Introducing Imagination

I'm really excited to finally get to share with you a yarn line that we've been working on for 9 months! Imagination is a hand-painted Superwash Merino and Alpaca blend sock yarn. It's machine washable (we weren't sure if it would be, but it passed the machine washing tests with flying colors), and it knits up to be slightly thicker than our existing sock yarns, probably because the Alpaca content makes it a little fuzzier and lofty. The photo on the right is my ad photo, so you can see the names (click for bigger).

I thought I would give you a behind the scenes look at how we picked colors for this yarn, which has up to 7 colors in each colorway. At our fall color choosing meeting, Tina and Kelley approached Katie and me and asked that we come up with 8 colorways for the new hand-painted sock yarn because we design fabric for our sister company, Connecting Threads, so we have a lot of experience with coordinating colors within one design. The challenge was that we had to mock up a hank on the computer that simulated what the hank would look like when the dyers at our factory paint it. So we created long donut shapes in Photoshop and "painted" them with our colors of choice. At first we thought it would be hard to come up with so many combinations out of the blue, but then we hit upon the fairy tale theme. The first colorway I created was a purple, blue, green and charcoal one, and it reminded me of the "Wicked" broadway poster that I'd seen a couple months earlier, thus "Wicked Witch" was born. Once I had a theme, it was very easy to come up with color combinations. In fact, that hard part was stopping!

Once we had the colorways finished and approved by the rest of the Knit Picks gang, we printed them out, mailed them to the factory, and the factory dyers pasted those printouts directly over their workstations for reference while dyeing. I was very nervous how the yarn would come out, since I only had limited dyeing experience, so we sent two extra colorways. That way we figured we could drop at least two if they didn't work out. Well, we were blown away by the results when our test skeins came back a few months later. We tried to eliminate two colorways, but we all loved them so much that Kelley convinced Bob that we should just keep all 10!

When the yarn arrived, we all took turns passing around a "sock leg" that Kerin started to see how they all knit up. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the colors blended nicely without dramatic pooling. (Results will vary, of course, based on gauge and stitch count.) At first Kerin's sock leg was 68 stitches around, but we realized that the yarn is a little heavier than our other sock yarns, so the sock was looking huge. I decreased down to 60 stitches on my portion (see where it narrows at Gingerbread House?), and that produced a more average sized sock leg. I must note that the only yarn that is missing from this photo is Wicked Witch. Karen Johnson, our Connecting Threads VP, was so enamored of it that she absconded with the yarn and knit full socks! She's been out sick, so I couldn't get a photo. Her socks are 68 stitches around, and they're pooling in a very cool spiral design. If knit at 60 stitches, Wicked Witch would be more blended, similar to Lost Boys.

I hope you enjoy our newest sock yarn! It will be on our web site this Friday, and it will be $4.99 per 50 gram skein. I'm having a hard time narrowing down my favorites. I HAVE to have Seven Dwarves, Frog Prince, and Wicked Witch, but a couple others might "fall into my cart" as well. Which colors are your favorites?

Tags: fall, imagination, new, sock, yarn

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Comment by MartyAZ on October 30, 2009 at 6:09pm: I have Imagination, Looking glass. I have a pair of sox just about done with it, but the sox haven't come out right. (too small among other things). I love the yarn. If I frog these socks, and re-use the yarn for better socks, should I do anything to fluff it up and make it more useable? How much frogging can the Alpaca in this yarn stand?

Comment by Cyndi Martin on December 27, 2008 at 11:35am: LOVE Seven Dwarves!

Comment by Melissa on July 7, 2008 at 8:28am: Lynne - Are you a member of Ravelry? In the Knit Picks Lovers Group there's a whole topic on what baby stuff to knit. (Or maybe you started that topic?) They have a lot of great suggestions.

Rose - Sorry I missed your question the first time. I don't know of immediate plans to offer Imagination in Bare, but I will mention your request to Tina & Kelley who make the yarn line decisions.

Lynnephelps - I'm afraid that we just don't have the time and knitterpower to knit all multicolored yarn up. The reason we did Imagination is because it was a brand new yarn line, and we were wash-testing it as well. What I do when I want to see a yarn knit up is do a search in Ravelry. You should be able to find lots of projects to look at there.

Comment by Kittcatt on July 6, 2008 at 7:49pm: I can't wait to get my hands on this stuff!! Looks great!

Comment by lynnephelps on July 5, 2008 at 1:15pm: I love the photo with the knitted samples. It is SO difficult to imagine how a multi-colored yarn will translate from the skein to the knitted sock tube. Could you PLEASE please please do the same thing for the multicolor and twist essential yarns? It would be so very helpful to see how these appear when knitted.

LOVE the Imagination - first picks are Ginger Bread plus some sold out colors - Seven dwarves and Wicked Witch being my next favorites! I second the idea about offering this as a bare yarn in a larger skein - I would love to dye some for shawls and lace knitting.

Comment by Nancy on July 5, 2008 at 10:06am: Melissa,

I think you are a saint for answering all the questions! great Yarn!!

Comment by Lynne on July 1, 2008 at 10:40am: Dear Melissa,
Thank you very much for your reply. I'm sorry I posted twice (I'm new at this, as you've probably guessed.)

I love your idea of a set of matching bootees and cardigan/kimono, and perhaps adding a little hat to complete an ensemble! Any suggestions for a particular pattern?

Thanks again and best wishes, Lynne

Comment by Melissa on July 1, 2008 at 8:44am: Tropic, as I mention in my post above, Wicked Witch is not in the sock leg photo. Read above for details.

Lynne, I could see Imagination being used for a really sweet baby cardigan with matching bootees, or even a toddler skirt or pants (you'd probably want to put elastic in the waist). I know some knitters on Ravelry have also mentioned using it for baby blankets.

Comment by Lynne on June 30, 2008 at 11:05pm: What baby things would you recommend using Imagination to knit? (In the yarn description is mentioned that it would work well for baby things.) Thanks!!

Comment by Lynne on June 30, 2008 at 11:01pm: What baby things would you recommend doing in Imagination? (In the description it suggest it could work well for baby things.) Thanks!!