Good morning, and happy Friday to you! We actually got some rain yesterday for the first time in more than two months. It was lovely, and it brought the temperature down from 100 to 80! I don’t know about you, but I can barely wait for fall to begin.
This week I want to show you a beautiful new pattern-in-the-making by Lena Matthison of SoftYarn Designs, and I also want to show you a few new yarn and art batt colorways.
New Sunflower Pattern Coming Soon
Several years ago I had the opportunity to interview Lena Matthison who is the designer behind SoftYarn Designs. You can read the interview here and see some of her beautiful patterns. I am especially in awe of her gorgeous Mermaid shawls.
I was so excited when Lena contacted me earlier this summer to talk about collaborating on a design idea she had to make a sunflower-themed shawl to help Ukraine.
Here are Lena’s own words:
The Sunflower of Hope design was inspired by the special colorway “Sunflower” by Carla Hanson of Purple Lamb Fiber Arts. Carla designed this colorway in solidarity with Ukraine, inspired by their national flower, and I was inspired in turn.
Also in solidarity, 50% of pattern sales for the first month after release, and 25% thereafter, will be donated to World Central Kitchen to assist their efforts in Ukraine. WCK has been providing hot meals to Ukrainians in shelters and train stations nearly since the war began. They also partner with local restaurants to provide some of the food, which helps keep the local economy going. See more about WCK here.
As I said before, I was familiar with Lena’s work and knew how lovely her designs are, but I was not prepared for how beautiful this shawl would be. How gorgeous is this?
Here’s another view:
I will let you all know when Lena releases the pattern. It is with the test knitters right now. In the meantime, take a look at her current designs.
New Art Batt Colorway
I wanted to draw your attention to a new art batt colorway that I added to the shop this week. This one was a club colorway back in February. It was inspired by Monet’s painting, Houses in the Snow. Here is the painting:
Here are the Monet’s Houses in the Snow art batts:
I love how delicate and soft the colors are!
Speaking of Monet art batts, I realized that I don’t have art batts in the Monet’s Water Lilies and Monet’s Cathedral colorways, so I’m going to remedy that as soon as possible.
Fresh from the Dye Pots
This week, I was mostly focused on getting the club colorways made, but I did find time to dye up two other colorways. They are Murder Mystery and Ocean at Night.
Murder Mystery is actually one of my oldest colorways, but I gave it a “facelift” not long ago. It has more red and black speckles, and I dyed it in such a way that it would work well for planned pooling too. My inspiration for this colorway was really every great murder mystery from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Agatha Christi to Chesterton to the latest episode of Law & Order. Here it is on Sparkly Merino Sock:
I also dyed up Ocean at Night this week. This is a fairly new colorway, and it’s the first time I’ve dyed it on So Silky Sock, Squiggle Sock, and Wonderful Worsted. It was inspired by the idea of being on a sailboat late at night with the moon overhead and the waves gently lapping with the dark colors of the water and the sky all around. Here is Ocean at Night on all the bases:
Both Ocean at Night and Murder Mystery are also available as art batt colorways.
Something to Make You Chuckle
My youngest son who is six years old often entertains all of us. This moning, he told me that I should go on America’s Got Talent and knit. Just imagine any of us going on AGT only to sit and knit or crochet. I’m thinking we would each have about 10 seconds before Simon Cowell and all the other judges to buzzed us out. I guess the fiber arts are not really spectator sports, but maybe if we put our heads together we’ll think of a way to make it as fun to watch as it is to do!
I think that’s everything for this week. I hope you have a great week and find some time to create something beautiful.