Tuesday, June 02, 2009

REVIEW: KnittyKnitterton's AwesomeSock Yarn

KnittyKnitterton's AwesomeSock Yarn
Where to Find: KnittyKnitterton's House of Awesome

AwesomeSock2

Knitty Knitterton's House of Awesome is relatively new to the ever growing hand-dyed yarn world and offers up five different sock yarns, as well as lace, DK and worsted weights. I was recently asked to review a skein of SlutSock in the Mini's Damn Vampires colorway. This plied sock yarn comes in 3 ounce skeins, which yields 440 yards of fingering weight.

My first reaction when I opened the package? I heart this purpley-red-black colorway... oh so deep and dark, and dare I say, sexy! I wanted to cast on something quick so I could see how the colorway knit up and after a quick Ravelry search, came up with this "Not Pedestrian Peds" pattern and my very own Vampy Peds.

VampyPeds

I love the subtle variations in the yarn, which is knitting up beautifully. It would have probably been a better idea to user lighter colored needles, but my Lantern Moon sox sticks were what I grabbed. They are working just fine though, as the stitches just glide across the needles.

Miss Knitty Knitterton herself, Bobbie, gave me a peak inside her awesome yarn dyeing world, which she started by simply dyeing yarn for her own projects.

LapdogCreations: So tell me, where do you get your inspiration for colorways?
Bobbie: Inspiration for my colorways comes from all over. Mostly, I will see a picture I like or some colors that I like the looks of and try to recreate them. My friend Heather asked me once to dye a special colorway to match her dogs fur. It was fun to try to get the colors to match.

LapdogCreations: How do you come up with such unique names for your colorways?
Bobbie: Sometimes the names of colorways come to me because the colors remind me of someone....or sometimes it will remind me of a place. Sometimes I hold little contests in my group on Ravelry - a name that skein contest. The Mini's Damn Vampires came about when I was playing with some colors. I held it up after a final wash in black. I laughed and said it's a vampire colorway. Since my friend had been reading the Twilight books and wouldn't shut up about the damn vampires, I named the vampire colorway after her.

LapdogCreations: What made you first start dyeing yarn for yourself? Was it because you couldn't find colorways you wanted or did you just want to venture into something new?
Bobbie: I started dyeing the yarn for myself and for friends because I saw all the beautiful hand dyed yarns online and I thought, "I could do that." So I read up on how to dye yarn and started dyeing yarn that my friends and I would like.

AwesomeSock

LapdogCreations: Now that you are dyeing yarn as a business, what comes first? Knitting time or dyeing time?
Bobbie: Knitting time usually comes first. I never want the dyeing to become like a job. I hate it when I feel like I have to finish this chore of dyeing yarn to get it all up in the shop. I'm trying to brace myself for dyeing all my installments for the Mean Girl's Yarn Club. My friend, La from Dizzy Blonde Studios and I formed the Mean Girl's Yarn Club. We take turns on the installments and I've got 60 some odd skeins of yarn going out soon... I'm not looking forward to the assembly line type work it's going to require. But I'm super excited to hear the reactions from the club members when they get their yarn. It will make the work worth it!

LapdogCreations: Where do you see KnittyKnitterton's House of Awesome in a year?
Bobbie: In a year? I hope House of Awesome will still be around. La and I are already talking about next year's Mean Girl's Club and how much bigger we want to make it. I've got some fun projects coming up this year and I hope to work with more people next year and do more projects. Angela Tennant and I have teamed up for a fun project for the new Harry Potter movie. Those types of projects are fun and interesting. I hope to be doing more in the coming years. I'd like for my shop to stay kind of small, I'd hate to lose the fun of dyeing the colors I want in small batches and then moving on to the next thing.

LapdogCreations: Anything else you would like to add?
Bobbie: I can be found on etsy at
KnittyKnitterton's House of Awesome or on Ravelry as KnittyKnitterton. Stop by my group on Ravelry, House of Awesome and say hi, help me think up colorways and name them. We have lots of fun there. Be sure to bring your sense of humor, we're an ood lot.

Thank you for the interview Bobbie... and for offering us your awesomely dyed yarns (who's going to beat me over to your etsy shop this week??)! Zeus heard you mention that you dyed yarn to match your friend's dog and thought he could provide some inspiration or perhaps be a model for you...

AwesomeSock_Zeus

4 comments:

Sue said...

Those colors are wonderful, like a slice of berry pie.

SissySees said...

Purdy! And I love that my dear big boy turns his head and doesn't even look at the yarn...

Anonymous said...

I am fortunate enough to see much of House Of Awesome yarn. The colorways are so pretty! I am knitting myself a pair of socks right now and the yarn is a delight to work with.

Dianne said...

I think Zeus needs a Quant made from that lovely yarn!
:)

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