coming back around

ages and ages ago,

i was very excited about a new design

that i had planned for galler yarn’s ‘asana bulky’.

it’s thick and thin. it has tone upon tone. the personality nearly oozes from the fibers of it.

asana sqi jumped into the planning

for a hugely cozy large cabled collar

topping off a cardi that felt like wearing a squishy hug around.

i was only weeks away from being ready to release the pattern when

a fellow designer released nearly the same thing.

no, she had not seen mine,

and no, we had not talked and inadvertently copied each other.

they were predicting a cold, cold winter and i think we both set our sights

in the same direction.

that happens.

so the knitting was frogged and i began again.

trying to listen to what else the yarn wanted to be.

the thing is, i still wanted it to be

the big collared cardi with extra wide cables.

i couldn’t hear other options as they dropped off my needles and into the swatches

because i didn’t want to hear new options.

i think from a creative point of view,

i sort of dug my heels in

and pouted.

it’s been many, many months since then.

more cold weather is predicted for this winter

and i took the asana out of the bag to have a looksee.

i love this yarn. it’s so interesting and different.

the color variations give the stitches such depth.

there is now enough distance

between my head and the original idea

to hear what this yarn wants to be. finally.

of course, i’d like to tell you that i am not affected

by these things.

that i am never a moody creative,

that logic rules my process at all times so i always get done

what i intend to do in the time i plan to do it in

but, it’s not truehttps://www.talithakuomi.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=8389&action=edit

i imagine that you wouldn’t believe that of me anyway.

at this point, you know me all too well.na sq

so, here’s to a new pattern

rising up from its old abandoned beginnings.

if all goes well this time,

it should be keeping some of us warm

by the time we hit the deep chill of winter this year.

 ‘abandoned’ taken from 54:7 of isaiah.

on the box

first go back and read the very end

of this post (like the last 4 or 5 lines).

il_570xN.765395143_6vv02now, some things seem to go achingly slow.

i have this great yarn and a sweater

design-in-progress

that i have knit and unknit 3 times now.

i want it to be all that it can be,

and it’s just not that yet.

other things go surprisingly fast.il_570xN.765394729_r755

i say that because

as of today

there are 4 new knitter’s tins

in the sexy knitter’s shop

(or them sold as a set of all 4).

now lookit, they have my very own knitting on them!

il_570xN.765272808_h7b0yup, true fact. but 2 weeks ago

that was just a dream.

wow-ee!

you can check them out here.

they’re only available for the month of may.

after that you’d have to talk you local yarn store into

buying them wholesale to get one.

i’ve got 1 of all 4 coming my way next weekil_570xN.765395975_aye0

(how could i not?).

3 have the sayings on them,

but one is just knitting.

you have that option, too.

i’ll post more photos

once mine arrive.  for now i just keep clicking on the link

to see them all there in a row of listings

being absolutley real.

so yet again,

wow-ee.

‘dream’ taken from 5:3 of ecclesiastes.

narrowing

choosing just one new to me galler yarns’ fiber that i’d like to knit with is ever so hard.

there are just too many great choices.

i did thin the options down to 3,

then i hit a plateau.

my runners up

were jasmine (ahh, silk)

and pashmina (cashmere!)

for the sheer luxury of them,

but they’d be living in a drawer in my real day to day life.

for me the three-way tiebreaker was this question: “what would i knit with it?”

so, in the end

i would choose

peruvian tweed

as the yarn

i’d most like to try.

and i’d knit

the embrace shrug,

or something just like it.

pretty sure i’d feel

as happy as she looks

every time i wore

such soft alpaca.

fyi: color #119

makes me think of

reeses’ peanut butter cups

(how could you go wrong with yarn that looks like a chocolate combo?)

and would go perfectly

with my vintage frye campus boots.

just in case anyone is looking for a gift idea…

don’t forget

you only have until midnight tonight

to enter to win a skein of heather prime alpaca.

check it out at this other post over here.

yarn pics courtesy of galler yarns.

shrug pics taken from the ravelry pattern listing.

‘think’ taken from 4:8 of philippians.

sometimes

there are yarns that scream to be knit.

for me, heather prime alpaca was too loud to ignore.

this sport weight fiber is spun

into generous skeins

(600 yds each).

i want to live

surrounded by its soft halo.

i could go on and on and…

but the nutshell version

is: this is my

other favorite

galler yarns fiber.

really, it speaks for itself.

and don’t miss the opportunity to win a skein.

leave a comment here, by midnight of saturday the 8th of december.

‘spun’ taken from 35:25 of exodus.

 

differential

as to my favorite

galler yarns fiber,

i have two (so far).

i’ve recently

had the pleasure to

use asana bulky for

…well, i…

can’t say quite yet, but this yarn is a great balance of things.

now, i’ve always been a fan of the texture of thick and thin yarns.

sometimes, though, the ‘thick’ bits can be so big as to be hard to manage

and the ‘thin’ bits can be almost lace weight leaving gaps in the knitting.

it was a challenge

for me to figure out,

as much as i

liked the textures,

how exactly to use yarn

like that practically.

but,

oh joy,

galler has found

just the right ‘thick’

and paired it with just the right’ thin’.

its name is asana bulky.

loaded with texture.

none of the headache.

to top it all off,

it’s multi tonal and so soft.

pretty brilliant.

don’t forget, enter to win

a 600 yd skein of galler yarns’

heather prime alpaca,

by going back to this post.

‘thick’ taken from twenty-three:seventeen of job.

enter to win, or don’t?

seriously, is that even a question?

it’s a luxurious yarn, a free copy of a new pattern and some other little goodies

of course you should enter.

i’ve just released a new pattern knit up in

galler yarns’ heather prime alpaca.

this stuff is amazingly soft

and there’s enough in

just one skein to

to knit this.

‘this’ being valleys of the sea

a rectangular wrap with wave like edging

along the right and left edges as it’s knit end to end.

really now,

does it get any better

than high altitude alpaca

(‘the cashmere of alpacas’)

that you can contentedly

knit an entire wrap in

out of a single

600 yard

skein?

did i mention that this means

no yarn ends to weave precariously into the lace pattern?

leave a comment to this post saying

which galler yarn you would most like to try and why

on or before saturday, december 8th.

i’ll choose 5 winners by rng.

(one for each skein shown)

winners will be announced on monday, december 10th.

check back this week for posts on my fav galler yarns,

and which one i so very badly want to work with next.

‘valleys of the sea’ taken from 22:16 of 2nd samuel.