Hitting the Road with QCY
QCY is on our way to Rochester MN for the Zombie Knitpocolypse retreat and wanted you to be able to follow along with a little road trip diary. Janis and Brian are traveling through six states, around 1,000 miles to bring the yarn to you!!
If you know Janis, then you know there will be lots of coffee stops along the way. I like to joke that she has a built in Starbucks radar.
Brian on the other hand is fueled by sugar. Can't take a road trip without the road trip snacks!
On their first day of travel they encountered a Buc-ee's gas station which is apparently the largest gas station on the planet. It has over 120 pumps, restaurants, stores and was basically a city unto itself.
They stopped for the day in Illinois after getting an extra hour of daylight thanks to the summer solstice and changing of time zones. Janis says Illinois was home to lots of lightening bugs as you can tell from her windshield!
She even got some knitting done while Brian was driving, saying it took her less than 350 miles to start and finish this French Toasty hat, that she made in our It's Fall Y'all colorway.
After a long, long day of driving it was time to hit the hay! But you can't leave all the yarn goodies in the van, so Janis and Brian had to do some unloading before they could settle down for the night.
We're so glad y'all got to see what life is like on the road for our "traveling yarn carnie"! Until next time!
Behind the Scenes: Designing a New Colorway (ZK Edition)
One of the things we are most often asked is "how do you come up with all of these colors?" Well today I'm going to give you a little peak behind the curtain of designing a new color!
Generally, we only design new colors for holidays or special events since we're so busy cranking out all of your favorite QCY colors. Today I'm going to dive into a new color we made for our next in person event, the Zombie Knitpocolypse Retreat aka ZK. ZK chooses a theme for every retreat so their theme gives us a starting point to find our color inspiration. This years theme was The Fair, and one of the teams retreat attendees are assigned to is called Rides or Die. So, we knew we needed a roller coaster inspired colorway.
From there we head to the internet for photos that contain color combos that speak to us and to the theme. I like to use Pinterest or Unsplash to find photos but really inspiration lurks everywhere!
Once we decided on a picture, we take a good hard look at it to determine what colors we want to include, and decide on a dye style that goes with the inspiration but also works with all the colors we want to include. Then we give it a temporary name (Rides or Dye) and write a recipe for version one, because only occasionally do we get it right the first time.
Then its time to put dye on yarn and see where it takes us. This particular color didn't come out exactly as we wanted it the first time. We decided the blue was darker than we wanted and too much of a true blue color compared to the photo.
So we tweaked the dyes and dye style and came up with version two, which had the right aqua blue we were looking for, but the neon pink we needed was showing up way too red, so we tried again for version three just changing up the pink dyes and leaving the rest the same.
And ta-da Rides or Dye Version 3.0 was just the ticket. Next it was time for complementary colors for kits and an official name. Along with a yearly theme, ZK also has theme colors which were a bright red and medium blue for this year. So, Janis chose the coordinating colors for both teams that matched our new color as well as the retreat theme in shades of blue and red/pink. Christen is the master of coming up with punny yarn names and she didn't let us down by naming our new colorway Emotional Roller Coaster.
So that in a nutshell is how we get from an idea to a new yarn color. We hope y'all like our newest color, as well as the quick look at how we do what we do!
Dyeing to Knit Episode 42
Fresh Favorite Tee
The Fresh Favorite Tee pattern is NOW LIVE and available for purchase and download via Queen City Yarn and Ravelry.
The Fresh Favorite Tee is reminiscent of my favorite, sadly worn out, ready-to-wear tee that I picked up at a local boutique years ago. This comfy, cool and slightly cropped loose-fitting tee with a high-low hem is the hand knit re-imagination of what was my go-to warm weather top.
The Fresh Favorite Tee is worked in Queen City Yarn’s Coleman, a gorgeous silk and linen blend DK weight yarn. A relaxed gauge, combined with the silk and linen, yields a beautiful fabric with fluid movement.
This tee features saddle shoulders and a wide scoop neckline. Short rows ensure a great fit across the shoulders and front neckline and also shape the bottom split hem. The tee is worked flat and seamed to avoid biasing. Hems are worked in single strand double knitting and finished with a sewn tubular bind off. A glossary of special technique tutorials is included.
Size inclusivity is very important to me and I am so happy to offer The Fresh Favorite Tee in 12 sizes! This tee is intended to be worn with 2-6” (5-15 cm) positive ease. If between sizes, sizing down is recommended.
I used Seersucker for my size 5 tee, modeled with 6 inches of positive ease and an OOAK colorway (Green Thumb from the Studio Series Club last summer) for Caitlyn’s size 1 tee, modeled with 6 inches of positive ease.
Many of my awesome test knitters chose to use Queen City Yarn’s NEW Coleman Silk/Linen blend for their Fresh Favorite Tees!
Pictured here are the gorgeous Coleman Fresh Favorite Tees knit as part of the test knit by Ann, Lauren, Beth, Jo, Amy and Carrie.