Pre-Thanksgiving YARN SALE!

Surprise! I've started my most massive stash reduction yet, motivated to an upcoming move to Baltimore, possibly as soon as early January. But more on that later. Here's the yarn:

Elann Baby Silk, 9.5 skeins in Oxblood. A little redder than in the photo above.
$10 plus $7 shipping. SOLD

Grab bag! Includes purple tweed from a Hanne Falkenberg kit, some angora, some silk/mohair with sparkle, two balls of bulky wool, some odd handspun . . SOLD
I can fit all this into a $10.95 Priority Mail shipping box, so . . . send me $20.95 and it's all yours!

Two skeins of sock yarn: Socks that Rock and Yarn Hollow. A little too variegated to use in my current color theory classes.
$10 plus $5 shipping. SOLD

Three skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light in dark green/black, blue/green, and a heathered tan.
$10 plus $7 shipping.

Four skeins of Madelinetosh Merino Light: Two in Fig, one in Fragrant, and one in Isadora.
$15 plus $8 shipping. SOLD!

Email me at weaverknits77@gmail.com if you're interested, and stay tuned for Friday's Weaverknits Stash Reduction Supersale!

Ann + Karida =

CITYSCAPES!

I had some free time this year (ha ha ha! OH ho hoho!), so I did a book of accessories using Neighborhood Fiber Co. yarns, hand dyed by my friend Karida in Baltimore. The patterns are an extension of a club I did with Karida through Fibre Space. It seemed natural to knit up some new variations and make a collection that showcases the various Neighborhood Fiber Co. bases and colors. It was cool to make a book of only accessories, each of which uses an interesting technique or two, but none of which are particularly difficult.

The book is available as a print book/ebook combo and an ebook only, and the patterns are also available as individual pdfs.

(The patterns aren't up on my website yet, so I'll put purchase buttons in this post for now. Sorry in advance about how they're going to clutter this up visually. Now, on to the patterns and photos!)

The patterns include High Street, which is a big cozy cowl that uses a simple cable chart, knit in one strand of Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio Worsted held together with one strand of Neighborhood Fiber Co. Loft, which is a silk/mohair blend. The resulting texture and halo are fabulous. Here's Karida:

And here's me, looking particularly elegant:

Pattern is $5.


The second pattern is a hat, Old Town Mod. It uses short rows to create slouch and includes braids. I love braids. It's garter stitch worked in the round.

Pattern is $5.


Next is Station North, named after Karida's Baltimore neighborhood and inspired by the graffiti found near her house and studio:

Pattern is $5.


And The District, a scarf in two widths using Neighborhood Fiber Co. Penthouse Silk Fingering. The thinner version uses one skein; the wider version uses two skeins. The pattern includes instructions to make striped and solid versions of both the single-wide and double-wide scarves:

 

Pattern is $5.


And finally, Traffic Furniture, which I published a few months ago through Zauberwiese, which is now available to all. It's knit in Neighborhood Fiber Co. Rustic Fingering, which is a single-ply merino that is soft and remarkably affordable.
 

 

Pattern is $5.


Interested in purchasing the book/ebook? It's $12 plus $2 shipping in the U.S. Here's the button!

The ebook alone is $10. 

You can crank out some of these projects before the holidays!

In other important news, Kate at Dragonfly Fibers has created kits for The Line cardigan in a variety of gradient colors. I love, LOVE the yellow, but understand it's not for everyone. Perhaps Flannel Pajamas is more your style?

Or maybe Winter Woods.

These are just two of the six gradients Kate's created. I'm excited to see how the cardigan looks in different color schemes. If I had time, I would be knitting a Winter Woods one NOW.

Posting irregularly is resulting in monster posts. Yikes.

Next post will be on Black Friday, and it will be a VERY LARGE destash post. I'll start posting the yarn around noon. Check in and get some bargains!!!

"And now behold Jonah taken up as an anchor and dropped into the sea . . . "

After returning from Travel Madness (Vogue Knitting Live Chicago, HURRICANE!, staying in Chicago, two-hour turnaround in Boston airport before going to Seattle for Knit Fit, Seattle, teaching, back to Boston, 40 hours in apartment before Baltimore!, driving!, book signing at Fibre Space! Driving home!), I am back in my closet/office in Boston, happily catching up on my life.

For all of you who have waited patiently, White Whale Vol. II is now available through my updated website, where you can read more about and purchase the individual pdfs, the ebook, or the ebook/print book combination. I'm thankful to my web designer, Josh, who accomodated my piecemeal delivery of information for and slow review of the site while I was traveling.

My latest project, about which I'm giddy, is a collaboration with Neighborhood Fiber Co. We're doing a mystery knitalong that will start on January 7.

It's called "The Sermon" and is based on the chapter in Moby-Dick of the same name. It's heavily influenced by the work of painter Ad Reinhardt, who my friend Ruth brought to my attention over a few beers last year. I remembered loving his work when I was in art school, and Ruth's passion for it rekindled that love.

I thought about making a book of garments and accessories called Ad Reinhardt Black, but decided that was not a marketable idea.

To participate, you can purchase the yarn and pattern for the project on the Neighborhood Fiber Co. webiste, starting tomorrow (Wednesday, November 14). It's $75 for the pattern plus five approximately 250-yard skeins of Rustic Fingering in five colors. You can choose from four color stories: warm blacks, cool blacks, blues, and reds. The colors will be posted on the site tomorrow so you can see what you're getting. We haven't decided when to cap orders for the yarn/pattern combination, but sign up early if you're really interested in the yarn component.

The pattern is available for $8, and will be delivered in five installments, the first of which will arrive on Jan. 7, with subsequent installments every two weeks. You can purchase it now or at any point before or during the knitalong:



Here's some Ad Reinhardt (a little blue here, not just black):

Here's one of Matt Kish's illustrations from "The Sermon":

I promise that the pattern will be intuitive and accessible to the adventurous beginner. We'll have all manner of support for you during the knitalong.

HOORAY

OBAMA!!!

White Whale Vol. II

"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method."
—Melville, Moby–Dick

It's here. I think it's the best thing I've ever made. But it's not really something I made. We made it.

My sister did the design and layout.

Matt Kish did the illustrations.

Brandy Crist-Travers did the photography (going so far as to squeeze through barbed wire and locked gates to photograph at an undeveloped area on the shore of the Port of Baltimore).

Skein,

Sweet Fiber,

Cephalopod Yarns,

Neighborhood Fiber Co.,

and Dragonfly Fibers

dyed the yarns. HOW DO I KNOW SUCH AMAZING PEOPLE?

Kate at Dragonfly dyed the colors especially for The Line, shown above. They're three gradations of Grellow that we developed when playing around with yellow, gray, and black to create what became Weaverknits Grellow. Kate has created kits for The Line that include the necessary amount of yarn in the three colors here.

But wait, you ask, where can I get this book?

To celebrate the beauty of books, White Whale Vol. II is currently available only in print form. At the end of the month I will partition it into individual pdfs, but right now I'm too attached to the physical book that took so much love to create. If you missed me at Rhinebeck, you can currently purchase it

• at Vogue Knitting Live in Chicago this weekend from the Neighborhood Fiber Co./Weaverknits booth (!!!);
• at SAFF this weekend from Dragonfly Fibers and from the Dragonfly Fibers website (just send Kate a message); and
• from Fibre Space.

It will be available on my website early next week when I get my next shipment. I'll be discussing each of the designs in depth over the course of next week—after editing deadlines; after creating a Weaverknits sign from plywood, stencils, and spraypaint; after Chicago; after many Red Bull–fueled all-nighters.

I can't wait to share more with you . . . but now, to bed!

Running, knitting, destashing

Yesterday I ran the Cambridge Oktoberfest 5k in my echtes Bayerisches Dirndl (bei einem Flohmarkt in Bayern gekauft). A lot of runners had short, costume dirndls on, but mine was the only real deal I saw. If you think it looks awkward to run in, you're right. Kicking all that fabric made things a little slow, but I ran the whole thing in a respectable time and wearing it was half the fun).

Loving the portapotty background in this photo. I ran with some of Chris' work friends. Of course there was beer after.

I've been knitting a lot after finishing the work on my latest two books, mainly on a reknit of my Project Rothko Scarf from Twentieth Century Graphic in Neighborhood Fiber Co. Rustic Fingering. All the pieces from this book will be reknit in indie yarns and I'll republish the book in my own style this coming spring. Garter stitch (following my own pattern, even) is about all I can handle now.

Soon I'll be starting some new, bigger projects, both continuing some current themes (container ships, White Whale, color studies) and starting some new ones.

I was so pleased to relocate some of my yarns last week that I want to continue the process today.

WHOA, yarn destash is OVER, all is sold. I'll be back at my studio later this week and will post more!

First, nine balls of Crystal Palace Fjord (100% wool, single ply, nice and soft) in a soft blue semisolid (91 yds/ball; 819 yards):

$20 plus $7 shipping

Next, ten balls of Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK (100% Merino) in a natural/gray ply (137 yds/ball; 1370 yards). I love this yarn, but it's discontinued and therefore not a great choice for a new sweater design:

$25 plus $10 shipping

Finally, a lone skein of Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! in a color that was limited to Spring 2011. I used this color in the yoke of my Tea Tray in the Sky design. It's awesome, but again, I need to design using current colors.

$10 plus $6 shipping

Just email me at weaverknits77@gmail.com if you're interested in the yarn!

Ramblin' Man

It came on as I drove home tonight and I sung along. I haven't been home much lately.

It's been a while, and most of you have probably stopped following my blog. So here's some DESTASH MADNESS to get things going while I wait to announce the publication of two new books in the next few weeks!

I've learned that when I design I can't use yarns that are discontinued; it makes people crazy and cranky. And it doesn't help the company that produced the yarn, either. So I'm destashing a lot of things I really love but that have been discontinued, rendering them unfit for design work.

To claim any of the following, send me an email at weaverknits77@gmail.com! I'll send you a PayPal invoice.

First, something I love so much that I contacted the dyer behind it, only to find that she had sold the company. I contacted the new company, which did not write me back. It kills me that I can't use this yarn for a White Whale design, but such is life.

Lobster Pot Yarns Whale of a Skein (80% wool, 10% dehaired angora, 10% cashmere; 740 yards; DK weight) in Sea Lettuce SOLD and off to a new home!

 $25 plus $8 shipping

A lovely fingering-weight blend that just isn't my colors, no matter how much I try to work with it.

Maple Creek Farm fingering blend (wool/bamboo/a little nylon; 450 yards; fingering weight) in Sun Stone Sold!

$10 plus $6 shipping

Five skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Montrose (I love you, Montrose, but you're discontinued); that's 1125 yards! SOLD!

$45 plus $10 shipping

Eleven skeins of Artyarns Supermerino in color 102 (that's all I can find about this one). They're quite golden (more so than in this photo); not the sort of yellow I tend to use (but a yellow most seem to prefer). That's 1248 yards! SOLD!

$35 plus $10 shipping

And finally, destashed because I hate cotton SO MUCH, nine skeins of Den-M-Knit (compare to Rowan Denim). I bought it to make this, which is something I would wear and love if I ever knit with cotton. SOLD

$20 plus $7 shipping

I hope all of this yarn finds happy new homes!
ETA October 14: All the yarn has been relocated! Check in tomorrow for a little more destash and some updates!