Be Inspired Hand spun wool and mohair yarns for knitting and crocheting sweaters and accessories.

In summer, the projects I prefer to knit up in our yarns are usually home related and super bright. I'm such an instant gratification person,  so being able to use the finished product makes me so much happier than working on a cozy hat that can't be worn for months.  While prepping for our last tradeshow, I quickly knit up these Pixie Dust Pillows which are now at home in our apartment. I was inspired by the dip-dye gradient looks of clothing I've been seeing everywhere lately, see below. 

How gorgeous are these?! I want ever single dress.  Taking advantage of all of the our Pixie Dust colorways, here's what I came up with when I translated the idea to yarn. 

This one is giant, 18"x18"!

A more mini version 14"x8"

Aqua Frost on the left, Wild Orchid in the middle, Indigo Twilight on the right. 

For the back, I chose to use a beautiful Japanese-inspired fabric I picked up at my new local yarn store, Gather Here.  For everyone in the Boston area, it's an amazing fabric and yarn shop. And they carry our yarns!  For more info, visit this site: www.gatherhereonline.com/ Some of their fabrics are also sold there. 

The second pillow is Honey Tea at top, Mango Glitter in the center and Pomegranate Blossom at the bottom.

Above is the fabric I chose for the back of this pillow, from the same shop.  Perfect combination of retro and modern. I heart!  I'm sorry no pattern for these yet, as usual I just knit and think about that later!  If you're interested in knitting these, drop me a line at amy@knitcollage.com and I'll provide guidance until I have a minute to publish.

Last week we returned from Columbus, Ohio where the TNNA tradeshow is held every year.  It was a lot of fun and exhausting as usual. It's taken me until now just to get through the backlog of emails I accumulated.  At the show, we caught up with old friends and made some new ones!  I'm excited to share that Knit Collage yarns will soon be available in a few states we've never shipped to before, including Wyoming, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Vermont, Oregon, and Alabama. Yay!  So that feels like a mini step forward. We also showed 9 new Pixie Dust colors that I designed (pics below!).  These were a big hit at the show, so be sure to look out for these colors come September in your LYS. Below are some pics from the show and our new yarns...Stay tuned for new free patterns coming soon too! 

The booth, super bright as usual...it was small this time so fitting everything in was not easy!

I made a crazy rainbow twig display to show our new yarns...it was a lot of fun!

I'm so lucky to have this guy (my boyfriend Trammel) help me out at the show!  He is wearing a sparkly circle scarf I just knit up...will post about that soon! Who doesn't love a guy who can rock some sparkles every once in a while?!

Author Tricky Drake (of Welcoming Home Baby) and I in the booth.  She knit the cutest hat up for us out of Cactus Tree...love!  Below all the new Pixie Dust Colors.

India Henna with a stripe in Azalea Bloom.

My new favorite Pixie color, Boho Blush, super natural and hippy inspired with flecks of Copper Angelina sparkles. Stripe in Guava Spash.

Detail of Boho Blush, I heart it so much!

Guava Splash and stripe in India Henna.

Azalea Bloom with India Henna stripe.

Dandelion Glow with Azalea Bloom stripe.

Electric Lime swatch, pic doesn't do justice to the brightness of this combo!

Wild Orchid, lots of people were over the moon for this one at the tradeshow.  

Indigo Twilight

Last but not least, Smokey Swirl. 

Hello everyone!  As usual, it's been a super hectic month, does it ever end?!  Last week, i received 38 big boxes of yarn, an insane amount, that is covering just about every inch of our house.  Ever since, it feels like I've been emailing, organizing and shipping these skeins out as fast as I can manage to the shops that have been patiently waiting.  

It was great break from the monotony of all of this when I heard from my friend Virginia, who runs the fabulous LYS near me in Cambridge, MA called Gather Here.  She decided to put together a fundraiser for the victims of the tragic Joplin, Missouri tornado and emailed me to see if I'd like to donate some yarn.  After seeing so many shocking photos of the complete destruction that hit Joplin, I knew this was a no brainer. We've donated 8 skeins of Rolling Stone yarn and many other fabulous crafty suppliers are also taking part.  All donations go to the American Red Cross.  The fundraiser ends June 14 and at that time there will be a raffle to decide who wins all the crafty goodies.  For more complete details on how to take park and a list of all the prizes, please visit this site: http://bit.ly/mu8QbC

Image by Patrick Fallon for the NY Times.