Kicking off year two of a small business with some space and some yellow

Weaverknits LLC will occupy nearly 600 square feet of industrial/flex space on January 1. Chris has promised to help me paint one of the walls yellow (after I was strongly drawn to another, more expensive space because it had a Yellow Wall).

I see weaving, blocking garments, storing yarn, samples, and books, teaching workshops, a large table for laying out garments for measurement (I can't imaging doing this without having to push my coffee table against the apartment door), and a desk for writing and copyediting.

And more.

There's a small "office" room with a window off this room, too.


In other news, KnitPicks has a new Wool of the Andes color called Caution. Look how it brightens up the pile of knitting stuff by the side of my bed! I'll be knitting all of that into a new design for publication early next year. It's an amazing, amazing yellow . . . on the golden side, deep enough that it isn't retina scalding. Imagine the possibilities for well-placed Caution in colorwork!

Space

It's official. The amount of crap in my very small apartment is not only testing my husband's patience daily but also making me feel crazed and claustrophobic. One can only write and copyedit full time from a desk that abuts one's bed and use all available surface and floor space as a "knitting studio" for so long. I feel myself reaching the end of the period for which this has been acceptable.

I am in search of space. Above: the future home of Weaverknits LLC?

Sunday Yarn Adventure

Today I rewarded myself for all the boring editing work I've waded through over the past few weeks (which is part of the reason the blog has been so quiet . . . well, that and the fact that most of the things I'm knitting are secret things that won't be revealed for months and months). Most of my days are spent working at my large desk in my bedroom/office. About 18 inches to my left is this:

They wake up and get feisty at least once during the late morning/early afternoon: CAT FIGHT!

This is good for some comic relief.

In addition to the copyediting, I've been working on a lot of new designs, including a hat knit from my friend Adrian's amazingly saturated chunky yarns:

She dyed these four colors to match four Color Aid cards I gave her. They are RIGHT ON, too. Amazing! Designing accessories is so much fun. I've made two versions of the hat already, and have a third, more complex version in mind. Because it takes about two hours to make one, I can improvise while I'm knitting an actual hat, rather than in swatch after swatch, like I do for sweaters. The hat will be in White Whale Vol. 2 (release date TBD, depending on how much other work comes my way in the next few months), but will be available as a kit from Adrian at this year's Bazaar Bizarre, so look for it!

So anyway, this afternoon I went to Gather Here in Cambridge, a gorgeous knitting and sewing store and workshop. Somehow I had not yet visited Gather Here . . . I don't know. It's unfathomable. Life is busy. I saw some of the coolest people I know, met some new people, and got a lot of new yarn.


I'm wearing the simplest version of the new hat here (with details concealed on the left side) and holding hand-dyed yarns from Dirty Water Dyeworks and hanspun yarn from NJ Stacie Made. It was a good day. A relaxing day. Now it's time to get back to work.

Color honesty destash!!!

Thanks to everyone for the compliments on my new shawl! It's been getting a lot of wear. For those of you interested in trying overdying, I use Cushing Acid Dyes. Those little packets have instructions for how to mix the dye. This website gives all the necessary information. It's easy!

I feel like posting about that purple shawl has made me much more honest about my taste in colors. I've found a few more yarns to destash based on the fact that the colors do not inspire me. I admit it: There are only so many hours in the day, and I'm not going to spend them knitting things in colors that aren't my first choice, especially because I have such a gigantic stash that contains all the colors of the rainbow. These colors are some of my first choices.


Or these, as used in my sister's nearly complete Albers Shawl. I found this in her bedroom when we visited her last weekend. The outermost color will be a mushroomy brown.


Before posting about the purple, I (egotistically? Solipsistically?) though that if I didn't like a certain color, none of you would be interested in it, either. Now I know there's a home for everything, except, perhaps, hospital green. But I'll keep those. Or beige. But I don't have any of that in my stash. And while many of you are not yellow fans, those of us who are, watch out for us. We make up for our small numbers with our commitment and enthusiasm.

THE YARN IS ALL SOLD! Thanks everyone! More to come... some for sale, some contests. This is actually a lot of fun!

So here's some yarn I'd like to pass on to loving homes. The theme seems to be harvest colors.

SOLD! Eight skeins of Knitpicks Gloss in the now-discontinued color Pumpkin. It's more of a rust color, I think, like colored leaves. Too autumn for me, not ORANGE enough. $18 plus $7 shipping, and it can be yours! 1,760 yards. Go crazy!

Two skeins of Spud & Chloe Outer in natural, which appears to be discontinued. Wound the one skein to make a cowl, then realized that a cowl in this color wasn't great with my pale complexion. $9 plus $5 shipping. Whee! I bought this yarn for my next cowl or shawl:

And finally...

Nearly five skeins of Rowanspun DK in a mossy green. I bought this about 12 years ago and still haven't knit it into anything, so it's time to pass it on. It's been stored in a sealed bag but may have a few random cat hairs. $15 plus $5 shipping.

Email me at weaverknits77@gmail.com if you're interested!

Overdye success!

Some black dye and and the dying pot...


Ta da! Dark plum. A little blotchy, but that just adds to the depth, I think. I've been wearing it every since it dried. Success!

And the winner of 238g/about 525 yards of purple yarn, determined by random number generator, is... commenter #7, Loribird! Email me your address at weaverknits77@gmail.com and I'll send you some PURPLE.

I LOVED reading all your color comments. I was laughing all week! I wasn't surprised that yellow and orange were difficult for a lot of people, and yes, "hospital green" is a tough one, too, although I think it has great potential. You guys are great!!!