2014 year of sweaters for me

Long story short, best resolution for 2014 was to knit stuff for ME.

Here is my January sweater

Open sweater perfect for chilly California nights

Classic back a little below waist

Raglan detail

I modified the original pattern as I wanted a longer sweater

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Pattern: McIntosh from Gudrun Johnston

Book Knit with me

Yarn: Miss bab, Whatta skein!!

2 skeins of Bruin

Stitches west 2013

This week end was Stitches west, one of the biggest knitting trade show in the US

3 days of yarn shopping!!

I found a few gems...

Delicious yarn 

some "frosting worsted" in Blueberry, Licorice, Sugar

very soft yarn, superwash merino.

can't wait to make plenty of  Newborn baby blankets !!

Sweet Fiber

some "Cashmerino socks" and "Cashmerino worsted", 

80% superwash merino 10% cashmere 10% nylon,

"Avery sport", 50% silk and 50% merino, all undyed ecru.

This is a yarn that I was really looking forward to buying 

and will probably end up dyeing with my own colors.

Sweet Fiber

some stitch markers

they were too cute to pass on them!!

Becoming Art yarn

"Teles worsted", 60% merino and 40% silk

I just fell in love at first sight for this one.

One of my friends had made some cute little bears for Mother bear projects

Shawl from "A verb for keeping warm" in a perfect rasberry color (a little darker than the picture),

handyed of blend of cochineal and Quebracho

I caved for Anzula yarn, 

"Cloud" in Au natural, 80% Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon, 

maybe dyeing

"Haiku" in Aurora, 70% Merino, 20% Bamboo, 10% Nylon,

for a try-out baby cardigan summer blend

"For better or worsted" in seaside , 80% Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon,

for a Newborn baby blanket

4 skeins of "Dreamy" in lapis, 75% Merino, 15% Cashmere, 10% Silk

for a future cardigan

Yarn Dyeing

Today my friends and I met at the local cafe , hopped in the car and drove to Oakland for a private class at A Verb for Keeping warm. It was a lot of fun learning about dyeing with Kristine. Expert in natural dyeing, she showed us how to prepare the yarn with mordant, mix the dyes for beautiful colors. 


Kristine made the class extra special by preparing indigo dye and showing us how to make a our own design on silk fabric. We left with a bag of all the yarn we dyed and a silk scarf for each of us.


Anyone in the Bay area, if you are looking for a great class where you want to learn about natural dyeing, don't look further, this is the class for you!!

A few pictures of our day.