bluebluegrey
Like many of us, I have a lot of yarn…I’m not sorry about that and I don’t feel guilty, I love it. All those possibilities!
blue, blue and grey
These are some of my absolute favourites. There’s something about this colour family that makes me very happy. I even painted my sitting room blue-grey, a bit of a risk in a city in the north, where half of the year’s light can also be described as blue-grey, or just grey. The answer is lots of lamps on all day in winter.
At the bottom, three skeins of heavy lace weight dyed by Natalie, a.k.a. The Yarn Yard. Somehow, when I see her blues and greys, they are just right. There’s a colour called ‘Waverley’ which I covet a little, described as the shade of dark blue-grey you find on old book covers. But this is a really light silvery pale blue and I have enough for a whole garment there. As bad as I am at knitting row after row of stocking stitch, I’m holding out for a go on a knitting machine…
Above that in the middle, Isager Tvinni Tweed. I bought this at Loop in Islington last week. I don’t know what it is about Loop, I just totally love it. You look around and every surface, on every level, is covered with something interesting. Much of their stock isn’t particularly easily found anywhere else in Britain: BrooklynTweed yarns, Quince&Co, DyeForYarn, Juno…That list could go on for a while. It isn’t that you can’t get the yarns elsewhere, it’s more that you’re in a shop which hasn’t got ‘the usual’ and which has displayed everything beautifully. A rack of shawl samples, a shabby sofa with an exquisite crochet throw. Not a skein of Manos in sight. (Nobody could pretend that you go to Loop for a bargain and a nice chat, though. Oof.) This yarn might be made into a Buttonwillow shawl. It’s a design by Romi, which I’ve made before as a gift. I can honestly say it is one of the nicest things I’ve ever knitted and I was sorry to see it go.
The commercial ball on the left is Regia sock wool. I have a bit of a thing for stripey socks, so it’s earmarked for knitting with some purple yarn I have stashed away. The colour combination’s a bit Boden 2005 but I don’t care.
Above the Tvinni Tweed is some merino/silk by DyeForYarn. Lichen on a Tombstone. I salute their yarn-naming skills. It doesn’t look anything like lichen on a tombstone, it’s an exquisite, delicate mix of duck-egg blues – but then, the other yarn I have of theirs doesn’t look like a Sloth Pushing Up The Daisies, either.
The dark yarn to the right is another Yarn Yard shade, found in a bargain bin at a show. It’s cotton and tencel, not often found, feels delightful, and I’m saving it for a perfect summer shawl.
Directly above is a YarnPony skein, which Mica doesn’t like (because it’s lace weight) but which I love (because it’s duck-egg blue/green). I’m not great at knitting lace patterns in lace weight, but wait! You can do this thing called navajo-plying: make a slip knot, then start making a crochet chain with your fingers. Elongate the loop and you’ll see you have three strands side by side. Imagine you’re knitting a three-ply yarn. When you get to the end of the ‘loop’, just pull the third strand through as far as you can and carry on knitting. You usually get something slightly heavier than a standard 4-ply, but from a 1200m skein you’ve got the equivalent of a very lofty 400m standard skein of sock yarn. You need never stare balefully at that exquisite skein of tiny yarn again. If you’ve got enough, swatch and go up a few needle sizes. 5mm for open lacework works well.
Perched on the very top is a wee ball of Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend. I have a small bag full of these leftovers, enough for an Oak Knot Hat (Loop, again, beautifully styled, again). They came from Ysolda’s prototype Lauriel cardigan, to me via Rebecca after a clear-out. When I worked in a yarn shop, we used to sell a fair bit of this yarn, and why not? It’s not very evenly spun but it’s soft and the spongy texture feels good as you knit it up. It’s going to be perfect. Thanks to the yarn recyclers 🙂
And the shawl they are all sitting on? I knitted this last winter, aiming for a huge version of a pattern normally knitted in 4-ply. It’s Cobble, by Kitman Figueroa, and I made it in some Drops Nepal. My flat is usually freezing in winter, or I’m colder than average and spend too long sitting…some combination of the two. It didn’t turn out as large as I’d hoped, but it was really good to knit: bottom up and not repetitive at all. Casting off those last two or three stitches felt good. And it’s verrrry cosy. If I could change one thing, I’d make the whole pattern a lot wider, but that’s just me.
And there ends my tour around this portion of my stash.
DyeForYarn Silk/Merino; Isager Tvinni Tweed; YarnPony lace; YarnYard BFL/Silk; YarnYard cotton/tencel
Knitting it all up is one of my aims for this year. Best get started immediately.
bluebluegrey 
You are unusual, you know that?
You’ll find that among hand dyers it’s a Universal Truth that blue doesn’t sell. And it becomes a chicken/egg thing. We dye it, it doesn’t sell, we don’t dye it as often, people stop looking for it … ad infinitum.
Oh! I did not know that. I absolutely love it! Does turquoise count? In the yarn shop, turquoise and purple usually sold really well. Come to think of it I have a healthy stash of turquoise too.