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The Rochester Lilac Festival is a 125-year-old tradition that celebrates the city’s beautiful lilacs and expansive gardens. The festival takes place every May in Highland Park, designed by famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, and home to one of the largest lilac groves in the world. As a lifelong Rochesterian, I have attended this 10-day festival for as long as I can remember so it seemed necessary to create a collection of color inspired by this treasured event.

The collection features five vibrantly speckled colorways in variegated floral shades of pink, purple, magenta, and green that are intentionally designed to fade together. The colors are inspired by the beautiful lilacs that bloom in Rochester every spring as well as the celebrated landmarks all around the festival site.

The collection will be available this Friday, May 12, so pop some kettle corn and cake up your next project with the Rochester Lilac Festival color collection.

Ever wondered how your skein of yarn was dyed? Join Meg, the yarn dyer for Megs & Co, in her dye lab as she mixes up new colors and explores new fibers and yarn bases. Episode 6 was just posted to her YouTube channel sharing the R&D process of creating a custom colorway exclusively for LYS Day this April. Even more fun, these lab batches are available for purchase! If you see one you like, don’t delay as there are only a few skeins available.

Have a question about yarn dying, or a suggestion for her next episode? Let Meg know in the YouTube comments. You can watch all her yarn dying videos on YouTube @megsandco and shop all her yarn at megsandco.com.

Introducing the new winter color collection from Megs & Co. It’s January and winter is pulling you into her cozy embrace. The days are dark and it seems like all color has left the landscape, but there is a light inside you, burning bright and begging to shine. It’s time to spend some time with yourself to embrace, nurture, and soothe your creativity.

The Light Within is the new color collection from Megs & Co intended to boldly capture the fusion of rest and renewal by pairing a soft neutral background with rich bold colors that seem to glow from within. The collection includes six brand-new semi-tonal colors along with a coordinating 10 color mini skein set.

There is a limited supply ready to ship, and if you are hoping for a custom quantity, you are in luck! Every color is available as a dyed to order with no minimums to ensure that you receive the matched dye lot that you deserve. With colorway names such as “But First Coffee”, “I Can’t Hear You Over My Book”, and “Out Buying Plants” you can’t help but feel cozy and content as you tune out the chaos and embrace your passions.

I’ve put together a brand new 10-color mini skein collection featuring a palette of soothing yet vibrant semi-tonal colorways inspired by the January winter landscape. December and the holiday season is about giving to others, but January is for giving back to yourself. The days are dark and the weather is quickly turning colder. You begin to feel the gentle pull towards quiet and cozy things and with a suddenly wide open schedule, it’s your time to nurture your creativity and embrace the magical stillness of January. There is magic in the air when you look for it. You can see it glowing between the skeleton arms of the trees as they dance in the wind and in the alluring reflections of the snow covered landscape. There is a light within you, waiting to be nourished and there is no time like the present!

Each mini skein offers ~90 yards/20 grams for a kit total of 900 yards of fingering-weight yarn.

It is time to get pampered in softness and elegance with the newest Megs & Co yarn, BFL Lux Fingering.

Over the past year I have been endlessly testing new yarns searching for the perfect luxury yarn to add to the Megs & Co collection. The yarn had to be more than just a blend of luxury quality fibers. It had to be a functional choice for both garments and accessories as well as appropriate for both knit and crochet projects. I did not want something that was just going to languish away in people’s stashes, but rather one that could easily be substituted in a multitude of patterns that call for fingering weight yarn. Bluefaced Leicester Lux Fingering, or BFL Lux for short, fits all that criteria and so much more with a blend of 70% Certified English Bluefaced Leicester Superwash wool, 20% silk, and 10% Cashmere.

What exactly makes BFL Lux so special?

First breed in the late 1800s, the Bluefaced Leicester sheep are the English answer to the highly desired Spanish Merinos, and having undergone years of selective breeding they now boast to not only have the finest fleeces of all the Leicester breeds, but the softest fleece of all the longwool breeds. The long and relatively straight staple length of the fiber creates a yarn with plenty of drape and a silk like lustrous sheen paired with incredible strength and next to skin softness. The addition of silk brings even more shine, strength and drape to the yarn and the cashmere lends unparalleled softness and warmth with a slight halo.

I am currently working on the Ranunculus sweater, a knit design by Midori using BFL Lux in the colorway Beach Water. The yarn and the design work perfectly together to create a very wearable garment with elegant drape thanks to the silk and surprising warmth from the cashmere. Since we are heading into warm weather season here in Western NY, I chose to knit the short sleeve version and even though I am not quite finished, I am confident that I am only going to need 2 skeins of BFL Lux to make the entire garment. Yes, just 2 skeins to knit an entire sweater thanks to the lace yoke design and flowy nature of the fabric from using larger size needles. I plan on making this short-sleeved jumper a staple in my summer wardrobe as it is perfect for throwing over a tank top on cooler evenings or when passing through air-conditioned indoor spaces. The pattern is fast and very enjoyable to knit. So much so that I have already set aside yarn to make a second!

When I first began dying yarn and fiber it was the need to play with color that immediately drew me in. That desire to explore new palettes and color combinations continues to drive my design process from beyond the dye pans and onto the needles. That is why mini skeins hold a special place in my heart as they are the perfect way to add a splash of color and whimsey to just about any project.

There are currently a few options available. The Hope & A Future mini skein set was originally inspired by a collaboration with Isabella Tonski of Fiber & Fox and features a bold rainbow of bright jewel toned colors that she picked out herself to design her Hope & A Future crochet shawl (available now!). The Home is Where the Heart is mini skein set features bold speckles on soft muted backgrounds creating the perfect spring fade. This set also includes many of the fan favorites from the Roc Love color collection I started last year as an ode of sorts to my home city of Rochester, NY.