As for me, the annual Seattle-to-Portland Yarn Train is this weekend! It's exciting for a number of reasons-- partially because some of my favorite people in the whole world use it as an excuse to fly out to Seattle, and partially because I use it as a vending event and I bring a metric crapton of sock and silk and yknow, sell to people. Also of course the actual event, is kind of a huge part of it.
The Seattle-to-Portland Yarn Train is a yearly event put on by the Snohomish Knitters Guild. 150+ knitters/crocheters/weavers/spinners/fiber artists all get on the same butts early train out of Seattle. We reserve two or three cars just for us, and as you walk up and down the train, it's just row after row after row of yarn people. Once you get there, several of the PDX yarn stores run discounts, trunk shows, special order lots of yarn, etc. My group grabs a couple of hotel rooms and we leave the next afternoon. It's really fantastic. I look forward to it alllllll year! :]
It's 4 (well 3, really, it's 2000, not really any day left) days away, and jeez. I still have a few hanks of silk to dye, and a couple of overdyes in some colors because I wasn't pleased with the first round. Also all of the reskeining, labelling, listing in the shop, etc.
I'm also a bit nervous because I'll be giving my new Sell on Etsy reader a go. The fees are exactly the same as Square and it hooks people into my Etsy shop so they can leave reviews, etc. I'll have my Square Reader with me as a back-up, but hopefully all goes well. I'll write a thorough review of it afterwards.
And of course, I'm also in the midst of a huge order for a local yarn store. And yes, that's a sneaky half-announcement, but you guys will get more details in a while. But assuming all goes well, you'll be able to shop my yarn at a physical retail location in Seattle. <3
But in other news I can talk about-- My new favorite base is now live in the shop-- Tidal Twinkle! It's the best most squooshy comfy blend of 75/20/5 Superwash Merino/Nylon/Stellina. I've already made up a sample with it and it knits up beauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuutifully. And with the new base-- new Sea Shanty gradient kits. 231 yards per 100 gram skein, and the kits are also 100 grams.
Knitting wise this month, I've had a bit of a rough go. I've just come to the conclusion that I need to frog the sweater I wanted to wear to train, because it just doesn't fit quite right. I'll reknit it afterwards. But I did knit that sample up and it came out wonderfully. The pattern is Gefen by Rachel Leggett/@arbortwist and it's fantastically written. If you wanted to knit it in Tidal Twinkle, it works out perfectly with 5 garter ridges on both top and bottom. I knit it with US 5's, you should probably do it with 6's unless you're also a chronically loose knitter like me.
At any rate, I hope to see some of you on train! If not, I'll be taking lots and lots of photos, and I'll be sure to write a thorough postmortem.
<3,
Arianne
