Follow Friday | September 12

My entree to the world of hand-dyed, dare I call it luxury, yarn was madelinetosh. I don't remember how it happened, I just know that it happened all at once and then I looked around me and there were sweater quantities piling up faster than I could justify paying for them. I've knit a lot of madelinetosh sweaters. I don't know if it even occurred to be back then to search out other dyers, but I know I didn't. Fast forward 50 sweaters or so and I got antsy. It wasn't that I no longer loved tosh, I mean take a look at my stash and you'll see it's still heavily represented, it's just that I had been so pleased with my projects in tosh yarn, I hadn't been motivated to see what else was out there.

Over the past year or so, however, I have been actively seeking out other dyers. People are doing amazing things with yarn and, as you look closely, you can notice that some dyers have a way with certain colors. I like to think of it like a trip through Paris. There are many MANY excellent shops to buy bread and pastries, but there are specific shops that do specific things the best. And you're a winner because you're walking around Paris sampling the best things from the best places. Ok, that was counter productive: now I want both a kouign amann and to be in Paris.

So I've been having a delicious time learning about new dyers and what they excel in. But then it happens, you realize that there are people you really ought to have tried by now and somehow haven't. Which is annoying. Because you already have 7000 projects you're supposedly actively working on, a guest room that you hesitate to call a guest room since it is really a bed you've staked bags of yarn on, and a retirement plan that really ought to be funded with something non-yarn-based. But you'll find something to do with that yarn, right? I've got my eye on two must-tries and two opportunities to try them and two reasons why. This has the added benefit of giving me fodder for two Follow Fridays! I'm sneaky like that.

First up is Shalimar Yarns which is having/has had an update today (I really intended for this post to be done by now). I solved the problem of never having tried the yarn by, for no good reason and with no project in mind, buying a heap of the Equus worsted in Toast Points. Sigh. I didn't want to retire anyway. The yarn has always looked amazing; I am amazed I limited myself to one sweater quantity. I don't consider myself a nature person, though I seem to become a little more of one each year (I SWAM IN A VOLCANO THIS SUMMER!), but when I see the posts on the Shalimar blog of the color that have been inspired by the nature around the dyers, I do get a little purple mountains misty if I may mix metaphors in a cringe-worthy fashion.


© mindofwinter

But if I want to point fingers at why I just bought yarn I don't need, I don't need to look far. Stand up and take a bow, Julia! Julia Trice, aka mindofwinter on ravelry, aka the best example of surfer-chic mom I've ever seen (I mean look at her perfectly slicked hair - how does that even work?), designed this gorgeous sweater, the Yukiya Pullover with Shalimar yarns. Specifically with the colorway Toast Points as the main color in the design. If you can stop looking at her effortless hair for a moment and focus on the sweater (which I have languishing on the needles in grey, black, and red, because I am nothing if not predictable), you will see what an incredible advertisement it is for the yarn. As soon as I saw the sweater pop up on the ravelry feed, I knew that color was destined to be mine. I also knew I needed the sweater. And that's the problem with Julia - she's doubly dangerous. She chooses amazing yarns for her amazing sweaters and you discover you're going to HAVE TO HAVE both (I have yarn stashed away for her Reverie and I have no idea when I'll get to that).

So there you have it: two Follows for the price of one Friday. Stay tuned next week when I admit failure and possibly have exciting news (the two things are not the same).