For our second edition of the yarn Crawl, I'm proud to introduce another great recommendation from
Phat Fiber's Jessie; Lampyridae.
Lampy creates gorgeous yarns, in lace, sock and sport weight, plus batts for spinning, and I find her story and her relationship with her husband inspiring. Hope you'll enjoy it, too!
Lampyridae is my outlet for creativity and the physical interpretation of my husband's teachings. One of my daughters actually came up with the idea of this business. Her catch phrase:
"Inspired by Nature."
A am an artist married to a scientist. An entomologist to be exact. You will find I am influenced by my husband's overwhelming collection of insect-related reference materials. As fellow fiber artisans, you'll know that the mere mention of moths would strike fear into the hearts of the most fearless of you, but you'll find moths and other crawlies only serve as my muse.
My husband--whom I refer to as "Left Brain"--and I have spent a lifetime collecting antiques and then learning to use them, or how they were originally used. Left Brain is, as I like to call him, an escapee from teh Disco-Pepsi generation, and I suffer from ADCD: Attention Deficit Craft Disorder. Sometime between the day that Left Brain and I said, "I do," and these, well, almost "golden" years, we've found a kind of symbiosis--perhaps mutual dependency on information. Left Brain never stopped learning. I never stopped being curious about color and texture, shape and form.
While Left Brain uses his dip net to capture aquatic critters and painstakingly key them, preserve them and record all manner of data about them, I usually chatter on asking endless questions about the critters' interesting shapes and colors. While he examines their tiny carcasses under the stereoscope, I gaze wonderingly at the jars and vials lining the shelves in front of his vast library of scientific books. And so we carry on this simple life, wondering where it shall next lead us, but never afraid it will be dull.
Each night, Left Brain reads me to sleep form Asimov's or Stephen Jay Gould's writings, and I begin next morning with my brain busy with ideas of microcosmic or macrocosmic creations. I only wish the whole world could be as happy as we are in our most interesting (at least to us) lives.
Lampy sent this pretty skein of Catawba sock weight (named for a wine grape) for Knitcircus designer yarn support; she also enclosed a sample of her Honeybee colorway, which looked exactly like its flying, fuzzy counterpart in hues.
Honeybee's a 2-ply blend, 50% silk, 50% superwash merino. When I swatched with it, the yarn displayed the nice round shape of merino and the subtle shine of silk. It knit up smoothly without snag, and the stitch definition highlighted my simple lace pattern handily.
Silk and merino?! Of course, I got a crush on this yarn instantly. And the sample of Lepidoptera Lace, with its alpaca, cashmere and silk, made me want to cast on an ethereal shawl.
Thanks so much to Lampy for sharing her story and her yarns with us; I highly recommend this yarn for any luxury knitting you've got in mind, for the gift season...or for someone who'll truly appreciate it. Like,you know, a knitter. Like, you know, yourself.
Lampyridae product line:
Lepidoptera Lace: consists of 70% baby alpaca, 20% cashmere, and 10% silk (also offered in fingering weight)Coleoptera: consist of 80% merino and 20% bamboo
Odonata: 100% superwash merino, tight spin, round and springy
Presence or Absence: Undyed yarn/fiber-offered in various fiber contents/weights
Bee's Knees: beads suitable for use in lace-weight yarns-offered in various colors and linings (sz 8/0)
Honeybuns: beads suitable for use in sock and/or fingering weight yarns, offered in various colors and linings (sz 6/0)
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