New Gradient Stripes Colors, Yarn Clubs & Gramma Nancy’s Giveaway

Hi, Knitters,

Happy Halloween!

Lil Buddy carved that pumpkin up there, while I sorted through the innards for the seeds. Roasted pumpkin seeds are a delicacy we enjoy just once a year! I put them on a tray with parchment paper, olive oil and seasoned salt and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, stirring once halfway through. Both of my kids are old enough that they’re going off with different friends tonight. They’re just getting so grown-up! It’s a pretty cold day for our poor trick-or-treaters, though; we woke up to snow on the ground. Lots of layers under those costumes…

New November Gradient

I couldn’t resist announcing this one day early; the new color for November is Defying Gravity. It has wonders like you’ve never seen! It’s all grand- and it’s all green! Defying Gravity begins with a bold emerald, then fades to a smoky forest green. A gorgeous color to show that nobody in all of Oz- no wizard that there is or was- could ever bring you down. The one shown is a 150-g double gradient, meaning it starts and ends with the same color. You can also, of course, order regular Matching Socks sets and 100g gradients.

New Gradient Stripes Colors!

More new colors are joining the lineup; it’s just so much fun making these!

Race to the Cookie Jar; a cheerful variation of the color developed by the Cookie Crumbs sock knitting group, stripes from yellow to yellow-green, to green-blue, before ending on several shades of blue.

Captain America: Red fades to white, then to blue in a series of thin stripes. For Truth and Justice!

Wit & Learning are the celebrated virtues of these colors; classic blue stripes with silvery gray, creating a gradient effect. We think they’d be very cozy in a library or a plush easy chair, snuggled up with a good book.Third in the Harry Potter House Colors series.

Vampire Boyfriend fades in a series of thin stripes from a pale red to scab rust, before ending in a deep red-black. It would look just as good defending the Hellmouth as it would standing up to the Volterra, or cracking open a bottle of O Negative in Bon Tomps. Care for a bite?

Yarn Clubs Out!

We promised they’d be done by the end of the month, and they are! All of the second All Wrapped Up club packages, first Firefly packages and half of the first Matching Socks club packages went out today. The rest of the Matching Socks will be headed your way on Monday.

Aran Knits Winner

The winner of the Interweave Knits Aran Lace Knitting with Stephannie Tallent DVD is Suzanne. Thanks so much to Stephannie for the giveaway and to everyone who entered!

New Giveaway

New Giveaway! We have a copy of Gramma Nancy’s Animal Hats (and Booties, too) courtesy of Potter Craft. Nancy Nielsen made hundreds of hats for her son-in-law’s Navy shipmates over the years and has collected a menagerie of road-tested patterns for babies and kids!

If you’re interested in winning a copy of this, please leave a comment about your baby and toddler knitting; who and what are you knitting? What’s your favorite baby gift to knit? The Random Number Generator will choose a winner next Tuesday, November 4th.

Take care, have a happy and safe holiday and stay warm,

Jaala

Knitting Tree’s New Home, Night Circus and Captain Tightpants

Hi, Knitters,

One of our local yarn shops, which has been around since my brother and I would walk to the drugstore to purchase candy bars for twenty-six cents, has a new, improved home! (We would literally walk right y it then, when I had not idea how important knitting and yarn would be in my life).

The Knitting Tree, run by the sweet and fabulous Jackie, is just a block away from its old space on Monroe Street, but now boasts a spacious, modern place. Not only is there room for lots more gorgeous yarn, but you can actually hang out and knit!

Dreamlike Reading

I recently read The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern; I don’t read fiction that often, because I know it’s so exciting I’ll want to do nothing else. This dreamllike, steampunk-ish story had me spellbound and I really enjoyed it. The premise of two magicians bound together in a lifelong contest I found extremely original, and ahistorical Victorian London where magic can be learned by anyone and women can be entrepreneurs and nobody bats an eye is a very pleasant place to visit. I’m so excited that the group The Ravelry Book Club is doing this book for October! Can’t wait to hear what other people think about this story. Please join in if you’d like…

Satine

Moulin Rouge, with its swirling dancers, romance, Ewan MacGregor and Nicole Kidman, and modern soundtrack, is one of my favorite movies. I designed several yarns based on it last year (like The Can Can Can, inspired by the Moulin Rouge dancers’ petticoats). I’ve been a huge fan of director Baz Luhrmann’s over-the-top musical vision since my mom and I watched Strictly Ballroom many times together on our VHS…

The “Sparkling Diamond,” featured Moulin Rouge dancer Satine, falls in love despite herself, and the colors in the Satine colorway were inspired by a rooftop song with pink moon and blue Eiffel Tower against the backdrop of a Paris twilight.

Now, the Satine gradient, kit and shawl pattern are available to everyone! Diamond lace is a girl’s best friend…

Not exactly a Paris nightclub, but then our model (a yoga teacher) is definitely healthier than poor Satine, and luckier in love!

The Satine lace is trickier than some of the lace patterns I use, but only because it takes a number of rows to create the diamond patterns. There are no strange or difficult stitches, and it’s still only worked every right side row, so if you keep the chart nearby, it should be just fine.

Fun Magazine

Knit.wear has changed to Knit.Purl and gotten a pretty new makeover! I liked Knit.Wear already, a specialty twice-yearly publication with a fun, modern twist on the classics Interweave is so well-known for. I was happy to see that the sensibility and the articles, etc are not different, only the cover and some of the graphic design.

I really liked the article on the design student with a featured knitting/sewing combo fashion show and was thrilled to discover that the lovely Stephannie Tallent has her own Aran Cables and Lace video class with Interveave! Congratulations, Stephannie!

Captain Tightpants

Another director I love, this one mostly televison: Joss Whedon. Of course, Buffy rocks, but I’m an even bigger Firefly fan. I was skeptical about the concept of space and cowboy together, but Captain Mal and his ragtag crew drew me in until they became some of my most favorite tv characters of all time.

Just for fun, I’m bringing back two of my favorite Firefly-inspired kettle dyes for the month of October. The first: Captain Tightpants.

Loyal, courageous and resourceful, former battle captain Malcolm Reynolds held his crew together, doing whatever it took to keep flying another day. It’s not terrible to think of Nathan Fillion in leather pants as you’re knitting, either.

The Firefly crew circles the outer edges of the ‘Verse, always on the edge of The Black. Here’s a yarn interpretation of the vastness of space. You can order both The Black and Captain Tightpants in either Greatest of Ease or Opulence yarn.

Have a great Thursday,

Jaala

Still Flying Yarn Collection

Joss Whedon’s a genius, and after we worked our way through all of the Buffy and Angel episodes, Mike and I decided to give this Firefly series a try. At first, I thought, “Okay, it’s Han Solo with a new crew,” but after one episode, the complex characters hooked me for good.

Recently, I re-watched the show’s 14 episodes all again, and found myself loving the bright, western-style landscapes contrasted with the ship’s beat-up interior all against “the black,” or deep space.

Big, geeky fangirl? Yep, I even have a couple of Firefly books. Combing through them for “research” on costumes and characters, no trouble at all.

Firefly fans, or Browncoats, are legendary for their passion for such a short-lived show, and have a reputation for helping out charities and the like. So in the Browncoat spirit, for every Still Flying yarn sold, Knitcircus will donate a dollar to Kids Need to read, a group cofounded by Nathan Fillion.

Of course, I’ve got a huge crush on Malcolm Reynolds; who doesn’t? So Captain Tightpants was the first out of the dyepot.

Followed closely by

Wash’s Coveralls, based on our favorite wisecracking, dinosaur-playing spaceship pilot.

Shiny! Independent businesswoman Nandi definitely deserves her own glitter yarn.

And The Black.

These 14 episodes offer a lot of inspiration, so watch for more Still Flying colors in the nest few weeks, including Truthsome, Registered Companion, Cunning and Real Nice Party.