Yarngerie

As life usually goes for me, I blinked and here we are at the end of March. How it happens, I never know. It seems like it was just yesterday that it was January, and now we're already on spring break. YarnCon and Stitch Up Chicago are two weeks away. My WIP's are piling up as are my design ideas. And in the back of my mind, I whisper, "pace yourself...pace yourself." Through the busyness of life, I've had my yarn, hooks, and needles by my side keeping me centered. January ca

A new year with new goals, experiences, joys, unexpected surprises both good and bad, challenges, opportunities, and more. Who knows exactly

For almost every crocheter and knitter I know, their craft is their therapy. It's meditation. It's self-care time. It's reflecti

So 2017 was quite a year for me personally. My sweet little Ladybug was born in July making our family truly complete. And, in the midst of settling in as a family of 5, my husband and I both had work developments that have also taken some getting used to. While I’ve been able to keep up with my love affair with all things yarn, crochet and knitting, I’ve not been able to keep up with chatting about it. I’m hoping to change that in 2018, which makes me think of New Year’s res

Last week played out just as I expected. Much of my time was used prepping for back to school and very little time was spent with my yarn. But fear not...progress was made on some projects. Both my crochet test and shawl collar with a basket pattern projects are still on my hooks almost finished and a few more have made their way into my queue. But all will be completed this week because this week is Retreat Week! Every year, the Crocheters of the Lakes chapter of the Cro

Yes, Stitches Midwest was such a blast that it's taking me 3 days to talk about it! A couple days ago, I talked about some of the new dyers I met. Today, let's chat about some of my favorites that I like to visit year after year and show after show. ModeKnit Oh Annie Modesitt and Kathleen Pascuzzi...how I adore you both!! Their happiness about all things yarn and color is ever apparent in their ModeKnit booth. And the yarns...ohhhhh the yarns...I changed my mind about fou

If only I could pick up a little something from every single dyer at Stitches. Ah...what a dream! But given the limited space I have in my house because of my ocean deep stash, that's just not prudent. But I did manage to pick up yarn from four dyers whose yarns I have not yet tried. Two are gradients, one set came as a kit, and one is qiviut. That's right. I said it. Qiviut is now in my stash. (Insert girlish rock concert squealing here) But first...the gradients... Fr

Holy cow! What a weekend!! The Chicago Yarn Crawl began on Saturday and I made a very ambitious schedule for myself. There were several shops I walked into for the first time and a few favorites I gleefully visited. I'll get into more details later in the week but between visiting 13 shops over two days, wrangling little boys, and getting this week's ducks in a row, there wasn't much room for stitching. But I have several lovely new skeins that I'm petting and many othe

Yarngerie is what I call yummy, often luxurious, simply divine, fancy-ass yarn. It's wools (merino, Bluefaced Leicester, Wensleydale, and others), silks whether by itself or in blends, velvet soft cashmere, alpaca, and more. It's rarely acrylics or, if it is an acrylic, it's a blend with only a teensy weensy bit of acrylic or happens to be an amazing color. They are often hand dyed or hand painted, sometimes even one of a kind. The colors are so extraordinary that you don’t

Just recently, I took a beginning photography class. It was very basic and taught us how to better use our DSLR cameras. The teacher asked us to go around, say our names, and what we most liked to photograph. A few people said their kids, one lovely woman said nature and her new grandchild that is due in a few months, another said her miniature horse, and then it got to me. “Hi! I’m Aimée and I like to take pictures of my yarn.” Everyone stopped and the teacher simply sai