Hey there! Welcome to “Customer Question of the Week”, a new weekly
blog feature wherein our crack team of experts (okay, it’s the KP staff)
answers your most pressing fiber-crafting queries. Have a ponderance or
problem you need solved? Email us at customerquestion@knitpicks.com. Even though we won’t be able to respond to every person, your question may be chosen for this feature!

Ultra-smart, in-house designer Kerin tackles this week’s fiber dilema.

Q:  “How should I wash bamboo-blend garments?”

A:  To begin, Rayon-type cellulosic materials like viscose, bamboo, and Modal are much different than other plant fibers in that they do not retain strength when wet. They will stretch more than cotton, and can shrink unevenly. When blended into a springy yarn, the inelastic viscose fibers are not held straight, but they will tend to relax and straighten out (therefore stretching the yarn) when wet.
 
Also, as with any cellulose fiber, it is easily damaged by any acids; be sure that only mild (PH neutral) soaps are used in washing. Because of this, extreme care has to be taken when washing the fiber. Hand-molding the garment back into shape is the best way to ensure that the same size is achieved.

Because of all these properties, it’s particularly important to knit a swatch and wash and block it as you intend to wash and block the garment – then measure the gauge. Once you achieve gauge on the washed swatch, adjust your knitting accordingly! This is important for most cellulose fibers, but especially those that are blended with a protein fiber (like our wool-bamboo blend, Galileo).

Recently I whipped up a little striped Chroma hat, and it’s quicky become my favorite hat this winter. It didn’t take much yarn, just a little of two colors, and the pattern is super easy! It’s a quick and cute project for using up yarn leftovers. So, I thought I’d share.

You’ll need about 30 grams each of two colors of Chroma Worsted (my finished hat weighs 58 grams). I used Windermint and Wildwood:

I knit the hat one evening, and wove in the ends over breakfast the next morning – it was a perfect instant gratification project!

Here are some other fun color combos you could try:

Seaweed and Parakeet

Soft Rock and Misty Morn

Watercolor and Theatre

Atlantis and Galapagos

Autumn Day and Paperback (two things that go very well together!)

Or just use your imagination, and your yarn scraps!

Finished measurements: 19.5″ circumference (very stretchy beanie style), 9.5″ high
Needles: US 7 (4.5mm) Set of 5 DPNs, 16″ circ, or longer circ for Magic Loop method
Notions: Stitch marker, yarn needle
Gauge: 18 sts and 29 rounds = 4″ in St st in the round on size 7 needles, or size to obtain gauge

Designate one color MC and the other CC. With MC and using a stretchy cast-on, CO 88 sts. Place marker and join to work in the round, being careful not to twist sts. Arrange sts evenly over DPNs or long circular.

Work one round in K2, P2 rib. Attach CC and work one round in K2, P2 rib. Work in rib as established, working one round in MC then one in CC, for 16 more rounds.

Work body of hat: (knit one round in MC, knit one round in CC) 15 times (30 rounds).

On the next round, knit in MC, placing markers after every 11 sts.

Crown Decreases
Round 1: With CC, *knit to 2 sts before M, K2tog, SM*, repeat between *s around. 8 sts decreased.
Round 2: With MC, knit.

Repeat rounds 1 and 2 six more times; 4 sts remain between each marker, 32 sts total.

Next round: with MC, *K2, K2tog, SM*; repeat between *s around: 24 sts.
Next round: with CC, *K1, K2tog, SM*; repeat between *s around: 16 sts.
Next round: with MC, K2tog around: 8 sts. Break MC.
Last round: with CC, K2tog around: 4 sts. Break CC.

Using a yarn needle, pass the tail of CC through the remaining live sts and pull tight to close the hole.

Weave in ends, wash and block.

Now, lather, rinse, repeat! This is a great little knit for stashbusting, travelling, and gifts. I recently finished a sweater in Orchard, and I think I have enough Wildwood to make a hat with the leftovers. Just what I need to get a super-early jump on the next holiday season!

When our latest yarn Billow first arrived to the office, I was in the same boat as all of my crafty coworkers: completely head-over-heels, need to have it in my life, in love with this yarn. Unfortunately, this caused me great anxiety as I am very much a one-at-a-time project kind of gal – but Billow was just so tempting! Considering I was going to break my “one project” rule for Billow (I have an in progress cowl on the needles), I methodically rummaged through my books and patterns looking for the perfect project.

       my ultimate billow blanket, nestled nicely on top of my couch

Torn between a flurry of cowls, cardigans, and blankets, I unexpectedly decided on the idea to simply make a large granny square blanket. Lately, I’ve been honing in my crochet skills and figured that repetition would be the best approach to train my fingers to crochet. And since my finishing skills are rather lacking (ahem, or lacking the motivation to finish), I knew that making one single continuous granny square would be the way to go for me. By eliminating the need to sew lots and lots of small granny squares together, I knew that this was the project for me, my crochet hook, and Billow!

After I decided on my project, it was on to color planning. And oh my, this part might have been even more difficult that the pattern search! I simply adore the color palette for Billow. The colors are a bit more toned down, but the tightly curated shades really work so well together. I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to do: a natural with one pop of color, a gradient of cream to brown, or maybe experiment with combining the soft mauves and pinks with punches of mossy green and warm yellows. After playing around with many color combinations, I settled on Natural, Lichen, Gosling, Clarity, and Ash.

      my billow blanket, made with: natural, lichen, gosling, clarity, and ash

For my blanket, I used a size K (6.5mm) crochet hook and I just did a simple granny square that I kept working around and around. I made the center in Natural for several rounds to balance out the striping I would be working in later on. Then, I worked two full rounds of each of the five colors until my blanket reached what I considered to be “giant” sized!

I used 4 balls of each color except for Ash (the dark blue), which I used 5 of. I ended up running out of yarn about 24” from the end of my last round, but it could have been made only doing one round of the last color as a finer border – which you would then only need 4 balls of each color.

My blanket turned out to be 70×70” total, and it is big enough to cover my bed. I couldn’t be happier! I really am so thrilled with how it turned out. Plus, Billow is so super soft – I know it’s going to keep me so very cozy. And I can say with confidence that I can pretty much crochet double chains with my eyes closed forever now!

And for anyone else looking to try their hands at crochet, I would recommend the book Crochet 101 by Deborah Burger. Not only does it cover the basics, but it also devotes an entire section the the classic granny square.

Do you have any big (or giant!) plans for Billow?

As with everyone else in the office, I ooo’d & aww’d over Billow.  The colors were beautiful and it’s so soft! But when it came time for me to choose a project – I was stumped.  My coworkers were hard at work on blankets and sweaters but I wanted something smaller that I could keep next to my skin at all times – so cowls seemed to be the most obvious choice!

I opted to finally do the famous GAP-tastic Cowl – it’s been something in my queue for a very long time.  I chose my favorite color of Billow - Spearmint - and got to work.

It’s so long!  It’s about 75 inches around – so it’s super snuggly double wrapped. I used 3 skeins and it ended up being about 11 inches wide.  

The very loose gauge (I used size 13 needles) keeps it airy and open.  I really love how it turned out, even if the endless seed stitch started to get to me when I started the last skein. Worth it though!

Then when I was looking at Jenny K.‘s planned colors, I saw Clarity and Ash sitting right next to each other and loved how they looked.  I decided I needed a second cowl – but I wanted to try crocheting with Billow this time.

Since I really love crocheting Granny Squares, I wondered what it would look like in a cowl. I used the pattern Easy Peasy Cheery Granny Crochet Cowl as a jumping off point and went to town!

I think I love crocheting with Billow even more than knitting with it!  It’s more dense than my GAP-tastic cowl but very warm.  I used about a skein and a half of Ash and just under a skein of Clarity and the cowl turned out to be 44 inches around and 11 inches wide.  I love how it looks great on both sides too!

I think I’ll be getting a lot of use out of these cowls, since the weather is warming into spring-like weather but still chilly enough to want to wear something warm around my neck.

Have you made any plans for Billow?  Here are the links to the patterns I used again:

Easy Peasy Cheery Granny Crochet Cowl

GAP-tastic Cowl

I just can’t get over HOW SOFT THIS YARN IS! I’ve been looking forward to our very first shipment of our brand new yarn, Billow, since the day we decided to add it to our lineup for 2013. I love the soft, luscious color palette, the wonderfully tactile thick-and-thin strand and… did I mention the color palette?!

I immediately gravitated toward the sultry grey Ash hanks and grabbed five skeins so that I could work on a sweater during my month-long exile to the land of Jury Duty. I picked out 81-26 a Pullover in Salsa sweater pattern from Drops Design on Ravelry, found my size 9 needles and set to work the very next morning.

I finished this sweater in a quick two days of knitting on the light
rail, knitting in the evening and knitting during those little blips of
down time that seemed to fill the days. It only took four hanks of
Billow to finish and I absolutely love how it turned out. I’ve already
worn it out and about a handful of times and it’s definitely kept me
quite cozy.

I can’t wait to start another project. Maybe a new pillow in that eye catching Lichen? Or a squishy cowl in Turmeric? Oh the choices! You can see Billow if you follow this link here: http://www.knitpicks.com/cfyarns/yarn_display.cfm?ID=5420244.

Spring is finally starting to hint at its arrival here in the northwest. There are buds on all of the trees, and it’s actually almost light out when I’m driving to work! This means that cold-weather knitting is winding down, and it’s time to satisfy the need for something a bit lighter. Since I was also eager to try out the amazing new yarn Billow, I figured that a nice open-front cardigan would be just the thing for Spring!

Ever since we got the first samples of Billow, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. We passed the initial swatch around the office and the feeling was mutual. What really amazed all of us was how light and soft it was, and that the thick-thin texture gave it almost a handspun look. With all of those qualities in mind, we chose a color palette that really suited the softness and character of the yarn: subtle and elegant, bridging Winter and Spring.

For my sweater I chose the color Comfrey, since one can never have too many purple sweaters. I knit it at a slightly dense gauge, owing to my propensity for getting looser knits caught on things, and I am really pleased with how the texture looks. Billow does amazingly well in seed stitch!

What I found really fun is that over the larger portions of Stockinette, the regular patterning of thick and thin actually created something of a moire effect.

So far, this has been such a fun yarn to work with. At such a bulky gauge, this sweater whipped up in no time, and only used 7 skeins. I can’t wait to do another project in Billow!

I love any opportunity I get to photograph my little buddy, Linus. Once upon a time he helped us with a video for our old Special Reserve yarn, Sugarbunny and he was the little cutie modeling a knit sweater on this very blog a few weeks ago. Yesterday, we got to take advantage of his very accommodating personality (and his ability to hold still lying on his back all by himself) to take some fun photos with Palette.

He very patiently waited for me to lay out all my stashed balls of Palette while he stretched out in the middle of the growing pile. He patience was definitely finite though, and he told us he was “so OVER this” by he flipping himself over and bulldoze balls of palette around on the floor with his front feet. His favorite, favorite thing to do is to smooth out wrinkles in blankets and “organize” things on the floor if they happen to be wherever he doesn’t want them (including yarn). He got to putter around and help “organize” all that yarn into big piles as a little treat for humoring us for as long as he did!

Happy Spring!

Have you seen the awesome sale on Full Circle yarns and fiber? This is your last chance to get it before it’s gone for good!

When it first came in, I snagged some Full Circle Bulky. I love the way the colors worked together, and recently I knit up a super warm, super chunky cowl using 7 colors. It only took me about an evening and a half to make the cowl, and it used up little leftover bits of each color – it’s really a great way to use leftover bits of any bulky weight yarn!

So, I wrote up the pattern for you, and it’s available free from our site. There are also four-color and two-color versions listed in the pattern, with approximate yardages needed for each color. Bulky yarn is so difficult to stash-bust because there really aren’t too many uses for just a teeny bit of really big yarn. But this Checked Cowl is just the ticket to using up what is leftover after you knit yourself a brilliant sweater in Full Circle Bulky! (Come on, you know you want to.)

The double layers and stranded knitting make this cowl super warm, which is just right for those crazy late-season snowstorms that keep sneaking up. Whip up a Checked Cowl or two, and it’ll keep you cozy till the last snow finally melts!

One of my favorite parts of my job here at Knit Picks is picking new colorways for Imagination and Stroll Hand Painted. It’s always fun to make twenty or so different colorways pulled from some of my favorite photographs, natural formations or time periods. Then we all get together and cull the herd of possible yarns down to two, three or however many we need to round out the existing yarn line. We only needed two new faces for Stroll Hand Painted this time and I’m really pleased with what we decided upon!

Crystal is a range of soft greens and blues with shocking dabs of red. I think this one would make a great pair of socks with a little more texture to them than an average hand paint could handle. The greens are so tonal and soft that the stitches would have some room to breath before those splashes of red pop up, creating some really eye-catching areas. I’m always a sucker for a nice, bright red and this one is definitely in that category.

That being said, the real sweetheart this time around is definitely Constellation. Inspired by the natural beauty of outer space, this colorway is just about the perfect unisex yarn. I love the dark greys shot through with startlingly bright blues in this one. A friend of mine is having a little fellow in September and I wanted to knit a little sweater that would be gender neutral enough to snuggle on any future babies that might come their way. I have to say that Constellation turned out to be just the yarn for the job! I used the Sweet Baby Sweater pattern by Caroline Wiens (free on Ravelry here http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sweet-baby-sweater-2) and whipped out a sweet little pullover over the course of a few days.

The finished fabric looks like stars streaking across the deep night sky. Oh so fun! All that’s left to do is pick out some little white buttons and find the perfect card to go with it! What’s your favorite project for those extra special hand painted yarns in your stash? Are you a sock knitter or do you lean more towards a nice, light shawl project?

Brava!  What better name could this luscious yarn be called but Brava! It’s a standing ovation in the acrylic yarn world. Now we have added 8 new colors to the Brava Worsted Weight yarn line!  I personally love the pastels!

I learned to knit about 40 years ago.  Back then, I didn’t have a clue about the wonderful yarns out in the knitting world. Today is a different story! With the experience I now have with higher end yarns, I can say that Brava is best premium acrylic yarn I’ve ever used.  It has a wonderful feel and it’s great to knit or crochet with. And the colors!!! Wow!! With 39 colors to choose from, the options are endless! It’s perfect for that baby blanket you were going to knit or crochet, or the sweater in primary colors, or a warm cozy afghan in just the right colors to go with your home. The choice is yours! And don’t forget about the Brava Sport Weight and the Brava Bulky Weight.  There’s something for every project. (I’ve got my eye on the Hue Shift Afghan Pattern – what a great way to brighten up a room!)

I do a lot of charity knitting, so the pastels in worsted weight are perfect and for the grand-babies, it’s definitely the primary colors. Do you have a favorite color?  What is the next project you plan to create with Brava?

I think that by now, we’re all pretty familiar with the gorgeous shot of the Palette family that’s been in the catalog and on web since September of last year. I know it particularly well because Kerin and I are the ones who sat down and sorted each ball into the lovely color order that you see here and I’m the one who sat down AGAIN and resorted it after the photography department was done with it in order to label each ball correctly in catalog. I can’t tell you how long this took, only that I’m getting pretty good at spotting the differences between Thicket and Briar Heather!

There are now so many colors (150!) in Palette that we’ve started storing the balls on ten, four foot rods to make it easy to keep them together and move them around as a group. Essentially, we’ve created a system of giant yarn skewers just for this family!

I’m always stumbling upon partial or unmarked balls of Palette around the office and I’ve developed quite a large collection at home which wound up being featured in our last minute shoot for April Fool’s with Linus!

I’m constantly dipping into my bin to make a few of Anna Hrachovec‘s Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi, or a pair of spontaneous fingerless mittens. A few weekends ago, I took a peak inside my bin and found just the right colors for Lucinda Guy’s Oluffa Doorstop from Northern Knits Gifts. I whipped it out in a weekend and decided just to stuff it as a pillow. Now it’s sitting rather pertly on the back of my couch, surveying the living room.

This latest project is just the most recent in a long line of projects knit in Palette. I’ve done cardigans, mittens, hats and toys and it’s definitely been my go-to yarn for any colorwork project. I still have trouble keeping my tension consistent, charts are still a little hard for me to read, but choosing Palette has always been the easy part when I start a new project. There are just so many colors that I can pick the exact right color orange, the perfect blue and the crispest white for projects like this one.

What color combos do you like in Palette?

To understand the doily, you must make the doily. I really get this now. As a kid and even into adulthood, my brother and I would use ‘doily’ as a way to denote that something was old fashioned or fuddy-duddy. (e.g: “geez, dad, why don’t you put those vinyl records with your doilies?”)

But then along came Curio, and everything changed.

Since beginning my crochet quest earlier this year, I’ve really come to love the intricate patterns in fine gauge crochet items like doilies and trims. Not that I didn’t find them beautiful before, but being able to really see the work in them was a new experience. With Curio gleaming like a new day on my desk, I couldn’t help it. I looked for some free vintage doily patterns, and started wading through my first attempt.

I have to say I’m quite pleased! Enough so that immediately after finishing that one, I made another. The second took considerably less time, and is a little more interesting!

Another thing that had been lost on me was why people used doilies and such things. I usually saw them used as decoration, with little more use than looking pretty or complementing a candy dish. But now that I have a house with nice furniture and a hutch with glass shelves, I get it. I want to put my candles and my goofy trinket collection on display, but not at the expense of my furniture. Doilies to the rescue!

No Octoglobe is going to scratch my table!

Not only are these extremely satisfying to crochet, but they look really lovely too. I’m so impressed with how well Curio shows stitch definition and retains its shape. Nothing more than a little soak and some pins had both doilies looking starched and perfect, while retaining the beautiful luster of the mercerized cotton.

Doilyhenge!

Needless to say, I’m smitten. I’m now on a quest to put a doily under just about everything that can be lifted in my house.

Except maybe him. I’ll just have to put my next crochet project over him instead!

I’m pretty sure that I just took my crochet skills to a whole new level this past launch when I released my very first pattern (the Luminarie Cozy and Hanging Planter Pattern) as part of Knit Picks, for free! I can’t tell you how excited I am to share what I’ve been tinkering with since we got our first samples of our new Curio crochet thread in the office.

I’ve been oggling jar covers on Pinterest since I created my account but never wanted to make a set out of something as heavy and wooly as Palette, and none of our lace yarns seemed quite sturdy enough for the job of bearing the weight of a plant. In stepped Curio just about the same time summer truly got started here in Portland and I seriously starting to pine for something cute to work on. Curio has the perfect combination of sturdiness, stitch definition, extraordinarily lovely palette and dainty thread weight for this sort of project.

I chose the ever-classic Natural color and picked up my 1.5 mm steel crochet hook and started playing around with different stitches.

Some of the very first images that really caught my eye were jar cozies with candles inside. I LOVED how the light shines through the fabric and casts beautiful lacy shadows on the table top. A simple sleeve that fits snugly over a jar seemed like the perfect place to start. I found a fairly solid stitch pattern that I thought would hold it’s shape, stay situated on the jar right where I wanted it while still allow enough of that romantic candlelight to shine through.

Isn’t that lovely? And it’s so easy. I decided to crochet it flat, working back and forth until I had just the right length to wrap around the jar. That way I wouldn’t have to worry about twisted foundation chains and I could just stitch the ends together for a quick finish.

The second pattern was a bit of a challenge because I needed to find some way of making a base to support a jar with a plant inside so that I could hang it in a window. It couldn’t be too open, or the whole shebang would sag, but it still needed to have a touch of delicacy about it.

I settled on a simple round motif for the bottom that transitions into a simple two-row repeat in the round for the sides. My favorite part about both projects is that if you’re familiar and comfortable basic crochet techniques, you can whip both of these up in a day and have PLENTY of thread left over to make many more.

I would love to crochet a few of these in gradated colors to line up down a table for a dinner party. Maybe Natural, Bluebell, Ciel and Navy? Oh, how those blues get me every time!

As you may have noticed in my last crochet post, I’m hard at work on another monstrous crochet project. I’ve taken a break from the wee stitches of doilies and settled in with some repetitive Circled Squares in Chroma!

Finny isn’t the only one who is rather smitten with this afghan-in-progress. My other little guy has been seeking out any part of it – loose squares and all – to nestle in to. But most of the time it’s draped across the couch – I’m already using it, even though it’s not even halfway assembled yet!

The thing is, Chroma is so soft and warm, and these dense little crocheted squares are so smooth, that it’s almost impossible not to try bundling up in it already! I love how Chroma works up in this pattern; because each square only uses a tiny amount of yarn and a short portion of the color repeat, each of the seven squares I can get from each ball look totally different.

I started out with Galapagos and Smoothie and a bunch of Guppy that I had in my stash. That wasn’t nearly enough, though, so I scraped around and dug up some dye samples that we got here in the office but didn’t select for the lineup. Though after using them in this blanket, I think I’m going to campaign to add them!

When finished, the squares portion will be about 55×60″ – I haven’t yet decided on a border yet, but that will add to the size even more. It’s going to be a perfect couch afghan – big enough for me to steal a corner away from my cats, even!

When I went back to visit family on the east coast a few months ago, I had the opportunity to grab some hand-me-downs from my granny’s house. I was able to go back in time and send myself an entire box of my great-grandmother’s linens!

What amazes and inspires me about the treasure trove of table dressings I now possess is not just the quality of the work, but the quality of the care shown by my great grandmother and my granny over the last 75-100 years. There were few stains, no mustiness, and the ironing was as crisp as could be. I could tell that these were cherished items of which Nonna Youngblood was very, very proud.

It really made me think of how disposable so many things are, and how the ‘stuff’ I have isn’t really anything to cherish – if (when) I ruin a place mat or the cat decides that the napkins are chew toys, I just go buy another. But maybe there’s a lesson here – well-made, handmade things are worth having and worth caring for.

Besides the doilies I’ve made so far, I have plans for many more handmade items (or handmade touches on purchased items) that I intend to keep in good shape. I’m totally in love with crochet edgings right now, so I’ve been swatching a bunch in Curio, for various applications later!

I’ve found that between my Pinterest crochet board and the gorgeous colors of Curio, I can hardly stop myself from trying every pretty lacy detail I can find. I’m learning how to put an edging on an actual thing (it’s like magic!) as well. It doesn’t look nearly as nice as anything I found in great-grandma’s goodies, but it’s a start.

Even if there’s no future descendent who will inherit these items, I aim to create something useful that I, at least, can be proud of.

Check out our new Stroll Tweed yarn! Once, a few years ago we had a yarn with the same name, however we’ve gone back to the drawing board when it came to the tweed nepps since then and I’m delighted to show you what we’ve come up with! I love the rich color palette we’ve chosen and the new natural-colored flecks. I love using the Stroll family for washable fingering weight projects (especially baby sweaters!) and Stroll Tweed. The minute we opened the box of our photography samples I grabbed a bag of the Indigo Heather (the prettiest purple-blue I’ve EVER seen!) and got to work picking out a pattern.

I didn’t care what I made, I just had to have a whole bag of that pretty yarn! I went through my Ravelry queue over and over again but I wasn’t finding anything that really spoke to me. I could do another shawl, but I thought all those pretty nepps really needed to be featured in a sweater of some sort.

I was still wracking my brains, trying to think of a project I liked enough to spend so much time working with fingering weight yarn when I spotted my copy of First Light on the shelf above my computer. When we first shot all the pieces in that collection I remember mentally bookmarking a few of them so I decided to flip through it to jog my memory.

I opened right to Jill Wright’s Kelso hoodie. I loved how this light weight sweater looked when we put it on Erin (our fantastic model for that half of the collection) and I loved it even more now that I was picturing it knit up with the yarn I’d picked. I envisioned it as the perfect “chilly office top” solution that would also be comfortable in the car on the ride home and endlessly washable which (in my mind) makes it the perfect “work horse piece” to add to my wardrobe.

I admit that most of the things I knit wind up tucked away for special occasions (usually really short ones too) because they’re so precious or itchy. This one is definitely going to get hung up in my closet with the rest of my store-bought cardigans because it is just so comfy! The tweed flecks give this garment a timeless, traditional feel while the subtle heathers in the yarn itself give the fabric and unexpected depth.

Stroll Tweed is definitely going to be my new go-to sock yarn and fingering weight yarn for projects I know will need to be washed often. I can’t wait to work up a little baby sweater in Farmhouse Heather (I think all babies look like little old fellas and I’m definitely not above making them sweaters that remind me of something a scholarly gentleman would don) and I’m definitely eyeballing Flagstone Heather and Down Heather to knit SOME sort of stripes! I think that would look so nice.

Last but not least, I tried my hand at crocheting with Stroll Tweed in Thirst Heather for a last minute free pattern. The Swiss Tweed Cowl takes just one ball of Stroll Tweed, works up in a weekend and is a nice, light accessory that works even when it’s more than a little toasty outside.

I’m still fairly new to crochet and find myself getting irritated when I try to thread a hook through some yarn with out splitting the strand. Figuring out what yarn works best for crochet and what is, quite simply, an absolute nightmare has been a process of trying everything and seeing what I like and what doesn’t work for me.

Stroll Tweed was a clear winner! It was easy to work with and the tweedy bits managed to shine even with the thicker fabric produced with crochet. I think it’s safe to say that I’m thoroughly enamored with the new yarn, and I hope it charms you too! What patterns leap to mind now that you’ve seen this lovely new yarn? I can’t wait to see what beautiful projects start appearing now that you can get your hands on it.

One of the projects on my “someday” list has been a worsted weight shawl. I’ve always wanted to have a a touch of Kirsten Larson and Laura Ingalls in my life… even if the weather isn’t always quite right and I’m not about to be tossing one over my shoulders before I head out to milk some sassy milk cows in the dead of winter. At least not any time soon. Sylvia Bo Bilvia’s Lonely Tree Shawl has been in my Ravelry queue forever, just waiting for the perfect yarn to cast on with.

This shawl has all the characteristics that I look for in a lace shawl: an easy to remember pattern, top down construction and a nice simple border. The great thing about this one is that it’s knit with the worsted weight wool so it’s a super quick project (at least compared to other fingering or lace weight shawls I’ve been working on). I grabbed four balls of the new Wool of the Andes Superwash in Fjord Heather and my size 8 needles and got to work in the car on the way down to the Redwood National Park for 4th of July weekend.

It took three days of pretty steady knitting (knitting in the car, at the rest stop, around the campfire, in the tent and back in the car again) to finish it! One quick soak to wash the smokey campfire smell and it’s ready to wear (I LOVE that smell, but not when it’s tinged with the scent of cooking veggie dogs too!).

Now I have a shawl that reminds me of all those afternoons I spent dreaming of cabin life growing up and my vacation to one of the prettiest forests on this coast. The new Wool of the Andes Superwash feels just like regular Wool of the Andes (I was actually joking around the office that if they lost their ball bands I’d never be able to tell them apart) so now I can have my traditional wooly, rugged knits but I can toss them in the washing machine!

I’m getting really close to finishing my Chroma blanket!

Out of 120 5″ squares, I’ve crocheted over 100 of them. I only have three more rows of squares to attach, and then it’s on to the border! It’s already big enough to provide some serious warmth.

In typical fashion, I’ve been weaving in the ends as I go, so I’m not burdened with having to weave in about 250 ends at once. If that was the case, I don’t think I’d ever be done. But this way, when that last square is put in place, I’ll just have two ends to worry about.

What I’m really looking forward to, though, even more than being able to snuggle up under this wonderful blanket, is starting my next project! I still don’t know what I’m going to do, but I’ve gathered up some beautiful colors of our new Wool of the Andes Superwash, and it’s just begging to be made into something.

I’m just dying to cast on, but first – I’ve got to get through the last dozen or so squares on my blanket. It’s the home stretch now!

The most important thing I’ve learned from our recent foray into Instagram is that you folks are taking your knitted and crocheted works-in-progress EVERYWHERE:  parks, gyms, schools, buses, planes, beaches, literal mountain tops, you-name-it.

That’s why I’m pleased to announce “Yarn with a View”, our first-ever Instagram contest! It’s a chance for you to share the gorgeousness of your projects, your versatility as an on-the-go crafter—and maybe win a delightful $50 Knit Picks gift card in the process.

Here are the rules:

1.)    Follow @knit_picks on Instagram.

*Don’t have an account yet? Instagram is a fun photo sharing network for smartphone users (that’s easy to join)—and for those who don’t have smart phones, fear not; we have plenty more fun contests planned for 2013 on our blog and other social media channels! 

2.)    Take a photo of your work-in-progress (and the personal view from behind your needles or hook); our only requirement here is that it be in any Knit Picks yarn.

*A tip for success: The more personalized your photo is, the better—because we want to see your very unique view!

3.)    Tag your photo with both #knitpicks and #yarnwithaview; essentially, this will help us find your entry.

* Bonus points for specifying the Knit Picks yarn type and color in the description.

Each week, until Oct. 10th 2013, we’ll pick a winner to receive a $50 KP gift card and a spotlight of glory in our weekly broadcast emails—that’s four winners total, by the way! Photos will be judged on adherence to contest rules, as well as beauty, humor and other such ineffable qualities.

An important note:  While you’re free to enter a new photo each week, please do limit yourself to one photo entry per week. The deadline for each week’s contest is Wednesday at 5pm PST, so anything past that rolls into the next week’s contest period.

Still not totally sure what we mean? Take a gander at these Instagramed “Yarn with a View”-style photos from the KP staff. Good luck, all!

Details: Contest ends October 9th 2013 at 5pm PST. Entries must follow the above-listed requirements to be eligible to win; photos posted on the blog or social media channels other than Instagram are not considered acceptable entries. Winning entries may be shared by Knit Picks on social media sites (Instagram, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest) as well as in weekly emails.

After a pretty busy summer, I was finally able to take a vacation. Of course for me, vacation equals very little human contact and lots of dust. It was off to the desert for me!

I love the high desert of Oregon, and spend as much time there as possible. When I’m back in civilization, I notice that I tend to favor desert colors in decor and clothing. So it should come as no surprise that the colors of Wool of the Andes Superwash that I’d picked out to play with are straight out of no-man’s land.

Having a vacation with no phone, internet or electricity also meant that I had time to actually make something. On the drive out, I cast on a scarf for my husband. When I came back, it was done!

I’ve started a matching hat to go with it – I’m not quite halfway through yet, but already I’m thinking I might have enough yarn left over to make some gloves, too.

It’s nice to be knitting again – I’ve dug so deeply into crochet that I’d forgotten how relaxing a little K2, P2 ribbing can be. Now, if only this heat would subside so my hubby can wear his new scarf! At least it’s a dry heat…