snow white | Exchanging Fire

I’m really excited to be in the September Phat Fiber Box. I haven’t been able to get samples into the boxes since May (I even missed one of my favorite themes last month) so I was extra determined to make it this time around.
This month’s theme is Grimm’s Fairy Tales – think dark and mysterious forests, old and sacred but creepy at the same time. Think of German fairytales, like Cinderella with the stepsisters getting their eyes picked out, or Sleeping Beauty asleep for 100 years behind dark thorny thickets, the dust settling over her thickly in waves of time. I even watched the Grimm Brothers movie with Heath Ledger, which is set during the French occupation of parts of Germany in the late 18th century. While it is ridiculously fictional, is a great opportunity to immerse yourself in an historical time period that isn’t French or English (Do you notice that? It seems like the only Hollywood blockbuster historical movies that are pre-20th century that are produced are English, French and occasionally Scottish, even though German ancestry is the largest in the US.
Anyways, as you all may know, I have an ongoing Fairy Tales collection of stitch markers in the shop, and naturally I was thrilled to be able to use this theme to inspire me into making more designs. I submitted three of my favorite German-based sets – Snow White, Cinderella and The Frog Prince – and then I created two new sets of stitch markers to add to those three. Meet Sleeping Beauty and Red Riding Hood!

Sleeping Beauty

Red Riding Hood

As usual, the Phat Fiber people put together selection of videos showing off the contents of this month’s boxes, and mine were featured! I’m happy to say that I’ve even figured out how to queue the video to the right moment, so all you’ll need to do is press play to watch Jessie talk about my samples. To see all of the videos, check them out here. Enjoy!

The box goes on sale this weekend at two different times, and it flies off of the shelves like hotcakes. The box comes in a couple of different formats – Stitches (yarn) for the knitters, Fluff (fiber) for the spinners, and Mixed for those who like the effect of both. If you want all of the secret deets, send me a message via email or on Ravelry and I’ll forward you the email notification I received.

Don’t forget, if you purchase anything in my store from September 1 – October 18 you are eligible for the Phat Fiber Superbox Giveaway! The Phat Fiber team will be giving away the contents of the Grimm’s Fairy Tales Superbox, as seen in the preview video, AND s $150 Amazon Gift Certificate to a randomly drawn poster!. To enter, please list any purchases you’ve made from Exchanging Fire in this thread on Ravelry.

Yarn glorious yarn! It’s the end of June and it’s time for another stash peek! It’s been a while so I bet you are all dying to see what I have accumulated lately. Well, let me tell you, I’ve got some real pretties I’m sifting through here. It’s almost hard to pick! Let’s start with the last to arrive first.

As you may know, I went on a little business trip this month and had a blast. I met loads of yarnies and designers, picked up some fun button swag, and squished a good many yarns in inappropriate manners. The best thing, though, far above all, was that I got a green skein of cashmere yarn!!! (Ahem, sorry about the excessive exclamation points. I really love that yarn.) The yarn in question is Mountain Colors Jeannette in Green Apple, and it is truly divine. The DK weight yarn is a blend of cashmere and cultivated silk, and it’s so freaking soft I have no clue how those women over at Mountain Colors dyed it without felting it! Seriously, this stuff is decadent, and I’m so pleased to own some.

The coolest thing about this yarn is how they came up with the name. If you check out the Mountain Colors website, a bunch of their stuff is given nice but sorta basic names like “Weaver’s Wool” and “4/8s Wool.” You get the idea. But this yarn they decided to name after someone specific – a very important woman, in fact. From their Ravelry page:

“We named this yarn after a very important woman in Montana’s state history, Jeannette Rankin. She was the first woman in the country elected to US Congress in 1916, 4 years before women in our nation were given the right to vote. She was very active in the Suffrage Movement and working for women’s rights. She was a peace activist and was the only member of congress to vote again WWI. When we saw how lovely and graceful this cashmere silk was we immediately thought of Jeannette.”

I just think that is so neat. I love having yarn named after someone who made a difference – it just makes it all the more special to me.

Mountain Colors Jeannette in Green Apple

Now, I apologize for repeating myself here, because I know I showed you new Manos yarn I’d gotten last month too, but come on! It’s Manos. And I fell down and found some yarn that is just OMGMUSTHAVE so I actually bought it and paid full price (cue gasps of shock). The yarn is Manos del Uruguay Maxima.

Don’t be fooled by the colorway name here, because this is identical to Wildflowers in Wool Clasica. The only difference is that this is just a merino worsted weight, not an exotic handspun like Wool Clasica is. But when I say “just”, I don’t mean “just”, not really. Because this yarn is GORGEOUS. It’s super soft and squishy and divine with a whopping 218 yards AND it comes in all of your favorite Manos colors! What’s not to love?

Manos del Uruguay Maxima in Meltaway Mint

The third and last yarn to talk to you about this month is sort of exciting for me. I got my first GothSocks! I’m not huge into the stripey black-color-black dyeing craze that is going on right now (nothing personal, just don’t care for big fat stripes), so I’ve never bothered to stalk Rainy Days and Wooly Dogs before. However, earlier this month she had a sneak update that I just happened to be online during, and, intrigued, I fell into her site. And I was hooked. I got myself a wonderfully named Snow White referenced colorway in her Asphodel base called Poisoned Apple. YUM.

Rainy Days & Wooly Dogs Gothling Asphodel in Poisoned Apple

Then the yarn I’ve been dying to acquire, her Absinthe colorway, came up in a destash in the Oleander base, so I got both in the mail at the same time! I’m really thrilled – both are technically Gothlings, which simply means that they are not her stripeys, but I’m totally cool and happy with that. And I love them to pieces. Check it!