About the color name

When we had been in Cape Cod we saw the amazing landscape. One thing that particularly caught my attention, were the wooden walls and their gray. Then, Cape Cod Gray was born.

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After the trip, I appreciate better Edward Hopper paintings, who has helped to perceive the cap.

Antonio.

Koolhaas Hat at Koolhaas Library

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At Seattle we stop by the amazing Public Library

More information about the pattern here

Antonio and Tobias at Needlemarket!

If you're going to the 2010 Northwest Needle Market this year, keep an eye out for Antonio and Tobias! Needlemarket is the "World's Premiere Wholesale-Only Market", and happens yearly just outside of Seattle, Washington. If you live in the area or you're a wholesaler stopping by (they say people come from over 200 different stores), don't forget to check out the new colors we have in several of the bases, or take a good look at Rios, our new superwash worsted base!

There will be a fashion show and tons of opportunities to interact with vendors and other store owners. For details on location and attending, check out the website.

The guys would love to see you and say hello, and I personally can't wait to hear all about what they've seen, and share some of it with you here on the blog.

Chau, Hannah

Sheep Week - Giveaway Winner!

Goodbye, Los Manantiales -- it was good to explore your grassy pastures, stone steps and walkways, and fruit trees! We had a wonderful time!

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And now, the two great rams will choose the giveaway winner! The winner will receive, by mail:

1 skein of Silky Merino in Celeste

1 skein of Silky Merino in Helechos

2 skeins of Silky Merino in Tatami

1 skein of Worsted Merino in Natural

2 skeins of Rios in Coco

1 skein of Gruesa in Natural (Gruesa is Corriedale! We felt we needed to represent the other sheep here in Uruguay a little, too!)

Congratulations to Glockeroo for winning this great prize! Thank you for your sweet comments, everyone -- it has been a great Sheep Week! Glockeroo, we'll contact you for your mailing address.

Chau, Hannah

Sheep Week - The Rumble of Hooves

This herd is the largest breeding herd of ewes (3,200) in all of Uruguay. Many farms may have a few more ewes, but these ewes are all breeding stock. A few of them even have lambs, and it was a real treat to see the gauchos round them up so we could see them in a group.

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Stay tuned. Tomorrow is the last day of Sheep Week and the winner (and prize) of the Sheep Week giveaway will be announced!

Chau, Hannah

Sheep Week Color Feature - Paysandu

photo by Hannah Thiessen

Feeling inspired? Try Malabrigo in these colorways!

Sock in Natural, Chunky in Pearl, Silky in Tatami, Rasta in Natural, Silky in Helechos, Rios in Coco, Twist in Zinc, Worsted in Jewel Blue

Chau, Hannah

Sheep Week - Fun Factoids

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They tell you not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but does the same go for a Malabrigo sheep? No way! You can tell how old a sheep is by looking at how many teeth have grown in on the front of the bottom jaw. The sheep to the left is a very young sheep - only one year old. When lambs are born, they have a small set of milk teeth and an upper dental pad.

Sheep are marked with a plastic earring that is put in very carefully - the sheep's ears are extremely delicate and the farmers are very concerned about risking pain or infection. Every sheep is pierced with great care. Some farmers even make sure that their sheep can be identified if their tag comes off by tattooing the inside of the ear with the same number.  All the numbers are often entered into a computerized data system with information on the micron count, age, and health of each sheep.

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Contrary to what you may think, sheep aren't only judged on micron or luminosity (the whiteness of the fleece), but also their general health and structure. If a sheep has a lopsided gait or his legs are too short, even with a perfect fleece, he will score lower in competitions than a sheep that has a good build.

Chau, Hannah

Sheep Week - Wool Marking

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The sheep we use for Malabrigo are only the finest merino sheep in Uruguay. This means that the farms have to meet our high standards too, especially in areas like animal treatment, cleanliness, and herd management. SUL, which monitors regulations of wool breeding and herd management, keeps very high quality standards as well. For instance, the Uruguayan wool farmers are not allowed to use mulesing methods to deal with flystrike -- instead, they are trying to breed out the excess folds, and keep their herds small enough to deal with infection and disease.

The herd I visited is located in Paysandu, which is one of the Uruguyan states that contains the most wool farming. The ground there is rocky, which makes it perfect for sheep, who are best left to nibble at what grows up through the rocky ground. If they have too much food, the micron and fineness of the wool is compromised -- too little, and the sheep are unhealthy and produce brittle fleeces and fibers. The balance between the two is crucial, and herders pay attention.

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When shearing season comes around, the herds are marked for quality. Sheep marked with one blue dot (the paint is a chalky substance which washes out when the fleece is cleaned) are fine -- those marked with two blue dots are the superfine sheep that win competitions. The finest wool at this farm is some of the finest in all of Uruguay. Malabrigo purchases  the wool that this farm produces, so you are, for sure, going to be knitting with wool from these sheep!

Chau, Hannah

Sheep Week Kickoff!

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What are these sheep doing? Oh! They're competing to be on SHEEP WEEK!

After going on a really enlightening trip to one of our biggest suppliers of merino in Paysandu, we thought it would be really fun to give you guys a knitter's version of 'Shark Week'! This week will be Sheep Week on the blog, culminating in a giveaway at the end! Updates every day -- stay tuned to learn everything you can about the Malabrigo Sheep and the process of selection for your favorite wool!

Chau, Hannah

Going to the TNNA, stop by New York

New York was on the way to Columbus, so we have to stop and see such an interesting city. We stopped by the Knitty City store in NYC and said hello. We love to look at the art where we travel, and walking by the street we found this:

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It was amazing and funny because I read that New York City police have responded to many calls in the past few weeks from residents concerned that these life-size body casts gazing down from buildings are real people preparing to jump.

Chau, Antonio

Antonio on Hello TNNA Blog

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At the Booth:

Melissa Leapma signing Malabrigo Book Two,  Tobias and  Shannon Okey with a Tomato Beret.

Above pictures from Antonio

The crew from Ravelry - Jess, Casey, Mary-Heather and Sarah - have been busy updating their blog with the awesome experiences they're having at TNNA (click the logo above to see the blog). One experience was learning about our new yarn, Rios, at the Malabrigo booth with Antonio! You can watch it here: Hello from TNNA! Rios video -- You have to knit it!

Chau, Hannah

TNNA

Malabrigo will be attending The National Needlearts Association's trade show this June -- if you're going, be sure to stop by and see us! We'll be introducing our newest yarn, Rios, to the world, and you know we've always got extra surprises up our sleeves, too. Look for Antonio and Tobias at Booth #222,224,226 June 12 - 14, and Melissa Leapman will be signing Malabrigo Book 2 as well, on Sunday at noon.

Meanwhile, we will be holding down the fort here at the factory, so keep an eye on the blog for news and other extra-special posts.

Chau, Hannah

Handarbeit

We went to Handarbeit!

Pajama Party Stitches West

Can you believe it?



Many people knitting in pajama



Some bottles...



by the way, many of them were knitting with malabrigo.

Stitches Midwest Junkies Meeting

At the show we had a wonderful meeting with a lot of Junkies, we met at the booth and then some of us had lunch together.
It was a pleasure to meet you all!

Nina

Right before the Stitches Midwest show, Nina, a well knit shop, in Chicago, held a reception for Malabrigo. Lots of people and of course, lots of yarn!

Columbus II

We had a great show, we had the chance to catch up with a lot of friends and see what's new in the market, besides the Twist, of course.
Speaking of the devil, Twist was a great success! lots and lots of orders. Get ready to see it at your local yarn shop starting October!

When flying back we say this great Lichtenstein sculpture which of course I had to add to my collection...

Columbus

we arrived (finally) at Columbus for the TNNA show. We had a much longer than expected flight, because there was a thunderstorm in Dallas and the plane had to land in San Antonio, TX to refuel before attempting to land in Dallas.
Of course the airport was a mess, but we were very lucky as our connecting flight to Columbus was also delayed so we did not have to book a new flight, the plane was kind of waiting to us!

It seems that this is going to be a very exciting show, lots of new things, we are introducing the Malabrigo Twist, a new bulky yarn, with several plies in 30 colors.

This Friday night is the Fashion show, where we will be displaying a garment designed by Knitter's Magazine, and tomorrow the hard work begins!

Stitches South

When we went on Thursday to start the show, we saw this fantastic car parked at the front of the convention center parking lot. The Whole Nine Yarns is one of our customers in GA and she surely knows how to make an entrance!

Atlanta II

The next day we went visiting Atlanta, we stopped by Strings and Strands, a beautiful shop in our way to downtown. We met Barbara, the owner and we took a picture of the store:



Driving around we saw an Alexander Calder sculpture, and of course I had to take a picture for my "collection":



After that we went to the Centennial Park and saw a group of high school kids playing with the Olympic fountain:



we did a quick tour, it was very nice, and we look forward to coming back next year.