I hope this newsletter finds you healthy and strong and not too lonely. I decided to send out my weekly newsletter a day early rather than sending it on Good Friday. Time is running so strangely in our home with faster-than-usual days but very slow weeks as we await the return of “normal,” whenever that will be.

It’s so hard to believe that it will be Easter on Sunday. Most of our family traditions won’t be able to take place due to social distancing, but one fun tradition will still happen at the Hanson household, and you might find it fun too if you have young children in your life, so I’ll share that one with you.

Every year my husband and I set up a yarn maze using a different color of acrylic yarn or string for each child. The maze leads to each child’s Easter egg basket. Our house looks like a crazy spider web when we’re done setting it up, and when the children wake up, they have the fun of finding their Easter baskets by following their string. The mazes are more complex for the older children than the younger ones. Even the grown children love it, and since all seven children are home right now, it’s going to be a ton of fun and a really crazy spider web of yarn. I just hope we have enough acrylic yarn on hand!

New Yarn Colorways

One good thing about this difficult time for me has been an opportunity to play with color and create some new colorways–a lot of new colorways actually. I have been focusing particularly on Sock Perfection and Sparkly Merino Sock since those are great for the warmer seasons and also the most economical yarn bases that I carry.

I mentioned The Hands of the King last week, which was inspired by the character of Aragorn in The Return of the King. I think I’m on my third batch of it on Sock Perfection, and I also dyed it on Sparkly Merino Sock right here:

 

I also decided to make a colorway to represent Aragorn’s beloved, Arwen. Arwen has the same beautiful blue-green base color, but the other colors are a little lighter and softer. Here is Arwen on Sock Perfection:

 

I made those to go together, and I also made more Annunciation Blue, which goes so beautifully with both colorways. I thought The Hands of the King, Annunciation Blue, and Arwen would be beautiful together for a shawl:

 

My other favorite new colorway/base combo of the week is Paris. I dyed Paris on So Silky Sock a few weeks ago, and now I have it on Sparkly Merino Sock too:

 

I really love how the little garter-stitch sample worked up.

 

I also want to show you a package of squishy mail that just came to me in the mail. Normally I’m the one sending the squishy mail, right? This time, though, my friend, Nancy, kindly created and sent me a keyhole scarf using a skein of my Bouquet colorway on So Silky Sock and a pattern called Bergspitzen by Annelie Wallbom. Here’s the yarn and my daughter modeling the scarf:

Isn’t this a perfect colorway for spring?

 

I have several other new or newly created colorways that you can see in the New This Month section of my shop. They include Beautiful Universe, Purple Iris, and Smitten. I have been working through all my active colorways alphabetically, but when the muse strikes, I go off-list of course. If there’s a colorway that you need that isn’t in stock just now, always feel free to ask. I can usually make it for you.

New Art Batt Colorways

I have also been creating some new art batt colorways. Sometimes other members of my family have been making art batts too. I just got some new incredibly soft 18.5 micron merino, which is featured in some of these along with all the usual luxury fibers I use like baby alpaca, muga silk, mulberry silk, baby camel down, organic Polwarth, and bamboo.

This first new art batt colorway was created and named by my husband. He frequently makes art batts for me based on my “recipes,” but he doesn’t often create new colorways, so I am excited to share this with you. It’s called Sargasso Sea:

Another new art batt colorway was created by one of my sons. While the dye pots tend to be my exclusive domain, the art batts are becoming more of a family affair, which makes me very happy. This one is Kingfisher, inspired by the beautiful little bird as well as the Hopkins poem, “Kingfishers Catch Fire”:

 

I also have two art batts that I originally created for my art batt club and inspired by Renaissance paintings. Here’s Botticelli’s Birth of Venus:

 

 

 

 

…and here’s Raphael’s School of Athens:

 

 

The Return of the Handspun

In addition to yarn inspired by The Return of the King, there’s also the return of the handspun. As I have mentioned before, my first fiber arts passion way back in 2003 was spinning. I started learning to weave and then decided I would learn to spin in order too save money on yarn. Hahahahaha. Yeah, you know. Anyway, I really enjoy weaving, but spinning was and is a true passion, and when I first started Purple Lamb after I had been spinning for 8 years, I sold my handspun yarn and nothing else.

Over the last year or so, I had pretty much planned to stop selling my handspun. However, COVID-19 wasn’t part of those plans, and spinning for me is incredibly relaxing, joyful, and almost meditative, so it just needs to be a part of my life right now. I’m sure you understand. Since I spin faster than I knit and weave, I decided to bring it back to the shop and share it with you once again.

Each skein is a unique creation. There are no bases, and most of my handspun yarn tends to fall into the realm of art yarn. Most of the time I use the same art batts and top I offer in the shop and spin them in a way that fits the fiber and, frankly, my mood.

Here are the four I have available right now:

 

In addition to these skeins of handspun yarn, I do also have the art batts or top I used to make each of these in the Fiber to Spin and Felt section of my shop.

I will “see you” again next week. Until then, I hope you have a blessed Passover and a joy-filled Easter. Stay well, my friends.