Green Mountain Madness

Cherry Tree Hill Returns to Maryland Sheep and Wool

Dear Bloggies:

Here we are returning from Stitches South only to head down to Maryland Sheep and Wool. Thanks to all we saw at Stitches—the Ravelry Party was lots of fun as was the Fashion Show. To follow us on Rav, just join our Supersock Store group, where all things are Cherry Tree Hill.

This year we will reclaim our booth at Maryland and we're taking every variety of Cherry Tree Hill handpainted sock yarn as well as mill ends and lots of lace. Come see us in the Main Building in booth C21.  We'll be on hand with great deals on our newest yarns including Fingerpaints, our self striping sock yarn. We will also have our new Supersock Lace—this is our laceweight Supersock and you can knit an entire shawl from just one hank, plus its machine washable.
 
At Stitches South, I showed my new Painted Beret and Painted Lace Skirt in the Fashion Show and now it's official. I'm teaching them as a class at Stitches Midwest. The class lists are out—sign up here. If you're not going to the show, but want the pattern or kit for either garment, they are available from the Supersock Store. 

We're coming home to drop our empty boxes and pick up full ones—see you in Maryland!

Supersock Lace is Here at Last!

Dear Bloggies:
 
After much trial and error, we finally have our first set of Supersock Lace yarn available.  As you probably know, this yarn has been in the works since last year, but until now we had been unable to match the  yardage and weight to our desire for high twist yarn.  What we wanted was a soft superwash yarn much like Supersock Select, but with enough yards to knit an entire garment, such as a large shawl.  The fact that  this lace weight yarn had to be superwash was also a challenge.  How would we make it durable but soft, superwash but lace weight and keep the price affordable?

Well, we think we've finally done it with Supersock Lace and we're sorry it took so long.  We have all 34 colorways available in this yarn in limited amounts.  Next we'll try our 30 semi solids, hopefully before this first set of colorways sells out.  We've sold quite a bit of this yarn to Indies such as Indie Dyer and Ivy Brambles.  If you are a handdyer who would liek to try your hand at dyeing this yarn in bulk, contact us.  If you only want a few hanks, the dye hanks are available at Indie Dyer and Discontinued Brand Name Yarn on their White Sale Page.

We have two designs for Supersock Lace, our Painted Lace Skirt and Lattice Lace Shawl, but of course we're always looking for more.  Send us your ideas!  Happy knitting from all of us at Cherry Tree Hill Yarn.

Cherry Tree Hill Discovers Inca Indies

Dear Bloggies:

I'm just back from an enchanting week in Peru where I finally got to go to Cuzco and hike Machu  Picchu.  As promised, I found lots of enticing Llama and Alpaca Mill End yarns at various dye houses, but my biggest find was a group of Indie Dyers who call themselves Inca Indies.  They operate out of a loft in one of the industrial cities, bringing in women from the Andean Highlands to handpaint indigenous colorways on sock yarns.
 
I also worked with my favorite fair trade co-operative to develop 10 new colorways of Fingerpaints, which is my self striping sock yarn--hopefully we'll have samples to show you soon.

 While I was gone, we received another design submission, which I really like.  They are a pair of cabled fingerless gloves called Muffin Top Mitts shown in the colorway Morning Glory, designed by Essie Burrell. I love the way this project shows off the self striping aspect of this yarn.  Essie says that there is plenty of yarn left for a matching beret.  Thanks for the submission!

We are looking at designs all summer and are willing to pay $250 each for our favorites.  If you have an original pattern you think would look great with Fingerpaints, send it in knit on one of our 10 colorways.  We are will to look at any project that uses just one hank of Fingerpaints.  If you need the yarn, it's available online at the Supersock Store or at your local yarn shop.
 
Many of you have asked when I will begin teaching my new handpainted garment techniques.  I have just heard from XRX that they will be showing several of my painted garments, plus promoting my classes at  Stitches South, but will not be offering the classes until Stitches Midwest.  If you would like to take my Painted Beret class at Stitches, please contact Stitches.  In the meantime, both the Painted Lace Skirt pattern and the Painted Beret Patterns are available and one lucky winner will win kits for these at Stitches South.

Pisco, Peppers and Painted Yarn Peruvian Style

Dear Bloggies: 

Here I am in Peru with my friend Scott who knows nothing of handpainted yarn but is still fun to travel with. You may know him from Parker Pie restaurant as he is the founder of Scott Sauce in Vermont. We traveled from Burlington to Lima, which is the capital of Peru and got in just in time to see the last half of the NCAA finals between Duke and Butler. We sat in the bar with a bunch of other rowdy Americans toasting Duke with Pisco Sours as they beat Butler.

I had warned Scott about Pisco which is Peru's answer to Tequila and is so potent you drink it through egg whites. He was not sold on Pisco until he tried it and now has developed quite a taste for it with egg whites and bitters.

The next day, we flew to Arequipa and have been here ever since, visiting mills and coops.

We're staying at a wonderful oasis on the river, in the middle of the city center. At one warehouse, we found some great mill ends to bring back, plus spent an afternoon working with a large fair trade co-op to develop 10 more self striping colorways of Fingerpaints. I let Scott pick 5 colorways... let's see if they pass. 

We have been trying all sorts of Peruvian dishes at various restaurants. Scott brought some of his hot sauce for our friends to try, and I brought some maple syrup, of course. Our hosts heard that Scott had his own line of hot pepper sauce and so took him to a restaurant where the owner/chef prepared him a hot pepper dish that even he thought was a bit too spicy. That night we tried Corvina which is a kind of sea bass and it was so good that the next day we went to a big supermarket to see what one really looked like.

One exciting thing is that we think we found a way to help South American indie dyers market their own colorways. We met with a few people who have their own studios and I am hoping to distribute their sock yarns in the US. I also developed a way to blend Supersock with silk. We'll see if that ever makes it past the trial stage.

The weather down here is summery and breezy with no rain--just like Vermont in June, so we feel as if we have a nice preview. Tomorrow we are leaving for Cuzco because we just can't leave here without being inspired by the ruins of Macchu Pichu. I hope you're having as much fun as we are!

Happy Knitting,

First Fingerpaints Socks Arrive at Cherry Tree Hill

Dear Bloggies:

We have never seen socks knit from our new Fingerpaints self striping sock yarn, so imagine our   excitement when the first pair arrived this week. They were knit by Ann Glowacki from the colorway Black Cherry in an original design she calls "Whichaway" socks.

Bloggies, this is a great example of the kind of design we are looking to buy. The yarn is shown to its best advantage as self striping sock yarn, the project only uses one hank and the socks are an ample size and match each other. We must verify that the design is original and proof the pattern before purchasing, but this is the kind of project we are looking for. Nice job, Ann.

 Send in your designs and original patterns! We are accepting 5 designs that show off the self striping aspect of this yarn, and we are paying $250 per project. Your design does not need to be socks, and now of course we would like to see something knit in one of the other 9 colorways.

This is not a contest--we will buy whatever we like as long as it meets our criteria. For more information visit the Cherry Tree Hill Yarn site.

I am off to South America this week in search of high quality fiber, so get those needles going. I'd love to look at your projects when I return.