giveaway #33

The grand prize winner of the Pipp's Purses giveaway is:

Knittinchick

The four runners up who can each pick a pattern from Pipp's store are:

Angela, TopHat, Alex, & Eva who said, "I've made two felted items. The first was a totally awesome felted pirate hat for my friends 21st birthday. He's convinced he's a pirate. The other was a felted scarf that came out.. well.. not so awesome. But I LOVE the boxy bag pattern and would adore getting to make it."

Congratulations! Please contact me at yarnonthehouse@gmail.com to claim your prizes.

The cooler weather has definitely arrived here in the Seattle area, and I feel like I'm knitting more and more whenever I have a free minute. It's so comforting to hold a set of needles and knit away while the wind and on most occasions rain is having it's fun outside my front door. It's sad to see the sunshine go, but I always welcome more indoor time to knit away merrily.

This week we have indie dyer Tash from Knitsch visiting us. Check out the written interview I did with Tash...

1. Tash, please start by telling us a little bit about yourself and what you do?

I'm a New Zealander living in Wellington, hugely passionate about crafts. I started NZ's first knit graffiti group, OutdoorKnit in 2008, with the main motivation to spread a bit of knitted cheer around the city. Inspired by a spell working at Socktopus in London (home of the lovely Alice Yu of Knit Nation), I decided to come home and start my own hand-dyed yarn company. Conveniently that tied in very well with my grandmother's yarn company, Artisan Lace - Grandma being the well-know lace knitter Margaret Stove.

I also help organise New Zealand's longest running indie craft fair, Craft2.0. So life is never dull, and I am constantly in awe of the amazing crafty talent we have in NZ.

2. You make beautiful hand dyed yarn and sell it on your website. Tell us about the yarn that you sell and the different options.

My personal focus is on sock yarn. I love it's versatility! Knitsch sock is all about bright, unexpected colours that you find in everyday urban life. I wear a lot of black and found hand-dyed sock yarn to be a fabulous way to wear colour without fear.
I also now look after Artisan Lace, a superfine merino lace (2ply) that is spun to the very high standards Margaret demands. In this range again is Gossamer, super-duper fine cobweb yarn for knitting heirloom shawls. Personally the gossamer scares me, but i'm determined to take up the challenge one day!

The sock, lace and gossamer are all 100% New Zealand merino, the highest quality in the world. It really is the most wonderful fibre.

3. When did you start dyeing yarn and how did you get into it?

I started dyeing in about October 2009, so not that long ago really! It was one of things where I decided I was going to do it, and so just started playing. I had lessons from my Aunt, who had previously been dyeing the Artisan Lace brand. Some of the little tricks and tools she came up with to make the process work better for her is some real kiwi ingenuity at work.

4. The colors that you offer are gorgeous. What inspires you?

Everything! Driving around the New Zealand countryside is my biggest inspiration at the moment, as i've been doing a lot of it. I have an obsession with dyeing the perfect green! The knitters in my local knitting group are a wonderful sounding board, but often colours are created by seeing things around the place - for example, Charlie was created after I saw my endpaper mitts made from Silver Lining and Kowhai sitting next to my Haruni shawl made in Beauregarde, and the colour combo took my breath away.

5. What will be next for you? Do you have new colorways or bases in the works that you can share with us?

I'm actually in a wonderful place at the moment where there isn't anything huge going on! Although I am working on turning some of Margaret Stove's patterns into pdfs so that we can sell them through Ravelry and the online shop in time for the release of her new book. There is also something top secret and local i'm working on that i'm extremely excited about but if I told you...well, i'd have to kill you. Or something.

Oh, and I have a shipment of wonderful HazelKnits waiting to be delivered (it's stuck at customs, boo!) so I can share Wendee's gorgeousness with New Zealanders, and I am about to load all my new Knit Pro needles onto the website. Both are things that I knew I had to have in my shop all the way back in London when I first decided to do this. It's wonderful to see the dream become reality.

6. Why do you knit?

Because I love textiles. I adore that I am making fabric from yarn - I love pattern, and texture, and colour. It's also my relaxing time, where I can solve the world's problems in my head and just find that little bit of peace in a hectic world. I'm an entirely selfish knitter - all the patterns I am driven to knit are because I desperately want them for myself!

7. When did you learn to knit and who taught you?

I was taught several times over my childhood by both grandmothers, my mum and each time would put the needles down and forget. A few years ago I was working at a ski field and decided to take it up again, so of course I used the internet to re-teach myself!

8. If you were to knit and live anywhere in the world, where would you knit and live?

Oh, it would have to be somewhere in Scandinavia. I adored Sweden when I had a few days there last year, and i'd also love to spend more time in Scotland. Both, funnily enough, parts of my heritage.

9. What's been your worst knitting or yarn dyeing disaster?

Good question! Hmm, disaster...to be honest I don't think i've ever had a massive one. The great thing about dyeing is that if you mess something up, you can overdye and call it a limited edition - you are guaranteed that someone will fall in love with it!

10. And last but not least, if you were to be drinking a cocktail while reading my blog, what would it be?

A Rosebud. A glass of pink deliciousness. Yum!

Thank you, Tash, for visiting us and sponsoring such a fantastic giveaway for the YOTH followers. Tash was sweet enough to let me keep two skeins of sock yarn she send over to try out. I picked the beautiful color Silver Lining in Knitsch Sock. This yarn is made out of 100% New Zealand superwash merino and has a beautiful and sturdy ply to it. Each skein has 167 meters (which is approximately 182 yards), and it is priced accordingly at about $9-10 USD depending on exchange rate. So, for a pair of socks, you would typically need two of these skeins. I actually appreciate this lower yardage, because I'm able to narrow down and purchase only the yardage that I may actually need for a specific project and it doesn't cost me more!

You know how much I love semi-solids and this Silver Lining color is no exception. It is UH-mazing! The variation in light to medium grays makes this yarn almost sparkle, which makes it's name (Silver Lining) so appropriate. I cast on a shawl project as soon as I had my hot little hands on this yarn. Can you guess what shawl or shawlette I'm knitting?



Now, take a look at the THREE lovely prizes you have a chance to win this week...

Prize #1: Two skeins of Knitsch Sock in the most gorgeous color: Chelsea.



One side is a bright bold royal blue and the other side is this to-die-for variegated purple.



How can you not love this yarn?



Prize #2: Two skeins of Knitsch Sock in a fun blend of bright greens and splashes of purple called: Mystery Machine.



Yummy!



This colorway just makes me smile.



Grand Prize: Three skeins of Artisan NZ Merino Lace Weight & a copy of Margaret Stove's book, Creating Original Hand-knitted Lace.



This lace yarn is so adorably wound and packaged!



Don't you just want to squish it?!



I would like you to do the following if you would like to be entered into this week's giveaway:


1. Read over the rules if you have not done so already.

2. Leave a comment on this blog post by the end of Sunday, 9/19/10. I'm at a loss this week on what you should comment about. So, let's do an oldie but goodie: What's on your needles currently? Or, you can just say "Hi" as usual!

I'll randomly pick the winners on Sunday and post the results on Monday along with the new giveaway, so be sure to check back. Good luck everyone.

Sincerely,

Ve