My name is Lauren and I have a problem...

Hello friends!

Long time no see, eh?! It's been a fun end of the school year here at the lemknitcrochet household. Summer is finally here and that means tons of time to knit again! However, let me begin this blog post with a confession. My name is Lauren and I have a problem...

Uh oh...

...a weaving-in-all-the-ends-so-my-socks-are-finished problem. Look at them! Look how pretty they are! But it's hot out and I know I can't wear them, and so the problem continues. I'll get to it eventually right?!

I've "finished" all these pairs of vanilla socks in the past few months. The green pair to the far left is Desert Vista Dyeworks Viso base in the Zombody Go Braugh colorway. The purple/blue pair to the top right is Fibernymph Dye Works Bedazzled base in the Ice Palace colorway. The bright, rainbow-y awesomeness on the bottom is White Birch Fiber Arts 80/20 base in the Nothing Says Screw You Like a Rainbow! colorway. Can I also add that these are my FAVORITE bases from these dyers?! Viso is strong and soft, Bedazzled is squishy and SPARKLY, and the 80/20 is the only 80/20 I've ever LOVED (soft and squishy like BUTTER!).

Now that we've got that out of the way (whew!), let me share with you my little haul from the Yellow Rose Fiber Festival in Seguin, Texas. It began the day after school let out for summer (how convenient!) so I drove over with my friend Lori from work. It was a small venue but had a lot of pretties. I ended up picking these beauties below, but man was it hard to pick!

My Yellow Rose haul

I decided I wanted to buy from Texas dyers only this year. To the left is a beautiful skein from a San Antonio dyer, Heavenly Fiber. The colorway is named Fairy Stories and it's even more beautiful in person! It's on her sparkly base and SUPER squishy. The dyer was very nice and I plan to definitely buy more from her in the future. To the right is an awesome skein from Little Monkey's Stitch & Spin. It's a sparkly gradient and I can't wait to find something special to knit with it.

A little over a week ago, I visited New York, New York! My sister is moving there for an internship, so the whole family went up to get her settled and see the sites. We had fun, and did all the tourist-y things we could fit in. I'm glad I got to go, but I am also happy to be back in Texas with TREES and CLEAN AIR and SPACE! Ha!

Times Square!

Fortunately for me, I was able to make it to a LYS, just off of Madison Avenue before we left. The store was a little shop on the second story of a little building, we even had to be buzzed and let in! The shop is called String and had lots of very upscale yarn. They dye their own special yarn there, and even have their own special brand of cashmere Koigu sold only in their shop! I ended up choosing a lovely 50/50 silk/cashmere skein so that I can finally knit a little pair of ear warmers. It's so soft and squishy!

String yarn haul

 For my trip to New York, I decided to stash dive and CO a pair of vanilla socks from KirbyWirby Yarns on her Honey BFL base in the Don Draper is a Pimp colorway. I'm not usually a fan of BFL but this base is strong without being stiff, it's fantastic! While knitting on them I decided I wanted to try something new and so I knit my first Fish Lips Kiss heel.

New York socks with a Fish Lips Kiss heel

Now, I have to admit something. When I knit the heel, I thought it was uuuuuuuugly! It was easy and fun to knit, but it was tiny and looked awkward. AND, the stripes didn't match correctly so I had to cut my yarn and add in the correct striping color (you know how matchy matchy I am!). However, once I knit a little length, I tried the heel on and...

Fish Lips Kiss heel

 ...it's magical! It looks amazing!! So while at first I thought "WHAT HAVE I DONE?!", I am now very pleased with this heel and see doing it again soon. It was quick and easy to memorize the pattern and turned out looking great. The only thing that still bothers me is that it didn't matchy-matchy up with my next stripe, but I'm sure I can figure out how to make it work a little better whenever I knit my next FLK heel.

That's about all for now, but I have to leave you with a little teaser. Now that it is summer, I have time to design again! I was contacted by MariGayle of Spartickes Dyes months ago and asked to join in and design a pattern for her Holiday Club. We put our heads together and decide to dye/design based on the holiday of Teddy Bear Picnic Day in July! The pattern will be exclusive to club members throughout July (my club month) and then it will be released to the general public in August. I can't wait to share what I've come up with, this is a new favorite for me. The club colorways (yes 's', there's TWO!!) are perfect and I can't wait to share how they look all knit up. For now, I leave you with a teaser in a non-club colorway, still in black and white so it will be a surprise!

Teaser, teaser!

I'll be back soon (I promise!) with a full pattern reveal and more chatter. Hope you are all enjoying your summers!

Hugs,
Lauren