self-striping | tumbleweedyarn

I love being a grandma! Even though I cannot believe I am old enough to be one. Aging is funny the way it creeps up on you. One day your eyesight is a little blurry and you seem to find it harder to get up from a seated position on the floor in a fluid graceful movement. I’m not sure I was ever able to really do that but you know what I mean. Despite the slowing down of my body, I have found the benefits of aging out weight the disadvantages. And at the top of the benefits’ list is being a grandmother! My two beautiful granddaughters, Isabella and Juliana, have been a joy. When my older granddaughter Isabella was born I wondered what kind of grandmother I would be? What was my role? But it all seemed to come so naturally. Everything they do seems so cute and funny to me. For example, lunch time with spaghetti. Juliana seems to get more on herself and the floor then in her tummy. HA!

I remember the same sort of things being done by my own children– but not being so cute and funny to me at the time. (Benefit of aging—you seem to have more patience). And because of my new business and the quest to call myself a knitter, I did a very grandmotherly thing. I knitted for my sweet granddaughters. Because I have just begun to learn to knit, I missed the opportunity to knit booties and I am not yet skilled enough to knit a full-fledged garment. So I decided to knit them a toy.

These little monsters are from designer Rebecca Danger. I read a great article about her in the Spring/Summer issue of Vogue knitting magazine. My younger granddaughter, Juliana who is 18 months old, was initially startled by her mama and baby monster but after big sister Isabella explained that these were nice monsters like the ones on Monster’s Inc. she now finds her duo cute and cuddly. Isabella wondered why I gave them moustaches; I had to explain they were teeth. You see how cute and funny they are? I love being a grandma.

My next knitting project will include learning to cable. I have a scarf in mind and a friend I will be knitting it for. I hope it turns out well. My friend dresses very fashionably and I really want him to actually wear the scarf. As always Kitman and I are working in the studio to create more colors to add to our inventory. If you would like to see all the colors we have to offer please visit our Etsy store.

Toro

Indigo

Glo Worm

Outlaw

Campfire

This month’s color inspiration comes from BreeAnn from Bristol, RI. On a recent trip to New York City, BreeAnn ran into this amazing street artist in Washington Square. I did a little investigating and found out that the name of this artist is Joe Mangrum. The medium for Joe’s art is colored sand! His detailed, one-of-kind pieces can take 7 to 9 hours to complete. When it is done and time to go home, he sweeps up this beautiful swirl of colors into a dustpan. I love this type of art! It is in the moment. I guess that is why I have loved my work in live theatre. It is a shared experience that happens in that moment and then is never recreated in the exact same way ever again.

This artist’s vibrant and playful colors were a perfect inspiration for this month’s new yarn. As I have been working towards becoming an accomplished knitter of socks, I decided that I wanted to try my hand at dyeing self-striping yarn. The colors that Mr. Mangrum uses in his sand art inspired me in our first offering of self-striping yarn. After much reading on the topic, the building of a warping board, and enough math to make my head explode, I present to youSidewalk Sand. Thank you BreeAnn for the photo and the inspiration. If you want to know more about the artist Joe Mangrum there are several YouTube videos that you can check out to see this amazing artist at work.

Tumbleweed Yarn will be offering this self-striping yarn as a kit, which will include the 400 yards/100gms of Sidewalk Sand self-striping yarn and 30 yards of a matching pink yarn. The pink yarn can be used for a contrasting heel and toe if you choose to knit socks–or the pink can become fringe on a very festive striped scarf.

Kitman has also designed a beautiful lace collar that we will offer as a free pattern when you purchase our Rust yarn.

This is a simple, fast pattern for those of us who need immediate gratification. The open lace pattern makes the collar light and it can dress up a simple T for the spring weather or would be a nice addition to a sweater come fall and winter. Kitman knitted this collar using our Aubrey Fingering weight yarn in the colorway Rust. Aubrey is 100% Superwash merino wool. This collar scarf only uses 55gms of yarn so this would be a nice project to knit in order to use up some of that extra yarn you have left over from other projects. Read a more detailed description of this collar scarf and the kits we are offering on our Etsy website www.tumbleweedyarn.etsy.com.

Happy knitting and crocheting,

Diana and Kitman

tumbleweedyarn

Tag Archives: self-striping

Grandma

April’s Inpiration & New Knitting Kit!