When yarn means more to you than just a “skein of yarn”

I tend to dye yarn with the seasons. My dye kitchen is outside, so I’m well-connected, year round, to what’s happening in the natural world right outside my back door.

It’s one of the things I love the most about this small business, making things, job of mine. I get to be outside and I get to be creatively inspired by what’s growing and blooming or laying fallow or hibernating around me. And I get to share it with you.

A gentle, literary, domestic life, all in a humble tea towel

This is a cotton-linen tea towel you can have made-to-order via Spoonflower in my classic Little Women (but make it knitterly) print, created for me by artist Jennifer Potter. I commissioned this hand-illustrated print from Jennifer just before her illustration career took off (you can see more of her work here).

It’s filled with delicate watercolor illustrations inspired by the classic novel, Little Women, and it has a special knitting focus: baskets of yarn, kittens playing with yarn, handknit mittens.

The tea towel is $24, made-to-order, excellent quality, and actually less expensive than I could offer if I ordered the custom fabric and sewed them for you myself. I am excited Spoonflower now offers finished home decor items, fully produced in the U.S., like this!

I use my own Little Women tea towel to hold fresh muffins when I sometimes snack outdoors, often with a lavender latte to sip on. As a little bonus, here’s my recipe for making your own lavender syrup (I use a teaspoonful in my latte and it gives it a deliciously floral and woody taste!):

Recipe: Lavender Syrup

• Dissolve 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water over low heat.

• Add two tablespoons of culinary lavender buds to the syrup and let it heat, just below simmer, for about 5 minutes. (I get mine here.)

• Take off the heat, and let steep for 45 minutes.

• Strain, let cool, and put in a pretty little bottle to use in coffee and to add a dash of floral taste to sparkling water.

This is the colorway my yarn subscription club members received in the mail last week. The full skein is “Miss Lavender Lewis” and the mini-skein (for club members who also get a mini) is “Macaron.” Both are lightly speckled.

Would “future you” like a gift of yarn?

My yarn subscription club is open for new subscribers until next Thursday, and I would love to dye some yarn for you later this month!

The colorway, above, is “Miss Lavender Lewis” and it’s what subscribers received at the end of April. Every other month, I create a new surprise colorway for subscribers, hand-dye it, package it up just so, and send it on to new stashes and new knitting needles.

Every time I think I can’t possibly tell you more about this subscription, I get new emails from happy customers, which tells me that I probably don’t talk about the club enough.

It’s a really, really happy and joyful club, and if you’re not already in the club, I think you’d love it.

Here’s what you should know:

• Every other month, I create a new surprise colorway (it’s a surprise, but I aim to create crowd-pleasers).

• It’s on my most luxurious base: Cashmere Blend. It’s a base I’ve not seen any other indie dyer use, and it’s my favorite. Fingering weight, 70% superfine merino, 20% cashmere, and 10% nylon, with a gorgeous tight twist. One customer told me it’s as soft as a puppy, and she’s absolutely right.

• I get emails after every single round from happy customers. You might not love every single color I surprise you with, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you do.

• It’s a flat $34, every other month — it’s my most economical offering because I pay for your shipping.

• You can cancel at any time, or dip in and out of the club as your budget and stash needs to.

FYI: I am usually able to offer sweater quantities (or more skeins) of club colorways and will be opening preorders for “Miss Lavender Lewis” next Friday. (I want to test the colorway on a few different bases, and I hope to be offering it on not just Cashmere Blend but also Mohair-Silk Lace, Targhee Sock, and Harvest Sport!).

Thanks for being here

I hope you find something in today’s update to inspire you, and that the coming weekend finds you being gentle with yourself.