If you go a little Loopy....

Yarn Love has gone Loopy! If you shop at The Loopy Ewe, you might have already heard this, but Yarn Love sock yarns will be available there this week! We are very thrilled to be working with Sheri and her staff. She's so sweet and has some of the best customer service around, not to mention tremendous customer benefits. Stop by her site and enjoy her beautiful yarns!

Here is a greyscale picture of the 96 skeins I sent her way. This is by far the largest, single order I have ever filled and it was quite a challenge. I did have a great feeling of accomplishment when it was all dyed up and ready to go. See it in color at The Loopy Ewe.

Nice to meet you! (at Purls)

It was lovely to meet all of you who came to Purls this Saturday while I was there. I took a pile of yarns with me, and got to chat about yarn for four hours! What could be better? A huge thanks to Martha for hosting me. Purls has been restocked so go check it out. There are matching skeins of our luminous and shiny Joan of Arc along with a fuzzy mohair for working a scribble lace stole or shawl. I was so inspired by the pattern Marth showed me on Saturday, that I started knitting my own version over the weekend. This pattern is the free lace shawl published by Knitter's Review and it works up super quickly!

Ham's Jam Knitting Bag

I just have to post about these truly remarkable bags. Dena, the owner and artisan behind Ham's Jam bags is a friend of mine. This is the knitting bag that she created for me. I have a few other things from her - a small trick or treat bag (ok they're really my kids) and a to-die-for needle roll. I think this baby is going to top them all.

So this is the biggest of her knitting bags. And yes, I said bags. She's got a couple smaller designs for people who don't need huge. I tend to keep all WIPs in my bag, which is much smaller than this. It has two elasticized pockets inside which come with interchangeable satin drawstring pockets. That way you can easily pop your current project ball into and out of the pockets. The ball stays put, and you can work out of the bag tangle free. This is an adaptation of grommeted pockets. Grommets are great, unless you want to switch projects and you'll end up cutting the yarn to remove the balls from the pockets. On the other side of the inside of the bag you can choose what kind of pocket's you'd like: straight needles, circular needles or crochet hooks. Mhm, so hookers rejoice - she's thought of you too. The number of pockets varies by what size you choose. Then there's the big, external pocket for your patterns or keys or what-have-you.

If that weren't enough, it comes with a small pouch to put your little things in: DPNs, stitch markers, tape measure, scissors, etc. That pouch is envelope style with a magnetic clasp. I love it!

If you want more needle space, order a matching needle roll! Dena does those for DPNs, Circs, straights and hooks, too. All in all, this bag is to die for! A while back, I did a collaboration with Dena where we sold this bag full of hand dyed yarn..... and I knew I needed one. So now I've saved my pocket money and I get one of my own. I'm thrilled. Oh, and I should mention that Dena has some of the most rigid quality standards I've ever come across. Her sewing is perfection. Seriously, perfection. Thanks, Dena!

For all of you lucky enough to make it to Knitter's Connection this June, I'll have some of these available for purchase in the booth. Since these are entirely hand crafted, I'll only have a limited number. So come see us first if you're interested!

Busy Spring!

It has been so busy at the studio lately. I've been dyeing non-stop in order to get a large order out to our newest wholesaler: The Loopy Ewe! I am terribly excited to be among the very talented dyers featured there. A giant thank-you to Sheri! Look for our yarn to be there in the next few weeks.

The Loopy Ewe will have many colorways that aren't available anywhere else, including our site, so be sure to stop by. Sheri has superb service and I know you'll be tickled you got your yarn there.

Manly Yarn Contest Winners!
Now it's time to announce the two winners of the Manly Yarn Contest: Lorrie (LUherek) and ~*emily*~! Congratulations you two! Thanks to everyone for their great suggestions. I've already started dyeing up new colorways for gifting to the special men in your life. They will be unveiled early June at Knitter's Connection in Columbus, OH. Oh, and I've renamed the Manly Yarn Collection the Mr. Darcy Collection after one of my favorite book characters.

Happy Knitting!

All is right with the world!

Rejoice! Spring is here! That and the studio computer is back up and running after 11 days of being out of commission. The loaner was great in the mean time, but it's wonderful to have "my" computer back.

The lilacs have a halo of green around them behind the studio, and our grass is greening up nicely. It's been in the mid 70's here, and I spent many hours this weekend playing outside with the kiddos. We have three small kiddos - the twins, Miss E and Miss G - are one month away from their third birthday and Mr.X is 16 months old. They love being able to go outside after the long winter. We made a new discovery - sidewalk chalk! It was supposed to be for their Easter baskets, but the weather was too nice to wait.

This yarn is a new colorway that will be available in our Summer Collection. It's dyed on a natural, superfine merino, sportweight yarn. It will be making it's debut at Knitter's Connection and then be available via the site!

Manly Yarn - tell me now!

Just a gentle reminder that the deadline for the contest is coming up quickly - March 31st (at midnight). Send in your ideas for a chance to win! I've already started dyeing up some of my favorite suggested colors, so those will be along shortly. Remember, even if I don't use your suggestion for the first release of Many Colors, you can still win. You'll get to pick your choice of colorway, too. Who wouldn't like to go shopping for free! Oh, and the Manly Yarn Collection will actually be called the Mr. Darcy Collection. It's more in keeping with our site theme.

Free Wool Wash

Our shipment of wool wash came in yesterday afternoon! We're offering a new incentive at Yarn Love. Order two skeins of yarn, and receive a free sample size of wool wash (Good for 3-4 washings.) Order three skeins or more and receive a free full sized bottle of wool wash. It's 4 oz, and it will last you a good long time!

This is the wool wash that I use for the final rinse of all Yarn Love yarns. It contains natural lanolin to condition the wool fiber. Plus, it's very low sudsing, so you don't have to worry about surface felting if you've used a natural wool yarn. It's also great for any other wool garments that you've knit.

Just put WoolWash4Me in the coupon line when you order. And if you sign up for our newsletter, there's another way to get free wool wash!

~katie

And we're back!

We are back in business after a few days delay due to a blown motherboard on our studio computer. We now have full access to the site and to email via a loaner computer while ours is getting put back together. For the short term, however, there won't be any pretty pictures on the blog. My camera driver disagrees with the loaner computer (which is pretty darn old and slow!) so I can't pull pictures off to post for you. And since this isn't my regular hard drive, I can't pull pretty pictures that I've taken previously, either.

Order Update
If you placed an order recently, it's on it's way to you. We are currently caught up on shipping. There was an extra delay for some customers who ordered over the weekend - you'll find a little surprise in your package as a "thank-you" for your patience. I hate to make you wait!

Limeade And Violet
There will be more instock Limeade and Violet up in the store early next week. We sold out after Miss Violet mentioned us in this week's podcast. Don't fear, more is on the way. Scarlett and Joan will be dyed up over the weekend, and Juliet will follow later. I'm out of Juliet stock at the moment, but the shipment should be here by midweek.

Now, I must get off to dye and reskein some more Limeade and Violet!

Yep, still here

I know that I have been "away" from the blog for longer than usual this week. I wanted to leave the Manly Yarn Contest in the top spot for a good long time. It was featured on the Knitting Cook this week and I didn't want all the listeners to have to scroll to find the contest.

Exciting things have been happening around these parts. I got a large yarn order in on Friday and also my power skeiner! It's new and it works wonderfully. I'm very excited about it. I've been ramping up production recently to accommodate more dyeing for the Knitter's Connection show, and my wrist was getting very sore. (I used to hand wind every hank off the cone and then rewind it into skeins you see in the store. Ouch!) I figured that at my ideal production rate I would be winding 15 miles worth of yarn a week. It was just too much. So here's Bessie - the new workhorse of the studio. You won't notice any difference in the Yarn Love yarn, but I sure will! Yay! We've been getting to know each other over the weekend and I think we're going to have a great working relationship.

Her photo is at the bottom of the post, because she's big and makes for a pretty dull picture. The pic up above is a fraction of what I skeined on her over the weekend.



Loopy Yarns
In case you don't get our newsletter (To sign up go to our homepage, and input your email address in the form at the bottom right of the page. It's easy.) you might not have heard that Yarn Love will now be available at Loopy Yarns in Chicago. We're dyeing up two exclusive colorways for their upcoming Sock Club, so drop by and sign up, the yarn is gorgeous. A big thanks to Kristen at Loopy Yarns, too.



Purls the Yarn Studio
Purls in Des Moines, Iowa just got a big order of Yarn Love in, too. It's nearly all sock yarn, so if you're in the area and love socks (or have that great knitting book about what else you can knit with sock yarn) drop by. Shopping locally means you don't have to wait for the post office to deliver your yarn.

Yarn Love Fiber
If you're a hand spinner then you'll be glad to know that we have Yarn Love spinning fiber in the works. It will be debuted at Knitter's Connection. The fiber content will match our already spun yarns and it will be dyed up in our colorways. We'll have selections from our three collections: Spring, Summer and Manly, too.

I'll leave you contemplating the utilitarian beauty of Bessie, the latest addition to the studio!

The Official Manly Yarn Contest

A couple days ago, I posted about the Manly Yarn Contest. I thought that I would give it it's own post and make things easier for all contestants wanting to play!

Here's the deal:

You - provide your idea(s) for the perfect skein of manly yarn - the one that you want but can never find. The "perfect" skein for knitting and gifting to the favorite man in your life, or at least one he won't look down upon as girly.

Me - I put your name into a drawing for at least one skein of free sock yarn from Yarn Love. (You'll get to choose!) If we get a lot of entries, I'll increase the boodle accordingly. I'll draw the winner April 1st and let them know.


Stats -
* You can enter multiple times, as long as you provide a unique color idea each time

* Enter by posting a comment or emailing me at katie AT shopyarnlove DOT com (remove at & dot and insert appropriate symbols)

* Anyone can win and you don't have to buy anything! So even if your particular suggestion or suggestions doesn't make it into the inital Manly Yarn Collection at Yarn Love, that's no reason for not being able to win.

* Be as specific as you can about color. Include links, graphics or pics of the colors you have in mind if you can.

* Tell your friends. Seriously, this is free sock yarn! Grab a button and tell your friends about it.

The first Manly Yarn Collection will be available with the Summer Collection, early May 2007. This is your chance to be a part of it!

Don't Do It.

Don't go over to Sheri's blog. You know, Sheri from The Loopy Ewe. And come to think of it stay far, far away from her site. It's better (or worse, depending upon how you look at it) than crack. Fortunately for me, she's mostly sold out of many fantastic hand dyed yarns. So I only bought some Panda Cotton. Lol! Only. I'm supposed to be saving money for the upcoming business events. It never fails, if I'm not "saving" money I'm good about not spending it. But when I'm "saving" money you can just watch it fly out of my wallet. Perhaps I should just stop saving. *giggle* Anyway, Sheri posted these super cute sheep stitch markers in Project Spectrum colors. That's right. Irresistible. Don't click the link in the side bar unless you're prepared for the consequences. *wink* Remember, I warned you.

Completion Issue Socks
They're finished now. They actually have been for two weeks - but I've been too busy wearing them to take pictures. So here are a few for you to enjoy. This is the last day of the month and it seems appropriate that I should be posting them now. These are for Socktopia, of course. They are the second go at this month's theme. The first pair - the Tiger Eye lace socks are just past the heel turn. They were a bit more involved than I anticipated.

These are knit from Emu Superwash - it's a DK weight yarn. They are my first pair of machine washable socks! Also my first knit from commercially spun yarn instead of my hand spun. I cast on way too many stitches at the toe. 16, I think. That would have been a good number for fingering weight yarn, but it makes these toes a bit wide. Plus, the socks are a tad bigger than I prefer all the way around, due to the fact that I didn't swatch. I just cast on at the toe and tried on as I went. Next time, I'll swatch so I get a better fitting sock.

The pattern is my own. A very simple combination of Sand Stitch and ribbing. They're nice and stretchy. Easy to knit but not terribly boring. They're also a bit shorter than I like, but I ran out of yarn, so there's not much to do there. They are totally wearable with slippers and great for around the house. I think they'll also be good for Christmas time next year as they show mostly red and green.

Tiger Eye Lace Socks

The pair that aren't finished today. They won't be either. I'm just past the heel turn. They are really pretty, though. And I am getting faster at this whole lace thing, too. This is pretty much my first outing with any sort of more complicated lace pattern. I've done some simple stitch patterns but nothing this involved. It's also my first time designing with lace. I noticed a couple nights ago that the difficulty rating on this pattern is "Experienced". Oh, well. I'm enjoying it!

I'm through the heel now and about 1" into the cuff. I added a little 9 st lace detail to the center back, and ribbing in between to keep them nice and snug. Should be pretty. I found a great website dedicated to sock toes and heels both for cuff down and toe up. It's fanastic - you can find it here. I did the No Pickup Gusset Heel, version 2. It worked out just fine! I do like it alot. The pics below show you the progress. These are knit from Tofutsies color 724.

Knitter's Connection - here we come!

If you're in or around Columbus, OH, make plans for the first weekend in June. We want to meet you at Knitter's Connection! The exhibitor contract went in yesterday, and now all the hard work begins. This is a huge step for me and the business. Usually, everything is done out of our home and on my schedule. Now I'm stepping out of my comfort zone, travelling and working with a deadline. I'm feeling giddy and a bit like I want to hyperventilate all at once. I'm going to opt for celebrating so the responsible side of me doesn't take over. Hurray for Knitter's Connection.

Come see us. We want to meet you! We'll bring the yarn.

Limeade And Violet Benefit
Just a reminder that $2.50 from every skein of Limeade and Violet yarn sold will be donated to help defray Miss Violet's medical expenses. It's going to be announce on their podcast this week, and I anticipate that the skeins we have will sell quickly. If you'd like some without having to wait for a custom dyed order, get it now. It's very pretty and lovely to see how the exact same dyes look different on various base yarns. You can find all our Limeade and Violet yarn by selecting the Limeade and Violet category on our yarn page. Every skein of Limeade and Violet has a pretty pink ribbon on the picture so you can easily locate them while browsing our other categories, too! See how we like to make shopping easy for you?

They're free - take one
If you'd like to link to us, please feel free to take a button of your choice from the sidebar on the right. We love meeting new yarn friends!

Manly Colorways - Free Yarn!
I am putting together ideas for a Manly Yarn Collection - colors that you can knit up for that beloved man in your life. You know the one who you'd love to gift with a handknit, but he claims all yarn is girly. (Doesn't have to be a significant other - brothers, dads and friends all can fall into this category.) I want your ideas! Please tell me, quite specifically, what colors you think would be a great part of a Manly Yarn Collection. I'm looking for both solids and multi color colorways. Send pictures or swatches of colors or a specific description, please! Let's get the men in our lives something to wear proudly. You can leave ideas in the comments section or email me at: katie AT shopyarnlove DOT com - remember to replace the AT and DOT with appropriate symbols!

If you leave a comment or email me, I'll put your name into a drawing for a free skein of sock yarn of your choice. Last day for entry is March 31st, so I have time to dye & photograph these for the release of our Summer Collection, early May.

Frank? Martha? Excitement!!!!

I discovered several things today.

First Discovered Thing:

I can put linked pictures in my side bar again. I've been hating New Blogger because I couldn't figure out how to put freaking linked pictures into my side bar. I've been beating my head in frustration. Then a sweet, sweet knitter over at KnittyBoard.com (thank-you adriennec!) told me how to do it. (Go to the Layout portion of the dashboard. Select add new page element, choose HTML/Javascript Element and go to town.) New Blogger has been spared my wrath for the moment.

I have serious patience issues when I have to relearn things I already "know" how to do. I mean, seriously, don't these blogger people realize i have three children under the age of three to care for and mountains of yarn to dye? Huh? Huh? I think I'll write and suggest that they improve their help section....you know to be more helpful.

Second Discovered Thing:

Sheri of the TheLoopyEwe has a super fun blog! Go visit TheLoopyEwe for incredible sock yarn. You know, the super drool-worth stuff. Anyway, Sheri has this fun quiz about whether or not you're a Martha or a Frank when it comes to socks. Go take it. You'll like it - unless you hate that sort of thing. And this quiz has a fun contest and challenge to go along with it. The challenge is that you knit a pair of socks out of the ordinary for you. You know, to help you branch out and get past the rut of your usual modus operandi. I've been trying to re-evaluate and change things in my life that seem like a rut lately and this is a fun one. Especially since I'm also doing Socktopia and I can do two things at once.

By the way, I'm a Frank. Apparently, according to the quiz, I'm split 50/50 between Martha and Frank, but after reading what Martha and Frank mean, I am definitely a Frank. In fact, I kind of like it when my socks don't match each other. It's the artist in me, what can I say? Why limit yourself to one color and one kind of sock when you clearly have two feet? Maybe the Frank tendency is why I'm not so stylish. My fashion is probably also severely inhibited because I spend most days in "dye clothes" which are the oldest, frumpiest clothes that I have. That way if they get "blessed" with dye, I'm not upset. Believe me, I have blessed myself, my counters, my kitchen, my floor and more with dye unintentionally over the years. I've even spilled a substantial amount of purple in my hair. I was hoping that it would actually stick (despite the fact that it was randomly sprinkled and splotchy) but it washed out after two showers. Should have heat set it with the dryer before washing, I guess!

And the reason that I'm pretty excited is that I have some big business plans in the works! I'm still plotting like mad to make it to the Knitter's Connection this summer, but one or two other plans have to fall into place before I can do that. Sigh. More details later. I don't want to leak my chickens before their hatched and then tell you how it didn't happen later. (Don't you just love my mixed cliches and metaphors?)

(The photo is some blatant yarn swag. It's what I've been itching to pull off my Yarn Love stock shelf and knit up. I only have one left and even though I can easily dye more, I'm trying to be very good and wait until I've got my Tiger Eye lace socks off the needles. We're not even 1/2 way there, so it's going to be a while. Itch. Itch. Must.not.give.in.....yet.)

All grown up in three short weeks

You may remember forever ago, when I posted a picture of twin potties, sitting there new in the filter summer morning sun. Another picture of two girls sitting on their new potties in the summer morning sun. Well, the summer morning sun has faded into the the thin, clear light of cold air, and the potties are no longer gleaming and new. Three weeks ago today the girlies announced to me that they wanted to wear their big girl panties. I assented on the condition that from that day forward they would not wear diapers again.

The first day was hell. They went every 10 - 15 mintues. There was no "holding it"; they went as soon as their bladdder had anything in it. Forget the timer at an hour, or 30 minutes or even 20....between the two of them, 10 minutes was usually too long. The second day was better. At least we could go 30 minutes between accidents. The third day Miss E started to go. She was good about peeing but forget poop. Halfway through the fourth day Miss G went once! We still don't spend a lot of time out of the house, and nights are spent in Pull Ups, but they now go without prompting. Only occasionally is there an accident and that's usually due to not getting pants pulled all the way down before proceeding.

Today they called me upstairs to the bathroom, and proudly pointed to the two potties. Both has "presents" of the solid type in them. They'd been sitting up there, side by side pooping. They were so proud. They are so big. Birthday number three is still nearly two months away and they can now go poop on the potty by themselves. I see them gaining independence every day. I miss the little girls they used to be. I love the toddlers they are. I wonder what happened to the time and why I didn't notice the changes. The tiny changes every day, so small they sneak past consciousness until the change is so defined it can't be missed. I remember with perfect clarity the day we brought them home from the hospital. Both 18" long, one weighing slightly less and the other slightly more than 5 pounds. It's bittersweet. Change is here. Change is coming. I wonder what's next?


Today I took a 1/3 knit wash cloth off my shelf, cut it off the two balls of yarn it was being knit from and then hacked it into small rectangles, about 1" in width. Am I dangerously insane? I think not. I just thought that I could pull out some of the ends and spin it into yarn. I do wonder what people would say if (the fiber uninitiated) were able to peer through my office window to see me happily cutting a hand knitted object into shreds. It was freeing, though. No more UFO staring me down from it's jumbled and unhappy corner of the open yarn shelves.



Yarn Swag: just another pound and a half of Joan of Arc gracing my workspace today. I've been rewinding and banding it this morning. The electric winder isn't finished, and every skein of yarn that I dye is skeined and reskeined by hand. In fact, the entire process from cone to finished hank is compeletely done by hand. Hand crafted has a distinct meaning to me. I like that with every skein I mail to its new home, I am fighting mass production. I like that every knitter who uses Yarn Love yarn sees my impression in the strands that flow through their hands. I am a small part of their creative process.