I am SO incredibly impressed with Trendsetter’s new yarn “Venus”.  It is Trendsetter’s version of many different textured yarns tied into one skein, and it is contains high quality yarns.  It is really soft, and the yarns in it are much different than any of the yarns I have seen in Trendsetter’s current collection.

I wasn’t sure I was going to be a fan of this yarn considering I am such a collector of Prism Stuff, but I am pleasantly surprised.  It is MUCH nicer in person than in any photo I have seen of it.  Venus is not handpainted, but the yarn color combinations are really nice.  It runs about $23 for 200 yards.

To me, this yarn looks best in a ripple or chevron stitch.  My LYS is currently doing a blanket using a chevron, and it is outstanding.  Because I had already seen it in a chevron, I wanted to mess around with it in a diffent pattern to see if I could get it to look any better than it does in a chevron. Not sure if I have accomplished that yet.  I decided on Knitty’s Ella:   http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall05/PATTella.html.  This killed two birds with one stone….I have wanted to play with Ella since it came out, and I wanted to experience this yarn in something other than a pattern where it would stripe.  I am not yet certain if this is the right pattern for this yarn, but I’ll keep you posted.  I will say that Ella is one of the few patterns that I would rather read the chart on than read the written pattern, and I am not a huge fan of charts.

This week I finally re-dyed the yarn that I initially dyed on my Memorial weekend post.  This was from a Louet Sales Hand Dye Kit that my girlfriend gave me, and I was never happy with the way it turned out initially.  I finally bit the bullet and ordered the additional dye from Louet to saturate it again.  I’m really glad I did as I finally got it the way I want it.  I plan to swatch it up this weekend, and I’ll post a picture soon.  While I was re-dying the Louet yarn (GEMS Merino is what came in the kit), I also dyed a skein of Knit Picks Bare Natural yarn I had laying around.  I don’t suggest using the Knit Picks yarn if you ever want to dye anything.  There is a HUGE difference in the yarn quality between the Louet and the Knit Picks, especially after it is dyed.

This weekend, my girlfriends and I FINALLY got to get together to visit a local fabric store that we have been trying to go to all together for many months.   I do not sew, but this store makes me want to learn.  The only bad thing is there is no way I could afford to make any garment out of most of their fabrics that I would want.  This isn’t just any fabric store!  They carry hand-painted and hand-beaded fabrics from artistans from around the country, and most of these fabrics are exclusive to their store. Fortunately they were having a sale when we went, and I picked up an open weave hand painted fabric that is very soft, and was only $27 a yard.  I also picked up just a few inches of some hand beaded trim that I didn’t even realize matched the fabric until after I came home.  They have a large selection of fabrics that range from $500 to $600 a yard!  If you sew, this is a website you definately want to check out for ideas and inspiration:

http://www.fabriquefabrics.com/