Let's talk about mini-skeins, since we've just listed a few sets in the shop.
We started dyeing mini-skeins as a way of ensuring our dye baths were fully exhausted. When dyeing saturated colours (pinks and reds in particular) there can be a tendency for the dye baths to not fully exhaust, so popping a few mini-skeins in the dye pans after having dyed up our main colourways was a simple and efficient way to ensure all the dye was used up, whilst also creating some fun and one-of-a-kind minis. It's a win-win situation as far as I'm concerned, as you always want to avoid pouring left over dye down your drains.
As our small pile of minis grew, we couldn't help but start putting combinations together (and having lots of fun in the process) and next thing you know we had become a little addicted to creating mini-skein sets.
The mini skein sets we've listed this week range from subtle to bold, but they all feature 5 x 20gm mini skeins, totalling 400m for the five skeins or 80m per mini.
So what to do with your mini-skein sets?
Well, traditionally I always used my mini-skeins as contrast colours for heels, toes and cuffs on my socks, but there's really no limit as to what you can use them for.
Here's a few of my favourite patterns which feature mini skeins:
Melanie Berg's Solaris Shawl is a gorgeous asymmetrical shawl which features eyelets, short rows and a contrast border made up of stripes and bobbles of five contrast colours:
Soul Warmer by Justyna Lorkowska of Lete's Knits is a simple and effective cowl pattern designed for a six mini skein set (you could simply use 20gm of a complimentary left over yarn together with one of our mini skein sets):
Joji Locatelli's Gradient Band Cowl is an infinity cowl pattern which pairs five mini skeins with one main colour to great effect:
And then on to socks...we have three favourites.
Another Joji Locatelli pattern, from Interpretations 6, Moonlight Socks, which use five different colours:
Danielle Jorge's of Little Bobbins' Love and Patches Socks, which uses five x mini skeins and is a fun combination of texture and colour:
And last, but by no means least, Tracie Millar of the Grocery Girls' On the Porch Socks, which feature three contrast colours:
Ravelry is full of patterns which feature mini-skeins, as they're such a fun way of introducing different colour into your knitting.
Happy crafting,
Karina
