What has happened in the past two years?  Life.  Most definitely.  Lots of crazy, funny events have happened in the shop and in my life.  Why on earth have I not been sharing with you?

I came to an epiphany yesterday. As I was driving to work, it was super eerie.  The wind was blowing, hard.  The sky was gray.  There were no cars.  It was like the start of any oh crap moment in a bad movie.  Debris mixed with leaves blew across my path.  As I saw the wind swaying in the tress, I noticed  all the squirrel nests.  Being winter, the trees are stripped of their leaves and the nests are all exposed.

It made me think of my journey.  I used to love to post and share all of my stories…then I opened the yarn store. Then I stopped posting. Why? That’s a really darn good question.  Honestly, I got stuck thinking I wasn’t allowed to be all personal with you. I wasn’t allowed to share the ins and outs of daily life because I now had a Brick and Mortar business.  I must be more professional.  If I post, my grammar must be spot on…oh and it has to be super enlightening, and of course I must only talk about things I have in the shop and things I want to sell.  Boring!!!!  Who the heck wants to write all that much less read it!?!

What was my epiphany?  The Twisted Purl is ME. It’s my company, my heart, my soul…ME!  So why can’t I share me?  I CAN!  I’m giving myself permission to blog about things I want.  I’m giving myself permission to post without a photograph, post about the lady who came in and told me about her 57 cats and how she loves them but is allergic to them (YES! That happened), post about the yarn I love, the yarn I’m making, or the patterns…the 900 patterns I see and want to start and sometimes start but rarely finish.

The squirrel nests made me realize sometimes our outsides need to be stripped away so we can focus on what is important.  If you read my blog, thanks!  I apologize for the lack of posting. Apologize for the inconsistency. Apologize for my all around sucking in sharing what all has been happening.  I’m stripping it down.  I’m not giving myself rules. It’s the outback of posting…no rules just right! I will be posting more!  Thank you for joining me on my journey.  It’s been an crazy ride and there are quite a few things I’ll catch you up on. Stay tuned!

 

OMG I love this yarn!!!  This yarn is so amazingly soft.  It’s alpaca *drool*, merino wool *double drool*, and Nylon (for strength).  It looks almost like a roving yarn.  But unlike a roving yarn, I pulled and pulled on it to see how much tension it would require to pull apart…it was seriously quite a bit!

From Island Yarn Company:

“50 grams, 140 yards, 70% Alpaca, 7% Merino Wool, 23% Nylon, Bulky weight, Hand-dyed in the USA, Hand wash

Poosh is our brand new alpaca blend. It is cloud-like in feel, but super strong.  It will knit gorgeous scarves, sweaters, mittens and more and the alpaca is sure to keep you toasty warm!”

Wanting to find a couple fun ‘one skein’ projects to try out this new yarn, we went on a pattern hunt on Ravelry.  Poosh is next to skin, snugly soft, so we wanted a hat or a headband and we found both.  One knit project and the other crochet!

First the knit project.  So fun!!!  It is a cabled headband from a pattern called Fraga Headband.  You can find the knit pattern here.  It worked up fast and I’m already dying for this dang heat to go away so I can rock the fall days.

Here it is on one of our darling shop helpers.  She modeled it for us and then stated she wanted one.  There’s plenty of yarn left to make a couple more, so she may just get her wish! 😉

The next pattern is called “Crochet Street Slouch Hat”.  It is a quick crochet, our assistant made it in one night.  Plus it’s so dang cozy and adorable.  Did I mention it needed to be Fall already???

The crochet pattern can be found here. For rows 5-13, we added 2 more rows so it’s longer and less slouchy.

Here’s the hat being modeled by another one of our shop helpers.  Too cute, right?

Right now, the yarn is available in the store, but it will be in our online shop soon!

This new yarn, Copiapo, from Araucania Yarns, is a perfect blend for the upcoming warm months.  It’s a cotton, linen, and viscose.

What the heck is viscose?  It’s a rayon blend.  Often times you will see either rayon or viscose depending on where in the world the item comes from.

It comes in 8 different colors and here is a peek of what they look like knit up:

Fun fact for your day: Copiapo is the Mapuche word for “Lush Vegetation”.

This yarn can now be purchased here or in our local yarn shop.  Hope to see you soon!