Drool-Worthy Color Cards from Halcyon Yarn

I guess I’ve got Maine on the brain today (wouldn’t it be lovely to be sitting on a deck chair somewhere in Maine, knitting and looking out at the ocean, right about now?) because I’ve been meaning to share this with you for a while and I’m just now getting to it. I’m a big fan of the Maine-based yarn company Halcyon Yarn, and for all the years I’ve been getting their catalogs (which are beautiful and will make you wish you were in Maine even more), I’ve always been intrigued by what they call a Yarn Store in a Box.

This cool sampler includes 45 color cards with more than 115 different yarn styles on them. They include Halycon-label yarns like their Classic Rug Wool, Satin Bamboo (which I am going to have to get some of!) and their Casco Bay line, as well as sames from big-name companies like Noro, Debbie Bliss, Cascade and Reynolds, to name a few.

The people at Halcyon were nice enough to send me a sample box, and it is so much fun to look at all the possibilities and imagine what you’d make form each kind of yarn. For a designer, that’s really inspirational.

I think this box would make a great gift for a knitting friend. In addition to all the sample cards the box includes the company’s yarn and equipment catalogs and a coupon for $10 off your first purchase of $60 or more. Which, when you see all this gorgeous stuff, will take you no time at all to spend!

A few years ago I wrote a post that was full of patterns for knit mushrooms, but I don’t think I ever did a post that was knitting patterns with mushrooms on them, so today’s the day.

I love the Fungi Beanie from Jacki Bean, which calls for worsted weight yarn and uses duplicate stitch to add the mushrooms and other details. I think the colors she used for the design are tonal/multicolor so it doesn’t use as many colors as it looks like, but you can use whatever red, green, brown and white yarn you have in your stash for those details.

How about some mushroom socks? The Magic Toadstool sock form Stone Knits includes a ring of mushrooms around the leg, contrasting heel and toe and a little more colorwork at the toe for extra cuteness. As shown it uses four colors and comes in three sizes.

Or there’s the Fairy Ring Socks from Katie Green, which have mushrooms of two sizes on the legs, plus a bit of wavy grass. They have a contrasting cuff, heel and toe and some colorwork flecks in the body of the sock as well. This one is available in eight sizes to fit everyone from a baby to an XL adult.

This trippy cowl from Hunt Hand Knits looks like a lot of fun to knit. The Fungus Among Us Cowl is shown using four colors of DK weight yarn, though you can do it with as few as two if you’d rather.

Stitch some mushroom mittens with this cute pattern from Holly C Watson. This design uses three colors, and it’s shown with a self-striping yarn on the mushroom caps, which makes the colors change without you having to do any work. The pattern is charted but it’s a pretty easy repeat. The mittens are one size.

If you don’t feel like knitting mushrooms but still want to give your project a touch of the forest, the Toadstools Cardigan from Julie Taylor may be what you’re looking for. It’s stitched as a plain cardigan worked in DK weight yarn and sized for newborns up to 4 years old. The mushrooms are added with embroidery and the pattern includes the design, which you can trace onto water soluble stabilizer to stitch the mushrooms onto your sweater. Or anything else you want. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

Have you read?