Hello California Street ✨ 🐏 🌈

There's a new collection and lots and lots of hand-dyed yarn in the shop

True story: Tyne and I got up before sunrise so that we could catch the morning golden hour as the sun rose over the TransAmerica Pyramid, in the background. I was in the middle of the street, tripod set up, and we got thumbs ups and waves from a driver who was happy to wait for us to get this shot.

California Street is the place where you can be open-heartedly yourself, in the company of friends. It's a real place here in San Francisco, where I live, but it's also a metaphorical place. California has long been held out, in song and poem, as a golden place where you can be yourself.

With this shawl, my friend and fellow designer Tyne Swedish and I invite you to find your own California Street ... to find the colors and stitches that represent your best self, your most at home self, and to create a shawl that will wrap you in the feeling of friendship.

Tyne and I are real-life friends, as well as yarny collaborators, and we created California Street to celebrate that special feeling of fiber friends, far and near, who know, love, and support you.

For this project, Tyne wears the hat of knitwear designer and model for our collaboration, and I wear the hat of yarn dyer, notions maker, and photographer.

California Street shawl is a comfort knit and a wardrobe staple. It's a classic triangle-shaped shawl with soothing bands of stockinette and garter stitch that make a hand- dyed yarn shine. It ends with a whimsical bobble bind-off.

There are two sizes in the pattern, so you can choose a quick knit (small; two skeins of sportweight yarn) or a generous size (large; four skeins).

I took these photos for the pattern of Tyne wearing the four-skein size on a beautiful morning, at sunrise, in various spots across San Francisco. You may recognize some of the famous landmarks: like the Transamerica Pyramid, Lombard Street, and the actual California Street.

We hope you will enjoy the many features of this collaboration, so let me tell you what we’ve created for you ….

Also true story: the owner of the corner shop where these flowers are, well, she was not happy for us to set up in front of her shop. She was trying to get ready to open, so we had to be super quick about it …

Shawl pattern

The pattern is available from Tyne’s Ravelry shop, and it’s $7. It includes a video tutorial showing you how to work that gorgeous bobble bind-off. And …

For opening weekend only, when you buy the pattern, you get my annotated notes to a special Spotify California Street playlist of funk and classic rock music we’ve selected. All the songs are by artists with a connection to or about San Francisco.

Shawl kits (with everything!)

I have put together a small number of ready-to-ship shawl kits that have absolutely everything from the collection—all the yarn you need, the pattern, accompaniments, plus a piece of earth magic from San Francisco.

Tyne named it “earth magic” because it’s a foraged sand dollar from one of the San Francisco beaches that I like to walk with my dog, Molly. I collected them in the quiet morning hours, bleached them in the San Francisco sun, and left them to charge in the moonlight. I’m not especially witchy (although Tyne says otherwise, with my kitchen witchery that extends to yarn dyeing), but I love the idea of including an actual piece of San Francisco in your kit. Put the sand dollar in your garden soil to break down, display it on your desk, or just crumble it in your hands.

Yarn, so much yarn

Every skein of yarn comes with the California Street pattern + playlist

We’ve created a Spotify playlist of songs by artists with a connection to San Francisco and about San Francisco. It’s full of our funk and classic rock favorites, and to celebrate the collection’s release, this weekend only (April 7 to 9), every single purchase of yarn, whether it’s one single skein or a kit, will receive the pattern + annotated playlist.

I’ve dyed a cornucopia of heartstopper colors for the collection: purples, reds, pinks, and creamy neutrals (and one gorgeous single set of blues!).

Accompaniments: all my favorite things

To round out the collection, I’ve made a fresh batch of my avocado hand balm (the perfect thing to soothe dry hands before you sit down to knit), I’ve hand-poured some of my clean-burning soy wax candles in a new scent, and I’ve made some adorable progress keepers filled with rose quartz crystal shards, to symbolize unconditional love.

These little wishing bottles (just 3/4” tall) contain rose quartz crystals, and they’re pictured on a tiny pot of moss that my husband grew for me, just because he knows how much I love moss!

Find your own California Street

Whether you are able to shop the collection or not, we hope you find your own California Street this weekend: that place where you can be open-heartedly yourself and relax in the company of soothing stitches and good friends.