May's new Koigu KPPPM colors
These are May's new colors (from left to right): P127, P140, P204 and P360. They are 15% off until May 12th.
When you see the color yellow don't you think of summer? While the brighter shades of yellow tends to look awful on me I find that warmer yellows like gold can serve as beautiful accents to the brighter primary colors I wear. I would certainly make a tank top with P360.
Color P204 is right up my alley - purples, pinks and streaks of yellow for contrast. I wouldn't hesitant to wear this color near my face - it would be a great hat or scarf.
Do you like neon? P140 is very bright and is just a step away from being a full blow neon color way. Whether it's a small or big project (a pair of socks, a child's sweater, an adult tunic) the colors would add an extra spark to your hand knit project.
And the pastels of color P127. The color is lighter that pictured in the photo and it does have a speck of navy here and there. I rarely see KPPPM in light colorways and this one is pretty and subtle.
Although this week has been wet and dreary we're only a few weeks away from the holiday that kicks off summer, Memorial Day weekend Make sure to sign up for our newsletter - I'm sending out some sale information in the next newsletter. To sign up go to the Chiagu homepage and then scroll to the bottom of the page.
But first I'm attending the Long Island Fleece and Fiber Festival (May 14 & 15). For me, it's the last fiber-related event until October's New York Sheep and Wool. LIFF is less crowded and vendors don't run out of stock. You have time to see all the events and demonstrations. I love that Tabbethia Haubold-Magee (from Long Island Livestock) explains the sheep shearing process as she is removing their winter coat. She loves her work and she loves the animals. When we need a break we go to the nearby wineries (nearby as in crossing the busy road!). The festival organizes a private round trip bus out of Manhattan so we don't worry about have a drink doing our visit. Come join us!
October Yarn Update - It finally happened...
Many apologies for the update delay. The next blog post will explain how the annual New York Sheep and Wool Festival caused the delay in updating the website.
When this Koigu order arrived it wasn't quite what I expected. However you will notice that almost all the colors work together - and they will work well in a gradient project.
P426
I purposely chose P426 even though long time mini skein club members may remember getting a P426 in the January 2015 shipment. The January mini skein was extremely dark, almost like purple thrown onto of a blue violet. This P426 is much closer to the color Koigu tries to produce.
P451
Beautiful, beautiful tones of blue. This will work well for projects for guys as well as gals.
P828
I am not a green person but I love this color way. Definitely a pair of socks for me! And it's another great color for both men and women.
P865
To me this is a very saturated version of P426 - they will work well together is you are looking to make a project that shifts from light to dark.
P928D
Yes, it happened - I mistakenly ordered P928 again because the colors looked different in the catalog. But since Koigu is handpainted it is not exactly like the P928 I have in stock already. This batch (renamed with a D at the end for "dark") has stronger purple and yellow and is blended with an olive oil green. It is a very strong color for the cooler months.
September Yarn Update
It's time again for new yarn! Here are the September pretties and they can all be found here :
P315 - A lovely dark neutral, my first thought was “It’s all the color of a terrarium - brown, shades of green, and a bit of cream mixed in”. A versatile color that can go with everything.
P414 - Soft orange with blue streaks. These are the colors of several sports teams - perhaps a hat to wear at a game?
P436 - Purple and blue with bits of olive. Very suitable for baby sweaters since the color won't overpower the baby.
P820 - Very nice mix of blues, purples, yellow and pink. It is actually lighter than pictured (I will shoot the color again and replace the photo).
P872 - My favorite out of the September colors. It’s green with pops of neon yellow and pink. I’d love to make a pair of socks out of this color.
P882 - More flashy brights! Yellow and blue really dominant this color way. This would be a fun knitted or crochet toy for a youngster.
There you have it. I've been busy this past month - I'm lining up a couple of blog posts about some of the project bags I'm working on and about my visit to some yarn and fabric stores in the Washington DC area. I hope to get them up in the next week or two.
OMG look at this Koigu Cashmere color!
There are no words!
This fabulously 80's colorway is 107B, dye lot 6, and I cannot wait to knit it up into a new pair of elbow-length armwarmers. I initially planned to knit up the same pattern from The Purl Stitch to replace my previous set, but now I'm planning to design something incorporating slipped stitched to play up the colors in handpainted yarns. While I think the original gauntlets are quite gorgeous, I think the shape of armwarmers is perfect for a little stitchwork to better show off the yarn! And with yarn this gorgeous, showing it off is all I really care about . . .
And speaking of Koigu, my solid colored Cecil socks are progressing nicely. Here's how the first foot looked a few days ago:
I've since finished it and am about half-way done with its mate, just picked up stitches for the gusset and am about to start the foot. I just noticed that this semi-solid Koigu KPM color (color 2171, dye lot 113) looks a lot like stonewashed jeans! Kind of funny to think about knitting with washed out jeans . . .
Design-wise, I am finalizing a submission to IK and hope to have it in the mail by Wednesday this week. I intended to submit to Twist (btw, have you seen the new issue? It's pretty awesome!) but the design I had in mind just didn't work out when I started to swatch it, it got way too complicated way too quickly. It seems to be the case with many of my ideas, either it's a simple, straightforward idea that works right away, or it's a complicated design with too much going on at once. I wish there were more ideas that fell into a happy medium between the extremes!
It's a scorcher of a day today in NYC so we're staying indoors with the A/C on and a puppy between us on the couch. Bodes well for knitting productivity!
Another one bites the dust.
Yup, that's a humongous hole in my Neighborhood Fiber Co sock. The title is misleading, actually, because this is the firs time this has ever happened to me, EVER. And what's strange is that these are one of my newest pairs of socks! I don't know if maybe I wore them more than other pairs, or if I knit them a bit too loosely . . . I do know that finding a hole the very first day I wore handknit socks this season seems, well, almost like an omen of some sort. Will this be the winter when all my socks die an untimely death?
Man I hope not.
More knitting content coming up this week. I spent last week trying to convince the dog to "go" outside . . . lets just say it hasn't happened yet. Anyone successfully switched a puppy from paper to outside before? Got any hints?
