Showers Of Green And Flaming Tulips

You know, this new life of mine is, by and large, pretty low stress (at least compared to the unmitigated hell of the Before Times), but I have to say, I am extraordinarily glad to see the end of this particular week.  After that little crisis of confidence, I settled down to finish formatting photos for the final application.... and the monitor promptly died.  It took half a day on the phone to ascertain that it was fully covered by warranty... and we could expect to receive the replacement in a week or so.  (If we filled out the form which they kindly emailed to us but couldn't comprehend why there might be an issue reading it!)   More frantic phone calls and $75 later, we had a rental to get us through the week.  Then there was the jurying for a certain other venue which took place this week, and once again, reason and common sense fought a pitched battle with small minded nepotism.  We squeaked through in the end, but this is apparently destined to be an annual event.  All's well that ends well, and the last of the portfolios are safely delivered, but I do have a bit of a post-adrenaline let down at the moment.  Thank heaven for fibre! 

On to the good stuff - buoyed by the enthusiastic response to my initial offerings, I have jumped in the deep end of wholesale sourcing... and I have two new and luscious yarns that will be regulars now.  Firstly, a new sock yarn: a sturdy but divinely soft and squooshy 3 ply in an 80/20 superwash merino / nylon blend.  Secondly, one of my favorite yarns in the whole world: Bluefaced Leicester in a fingering weight 2 ply - plump and springy, robustly wooly, yet fabulously soft to the touch.  I am in love.  The BFL is not superwash, nor is it blended with nylon.... but the yardage is right for socks, and I plan to assuage my frayed nerves by knitting a pair this weekend, after which I will wear them hard and report back on their sturdiness.  Whether or not it will make hardy socks, it is superb for lacy scarves and shawls, as well as stranded colourwork.  (I have a few design projects up my sleeve in that regard, just as soon as I, ahem.... finish up all the other languishing design projects.)

Also, before I get to the pictures (sorry for rambling on so long) - a word about the lace-weight.  I had reason to check the precise weight of my new yarns, and while I was at it, popped one of the lace skeins on the scales.  (And then checked a bunch of my undyed stock to corroborate).  Disconcertingly, it appears that this particular manufacturer errs slightly on the lean side - somewhere between 0.5 and 1.5 gms on each skein.  It really hadn't occured to me to disbelieve the 50 gm label, and further research leads me to believe that it is considered an acceptable margin of error by the industry, but now that I know, I don't feel right not disclosing that.  After some consideration, I decided that posting the precise 10ths of a gram for each individual skein would be overly cumbersome and obsessive, and that this would be a reasonable form of disclosure in lieu of that. In any case, I am experimenting with some other lace yarns for the long term, but I will continue to use up my stock of this stuff because the baby alpaca / merino is just so incredibly lovely to work with.  (The format of the sock yarn and the BFL allows me to err on the side of generosity, by the way, which is much the way I prefer to do business.)

On to the colours!

It has been a late and chilly spring this year, but the breathtakingly new green has at last begun to dust the bare gray branches.

From left to right: reeled silk (this skein is for me to play with, but I may carry it in future if there is interest), BFL, superwash merino sock, alpaca/merino lace. 

A closer look:

I couldn't resist the start of tulip season, either:

From subtle shades of pink and gold and salmon:

to fiery crimson with hot pink highlights:

and a dash of pure flamboyant joy:

Here's the line-up:

The sock yarns:

The BFL:

The lace:

They're all available in the photo album in the right hand sidebar.  Have a great weekend - I've got a skein of BFL calling my name....

Comments

[Miriam]

Hey Ruth,

I've lurked here for a while as I find your color sense inspiring. I just wanted to say that if you want some pattern support for your yarns from an outside designer, I'd love to try them out and design something. That BFL 2 ply sounds DIVINE! Let me know if you're interested.

Miriam

[LaurieM]

Once again, your colors are gorgeous. They just pop!

I recently finished a shawl in BFL and I have enough left over for socks. I'll be interested to hear your wear report.

[Cheryl]

Wow! These colors are amazing! So beautiful!