Issue 1

Welcome!

I’ll be totally honest: this year has been a tricky one to navigate so far. The unpredictability of the world right now has affected all of us, I fear. And it’s left us here at Long Dog Yarn looking to pivot and adjust as best as we can.

On one hand, it forces us to look at our business through a new creative lens, which can lead to lots of exciting possibilities. On the other, not everything we try is going to stick the landing and it’s hard to know if it actually didn’t work or if the forces of reality are just working against us.

But one thing we’ve come away with so far is community matters. We can’t do this whole small business thing without you through the good times and the bad. So I wanted to create a way to connect with you all more without the noise (and everchanging algorithms) of social media. I hope you’ll enjoy this small peek into what we’re working on in & out of the studio and it’ll provide an bit of a creative inspiration for us all to keep on making.

On My Needles

Ghost Whisperer by Park Williams

A lot of my knitting time lately has been filled with working on sample knits. One of my favorites that I finished recently is the Ghost Whisperer by Park Williams.

I knit my version of the top in our Luxe Lace yarn base in the colorway Limoncello. Let me tell you one thing: citrusy yellows are wearable! Don’t let the anti-yellow lobby trick you with its propaganda that it makes you look sickly. I absolutely love this shade and how my Ghost Whisperer turned out. Wearing it makes me feel like a punk rock princess. Plus, with its open texture this top worked up so fast; it was such a satisfying quick knit.

Leith Cardigan by Rebecca Clow

What I’m currently furiously stitching away at is my Leith Cardigan by Rebecca Clow. I’m using our newest yarn base, Cotton Cloud, for this make & have I told you lately how obsessed with this yarn I am? I can’t stop casting on new projects with it. I love everything about it: the slight fluffy halo, the light cotton core, the slightly heathered look - everything! I’m currently stranded on sleeve island, but the end is in sight (I just have to figure out how to do a very long applied button band...🫣).

Inspiration Station

I’m sure I’m not the only one with warm weather makes on the mind lately, and as someone who loves to pack as much color as possible into my makes, I’m currently totally obsessed with the idea of bright summery stripes.

Need a little of your own color inspiration? Our cotton/merino blends are perfect for summer knits and the moody trio of Another Nose for the Nose Jar, Polite Menace, and You Don’t Know the First Thing about Piracy is in stock & just begging to be stripped together! 

News from the Studio

We are finishing out June with a preorder of our fan favorite Tropical Collection, but before we ramp up dyeing for that, we’ve been working on June’s Heirloom Club and having a little fun in the dye pans playing with some spinning fiber.

Long preorders of production dyeing can get very physically and mentally draining, but this year I’ve found experimenting with dyeing combed top fiber has unlocked a new way to explore my creativity in between collection launches. It doesn’t hurt that my newly discovered love affair with spinning is still fully in the obsession phase, so I use it as a purely selfish reason to buy new wool breeds and blends to try out on my spinning wheel.

My Current Obsessions

If you are new around here, I am have a confession: I am a GIANT nerd. And I love to consume a lot of nerdy books, tv, and movies.

My most recent read was Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. It’s the latest in her Hunger Games series and is a prequel telling the story of Haymitch’s Hunger Games (spoiler alert: he survives). It’s been a minute since I read the original trilogy, but I found Sunrise to be the most brutal and the most heartbreaking. And I cannot recommend it enough.

I’m also throughly enjoying Apple TV+’s new series Murderbot based on the books by Martha Wells. It perfectly captures the dry humor of the books & Murderbot is honestly the most relatable robot around.

In the Garden

We’re finally getting into our main growing season for the vegetable garden. The Heirloom Club might be a bit of a clue that I love growing tomatoes in my garden, but I also look forward to growing sweet & hot peppers, summer squash, cucumbers, greens, and more!

In late spring we had a bad hail storm that did a fair bit of damage to my newly planted tomato and pepper plants, but everything seems to be springing back quickly, and we finally have our first tomatoes setting.

Our colder weather crops like lettuce and snap peas are reaching their peak season and I’m looking forward to some delicious salads, although between Rufus and me, the snap peas rarely make it from the garden into the house.

On My Plate

Speaking of summer salads, one of my favorites this time of year is a delicious watermelon feta salad. The combo of that sweet, juicy watermelon with the salty tang of feta cheese and refreshing mint... 🤤

It’s so delicious and even better - it’s so easy to make!

This recipe from Simply Eats is a great one that also mentions some ways you can customize the salad to your tastes or whatever else you may have in season to use.

Your Amazing Makes

One of my favorite parts of this business is seeing what you create with our yarns. You are incredibly inspiring to us!

This Kintra sweater (pattern by Rebecca Clow) knit by @ladyjanadriel using the One Collection to Rule Them All tonals is one of my favorite Long Dog makes that I’ve come across lately. Each colorway is inspired by a different member of the Fellowship in The Lord of the Rings, so I absolutely love the idea of having a sweater that brings the Fellowship with you when you wear it.

If you share your makes on Instagram, tag us @longdogyarn so I can see and share your amazing makes.