What A Way To Go....

The Chevron Scarf is finished! It is sooooooooo long! I mean, I didn't want to waste the gorgeous handpainted yarn, so I just kept on going until I ended up with around 85". The pattern states that it should be 77" long, but I also didn't want to do the head wrap thing. It looks great if you just wrap it around your neck a few times, or do the slide through. I hope the person that this is going to loves it! Since its so long, I wasn't sure how to really take some decent pictures, so here are some car shots on the way to Mountain Colors.




And the project details:
Pattern: Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson
Yarn: An unknown handpainted yarn that was gifted to me last year
Measurements: 6 inches wide by 85 inches long
Started: October 18, 2005
Finished: October 31, 2005
Other Important Details: I knit this scarf using a single color, rather than alternating two similar but differernt colorways. Its a bit longer than the pattern recommends, but it will be great to wrap about the head a few times. I knit this on size 6 needles and got gauge at 5.5 stitches per inch.. making it a dk weight yarn.

Here is a picture of me wearing the scarf right after we arrived at Mountain Colors...



And now for the exciting stuff! Okay, these women are AMAZING! Diane and Leslie, you guys rock! Everyone that worked there was so friendly, and they pulled Scott and I right into their dye room where we were witness to a huge batch of yarn being dyed. Their setup was very interesting and gave me some perspective on how I could improve. To start out though, here is a picture of their sign and the little store inside :) The store had some great mill ends and some colors I have never seen in person before!



As you walk in, you move past these long walls of drying racks. Look at all the gorgeous colors drying!



Now, here is the good stuff. The 101 on Mountain Colors is that they have two washing machines that they just use to soak the yarn with (just fill, let sit, and drain). Then they lay out all the yarn in that batch on this long table which you can see in the big picture below. They handdye all of them at the same time and then steam them in these big commercial pasta containers over hot plates. How creative! You can see the hotplates and some undyed yarn in the two smaller pictures :) The only thing I was a little unsure of, is whether they wrap them in cellophane or not. I don't think they do, and just wonder how they manage to not felt?! Hmm, maybe I will have to ask them about that.




Anyways, it was really an incredible experience. Diane was so helpful and was very excited to hear that I started selling my dyed yarns. She said she is definitely going to take a look... Wow, Mountain Colors looking at MY yarns! Yikes! She said that they started in her kitchen just selling to whoever would buy, and then decided to get some sales reps after a year and a half. Then, they moved into a larger studio and it just grew from there... I truely wish them the best and am so happy that they have become so successful!

And, with all that said, this is what I walked away with! They were ALL OUT OF BEARFOOT believe it or not, so I just settled on a few gorgeous skeins of Mountain Goat.



This is the last of the vacation days... Unfortunately, Scott and I are heading back to Boston tomorrow. I miss the kitties terribly (this is the longest we have been away since we adopted them), but we are bringing them home presents :) I'll catch you all on the other side... Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!