Kristi of Birdie Parker Designs is a self-proclaimed fiber addict with a degree in metalsmithing. She uses cupric nitrate and electricity to electro-etch stitch stockinette and garter stitch patterns (crochet coming soon!) into sterling silver, brass and copper for earrings, necklaces, bracelets and stitch markers. If you’re going to Stitches United at the end of May/beginning of June, she’ll be there booth 709. If not, you can take 15% off your online order through June 30 with the code INDIEINTRO.
Sara of La Cave à Laine has fallen down the rabbit hole of linocut, which uses linoleum instead of rubber. She is now offering Linocut Totes, which feature her original drawings. These 100% cotton totes are limited, so act fast!
I’m not shirting you. Slipped Stitch Studios is debuting artist Cynthia Frenette’s less spicy fabric designs. Preorders open today at 9 a.m. Pacific and run through Monday.
Shanna of Lambstrings Yarn has opened up preorders for kits for Caitlin Hunter’s Navelli tee, with 12 possible color combos.
Eden Cottage Yarns is having an update on Tuesday at 8 p.m. UK time with sparkly yarn to mark Eurovision.
Heather of Sew Happy Jane has a new, limited-edition colorway, Tulips, that will be available in limited quantities in her shop today.
Kate of McMullin Fiber Co. has a gorgeous new colorway inspired by actress Molly Ringwald and she nailed it, with soft peachy pinks and deep auburn oranges.
Jennifer of Spirit Trail Fiberworks is having a Lucky Pot shop update, for which she’s dyed one-of-a-kind, never to be reproduced colorways (so once they’re gone, they’re gone). This installment of both springtime colorways and autumn-y/earthy shades is on her Aurora single-ply fingering-weight Superwash Merino base.
Slipped Stitch Studios is having a Super(hero) Fun shop update that will go live at 9 a.m. Pacific time today. These limited- edition prints are ready to ship.
Selena of Sweater Sisters has kits for her Nantahala shawl, which she says is “inspired by a summer day in the beautiful hardwood forests of the east coast areas of North America,” available on two skeins of WayfaringYarns’ Monaco, a single-ply fingering weight yarn of 100% Extra Fine Merino.
Robin of October House Fiber Arts has also been inspired by spring and has some new spring colorways. There are tonals, speckles and variegated.
All Points South is one of my favorite knits and all-time-favorite FOs, so I was excited to see that Casapinka’s design for LYS Day, Magical Thinking, was a very similar style. It’s a fun knit with varied stitch patterns that keep things interesting, but never too complicated. And I love the fact that I can make another one of these in a similar style, but that I won’t be knitting it all over again. Bronwyn has just kicked off a Magical Thinking KAL in her Ravelry group, so grab those three yarns that just look perfect together and fall in love.
If The Force is strong in you this weekend, then set your alarm for 9 a.m. Pacific today. Slipped Stitch Studios has bags and accessories in four Star Wars-themed fabrics, limited edition Millennium Falcon stitch markers and rare Star Wars Pattern Wallets. These items are limited and ready to ship.
If you’re the plan-ahead type, then you can order your yarny Advent Calendar from Marianated Yarns now to ship in November. Kits include 24 mini skeins in a few different base options, tons of goodies and a custom-dyed full skein.
Aimee of Pancake and Lulu is all about the purples and pale pastels, plus spinners can check out new batts with sparkly Stellina.
Sunshine of My Mama Knits has a variety of one-of-a-kind single batches available in various weights from lace to super chunky.
Lisa The Knitting Artist is having a clearance sale to make room for new bases and colors, with sock and worsted yarn $15 to $18 per skein.
Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival seems to have snuck up on me this year. While I don’t have a stashing plan in mind (which probably means I’ll do more damage than I planned), I’m looking forward to spending time with beloved fiber friends and meeting some of my favorite indie business owners.
To help you plan, here’s a roundup of the Indie Untangled vendors at both the pop-up at The Knot House and the Howard County Fairgrounds, and a peek at just some of the goodies they’ll be bringing.
THE KNOT HOUSE INDIE POP-UP
This is the fifth annual indie pop-up that Cathy and Heather of The Knot House are throwing. In the spirit of the Indie Untangled Rhinebeck Trunk Show, it brings together a collection of dyers and makers from around North America. Unlike the IU Rhinebeck show, it runs all weekend, with a preview party on Friday night from 5 to 9 p.m.
Dragon Hoard Yarn is a one woman show run by Trysten out of Utah. Her style is inspired by pop culture, geeky fandoms, and witchy themes.
I’ll be bringing the entire Outlander collection, including:
Lallybroch (green), Red Jamie (Orange), Clan Fraser (blue), and Je Suis Prest. (Blue and brown). I’ll also be giving a sneak peek at a new design coming out in July! The Moondrip Summer Tee will be showcased, and I will be there to help people create kits!
Aimee & Brian are the dyers of Little Fox Yarn, based just outside of Richmond, Virginia. Their subtle, wearable colorways are inspired by the Blue Ridge Mountains where Aimee grew up.
We will be at the Knot House Indie Dyer Pop Up this weekend. We will have all of our usual lineup of tonal yarns including our new Vixen Lace base.
Bare Naked Wools offers natural, dye-free, artisanal yarns in single breed and wool blends, wool and alpaca blends, and unique luxury blends.
• The hat is the “Happy Dog Cap” which we will be selling at MDSW as a kit with Betty King Natural Dyes Merino DK.
• The pullover sweater is “Multigrain”
• The lace shawl is “Harrier”
• The yarn is Better Breakfast DK, a luxury alpaca blend
Bijou Basin Ranch provides sustainably harvested, high quality exotic yarns & fibers dyed by various indie dyers across the country. After 15 years of merchandising yarn, BBR will be closing its doors by the end of the year, so don’t miss your chance to see, feel and purchase at our last MDS&W Festival!
Pictured clockwise from the top left are:
Solids by MJ Yarns on Xanadu, 100% Mongolian Cashmere
The Valkyries Series by MJ Yarns on Gobi, 35/65 baby camel/Mulberry silk
The Mariposa Series by Colorful Eclectic on Himalayan Summit, 50/50 yak/Merino — brand new at the show!
Various colors by ModeKnit Yarns on Tibetan Dream, 85/15 yak/nylon
Dragonfly Fibers has been dyeing high-quality yarn and fiber in suburban Washington, DC, for more than ten years. We’re known for our vivid and saturated tonal and variegated colorways, and we have gorgeous neutrals, too! Come see all that’s new and beautiful in the Lower Outside Corral!
Our brand-new tote bag is free to the first 25 customers both days and all purchases over $125. Available for purchase for $12.
Our newest yarn, Faerie, an ethereal mohair-silk blend, is perfect for warm-weather knitting. The Jocelyn colorway (shown in Pixie, also in Jocelyn) makes for a beautiful spring Elton, by Joji Locatelli.
Our show exclusive colorway, Carroll Creek Park’s bright and happy colors make it perfect for spring! It will be available on multiple bases. Supplies are limited, so be sure to stop by early in the morning for the best selection.
We will also have three great kits for the brand-new Casapinka design, Magical Thinking, which made its debut last Saturday during LYS Day.
We specialize in British and U.S. rare and heritage breed sheep. We gain our inspiration from the sheep themselves and the beautiful countryside. For those participating in the Shave Em to Save Em and the 52 weeks of sheep programs we will have both natural spinning fibers and yarns produced from the sheep here at the farm.
Knittyandcolor specializes in eye popping bright, unique pastel, and fun speckled yarn and fiber. Her husband, Subterranean Woodworks specializes in finely crafted, exotic wood and hand dyed Turkish spindles.
Created by sisters, Helen and Mary Beth, Toad Hollow makes project bags and hand dyed yarn. Our products all have a whimsical sense usually based on books and fandoms we love. Limited quantities of our Maryland 2019 color, “Crab Pickin,” will be available this weekend.
Wolle’s Yarn Creations will be at MDSW for the third year and we are bringing our amazingly soft and deluxe Cotton/Silk yarns as well as our new Cotton/Bamboo yarns. Also, new this year: DK Cotton yarns, perfect for all your summer tops. Stop by and touch our yarns — feeling is believing.
In honor of LYS Day tomorrow, April 27, the Dragonfly team has created kits for Casapinka’s new pullover shawl (not a poncho!) called Magical Thinking. The yarn is the squishy Superwash Merino Dragon Sock and you can see the sample that North Carolina LYS Friends & Fiberworks worked up here in that last color combo — Silver Fox, Kelpie, Sixteen Candles— which is exclusive to their shop. You can get a list of the dozen shops that are carrying the kit here. Dragonfly will have the first three combos, along with their festival exclusive Carroll Creek Park colorway at Maryland Sheep & Wool.
Speaking of mohair, Mary Annarella’s latest sweater design, Branches In Bloom, calls for holding a strand of mohair-silk lace weight with a strand of single-ply fingering.
Heather of Sew Happy Jane has a mohair/silk laceweight that she has dyed up in some spring-ready colors.
Michelle of Crafty Flutterby Creations has debuted the newest must-have notion, the Suavest Sheep! 3D printed by Michelle using biodegradable polylactic acid, these cuties can be used to tidy your cast-on end, hold yarn joined in the middle of your project, act as a handy color swatch to carry with you, or make for an adorable display of your favorite yarns.
Sweater Sisters’ newest team member, Dana Gervais, has released a new knee high sock pattern called Mojo. They feature 16 Bimini sparkle minis and Selena is offering the kits in two color sets. They are on sale through next Friday, May 3, only.
Kelly’s latest shawl design, Round the Mountain, has a combination of fun stitch patterns, color changes and shapes.
Time for a DK spring sale! All DK in the Big Foot Fibers shop is 20% off through April 30 using the code DkSale.
I’ve loved seeing all the #todaysknitoutfit posts on Instagram, but as a work-from-home solopreneur, I’ve joked that participating would entail taking selfies in a T-shirt and sweats wearing a shawl. Which is not to say that I don’t wear the heck out of my hand knits, and that it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad idea to wear stylish clothes around the house, but… I really like my sweatpants and T-shirt work uniform, and prefer saving my more fashionable choices for a day other than one when the only person I see is my USPS carrier.
So, instead, I’ve decided to put together some outfits from one of my latest StitchFix scores, an adorable green floral dress from their house brand Market & Spruce and a blush-colored stretch linen moto jacket from Level 99 — two items I never would have chosen on my own, but that somehow seem to match many things I’ve knit. Funny how that works. (Disclosure: the above link is an affiliate link, but you get a $25 credit if you use it to sign up for StitchFix, a personal styling service; learn more about it here.)
Above is the outfit I wore for Andrea Untangled. I’m in love with the Shift cowl I knit up last year and it’s the perfect accessory for the transition into spring, as it provides just enough warmth for those days when it’s not quite T-shirt weather but not bitterly cold.
My Nangou by Melanie Berg, knit in Duck Duck Wool 80/20 Merino Silk Fingering, is one of my most treasured FOs. I had been lusting after this colorway from Sandra for ages and finally scored it at a trunk show. The moody gray with a hint of purple and green plays well with a lot of different outfits.
Another more recent favorite FO is Isabell Kraemer’s Akemi. This large shawl, which used three skeins of Kokon Yarn Fingering Weight Merino (there is still one more kit left in the Indie Untangled shop!) is a bit matchy with the jacket, but could also be a nice stand-in for when I don’t quite need the jacket but want to keep the chill off my neck and shoulders.
I look forward to sharing more ideas with you, and wearing these outfits… out. Now to make more plans outside my apartment. 😉
Designer Mona of bunnymuff will capture the beauty of Big Sur in her upcoming MKAL. The top-down, triangle-shaped shawl, called Blooming Big Sur, is inspired by the amazing wildflower bloom at Big Sur. You can preorder the colorful kit from Elevate Fibers (where the sale of every skein supports a national forest!) receive a code for $2 off the purchase of the pattern. The four clues will be released weekly starting May 1 and there will be two threads in the bunnymuff Ravelry group — one for shawl-related chat and one for spoilers.
Sara of La Cave a Laine’s new bag collection is filled with spring colors and patterns, including florals, leaves and koi carps — inspired by a delicacy of the southern Alsace, where Sara hand crafts all her bags.
This is your grandmother’s knitting, in the best possible way. Dottie Jane is a new collaboration from Heather of Sew Happy Jane and brioche master Lesley Ann Robinson of Knitgraffiti. The shawl is named for the colorway, Hattie Jane, which Heather named after her grandmother, and for Lesley’s late grandmother Dottie.
The Big Foot Fibers’ Mini Set Of the Month is called Easter Lily. The five-skein set on 85/15 extra fine Merino and nylon are available to preorder now.
This HBO epic might be coming to an end, but Marietta of Inner Yarn Zen is making her first Game Of Thrones kit available to mark the end of the series.
Selena of Sweater Sisters has nine colors in a cheerful spring palette up in her shop, available on four different fingering-weight bases.
Slipped Stitch Studios will have Pretty Sweary bags from artist Cynthia Frenette in the shop today at 9 a.m. Pacific.
Jeanne’s colorway for the latest installment of Knitting Our National Parks is inspired by Cuyahoga Valley National Park, a hop, skip and a jump to her Cleveland studio. It’s available to preorder until next Friday, April 19. As always, 10% of sales will be donated to the National Parks Foundation.
McMullin Fiber Co.’s April club is a surprise skein of spring speckles inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, plus a progress keeper from Amanda of Little Bitty Delights.
Eden Cottage Yarns is introducing two new yarns: a baby alpaca and silk Aran weight called Askham Aran, and Hayton DK, a DK-weight MCN. Both will be available in an update at 8 a.m. UK time on Monday.
Amy of Summit Rd Fibers also has new spring colorways, including Rusty Grape, Peachy Keen, Jelly Bean, Crisp Lemonade, Bella The Budgie, Sea Glass, Punk Princess and Melted Crayons, named via an Instagram giveaway.
Celebrate Easter with Purple Lamb’s Eight Days of Easter yarn kits, which consist of eight 10-gram minis (50/50 Merino/silk, not eggs) in pastel colorways.
Time definitely flies when you’re having fun. I was in New Orleans last week celebrating my mom’s birthday, after coming down from the high that was Andrea Untangled, and I completely forgot that Indie Untangled turned FIVE YEARS OLD a week ago!
When I sent out my first newsletter on April 4, 2014, in order to spread the word about indie dyer shop updates, I never could have dreamed what Indie Untangled would become: events like the Rhinebeck Trunk Show, Indie Goes West and Andrea Untangled, a place for exclusive colorways and a way to raise thousands of dollars for the National Park Foundation.
In honor of this milestone, I figured that a few giveaways were in order. Here’s how to enter:
Newsletter giveaway
Subscribe to the newsletter by midnight Eastern time on Thursday, April 18 and you’ll be entered to win an Untangled shawl bundle with the exclusive colors from La Bien Aimee.
Blog giveaway
Comment on this blog post by midnight Eastern time on Thursday, April 18, with your favorite Indie Untangled dyer/designer/maker discovery and you’ll be entered to win a Rainshadow shawl bundle with the exclusive colors from La Bien Aimee.
Jeanne of Destination Yarn, who appropriately creates colorways inspired by travel, chose the park closest to her Cleveland studio for the latest installment of Indie Untangled’s Knitting Our National Parks series. You can preorder the yarn on Indie Untangled through Friday, April 19; it will ship the last week of May. As always, 10% of sales will be donated to the National Park Foundation.
For this edition of the Regency Collection, Julia of Pandia’s Jewels was inspired by Mr. Darcy’s admiration and love for Elizabeth Bennet. The collection contains three coordinating colors that you can order separately or together in a kit, only though 8 p.m. EDT this Sunday.
In time for spring, Aimee of Pancake and Lulu has been creating what she calls Speckle Semisolids — colorways that read like solids from afar, but are more speckled when viewed up close. She’s using these Monets with some more traditional speckles Caitlin Hunter’s Soldotna Crop.
Sunshine of My Mama Knits has expanded her range of UV reactive solids that are ready to party at night. They’re available in 10- and 15-skein sets of 10g or 20g minis. Full 100g skeins and single miniskeins are also available.
Three makers — Nichole of One Sock Wonder Bags, Liz of HighFiberArtz and Annah of Silent Knits — have joined forces to bring you a super geeky Game of Thrones-inspired kit. “Your Roll Is Coming” has a ton of great stuff, including an eight-sided die.
For all you hookers out there, Jen of Porterness Studio has debuted some awesome crochet-inspired jewelry, including a Crochet & Dissent RBG Collar necklace.
Sam of Lavender Lune Yarn Co. has created the ultimate low-comittment indie yarn club with what she has dubbed The Indie Project. Each month, she teams up with another dyer and each of them take a stab at creating one-of-a-kind colorways based on a common inspiration photo. For April, Sam is working with Nicole of Hue Loco to create a set of yarn inspired by the photo above that can be used for a summer top designed by Olga from Handmade Closet. Preorders will go live in Sam’s shop this Monday, April 1 and they will be open for only one week.
To make up for your fiber festival envy, Sheila of BigFootFibers is giving 25% off when you purchase any four items, including mini skein sets, like her Luck ‘O the Irish Mini Skein Set of the Month.
Stephanie of Rock Solid Designs just released these adorable Stealthy Sloth project bags. Because sloths are the new owls.
Augusta of adKnits has introduced new knitters’ mini sketchbooks, which are great for jotting down notes or sketching out a quick idea while on the go.
Elisabeth of Wolle’s Yarn Creations has new DK Color Changing Cotton yarns now available in six colors. They are perfect for summer tops that will actually knit up fast, at a gauge of 5 stitches per inch.
Julia of Pandia’s Jewels will be releasing her latest shawl pattern, called Winter’s Moon, in May and has created a Pandia’s Moon Box filled with everything you need to make the shawl. Preorders are open through this Sunday.
Missy of This Craft Or That has sets available for mug rugs, to hold your cup of coffee or tea and a small snack while you’re working on your WIP. The sets are dyed on Treasure Dust Minis a blend of Superwash Merino, nylon and Lurex.
Lisa The Knitting Artist has been busy creating new colors and designs. The biggest update is the addition of semi-speckled “paintwater” colorways and tonals that are perfect for fades and striping projects when paired with her original handpainted yarns.
Despondent Dyes has introduced a new non-Superwash sportweight base called Vintage Vixen.
So many indie dyers. One email.
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So many indie dyers. One email.