3 Bags Full

The kids are back in school, which means the Lovely and Intrepid Colleen, Assistant Extraordinaire, is available to get back to work on what's important - paying attention to my knitting needs!  We met up at our usual Starbucks location, delighted to have no children in tow, and fewer limits on knitting and design time.

As I was packing up for this meeting, I collected no fewer than three bags full of Mountain Colors Yarn for us to discuss, and swatches for future designs.  Because my head is conclusively up my butt, I did not consider this strange at all.  I just walked into Starbucks, ordered, and then spread yarn across a large table for four.  There were only the two of us, but it was a lot of yarn.

The yarn attracted lots of attention.  People wanted to touch it, look at it, talk about knitting with it, learn where to buy it, learn when the patterns I'm designing will be available and where, etc.  The first woman visited with us for 20 minutes before mentioning that she had left her husband on the other side of the café, waiting for her.  One woman was in the process of conducting a job interview (I am not making this up) and abandoned her job candidate for the better part of ten minutes just to visit the yarn!

I took the yarn home and went on with my day yarn-free.  Sincerely, if I ever decide to run for office, I think I'll bring it with me everywhere I go.  It draws a relaxed and happy crowd.

More Mountain Colors Visit

Welcome to Mountain Colors Yarn

It's been a crazy week since I returned from Montana.  My plane landed in Bflo at 5pm after 12 hrs of travelling, and Sunday I was a zombie.  Monday brought the sprint to be ready for my daughter's first day of college.  Details keep needing my attention about the new house, and of course, in my spare time, I try to get some knitting done, and get some sleep.  Then yesterday we had multiple violent Asperger's Syndrome breakdowns to cope with, and today I write in what I can only describe as suspicious and unlikely calm.


Bins by Colorway

This Mountain Colors Yarn visit started, as have previous visits, with a drive into the Bitterroot Valley to the shop.  The photo above is the sign at the roadside inviting you in, taken on a previous visit.  This trip was marked by smoky skies and air due to the severe wildfire up the canyon.


Future Projects

When you use the "Showroom" entrance, you arrive in a room of all of the yarns sorted by colorway. Find the colorway you love, and you'll immediately see all of your yarn choices.  You'll also find "mill ends" of yarns, priced by the ounce.  These are great for colorwork and swatching.    Then you come to one of my favorites: "Test Skeins".  These are trial runs of future colorways, and are usually done in dye hank sizes (about 4 normal hanks).  These are also sold by the ounce, and I find them addicting.  I bought three.


Diana McKay and Leslie Taylor

I was very fortunate that both owners, Leslie Taylor and Diana McKay, were in.  I had met Diana in the past, and was delighted to see her again, and to meet Leslie for the first time.  We had a lovely chat, and decided to collaborate again on some designs.  We're thinking a shrug or similar top, and a Chanel-inspired jacket.  These are some of the yarns we're considering (see photo above.)

One thing I wish I could share with you is the smell.  It's a strange blend of wool, dye, and vinegar (used as a mordant to set the dye.)  It all comes together as a sort of marvelous yarn salad smell. 

Here's the process as I understand it: undyed yarn comes in, and is skeined for dyeing.  It's sorted into the fiber types to be dyed in a particular color run.  Each run could contain half a dozen different types of yarn.

It all heads off to the dye kitchen, where it is washed.  This removes any machine oils from the yarn, and allows it to take dye evenly.

The team mixes up all the colors to be used in today's batch on the hotplates and in the dye bottles.  And then it gets messy!


Skein after skein is hand dyed with squirt bottles of dye.  Each color is added individually in a prescribed order and pattern to create the exact desired effect on each skein.  These dye hanks are then treated with mordant to set the color, rinsed and dried.  Then they are broken down into the familiar retail hanks you and I purchase at the store.

The only hard part about going to MCY is not having the cash to buy out the entire place.  I'm often content with my stash, but never when I go there!  It's all so easy to knit, wears like iron, and those colors are so seductive!

I found my Kryptonite on this visit, too.  Cashmere Louisa yarn in my favorite colorway ever, Harmony Honey.  At $84 a skein, it's something I'd indulge in if I had been very, very good.  I decided I had been very, very good.  WooHoo!

Mountain Colors Yarn Visit

Under the Bigtop Hat

My affection for Mountain Colors Yarn is well publicized.  (see the first 4 pics for original patterns with their yarns)  I was lucky enough to have another visit to their studios and showroom last week during my Montana vacation.  What makes me love a small yarn dyer in a place that's tough to reach?  A company who exclusively dyes variegated yarns, which I am reported to have a very fickle relationship with?


Elk Mittens

Well, it's not complicated.  I don't know who their yarn suppliers are, but Mountain Colors is very particular about only dying extremely high quality yarns which are a pleasure to use.  I've used them for a number of projects, and used them as featured yarn for classes.  And the colors are outstanding, each painstakingly composed by the two owners, Leslie Taylor and Diana McKay.  These two women have a remarkable color sense, building each variegation from 9 colors and blends.  They hand-dye in small batches for color and quality control.  And the majority of their colorways are inspired by their surroundings.


Snuggly Socks

Ruffles for Lisa

As it turns out, the surrounding of Western Montana is a particularly beautiful and volatile one.  Wildflowers, wildlife and wildfires, Cascade Mountains and cascading streams, and four seasons of weather to create even more colors and drama.

Lolo Pass Fire 2013

They are located in the Bitterroot Valley, in a little town called Corvallis.  On this visit, the valley was socked in with smoke from a huge wildfire just over the ridge.  At first I was disappointed, worrying about the loss of wilderness and property.  (I'm from the East Coast, and this was my first wildfire!  Yikes!)  But it was painstakingly explained to me that letting the fires burn is better for the environment in the long run, and that the people and livestock were being well protected.  So I spent a little time looking at the contrast of the fire plume over the mountains, against the sky, against the lodge pole pines.  The colors were unique and amazing.

This is already running a little long, so I'll talk about the cool yarn I collected for new designs in the next post.

New Home for My Stash 2

The previously described home I am trying to buy is not going any better.

I went on vacation out in Montana, and while there I enjoyed visit to Mountain Colors.  Tons of magnificent yarn came home with me.  I've been sketching and designing, and it will be lovely distraction for the next couple of weeks.  (Post coming soon!)  I thought when I came back that there would be some progress on the house. 

Nope.  Instead, we're more aware of how far behind we are.  It could be months while the seller finishes sorting out her bankruptcy issues, and I can't do anything to advance the process.  A month ago I was hurrying to organize all the paperwork, insurance, contractor dates, etc.  Now that all of it is finished the waiting is maddening!  And all the contractor scheduling will have to be organized again.  The yarn will have to be in its cramped digs a little longer.

The good news is, lots of yarn and knitting time.  I'm in love!  Photos to follow in the next couple of days.

Under the Bigtop

As I was teaching this fall, I had the pleasure of having some of my colorwork classes sponsored by Mountain Colors Yarns.  They supplied wools in a variety of colors for my students to use during their various lessons.  Blues and greens and golds and reds drew the hands of delighted students as they chose their yarn samples for the swatches they would create.  To a person, every student fell in love with the yarn (4/8 wool) and marveled over the richness of the colors.

Watching the various swatches grow day after day, I was mesmerized by the shear beauty of the lively color combinations.  I wanted to make something with these incredible colors, too!  I've used them before, and it's definitely time to use them again.

As a designer, wife, and mom, I have a huge backlog of knitting to do, and wondered when I'd be able to fit something in.  Then I started thinking about the charity knitting group I'd just started, and realized I had my "in".  I could design a hat for the charity group using these wonderful leftover ball ends from my classes!  As I started working on the hat nad posting about it on Facebook and Twitter, I started getting "Can we see it?" questions.  It's not finished, but yes, here it is.

I chose the Harmony Iris and Firestorm colorways, and was inspired by the joy of the Firestorm colorway to make something reminiscent of the circus.  It isn't a literal interpretation of a circus tent, but I like to think it has a little circus tent, a little carousel, and a little childish wonder built in.  (Finally, even Colleen would approve of these colors!  Nothing subtle here!)
I'll be posting the pattern to Ravelry in the next day or  two, as soon as I finish it.  I'm just working out the decreases to make them smooth.  Thanks for your interest.  I hope many of you will make it and donate it to your favorite charities.

Update: Done!  Pattern to follow soon! 

Just When I Thought It Was Safe...

There are days I think it might help if they made superhero undies for grown ups.  I could have used a little Wonder Woman power today.  And I really needed the cool invisible plane.

So I opened the box from Mountain Colors and saw my beautiful un-skeined Crazyfoot yarn for the Gift Knits Snuggly Socks, and was thrilled.  It still smelled a bit of mordant (the stuff used to set dye, in this case largely vinegar), so I didn't ball it right away.  I let it breathe until this morning.  Then, out came the yarn swift and ball winder.

Well, I put the giant 1lb dye hank on the swift, and the swift promptly broke.  Ooops!  Ok, a little swift surgery later, I was back in business.  Then, I cut the ties on the hank.  Then, I started winding.  Strangely, as the ball reached the size of a racquetball, there was a yarn end, and the swift kept spinning, no longer attached to the ball.  I cursed, weighed the ball, and cursed again.  Only 27g.  It takes at least 45 of this yarn to make a man's sock.  Nobody wants to knit a sock with multiple ends.  I started winding again, thinking that was a fluke.

Not a fluke.  It happened again.  3 more times!  This is amazingly rare in the land of yarn.  (Like maybe one in 500 dye hanks.)  So I have 4 little mini balls of sock yarn, and then the rest of the balls for the club went very smoothly.  95g came out perfectly again and again. 

Because Murphy's Luck follows me like an Eeyore cloud, I had only ordered exactly enough yarn to fulfill the kit orders, so I was one kit short.  And they're supposed to go in the mail today.  That's not the toughest part.  No one in my area carries this particular yarn.  They carry the brand, but not the exact yarn.  Now what?  Have a club member wait until the company can ship some from Montana?  No.  (This is where I would have used the cool Wonder Woman Jet.)  Provide a different brand of yarn in a similar put-up?  No.  There is a reason these socks had to be Mountain Colors.  The pattern was literally designed for their style of colorshifts in the wool.

And then I remembered.  I made the first two swatches for these socks in Mountain Colors' sister sock yarn, Bearfoot.  The pattern works equally well in both.  So I trotted out to my LYS and purchased one skein of Bearfoot so that all the club kits could get into the mail on time.  As happens to me every time I'm in a yarn shop, I wanted every skein in the place, but I managed to stick to my plan and just buy the one skein.  I don't know if I'll be able to get to the Post Office in time today, but I made a valiant effort. 

Tomorrow, I buy Wonder Woman undies.

Turtle-necked Capelet





Turtle-necked Capelet, currently in progress

I've been wanting a piece of outerwear that hearkens back to the ponchos my mother made for me when I was a kid.  It was the seventies, and they were a great fall layer.  Now that ponchos and capelets are back in a big way, I have a different take.  I have a lovely pima cotton and silk lace one that takes a chill off beautifully in the summer.  And I've often lusted after the wrap in the cover of Wrap Style, by Pam Allen and Ann Budd.  Different from the seventies, and in a really good way!

I'm not one to knit patterns by other people very often.  I'm really opinionated, first of all; and I also like making things tailored specifically to my own body.  I decided to make a capelet for me, and instead of making the lovely Fair Isle design on the book cover, I would make one featuring texture. I  realized that it was a great way to utilize my embarrassing stash, which is filled with leftover yarns I love from past projects.  It's almost like a knitter's memory quilt! 

So far I've used more than ten different yarns, between colors and specific brands and styles.  Using each one for only a row or two has resulted in some interesting texture, as I'd hoped, but also created an obvious contrast between the different features and benefits of the yarns.  It made me decide to share some of my opinions.  After all, these are yarns I've loved over the years.  I hope you love some of them, too!

First off, I used the Cascade Yarns Baby Alpaca Chunky.  It's one of my favorte yarns, and I always have a bunch of ball ends around, so I've been using that.  It's soft and fluffy, and knits easily.  It retains its loft, and looks gorgeous knit up.

Not usually a fan of any synthetics in any significant proportion, I was delighted to fall in love with Kraemer Yarns Fountain Hill Brushed Mohair.  It's 80% acrylic, and 20% mohair.  It has that lovely halo we all love from mohair, but isn't as weak and wispy as some of the mohairs out there.  The acrylic allows the mohair to stand up beautifully as a carry along yarn.  It smoothly travels over the needles, and blends with the yarn it's carried with.  It says it's a 2 weight, and I would even suggest that it might be a 1 on its own.  I don't think I'd use it as a single yarn, but I love it as part of a pair.

Another returning favorite is Cascade Pima Tencel, a 3 weight.  It's a beautiful blend with a lovely sheen.  For all of those who hate knitting with cotton, you won't like this any better, as it retains all of its cotton charicteristics and adds the strength and sheen from the pima.  The stitch definition is fabulous, but as such, it shows every little mistake.  If you're a smooth knitter who loves to show off your stitches, this is an excellent yarn for you.

The color palette (lavender, teal, sage, pink) was decided by the colors in the Universal Yarns Bamboo Bloom Handpaints Fallen Petals colorway with which I fell in love at my LYS.  It's a thick and thin, listed as bulky weight, 48% Rayon from Bamboo, 44% wool, and 8% acrylic.  The thin part is approximately sock weight, and the thick is a bulky, sometimes a roving.  It has several different finishes within its skein, each revealing itself a yard or two at a time.  It comes in several colorways, and though I'm fussy about my variegateds, I genuinely love every colorway I've seen.

In the same pink, lavender and sage green colorway as the Bamboo Bloom is the Mission Falls 1824 Cotton, held here with the Cascade Pima Cotton, and although it's been discontinued, you can find it out there.  Swaps, Ravelry stash busting, and even a few online outlets still have it.  It's two ply, one very thin and one thicker, giving it a texture all it's own, and the colors are dreamy.  Mission Falls, we miss you.

Both Mountain Colors Moguls and Mountain Colors Mohair Loops have stunning texture all their own, and I've inserted them periodically to accent the color (teal) and to vary the texture. Moguls is 96% wool and 4% nylon.  It knits up in a nubby boucle texture that's toasty warm and beautiful.  Mohair Loops is 93% mohair, 4% wool, and 3% nylon.  It's strong and soft, and sheds less than most mohairs I've used.  It has a lively sheen to it, and makes a beautiful accent to the smoother yarns in the piece.  I can see it as collar and cuffs on a coat or sweater in my future.

Cascade Sierra, a blend of cotton and wool, has a beautiful finish, and comes in wonderful colors.  I love the way it wears, and it's so soft!  It comes in many coordinating colorways with the rest of the Cascade line.  Cascade 220 is in the mix, too, as one of the cream components.  It's a standard worsted weight wool, the workhorse of the knitting world.  It's reliable and easy, as always.  And Cascade Luna is a cotton two ply much like the Mission Falls, but is a heavier yarn.  It' says DK, but it's a little heavier than most of my Dks.  The finish is incredibly soft, as are the colorways.  In this case, I'm using it doubled with the Cascade Pima Cotton, both in the sage and fern color families. 

Since I'm using most of the yarns doubled and sometimes tripled, it's hard to estimate how much yardage I'll end up using.  I'm working on size US 8 needles, and it's making a heavy fabric with a lovely drape. 

I'm really enjoying digging through my stash every few rounds to bing in a new texture, weight, or color.  It has me remembering all the original projects made from these yarns.  I think I'm going to love wearing this capelet.  It's like 10 years of knitting history wrapped up in one project.

Snuggly Sock Preview

I know!  Gorgeous work knit by the magical and intrepid Colleen, Wonder Assistant.  She always makes my patterns look good.  (That's Colleen's foot in the photo.  Unless you're looking at this on your phone, it's probably close to actual size.  Her feet are tiny!)

This is the Gift Knit Kit Club pattern for February, Snuggly Socks.  Sized for both men and women, it is made from the incomparable Mountain Colors Yarn, Crazyfoot.  It's a very cozy sock in colors that can only come from Mountain Colors.  I love the way they blend!  It's an easy knit, but due to the yarn and the pattern, looks harder than it is.  It will definitely elicit comments of, "I can't believe you made these!"  If you choose to give them away, be sure to make another pair for yourself.

More beautiful Mountain Colors yarn in
in my Elk Mittens pattern.

I'd like to shout out once again to the lovely ladies at Mountain Colors, led by founders Leslie Taylor and Diane McKay.  It is a nearly all female workforce, and every part of the process at Mountain Colors is done by hand.  (I know.  I've been there and seen it myself.)  The yarns are terrific quality, and the colors take my breath away.  Thanks for all you do.

Like last month's gloves, the yarn alone for the socks costs more than the club members are paying for the yarn and the pattern,  (In my LYS, $26 plus tax for the yarn vs. $26 no tax for the club) and it gets delivered right to your door.  How cool is that?

Wishing you could get the pattern for yourself?  All club patterns will be released for sale 90 days after the club members recieve their kits.  Just wishing you could have the yarn? (I'm only slightly offended.)  Call your LYS and see if they carry it, as the colorways are truly magical in person.  They are available on line (at somewhat discounted prices) through Paradise Fibers.  Seriously, though, check the LYS first.  No computer monitor can show you these colors like they really look.  And we need to support our local knitting communities.

Moving Confusion

In the last couple of weeks I've moved into an apartment.  It's not a dump, but it's not a palace, either.  It's a simple, humble apartment in a safe neighborhood.

Anyone who has moved recently will understand the following: living in a new space is disorienting; putting stuff away in a place that makes sense today does not guarantee you can find it tomorrow; paint doesn't smell nearly as bad as it did 10 years ago; the thin veneer of clean and Elisabeth decor does not make the new place feel like home. 

There is a profound amount of shopping involved with moving, and most of it is annoying.  It isn't the delightful "let's redecorate the living room" type.  It's the "dammit, the couch won't fit through the door" type.  Or the "I ran out of painter's tape yesterday and forgot to get more today so I need to get some tomorrow" type.

In the meantime, I've assembled and shipped the Gift Knits Kits, and sent a very cool pair of mittens to TNNA with my friends at Mountain Colors.  The Kits came back for a postage problem, but they're really on their way now.  None of that stuff got misplaced in the shuffle, and I am grateful.

I carefully moved yarn and needles absolutely first so I could maintain my sanity by knitting at least a little each day.  That worked out great until I finished the first project.  It would be great if I could remember where I put those early yarn boxes.  Now I have a pattern to finish, and I can't find the intended yarn.  My stash is very large, and located in a variety of bins, boxes and bags that made sense in my old living circumstance.  Now that they are out of context, I can see the flaws in the organizing system.  (Okay, no system; there are flaws in the placing of a lot of yarn in unmarked bins and boxes and then moving them to a new abode.)

The good news is that while looking for the specific pattern yarn, I'm rediscovering fibers in my stash that haven't seen the light of day for a while.  The bad news is, I really don't know where the specific yarn I need is hiding.  I hope it's with the missing earrings, and wine glasses, and AV cables, and my iron.  It would be a strange box to have all those things in it, but it's much more discouraging to think all that stuff is lurking separately.  Coffee, chocolate, and red wine will all help.  (And they all stain.  Did I mention the new place has white carpets?)  We'll start with coffee.  This will all settle down.  It's Friday.  Okay.  This isn't panic, it's energy!  Gotta go find that yarn.

Internet Knitting Info - Where to Look

A while back I wrote a post called "Pattern Hunger" listing where I like to prowl for new patterns when the seasons change.  I listed some of my favorite Internet outlets, and the response was huge.  Don't get me wrong - I'm a huge fan of the LYS, and try to do most of my shopping there.  If I stop, I'm afraid my only local options will become Michael's, and JoAnn Fabrics.  At the LYS I have a community, experts, lessons, and more variety that I can possibly ever knit my way through.  But I can't prowl patterns as quickly as I can on line, and so I prowl on the Internet. 

The Internet can also be lifesaver for techniques and general information.  I assume by now everyone knows I'm a huge fan of Ravelry, so I'll leave that one alone.  Nearly every major manufacturer has a website full of info, patterns, a newsletter, an advice blog, or all of the above.  (Classic Elite, Cascade, Mountain Colors, Holiday Yarns, Kraemer, Berroco, Rowan, are all faves) - if you've heard of them, they have an Internet presence.  The sites usually have a variety of free and paid patterns, an opportunity to sign up for the newsletter (more patterns and info), detailed information about every yarn in the line, and tales of knitting seen through the eyes of the manufacturer and distributor.  This quick reading is great if you don't have a knitting community nearby, or it's 11:20 pm and if you call your friends to talk about yarn, they may stop being your friends. 

I'm also a huge fan of YouTube for knitting lessons.  I know, I never would have thought of it either, but my intrepid assistant, Colleen, filled me in years ago.  (Thanks as always, Coll!) I still peak at videos of techniques I haven't used in a while, whether it's making bobbles, Kitchener stitch, or (gasp!) brioche.  (No, I haven't finished it.  You want to make something of it?)  I also love to see the excerpts of knitting art installations, knits and knitting featured in movies, and interviews with famous designers.

There are also several good online magazines out there for knitting info.  Knitter's Review is authored by knitting expert and book author Clara Parkes, and she reviews everything to do with knitting.  With 11 years of archives, you'll likely find a review of anything you need.

Knitty is an online only magazine, with an entire community associated with it.  Beautiful patterns (free), great articles, and a helpful community are just a click away.

Twist Collective has articles about knitting history, current knitting issues, an advice column, and of course, patterns.  (These patterns are not free - you click on the title and the pricing info comes up in a separate window.)

The Daily Knitter has daily free patterns (yep, daily), articles, help articles, help videos, and a very thorough list of LYS throughout the country.  If you're travelling, it's a great resource to make sure you can get a knitting fix where ever you go!

ICU is a Chilly Place

The Cleveland Clinic is as beautiful and efficient a hospital as you can imagine.  It has a plethora of high end technology, all of which generates a lot of heat.  They also tell us that germs like it warm.  For those reasons, they keep the temperatures in the ICU seriously chilly.  The nurses all dress in several layers, often including some sort of sweater, and yesterday the nurse for the next room was wearing a quilted (outerwear) jacket with her uniform.

As I sit, hour upon hour, next to Scott's bed, I get cold.  I'm knitting mittens for Mountain Colors right now, and the wool in my lap is not making me any warmer.  I have decided, though, that when I finish these mittens they are going on my hands.  (They'll get to Montana soon enough.)  I know it's August.  It's 80+ degrees outside.  But it's 63 in here.  I'm cold.

Unless I'm having a hot flash.  In my entire experience of the hot flashes, this is the one situation in which I'm truly grateful for them.  For 20-45 minutes at a time, I'm finally warm enough!  It makes wardrobe planning tricky, and I've become a big lover of scarves and shawls in this strange interlude of my life. 

Ruffles for Lisa

I cast on a scarf for my BFF Lisa last night.  I'm using Crazyfoot from Mountain Colors Yarn, which is a nice sock yarn that comes in all the beautiful Mountain Colors colorways. 

I decided to work the scarf the long way, and to make it ruffle a bit from right to left.  I'm also working in some open stitches, to give it a bit of lace without becoming frothy.  These wonderful colorways lend themselves to simpler stitch work, as the really complicated stuff sometimes can get swallowed up in the highlights and shadows of the colors.  (The color sample above isn't Crazyfoot, it's Moguls. FYI.)

At first I was going to make this yarn into the Romantic Ruffle Scarf from yesterday's post, but alas, I didn't like the yarn and pattern together.  I wanted more of a vertical emphasis.  So that scarf will still be made, in a solid fern green with a thin chocolate edge.  This one will be something else entirely.

The only tricky part so far is laying hands on a really long size 6 circular needle.  The longest I have is a 29", and after a few phone calls to shops and friends, I finally found a 40".  A 48-54" scarf on a shorter needle is fine, but with subtle ruffles, one edge is going to be very long (like 1200 stitches or more.  I started with 250, and it's already a little busy!)  I hope they all fit!

I'm doing simple stitches, a slight ruffled effect, with a little openwork. Keeping it simple, I hope to avoid the colorway and the pattern competing for attention.  In a perfect world, it will make one unified, attractive piece.  I'll share pics as there is something to see, and the pattern when I'm finished tinkering with it.  Anyone else using Mountain Colors right now?

Making Patterns

Sketching is fun.  Getting an idea together with my colored pencils and some paper (and some coffee) is really cool. Turning those sketches into a pattern is a little tougher.  Add to that combining yarns, and thereby gauges and stitch counts, and it all gets a little complicated.  In some ways, that's what makes it fun.  But in some ways, when the sample goes wonky due to some unanticipated clash between design and human anatomy, it really ROTS!
I'm poking along right now on a sweater for winter 2012, featuring all kinds of texture.  I'm discovering that I really love designing cold weather knit wear, and have to be much more inspired to create warm weather knit wear.  Maybe it was getting caught in a snowstorm in Yellowstone last week, or maybe it's just my nature, but I'm feeling some cozy coming on.

All of this has lead me to a whole lot more knitting math, so I will be jumping in and continuing the series later in the week.  In the meantime, Seven Things that can "Make or Break" a Sweater™: Techniques and Tips for Hand Knitters, by Margaret E. Fisher, has some terrific knitting math.  I had never seen this book before last week, and am a little desperate waiting for my copy to come in the mail. 

Ms. Fisher has a very different approach from mine, teaching all the math as it pertains to one project - in this case a cute baby sweater.  I only got to scan someone else's copy for a minute, but I'm in love.  If any of you have read the book or made the sweater, tell me!  I'd love to know what you think! 

Mountain Colors Yarn

It's Thursday, and I'm back at home now.  I spent the night in DC due to poor weather and subsequent flight cancellations.  Yuck...  I would love to visit DC when I've PLANNED to, but not as a beleaguered traveller in a monsoon. 



The Sign at the Highway

 I promised photos of Mountain Colors Yarn dyeworks, so here they are. 

This is the sign out front that made me jump for joy (thank heavens I was the passenger and not the driver!)

We (Lisa, the BFF, and I) went in and were greeted by Diana McKay herself.  Diana and her friend, Leslie Taylor, started the dyeworks 19 years ago in their kitchens, and have owned the company ever since.  They were just back from the big TNNA conference, and even so, Diana was very generous with her time and materials to help us understand the company and products better.

Copper Mountain Colorway in 4/8's Wool

There is a wide variety of yarns available, including everything from lace weight to bulky to novelty, and most yarns are available in most colorways.  Each and every colorway contains nine different colors, making them unique and distinctive.  Although they didn't say so, they don't appear to use any colors they can't see out of their windows overlooking the Bitterroot Valley.  The valley has a distinctly Northwest palette of stone, river, grasses, buffalo, cattle, wildflowers, snow, and sky.  You'll find all of these tones in their yarns.

The current dye kitchen

Diana gave us a full tour, and this is the dye kitchen.  She explained that when they started the company, they both had small children at home, and needed to have a "family first" focus.  They have maintained this policy to this day, and many of their employees work from home.  "Nobody has to miss a soccer game or school play because of their job," she explained.  "We have a very low employee turnover.  People are happy here."

I can see why.  The few employees we met were cheerful, polite, and working steadily but not anxiously, in spite of the obvious work of re-stocking and bookkeeping after TNNA. 

Here in Buffalo, there isn't nearly enough of this yarn available.   It offers a unique style of variegation, and a great opportunity to add a new layer to colorwork.  I mentioned to Diana that I'd like to encourage local LYSs to carry the full line, and she generously loaded me up with a variety of yarns in a rich array of colorways.  I purchased yarn for a few projects of my own, and later today I'll be talking to some shops and advocating for more.

Visit their website, Mountain Colors Yarn for more info and to see the beautiful yarns.  They also offer a wide array of patterns.  If you can't get the yarns locally, try Paradise Fibers.  They carry the whole line, including the new and delicious Jeannette, a cashmere and silk blend.