MOUNTAIN COLORS AND ME

If you’ve followed my countdown blogs, you’ll know that Mountain Colors, a Montana company that specializes in hand-dying yarn, has produced a colorway to honor Not My Daughter.  After reading early excerpts of the book, the masterminds behind Mountain Colors, Leslie Taylor and Diana McKay, designed Spring Eclipse, a breathtaking mix of fuchsia, copper, plum, sapphire, forest green, and teal, named after a colorway created by my characters, Susan, Kate, Sunny, and Pam, who have their own yarn-dying business in Not My Daughter.

"Spring Eclipse" from Mountain Colors

Getting to know Leslie and Diana has been a joy for me.  They are incredibly warm and wonderfully creative, representative of the best of the community of knitters that has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years.  What is it about knitting that’s so appealing?  There’s the simplicity of it, most everything a combination of two stitches, knit and purl.  There’s the beauty of it, exemplified in yarns such as those Mountain Colors creates.  And there’s the history of it.  Even if you don’t knit, there’s a good chance your mother or grandmother did.

That said, today’s knitting is not your grandmother’s knitting.  Take a look at any of the Mountain Colors yarns and you’ll realize that.  Better still, why not give the new knitting a try.  Yes.  That’s right.  Now.

Make a gift.  After all, it’s the holiday season, and we’re all on budgets.  Here’s the recipe for an inexpensive and easy holiday knit.

Take two skeins of Mountain Colors Moguls (preferably in Spring Eclipse to commemorate Not My Daughter, but any one of several dozen other shades of this yarn will be just as gorgeous).  Using size 11 needles, cast on 13 stitches.  Then knit.  That’s it.  Just knit.  Keep going until your scarf is as long as you want, then bind off.

Don’t know how to cast on, knit, or bind off?  If the person selling you the yarn is worth her salt, she’ll quickly teach you, and if she doesn’t, Google any one of these terms and you’ll find how-to videos for free.

Moguls is a nubby thick-and-thin yarn that does all the work itself.  You knit, and it produces something exquisitely interesting and textural.  It’s 98% wool, which means it’s warm, but it has 2% nylon, which means its washable.  What a gift!  And you have time.  Trust me.  You can make this scarf in a matter of hours.  Take a look at the one I made!

For more information on Mountain Colors, including where to buy it locally, check out www.mountaincolors.com.  While you’re there, send Leslie and Diana a ‘hi’ from me and a note of thanks for creating Spring Eclipse!

P.S.  You could even knit this scarf for yourself.  Shhh.  I won’t tell.  But wouldn’t it be fabulous to snuggle into a Spring Eclipse scarf while you’re reading Not My Daughter next month?