July 24, 2023

0 Posted by - July 24, 2023 - Classes, Cowls, Crochet, Knitting, New Yarns

So it begins…

It’s so inspiring to have a completely new yarn pop into the shop. This is Marla, a new yarn from Manos, a DK-weight merino yarn made from 2 hand-dyed strands plied together to give this beautiful marled blend of colors. It comes in these lovely bundles of 5 skeins, that you want to pick up like a baby and just cuddle! But I couldn’t let them just sit there, so one quiet morning I had a great time wandering the shop and looking for yarns, colors, textures to combine, and of course, the possibilities are endless:

Use a yarn like Marla as inspiration and go stash-diving (or come dive in my stash at the shop), and figure out what to make later, or start browsing Ravelry and start out with a plan. I looked for 2-color dk-weight projects and liked a bunch for Marla, just a few examples below:

Sonatine is a two-color cowl from Dee O’Keefe that would look splendid with Marla as the main color and a solid as the lace section. Beautiful and squishy in garter stitch!

Many of Jennifer Steingass’s circular yoke sweaters would be lovely with Marla as the contrast color. Altheda is just one example:

One of my favorite cowls to make is Copenhagen Calling from Isabell Kraemer. Marla would give it a fresh look, even if you don’t have an ultra-cool biker jacket:

I could go on and on, but we’ve all got stuff to do. Before I go, though, I want to remind everyone of our classes. Karen still has openings in her cowl classes, including this one, that starts on Saturday.

I love how the twisted stitches stand out in relief in the springy fine merino wool she used. And there are still openings for beginning knitting. If you’re just back from vacation and want to get in a class or two before fall kicks off, there’s still time!…and next time, I promise I’ll show what I’ll be teaching this fall. I got a little distracted this week, as you may be able to tell!