Happy Friday to you! I have a lot to show you today. I want to show you some new yarn pairings, tell you about the August club colorway, and also show you some locks I’m dying up for a new idea I have.

Let’s start with the yarn pairings. I realized that I haven’t done this for a long time, and I have developed quite a few new yarn colorways that pair up well with old and new ones alike. I photographed sets on Sock Perfection, Stained Glass Sock, and Squiggle Sock. Each skein is available individually in my shop, and as of right now anyway, they are all in stock.

I’m going to show them to you in order of the number of skeins in each set, so if you are planning a new project that calls for multiple colorways, you can find one you like.

Let’s start with sets of three colorways:

Speaking of Squiggle Sock, I needed a good mindless knitting project for the trunk show last week, so I started this cowl using Paris on Squiggle Sock. I’m not that far along, but it might help you to see how it works up.

The pattern is the Welted Cowl pattern by Jane Richmond of Sweet Georgia Yarn. It’s free on Ravelry. It was made for mohair lace, but I am really pleased with the texture using Squiggle Sock and can’t wait to see what it looks like after I block it.

On we go. I just have one set of four to show you on Sock Perfection here:

Next up are sets of five. Just like with the sets of three, there are lots of patterns made for sets of five colorways. My favorite way to find what I need is to use Ravelry’s advanced pattern search and enter the yarn weight as well as a yardage range with 100-200 yards on either side and see what I come up with. My focus is usually on cowls, shawls, and scarves, so I sometimes limit the search by that too.

I also have one set of six right on Sock Perfection here:

…and one set of seven on Sock Perfection as well:

Like I mentioned, all of these are in stock right now, but if you need something that isn’t, don’t forget you can order it through the Dyed to Order section of my shop.

August Club Colorway

I wanted to tell you about the colorway I chose for the August clubs.

Berthe Morisot was a French Impressionist from the same era as Monet and Renoir. While it took time for her work to be taken seriously, that did come to pass during her lifetime. She chose to exhibit her work under her own full name instead of a pseudonym like so many female writers and artists. She had great support from her husband his family of artists, including her brother-in-law, Manet.

I find “Jour d’été” (Summer Day) very interesting, especially because of the pensive look on the center figure’s face during what would seem to be a pleasant outing. Neither woman is rowing, so who is missing from the painting? Who or what is she looking at so pensively? I’ll be thinking about that while I create the colorway for August using this painting as inspiration.

Sparkle and Locks

Yesterday I got to dye up some of the loveliest kid mohair locks I have ever seen.

Some of these are for my art batts, but I’m also planning something new. I want to make a new item in my shop called Sparkle and Locks. It’s going to have a combination of lock colorways along with several types of sparkle and probably some sari silk too. The goal is to make it easy for spinners and felters to add some texture and “bling” to their yarn or felt. I should have these in the shop in another couple weeks.

On a similar topic, I’m thinking about making a sparkle/no-sparkle option for my art batts so you can choose any art batt and have your preference for sparkle. What do you think of that idea?

Wedding!

On a personal note, our oldest daughter is getting married in less than two months! This is our first to get married, and wow, is there a lot to do! It’s going to be lovely though. We decided to try making the bouquets ourselves and did a practice run last week with our two daughters and me. It was so much fun! After making lots of different arrangements, our daughter decided on something like these:

I can’t believe summer is flying away so fast. I’ll be getting started on fall colorways in August, and I’ll be listing Advent calendars in September.

In the meantime, I hope you have a great week and find some time to make something that brings you joy.