quiet

It's been awfully quiet on the blog-front, and I appologize. We've been keeping busy here at the warehouse with loads of little projects like changing our booth spaces for trade shows with the wonderful flowers we've made with lots of help from our wonderful knitters and crochet-ers, we've been chatting with designers and drawing up new designs (there's a great Highlander hoodie on the way as well as a fun hat- since the hat is my design, I'm a little biased but I think it's pretty cool). We are working with a really talented crochet designer to come up with some fun new garments and from what I've seen, I'm really loving her work.

Jacks and Crunch the warehouse cats continue to sleep in awkward places like the top of my keyboard and in the boxes I'm trying to pack. With the cooler weather coming in, they've been extra cuddly, but I'm not complaining.

We have started hosting a knit-night (crochet-ers are welcome to, knit-night just has a nice ring to it) at the warehouse at 6 pm on the first Wednesday of every month. If you're in the Indianapolis area and would like to stop by, email me at paige@alpacawithatwist.com. Next meeting is on January 4th, and all crafts and skill levels are welcome. This isn't an AWAT-specific group, any yarn you bring is just fine. The warehouse cats come and hang out with us, but they're all thumbs when it comes to knitting.

That's about all for us- Happy Holidays and have a great day!

A sneak preview

Since I love our readers and think the world of you guys and gals, I thought I'd give you guys a sneak preview of some patterns that are in the works (not done yet, but we'll let you know when they are!). We'd love to know what you think- so leave us a message in the comments below!

* A big thanks to Don at XOInd Studios for the fabulous images and cutting out my messy hair in the white dress/black shawl picture, and to our model Rachel who makes holding the same pose for an hour look so easy.

It's a bird! It's a plane! Oh snap- it's Kettle-dyed Fino and Socrates!

For everyone who came out to see Jennifer at Stitches East a couple weeks ago, a huge thank you! For those who didn't- that's okay. She brought back some of the kettle-dyed Fino and Socrates she had made up for Stitches!

Here's a few quick shots of the dreamy new colors done by dyer Pat from Yarn Daze.See something you need? Ask for it as your local AWAT retailer or drop me a note at paige@alpacawithatwist.com so I can help you get your alpaca fix.

Enjoy and have a wonderful Halloween weekend! This is quite possibly my new favorite blue ever. It's been whispering sweet nothings to me since we met on Tuesday. I'm not normally a pink person, but this pink and purple blend is so dreamy, it makes me want to fill up a swimming pool with it and dive off the deep end.

For your inner Chocoholic-Sockoholic

mmmm.....Fino....

Some people call this "granny smith". I call it "my new tablecloth"

You can almost smell the lilacs! Actually, our dyer is also a soap maker, so I'm pretty sure this one does smell like lilac soap.

Isn't this great? It's like Salmon and red made a yarn baby.

New Fino Colors

Bright and early Wednesday morning, I went out to the warehouse and saw a bunch of very large boxes. It was my old friend, Fino, and she brought 5 new friends with her! I am thrilled to introduce to you Camel, Aster, Foxglove, Paprika, and Wintergreen.

I also took a few quick pictures (I said quick, not good) of the new colors with some of the old colors in the same family so you can see how the new ones compare to your favorites. You might even have a new favorite- I know I do (I'm talking to you, Aster baby).

From left to right: Rose Petal, Foxglove (new) and Royal VelvetFrom top to bottom: Duchess Blue, Aster (new) and Twilight. The color shown in the first picture is more true to the blue.
From left to right: Evergreen, Wintergreen (new) and Sea Glass.
From top to bottom: Coral Gables, Paprika (new) and Ruby Slippers.

Mojito Mitten Knit-Along!

Hey there Alpaca Lovers! After my last post I got to thinking...and I think that you should join me on our big October Mitten Knit-along! We will be knitting our mittens out of Alpaca With A Twist Mojito, naturally in the color of your choosing. You will need 2 hanks for mittens, but you could probably squeeze a pair of fingerless mitts out of 1 hank. We will be knitting-along all of October, but you can go at your pace. If you post your pictures/thoughts/tips with us on the Ravelry group or facebook page, you'll be eligible to win prizes! Or if you'd like to send your pictures to me at paige@alpacawithatwist.com, I'd be happy to share them on the blog too.

I am writing up the pattern over the next day or two and will be happy to share if you'd like to join me in this knit-along. Or if you crochet and find a crochet pattern that you'd like to make with us, we'd love to have you too!

Here are the first pictures, more to come with the pattern!

Congratulations to Jan!

Congratulations to Jan who won a Blue Ribbon at the Durham Agricultural Fair yesterday with her shawl made from Fino!Thank you so much for sharing your project with us!

Fall is Here!

You know those people who get really really excited over the arrival of Autumn? You guessed it- I'm one of them. There's nothing I love more than my yearly tradition of putting on my Norah Jones CD and enjoying my first hot cider of the year while pouring over my pattern books and stashed yarns to find the perfect fall project. And thanks to yesterday's cold that stopped me from leaving the house, my knitting bag is stocked with some lovely deep red alpaca yarn and a cardigan pattern I've been drooling over for months. Now I just need to finish a few little projects first (like my Spring Socks and last year's Holiday ornaments) before I can wind those little hanks into balls and start knitting.

So here's my plan. I'm going to finish my previously mentioned projects and start my lovely deep red cardigan with the goal of wearing it on Thanksgiving. And then I'm going to share it with you guys. But this time I want you guys to share back with me. I would love to get some fiber crafters involved and show me your fall projects! I keep dreaming of a little fall collage of everyone's beautiful knitting and crocheting and weaving (and whatever else you like to do with yarn). So if you wonderful readers have the time, I would love for you to send pictures of your favorite Alpaca With A Twist fall projects to me at paige@alpacawithatwist.com with a little bit about yourself/your project. Include as much or as little as you like- but your first name, what you're making, yarn or pattern you're using and where in the world your project is happening would be wonderful to know! I would love to cover our blog and/or facebook page with our wonderful projects, so get those needles and hooks movin' and flash me your new fall projects.

This would be a really great thing if we could get some beautiful projects posted so that we can share our fiber-triumphs and tips and maybe get a few people to branch out and try something new! Thanks, have a great day, and I can't wait to see your fall projects.

Single Skeins: Highlander

Hello and welcome to Single Skeins- an online matching service that specializes fiber crafters to the alpaca yarn or alpaca blend of their dreams! Today's featured beauty is....

Highlander!

Name: Highlander

Color: Hawthorne Pink

Sign: Libra

Yardage: 145

Story:

"I'm just your typical outdoorsy lass looking for that special fiber crafter to bring out the best in me!"

Perfect Match:

"I'm a very easy to please yarn that works in all sorts of projects. I'm looking for someone who is fearless and loves working with ruggedly adorable yarns like me! :p I work up best on 7's to 10's for you knitters out there and am a snuggly blend that makes everything from sweet sweaters to awesome accesories!"

Perfect Date:

"While I come in some girly colors, I'm no girly-girl! Take me hiking, camping or rock climbing. I also love a good road trip and any adventure is good enough for me!"

Movies/Music/Books

"Braveheart is the best movie ever. Hands down. End of story. I love pretty much everything on the Discovery Channel and am totally hooked on "The Deadliest Catch". I love reading anything by Sir Walter Scott and I love Scottish and Irish pop and punk music like Snow Patrol, Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphies, and the Coors. And I might have an Enya CD or you. You know- for chill time."

Anything else?

"I can do a great Sean Connery impression and make a mean Shepherd's pie!"

We need knitters (again)!

Hey there fiber crafters! We are doing another group project and need a couple knitters or crocheters to help us out making flowers! If you are interested, please e-mail me at paige@alpacawithatwist.com. Please include your address, what sort of time commitment you'd like to work with, and a couple pictures of your recent work. If you are on Ravelry and would like to include your username so we can see your creations, that works too!

Pictures I Thought I'd Share

The horses and jockeys at Thoroughbred Park in Lexington, KY were "tagged" with a little bit of knitting this spring. Pretty cool to see. Only thing to make it better would have been yarn from Alpaca With A Twist.

The cats here in the warehouse are always good for a few laughs. Have you ever seen a two headed cat? Also Jacks really wants our friends at Lantern Moon to come up with a cat bag. He and Crunch both like my bag even when it is full of my stuff.

Raspberry Gelato

I adore summer knitting. Yes, the big bulky sweaters of winter are a wonderful thing, but I love sitting on the back porch with a glass of wine and a light little project with a fun frilly pattern as I watch the sun set. I love little lacy pieces and embroidery projects while I catch a few rays, but for the most part summer is for socks.

Which is why we're introducing a new limited-edition color of sock yarn that we are currently dyeing in the warehouse. Would you please put your needles together for Raspberry Gelato Socrates?

Raspberry Gelato is our hand-dyed homage to flip flops, ice cream, and summer berries. Knit some summer with us- this yarn won't last forever!

* for those unfamiliar, Socrates is a blend of Baby Alpaca (30%) Merino (30%) Bamboo (20%) and Nylon (20%). It is 100g and 400 yards.

Got 'em!

Thank you to all of the wonderful fiber crafters that emailed me wanting to help out with our projects for TNNA! We've got all the knitters we need but will keep your e-mails for future projects!

Thank you so much for your interest- stay tuned for project pictures!

We need knitters!

Hey there readers! Do you love alpaca? Do you love knitting? Do you like money? How would you like to get paid to knit squares for us? We will be showcasing some of our wonderful colors of Baby Twist at TNNA in June, but we don't have time to knit all that we want to! So I'm coming up with my dream-team of knitters- I need 5 to 6 people to help make squares (only one or two each- and they're not that big)

We supply the yarn. We supply the pattern. We provide a pre-paid envelope to return your squares. Please e-mail me at paige@alpacawithatwist.com if you're interested in making a little money for some knitting!

***If you're on Ravelry, please include your username. If you aren't, it would be really nice to see pictures of something you've made so an appropriate pattern can be assigned!

Look! More colors!

We've had a busy couple weeks here at Alpaca With A Twist and I thought I'd take a few minutes to show you something new and exciting! Last year we introduced Touchdown, a wool/alpaca/bamboo blend in blue and white that we were selling to make Superbowl Scarves for the Indianapolis Superbowl next year. We've had lots of people say some really nice things about our Superbowl yarn so we've decided to add more colors to the lineup and make it a first string yarn (there I go trying to go all sporty with you- sorry about that!).

So here's a sneak peak of some of the colors that will be available this summer! (Aren't they pretty? I can see a few hats in my team colors coming up for this fall!)

Come chat with us!

We're on facebook! Come hang out with us and chat- we'd love to hear what you have to say!

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=60363920943&v=wall

Join our group for the most up-to-date news including new colors, big shipments, fun new patterns, and get in on the discussions. See you there!

The thing about numbers....

In the past year we've introduced new yarns, new colors, new fibers, new everything. We added to our line of Baby Twist by taking some of our favorite colors from Punch, a discontinued yarn and then added another color called Pucker Up- a brilliant bright green that was actually named from a competition on this blog. But for those on the production side of Alpaca With A Twist, Pucker Up was first called dip-dyeVR8something-or-other-I-can't-remember, and it later became Baby Twist color 4017, which is much easier.

The thing about assigning colors to numbers is....we already had a 4017 in Socrates, which we must have spaced at some point. So naturally we were a little surprised to see that our order of Baby Twist 4017 had come in....not bright green.

And so- for a limited time only, we are offering Baby Twist in Macaw, my favorite Socrates color ever (I think this was the best mistake ever and I'm very excited for my Macaw sweater that will be happening soon). If you like our Cotton Candy color (1003) then you'll love this color! If you like green you'll love this color! If you love heathered colors, you'll love this color! It's just a really great color, okay?

Here it is with Cotton Candy Baby Twist (the closest color) and Macaw Socrates. I hope you love it as much as I do!

Welcomes and Farewells

One of the things that I love about the fiber industry is finding out what's new- new to my yarn shop, new patterns, fancy new buttons and beads, and my very favorite- new colors and new yarns.


But sometimes to embrace the new, you have to let go of the old. Due to a dramatic increase in the cost of silk and added painting fees from our mill, we are saying farewell to our line of handpainted Fino. It will always hold a special place in my yarn-heart (especially you, Starry Night) but it's time to say goodbye. We only have these three colors remaining, but not a whole lot of them, so if you'd like to help us say our farewells by grabbing some for yourself then give us a call.But sometimes goodbye is a good thing. Sometimes goodbye is merely opening up shelf space to bring in new colors. So today I introduce to you the new members of the Fino family (from left to right) Aster, Camel, Foxglove, Wintergreen, and Paprika. They're not here yet, but they're coming. And they're pretty.

Want to be Super-Involved?

Good day fiber crafters! It's that time of the month again- where we all brave the elements and get our knit/crochet/weave on at the Creation Cafe to work towards those 8,000 Superbowl Scarves!

Can't make it on Wednesday? That's fine- there's 2 other Super-events happening around town so you can jump in on the fun!

Wednesday, February 16:
Super Scarf knitting at the Creation Cafe from 6-9 pm.
337 West 11th Street, Indianapolis

Thursday, February 17:
Free class at Mass Ave Knit Shop! Bring in (or buy there) some white and blue yarn and your needles for a free class on how to make argyle scarves! (I might have to sneak in on this one- Argyle scares me!) 5-8 pm. 862 Virginia Avenue, Indianapolis (Fountain Square area for those not familiar)

Saturday, February 26:
Craft-along at Mass Ave Knit Shop! No classes this time, just fiber-fun and snacks for people who would like to get their scarf on with other fiber crafters. Noon-3pm.

Hope to see you there!

Happy Valentines Day from Jacks the Warehouse Cat

Jacks would like for me to wish you all a very happy Valentine's Day full of chocolates, yarn, and cuddles.

Wondering Where We Are, Blame In On the ICE!

Everyone knew before me that a storm was coming. I really must have been living in my own world this past weekend because I missed all the hype. Monday came and I was reminded it might be the last time I was in the warehouse for a couple of days so I needed to have everything packed. UPS comes and I have only started, but never fear my UPS guy is the best and he comes back an hour later. I still wasn't finished packing but that was OK I would just take the rest of the boxes with me. It was 5:15 and so far no rain/sleet/ice. Well I finished packing and was ready to start thinking about going home at 6:30. I go out to move my car to the dock and it was covered in ice. I backed up to the dock using an open door and loaded the car to sit for 30 minutes so I could drive home and actually see.

Move forward to Thursday after two days at home and a brief visit to the warehouse on Wednesday. Which I find out in no way shape or form could I ask anyone to come to work there as the stairs, dock, and parking lot were nothing short of an ice rink. On Thursday with the help of some guys my sister grabbed from the gas station the warehouse was less of a hazard or so I thought. My goal on Thursday was to start getting caught up. Not only have we had ice but Paige has been sick and she keeps everything at the warehouse moving so we are really behind. I start to get work done and run upstairs where the restroom is to hear water coming in. Not too big of a deal as leaks have been chased all fall and winter with a new roof. An hour later I run back upstairs to find not 1 but 20 or more leaks and it is time to call the land lord. Only the land lord is my sister and in my family when 1 sister has a problem both sisters have a problem. I spend the next hour placing containers under the drips (what is it called when the drips all run together?).

So the next time an ice storm comes and people are worried about losing electricity (which never happened) I'm going to be worried about all of the flat roofs that are covered with ice and leak when the ice starts to thaw and all of that water has to have someplace to go. What a mess. I did see the roof of the warehouse and it would have been the most wonderful skating rink. It was beautifully smooth and a nice big open space. I also have to say my sister texted me to tell her she had a roof leak at home at the exact same time I was calling her to tell her about the multiple roof leaks at the warehouse.

Spring where are you?

Super-Knitters!

Last night was Super-Scarf knitting at the Creation Cafe and a great time was had by all! (At least I think so- I had a great time and I didn't see anyone sulking into their scarves so I'm declaring last night's event a success)

There were fiber crafters of all ages and skill levels and I kept bouncing back and forth between a couple different tables but did manage to sneak in a couple pictures.

And I feel like I need to announce this: I'm actually making progress on my scarf! I'm one of those knitters that always has a thousand projects going but rarely ever finishes one, so this is a big deal for me! It's out of Touchdown (naturally) and I'm super-proud of my super-scarf! And if you would like to send me a picture of YOUR super-scarf made out of Touchdown, I'd love to do a blog entry of all of your wonderful creations! Just send me a picture at paige@alpacawithatwist.com and I'll make it happen!

Sip and Knit for Super Scarves

It looks like everyone had so much fun at the last Sip n' Knit, we're going to do it again!

There will be a group knitting Superbowl Scarves on Wednesday, January 19th at the Creation Cafe (337 West 11th Street, Indianapolis 46202) from 6-9 pm.

Kits with yarn and needles will be available for $15, and knitters/crocheters of all ages and skill levels are most welcome! I'm told there will also be food and drink specials for Super Scarf crafters.

*It looks like we will be doing this the third Wednesday of every month until November of this year. I'll try to keep posting these reminders a few days before the meet-up. Hope to see you there and happy crafting!

We're so Vogue...

So you may have already seen it...but we're so excited we're going to show you anyway!

We made the cover of Vogue Knitting!

*Vogue Knitting Winter 2010/2011, photo by Rose Callahan
Designer: Deborah Newton
Alpaca With A Twist Highlander, 3 skeins, Color used: Birch

While the hat does look really awesome in Birch (color 96), why not try making it really your own? We've got some really fun light colors in Highlander that would be sure to showcase the pattern really well while making it your own. I'll be making mine in Wild Pansy, a really pale purple...

(left to right- Lichen, Hawthorne Pink, Wild Pansy (my favorite!) Sandy Beach, Primrose Yellow and Skye Blue)
And if you're making one of the hats from Vogue, we'd love to see it! Send us your pictures at info@alpacawithatwist.com or post them to our Ravelry group to qualify for some awesome prizes. Happy Knitting and have a great day!

Off to TNNA!

Hey there awesome readers! We have been super-busy getting ready for TNNA and now it's here! Jennifer will be doing the show thing all week, but don't worry! I'm still here with my posse to answer any questions and take/get orders out! So whether you're in sunny Long Beach at TNNA or if you're minding the homefront to make sure nothing crazy happens, have a great day!

"Alpaca With A Twist, this is Captain Crunch! How can I help you?"