Good morning, and happy Friday to you! I have some fresh fall colorways to show you plus some pairings of Suri Lace Cloud with a sock-weight yarn. To go with that, I’m making my Knit and Chat Infinity Scarf and Cowl pattern free this week with a coupon code.

On a Personal Note

As I write this, my daughter is making cookies with our two little boys while listening to Irish folk music. She’ll be back at college in another week for her senior year! How can that be?

Meanwhile, we just had our first homeschool co-op day, and I’m wondering how summer vacation went by so quickly. I am putting the finishing touches on homeschool planning for our 23rd (!) year of homeschooling. This will be the first year in a very long time with just two little boys and no one in high school, which means less pressure to squeeze everything in. I’m hoping to have the opportunity to build in a little more fun exploration and joy of learning this year. I remember when the oldest children were this age and how big they seemed and how much I worried that I would fail to teach them something vital. It has never been perfect or easy, but it has been good.

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Fresh from the Dye Pots

On to yarn and fiber! This week I started dyeing up some fall colorways and some all-season colorways too. I dyed Autumn Leaves on lots of yarn bases. Here it is on Stained Glass Sock:

I had some requests for Autumn Leaves as an art batt too, and I’ll be working on that soon.

I also dyed Beowulf for the first time this year in anticipation of fall. Here it is on Squiggle Sock:

The other fresh-squeezed colorway is Beautiful Universe. Here it is on Sparkly Merino Sock:

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Before we move on, I wanted to show you a new art batt colorway my oldest daughter created while she was up visiting last week. It’s called Indian Sari, and I photographed it with an actual sari that my mom got during her travels:

I guess that makes this a three-generational art batt!

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Suri + Sock

Since introducing Suri Lace Cloud a couple months ago, I have been working on creating some colorway combination where I dye the same variegated colorway on Suri Lace Cloud and some of my sock-weight yarn bases.

I thought I would show you the combinations I have made using a few different sock-weight bases and then share a (free) pattern that would work really well with these.

If you search for any of these colorways on my website, you’ll be able to see which sock-weight yarn bases are available right now. One of my smooth sock-weight yarn bases like Sock Perfection or So Silky Sock would work very well, but if you feel a little more adventuresome, you might consider trying Sparkly Merino Sock or Stained Glass Sock.

Knit and Chat Infinity Scarf and Cowl Pattern for Free

As I mentioned above, I have the perfect pattern to go with these pairings, and I’m offering it for free to subscribers this week. A few years ago, I published a pattern called the Knit and Chat Infinity Scarf and Cowl that uses one skein of a soft fuzzy yarn like Suri Lace Cloud and one skein of a sock-weight yarn. You can actually get one infinity scarf and a cowl out of the yarn, making it great for small gifts.

I made the pattern because I realized I couldn’t knit and talk at the same time while at my knitting group. I could do one or the other but not both, so I decided to make a pattern that basically had no counting after casting on but that had lots of fun stitch variety, making it a great pattern for knitting while visiting or watching a movie.

You can get that pattern for free this week using the coupon code KNITANDCHAT here on my website or on Ravelry. Here is my lovely daughter modeling the infinity scarf:

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September Club Colorway

This month in our tour through art history, we have reached the Cubist period. I have to admit that this is far from my personal favorite period in art history. I get that the goal is to see people or objects from multiple perspectives at the same time, but I find the fragmenting of the human person disconcerting. And frankly it’s quite difficult to spend the amount of time I spend with a painting when creating yarn and art batts if I don’t really like the painting I am using for inspiration.

Fortunately, I discovered a Cubist painter whose work I love because COLOR! Her name is Sonia Delaunay, and she and her husband Robert were among the primary founders of a subset of Cubism known as Orphic Cubism or simply Orphism. I chose a a very large work she painted in 1913 called Le Bal Bullier. It was named after a Parisian ballroom. Here it is:

I love the colors and the different perspectives of the dancers. I can’t wait to get started on this club colorway for September.

I think that’s everything for this week. Until next time, happy fiber artistry!