Paradise Fibers Yarn Club: January

I have been participating in the Paradise Fibers yarn club since last summer.  The yarn for January was Mountain Colors Twizzle in the color Evening Star.  It is a lovely worsted weight Merino wool with a strand of silk plied in.  The silk adds a lovely pop of color to the yarn.  Evening Star is a black and purple base with orange and blue accents.

Since black and purple are my cousin's favorite colors, I decided to make a triangular scarf for her as a birthday gift.  I used the Ashton Shawlette pattern that I made for myself in the fall.  Unfortunately I didn't check the yardage before I started, so I ran out of yarn less than a week before the project deadline!  So I ordered a second skein and finished it later.

I had to keep setting this project aside for other things (like yarn club projects for February and March, and both of my big ice skating competitions this year...) but I finally finished the shawl over the weekend and got it blocked.  Now that this is done, I can post about the other yarn club projects I finished in the meantime!

Paradise Fibers Yarn Club: December

The Paradise Fibers yarn club project for the month of December was a scarf kit with 5 one-ounce skeins of natural fiber novelty yarns.  The yarns in the kit were: Merino Ribbon (a flat open ribbon), Wooly Feathers (sort of hairy like fun fur), Missoula (a springy textured yarn), Mohair Loop (a curly yarn), and Mohair.  All the yarns were in the red/magenta color family with a few touches of purple.

Honestly, this is the first month of yarn club that left me unhappy with the yarn choice.  I hate novelty yarns, and the colors this month are my least favorite.  The project was a chunky scarf that basically alternated rows of all the different novelty yarns.  I knit the entire scarf in one day while the city was shut down during the first "polar vortex".  It was something like 13 degrees below zero, before windchill... So knitting was the perfect distraction.  Out of all five yarns, the only two I would consider buying again are Merino Ribbon and Missoula.  They are the least weird out of the bunch.

Like I said, this is my least favorite yarn so far... And I mostly knit the scarf to get my $10 in store credit.  I'm hoping to find a friend, family member, coworker, (or even a random stranger) that loves red and can rock this scarf.  It is not really my style, but I know somebody out there would absolutely love it.  Leave a comment if that somebody is you!  (Seriously, I'll send you the scarf.)  Edit 3/4/14- I found an owner for the scarf!  My good friend Fenna from The Honest Badger.  Hopefully I can get a picture of her wearing the scarf to post here.

Paradise Fibers Yarn Club: September

I am woefully behind on posting about my monthly yarn club projects.  For the month of September the yarn was Mountain Colors Crazyfoot in the color Poppy Trail.  The yarn is a fingering weight Merino with a little bit of nylon.  The color was a blend of orange, pink, red, and green- great fall colors!  (It was still actually fall when I was received the yarn and started knitting...)

The suggested project for the month was a pair of socks.  Since I had done a pair of socks last month, I decided to make a lace shawl/scarf.  I chose the Ashton Shawlette because of the pointy scallops on the edges.

The pattern was easy to follow and worked up pretty quickly.  I managed to finish knitting within minutes of the October 20th deadline.  And then it sat unblocked in my room for over a month... oops!

Last week I used my Paradise Fibers store credit to get a set of foam blocking mats.  They are squares that fit together in different shapes, and then you can pin items to them for blocking.  I finally blocked the shawl and it looks great!  I'm always amazed at how much bigger a project like this turns out after blocking.

And here's a bonus photo of Frankie helping me with my knitting!