Thursday, April 09, 2015

New from Manos

Merino Roving from Manos del Uruguay arrived today. The roving is hand painted in beautiful colours.
100% merino wool
100gram skeins

What can you do with this?
-needle felting
-wet felting
-spin it
-knit thrum mitts

Here is a bit about Manos

The Manos Cooperatives were founded in 1968, begun by five women whose goal was to develop economic opportunities for women in a country where there were, and are still, few opportunities for work. 
They began modestly, by selling handcrafts at local shops and the annual agricultural show in Montevideo. In time spinning, dyeing, weaving and knitting became the focus of the Coop’s efforts. Initially the “faded”, striated colors of Manos yarn were the result of heating yarn for dyeing in large, iron kettles over wood fires. Over the years, the dying process has been refined to provide consistency of color without losing what has become the trademark stria shading.
With each purchased skein of Manos del Uruguay yarn you will be helping a woman to support her family. Each skein is signed, so you will know who made your yarn, and from which village it came. You will be supporting the hand-crafted rather than mass-produced, and contributing to an economy where the workers control of the means of production. You, as a handknitter, crocheter or weaver, will be contributing to women’s careers in harmony with family life, and contributing to the landscape, and cultural heritage of Uruguay. 
I pulled out my Bella Lino cardigan today. I totally forgot to take knitting with me to work - luckily there is usually something hanging around the store for me to work on. I need to get going on the cardigan if I'm going to wear it to TNNA in June. There is also the Resolution that I need to knit two garments this year.
It's a nice break from Ley Lines. I love that pattern but knitting the same shawl twice, right in a row, can be a bit much. Also you need to watch the knits, purls, increases and decreases. This is knit one row, purl one row. Better to work on while watching the Masters.

Here is a picture of the boys today. I sent it to Beth to show that I am treating them well and that they are happy with me.

Now the dogs and I are going to watch the Blue Jays. It's a good start to the game but last night started out well and ended poorly. Hopefully they don't do that again.

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