The Yarnarian loves lace yarn!

This yarn is irresistible. I know, because I dye it and touch it and admire it and knit with it. I'm talking about my Carrie yarn: 80/20 merino/silk, approx 1300 yards, and wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! I really mean wonderful! As in: you don't need to knit with it; just drape it around your neck. It's that soft and delicious. $34/skein.

Yep, these are variegated yarns, BUT the values in each one are pretty close and the yarns will knit up as almost solids with a sparkle to them.

Adobe. This looks like a sun-kissed southwest moment, and will work up as an almost solid yarn.




Calm. A gentle pale green combination that will work up as an almost solid.




Soft Clay. A wonderful neutral yarn with a truly unusual colorway.




Sweet Love. More beautiful in person than you can imagine!




Gentle. Just what the name implies: a soft, gentle touch.




Tender Love. Beyond lovely!




And 2 yarns that I haven't dyed since a year ago. I found them in my pile of odd and end yarns and remembered how much I love knitting with them. These are Judith yarns: 80/10/10 merino/cashmere/silk 125 grams and 800+ yards. The yarn is a 3-ply light fingering weight, and perfect for lace. A bit heavier than Carrie, but lighter than my sock yarns. And that yardage can't be beat. $35/skein!

The first one is Blush, and I'm just showing it to you. I think my dearest friend (for whom the yarn is named) wants it. But just in case she doesn't, then it's up for grabs.




And this one is Cool Breeze, and it looks just like what you would imagine a cool breeze would be.




You want before I list on Etsy? email me at
fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

LACE!

Coming tomorrow: lace! 6 skeins of Carrie Lace and 2 skeins of a light weight fingering yarn with 800 yards!

The Hubbo is THE Schmutzmeister!

He is amazing! I tell him what I want him to find at garage sales/thrift shops, etc, and he finds it. It's uncanny. Yesterday I mentioned that I would love a very inexpensive dressmaker form just to display shawls on, and just now he came home with Griselda. Her proportions are just a bit wonky, to be sure, but she has shoulders and a neck and boobs, and that's all I need.



She's modeling the shawl I designed for The Loopy Ewe's May sotm. By the way, I know the colors for that shawl are not everyone's taste, but the other day I flung it over a navy dress, and it was gorgeous! Which goes to prove that you never know where yarn will take you.

The Hubbo is having an effect on me, and now I'm finding treasures, too. I've wanted a head to display hats on because I look beyond awful in most hats, and voila!, I found this yesterday at a garage sale. Her name is Chloe, of course. And she's modeling my size 5-7 children's hat that I got (on sale, naturally) at Gymboree. The thing fits me perfectly, and I don't look like some ancient babuska wearing it.



The Hubbo clearly needs a reward for all his scouting around, and so I crocheted him a brand new Kippah, aka yarmulka, aka skull cap that Jews wear either all the time or in synagogue. He's of the synagogue only persuasion.



The pattern is based on the most charming crochet motif I've ever seen: the African Flower pattern.

Take a look at all the variations! And here's a blog entry with great pics and instructions. Thank you, Elizabeth Cat!

I turned it into kippah size by adding a couple of rounds with the normal increases, and then a round of sc with no increases to make it cup slightly. I want a kippah, not a frisbee, although we have found that it makes a great frisbee, too!

Scrabblequeen - I used Mandarin Petite yarn and worked a couple of rows extra in dc and did the corner increases. then I ended by doing a round of sc without the increases, and it cups very nicely on his head.

andrea - This variation of the yarn is much brighter than the pics show, and I was of 2 minds with it, but put the shawl on top of navy, and it just sings.

merrilymarylee - There is no hope for a Schmutzmeister. None. It's in their blood. Plus, a truly great Schmutzmeister has to be an engineer, and want to buy weird and bizarre thingabobbies just to see how they work. I know this. Believe me I know this. They tend to like certain objects and will buy them over and over. I believe that we might have the country's largest collection of useless cameras and flashlights. Plus, if he can't find enough flashlights in his foraging, then he orders them from Hong Kong. Think I'm kidding? Sadly, no. There is no hope for you husband. Trust me.
He does take orders for junk, and loves getting them because this way he has a goal. I suppose if you were looking for something and were willing to pay postage, he'd look for you. I keep telling him that, when he retires (from a real job), that he should open the Little Junk Shop at the End of the Line.

Tikvah means Hope!

Tikvah Shawl

Here she is, Tikvah Shawl! A charming shawlette knit top down in three triangles with a knitted-on border. Drapey, elegant, and very very pretty. Plus, she's not very difficult to knit. Thanks to Barbara, my test-knitter, for all her hard work.

Here's the best part of this project: all profits will go to the Minnesota chapter of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Why NAMI? The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of adults and children with mental illness and their families. NAMI Minnesota offers education, support and advocacy, and vigorously promotes the development of community mental health programs and services, improved access to services, increased opportunities for recovery, reduced stigma and discrimination, and increased public understanding of mental illness. There are NAMI branches all over the country, and the work they do is amazing.

"Tikvah" means "hope", and my hope is that you will buy the pattern and enjoy knitting it. And then I shall donate my profits which are about 80% of the cost of the pattern, to this most-worthwhile organization. And I'll keep you posted on how we are doing with it.

Daisymum - Sure, I'd be glad to help you. The pattern looks far more difficult than it is. The nice thing about it is that all the triangles are alike except for the 2 garter stitched edges at the beginning and end. My test knitter is not very experienced with lace, and she did just fine all on her own. I was pretty impressed with her!

The Yarnarian loves pastel linens.

Nature Walk to Cape Cod Bay

After all my saturated dyeing this spring, and after a week of nature at my favorite place, Cape Cod, I suddenly decided that pastels were the way to go. I saw a group of pastel linens in a thrift shop, and fell in love with them. So here are my results: all variegated pastels, but soft enough so that patterns will show up very well in them. Plus, they all kind of live with each other, except for Sunset Linen. (That one fed my need for orange-based tones, and now I think I've run my orange course. I hope; enough is enough.)

So here they are, all in Penny Yarn, 75/25 SW merino/nylon with approx 450 yards. Very soft, very sturdy, and with great drape if you knit with larger needles for a shawl. $20 each plus shipping. These all are truly one-of-a-kind; I can't reproduce them. Each one is composed of at least 3-4 hues, and that is multiplied by where the dyes overlapped.

You can email me directly or wait until the Etsy moment.

fritzL234@yahoo.com

Blush Linen: Bought!




Grass Linen:



Lavender Linen: Bought!




Ocean Linen:




Rose Linen:




Sea Glass Linen: Bought!




Soft Linen: Bought!




Water Linen: Bought!




And the orange one, Sunset Linen:




Already grabbed! Blush, Lavender,Sea Glass, Soft and Water

The Yarnarian has an announcement!

Summertime Sock Club

Ta da! Look what's coming:

YarnYenta and I are so happy to present the Summertime 2010 Sock Club!

Theme: Summer, naturally.

2 months: July and August. probably mid-month

Yarn: both are “luxury” yarns, and they are gorgeous! Karen mcn (superwash merino/cashmere/nylon) and Gina (superwash merino/silk)

Patterns: by the inimitable YarnYenta, of course! Yarn by PennyRose Yarns (aka, The Yarnarian)

Shipping: First Class Priority - US, Canada, across the Pond and anywhere else

Cost: $66.00 for US and Canada.
$70.00 for overseas - costs more to ship.

Where to buy: available right now on Etsy: http://fritzl.etsy.com

Or message ruth on Ravelry with your Paypal account number, and I'll invoice you.

Questions: Ask here or on Ravelry.

Is that not exciting? A little bit of luxury for the summer.

Oh, and the picture is Nantucket Sound via my camera. I miss Cape Cod a lot, and want to go back right away. sigh.

Homage to Hundertwasser

Here are the yarns that I told you about yesterday. One of them didn't make the cut (Hommage a Van Gogh) because the skein was such a mess that I wound it up in a ball and then decided to keep it for me. tee hee.

Memory of a Painting:





The Blob Grows in the Flower Pot:




Downtownlane:




Imagine Tomorrow's World:




Green Town:




Eventually they will all land in my Etsy shop. In the meantime, if there is one you want, you can email me directly:

fritzL234@yahoo.com

Downtownlane is grabbed.