May Haul

So last month I said that I would show some indie dyers some love in order to support small businesses. This month I chose another favourite dyer of mine (who is not unknown to these posts) Mothy & the Squid. I think we were partnered up through fibreshare the first time I took part. I am sure I sent to her and then I just had to try her yarn and never looked back. I absolutely love her nature themes and her instagram is yarn candy for the eyes. Go look!

The first yarn was actually picked by my sister. Mothy’s son is being home schooled just now and one of his school projects was to design, and sell the yarn. He had to come up with a business plan and promote it. His yarnspiration was ice creams. I instantly fell in love with these colours and knew my sister would love them too. So I showed my sister the options and she picked this one which is bubble gum. I actually had an inkling that she would pick this one. I have actually knitted up her socks with this already and came up with a new pattern which I just have to write out from my notes. I’ll tell you more on that another time. I must admit that if I had the funds I would have bought every single colourway in this series.

I knew that Mothy & the Squid yarn would be a focus. The reason I chose it to be this month is because of this colourway. As I said she uses nature as an inspiration and this is from her bird series. Looking at the colours you wouldn’t be surprised that I couldn’t let time go past before ordering it in case she sold out. These are my colours. However, it’s the inspiration behind it. The bird that inspired this colourway is the Blue Footed Booby. My dad was a bird watcher back in his day and had lots of books on birds. My sister and I loved nature books and we would always look through the pictures. We would often come to the page with this bird on it and being children we thought the name was hilarious. So a bit of childhood nostalgia for me with this one. So the yarn will knit up a pair of socks for myself and they are already on the pins.

This yarn is called Pink orchid and was actually in her sale. I would have bought it anyway as I was specifically looking to order a donegal base. I didn’t realise how close this was to a donegal based yarn I bought from For the Love of Yarn. So I might be nice and knit one of them up for someone else (maybe). This one is slightly different in that it’s a solid pink and the flecks are rainbow.

Lastly I signed up for her sea creature club. A year or so ago I stopped all of my yarn subscriptions and I have been good at sticking to it. However, I have been admiring the colour ways for this one for the last few months and I decided to sign up. This is May’s and the inspiration is the Leafy Seadragon. So cute! I love the colours. I usually go for cool greens rather than warm and this will be a lovely change. I love the little stitch markers that came with it too.

While I promised to focus on one small business each month Mothy & the Squid wasn’t the only indie dyer I picked up yarn from. I am sure most knitters will have heard of Jon from EasyKnits. I follow him on instagram and I have been watching his live feeds every Sunday and Thursday when I’m not working. In fact his Thursday live feed is at a time that I can watch it while waiting on my train home. I just have to cut out early. I love seeing what he is working on and the guest appearance of his sausage dog, sweep. He produced some kits called Stay at Home. They sell out so quickly and I really wanted a set for a pair of socks I plan to knit (I was being lazy and didn’t want to go through my stash to try to match up yarn for them). I missed them the first batch but on the second I picked up this purple and pink duo. There was a more ‘me’ colourway but I wanted a change and I do like knitting with pink every now and then. He is actually in the process of writing up a pattern for these kits. So I have a bit of a conundrum. Do I go ahead and use it for the pattern that I had originally planned or do I hold off and use it for the pattern they were dyed for?

Next month I am planning on ordering from a dyer I have never ordered from before. I might not order quite so much but I am looking forward to trying something new. Does anyone else have exciting yarn purchases they wish to share?

Three Pairs for Nurses!

I feel like I have been a knitting machine the last few weeks. Since I decided to put aside all projects and knit socks for my fellow nurses I have knitted up five pairs. Three of those have already found a new home. You have already seen the first two pairs I finished so thought I would show the latest. I decided to put them together in one post rather than one each as I imagine this could get boring very quickly.

So the third pair I finished were these. Like all of the socks I plan to knit just now it’s a basic pattern. The yarn is from my stash and was hand dyed by For the Love of Yarn. It’s a sparkle sock yarn although you can’t see that in the photo. The colourway is called camp fire and I honestly can’t tell you when I purchased it. I absolutely love it. The striping is very short so there is no pooling of the colour at all. Trust me, I was looking for it. This is the only pair from this lot that has been given away. The recipient was chuffed and is already an owner of some hand knit socks which she inherited from her gran. So she knows the work that went into them. She did have to explain to one of our consultants that I did not change the colour of the yarn every two stitches. I most definitely can’t take credit for all those lovely colours in there.

The second pair I finished knitting was these ones. As yet I haven’t decided who these are going to. Perhaps because I feel that these are a little more special. This was another yarn by For the Love of Yarn but is part of her cherub collection. This is called Comic Con and was hand dyed by her oldest son with money going to charity. I think in this case it was the Glasgow Children’s hospital. I am so very tempted to keep these for myself as both the name and the colours speak to me. I won’t though. I just need to find the right nurse to give them to. I think I might have an idea who that is. Oh, and again there was no colour pooling. Thank you Callum for the beautiful yarn!

These socks I actually finished today. Again by For the Love of Yarn but a little different from the others. Instead of Merino/nylon or stellina. It’s merino bamboo! It’s a beautiful yarn to knit with and I highly recommend it. The texture isn’t quite as smooth as the merino/nylon but this makes it perfect for socks to wear with boots because they are definitely more durable. If you are looking to knit a pair of hiking socks I would recommend this type of yarn base. I love the colours too. The colour is called Midnight Fun and I am sorry, again this was from deep in my stash with no clue as to when it joined it. Let’s just say the chances are it was waiting to long to be knitted up.

Here is all three skeins of yarn in their glory before I wound them. I always like to show them in their skeins as I do think they always look very different when wound or knitted up. The vast majority of my knitting stash is by For the Love of Yarn. However, the next three pairs will be knitted with yarn dyed by other dyers. Well two of them will be. If I go at the same rate you will be seeing those in another couple of weeks.

In the meantime I hope you are all staying home and staying safe. A huge shout out to all key workers out there. That includes those working in shops, Royal Mail, public transport and refuse. You are all appreciated.