March Mowry Madness 2018

Hello Everyone!

During our March Mowry Madness we reveled in the amazing patterns by Andrea Mowry of Drea Renee Knits. While Andrea Mowry is not the first designer to coin the term “fade” (that was Stephen West), she is arguably most responsible through her designs for many of us finding our fade and catching “fade fever”. For many of us in the Yarns Family of Yarns by HPF, we first met Andrea Mowry when we knitted her “What the Fade?!” shawl, her mystery KAL that incorporated six skeins where colors seemed to magically melt into one another. For me, I learned a different way of putting colors together, using keys bits or speckles of color in one skein to bring out a color in the next skein.

During an interview with indie UNTANGLED, Andrea was asked how she “Find Your Fade” shawl, came to be. She explained that she likes to do what she calls a “creativity experiment” and uses yarn from her stash that she most wants to use without constraints or expectations. And finding your fade doesn’t stop at shawls, during our Mowry Madness KAL this month our knitters have “So Faded” and “Comfort Fade Cardi” on their needles. Andrea Mowry also designs modern handmade garments like the “Weekender”, which is not a fade but does incorporate interest with a tubular cast on and well placed slipped stitches and purls. This is my first sweater and with such a well-written pattern and links to new skills, like the tubular cast on, I am confident that my first sweater will not be my last. We are looking forward to seeing everyone’s sweaters. We are also knitting the Vintage Prim Hat because you can never have enough Brioche!

And here’s a little bit more about Andrea Mowry. She learned how to knit from her Grandma Ginny. Andrea started her career as a pastry chef and went to culinary school. The owner of the bakery shop where she got her first baking job loved that she put knitting under ‘other skills” on her resume. When she left the kitchen she went from writing recipes to writing patterns, something she says felt very organic for her. Her designs are inspired by yarn colors and she always swatches. And lucky for us, she is so creative that we have great deal of “Mowry Madness” to choose from. Based on her social media, Andrea looks like she loves to knit with other knitters bring the sense of community among those of us who love having a project on our needles or hooks for that matter. And community is so important to our lives and well-being.

Now, a bit more about community - Jacksonville, AL, the home of Yarns by HPF and many members of our Yarns Family, was recently hit with an EF-3 tornado on March 19^th. This tornado took out homes, the local university buildings, businesses, and a church, among other devastation. The pictures and video on the news cannot capture the brutality of nature. But what are very apparent is the strong sense of community though people’s resilience, volunteerism, and strength. #jacksonvillestrong is not just a hashtag but a way of life as Jacksonville, AL recovers. We were so hearted when our Yarn Family checked in with each other and us. Communities come in all shapes and sizes and our Yarns Family came together to help and comfort each other. We are so grateful that our Yarns Family is safe and we definitely felt the strong sense of community when we gathered in the store so we could be together and find a bit of peace among the severest of storms. Our Yarns Family and our Jacksonville, as always, are in our heart. After all, we are #jacksonvillestrong !!

Knit On, Lisa