Thank you Blogless Linda for sharing your rockin’ socks. I think you must have the coolest socks ever. Will you all just look at these Socktoberfest socks? So dang cool. Oh check it out! Linda stopped by and gave us a link to the pattern. It’s a pdf file and it’s called Jack Sparrow Socks from Katydid Knits!

Look! This just in! Another pair and they’re Jaywalkers. Lotusknitter is the proud owner of these and they are totally kick-ass.

Any more completed Socktoberfest socks?! I’ll just keep adding them today.

Ready For Another Swap!?
Bev and I decided it was time to do round two of our kit swap. This time we’re moving up to the hands and doing a Knit Mitt Kitt Swap. Sign-ups have already started so go read about it on the blog.

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I wish you all a great life in your new home in Rogues Gallery.

May you keep many people warm and happy.

Click to see bigger.

I know this probably doesn’t seem like a lot of work but with the swag and all other custom orders this month it took everything in me to get this done. I now need a long, uninterrupted nap.

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The most fun part of getting together this big order for the art gallery is that Kelly gave me the freedom to dye whatever I wanted. The majority of the order consists of my most popular colorways but I also decided to create a few new ones for her too. I’ve been so caught up in dyeing custom orders and Indie Swag that I haven’t dyed a colorway of my choice in a long time. Having that freedom again to create my own colorways brought me back to what I love most about this job; the creative aspect of picking colors and turning that white, undyed yarn into a little piece of art.

Here are a few of the new ones. Of course I had to do this one right?

This is one I did a long time ago but wanted to do it with the tencel.

I love the shine of the tencel.

I love the blackberry color in this one.

This is definitely a new favorite. I’ll let you look up the name to see why it’s called this.

This order will go out tomorrow and then I will be able to finish up all paid custom orders. If I owe you a custom order it will go out by the end of this week. Then I get to work on the Socktoberfest & Indie Swag yarn. This month of swag is really pretty. I can’t wait for you to see it.

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A day late. I was too busy with soccer, work and being Fergie of Black Eyed Peas at a Halloween Party last night to post this yesterday. (Wait until you see us. Totally hysterical)

A word of advice. Substituting food with cosmopolitans is not a good idea. Especially when you’re pushing 40. You’re just too damn old for that. You’d think I’d remember the importance of eating when at a party? Ugh. I didn’t know if I’d make it to my soccer game at 1:00 today but I rallied and went. Burping cosmos while running around for 1.5 hours is such fun. At least I sweat out all of the alcohol and feel mucho better. At half-time I announced to my team, “Hey! I didn’t throw up!” Good times…..

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My turn! Last stop on the Yarnplay Blog Tour. As many of you know by now Lisa Shobhana Mason has an amazing new book out titled - Yarnplay: Colorful Techniques And Projects For The Creative Knitter. I have talked about it a number of times already and if you have yet to pick a copy up I urge you to do so. It’s so good that we got five copies in at the store and within 5 minutes if it being on the shelf they were all gone. (And I only had a little bit to do with that….ha!) Oh wait, one was hidden and Adam was lucky enough to grab that one today. But really. It’s that good. You know it’s good if it gets Scout thinking about knitting a garment. Because Scout don’t knit garments!

A week ago at Stitch ‘n’ Bitch we passed around the book and here are some of the questions the girls had for Lisa. We’ll start with mine.

Noelle aka the little hedgehog - In your book you mentioned that one of your influences was Southern Outsider Art. Which particular artists or artwork are your favorites or most influential?As a direct influence, definitely the Gee’s Bend quilters. I’m constantly looking through ‘Gee’s Bend, The Women And Their Quilts‘ for inspiration. I love the idea of having to create something using only the materials at hand. I think about that a lot. If they could create these amazing works of art with limited fabric scraps one should be able to do the same thing working only with the yarns in one’s stash.One of my favorite painters is Jimmy Lee Sudduth. I’m kicking myself because I passed up on an opportunity to purchase one of his more affordable (i.e. less than a month’s rent) paintings. Now they’re beyond my budget.

Jody aka Javaem - I am totally in love with the sweater on the cover, Poppy. I have never made a sweater before so I was wondering if you would recommend this as a good “First sweater” project?I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it as a first sweater because it’s not constructed in the traditional way and you don’t really get a sense of how a sweater ‘works’. I think it’s a better 2nd or 3rd sweater. Chelsea is a good first sweater.

Carole aka strangelittlemama Which designers/fashion houses inspire your knit wear or design savvy? Vivienne Westwood, Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto, Alexander McQueen. I like it pretty over the top. They inspire and excite me, but I wouldn’t say that their influence is necessarily reflected in my own work.

Molly aka baby finds kazoo Your sexy Poppy sweater came just as I was casting on to make another sweater and I am totally charmed! I’ve ditched the other pattern in favor of yours! Thanks for the prettiness.Yay! Poppy! I can’t wait to see what colors you choose.

Monica - Is the Lorelei Tank named after the Lauren Graham character in the Gilmore Girls?No. I just thought she (the sweater) looked like a Lorelei.

Ashley aka Ashabee - Is there a color that you tend to use in a lot of projects without realizing it at the time? Since I’ve started designing for publication I’ve really branched out and started using a little of everything. prior to that I probably used a lot of blue. as a rule, I tend to stay away from neutrals and earth tones. I find them pretty boring.

Domesticat What are your favorite color combinations? Are they well represented in your book or do you try to come up with combinations you might not necessarily wear yourself?My favorite color combinations tend to change. When I was working on the book I was really into blues and greens. I did try to come up with some combos that I wouldn’t necessarily wear myself. The colors I chose for Chelsea is an example. These days I really like scarlet & charcoal and navy & cream.

Thanks to everyone who played!

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Look what Domesticat and Duck brought from the famed Chocolate Maven when they came for dinner on Sunday. Go read about their brush there with Giada De Laurentiis! And yes, those are chiles on the cupcakes and in them too. They were fantasic. Supergirl ate one of the yellow ones all by herself. We are so sad that Domesticat and and Duck are going back to Boston next week. We keep joking that we’re going to kidnap them and force them live in New Mexico forever. I wonder how long it would be until someone noticed they were missing?

One more piece of eye candy for today. Do you know what this is?

That my friends is the new dyeing/spinning room at Village Wools. And those floors? PURPLE! Yes. Actually the counters all around the shop are purple too. I can’t wait to teach my dye classes in there. Speaking of VW I’m off for work. Have a good one everyone!

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Check back on Monday or Tuesday to see if I can get some more up.

Thanks everyone!

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Today at 1:00pmMST (3:00EST/12:00PST) I will put up 14 skeins of Soctoberfest for sale on my shop. If my website goes wonky again I will only take the first 14 that signed up. (if it somehow oversells like it did the Indie Club) You will get the free yardage with this as it’s still October. It will take me at least a week to get these out. So even though you won’t get the yarn in October, you will still get the Soctoberfest deal! Make sure you sign up beforehand as a customer to speed up the process.

I will more than likely offer up more of this before the end of the month too. It all just depends on how much I can accomplish over the next few days. This cooler weather slows everything down especially drying time. But it’s all good and I get to offer more of this yummy yarn! I hope everyone who e-mailed me gets some.

I also just updated the shop with all of my GoKnit Pouches. I am carrying 7 different colors and let me tell you, I love mine so much. It’s the most perfect size for carrying around your sock projects! I’m working on getting better pictures and if for some reason you buy one and it wants to charge you some crazy amount I will refund you the overcharge. We are currenly working out the shipping kinks!

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since I shared one of these. I thought you’d like this one.

Isn’t it amazing I can walk out my back door and see something like this

almost every single day? I think so.

Also, if you want to see a short little video of what the shop looks like click here.

If you have dial-up skip it. And no, that’s not my voice.

It’s one of the owners of the store.

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** I like Bloglines again because all feeds seem to be finally working.

I hope this is the last time I have to update this!**

I can finally share it with you. Scout’s Swag will soon be carrying a whole lot more than just my yarn. I have always been the kind of person who stumbles upon cool swag and loves to share it with my friends. That’s basically what I will be doing with my shop; sharing all of my favorite swag with you! Cynthia & Bruce have been hard at work on redesigning my new website, but for now we’re going to slowly put up what I have in stock. I loved my Namaste Messenger bag so much I just knew it had to be the first thing I carried. (They are already up in the shop!!) Here is just a glimpse into a few of the things I will be carrying:

GoKnit Pouches

Designs By Romi

Heal My Hands (They were at Rhinebeck! Did you see them?)

T-shirts and stickers from Modern Yarn

Notecards & gift enclosures from Glamscience

Patterns & kits from Pick Up Sticks

A drop spindle & hand painted roving kits from Pippikneesocks

And these are just some of the things I’ll be carrying. As they come in I will let you know or simply check the store often. This has been in the works for some time and I am really excited to finally share it with you. The next step is getting the new website up. It’s looking amazing and I can’t wait for you all to see it. Now you can have all of Scout’s favorite swag!

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