On Saturday, the last two months of my Clan of Igor subscription from Undercover Otter arrived. They were dyed and shipped together due to some challenges in getting the yarn sourced for November – it was going to be late. Thanks pandemic.
Anyway, as usual, I realized I hadn’t shown you my last months’ colorway. Two months in fact. So, here are September and October:
They are completely different vibes, but I like both. I think that the September one I’ll likely use on it’s own and that the October one needs to be paired with a solid or tonal to show it at it’s (bloody carcass) best.
Since I’ll likely forget if I don’t do it now, I AM going to show the November and December colors. If you don’t want to see them yet because you’re waiting for your shipment, scroll no further and come back to this post later.
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So, per the little moved Synopsis, the movie for November is THE WORST MOVIE EVER and definitely NOT RECOMMENDED. However, the colorway is fabulous. It’s such a wonderfully rich teal blue color with a tone of depth in the varying tones. Again, December is quite different, but also a really interesting yarn.
Now that I’ve shown off the last four months, do you want to see them all in review? Of course you do!
All laid out in order by month from January to December. And here, a little larger:
As I mentioned in my last post, I spent some time tossing and reorganizing the stash. Before I pulled out the lot though, I spent a little time arranging the Clan of Igor colors to see which pairings I like. These are a bunch of the color combos I considered, but ultimately rejected. In some cases, I wasn’t quite satisfied (pink and green, or the purple and yellow) and in other cases, I found a pairing I liked even better (orange with the green and blue vs the pink with the November blues).
Ultimately, these are the color pairings I decided I liked best. You’ll notice it doesn’t use all the skeins, because some I’m not sure of yet or I may use by themselves.
You’ll notice that those on the right are paired with non-Undercover Otter yarns. When it comes to the deep red color, I won’t use that specific yarn, but I think that’s the contrast color I want to use with the white yarn with it’s blue and red speckles. I just love how they work together. The bottom right is a pairing I’ve known I wanted to do for months but for some reason kept trying to talk myself out of. I think I may use it in one of the West Knit brioche shawls which uses a mohair for one yarn and a fingering wool for the other.
In any case, I have plenty of knitting material for me to use. I don’t regret one bit doing the yarn subscription for a year. Undercover Otter won’t be doing one in 2021, so I’m glad I did it this year, but I also won’t have to decide whether or not to sign up again for 2021. Since I can often scroll through pages of yarns on a website and pass by plenty without much difficulty, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I like every single colorway. Some aren’t ones I would have bought for myself, but I do like them and will like the challenge of finding the right project for them sooner or later. And, it turned out to be a bit of luck for me that I’d mentally committed myself to this before the pandemic arrived in force and eliminated all plans for attending yarn festivals this year. I can also be happy knowing I helped support an independent small business in the middle of what had to be a pretty hellish year.
Giving Tuesday
Speaking of support… today is “Giving Tuesday”. I’ll admit that I don’t really do anything to participate in Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Small Business Saturday is more my style, but this year I didn’t find anything I wanted or needed in particular*. But Giving Tuesday is one that I do try to do a thing or two with. I’ve made a few different donations yesterday (got an early start) and today. If donations are part of your holiday traditions, or something you’d like to add to your traditions, today is a good day to start. Not sure where to give? My Donation page has some ideas for you. Every non-profit or charity on these pages is one I’ve donated to at some point or another, and whose work I support.
*if your finances permit, I recommend shopping local/small business on other days than the big sales days small business still find they have to run. Their margins are slim, and paying full price when you can helps keep them in business so the products you love are still being offered next year too. Few small businesses can run exclusively on the narrow profits from sale days. You are not a “sucker” if you pay an artisan full price for their work. And if sales are why you can afford something, go for it!