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A bouquet is nice and all, but let’s be real — if you’re reading this, you’d probably rather have yarn! I mean, I knew my husband was a keeper for sure because he got me yarn for our first Valentine’s Day together.

Right after I had finalized my winter colors for 2019, I was playing around with some skeins of Rock Star XL and a new dyeing technique I was developing. The technique came out better than I expected, and I decided to play with it some more. The skeins that resulted from that initial experiment were marked as One Night Onlys and sold almost immediately. I kept looking at their listing photo, though, and musing about how well this color would fit in with the Winter Wonderland colors…

Six colors for a season seemed like a lot, but I really loved it. I couldn’t get it out of my head. When I finally gave in and picked a name for it, it seemed obvious: it would be for Valentine’s Day! (OK, maybe it wasn’t that obvious. It was the aforementioned husband’s idea. But we’re married now, I’m allowed to take credit for his ideas. That’s how it works, right?)

“Every Rose Has Its Thorn” isn’t really your typical Valentine’s Day song. Which is good because I’m not a huge fan of V-Day. It’s a song that’s dramatic and highly colored and about hurt and pain and loss. Which are things we all experience at some point. With it’s contrasting tones of cool silver grey, warm dark pinks and occasional splashes of rich blues and purples, it seemed to echo the singer’s feelings about the duality of love. It seemed like a great fit for this color, to me, and I hope you’ll agree.

This color is now available on several bases, including Boogie Woogie, Rock Star Sport, Rock Star DK, Rock Star, Rock Star XL and Motown!

Hello all! I hope this year finds you well so far. For me, I find I never really feel the year has started until Vogue Knitting Live in NYC is over; it’s later than usual this year and it’s weird for me!

Vogue Knitting Live New York is a really special show for me. I had honestly never heard of Vogue Knitting Live before I was approached to participate in the 2015 VKL NYC. I had never done a show like this before and I was nervous as anything, but I decided to roll the dice and see what it was like. MollyGirl was still more a hobby than anything else at the time, but I thought it could one day be more and this seemed like a good way to find out. It was a defining weekend for me; it was the weekend I met so many of the people who influenced what my business would become and many of whom I still work with today. IU’s own Lisa is among that number, as is my good friend Xandy Peters, Rachel Maurer of Woolyn and Marsha from One Geek To Craft Them All. It seems like a natural thing then that I should make a post leading up to my fifth VKL NYC here, since this show in particular for me is a celebration of all those friendships I made that first weekend.

This year I am really excited a part of the MEGABOOTH, a collaboration between myself, Woolyn, One Geek To Craft Them All, Yarn Over New York and Wee Ones Creations. We’ve got one huge space and so much cool stuff between the five of us that the fifth floor won’t know what hit it! The highlight of this collaboration will be the release of a new pattern called City Windows by Rachel Maurer. It features one skein of my very own Rock Star yarn as well as a skein from Yarn Over New York. I assembled the kits myself last night and they look so cool! I can’t wait to share them all with you in person.

As usual, I will have some new yarns at VKL and this year I’ve got two new ones to share! Boogie Woogie is my new fingering weight yarn that comes to me direct from Italy. I have been itching to work with this supplier for some time, and when I got a sample of this yarn from them I knew it was the one! It’s 85% Italian Superwash Merino and 15% nylon, with about 435 yards in each skein. It’s insanely soft and my sample knitters have been raving about it. I’ve dyed a bunch of it in a huge range of colors, from newbies to MollyGirl classics so there will be something for absolutely everyone there!

The second new yarn is the most recent addition my Rock Star line: Rock Star Sport! Sportweight is becoming increasingly popular among designers, and I’m thrilled to have added this one! Made from the same American Superwash Merino and 100% processed in the USA, our Rock Star yarns now range from sportweight to bulky and all of them will be making an appearance at Vogue alongside the newcomer! It’s absolutely perfect for sweaters; light enough to layer but heavy enough to wear straight through to the spring to ward off chilly rainy weather. It too has been dyed in a huge range of colors and will be available for squishing and snuggling all weekend long.

I will also be taking signups for Volume II of our Spotlight club at Vogue, so if you haven’t snagged your spot yet now is the time! The name of this Volume is My New Project, and it’s all about the smash hit musical Wicked! I have all five colors planned out and I’m really, really excited about them. I’m also madly in love with the artwork (which will also be the enamel pin that goes with this Volume!) that graphic designer and fellow yarnie Aaron Wood came up with. I met him this year at New York Comic Con and I knew right away he was someone I’d love to work with going forward. I promptly lost his card (as I am wont to do) but was able to track him down through Ravelry! What would we do without it? You can sign up online through January 31 or in-person all weekend long at Vogue, but, fair warning, space is limited!

Finally, Vogue will see the release of a whole new set of fun enamel pins featuring art by Xandy Peters! I never would have thought when we met five years ago in my booth in the way back corner of the fifth floor that we’d still be working together, let alone that we’d have become such good friends. We were both exhausted, awkward and slightly intimidated by one another, and I think she wound up talking to my mom longer than she talked to me. Now we get to work together on so many awesome projects and I am ever grateful for her continuing friendship. Our latest collaboration is these new pins, including some new designs and new spins on some classics, and they’ll be available in person at Vogue.

Right now on Facebook everyone is doing that “my first profile picture vs. my current profile picture.” I think I’ll have to do that for my first Vogue vs. this one. I think part of the reason this show is so central to my year is that it wasn’t just at the beginning of the year. It was very much the birth of MollyGirl as you know it now. MG was already almost 2 when I did that show back in 2015, but it was the most inspiring weekend I’d ever experienced. I remember not being able to sleep for several nights afterwards, even though I was completely drained, because I had so many ideas spiraling around in my head and I didn’t want to miss a single one. I can’t believe it’s been five years, but I also can’t believe it’s been ONLY five years. I can’t wait to see all my old friends and meet plenty of new ones this year, and I hope to see y’all there!!

(Can’t make it this weekend? Don’t worry, everything shown here will be available online Monday, January 28!)

Hi Untangled friends! I’m hoping you’re filled with Summer Lovin’, ready to do the Handjive, and fly off into the sunset in Greased Lightin’… Sign-ups for our new club, Spotlight, are finally open! Volume I is all about the classic coming-of-age musical, Grease!

The concept behind the club is that we’ll feature a different musical or musician in every Volume. Participants will get five months of colorways celebrating the best songs from some of your favorite artists, shows… and perhaps other forms of media? (Can anyone say an “Ocarina of Time” Volume? I may or may not already have all of those colors planned… Perhaps…) It gives me a chance to really explore some of these timeless classics and idols in a yarnful way and perhaps expose you yarnies to new music that wasn’t on your radar before. It also gives me the chance to do one of my favorite things and create fun new colors with abandon… and gives you the chance to get your hands on what will almost certainly be unrepeatable colors! Needless to say, I am really, REALLY stoked about this club.

When I came up with the idea for this club, it was a natural segue for me to jump to Grease as my first Volume. A lot of people don’t really know this about me, but I used to be really active with my local community theatre when I was young. Grease is the first musical I was ever in; it was a kids/teens-only production my theatre company did over a summer. Predictably, it was pretty terrible. But it was a gateway for me into something I never thought I could do. Being involved in that show changed my entire life, changed who I was at a very pivotal point for me, and it’s something I wouldn’t change for the world. So yes, I did wear an actual poodle skirt, I do know all of the words to Summer Lovin’, and I can handjive with the best of them — something I can say with a strange sense of pride. In a way, this sort of brings it full circle for me because I think this club can really be something amazing, too!

In the club, you’ll get one shipment per month starting in September. Each shipment will include yarn in a brand new, never-before-seen (and probably never-to-be-seen-again!) colorway. Each participant will also get a special club-exclusive enamel pin! This Volume’s pin was designed by my dear friend, Xandy Peters, and is just ridiculously cute.

What yarns and what weights you get are up to you! You can pick from one of three options: Bass Line, Rock Star DK or Rock Star. You’ll get the same number of skeins every month in the same yarn every month. This makes it easy to plan project sets or large projects! Want to do a set of socks for a Grease-loving friend? Hats for your Pink Ladies? The ultimate Rydell Fadient — can you say “We Go Together?” Whichever you choose will be amazing and I can’t wait to see what you do with them!

Space is strictly limited, so don’t wait too long! Sandy was no stranger to heartbreak – but you can avoid her fate by signing up early! You can pay all at once or in monthly installments: either way, it’s peachy keen, jellybean. More in-depth information can be found on the listing page. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.

Hello Indie Untangled! This is Angela from MollyGirl Yarn! This is my first post, and I’m making it a good one by announcing something I’ve been wanting to do for years! MollyGirl is having a Name The Color Contest! Entering is easy – there are two simple steps:

• Go here to fill out a quick form.
• If you haven’t already, join the MollyGirl Fan Club group on Ravelry!

There is a quick survey attached to the entry form, but you aren’t required to fill it out if you don’t want to. There’s SO MUCH new stuff coming for MollyGirl in the next few months, and I want to make sure you keep loving what we’re doing, so anything you decide to write will be helpful!

What do you get for winning? Swag. Lots of swag. And also bragging rights. Specifically? The winner will receive one skein of this color on their base of choice (maybe even spinning fiber!) AND a surprise grab bag to go with it! Which, let’s face it, will almost certainly include more yarn =D

So don’t wait! Enter now through midnight EST on 5/15! I’m not sure yet if I’ll pick a winner myself or put it to a public vote, but make sure to follow us on Instagram, our email list, or keep your eye on the Fan Club to keep up-to-date with the contest proceedings! This will be a part of our second round of spring colors (there are three new ones waiting in the wings!) and so once the winner is determined all of those will be announced together in various locations, including Indie Untangled, of course!

That’s it! I can’t wait to see what you come up with!