So happy Valentine's Day to you. I hope it's filled with undying love, romance, cupid, restaurant desserts, happiness, etc.

OK. On to more pressing things.

I have a very important question to ask you.

Here's the question:

Which of these is a picture of me?

Option 1:

Option 2:

Option 3:

Option 4:

And because I'm a nice Yarnista, I'm going to just go ahead and help you figure this out.

Option 1: If I were an pudgy middle aged man -- and that is a big if -- I would not be wearing a speedo.

Or that crucifix. Do men think this is attractive to women? Men who are reading this, let me tell you: women do not think this is attractive. Ever. Under any circumstances. Ever.

Option 2: If I were a chocolate colored equine-canine -- and that is a big if -- I think I would have more modesty than this. Have some pride, girl!

Option 3: If I were Jillian Michaels -- which I am not, let's just clear that up -- I would call my workout DVDs something other than "Shred." Shredded is how I like cheese on my tacos. I do not prefer my humans to be put through food processors.

Option 4: Huh. Would you look at that. That looks suspiciously like the color of the studio wall from my Lookbook profile picture.

If that were me -- and at this point, I'm admitting that it is -- I would say that looks suspiciously like a new Irish baby is on the way. Like maybe, oh, about five months from now?

And because I know you're curious, as I am,

We don't know yet, but we will sometime in the next couple of weeks.

And because I know you have other questions like,

"Don't you already have a bunch of kids?" and "How are you going to run a company in this condition?" and "Will I still get my yarn?", I'll try to allay some of your fears.

Yes, I do already have three children. If my math is correct, this will be my fourth child. So by today's standards, four children is more than the national average. But this is not my 19th child, so let's not get carried away with the shock and awe. I know a woman who raised five sons to adulthood, and she likes to say, "One child takes all your time and money. Five children take all your time and money." And that is true enough.

When this little one comes along, my bigger kids will be 10, 8, and 5, so I'll have some built in helpers. (And they'll all be school age come September.) We did, however, give away every scrap of baby gear before we moved to Minnesota two years ago, so we must once again allow our house to be overrun with tiny clothes that need washing nine times a day, toys that rattle, and all manner of baby holding, baby safety, and baby carrying devices.

While it's been five years since I've had my own little one, I can remember through the haze of early onset dementia that I appear to be developing, that this necessary hemorrhage of money and space is very, very worth it.

Also, I am the official baby holder of Three Irish Girls, remember? (Here's a tip: Be extraordinarily careful about which titles you bestow upon yourself!)

I started this business when my first child was a toddler, and simultaneously worked dyeing yarn and teaching high school (you can read the story starting here, if you want) for years and years, so the fact that I will only be working one job this time is of great help.

Owning my own business also gives me the flexibility to work around the baby's needs -- I can bring him or her with me, they can nap in my office, they can spend half the day in a sling or on my back if they want to, and when they're big enough, they can stay home with daddy, who works from home.

The take away here is that I've successfully had (cute, healthy, sweet) children under much more challenging circumstances than this one. Besides, after three kids and over 1,000 babies held, I'm a veteran mama bear.

Yes to a few other things:

Yes, you will still get your yarn.

Yes, the spring collection is still coming shortly.

Yes, we are still publishing all the patterns we planned on.

I've been pregnant for a while, you just haven't known it. All is well.

So, there you go. My super top secret surprise announcement.  Yay!

Closing my eyes and hitting publish...

Earlier today I made myself a list of things I wanted to be sure and mention when I wrote this letter to you.

Normally, you provide Northern Minnesota, which I should like to add is at 46 degrees north latitude, with more than 80 inches of snowfall each year. This year, you've decided that we owe you snow? We have a negative snowfall balance? Snowverdraft?

What did we long-suffering Duluthians do to deserve this? Have we not suffered through endless months of below zero temperatures since the dawn of the modern era?

Thirty-four degrees above zero is certainly a balmy start to a February. But my kids can't go outside and play in 34 degrees and drizzle. My horsedogs come back in, all disappointed in the lack of snow in which to frolic, and wipe their muddy paws on my upholstery. I want to punch you in the face.

And the worst part? Spring is not around the corner. We both know it. No crocuses will be peeking their heads above ground in the next couple of weeks. Buds will not be returning to the trees.

No. And because we're in snowverdraft, any precipitation you were thinking of delivering will most certainly be diverted to a portion of the world that is not at 46 degrees north latitude.

Thanks a lot for temperatures that ensure that nothing pleasantly snowy will take place, nor will anything begin to grow.

Thanks a lot for the severe drought we'll be facing when spring does come. Good one.

I've decided that if you're unwilling to do your job and provide us with a proper winter, I will just force spring to arrive, in the studio at least.

I bought these quince branches, and they're quite happily flowering in the warm, humid environment yarn dyeing provides.

Take that.

Love,

Yarnista

P.S. I really will punch you in the face.

Not that I'm bitter or anything.

The horse, on the left, is a chocolate colored beast, weighing in at the better part of 95 pounds, and whose favorite activities include eating food, sleeping ON you, and swimming through life. This is a dog who will get into the bathtub with you, despite your attempts at pushing her away. This is an animal who can swim in the snow. (Sadly, we don't have any.) She is exceedingly strong and adorably affectionate. We occasionally call her Rosie.

Her compatriot, on the right, has lived with us since October. We rescued her from the shelter when she was ten months old and named her Lucy. She is a lab and springer mix, and she has not stopped moving since the moment we met her. I was recently telling a new acquaintance about my dogs, and when she heard we had a female lab/springer mix, she said, "Let me guess. Really sweet. Really smart. Incredibly hyperactive."

She is so hyperactive that I cannot take a decent picture of her. This is the sum total of the photographs I have in which you can tell a black dog is present, and not just a smear of ink across the frame.

Lucy is just as tall as Rosie, but is half her weight, which makes her faster than a speeding bullet. The breed name springer is an accurate one, as she leaps, gazelle-like, at every opportunity. Given a choice between walking and leaping, she'll choose the latter.

If I had vast quantities of free time, this is the kind of gazelle I would train and enter into agility contests. 

But I don't. So she'll have to satisfy herself with the leaping opportunities around my house.

These beasts love to chase each other and wrestle whenever they have a free moment. And let's face it, unless you're a farm dog, nearly every moment in a dog's life is a free one.

I've asked them politely to stop wrestling. They don't listen to me. They careen into the coffee table, spilling your drinks. They crash into the backs of your knees while you're cooking dinner, pitching you forward into the salad. They have such wanton disregard for human courtesy.

But they also let small children ride on their backs. They will eat anything, making them excellent vacuum cleaners. They sleep curled up with a seven year old in the sweetest possible way.

Someday -- and I'm told this is inevitable -- that girl is going to grow up and move out. And when she does, she'll get herself a horse or a gazelle of her own, because of the memories she's made with these.

But what can be done about the wrestling? What?

2. Several weeks ago, I was groggily drinking my coffee and eating my raisin bran. I like to read the paper while I do this. The length of my breakfast is directly proportional to the thickness of the newspaper.

When I lived in Washington, DC, we got both the Washington Post and the New York Times delivered every morning. Sometimes I would have to get up at 2:00 am to eat breakfast.

Now, the Duluth News Tribune provides me with about ten minutes of eating time. I read the front section, which often has stories about local and state government and the problems they both create and solve. I skip nearly all of the international Associated Press stories, because I've read them online the day before, and there's nothing worse than rereading the same bad news.

Then I read the local section, which is mostly about things like black bears, sledding, road construction, Lake Superior, and obituaries. I skip the entire sports section because of a very deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep apathy towards any and all sports. Is deep apathy an oxymoron?

Whatever. I don't care that much.

I enjoy reading the paper, and try to look at it from the perspective of, hey, I'm lucky to live in a place where the top local news story is about someone stealing $150 from their coworker's locker.

So, you can imagine the chuckle I had when I unearthed this gem:

I should like to point out that this did not happen in Duluth, or even Minnesota, for that matter. We have Wisconsin to thank for this one.

You see, it seems as though Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop violated the terms of his bail conditions.

He had some drugs, paraphernalia, and weapons. Understandably, Wisconsin did not like that. So they put him in jail.

Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop, whose name used to be Jeff, legally changed his name. As in, went to court and said to a judge, "Hello, my name is Jeff. I would like to pay money to change my name to Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop."

And the judge said, "Okey dokey."

Poor Beezow's mother. She cannot be pleased that her baby Jeff has done this to himself.

3. I knit this scarf for moi. It's a bulky weight braided circle that loops around my neck twice and keeps me toasty warm.

4. One more week until Valentine's Day! How do you feel about that?

Simply Socks started as a web only store, and has grown into a large retail location as well. They have a huge -- and I do mean huge -- selection of sock yarn, in yarns that range from more basic stash enhancements to the best of the indie dyer and luxury fiber world.

Allison, like me, also spent time remodeling an old building to house her store in. Isn't this gorgeous?

Anyone up for a road trip to Fort Wayne, IN?

For now, I'll have to settle for this view, which is awesome in and of itself.

If you click on the picture above and then choose Sock Yarn from the menu on the left, you'll see what I mean about selection.

Here are my five questions for Allison VanZandt, the creative brain behind Simply Socks.

1. Why and how did you get interested in knitting socks? What made you want to start a store centered around sock yarn?
I started knitting when I was 7 or 8, but it wasn't until I was out of college that I started knitting socks.  Nearly 7 years ago, I started Simply Socks Yarn Company because I was obsessed with knitting socks and I couldn't find what I wanted at local store.  When I found what I wanted online, I couldn't find everything I wanted in one store, so I ended up spending a lot on shipping charges to many stores.  I thought, I can do this better myself, and started the online store ( www.simplysockyarn.com)  in one small bedroom of our home. 

We later moved out to a rural area with a great barn where I could have more room.  BUt after a few years, I really missed our old city neighborhood and decided to open a larger space back in the city.  It just so happened that the building my husband and I adored, a dilapidated 1940's post office, was vacant.  At first, the project seemed too large, but we revisited the idea a few months later.  From demo to move-in, the building's restoration took just 5 weeks, and that was with tearing out a second floor to show off the 14' ceilings, all new electrical, flooring, ceiling, and everything in between.  It turned out to be the perfect space for us and our 3500 sq ft sock yarn store!

We are still mainly an online store, shipping 6 days a week all over the world, but we are now also open to the public one day a week (hours and times on the bottom of our homepage at www.simplysockyarn.com).

2. Running a small business in a tight knit industry isn't easy -- I like to say that one of the perks of owning a yarn business is that I get to choose which 16 hours of the day I want to work. What are some of the biggest challenges you face?
For me, the biggest challenge is managing growth.  SSYC has grown so much over 7 years, and while the store could have grown more and branched out into other types of yarn/crafts, I'm sticking to my mission of providing a one-stop-shop to sock knitters and crocheters.  I have 4 year old son and a baby on the way, so I work early hours according to my young family's schedule.  I'm lucky to have a small crew of hardworking employees who make my life easier.  It's a fast-paced work day, but when I leave for the day, I really feel like I've accomplished a lot.

3. I was a high school teacher before I transitioned into working at Three Irish Girls full time. What former careers have you had? Do you feel that they prepared you for what you're doing now?
Before I owned the store, I worked as an Environmental Educator for local municipalities.  Lots of writing, public speaking, program management, and a little web and graphic design thrown in.  I feel like every work experience I had was helpful in my career as a small business owner.  But what I do day-to-day certainly isn't what I thought a yarn shop owner did.  Every day is a frenzy of action, there's always something new (and and never-ending backlog of bookkeeping), and there's never time to knit a stitch.  But I thrive on it and wouldn't have it any other way!

4. What are your favorite kinds of socks to knit? Do you even have time to do that anymore?
My favorite kind of socks to knit right now are what I call my plain-ol-vanilla-socks.  Colorful yarn paired with simple stockinette.  I have just a few hours a week to knit and I like to do it while watching TV at night.  With a simple sock, I don't even have to look down at it.  It also helps that I can't lose my place when a four-year-old gets out of bed or wants my attention!  If I continue at this pace, my baby won't have one hand knit item!  With my son, I only knit him one hat and it was my supportive customers who kept him in hand knits!

5. Tell us three interesting things about yourself that others might not know.
-- I adore science fiction (Doctor Who, Star Trek, etc.). 

-- I live in an Amish area where my sluggish internet connection is bounced from a water tower in the town over to a small satellite on my home. 

-- My son's middle name is Danger.

Allison had a few questions for me over on her blog today, too -- click here to see them, and then be sure to stop by her store and pick up some instant gratification.

1. I am avoiding painting my dining room for the 19th time, and would rather sit here by the fire creating polls on my laptop than get up and do it.

2. I am a naturally curious person. I like to know things. Knowing things is sometimes more fun than doing things, like painting my dining room.

3. I know which colors I like, but it's important to me to make other people happy with my yarn, so this is useful information. If you all say that you hate all colors and just want to be subversive, for example, I will know to just close up shop, drink a skim mocha, and cry myself to sleep each night for the next seven weeks.

4. I am finalizing selections for my new colorway collection, and this could help me if I'm waffling between two selections. If I know that 80% of you prefer jewel tones and not neutrals, that could be a deciding factor.

5. It's useful to the yarn shops I work with. Some of the owners heavily favor one palette (hey, we all do it), and it's sometimes nice to be able to say, "Well, when I surveyed my readers, they said they really like bright colors, much moreso than earth tones," (or vice versa).

6. Some of you don't use Facebook, or aren't a fan of our Facebook page, and I want your opinion to count, too.

7. You can anonymously leave comments here on the blog, whereas everyone can see who you are on Facebook. Some people feel more comfortable behind the veil of anonymity.

So, here's the question. Pick an answer. If you're having trouble deciding, go with your first instinct, not the answer you came up after doing some hard math using data from the Excel spreadsheet you use to store all your stash info.

And feel free to tell me why you picked the answer you did in the comments section. The more info you give me, the better chance I'll have at knocking this collection out of the park. (Oh, and if you answered on Facebook, feel free to answer here as well.)

And because I said so.

What more incentive do you need?

Yarnover is an annual event put on by the Minnesota Knitter's Guild, and over its long history, it's grown to epic proportions. Held one day a year (April 28th), an entire (large) high school is descended upon by knitters. As if that weren't spectacle enough, there's an amazing marketplace and a roster of nationally known teachers. I hate to name drop, but...

Anne Hanson. Sivia Harding. Clara Parkes. Annie Modesitt. Amy Singer. And a bunch more. (Yes, me too, although I am hardly worth name dropping over.)

Here's the class schedule:

I see about ten classes I want to take, but I'll be teaching all day, so I'll have to wait for another opportunity.

There's a meet and greet dinner the night before at a nearby hotel -- buy a ticket and come hang out with all of us!

Even if you can't make it for the classes, it's totally worth it to stop by for the marketplace -- I like this event because there's a huge variety of things (ahem), but it's also manageable in size. You won't spend two days walking an endless maze of convention center flooring, not knowing where to start.

Here are a couple of pics I grabbed from last year's event:

(Aimee from Darn Knit Anyway, adorable as usual.)

Class registration opens today, and some of the classes are already full from pre-registration, so I would sign up as soon as you can. You can download the full brochure, including all the course descriptions, off the MN Knitter's Guild website, here.

Or I'll make it easy for you and let you download it off of my blog, too: 2012 Color Yarnover Brochure

I don't want to hear any excuses from you. I've given you ample planning time. I've given you sufficient incentive.

You're coming.

Please and thank you.

The end.

First up is Peacock. Made exclusively for StevenBe/The Yarn Garage in Minneapolis.  I adore this one, and from the sound of things, y'all do too.

Love the teal, love the violet, love the multiple browns, the turquoise, the lime, love them all independently, love them together. Lovelovelove.

And here's an interesting tidbit: I actually dye this in the pattern of peacock feathers, starting with the round indigo eye and working outward in concentric rounded shapes.

Sometimes, despite my proclivity to add certain colors to everything, mother nature knows best. All I can do is imitate.

Want some of this yarn for your own? You can certainly stop by the store, which should be on your bucket list,or you could call/email. We Minnesotans are a friendly bunch. They don't call it Minnesota Nice for nothing. They can be reached at 612-259-7525, or at steven@yarngarage.com.

****************************

Next is a colorway near to my heart, because it's for my hometown LYS, Yarn Harbor. This eponymous (fine, I used to be an English teacher!) colorway has been a hit, in part, because it combines colors that most people feel comfortable wearing and giving: blue, greens, grays, and purples.

Here's a peek at one of my earlier versions of this colorway: it had pops of lime green and rusty brown. In the end we went with the more muted, sophisticated version.

Yarn Harbor is celebrating its anniversary the first weekend in February, and we're making up a fresh batch of this colorway for the event. It would be a great time to stop by! You can also call them at 218-724-6432, or email them at yarnharbor@yahoo.com.

*********************************

And last, but not least, we have two coordinating colorways, Through the Looking Glass and Strawberry Fields Forever. (Yes, I like literary and musical references. I used to be an English teacher, OK?)

These two are exclusive to The Loopy Ewe, the venerable online store, and they are absolutely stunning when knit up.

See?

Photo Source

(The pattern is the Samovar Shawl.)

My inspiration for the Through the Looking Glass was this image:

I just loved the pennants on the headboard and the colors in the comforter.

Strawberry Fields Forever is the warm strawberry pink coordinate that is gorgeous on its own or when paired with Through the Looking Glass.

If The Loopy Ewe doesn't have any of these instock, you could email them at support@theloopyewe.com, or give them a call at 1-888-527-9181. They can always order you some from moi!

Did you know we had so many shop exclusives? (And there are more coming!) I didn't realize it until I actually sat down and made a list.

A note on buying from LYSs and web stores: Support them. When you buy from them, you're supporting two small businesses: us and the store you're buying it from.

I hate the phrase win-win. It's the former English teacher in me. But this might be a situation where it actually applies.

Thank you, happy trails, good night and good luck, until next time, au revoir.

Another is that they carry colorways one large variety of base yarns, so you're not stuck buying a colorway you love on a base that's not your favorite.

It also helps that I've known the owner of this shop for years, well before she opened her yarn shop. She's good people. I would tell you that she fit back into her size 2 jeans less than 6 weeks after giving birth to twins, but you would hate her a little bit, and I don't want that.

If you haven't checked out Pulling at Strings yet, make yourself a cup or a glass or, heck, a STEIN of your favorite vice and drool over the eye candy.

Jenn gave me several colorway inspirations, all based on her home state of Maryland. The fact that I lived there for ten years helped tremendously, as it wasn't much work to picture exactly what she was talking about.

This is Chivalrous, inspired by Maryland's Renaissance Festival, the second largest in the country.

It's a courtly mix of regal purple, red, emerald, gold, and amber. 

I like being pushed to do colorways like this, because they are not ones I gravitate toward naturally. But then I'm always happy with the results and am glad I made an appearance at the party.

If you visit Pulling At Strings and enter Chivalrous in the search box in the upper right, you can see everything they currently have instock in this colorway. They even have some mini skein sets and roving up for grabs!

*****************

Another trip to Florida brings us Sea Flower, an exclusive colorway belonging to A Good Yarn in Sarasota.

Sea Flower is part of A Good Yarn's Purl Diver collection, which are colorways based on amazing underwater photographs.

You can see the bright orange, black, and white in the clown fish <Insert Finding Nemo joke here>, and the pretty taupes and rose pinks in the rest of the skein.

This is what I call a transitional handpainted, where the colorway is designed to be conceptual and to transition from one color to the next once the skein is twisted up.

This is a labor intensive colorway, involving lots of tiny paintbrushes, but I think the end results are worth it.

A Good Yarn has this colorway instock, and they'd be happy to send you some. You can visit their web store here for easy stash enhancement.

(I adore this one on Springvale Bulky. Sigh.)

**********************

As luck of the draw would have it, another transitional handpainted gasped for air.

This one is based on salmon. Not just the color salmon pink, but the actual fish.

Copper River salmon is said to be some of the best in the world because of its high oil content, and salmon fishing is the industry on which the city of Cordova, Alaska thrives.

When I made this for The Net Loft, I knew I couldn't just slap some light pinks and grays on Adorn Sock and call it close enough.

My bluff would be called. Who can predict the mayhem that would ensue.

Salmon -- the fish -- has marbled silvery gray skin, which I hope I captured, and the meat is actually a few different shades of pink with a yellow and brown undertone.

It's a manly pink. Because it's a pink that has its own name. Salmon.

When I'm designing a colorway, I will often settle on a color recipe (how to make the salmony pinks, which shades of gray I'll use), and then I experiment with dye application methods.

Here are a few of my earlier versions of Salmon.

This was lacking variation. It didn't say fish to me.

This is a little closer, but it seems like the salmon skin is too mixed up in the meat. It gives me the feeling of picking bones out of a piece of fish in a restaurant.

You can see a side by side comparison here.

The method I settled on uses both kettle dyeing and hand painting. Because I will rarely seek the path of least resistance when it come to yarn. I'd rather make more work for myself and have things just so than go easy and be less than thrilled with the results.

It's part of my personality that spills over into most areas of my life. My husband loves this about me, don't you, honey?

Here's one example of how it knits up:

If you want to grab some of this colorway, you can give The Net Loft a call at (907) 424-7337, or email them at thenetloft3 AT yahoo DOT com.

Speaking of salmon, I had spicy salmon sushi for lunch today. How deliciously coincidental.

It could really only be cuter if it were photographed on a real baby instead of an orange Happy Birthday balloon.

Did you know that blocking is extremely important to your knitting? And that when blocking a hat, Happy Birthday balloons are imperative?

If you're kntting a hat for a grown up, your blocking apperatus might look more like this:

In this case, I inflated the balloon to about the size that a newborn's head should be. Then I asked someone else in the studio who has also given birth to three children, "Is this the size of a newborn's head?" We inflated and deflated until we got it just about right.

Never mind that everyone else in the studio was thinking, "Yikes... that is actually... not small... considering..."

How's this? It does not feel small during the last two months of pregnancy. In fact, it feels like it's the size and weight of a bowling ball.

But after the baby is born, he or she seems so tiny and helpless. Much like this:

If you were so inclined, you could use a tape measure to choose the appropriate size for your balloon blocking.

The Craft Yarn Council has worked to standardize sizes and measurements used throughout the knitting world. The guidelines are voluntary, so don't count on all designers to follow them, but they're a really good starting point, if you're not sure what size head a three year usually has. (It's bigger than you think.) (You can see all the standard body measurements here.)

Knitting a newborn hat is one of the best projects in the world. Not only is it totally squeal inducing, but it's incredibly fast, and a great way to use up your yarn stash.

I used a great pattern for this hat that I will happily knit again, called the Small Things Bonnet, designed by Carina Spencer. It uses worsted weight yarn, and has both rounded bonnet or a pixie hood style. Totally recommend it and the sweater/romper that goes along with it.

As always, I made a couple of tiny modifications to the pattern, not because the pattern was lacking, but more because I must have some kind of block when it comes to doing something exactly as written. I did the front section in a contrasting color, and love how it looks. I made the pixie just a little bit pointier. Love it.

I chose a button in a third color that I think pops with the gray and pink. Although the baby is a newborn and not into mouthing things yet, I still sewed the button on really well to make sure it wouldn't be a choking hazard.

Can't you just picture it on sweet little Ceci?

I just checked again, and yep. It's still one of the cutest hats I've ever seen.

For more information on my Happy Birthday balloon blocking tutorial, you can visit this post.

Made any cute baby things lately?

I drew out Loopalicious, this bright and fun colorway based around one of the blue colors repeated throughout the Loops South store in Tulsa:

I love the inside of this store for so many reasons.

For starters, it's well-organized and clean. And let's be honest friends, not all yarn shops are. I have seen many stores that feel disheveled, scattered, and hard to navigate. But not this one:

Loops South has a particularly modern look that suits them well.

If you own a yarn shop, I'm not telling you that you that customers must be able to belly up to the Mac bar to look up projects on Ravelry. You don't have to have white leather seating.

But you do need to dust and vacuum and take out the trash, particularly if someone microwaved leftover salmon in your back room for lunch.  Every day. You do need to reface your products continuously. 

You do need to make your store visually appealing, so that people want to come and browse around for an hour, particularly if they are new to knitting and don't have a clue what they're looking for. You want to attract new customers, right? Make the store a place that people want to come into.

I'm not singling anyone out here, and --knock wood-- we're lucky to work with awesome stores.

I feel like I need to start a web series called Yarn Shop Takeover, in which I get to take over a store for a couple of days and completely redecorate and reorganize things from a customer-centric shopping experience.  Good shop owners understand that they are high end, specialty retailers. I often say in my classes that it's important to love what you're knitting with -- the yarn, your tools -- and that you're knitting things you enjoy making, because no one is knitting because it's cheaper.

There are many reasons to knit. Cheaper is not one of them. Most of us don't spend $10-$30 per pair of socks in a store. But we are willing to spend that on one skein of sock yarn, and then we have to make the socks ourselves. We won't pay $30 for premade socks, but we will for socks we have to spend days or weeks working on.

If there were a store in the mall that sold $30 socks, I can guarantee you that the store would be clean, well lit, well organized, and pleasant to walk around in.

Yarn shops are high end retail. They sell the materials for a $300 sweater that you then have to make yourself.

Loops gets it right. There is more than one kind of right, but this is one of them.

I've been there twice -- you can see more about my visits here, here, and here.

Loops has a web store, which you can visit from anywhere in the world. And you can also call them at

1-877-LOOPSOK. The Loops Troops know what they're doing. They know their stock and they know how to help people.

(And hey, if you own a shop and want me to come take over for a couple of days -- use the contact form in the upper right. We'll see what we can work out, even if it's just a virtual consultation.)

*************************

On to our next stop on the tour! I knew there would be a high probability (Because I am really, really excellent at statistics. Which is to say that I know how to multiply and divide.) that I would choose at least one more colorway from The Net Loft in Alaska. The probability is high (again, my genius statistical mind did these calculations), because there are just so many custom colorways for this one shop. Each year for the past few years we've done a new crop of them, so the collection is now quite sizable.

This one has been popular with both male knitters (and Cordova has plenty of rugged, outdoorsy men who know how to knit), and with women knitting for the dudes in their life.

Please tell me you know what animal this looks like. Because gosh darn it if I didn't go the Great Lakes Aquarium to compare for myself.

Getting the gold -- and the right proportion of it -- was part of the challenge. The other part was creating that subtle variation throughout the dark brown and black feathers a bald eagle has.

Here's an earlier draft of this colorway, which has too much white, and the browns and grays are not dark enough. The feedback I got from The Net Loft was that it was "good" and "almost there," but that it needed to look "more like an eagle perched on the top of a tree with its wings folded."

I'll be honest, my first thought when I heard that the wings needed to be folded whilst the national bird perched atop a tree was along the lines of, "Umm..."

But I get it now. It needed more dark brown and black, because the proportion of the eagle that is actually white and gold and medium brown is actually quite small.

Bald Eagle actually looks pretty darn nifty knit up. I've seen some sweet hats, scarves, and fingerless gloves made from it.

And next up is The Net Loft's Lupine colorway.

We went through at least nine versions of this colorway before I finally found something that was both pleasing to the eye and that looked like the flowers that grows prolifically in the Alaska summer. You can see some of my drafts here. Lupines come in purple, pink, and periwinkle, and some have lots of white at the tips, while others don't. We worked to find a colorway that would incorporate what was pretty about all the varieties.

We tried some with green. Some with white space.

(Photo Source)

And this is what we decided on: a variegated deep purple with accents of pink and periwinkle. This picture doesn't do the depth of color justice.

You can see some more pictures of both Bald Eagle and Lupine on the Net Loft's blog, here.

If you'd like to grab Bald Eagle or Lupine from The Net Loft, drop them a line at thenetloft3 AT yahoo DOT com, or call them at (907) 424-7337. I promise they are friendly and helpful.

I hope you're enjoying these behind the scenes peeks into the genesis of exclusive colorways. And hey, if you're not, then you probably like meatloaf and football. And then there's no hope for you at all.