launch The Wool Dispensary, we are exhibiting at YarnCon, a one-day event held in Chicago where knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers, and all fiberfiles gather to buy and sell lovely yarn-related items.

In order to create enough lovely yarn to sell at our first event, we have launched a Kickstarter project to help with the funding. I hope you'll check it out - with 27 days left we've reached 36% of our $2,500 goal!

Our first line has been inspired by the Circus, and we have a lot of other creative ideas in the works to make The Wool Dispensary yarns very special!

You can help by spreading the word on Facebook and Twitter!

A Tale of Two Yarns

Yay! It's officially Knitting & Crochet Blog Week!

Day One: 28th March. A Tale of Two Yarns.
Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

It's rare I find a yarn I don't love, so I've chosen to feature two of my recent favorites: Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light and Swans Island Certified Organic Merino Worsted.

Madelinetosh yarns are my most recent fibery obsession. My last four yarn purchases have all been Madtosh yarns, but the Tosh Merino Light has caught my eye the most. Each skein has so much depth and inspires my knitting imagination. I've managed to snap up 4 skeins of this lovely yarn - I took a quick shot of my Glazed Pecan skein last night just before Twilight - this color is magnificent.

I've also started an Inspira Cowl with Olivia and Norway Spruce. The depth of the colorways provide a lovely sheen to the 100% merino, single-ply fingering weight yarn. It produces a lovely fabric on a variety of needle sizes (I'm using US 6 needles for the cowl).

Endless knitting possibilities abound - shawls, scarves, cowls...sigh...I just love this yarn.

The other yarn I'd like to wax poetically about is Swans Island Certified Organic Merino Worsted. Swans Island uses natural dyes, including cochineal and indigo. Dying with natural dyes is a labor intensive process that brings much joy to the dyer, the knitter, and the environment. The image below showcases the beautiful variety of colors achieved using natural dyes and organic merino wool. You can learn more about their process here.

(C) Swans Island

I am also thrilled to announce that I have been working on a few super secret knitting designs for the Swans Island Fall 2011 collection. I swatched and designed with their yarns - fingering, worsted and bulky - and all three were a dream to knit with. They have a lovely bounce and incredible drape.

Below is a sneak peek of one of my designs for the Swans Island pattern collection. Be on the lookout for more details soon!

Pictured: Swans Island Certified Organic Merino Worsted

knit the look: color blocking

unless you live under a rock (i assume you don't if you're reading my blog) then you've likely seen this infamous Mondrain dress by YSL...

Sylvie Fleury, Untitled (Mondrian Dress), 1993

and if you pay any attention to fashion,  you might have noticed that this trend has been sweeping the runways for some time now...from color-banded cocktail dresses to accessories (and amazing shoes) and even the odd poncho.

Stefan Gosatti/Getty ImagesThe color blocking trend has also been popping up on Ravelry. Here are a few of my favorite color blocking designs...

 the stripe study shawl by Veera Välimäki Rain Knitwear Designs. This is just lovely and simple.

by maanel

the inspira cowl by celery stalks. i happen to have one of these on the needles right now!

© sansi-bar

the bergen street cardigan by alexis winslow of knit darling. love the shaping worked into a band of color on the shoulders.

by mollie1the modish cowl by stephen west. super simple project with great results - see my modish cowl here.

by westknitscolor blocking is one of stephen's specialties and his innate ability to combine and play with color shines through on many of his designs, including birdwing, flamboyan, and honegart.

i'll leave you with one of my own designs incorporating color blocking - the scalloped shawl. ravelers are knitting this in such brilliant color combinations!

(C) MalabrigoHappy Color Blocking!

Quince & Co. and Some Snow!

Chicago gets a fair amount of snow, but not as much as you'd think based on its proximity to Lake Michigan. Nevertheless, it's freezing here, and the slush is starting to set in. I recently made some online orders and both of them came yesterday, brightening my day!

A bit of lovely yarn from Quince & Co. - 2 skeins of Lark, a puffy 4-ply made from 100% American Wool. The skeins are extremely squishy, and my boyfriend thought I was a bit crazy squeezing the skeins and looking like I was going to pass out!

I purchased two colorways - Bark, a lovely earthy brown,  and Frost, a white tinged with the slightest bit of blue - intending to create a colorwork hat or cowl. I can't wait to wind these up and start swatching :) You'll have to excuse the blurry shot - my iPhone and indoor lighting to not mix.

The package included a Tern colorcard and a signed thank you note from the folks at Quince & Co. - how sweet is that?

I also received my adorable gift tags from Knitterella - super cute. I love how they make it easy to include care instructions with your knitted gift - and in a beautiful way! Here's a shot from the website:

Knitterella

I have quite a few knitted gifts going out this year and these tags will make each one a bit more special. I'll share the details of my super secret Holiday knitting soon!