Happy Accident, Snickerdoodles

Hi, Knitters and Crocheters,

This weekend, my dad is going to fulfill his dream of taking Li’l Buddy and some friends skiing up north, “While I can still ski!”

This knitter isn’t a big skiier, but I’m more than happy to come along for the ride to keep the party going, cook, organize and stand by with extra warm clothes if anyone’s forgotten anything. Mike and Belle get to stay home and enjoy a relaxing weekend with the pets.

Happy Accident

We didn’t plan for this, but due to a Lair snafu, we ended up with a 300-g ball of yarn! I figured, what the heck, I’ll dye it rainbow, because that’s fun.

At first, when it was all wound up into a cake, we all just laughed, but then we started to like it. A lot.

Our Big Rainbow has three full repeats of the Over the Rainbow 

Then we started thinking, you could make a whole small adult sweater, baby blanket or three-skein shawl with this baby!

What do you guys think? Would you use or love a huge skein, or is it just too crazy-big? Please tell me your thoughts!

Snickerdoodles

This week, I made Snickerdoodles for the kids as an after-school treat. The best part was that Lil Buddy’s nearly-silent friend piped up when I asked what kind of cookies they wanted and clearly stated, “Snickerdoodles!”

That name is so fun to say, it can bring out even the shyest.

we always use the Betty Crocker cookbook recipe for these and they turn out great. Except no cream of tartar, because they make it taste a bit tinny in my opinion.

These were gone within 48 hours.

Light the Lights

Speaking of fun, the new color of the month is up, and it is delightful, if I do say so. We named it “Light the Lights,” from the Muppet show theme song, because these colors reminded us of their high-energy hijinks. Gonzo blue, Kermit green and Miss Piggy pink, anyone?

Of course, it comes in Matching Sock Sets, 100g Cakes and 150g cakes for your knitting pleasure.

And no more waiting weeks for your color of the month! Now that we’ve re-vamped things in the Lair and Erin the fabulous Assistant Dyer is on the scene, we’re turning things around much faster.

Crossing my fingers for a fun, safe ski trip up north and hope you all have a wonderful weekend,

Jaala

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Cyber Week Deals and Second Harvest

Hey, I’m sure it’s just me, but I hate when my inbox gets flooded with messages for people vying for my business on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But I do love my customers and we do have some very special, limited-edition prices going on, combined with a way to help families have more to eat this holiday season. So here goes!

We’ve got some beautiful kettle-dyes and handpaints in the store, and all are 30% off! We’ll be adding new ones every day this week.

And every single ready-to-ship yarn in the shop is now 10% off!

That includes Matching Socks Sets, 100-gram cakes, and 150-g cakes like the Hummingbird colorway below.

And, because it’s the holidays, we’ll donate $1 to Second Harvest Food Bank for every order we receive between now and December 23rd. One dollar is three meals, so three people get to eat every time you buy yarn. That’s something we can all feel warm and happy about!

Take care,

jaala

Make Your Own Magic Yarn Ball

Here at Knitcircus, we use a many-step process to create self-striping gradients that change colors effortlessly as you knit. It’s all one continuous yarn, with no knots ever! But there’s a fun and easy way to create your own special color-changing balls of yarn at home. A Magic Ball uses smaller lengths of yarn joined together to make one fun color-changing skein! Another way the term “Magic Ball” is used is to describe a yarn ball with little treats wrapped inside, so the recipient gets little gifts and surprises as they knit.

Today, I’ll show you how to make both!

Make Your Color-Changing Magic Yarn Ball

Magic Yarn Balls are about the best stashbuster ever. The first step is to find all of those beloved balls left from previous projects, mini-skeins, even scraps a couple of feet long. It will be easiest to knit with your Magic Ball if all of your yarns are a similar weight (fingering, sport, worsted, etc). So you may want to organize by weight first, then play with color groupings you like. This should be fun, so take some time to place different colors together and see what you like. The way the colors interact may surprise you!

organizing by color

Some tried-and-true palettes are:

warm colors: reds. purples, yellows, oranges

cool colors: blues and greens

jewel tones: deep, saturated versions of red, blue, green, teal, purple

neutrals: browns, beiges, grays, cream, undyed

rainbow: crayon-box brights

tropical: yellow, green, peach, orange, pink, magenta

earth tones: browns, grays, deep greens, pale blues

Once you have your yarns and colors, start joining them together to make your Magic Ball! I like to vary the lengths so it’s a surprise, but you can also have fun by making all of the yarns the same length (say, 5 yards) to create stripes for planned pooling projects, etc. Just start winding your yarns onto a ball-winder or wind by hand (if you want to put treats inside, read the section on Adding Treats before you start winding). To make your yarn ball look extra special, you can wind each section going in a different direction, as Susan B. Anderson describes in her Everlasting Yarn Balls video tutorial.

Fancy Joins

You can use an overhand, square knot or whatever you usually use for knotting when knitting to join your lengths of yarn together. If you want to get fancy and make your ball knot-free, here are some techniques to try.

Spit Splicing: This joining method works well on yarns with some felting potential. It probably won’t work as well on superwash or synthetic fibers. Originally done by using spit and rubbing the two yarn ends together in the hands to felt them together, it can be done with plain water as well. 🙂 Very Pink Knits has a video tutorial on Spit Splicing here.

Russian Join: If you want to make near-seamless transitions in your Magic Ball, you can use the Russian Join method shown in the Knitting Any Way tutorial here. This takes significantly more time than simple knotting, so recommended for a yarn with relatively few changes.

Adding Treats

You can make a Magic Gift Ball by using any existing yarn and re-winding it so that surprises are hidden inside. Carla Krantz has a great Pinterest board with different ideas. You can take small objects and wrap them almost invisibly inside the yarn, or make wrapped packages so many that the yarn can barely contain them! If you’re winding up your magic Joined Ball, you can add the treats as you go.

Some examples of knitting-related treats are shown here, but of course, you can tailor your special ball to the passions of the intended recipient. A good strategy is to wind the ball around the largest gift, adding the others as you go.

Note: lots of people add things like teabags, small figurines, etc to their yarn balls; your imagination is the limit! But don’t add perishable food items, especially things like chocolate, that can melt. Your friend in California may be very sad when she gets the now-sticky yarn you sent from frozen Nunavut.

You can also decorate your yarn ball with easily-removable pins, buttons, ribbons and other treats for a delightful presentation. Ellen Bloom made this adorable one for the book Knitalong:

Making Magic Balls is a fun and creative way to make something one-of-a-kind and usable out of those special small amounts of yarn in your stash. If you make some, please let us know in the Knitcircus Ravelry Group so we can ooh and ahh!

Have a great weekend,

Jaala

Cables and Lace Video, New Colors and Mitts

Hi, Knitters,

It’s getting cold here, tea-drinkin’, stew-makin’, bundle-up cold. I’ve got a hot mug of Chai Spice tea  on my desk as I write. As you know, this is the time when handknits come in handy…

Aran Lace Video

I’ve been a little obsessed with cables and lace lately (for about the last two years). An expert at combining these two techniques is  designer, teacher and tech editor and my friend, Stephannie Tallent. Stephannie has a new video out from Interweave Knits unfolding all kinds of useful tips for combining these two knitterly techniques: Aran Lace Knitting.

In a step-by-step format, Stephannie explains and demonstrates techniques like using a cable and/or lace chart, picking the right yarns for showing off your lacy cables, using a cable needle, cabling without a cable needle, swatching, blocking, and all kinds of other techniques to keep you on top of beautiful charted patterns like the one below.

The video also includes a pattern for a gorgeous cables-and-lace cowl. Stephannie really knows her stuff, and this video is definitely a winner!

Aran Lace Giveaway

One lucky reader can receive this video for their very own. Just leave a comment telling us which of Stephannie’s beautiful patterns you would knit first! Giveaway runs through Monday evening.

Gradient Eye Candy

Wow, how exciting! Jess/Frecklegirl on Ravelry put together a Gradient-themed Community Eye Candy page and our yarn is featured!!!!!!! See the adorable pink baby dress? Talented knitter Greenfiber made her Mia’s Dress out of our Wild Rose Corriedale Sock yarn.

What an honor. Everything on the page looked gorgeous! Thanks so much, Jess!!!!!!

New Gradient Stripe Socks Colors

Speaking of thanks, a million to the wonderful Susan B Anderson for hosting a Gradient Stripes giveaway on her blog! She sent a lot of new customers our way and we’re very grateful. Check it out, because right now, you have a chance to win some Manos yarns on her blog! Susie was the very first to knit with the Tropical Sunset colorway (above) and it’s officially released now!

The next new yarn is Blue Skies Ahead, an optimistic mix of cloudless white and saturated blue.

We’re excited to present the next in the House Colors series: Cunning Folk, representing Slytherin with pure silver-gray to aristocratic emerald green.

Last, but certainly not least, Brew Crew! The sunny yellow and cheerful blue works for many school colors, but for a Wisconsin baseball fan, they have to represent the Milwaukee Brewers.

If you’ve ordered Gradient Stripes yarn, we’re making many of them every day, so you should get it soon! If you’ve already got your stripes in hand, please do join us in the Knitcircus Ravelry Group for a Gradient Stripes KAL! (Don’t worry, you can use the original Matching Socks sets too).

I had gotten half of a sock done, then I was leafing through a magazine and saw some lustworthy striped armwarmers. My DH, looking over my shoulder, remarked,”You could make some of those.”

He was right! I could make some just as stripy with the new Gradient Stripes yarn! So I have frogged the sock and re-started a pair of Gothy Gauntlets. I can’t wait to see how they turn out, and I’ll post progress pics in the KAL group.

Happy knitting,

Jaala