Malabrigo Yarn and Pattern Giveaway!

Malabrigo was nice enough to send me  a BAG of their newest color Garden Gate to review and do a giveaway. This yarn inspired me to design this.

It´s a Collared Cabled Cowl and a really nice quick knit. I plan on selling it both on Ravelry and on my site here. 
Knitting with this yarn is just amazing. I love how the 100% merino wool feels on my fingers and needles. It is just sooooooo soft. The color is very pretty and a great fall color to keep warm with. I´m looking forward to using this cowl under my wool pea coat. The pattern is knitted with the yarn tripled using the Navajo method where you only need one skein and one strand and you triple it. I will post a video on how this is done as soon as I have the pattern ready to sell on Saturday. This yarn turned out so well tripled with it´s amazing colors coming together. It also worked up really fast on size 15 needles.

While doing my research on Malabrigo yarn on their site I realized how much I have been missing out on. I have only tried their worsted weight 100% merino a lace weight. I had never tried their sock yarn or any of those yummy yarns. They also just started a Super Bulky yarn called Rasta.

Their sock yarn looks pretty nice as well.

I would love to get my hands on this and design something Amazing for my boys and my husband. I just LOVE the colors.

There are so many amazing earth tones which I really love in all the different types of Malabrigo yarn. Now I´m just hoping that Malabrigo Yarns will keep me in mind when they are introducing new yarns. I just LOVE this stuff. 

Tobias at Malabrigo was nice enough to answer some questions for me about how Malabrigo Yarns got their start and what is to come.


How did Malabrigo Yarn get it's start? Who are the masterminds behind this amazing yarn?

We started a few years ago, we thought there was a market for hand dyed yarns and Antonio (my brother in law) started dyeing yarn in his kitchen.  After that we started selling in the US and people liked the yarn very much so we grew and grew, and are still growing. But of course, we started very small.
Antonio is the mastermind, or dyer Supremo!

How do you get your color and fiber inspiration?

Antonio gets his inspiration from many things, Nature, painters, landscapes. He try to include that in the color name, like Paris Night, SFO sky (San Francisco) or Turner.  As for the fiber, we have only one rule, it has to be the softest available.

Why Uruguayan sheep?

Uruguay has one of the biggest wool supplies in the world, and a very, very good wool in regards of softness-  

Anything that you can clue us in on what to expect to see from you in the near future? Any new and amazing fiber combinations or colors?

We are working on a new Superwash Worsted, expected to be shipped on September, after that, we have several projects in mind. a DK superwash and several blends. Antonio is starting to play with other fibers, so you expect another Malabrigo Cotton in the short time, and some blends with Angora or other natural fibers. 

Now to what you have all been waiting for..................

The giveaway.

OK, what I am offering to you to day is 4 pattern kits to make my cowl. In each kit will be a color print out of my pattern and 2 skeins of Malabrigo Yarn in the Garden Gate color. 

All you have to do is follow the rules

1. Go to the website and pick what color and type of yarn is your favorite from Malabrigo. Come back and leave a comment with contact info.
2. Become a follower or sign up for my feed via e-mail at the bottom of the page then come back and leave a comment with contact info
3. Tweet about this giveaway with a link to this site and then come back and leave your twitter id.
4. Put up a blog post about this giveaway and come back with the link to it and contact info.

Yes there are 4 chances to win if you follow the rules. Remember that you have to come back and comment for each entry but if you forgot to put contact info then your entry is invalid. If you forgot to add something please delete your first entry before you enter your correction. 
I'm sorry, but you have to live in North America or know someone in North America that is willing to receive this and send it to you, to be eligible to win this prize.
Giveaway will be open til Saturday at midnight.  Winner will be announced on Monday.

If you like to follow my progress on Ravelry and know when there are new giveaways I have a ravelry group called Knitting with Olof. 

Itty Bitty Update and Winner of Yarn!

This week I was working on the Princess and the Pea toy. I had finished the doll and part of the blanket last Monday. This week I finished the blanket and started knitting the mattresses. This toy is a lot of knitting and I am wishing that I had a knitting machine for the mattresses. I'm just going to have to make myself knit them.

I've also been knitting on the shalom sweater. I'm about 5 inches from finishing the body and moving on to the sleeves. I love how quickly this knits up. I also contacted DellaQ about that project bag that fell apart the first time I closed it. They were nice enough to send me a new one in a color of my choice and it arrived 2 days ago. It´s a lovely red and the Shalom lives in it when I´m not working on it.
I also knit this in 2 evenings.

It is a collared cowl that I will have the pattern written and for sale here and on Ravelry tomorrow. I will also have a giveaway with this pattern and the yarn to make it tomorrow. And so you know, there will be more than one winner. Not the best photos but you sort of get the gist of it. Hubby is going to take some nice ones tonight.

OK now to what most of you have been waiting for,
The winner of last weeks giveaway of 2 skeins of Balance was chosen by random.org  is .............................





Lucky number 15!

Rachel said...
OOO some O-Wool! I haven't used this yet and would LOVE some Lapis and Butterstone. Such pretty colors. So hard to pick.

I will contact you and get your mailing address and if you would like a skein in each color or both skeins in one color. Congratulations!

New Sponsor! O-Wool!

I had the pleasure of knitting with some true organic yarn and I am so happy that the yarn, that was sponsored by Jocelyn of  O-Wool/Tunney Wool Company for this project, will be enough for, at least, one more. This week I knit the Egg to Blue Bird and a Little Nest, Too. It was my first reversible toy from Susan B Anderson's  Itty-Bitty Toys and was a joy to knit. Especially knowing that I was knitting with O-Wool which is an organic yarn. The yarn that I got was Balance O-Wool which is a 50% certified organic merino wool, 50% certified organic cotton blend DK yarn and feeling it, you feel both equally. There is no scratchy feel to it it just feels natural and sturdy. I now understand why Susan B. Anderson used this for all of her reversible toys. I also feel secure and safe handing these toys to my sons knowing that they are not full of pesticides and other chemicals that you do not wont your growing child to be exposed to. This toy reverses from being an egg to becoming a little blue bird and was amazingly quick to knit.

I finished in 12 hours with taking care of my children and home. I would love to get a few bags of this yarn to make some blankets and light sweaters for the boys and even a stole for me.

This is outside of her warehouse. Jocelyn is on the left and is pictured with Kate Gagnon Osborn (Middle) and Courtney Kelley of The Fibre Company (http://www.kelbournewoolens.com). They are all involved in animal rescue and are pictured here with all of their rescued or foster dogs.

Jocelyn was nice enough to answer some questions that I sent her to help us get to know her and her business a little better.


What is O-Wool/Tunney Wool Company's story? Who is the mastermind behind this amazing yarn and company?
O-Wool was started by Vermont Organic Fiber Co. in Middlebury VT in 2001. Their founder has a fantastic knowledge of agriculture and textiles and combined the two to create one of the first organic merino hand knitting yarns on the market. Vermont Organic closed their doors this past May and I took over O-Wool under the label Tunney Wool Company. I've always been dedicated to environmental and animal welfare issues so I am extremely proud to produce a wonderfully responsible yarn line like O-Wool. I've been knitting for ten years, have a formal education in fiber arts and textile design/engineering, and have been working in the hand knitting yarn industry since 2004.


What inspires your colors and fiber combinations? 
 Nature! I'm developing new colors for a new yarn line and looked at all different kinds of minerals. The fiber combinations obviously have to be organic, and as of right now Merino and Cotton is what we work with, but we're exploring other options from sustainable farmers - hemp, linen, camel, alpaca and a few others.

What did you think when Susan B Anderson decided to use your yarn to make all of her reversible toys in her book?
I think it's a fantastic choice for children's toys. The organic fiber ensures that kids are not putting chemicals next to their skin or in their mouth. So many toys today are made from materials with questionable origins. It's fantastic, and I'm delighted at her choice.

What are we to expect to see in the future from O-Wool/Tunney Wool Company? Do you have any new lines or colors coming out?
All sorts of fantastic new things! Balance Bulky is a new yarn that should be ready sometime in the next 6 months, and I've developed 5-10 new colors in each of the existing 5 lines - AND something that doesn't exist on the hand knitting market yet - an organic superwash! Stay tuned.






As I was doing my research for this post I was looking around on the O-Wool website and I just want it all. The fact that is is all organic is a plus plus in my mind when choosing for my children. The colors are so beautiful and natural. I'm hoping that in the future Jocelyn will be wanting me to do some more reviews for her so that I can play some more with her amazing yarns.



OK to the part that you have all been so patiantly waiting for...................



We have a giveaway this week. Yes, yes. Jocelyn was nice enough to offer one of you the opportunity to win 2 skeins of this amazing yarn. Yes, you read me right. 2 SKEINS of the Balance yarn!

All you have to do is follow the rules

1. Go to the website and pick what color or colors you would like your 2 skeins to be. Come back and leave a comment with contact info.
2. Become a follower or sign up for my feed via e-mail at the bottom of the page then come back and leave a comment with contact info
3. Tweet about this giveaway with a link to this site and then come back and leave your twitter id.
4. Put up a blog post about this giveaway and come back with the link to it and contact info.

Yes there are 4 chances to win if you follow the rules. Remember that you have to come back and comment for each entry but if you forgot to put contact info then your entry is invalid. If you forgot to add something please delete your first entry before you enter your correction. 
I'm sorry, but you have to live in North America or know someone in North America that is willing to receive this and send it to you, to be eligible to win this prize.
Giveaway will be open til Saturday at midnight.  Winner will be announced on Monday.


Well I better get back to my x-mas knitting. That's right I'm X-mas knitting. This is stuff you won't get to see until after X-mas since the recipients read my blog.

Itty-Bitty Update.

Wow what a busy week I have had knitting. I've been a knitting fiend!
I knit this

and it only took me a day with taking care of my boys. Love this toy and so do my boys. The yarn is yummy to and there will be a giveaway and a review of it tomorrow. Hope you come back to win some.

Then I knit this

It's the princess and the pea toy and I still am working on her blanket and have 11 mattresses and the pea pod to make. I still have a week to finish this and I'll give you a review of this yarn once I am finished.
Then of course I knit some on my Tea Leaf Cardi

But this is what I really worked on

Yes, I knit all of that with doing housework and taking care of my kids all in 4 days. It is the Shalom cardi where I am modifying it to fit me. I'm a large to an extra large now after the birth of my second son and I am still breastfeeding so I'm fuller up top. I'm also adding more buttons and 3/4 sleeves.

I do need to finish my Vetur/Winter Lopi Sweater.

Some things that I want to knit that are in my queue on Ravelry are Pebble (Henry's Manly Cobblestone-Inspired Baby Vest), White Witch Mitts, Coraline, and Kællingesjal 1897;ENGLISH;recreation from Vendsyssel Museum, Denmar


What has been in your queue and you just can't wait to start it?

We have a Yarntini Winner!

Out of the 91 valid entries I used Random.org to pick the winner and the winner is.........





Drum role please........



Number 49!

LenaL said...
Oh how wonderful they all are! But I think Merlot is a tiny bit more lovely than Gin, that is a tiny, tiny bit more lovely than the rest.

lena.lundbladh@gmail.com

Congratulations and I will be in touch with you via e-mail.

New Sponsor! Yarntini!

Boy do I have a treat for you. It is happy hour here at my house and you are invited to join me. The lovely Jessie from Yarntini on Etsy.com was nice enough to sponsor this amazing new sock monkey from Itty-Bitty Toys , helping me on my mission of knitting though the whole book by Susan B. Anderson.  Not only was Jessie nice enough to sponsor the toy but one of you will be winning a skein of her amazing self striping sport weight yarn in the same color that the monkey is knitted in. If you plan on knitting the monkey you will have some left over to make something else. I'm pretty sure I could make a second monkey if I wished to. But since this yarn is so amazing I have another plan for the rest of it. I am going to make M a pair of mittens out of it and maybe a hat. I'm sure there is enough. This yarn is so soft to the touch that I'm sure that people that can't stand wool would love it. My boys just love putting the monkey to their face to hug it. It's also very nice to work with. I don't think I ever split the yarn with my needles once working on this whole project. I will definitely be working with her yarn again.

She has this amazing yarn club called eat, drink, and be marry.

Here are some of her amazing colors that she has up on her blog.

Isn't she just amazingly talented?

Jessie was nice enough to answer some questions for us to get to know her and her company better:

What is Yarntini and who is the mastermind behind it?

    Yarntini is a hand-dyed yarn business specializing in self-striping yarns.  My name is Jessie and I’m a wife, mom of an almost-three-year-old, and zookeeper to three dogs and a cat.  

What inspired you to start dyeing yarn to sell to others?

    We had just moved 1000 miles from home and I was looking for a creative outlet and maybe something to earn a little money while getting adjusted to our new life.  Going from Florida to Pennsylvania, I had picked up knitting again and when I discovered hand-dyed yarns on Etsy, I knew I had to try it out for myself.  

What inspires your amazing colors?

    I started with a “cocktail’ theme and from there it has evolved to a little bit of everything, my television-watching being a huge inspiration for new colorways.

How do you juggle life with running Yarntini?

    It’s hard, especially not having our family around.  I think I’ve heard that working from home is actually more difficult since it’s harder to separate work from home.  But with a toddler running around and my husband pursuing his doctorate degree, it’s been amazingly helpful and I’m so thankful that yarntini has given us the opportunities it has.  

Are there any new colors or yarns coming out from you in the near future?

    Each month, I create a new self-striping, semi-solid and variegated colorway for our Knit, Drink, and be Merry yarn club and I’m dreaming up new t.v.-inspired colorways all the time.  It’s been a while since dyeing up a lot of our original colorways, so at this point many of those feel brand new!

If you had a dream job what would it be?

    I think just what I’m doing now, maybe only with a little more help!

Who are your favorite designers at the moment?

            Susan Anderson, of course.  She’s been so sweet and supportive.  The fact that she’s a design genius is just icing on the cake.  Ysolda and Wendy Bernard are also big favorites of mine.  And one of my customers, Jennifer Pace of Pipp’s Purses, is a fantastic accessories and toy designer that I love as well.  

Thank you so much Jessie for all of your generosity.

You can find her on her blog, Etsy, and on Ravelry. There is even a Ravelry Group.

 This is the skein that is up for grabs this week. If you follow the rules then you are able to enter up to 4 times but remember you have to comment for each entry and each entry needs to have contact info in it. If I find no way of contacting you in the comment it will be deleted. 


1. Go to the Yarntini Etsy store and find your favorite colorway. Come back and post a comment with what you chose and contact info.
2. Become a follower of my blog and then leave a comment that you are a follower with contact info.
3. Twitter about this giveaway with a link to my blog and come back and tell me your twitter nick.
4. Post on your blog about this giveaway and come back and leave a link to your blog post and contact info

Giveaway will be open till Saturday at midnight and the winner will be posted on Monday with my itty-bitty update. Then stay posted for another giveaway next Tuesday.
I have also started a raverly group called knitting with Olof. You are welcome to join me there to be updated on giveaways and what I will be knitting next in case you would like to knit along.

Itty-Bitty Update.

I have jumped on the french press slipper band wagon. There were over 3220 project on Ravelry.com and I had been drooling over them for a while but not wanting to pay 7 dollars for the pattern. Well I finally caved and bought the pattern. I really love it and it's very easy. Great last min present idea. I used Icelandic Lopi for these and I'm going to have to shave them and they need buttons.

Then I was gifted this pattern.

I got buttons for the Baby Sophisticate so now I can send it to my friend in Iceland. 

I knitted a bit on my Tea Leaf Cardi this week.

It lives in the project bag that I got in the Classic Elite contest but it started coming apart the first time I closed it. Not very impressed.

Here is my toy of the week. It's the new sock monkey from itty-bitty toys. I still have his legs and feet to make but that will be done by tomorrow for the giveaway.

Then I will start on this sponsor yarn. Anybody guess what I am making with it?

Then I got this yarn from a sponsor in the mail today. Anybody guess what I will be making with it?

Then I got this in the mail the other day. It will not become a toy but I will be doing a review of it and a huge giveaway of it. Anybody guess what yarn it is?

We Have a Winner!!!!!

Using random.org I came up with a winner of the Loops gift card out of the 158 valid posts.


Drum role please..............




Winner is number 50!

Jessica said...

I am already a follower of your blog :0) If I won, I'd get some Three Irish girls....
Jpeled on ravelry

Congratulations!

I will contact you on Ravelry.com and get your mailing address.

Stay tuned for my itty-bitty update around noon when my little ones go down for their nap and a new giveaway tomorrow.

Late- Decluttering My Life Saturdays and Sharing Sunday

Found my 10 items that are either going in the trash or recycled. This is sort of a collection just from everyday things this week. I found this and that. How are my followers doing? Getting rid of the things you don't love or use in your home? Those that just started following my blog I am getting rid of at least 10 things every week.
I'm ahead at the moment. I've gotten rid of over 70 things in the last 4 weeks.Well on my way for getting rid of 250 items by the end of the year.

Here are some pics of the boys this weekend.

New Sponsor! Loops!

Those of you that follow my blog have heard me talk about my LYS (local yarn store). Well, that store is Loops and I've been teaching at their metro location in Utica Square. A beautiful uptown, outdoor shopping center with the greatest of high quality stores. The store at Utica Square is the type of place anybody feels comfortable sitting down and knitting for a while with the employees or other customers. It is always welcoming and very inspiring. If you don't have a project that you are going to get yarn for and need insaration just walk in and take it all in and you will walk out with a new project a yummy yummy yarn to go with it. They even have a great play room for your kidos to play in while you play with yarn.
Loops just opened a new location called Loops South. Located at 8287 S Memorial. It is AMAZING! Very modern and clean. You have a great view of all the yarns and well, lets just let the photos show you. And if you want to see more then  you can look at the Loops Blog.

 

Here is where the man folk or the non yarnies can sit sown and have some coffee and look at some magazines while you shop. It's called the Man Cave.

 

Here is the kids room. Do you see the itty-bitty toy book up there! Very fun.

 

The bathroom is even inspiring and there are 2 of them!

 These are all the amazing employees! They are very helpful and know their stuff.

Shelly is the one in the gray shirt in the front of the Now Open sign and is the mastermind behind all of this and is also a wife and a mother of 3. She is the artist behind the Loops look. Her and her husband have owned an ad agency for 18 years. Shelly started Loops in 2005 as a quest to build a better yarn store - one that is friendly, fun, and very fashion-forward.  Her belief is that the busier you are, the more time you can find to knit! She knits at her kids' karate practice and after their bedtime, if she doesn't fall asleep while reading to them.

Loops sponsored the yarn for My Matryoshka dolls. It's Blue Sky Alpaca Cotton and amazing to knit toys with. I'll have to try to make baby hats with it next.

For those of you that don't live in Tulsa you are in luck. Loops has an online store! You can order online or call in your order.

Join them on Facebook to stay on top of what is on sale or what is going on in the Loops community. You can also find the Loops Group on Ravelry.

Shelly was so gracious to offer a $40 gift card to a lucky reader! Think about all you could do with $40. You can enter up to 4 times to win if you follow the rules.

1. Go to the online store and find what you would like to buy with your $40. Come back and post a comment with what you would like to buy and leave a way for me to contact you if you win.
2. Become a follower of my blog and then leave a comment that you are a follower with contact info.
3. Twitter about this giveaway with a link to my blog and come back and tell me your twitter nick.
4. Post on your blog about this giveaway and come back and leave a link to your blog post and contact info

Giveaway will be open till Saturday at midnight and the winner will be posted on Monday with my itty-bitty update. Then stay posted for another giveaway next Tuesday.