What a Yarn

 

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Topic Day 7:
There’s one love that we all share: yarn. Blog about a particular yarn you have used in the past or own in your stash, or perhaps one that you covet from afar. If it is a yarn you have used you could show the project that you used it for, perhaps writing a mini ‘review’. Perhaps, instead, you pine for the feel of the almost mythical qiviut? You could explore and research the raw material and manufacturing process if you were feeling investigative. (Tag:knitcroblo7)

I can't believe we are at the last day of this blogging adventure. I sure have enjoyed participating in it. I hope you've enjoyed what I've written.

! am a hand painted/hand dyed sock yarn addict. I admit it. When we bought a new tractor last winter I was grieving because I didn't think I'd be able to buy any for awhile. I am relieved that I was wrong about that.

There are several independent dyers that I have bought from, and raved about here on the blog, Today's post is about Knitivity.
 
  I 'met' Ray, owner, operator and dyer for Knitivity on Ravelry in one of the forum groups I inhabit there. After a bit of time I found out he was a dyer of yarn and had to check it out. Shouldn't have done that. He has scrumptious stuff. Not only does he have sock yarn, but he does lace, sport,and worsted too. His yarn bases are of good quality.

He has a unique way of mixing his colors that I find I like a lot. I think, sometimes, that it may be the male perspective because he's the only indy dyer I buy from who is male. More than likely, he's just got a talent for mixing colors.

Ray likes to create colorways based on photographs. Mostly nature like beautiful scenery and whatnot. All of them beautiful. I don't have pics of them myself,so I will direct you to his web site to just a few. Click on the following links to see what I'm talking about.

Equinox     Blue Bonnets (scroll down)     Lake Dawn

Hadrians Wall (yarn)      Hadrians Wall photo

One of the things that 'attracted' me to Rays yarns is the fact that he will custom dye them to match your pet. So many of us think of our pets as family members. What a cool way to make a remembrance of them. In my case, I decided to order a skein of sock yarn for my daughter that would match her cat, my grand kitty, Lindy. I was, and still am, very pleased with the results.

Lindy

 The Lindy yarn

He did a pretty good job of matching her.

My daughter loves his yarns. She has already knit up 2 skeins that I bought her last month.

Fingerless Mitts using the Leather Journal colorway.

Rich shades of leathery brown and taupe with just a dab of grays.

This is the leftovers from a pair of fingerless gloves she made for her sister. It's the Easter Parade colorway.

Bright spots of color on a white background.

She also owns the Chocolate Covered Cherries colorway.

Rich deep chocolate brown with reds and pinks. It looks good enough to eat.

These remaining ones are mine.

Rose Quartz is shades of pink with speckles and spots of gray.

This one is Channel Islands. Blue waters and gray rocks.

I plan to use this one to make a pair of socks for my son-in-law.

It's the Patina colorway and it features tans, grays, and a bit of minty green.

This one is named Indian Corn.

The rich shades of deep purple, reds, and golds that you would find in corn.

These next two are extra special because they are blog reader specials. Ray dyes yarns by special order. Someone tells him what they want, he aims to please. Once in awhile he makes mistakes.

Other times he has leftover bits of dye and uses it up just for fun. All of these yarns are one-of-a-kind-never-to-be-done-again yarns. He doesn't throw out the mistakes, or the leftover dyes. He creates Blog Reader Specials with them. People who read his blog get to know about these gems. He posts them once a week, on average.

That's what these last 2 skeins are.

If I remember correctly he had intended for this one to be paler with a bit more gray. I love all the minty goodness.

He had some leftover dyes and made this deep green semisolid.

Looking at this yarn brings me the peace and tranquility I get when I'm in an old growth forest.


As I said earlier, he also dyes lace weight, sport, and worsted weight yarns in all his fabulous colors, or custom as ordered. I haven't bought any of them - yet. But it's on my list of things to do.

Rays customer service is outstanding. If, due to unforeseen circumstances, your order is going to be delayed he sends an email to let you know. He has always sent me an email letting me know my order has been shipped.

Knitivity Yarns. You won't be disappointed.

Have a yarny day.

I Think I May be Out of Control

I have been shamefully enhancing my stashes the last few days. I shouldn't be cos we need to tighten our belts a bit (us owing the IRS money this year and all). But I've been running across some really great deals, and whatnot, and I have a couple projects that needed beads to finish them, so.... here's what I have, in no particular order.

Yarny buttons. I popped into the Dollar Tree store in Coeur d'alene looking for a gift wrapping item. I made the mistake of passing down the craft aisle on my way to the gift wrap. Big mistake. I spotted these buttons. They stood out like a giant florescent green sign amongst all the crafty crap. They're made of plastic, but they're so cute! And the whole package of 12 was only $1.00


Though they're not shown here, the buttons were right next to a whole bunch of packages of very very very nice pewter beads-which I would not have seen if the buttons had not been flagrantly showing off- at a buck a pack. Well, I mean, there was over 200 bucks worth of these lovely PEWTER beads for only 36 bucks....I bought the whole kit and kaboodle. I left none for anyone else-and I'm not sorry about it. I just couldn't pass up a deal like that! But I won't stoop so low as to show them off cos it would make my fellow beaders cry at how cool a deal it was.

Then I popped into Michaels. I had a specific purpose in mind. I have been making my beaded beads with some wooden beads for bases. The holes in them are hUmOnGoUs! So I thought I'd see if they had any 20mm plastic or glass beads with smaller holes. I looked in the beading aisle, but I didn't see anything I liked. I did see a lady who looked familiar to me. So I asked her if we knew each other (we've seen each other at Bead It in Post Falls) which led her to telling me about the beads she had that were on sale at a buck a strand, which then lead to her showing me where they were (not in the beading aisle, and very hard to find if you didn't know where to look), which then led to a feeding frenzy with me and 2 other beaders (who sneakily followed us). I managed to find some beautiful 20mm glass beads in the pile, plus some lovely copper beads-all for a buck a strand. Nice copper beads at that price are almost unheard of.


Well, since I was in Coeur d'Alene, I might as well pop into Bead Creative and see if I can find anything to go with the two beaded beads that are destined for real necklace projects. I found these.


They will work perfectly. The 4 red and yellow lampwork beads and the 4 Ruby quartz beads go in one necklace, and the purplish stone (I neglected to see what they are) is for another one.

Okay, remember that lace stole pattern I bought recently called Maplewing? I stumbled across the perfect yarn for that while in CDA Yarn and Fiber. It's the exact color I had in mind.


It's Fino from Alpaca With a Twist. Lace weight 70% Baby Alpaca/30% Silk. Very very soft to the touch.

Then, Andrea, the shop owner, being the enabler she is, mentioned that a sock yarn I'd been wanting but hadn't bought yet was down to one skein left. AAHH! Had to get that.


On Your Toes from S.R. Kertzer. Don't know why I like this colorway so much. I'm not usually one for anything that has orange in it.

Then, again because she's an evil enabler, Andrea showed me what just came in.


I have not seen that shade of teal/turquoise in a yarn in years! I LOVE that color. I bought all 10 skeins. They were at a discount, which made the experience a little less 'painful'. Lambs Pride Superwash Wool from Brown Sheep Co. As a rule I do not like Brown Sheep's yarns. I detest their sock yarn (Wildfoote?), and I've never liked their extremely popular Lambs Pride worsted or bulky because I don't like the twist. They're a Z twist yarn. It doesn't look quite right to me knitted up. The stitches are not as smooth and even. However, this superwash has the S twist. So I'm going to give it a try.

I feel kind of guilty for spending all this money. Sigh.... just doing my part to restart the economy, right?

Tomorrow is the local spinning guilds annual Spin In. I am going for the whole day. I expect the debit card to take another beating, though I'm going to try my best not to let that happen.

Have a good day.

We Got Sunshine

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day! It was sunny, clear, and 65F degrees. The air was sweet with the smell of pine. A real spring day.

HURRAY!!!

I think maybe Marguerite took the cold with her when she went home. Thanks Marguerite!

It was one of those days when you just can't stay in the house and do same old same old. I had to be out in the sun. So, when I checked the mailbox and discovered the sock yarn I won in the Fearless Fibers contest had arrived, I took it's picture while it hung in a tree. The yarn is beautiful. So soft! It's part Merino wool and part Tencel. It has a wonderful sheen to it that came out quite nicely in the sunshine.


The snow is retreating very quickly with all the warmth. It's so nice to see the grass again. I just sat in the sun and soaked for awhile. It felt so good!

Being so nice out, we couldn't stand to stay home. And since I was out of laundry detergent and whatnot, I said "Lets go to Costco." Whew! I think everyone in the county had the same idea. It was crowded.

While there I picked up a bouquet of flowers. They had a bouquet that I could not leave without. It has the most unusual color of roses in it I've ever seen.


There's also chrysanthemums, daisies, carnations, and half a dozen other flowers that I don't know the names of-all in shades of red and yellow. But it was the roses that are what attracted me to it.


Gorgeous!

I wonder what variety rose that is, and where can I get one for my yard??? Me WANTS!

Oh, excuse me. Chenille wants to squeeze into my lap and suck her 'thumb'.

"Just what do you mean by that?!"

"Ah, cheek scratch. Bliss.......prrrrrrrrrr............."

Whew! I managed to escape that face scratch. (Just between you and me, she DOES suck her toes.) They are still sayin' today will be 70F. I think they just might be right this time. I'm gonna go drink my coffee out on the deck in that long awaited sunshine.

Have a great day!

In Case You've Been Wondering

This is what an unassembled Mermaid looks like. All the pieces are done. Now I have to block her and sew her together.

Belina the Mermaid

Here's the happy couple, Frank and Sarah. On Saturday evening we went out to dinner to celebrate their engagement. They have not set a date for the wedding yet. One step at a time!


Last Friday, if you'll remember, Ruth and I went to a rock and gem show. I brought home treasures to add to my bead stash. I took pic to share with you.

This is a cabochon made of Lake Superior Agate with Sagenite inclusions in it. The Sagenite is the vertical red tubes. The owner found it in Michigan. This is a real treasure, and I got it for a steal. I think I may have broke his heart when I bought it. But, my opinion is, if you don't want to sell it, don't put it up for sale.


This cab is made of Charoite. Charoite comes from Siberia, Russia. According to my rock book, it only comes from one place, and it's kind of rare. Unfortunately, the glorious iridescence in this stone does not show up in the pic.


The fellow who sold this to me was pretty funny. A retired teacher, when I asked him what it was, he said "Who says Coochi coochi?. It's Coochi coochi I-T-E." For those of you too young to know, Charo says Coochi coochi. She's a singer/dancer. I think she still does a show in Vegas, but I'm not sure about that.

My third find is this beautiful Rhodochrosite cab. I just love the zigzag stripes in this one.


And, since I was in the mood for taking pictures. Here's Grandkitty Lindy. She came along when Ruth came home for spring break, and promptly established her dominance over all the sweet sleeping spots in the house. She says "I'm the Queen! Worship my greatness!"


This is Grandkitty Meadowlark, being heart meltingly sweet as usual. He was saying "I love you gwamma."


I have heard from Marguerite, so the contest is officially over.

Have a great day.