Thursday, February 05, 2015

Yarn Share


Hi, Knitters,
This week is flying by and before it's over I want to share some super cool yarns I have been collecting. Some of the skeins I have purchased and some have been sent to me to review and try out. I am excited about all of it and I think you might be, too. I can't wait to get to dreaming, winding and knitting. I might do some designing with a few of these pretties, maybe new sock or shawl designs and others may become simple How I Make My Socks.

Let's get right to the yarn. Click over, look around and share some yarn-y love on these hardworking indie dyers' websites and shops. 

Above is the TurtlePurl Yarns, Striped Turtle Toes in the Trenchcoat colorway, fingering weight, 460 yards. The two skeins are self-striping. Both strands were dyed together so the socks will be perfectly matched when started from the same end of the skein. I LOVE that fact.

I love the camel color with the black, cream and red. What a classic combination. That's my mom's scarf sitting under the yarn. Soon I will have socks to match this beloved scarf that's a Burberry inspired fabric and super soft and cuddly. I ordered this sock set awhile ago.



I was sent these two beautiful skeins by a new-ish yarn shop on Etsy, Red Sock Blue Sock Yarn. The dyer, Ashley, lives in Ontario, Canada and her yarns are just gorgeous. I have to say that I liked her colors and yarns on the Etsy shop but I was blown away by the depth and vibrancy of Twilight (left) and the subtle tones of Steel Blue on the right when I saw them in person. Steel Blue is BFL Sock yarn, fingering weight, 435 yards. I love BFL sock yarn and I can't wait to dig into this one. The Twilight yarn is the Basic Sock 75% Merino, 25% Nylon, 460 yards of fingering weight. I just love this variegated colorway. 

Thank you, Ashley for the lovely skeins! You have beautiful yarns.

Click here for Red Sock Blue Sock Yarns on Etsy! Tell Ashley I say hello if you order from her.


Pagewood Farm has beautifully dyed wools. This one is the Chugiak base, which is 100% super wash wool, 450 yards of fingering weight, in the Army Girl colorway. I want to make socks with this skein.  I love it so much. The yarn has a very tight twist and I love the olive green with the flecks of red, blue, darker green, brown, and lighter shades of green. It is stunning. 

I purchased this skein right here at Webs! There are so many other beautiful colorways. I really like the MapleLeaf colorway.


I think I shared this skein before. It is Caterpillargreen yarn and honestly I am afraid to crack this one open. It is so extraordinarily beautiful in the skein. It kind of takes my breath away. This skein is called Concrete and Tulips. It is an MCN blend, 405 yards of fingering weight. It feels like butter. I will be making socks with this in the very near future when I get my nerve up to wind and knit with this yarn. There is something about it that I can't describe. It's kind of incredible.

Click here to see the Caterpillargreen Yarns in Classic Stripes. These are some of the most unique striping patterns I have ever seen. I love how you can see the striping patterns run under the photo of the skeined yarn, so clever. I think there are pre-orders and then it takes awhile to get the yarn. It is well worth the wait. 

Well much to my surprise.....


these new Caterpillargreen Shawl Stripes skeins showed up at my door. Thank you, Cat (the dyer)! I had to sit down for a minute. These are the most stunning skeins. There is no filter on the photos you are seeing. It is that good. The heft and squish and the subtle rich colors are too much to take. This unique take on striping yarn specifically for shawl knitting takes striping sock yarn on a new and fresh journey. 

Click here for the Caterpillargreen Shawl Stripes skeins! These skeins are XL, MCN fingering weight, 170 grams, 548 yards. They are squishy, soft, and the colors are simply stunning. The skein on the left is called, g biv (as in ROY G BIV without the ROY, which is again very clever), and the skein on the right is called, Concrete and Tulips, more of my favorite things.

The smart cookies at Caterpillargreen have figured out how to keep the stripes even when knitting triangular shawls. You know when you are knitting a shawl with striping yarn how the stripes start out really wide and then as you increase stitches your stripes get skinnier and skinnier. Caterpillar green has solved this issue for you and me.

Just look at this:


I want this shawl. I want to knit this shawl, wear this shawl, gift this shawl, be this shawl. Okay maybe not BE this shawl but you get the picture. I want to knit something just like this sample. It's really cool and stylish and it's a striping yarn concept I haven't seen anywhere else. Amazing.

Thank you for the lovely yarn Caterpillargreen Yarns! I will put it to good use and share away. Great work.


I've talked about Quaere Fibre on Etsy before. I knit her striping Patchwork socks and the yarn is simply magnificent. Click here to see them! After those socks, I ordered both of the skeins in the photo above. The Sunset skein on the left is a wonderful 85% super wash Merino, 15% NEP Nylon blend. I love a tweedy sock yarn.  I can't wait to knit this up into some squishy tweedy socks. I have no idea what the variegation will do but I am anxious to find out. I'll keep you posted.

The skein on the right is a Super Sock skein, 150 grams, 600 yards of deep rich navy blue with splashes of bright yellow, orange and a lighter blue. It is Starry Night meets Doctor Who, thusly named Vincent and the Doctor. I LOVE this colorway and it will become a shawl at some point. Yes. This will make the coolest garter stitch shawl of some sort. I want to start this right away.


Well, today I was going to post about my new color work hat knit out of Starcroft yarns but I was waiting for a couple of things to fall into place first so I went with the Yarn Share today. So next up will be Starcroft yarns, my new Starcroft color work hat, Gale Zucker's fantastic sheepy postcards photographed on Nash Island where the Starcroft sheep live (I have a cool set of these), and a quick view into the Starcroft Pop Up Shop I visited when I was in NYC a couple of weeks ago. It was a super fun night.

All that and more coming up next. Love ya, knitters.
xo ~ susan