Good morning and happy Friday! First off, I want to say thank you to everyone who took part in my big sale last week. It is a huge help to our family as is your patronage of Purple Lamb all year long. I’m grateful to you.
I have a few things to share with you today. I dyed up some new Christmas colorways. Also, I have the “winner” from last year’s vote on the December club colorway. Last but not least, today is Day 1 for your Advent calendars.
New Christmas Colorways
I am both excited and apologetic about these new Christmas colorways. I am excited to share them with you but sorry that I wasn’t able to make them months ago when you could have used them to make Christmas sweaters. However, there’s still enough time to make small projects like hats, socks, scarves, and cowls and have them ready to wear or give in time for Christmas.
Here are the colorways:
Cherries Jubilee is not a new colorway, but it is one I dye on rare occasions. I dyed it up as a good semi-solid to go with the other two. Deck the Halls is an assigned pooling colorway, and Poinsettias is an Ikat colorway. I made a reversible hat to show what each one looks like knit up.
Here is Poinsettias:
Ikat is an ancient technique from the Far East where a resist is used to stop section from being dyed kind of like tie-dye. Here is an article about it.
Here’s a closeup of Poinsettias:
Here is Deck the Halls:
As I mentioned above, Deck the Halls is an assigned pooling colorway with green and teal as the main color and Cherries Jubilee as the assigned pooling color. Even though it can be used for assigned pooling, the hat I knit is regular stockinette, so it’s good for ordinary knitting and crochet as well.
Here is a closeup of Deck the Halls:
You can see all three of them here on Sock Perfection, Sparkly Merino Sock, and Squoosh DK.
…And the Winner Is
Ever since I started the art-inspired yarn and art batt clubs, I have done a Christmas-themed colorway for December. This year, I found four different possible paintings I loved, and I couldn’t decide which one to use. I asked you to email me your favorite, and the painting that got the most votes by far was Adoration of the Shepherds by Champaigne. Here it is:
I have already started on the art batts and will be working on the yarn soon. The last day to join the club or make changes to your subscription is actually today. The art-inspired yarn club also makes a great gift!
Advent Day One
If you ordered an yarn or fiber Advent calendar, today is Day One! I thought it would be fun to share photos of starting out. If you are on Instagram, tag me @purplelambfiberarts. If you are on Facebook, you can share it on my page at www.facebook.com/purplelambfiberarts. Feel absolutely free to share someone else’s kit and not just mine. Just be sure to mention the dyer and the designer.
After that, feel free to post as often as you like as you make your way through the kit. I would just ask that if you are speedy and get ahead of the rest of us, please wait to post those photos until that day has come. In other words, if you spin, knit, or crochet day 22 on day 20, please wait until day 22 to show it to all of us so as to avoid spoilers.
I hope this year’s Advent calendar brings you joy and peace in the midst of the busy holiday season!