Friday, January 15, 2010

Pebble Sock Goes Out



Off goes another wholesale order! The 20 skeins above are off to one of my own favorite local yarn stores, Twisted, and just in time for their 10% off customer appreciation weekend! It is the first order of Pebble Sock to go out since I took up with this new base yarn, and I'm really excited to see the response. Included in this order are a couple of new favorites for me: Turquoise Gothic (bottom row, fourth from the left) and 10th Doctor after David Tennant's recently departed character on Doctor Who (2nd row, far left).

Several things are coming up for Black Trillium Fibre Studio that I'd like to get the word out about:

1. As some of you may remember from last year, as a family, we're pretty dedicated to finding a cure for Cystic Fibrosis. We'll be participating in the walk in May as usual, but this year we're kicking off our fund raising a bit early. What this means for you wonderful yarnies is that you'll have an opportunity for free shipping twice! During the months of February and April, any donation you make over $3 to our Great Strides team will entitle you to free shipping on a single order of any size, domestic or international. We haven't finalized the teams yet, but once we do I will post links and send out email reminders with more details.

2. Are you a Portland-area spinner? You're in luck, because The Knitting Bee will be carrying my hand-dyed roving by the end of next week. 4 ounces of gorgeous, soft Merino at those prices isn't likely to last long, so you might have to be quick.

3. I'm working with another retailer, Yarn 4 Socks, to participate in their Sock Club for the month of April. I get the incredible privilege of working with a local designer who has been published in Knitty and Vogue and we're taking our inspiration for a colorway and pattern from the timeless classic movie "Breakfast At Tiffany's". Look for a post and links when the April club becomes available for purchase.

That's all for now! Except one more piece of personal news: this week was the midway point in my pregnancy and we found out we're having another boy! I'm so happy to start calling the baby "he" instead of "it" or "him/her", but we're really clueless when it comes to names this second time around. I'm getting a little slower at dyeing, but I'm not ready to take a break just yet.

Happy knitting!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Shawls from Sock Yarn, and a KAL

I've been test knitting a few new yarn bases, including a gorgeous new 100% Superwash Merino fingering weight that is plump and well-plied. I've called it Pebble Sock, and you can find it on my Etsy site as well as Twisted here in Portland. Here's my first project:


Pattern: Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante.
Yarn: Pebble Sock, Black Trillium Fibre Studio, Color "Black Jewel", 1 skein.
Deets: knitted on US 6 needles, added several pattern repeats to use up more of the skein. Finished with mere yards to spare.

I'm not one to miss a good band-wagon, so I've been bookmarking shawls that call for a single skein of sock yarn all over Ravelry and anywhere else I can find them. My next project, probably from BFL Sock in have stashed in the Mariana Trench colorway, is going to be Multnomah by Kate Flagg. In fact, I'd like to do this as a Knit-along with some friends from my knit night and my Black Trillium Fibre Studio group on Ravelry. Check out the thread here. Please come join us and we'll see how many shawls we can make out of Black Trillium yarns!

I hope everyone is transitioning into the New Year happily and with much knitting.

Cheers!