Mystery Knits

Hello there!

It seems like mystery KALs (knit-alongs) are all the rage these days, aren't they? For those of you not familiar with them, the basic concept is that you start to knit something without knowing exactly what it is that you're knitting! You might know as much as what type of garment/accessory it is and how much yarn it will take, but beyond that the actual design and construction are a mystery. The designer reveals the patterns via a series of clues or sections and at the end you have a fun new item you never knew you were going to knit!

In case you've been bitten by the mystery bug, I thought I'd showcase some of the yarns available in the Storied Yarns shop that will fulfill the yardage requirements for a few of the mystery KALs that are "hot right now" on Ravelry.

First up, the WestKnits KAL; this was a KAL for a shawl and the final clue was revealed earlier this month, so you have the advantage that you can peek in the projects if you want to see the finished shawl before you cast on! For this one you need 460 yards of a main color and 410 yards of a secondary color. Might I recommend the combination of Grandma Redbird and The Handmaiden?

 

Another option is the Dandelion on a Meadow KAL; this one uses one or two skeins. For a single-skein shawl, I think Night at the Fair would be a gorgeous choice; if you'd like to add yardage then why not pair it with Hot Shot?

 

Designer Laura Nelkin has a new KAL as well; it's called Trapeze and it's for a shawl that will work with a single skein of fingering weight yarn. She recommends a yarn that is semi-solid or slightly variegated/tonal; I think anything in this palette would work really well:



From left to right that's The Princess, The Farmer's Daughter, Arabian Days, The HotShot and The Handmaiden.

The Wendy Knits Summer Mystery KAL also recommends using a yarn that is subtly variegated or semi-solid. How about one of these?

Left to right that's The Ingenue, Arabian Nights and The Crone.

I keep going back and forth about the Leethal Knits KAL myself; I'd love to join but I'm worried about having the time! Maybe one of you can just sign up and do it instead and I can watch and live vicariously for a while. ;) This pattern is easy to customize to different yarn weights and yardages, but the designer recommends anywhere from one or two colors for the main and up to several options for contrasting details. I personally think it would be awesome to knit a shawl in this combo:

That's The Ingenue, Arabian Nights and The Handmaiden. Can't you just see how awesome the three of these yarns would work together in a shawl?!?

For something that takes a little bit less commitment, why not a skein of Daisy combined with The Princess for contrast?

Even if you're not into mystery knitting, any of these color combinations would make an awesome project! I myself am planning to knit a top out of a color palette very similar to this one:

That's The Crone, The Ingenue and The Handmaiden for those of you keeping track. ;) Whatever you knit, stitch yourself a story worth telling with yarns that are worthy of your project! Visit the Storied Yarns shop today for these beauties and several others. I just updated today! ;)

Thanks, everyone, and happy stitching!

Put on Your Party Hat

Howdy!

I'm sorry I haven't been good at blogging regularly. Life is insane here, with school just starting and lots of goings-on at Storied Yarns Central that I'm not quite yet ready to reveal.

I have been plenty busy playing with yarn, though, so don't worry about that! I've got a Hunger Games themed update planned for Saturday in the Storied Yarns Shop. To keep you busy until then, today and tomorrow you can save 16% using code BigTen in honor of my 10th wedding anniversary on August 16th!

Most of the knitting I've done lately is still in top-secret stages of development. However, there is one project I recently started and finished that I'm ready to share!

I should preface this with a brief apology. The only other person home right now is 3 years old and not so great with a camera, so I had to take some not-so-fantastic self portraits in my bathroom today, ha! I'll try to get better pictures later, and I might even weave in the ends first! ;)

Anyway, here's my recent FO - a slouchy hat:

One of the things I hear a LOT in the knitting community is that nobody knows what to do with 4 ounces of handspun yarn. They take one look at the uneven gauge or the low yardage and they run for the hills. I think this is a real crying shame, because one of the greatest joys of my life is knitting with handspun yarn (oh yeah, and motherhood and all that stuff, lol)!

It IS the uneven gauge that I find so interesting about handspun. You can take a basic stitch pattern and instantly transform it into something magical and awesome with the use of a fabuous yarn like the one pictured above. The fiber I used to make this handspun was from the Fiesta Spin-Along from CraftyPuppyLover's shop, and this yarn was definitely a party to spin. Just look at the way the texture worked up in the stockinette fabric of the hat:

There were only 68 yards in this skein of handspun, and it weighed in at 3 oz. I added just .6 oz of a 2ply superwash merino handspun to make the brim, so overall the hat still weighs under 4 oz.

Here are some tips I've learned about knitting with handspun yarns. These are tips that apply specifically to knitting a hat like this one:

- Use needles that are bigger than you might think you need based on the yarn's weight. This yarn was a pretty standard bulky weight, but I used size 15 needles. This gave the thicker parts of the yarn room to spread out in the stitching and also helped only 68 yards of yarn go a lot further.

- Knit hats from the top down. This helps with customizing the size as you can just stop increasing when your hat is wide enough (or too wide, if you want it to be slouchy like mine). Also, if you happen to run out of yarn then you can use a contrast yarn for the brim and not the top.

- Don't be afraid of the yarn! Embrace it for all its beautiful and unique properties. Put it together with a simple stitch and a basic pattern and watch it become something extraordinary.

Hopefully by now you're all fired up to work with some awesome handspun, too! I challenge you to put some handspun on your needles this weekend. I promise you, it'll be an instant mood lifter (trust me, this week I know a mood lifter when I see one!). If you don't have a big drawer full of handspun like I do, I happen to have a shop full of yarn that can help you out with that. (Don't forget the coupon code, and remember I offer spinning service if you buy my fiber!)

If you're not sure what to make, PLEASE feel free to ask! I'm happy to help you pair up a gorgeous skein of yarn with just the right project. Just leave me a comment here or on Ravelry or Etsy!



I'll leave you with one more photo of me posing like a nerd. HA! Happy stitching, everyone!!

Semi-Solid Stitching

Hello, and welcome!

Today I updated the Storied Yarns Shop with this lovely selection of my "Stock Characters" (semi-solid) colorways on my Storied Yarns Bamboo Sock base:

Every time I dye up my Stock Characters, I think of all the gorgeous hand-knits they could create. These colorways are all semi-solid or tonal, so they'd make ideal choices for things like lace work or color work where you really want your stitches to stand out and show off.

I also love to imagine the gorgeous combinations you might create by pairing these colors together in groups of two or three. How about these combinations?

This is my kind of color palette. Deep blues and purples, burgundy wines and a pop of bright red-orange just for fun.

I've come up with a few other combinations, too:

Pinks and purples to show off your feminine side, moody blues for subtle contrast or bright, summer fun in pink and orange!

I've been browsing Ravelry for some two- and three-color pattern ideas. How about this Two Color Crescent Shawl in Unicorn and Evil Queen? I've always loved Stephen West's Spectra Shawl, which I think would be ahh-mazing in Hot Shot and Princess or Hot Shot and Crone. The colorful pattern of the Ulmus shawl would be good for showing off a bit of contrast, like with Time Traveler and Unicorn.

You could make two contrasting pairs of Vagabond Mitts or Cordelia Fingerless Gloves using any two of the yarns in today's update - how about The Vampire and The Crone?

Anyway, I hope you'll find as much inspiration in these colors as I do! As always, feel free to send me a message if you're looking for a specific color that isn't currently in stock. Thanks!!

What to Make with 50g of Sock Yarn

Hello, and welcome to another edition of What to Knit with ______ here on the Storied Yarns blog! In a few minutes I will be updating the Storied Yarns Shop with these nine lovely skeins of sock yarn:

Each of these skeins is on my Colonial Sock base (75% SW Colonial Wool/25% Nylon) and each one weighs in at 50g.

So, what exactly CAN you make with only 50g of sock yarn? If you think "not much," you're sadly mistaken! 

Personally, I have made a handful of projects with only 50g of sock yarn. How about a Swirl Hat? Here's one I made for my friend's baby about two years ago:

This is my "Medusa" colorway, if you're curious.

For some other hat suggestions, why not the Ishbel Beret by Ysolda Teague or the HitchHat by Martina Behm?

I also made a really fun pair of fingerless mitts out of 50g of sock yarn in my "Party Ponies" colorway:

The pattern is the Quilted Lattice Mitts, and it was a lot of fun to make! You can do a 2-color version or a single color version as I did. Fingerless gloves can often be made with only 50g of sock yarn. For a different pair, try Veyla, Lepidoptera Mitt (Oh wow I love these!) or CanCans on for size!

I have a pattern for you hookers out there - it's my Crocheted Adjustable Scowl. My friend Carrie made this one in my Mrs. O'Leary colorway:

If you want a cowl but you prefer to knit it, why not the lovely Abstract Leaves Cowl or A Very Good Cowl Indeed?

For all you shawl lovers out there, a pattern I have long admired, yet never made, is the Storm Cloud Shawlette. It's a FREE pattern and it looks lovely in a nice, variegated yarn. The best part is it uses 150-200 yards of fingering weight yarn, huzzah! I think if all the yarns in my shop don't sell there will be a Storm Cloud in my future and maybe a pair of Lepidoptera Mitts, too!

Don't forget all the lovely baby items you can make with 50g of sock yarn - just TRY to look at Christine's Stay-On Baby Booties or Cable Baby hat and not go "Awwww!" I dare you!

I also dare you to give 50g of sock yarn a try. The ones I'm adding to my shop sell for just 10 bucks a pop, so for a low budget and a little bit of time you can make a truly beautiful item for yourself or a loved one. It's a win-win!

Pattern Pairings: Stock Characters

I dyed up some more of my Stock Characters this week, and I'm pretty excited about them! You can find them in the Storied Yarns shop. I thought it might be nice to give you some inspiration about what you might do with them!

I've been seeing a lot of excitement over the Color Affection Shawl pattern lately. Some of my friends have made some truly gorgeous versions of this shawl! I think The Handmaiden, The Knight in Shining Armor and The Wizard would make a REALLY cool rendition of this pattern:

There are also quite a few two-color shawls and patterns that I've been crushing on lately. How about Cladonia, Spectra or Kleio in Wizard and Knight in Shining Armor?

If shawls aren't your thing, how about the Tempest sweater, Endpaper Mitts or Disappearing Act socks in Evil Queen and Handmaiden?

Evil Queen also pairs up nicely with Knight in Shining Armor, don't you think?

Another fun combination is to pair The Princess with The Handmaiden:

or with Evil Queen:

This combination (since the Princess skein is 68g) would be amazing for the Whippoorwill Shawl, Fracture or Zenobia.

Pretty soon I'll have this shawl finished and ready to publish:

And once I do, I'll have a new pattern to recommend for you! ;)

Happy Fiber Friday, everyone!!!