Emma

Emma is a split lace pattern with my favorite little fake cable in the middle.  The yarn is PennyRose Rachel (400 yards, 100 g, 100% SW merino).  Size 2.25mm circular needles, 56 st pattern. 

Hot New Rachel Colorways

I love my Rachel yarn!  It's a tightly twisted two-ply yarn which has wonderful stitch definition.  100% superwash merino, it makes cosy socks and pretty scarves and shawlettes.  400 yards of toasty wooliness!  Delicious!

In order:  Dawn, Haze, Hot Shot, and Spring Fling.  I couldn't help the Spring Fling colorway; yes, it's the beginning of winter, but I am ready for spring. 

Where?  In my Etsy shop, of course.

Heigh Ho, heigh ho, it's off to dye I go.

OK, it's off to dye I went.  Yesterday.  I had a yen to dye up some pretty colorways.

Top row, the first two and the second from the right are all Heather Yarn, a lovely yarn that dyes 2 values at the same time.  How?  A couple of the plies are in non-superwash wool, and the other ply is superwash.  Superwash takes up dye immediately, the regular wool take a lot longer to take the color, so you get a barber-pole effect.  However, it knits up as a marled yarn.  Very interesting and complex.  Fingering weight, no nylon, and perfect for scarves and such.  You can make socks, but you'll have to hand wash them in cold water.

420 yards of fingering weight yarn that's lofty and lovely to knit or crochet with.

Here they are:  Orangeade, Jenny, and Candy. 

This next batch are Rachel yarns.  100% SW (superwash) merino with a neat little twist that really shows off your stitches.  400 yards of delicious woolliness.

Clown, Grete, Lemon, Parrot, Tropical Fish., Vermillion, and Wood Grain

  

Where?

http://fritzl.etsy.com

Bundles! We have bundles!

Some new bundles of Rachel yarn (100 grams, 400 yards, SW merino) at a great price!  2 skeins for $36 + shipping!  Regular price per skein is $21, so this is a great deal!

And for you lace knitters, here's the deal of the century.  2 skeins of that most amazing lace yarn, Lili Lace, at $60 + shipping.  Each skein has 875 yards of 100% merino wool, and regularly sells for $33/skein. 

Where?:  at my Etsy shop.

Bundles of PennyRose Rachel yarn

Look at these!  3 sets of Rachel yarn bundled together with a very good price to save you some money.  Ordinarily, Rachel yarn sells for $21/skein.  These bundles, selling for $36, brings the price down to $18/skein.  Not bad for an Election Day treat.

Rachel is a wonderful fingering weight yarn with a lovely little twist that will make your stitches pop.  400 yards of superwash merino.  Mmmmmmmm.  Yummy stuff.  I love making scarves and shawls out of this yarn.  It feels so good against your neck. 

I'm so happy to be back in business again.  It feels like normal.  My spirits are much improved!

Linda's Shawl

Here she is, Linda's Shawl, all ready for you to knit.  This sweetheart of a shawlette is knitted from the bottom up, not my usual top down.  You start at the lace border, work it without any shaping, and then go on to the stockinette part, which has all the decreases.  That makes it such fun to work.  You have all the fun of the lace while you are anxious to start, and then you just motor along on the stockinette part with each row having less and less stitches.  You'll be amazed at how quickly it knits up.  Once your rows start decreasing, you just go faster and faster.  Such fun!

Here's the story behind the shawl.  Lots of times I unvent or find a lace pattern where the edging has a nice curve or point, and I want that edge to be the outside edge of a shawl.  So, I decided to do this one, bottom up and take advantage of the edge of the design.  But this can be tricky because what do you do if you run out of yarn on the stockinette portion?  I have a bit of a priori knowledge here since I've made lots of these little shawls top down and I know my yardage and how many stitches I end up with.  So, I was somewhat sure that it would all work out.  Not totally sure but almost, kind of, maybe.  And indeed, I ended up with a nice little ball of left over yarn.  

Here's the thing:  When you get to the stockinette portion, the rows have less and less stitches, and therefore use less and less yarn!  So while you're sweating it out that you are just going to run out of yarn, you suddenly realize that you do have enough.

In the event that you do run out of yarn, there's no reason why you can't just loosely bind off.  Your shawl will work more like a curvy stole than a shawl, but that's a lovely shape, too and just as cuddly and capable of draping around your neck.  So it's all a win/win situation.

I used Bambi yarn here and a size 5 (3.75mm) circular needle.  The trick to these shawls is drape; you don't want tight knitting as you need for socks, you want a fluid garment.  So go up to a 4, 5, or even 6 needle to get your gauge, and you'll be so pleased to see how nicely it works up.

You can easily use a variegated yarn here; just make sure that the lace will be visible and not lost in the colors.  A solid or almost solid will be fine, of course.

Linda's Scarf

As a bonus, I've also included a scarf with the same lace pattern.  I loved working the lace, and wanted to do a bit more.  Hence the scarf.

You can also use the lace in a sweater, either as a border or an overall pattern, as a ruffle for mitts, even for socks.  It is so pleasant to work, one of my favorite lace patterns.

Needless to say, I have 2 new shawlette patterns to write up and have test knitted, and the other day, I started yet another one.  What a crazy obsession this is!  I have more shawls that I know what to do with, but I just love wearing them.  They've become knitted embellishment for me. 

pendie - You'll really like knitting this one.  I'm so in love now with bottom up that I have a gazillion ideas in my head.

Scrabblequeen - Not a problem; the shawl isn't going anywhere.  ;-)

LivvyLove - Thanks.  I do enjoy the entire process.  OK, not the writing up, but the designing and playing and knitting! 

Digging out forgotten dyes.

Beautiful Rachel Yarn!

Wednesday I was in the mood to dye. Lately, it seems as if I have to force myself, which is not a good thing if this is something you love to do. What happened was that Tues night, as I was working in the laundry/dyeing studio, I decided to go through my dye collection and haul out some that had been forgotten. Of course I then wanted to play with the colors, and Wednesday morning, that's just what I did. And I had such a good time. I played with avocado, teal, grape juice and salmon, plus of course I added other colors to the mix. Such fun. It was better than opening a new box of crayons.

I haven't done much with salmon. It is such a distinct color, and for some reason, I never combine it with anything else. But not this time. The first yarn is totally salmon with nothing else added. Then you can see how the dye solution morphed into 3 very different colorways. You add a bit of this and that, and voila, you get something totally new.

Salmon:



From here, the dye pot became Latte, and that became Harvest, which then turned into Sunlight.





Trust me, that was all done using the first basic salmon dye solution.

I also played with teal and avocado.

Here is the first one done with avocado, Greener, with just a pinch of turquoise added for a bit of sparkle.



And then the teal yarn, Bluegrass.



Then I combined them with bit of the Harvest solution to the colorway, Autumn Dreams.



Then I moved on to Grape Juice, and made Grapes, of course.



And that solution plus a bit of the leftover green solution, made Wildflowers.



And then a combo of everything floating around, Moody River.



I'm back to knitting socks again. This time I want the yarn to be the focus, not the pattern, so I'm using a simple rib pattern: k5, p2. The yarn is Rachel, the one I dyed above. Approx 400 yards of 100% superwash merino in a pretty tight twist which makes the nicest fabric.




Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend, everybody. And if you don't celebrate Labor Day, then have a wonderful weekend anyhow.

The Yarnarian is Hooked!

By crochet. I'm in love with it. It's my sister's fault, of course. She's a wonderful crocheter, and so it's her fault.

As you may have noticed, I'm into these hooky scarves. I like the ease and speed of them, and I think they have an impressionist quality when done in variegated yarns. And sock wt yarn done on a D hook makes light weight drapey little pieces. So what could be better? Plus, they are so portable.

So here's my latest, which is almost done.




The Hubbo and DD are not admiring it much. I suspect that they think it's way too busy with those colors, but I like it. I see it draped around my neck and the colors appearing here and there just like an impressionist moment. OK, I just like it.

Tea notes: Today's tea is Tiger Hill Nilgiri FOP. Yummy. I don't remember where I bought it, I think it was in a tea shop in Tarrytown, NY, but am not sure. Anyhow, it's tasty and delicious.

The Schmutzmeister (aka DH) found this neat tea cup - infuser set. It came with a container of tea, and it cost him about a half buck. Yay, garage sales and DH!





You plop your loose tea into the infuser, put it into the cup, pour in your water, cover, and voila! in 5 minutes you have a tasty cuppa. I have a bunch of regular infusers, but this one is the infuser of the moment. The mesh is thin enough for me to use it for rooibos tea, which makes it even better. And the infuser fits into all my mugs but one.

Now and then I actually use a tea pot, but I usually make one cup at a time, so it's just easier this way.

Disgusting, miserable moment: I have to do my bills today. I hate doing bills, really hate it. It's not that I don't have the money; I do, I just find it beyond boring, and I hate boredom. I suppose there's a syndrome in the psych books for this, but I don't care. I just hate writing out checks. Go forth, Yarnarian, and be mature. Blah.

It's almost Cape Cod time! I'm counting the minutes! Whoo hoo. OK, immature 66 year old woman is going to do her bills with much muttering and kvetching and grumping and general infantile behavior. Maturity is a phase; adolescence is forever! sigh.

itsJUSTme - I'll post when I get back home. I try to keep computing time to a minimum when on vacation. I need to get away from work.

Scrabblequeen - I'll do almost anything to avoid paying bills, even bopping around from topic to topic. giggle

Deborah - It works up very nicely. I'm thinking of even trying a size E, which would work well with heavier sock yarns.