More Yarn PrOn

Look what just finished drying. I reskeined it and set it down on the table, preparing to twist it into manageable little skeins but it just looked so pretty laying there, how could I resist sharing a picture with you?



One of the skeins in the picture above is the last skein to add to my very first whole sale order (picture below)! 20 skeins of Foot Prints will be headed out to Wool and Company in Geneva, Illinois. If you are in the area, stop by and check it out. If you happen to not like in Illinois but would still like to see Painted Sheep yarn at your LYS, let me know and I'll send a sample pack to the shop.

There is no yarn so beautiful as hand spun, especially hand painted, hand spun. I myself very rarely spin, and the result isn't usually very pretty, but thankfully my mom is a wonderful spinner. And, thankfully, is always happy to spin up samples of roving I have dyed. She says that she is unhappy with how lumpy these samples came out, but I think they are beautiful. These little sample skeins aren't big enough to knit anything out of but they are beautiful to look at and touch.

Exciting News

Like the title says, I have some exciting news to share. This summer I am going to be starting my own little hand-painted yarn business! It is going to be called The Painted Sheep and the website will eventually be at http://paintedsheepyarn.com (it doesn't exist yet though). This week I have been researching places to buy undyed yarn, getting a website started and beginning to experiment with the dyeing itself. I have dyed yarn before and got a real kick out of dying self-striping yarn, but now I am trying to be more creative and artistic. So far I have dyed one skein in Knit Picky inspired colors and another in greens and pink inspired by a photograph by Bonnie Berlin (the third picture). The green is still wet so the colors will actually end up a lot lighter than this photo shows. More pictures here.

Hand Painted Yarn

free pattern for tiny sock here

An Assortment of Things

Newly discovered blog that entertains me: knitandtonic

And she has beautiful patterns. I especially like "Sizzle" and "The Somewhat Cowl."

Spunky Eclectic:Beautiful hand painted yarn. Its very pretty. She is sending us some samples at the shop. Hopefully it will be nice enough for us to order some.

The blue tank top to the left is gorgeous. One of the open knit nite gals at the shop it working on it. Wow. It is from Adrienne Vittadini's Spring 2005 book.

Swatches

This evening I have been knitting swatches. Southwest Trading Company sent us some samples of their yarns at the shop today and I took them home to knit up swatches. Unfortunately they didn't send us samples of the yarns that I was most interested in--the soft fluffy soy silk ones! I like Love- the bamboo/silk blend- but its not terribly exciting. The 100% bamboo is pretty neat and unique...a somewhat limited color selection though. I like the sock yarn (Tofutsies) but to be honest I have never used sock yarn before so I'm not sure how it compares (I have knit socks, but never with yarn specifically for socks). Oasis--100% soy silk, but not the soft fluffy texture I want but a smooth roundish yarn--is fine but not terribly special. Craft--milk fiber and cotton--is fine as a all around cotton but doesn't seem to offer much more. It comes in a limited range of colors though. Inspiration (soy and alpaca) isn't very inspiring either. I have worked with both soy and alpaca before and both have the potential to be very soft and luxurious. This yarn is scratchy! Phoenix (soy silk ribbon) is pretty nice. It is flat like a ribbon but soft and easy to knit. It has potential. Rock (soy, wool and hemp) is neat. The hemp makes it somewhat coarse of course, but that will soften over time. The hemp also makes it feel kind of...earthy. I could definitely see myself using it, though I'm not sure for what.

Have you used any SWTC yarns? Do you have any opinions on this company or its yarns? Have you heard anything about them? good or bad!

Bamboo Yarn

I like bamboo yarn. I know its a silly novelty thing, but it makes me happy to make things out of bamboo. I am thinking about going to the plant store today and buying a little bamboo plant to look at while I knit with my bamboo yarn. I just started the green lace tanktop from Interweave Spring 2007 magazine using Berroco Bonsai and its great to work with. I was a bit worried at first b/c it is flat like a ribbon yarn and I find ribbon yarn awkward to work with. Even the Suede I am using for my bikini is a little weird to knit. But I don't find that with this yarn at all. It is soft and supply so you don't notice that its flat. To be honest I don't know how I am going to like it when its finished. I don't usually like yarns with shiny glitz in them, and the pattern is kind of different, but for some reason I just have to make it. It will be a great technique piece, if nothing else. It has multiple lace designs and will be one of the first sweater-type things I have made. And even if it doesn't look good on me I am sure it will look lovely on one of the display forms in the shop!