Dear Kay,
Nursing the traditional back-to-school cold I seem to catch from Clif every year. I am so good at catching this cold, just brilliant.
One of the excellent things to do while slurping tea and debating cold medicine options is to dream about yarn. I have never been so crazy about yarn as I seem to be these days. I’m fascinated by it. I like seeing how people make it. And, despite the fascination, I remain strangely uninterested in trying to make yarn myself.
Happy to be the end user of yarn.
Thrilled.
So relieved that I don’t have to be the one to figure out the chemistry and mystery of dyeing. So grateful that others are so damn good at it.
This is Megan Ingman’s yarn, Lichen and Lace, coming out of New Brunswick, Canada. It drives me pretty much to distraction. You know how people are all the time saying “I draw from nature for my inspiration” and you go, “Hunh. Whatever. That rainbow-colored yarn doesn’t look like any rainbow I ever saw.” When I look at Megan’s yarns, I get it. Consider this colorway, for example. Daylily, she calls it. If you could wedge a daylily into a yarn, this would be the result. When you look at all Megan’s colorways, you will hardly believe your eyes. She’s really capturing something here. Worth a ramble to see the close-up images. Wow.
Next stop in my yarny daydreaming: Allison Herrmann’s Crow River Handspun out of New London, Minnesota. This little skein has all the crazy barberpole action I really love about handspun. How will this knit up? Sometimes I find that squinting can give you a sense of what will happen. But the randomness of it all is where the fun is. Allison has a small batch of yarns on Etsy at the moment, but here’s hoping she spins more soon.
Finally, yarn of a different sort.
I have suppressed for many years my intense and total love of old rugs. I ran out of floors, so I had to stop. A handmade rug is a thing to treasure, to use, to wear out.
And to repair. I’ve had all my rugs repaired in one place or another, but never like this.
In my Etsy ramble, I came across this rug from Mustafa Vardarsuyu, a rug seller in Istanbul.
I immediately thought of mender extraordinaire Tom of Holland, he of the Visible Mending Programme, and wonder what he’d make of this damaged kilim repaired with vintage denim. I think it’s fantastic.
And I wondered where in my rug-covered house I could sneak this in.
Sigh! So much orangey red wonderfulness. Off to go dream about it all.
Love,
Ann
I am presently making a cowl out of some Lichen and Lace yarn in the ‘Shrooms colourway. I keep wondering if I like it. Boring, or calm? And then a blob of yellow (could it be chartreuse yellow?) and some more ‘shroom colour… Keeps me on my toes, at least!
That rug! But also that yarn!
I have an old kilim in need of repair, but that one is gorgeous. Love those yarns too. All my colors!
Happy Labor Day weekend!!
Denim?! I thought it was i-cord!
Thanks, Ann. I just spent this week’s allowance. Ah, the joys of buying yarn while you’re still laying in bed.
Thank you for this dose of beauty. Daylily, indeed.
I just had an entertaining wander around Mustafa Vardarsuyu’s shop. I love this:
“In Turkish, flatweaves mean ‘Kilim’. And, there is a saying ‘Kilim demek ilim demektir’ Meaning; ‘Kilim is science.’ The engineering of the kilim (warp and weft) is the basic knowledge which have given root to major knowledges in physics and arithmetic. (x,y coordinate system)”
Awesome!
I loved learning this. Thanks!
Beautiful sights. And yes, I love yard, the more unique the better and and I’m grateful someone else makes it for me.
I, too, am often seduced by the color of some of the wonderful hand-dyes out there. Then I think “what would I make with it?” I love to knit lace, and lace and a variegated pattern do not mix well. So very glad indie dyers are also now dying tonal skeins!
So, lately I’ve been buying fabric…..
that rug . . . another thing to covet/aspire to. just had no idea one could make that “broken” piece look so like art.
thank you!
A very useful tool lives in the bottom of my knitting bag. It’s a teleidoscope that lets me view a skein of yarn and get some ideas for how it might knit up. It’s especially useful for seeing how a pile of different yarns might mash together.
I put pictures of two yarns and their teleidoscope image in this project page: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/amyvong/linen-weave-boomerang
You shouldn’t run so fast. If you didn’t run so fast, maybe you wouldn’t *catch* the cold?
I don’t know which I love more, though the Lichen and Lace from New Brunswick, Canada has me spending money I don’t have. Brilliant. Hope you feel better soon.
I tried squinting at the yarn, but realized if i just took off my glasses I experienced the desired blurry effect. Who knew the skein was so pinky?
Clearly I’ve been watching too many episodes of Law & Order because when I look at the denim repair work on the rug it looks like a crime scene outline to me.
April, I totally concur – you put a big smile on my face with this comment!
That Lichen and Lace is so gorgeous, all those shadings going in and out of each other. Deep sigh of appreciation. Feel better soon!
Thanks (I guess) for making/allowing me to buy some yarn from Lichen and Lace. You are a great enabler, aka bad influence.
The Lichen and Lace color reminds me of maple trees in autumn. Ahhhhhh!
Love the yarn color! I’ve been orange and rust obsessed since last Autumn, and just completed a dark rust rolled crew neck pullover I plan to all but live in as soon as the weather turns crisp and refreshing. Have not yet sated my orange cravings, however, so there will be more articles of orange finery on my horizon.
So glad to find another yarn obsessed person who has no interest in spinning or dying. I don’t make my own pasta and I don’t spin my own yarn. I’d rather spend the time eating or knitting.
Loving this all! Maybe give older son a rug for his dorm room to make space for visibly mended rug?It’s the kind of thing you’ll keep thinking of when you never see one like it again.