Saturday, January 15, 2011

Independent Uprising!!!!

More power to Indies!!! My newest pattern Thruway just went live on Knitty and it's for all of you who buy, spin and or sell beautiful, bulky, artisan handspun yarn. This super easy design is offered in three versions, each for different needle and yarn size. This is funny, because different sizes of patterns usually give different sizes of finished items. This time, the size of the finished item stays the same. The pattern is written in sections and each section shows approximate yardage, so you can really tailor the pattern to your yarn rather than the other way round. It will help you combine multiple yarns of lesser yardage amounts and ultimately help you figure yardage for future projects.

I didn't offer a commercial substitute as such. So if you don't spin, where will you find the yarn? There's plenty out there, though you may not find it in a brick and mortar shop. That's because it's expensive to produce. To keep costs down and quality up, most of us Indies sell our stuff on Etsy. You can start in my Etsy shop, where I'm offering my bound boucle handspun in Black Hollyhocks and other colors. Check out Lucca Dot Yarns for some really fun stuff. The WPI 5 version is knit from her "Man for All Seasons" yarn which she is offering in her Etsy Store. That's her lovely daughter Lauren modeling Thruway. Talented family! Then browse through Etsy for all the delicious handspuns of which there are many many many. I have many in my Etsy circle and they have other in their circles. So much fun!!!




Wanna spin my bound boucle yourself? Check out my accompanying article "From Spiral to Boucle' " on how to spin the whole yarn from handspun (absolutely NO commercial yarn included). And this brings me full circle as it were. The fiber I used to spin the yarn in this article is "Friday Harbor" superfine merino from Woolgatherings, originally owned by Twisted Mom Sandy Sitzman, my Yoda, from whence the Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook was born, now in it's second generation (that's right folks), now owned by daughter in law Kate Sitzman who is doing a bang up job of carrying on the crown of fiber goddess and queen enabler! (You've gotta give me the James Joyce award for that last sentence.) A second generation handpainted business. To me that says we're here to say!