In threes... again

Welcome to my new blog and website! My husband and I have been working hard on getting this site up and running and I'm excited to be making the first blog post in the new location. 

This pattern has been one of my favorites lately. I have posted about this pattern before, but is is called in threes: a baby cardigan by Kelly Hendrich. I made one for a co-worker and another for my niece (I just went to link to the blog of my niece and discovered that I never actually published it. oops! It will be appearing at some point in the future.) 

For this sweater I used my Lilliput Yarn in the "Sasha" colorway. I held the yarn double since the pattern calls for a worsted weight yarn and my yarn is fingering weight. It worked out pretty well and I was able to make the 0-6 month size out of just one ball of yarn. 

This one happens to have been knit for another co-worker and was given to her at her baby shower. She seemed to like it and it ended up getting passed around the circle of guests so that everyone could check it out. 

I like how it turned out so much that I am actually knitting an identical one to use as a sample of how the yarn knits up. 

"Trick or Treats"

Lily and I have been busy working on Lilliput Yarn's first self-striping yarn called "Trick or Treats". It's out in plenty of time to knit up a nice pair of Halloween socks! First we got the warping board out and made a huge loop of yarn. This was then dyed in sections. This yarn is 6 stripes- purple, orange, purple, white, black, white. 

Once it was all dyed up we re-skeined it and brought it over to Black Sheep at Orenco where it waits for a new owner. (There will also be some going up in my Etsy shop in the near future.)

I was on my own by the end of this process as Lily decided that taking a nap would be more fun than getting yarn re-skeined. It's a rough life for Lilliput!

New Colors!

Since my last post some new colors have joined the Lilliput Yarn line.

"Barking up a Tree" (Name suggested by Lynne - thanks!)

"Limber Tail" (This color makes me think of swimming in a lake which is where the colorway name comes from. Limber tail is a condition that dogs can get when swimming in cold water where they temporarily can't wag. It's sad when it happens but I like to think that at least the dog probably had a great time while swimming.)

"Puppy Love"

"Sasha" (Sasha is my parents dog that we got when I was in high school. Her name seemed to fit well with this colorway.)

"Shadow"

Hand-Dyed Sock Yarn

Lately I have been having fun playing with my Jacquard acid dyes. I have been using a sock yarn base that is 80% merino and 20% nylon. Since I end up dyeing much more yarn than I can possibly knit up I decided to start up a new Etsy shop called Lilliput Yarn! My yarn is also now available at the yarn shop Black Sheep at Orenco in Hillsboro, OR. I have kept "recipies" of all of my colors so that I can repeat them in the future. Since the yarn is named after Lily, she appears on all of my yarn labels.

I started off with 10 colors but plan on increasing this number in the future. The colors that I have so far are:

Chocolate Lab

Clifford

Doggy Paddle

Evening Stroll

Goldendoodle

Jumping in the Leaves

Man's Best Friend

Nymeria

Raining Cats and Dogs

Rolling in the Grass

Lilliput Yarn

4/10/14 Edit: I have recently started dying some commercial sock yarn. Soon I will have an etsy shop named "Lilliput Yarn." Once my shop is all set up, this website (lilliputyarn.com) will re-direct to the shop.

I like to spin, but I have ended up with more yarn than I can knit in the near future. I have tried to sell it on my Etsy shop with no luck. The problem with selling something like yarn on Etsy is that people want to touch it and see the color in person. Luckily, the owner of  Black Sheep has agreed to sell some of my hand spun yarn in the shop.

I wanted to make up a cute label for the yarn, and what's cuter than a corgi puppy? So I decided to call it "Lilliput Yarn." (Lilliput is Lily's registered name and is a reference to the small people on the island of Lilliput in Gulliver's Travels.)

Lily and I had a little photo shoot. Many pictures were taken and this one was chosen:

Next, my awesome husband offered to photoshop the picture to make it look like a drawing. He did a great job and his final product ended up on the label.

There are a total of 8 balls of yarn in a variety of materials (wool, silk, alpaca...) and weights.

 

Exciting!