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!

Buffalo Gold "Lux" yarn

45% Bison

20% Silk

20% Cashmere

15% Tencel

 

This is the lace-weight yarn I'm using right now.  I LOVE it!  It's made by Buffalo Gold, although at the moment I don't see it on their website.  For those of us who are allergic to wool, buffalo down is a magical option, as it looks and behaves similarly.  There is less stretch in the fiber, but looking at the finished product, you'd never guess it's not a wool or wool blend.  The resulting fabric is silky soft, impressively strong, and has terrific stitch definition pre-washing.  The swatch I laundered got a lovely soft, dense halo around the original strand, making for a cashmere look.

 

This yarn is skeined pre-bloom, and does still have some of the manufacturing oils left on its surface.  This is slowing down the action on my hardwood needles, but not much.  I've decided to wash the finished garment instead of the skein to give it a fuller effect than knitting post-bloom would.

 

I'm making a solid color version of the Ruffles for Lisa scarf, and my particular yarn is a sagey green.  It's skeined at 330 yds, which I think should just do it.  If I come up short, I'll scour Ravelry for another skein.

 

When I was in Yellowstone recently, the bison were shedding their down.  It was fascinating to my fiber-crazed brain that this soft, billowy down was one of the fibers used in my yarn.  This is not an easy way to obtain fibers!  My understanding is that they only shed their down once a year. I know the Yellowstone herds are wild, but I have a hard time picturing a fully tamed buffalo.  I wouldn't enjoy being responsible for gathering the shed down, or for giving a buffalo a comb-out.  Maybe I'm just a wuss.  Do any of you gather buffalo fibers?

 

Anyway, pictures will follow, and when I'm sure I'm finished tinkering with it, so will the pattern.  If you've made anything with Lux or with buffalo yarn in general, I'd love to see it and hear about your experience!

Freebie Scarf/Holiday Knit-Ahead

Looking for a beautiful project that will be a great gift and easy to do in the summer heat?  Try this.  It's called the Romantic Ruffle Scarf, and it's by Piper's Quilts.  It appears on their blog post from January 7th of this year.  (Click here for the post.)  Many thanks to Piper's Quilts for making this lovely free pattern available.

I'm casting it on in cashmere today, and I can't wait to see the finished product!  It's in fingering weight yarn, on US 5s or 6s, and they say it will take about 350 yards.  I'm going with fern green, and maybe a chocolate edge. 

Made in linen or silk, this would be a great addition to your summer wardrobe.  Enjoy!

Ghosts of Knitting Past

I was trying to tame my stash last night.  I don't know why.  I know better.  I had this notion that I could separate all the wools from all the non-wools, and that this would somehow make my life more - I don't know.  Better.  In this process I discovered many things:



Applique Stocking Sample



1. I own a whole heckuva lot of yarn.

2.  The stash is about the same weight as my dog.  Max is a German Shorthaired Pointer, Labrador Retriever mix.  Think your average 8 year old child.

3.  My children become concerned when they see the entire family room furniture and floor covered in yarn, when I'm sitting in the middle, head in hands, saying, "Maybe. Maybe."

4. While purchasing yarn I have largely disregarded my allergy to wool.

5. I really DID buy a ton of Cascade Pure Alpaca about a year ago.  I just found it again after looking several times.

6. While purchasing yarn I have made a great many dubious choices.



Tweed Faroe Mitten.  Why?



Why would I buy one skein of cashmere that is only 60 yards? Why would I buy tweeds for a Faroe Project? (Yes I did.  There are pictures to prove it.)  Why did I store the stash in so many different places?

How could I lose track of making Christmas stockings for my children, and just quit after designing and knitting a sample? Why would I store FOs in with the stash?  When did I ever think I would use acrylic for anything except baby blankets?  Why is my darning egg in with the bulky yarns?

This makes me think that a few years from now, while re-sorting the stash, I may find more unanswered questions.  Will I be wondering why I made so many cowls?  What was my obsession with mittens all about?  How much sock yarn does any woman need?  What the heck was I thinking the last time I sorted out the stash?

A Free Pattern for a Boy Sweater

This is an adorable sweater for the man/boy in your life.  You can make it in any kind of colorway, and as it is knit in blocks, you could add any or subtract any colors you want. 

Make it in a solid and it could go to most offices.  Make it in two contrasting tones, and it celebrates the weekend.  Make it in the Mr.'s favorite team colors (Red and Blue for the Buffalo Bills) and it's a multipurpose garment.  (Warmth and spirit in a handmade.  Woo Hoo!)

Make it in a cashemere blend, and it's a luxury he'll never forget.  Make it in baby alpaca, and it's warm enough for outerwear, even here in the Buffalo area. 

Have fun with it.  Take pictures.  I'd love to see them!

High End Fibers

Why are high end fibers sold in such small skeins? 80yds doesn't seem like nearly enough to accomplish most projects, right? A sweater usually runs 1400-2500 yards in worsted or DK. More common fibers come in skeins of 200yds and more.

Smaller skeins mean you have to buy more of them to complete a project. But you can buy closer to the exact amount you need. If you're paying $60 for 80yds of cashmere, you don't want to buy much overage! If you're making a project that requires 1100yds of fiber, in wool you'd buy 6 200yd skeins and end up with 100yds left over. In cashemere, you'd buy 14 skeins, but you'd only have 20yds left over. At cashmere prices, less left over is more appealing. Who wants to spend that much money on extra?

One thing that makes these small skeins really cool is that you can use luxury fibers as accents (collar and cuffs, for example) or for small accessories without the large investment involved in a whole sweater. They also make great yarns for gifts or gift projects. Try 'em next time you're in the mood for a splurge.