vote for your favorite colorway inspiration!

I have several new, limited edition colorway collections coming out soon! But there's room for one more at the table.

Which is where you come in.

Below are three pictures -- all colorways from previous Carpe Yarnem (one of a kind colorway) stockings. Vote for the one you like best. The one with the most votes will serve as my inspiration for a new colorway. It won't be an exact replica, as I don't have the recipes for these, but I'll make something with a similar feel.

Option #1: Cider House

Warm golden browns, apple greens, hints of gray, amber, and olive.

#2: Meteor Shower

 Salmon and rose pinks, smoky purples, teals, and blacks.

#3:Woodland

Turquoise, teal, hints of purple, pink, brown, and green. Woodland is used in one of the circles in the headers at the top of this page. It's the one right above the word The in The Yarnista.

You choose: Which should I use as inspiration for a new colorway? Feel free to leave a comment telling me which one you picked and why!

One year ago

My hair was still red.

My mother didn't like it.

She would never let me dye my hair as a teenager. "People pay big bucks to have blonde hair like yours!" she told me.

So I paid a lot of money to have the stylist put it back to blonde. It took 200 foils and almost four hours.

Indeed, people do pay big bucks to have blonde hair.

One year ago, I was working on my egg dyeing tutorial:

And then this happened. I got sidetracked.

It's almost done now, and I'll share some of my simple secrets for unique eggs.

Hint: you don't need to buy those egg dyeing kits they sell this time of year. Save your money. You can use it for yarn later.

my bonny fair goodly well-favored sharf

Try using that phrase instead of, say, beautiful.

"My, what a bonny fair goodly well-favored dress you're wearing!"

Everyone will think you're really normal and will try to spend more time with you at parties.

I'm sitting here eating Angie's Kettle Corn, getting crumbs all over my keyboard, and I thought I'd tell you about my shawlscarf.

Sharf?

Scawl?

Regardless, it's bonny.

It's also a version of Virginia.

Knit in fair, goodly Octopus's Garden and Gulf of Mexico.

Here's a little secret that very few people know. Octopus's Garden is a total diva. I have a few colorways that are so very goodly that I can't help but love them.

But they're demanding little buggers, always wanting dressing rooms full of plain green M&Ms, white peonies, half-caff soy vanilla 140-degree lattes, and dots of color applied by hand with a tiny brush.

Will somebody get this kettle corn away from me, please? This is ridiculous. I can -- and will -- eat it all in one sitting if no one intervenes. (The classic flavor, not the caramel.)

I'm trying to talk about yarn and knitting here, and my keyboard is all sticky and full of crumbs. But the kettle corn is so light! Crunchy! Sweet! Salty!

I never knit gauge swatches for scawls. Or sharves. This pattern calls for two skeins of fingering weight yarn. I used one skein of Springvale Worsted and some DK I had on my desk for trim. Who cares! It's a sharf!

You should make your sharfscawl. And you should get your own bag of kettle corn, just so I feel less alone in the world. It's handcrafted in small batches from natural ingredients in the fine state of Minnesota.

Pretty much exactly like our yarn.

P.S. The people at Angie's don't know me. I just happen to like their kettle corn more than I should. My laptop does not thank me.

C+S=HC

Not only do we get to work with beautiful yarn all day, we get stuff like this in the mail.

Surprise brownies? And a note telling me I only have to share one, and then I am free to consume the rest in one go?

Why yes, I do think I've found my dream job.

I did share. Some of them.

Emergency chocolates?

Absolutely!

And I ate the last one after I took this picture.

Coffee? Trader Joe's care packages? Christmas ornaments?

Clearly, y'all have learned that the key to our hearts is contained in this equation:

Caffeine + Sugar = Happy Campers (C+S=HC)

It's time to build body fat stores for summertime!

We have no air conditioning, and the stifling conditions mean we sweat most of the day. I need plenty of calories stored in easy access locations, just in case my reserves run low. Right?

Heaven forbid I have to work with yarn when my body fat percentage dips below 30! That would be scandalous.

I'm not sure what I've done to deserve such generosity, but I am very, very grateful for it.

Thank you, everyone, for the treats, the notes of encouragement, the gifts, the tech support... there's not a kindness that goes unnoticed.

Yes, it's time to queue the violins and pass the tissues and eat the brownies.

And say thank you again.

Takk.

(I need to start practicing my Norwegian.)

norwegian royalty

I have exciting news!

King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway are coming to this fair corner of the world in October to visit Enger Tower. And Three Irish Girls. Lord knows we need visitors.

Perched high atop a hill overlooking the twin ports of Duluth and Superior, Enger Tower was a gift to the city of Duluth in 1939 from Bert Enger, a Norwegian immigrant.

(Duluth itself is built into the side of a hill, affording spectacular views of the water. Have I ever mentioned this before? Oh.)

The 80-foot bluestone tower is undergoing a renovation and will be rededicated, hence the reason for the royal visit. I'm sure the King and Queen are excited to undertake such a long journey to a far-off land that looks... pretty much like the place they just came from.

There's a reason this part of America was settled by Scandinavians in the mid-1800s. It looks like Scandinavia. Trees. Water. Rocks. More water. Lots more trees. Trees. Water. Trees. Waterwaterwater. Ice. Fish. Snow. Trees. Forest. Pine trees. Birch trees. Water.

While the King and Queen are here, they're going to visit Takk for Maten, a Scandinavian cafe, and the Sons of Norway hall, both of which are one city block away from the studio.

They'll be escorted by their security via car to the studio for a tour, an exchange of pleasantries, and if I'm lucky, they'll take some yarn home as a gift. Perhaps I'll be able to arrange for goodies for all of my Norwegian customers -- you can stop by the royal palace for pickup, yes?

Question: Do you think the King and Queen of Norway like giant horsedogs?

Question: Is this fancy enough fare for the King and Queen of Norway? This was a recent potluck, and I need to know if our folding tables and vintage tablecloths will cut it.

Question: Do the King and Queen of Norway like Italian water?

What about soybean/white bean/something else so delicious I can't remember the name of it/ salad?

Would a trifle suit them? Or is it too much to ask them to stand around with paper plates eating trifle while wearing bejeweled crowns?

We could offer them a seat on our futon. Or in one of our two purple camping chairs.

I'm certain they would like raspberries on their trifle. I could lie and tell them they're lingonberries.

But then, I don't want to get into the habit of lying to Norwegian royalty. Or royalty of any kind, for that matter.

Goat cheese? Kerrygold butter? Do members of the royal family schmear their own dairy products? Should I offer to schmear it for them? Will they have servants do the schmearing? What is the protocol?

Does the queen knit?

WHAT IF THE KING OF NORWAY IS A BETTER KNITTER THAN I AM???????

Raise your hand if you've pondered whether King Harald can knit better than you.

No? Just me?

I'm sure, at the very least, whether or not they partake of our schmears and sparkling waters, they'll pose for the obligatory picture, like this.

Only maybe in the real picture I'll have legs and won't be wearing a cartoon skirt. I do plan to keep my legs through the end of October, just so I'll look my best for their visit.

I only have one *teensy* little problem.

I may have told them this was the name of our business:

Like I said, I don't want to get into the habit of lying to royalty. But I figured this one little thing couldn't hurt, right? It's yarn! We have lots of people in Norway who love us!

Also, King Harald and Queen Sonia haven't actually confirmed that they're coming yet, except in my dreams. If worse comes to worst, I could always just walk down to the cafe in my handknit Norwegian sweater that I'm going to start making right away and probably only partially finish before then, muscle (or charm?) my way in, present my yarny gifts, cry some happy tears, pose for the above photo (I'll still have my legs in October), and post it here for y'all to see.

Question: What should I do now? What would you do, if you were me?