Happy Anniversary, Verb and Verbivores!
November 10th is our 14th anniversary of moving into our San Pablo Avenue space, and to celebrate we created a new colorway for you!
Abundant Harvest, Deepening Shadows is inspired by our Autumn garden harvest.
One of our greatest passions is growing a garden with dye plants and food. In doing so, we are alignment with the Earth, following the sun and moons shadows. We stay close to our hands, the soil, roots, and leaves. Our garden is home to butterflies, insects, birds, and squirrels. Even though the squirrels can be rascals, it is a reflection of our shared being and interconnection.
As Fall deepens, so do the shadows within the garden. The corn is now ripe and dry. Twisting each cob from the stalk, unwrapping the husks, to discover what colors lay inside. It is the best gift. These kernals will be turned into popcorn, posole, and masa to make tamal and tortilla. These are heirloom seeds from the Sonoran and Chihuahuan desert, where our ancestors lived. The garden is a place to honor ancestors, land, and also to make new connections.
Close by, we grow plants native to California native plants, such as Black Sage, featured in these photos, and represented in this colorway. Black sage is an important food source for butterflies, hummingbirds, birds, and bees. The smell is redolent of clean, fresh, and purely green.
Three different dye recipes are used to create this color, and each skein goes through three dyeing steps before it is ready to be washed. As you knit, you'll watch each pop of rust and green work its way onto your needles, and the ever changing nature of the color means you'll always be enchanted by how the colors interplay on the fabric you are creating.
Thank you so much for your support over the years and for celebrating our anniversary with us!
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This colorway is available on four delectable yarns:
Frond (459 yards / 50g): A radiant beam of halo and glow, due to its content of 72% kid mohair and 28% silk. This is wonderful held along with another yarn or knit into a beautiful cloud on its own. Pictured is a single skein of Frond knit into Grainwise by Yamagara. Keep reading to learn more.
Even Tinier Annapurna (565 yards / 112g), a next-to-skin-soft combination of merino wool and cashmere with a beautiful drape. Use one skein to knit the Ara Shawl by Andrea Mowry or any other light fingering weight shawl.
Floating (437 yards / 100g): Made of 70% Alpaca + 20% Silk +10% Cashmere, this is our softest yarn. You can use it to create a single skein scarf or shawl. Or combine it with another yarn, to create an even larger piece, such as Swoop Shawl by Romi Hill!
Rumor - (438 yards / 100g): A yarn that we bring out for special occasions like today! Rumor is constructed from a single ply and has an irresistible shine due to its fiber content of 70% Merino and 30% silk.
How about knitting a Fringed Denim Cowl by Joji Locatelli?
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We used one skein of Frond in Abundant Harvest, Deepening Shadows to create this gorgeous shawl: Grainwise by Yamagara.
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A one-skein asymmetrical shawl that lightly layers
with both sides of the fabric looking equally good
Rhythmic oblique lines work in harmony with any yarn, particularly with a semi-solid or variegated yarn that produces horizontal tonal grains.
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The instructions are written in a way that makes the rhythm of knitting enjoyable. Size is easily customizable by changing yarn, gauge, needle size and number of pattern repeats. Being asymmetrical and having both sides look equally good, this is a shawl that is interesting and easy to style.
Begin the shawl by working a set of instructions that creates Stockinette stitch, a simple lace and reverse Stockinette stitch pattern shaped by short rows. Repetitions of this set of instructions create “layers” increasing in length that visually form slanting lines towards the deepest part of the shawl.
When approximately 45-50% of yarn by weight remains, work the Last Layer (see instructions), then begin garter stitch and decreases to taper the shawl. The yardage of the yarn chosen for the sample and the gauge at which the sample is knitted allow 23 total layers to be made. Feel free to vary this number to create a shawl of a different size.
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Bernice / Yamagara originally made this shawl using one skein of Even Tinier Annapurna. But as you can see from our example, as well as in the description of the pattern, you can use any of the yarns featured in our new colorway. What is enticing is that each of the yarn bases, due to their unique fiber combinations , will knit up differently, each in their own beautiful ways.
You can always make a larger shawl by reserving two skeins.
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