Well, this is certainly a red-letter day for the Princess. We are thrilled to bits ‘n pieces to announce that the SF Cycle yarns is in store!

Produced as a collaboration with Sincere Sheep Yarns, the SF Cycle is a series of colorways based on SF neighborhoods. All the yarns are hand-dyed in Napa by the lovely Brooke Sinnes (cause let’s face it, nobody here in the city has the room!), from natural dyes, as many totally organic as we could get, and all sustainably sourced. Think things like indigo, and various flowers that We can’t remember but the Royal gardener would.

What’s your hood?:

Castro: What color is your rainbow, baby? Have some PRIDE and knit a pair of go-go socks with these.

The Haight: Only the finest, bud. Fly high on this combo of greens and browns.

The Mission: Hey, muchachas and muchachos! Knit up the colors of the Mexican flag, with some hipster pink thrown in.

The Tenderloin: Had a rough night? This blend of blood, bruises and blood will set you right till you need your next craft fix.

Pac Heights: A crisp white and deep ocean blue. A patrician blend perfect to knit up your ancien regime’s high society crest.

Noe Valley: An explosion of pastels in kid-friendly pastels (and did we mention it’s all 100% superwash merino so you can toss those togs in the washing machine?).

North Beach: Anyone feel like some spaghetti and tourists? Go for it with this mix that mirrors the Italian flag, and brings to mind fresh pasta, sweet tomato sauce and tasty basil. Bellissimo!

The Sunset: A salt-swept blend of the ocean, the fog and the green of GG Park. We lived in the Sunset for 8 years, so this one’s close to Our hearts.

Some things to note:

1) Yarns are 100% superwash merino! Yeah, that means you can put them in the washer, but we still recommend hand-drying flat.

2) Indigo is a natural dye (like your jeans) that can bleed temporarily to hands and seems like it’s transferring to other colors. But no go. Turns out it can’t chemically bond to anything else, so give it a nize wash and you’re set. Only thing to know is that it will transfer to bamboo needles (the porousness or something), but the color won’t transfer to your next project. It’s sort of like the blue badge of courage. “Damn right I knit with indigo!”

Yarns are of a heavy fingering weight, so you might want to go up a needle size. Or not. Your hood, your choice.

Lovingly constructed with 100% supersoft superwash merino wool. We know we didn’t hit all of sf’s hoods in this first shot. So let Us know if We missed your hood, and more importantly, what color your hood is, right down there in the comments.

You may now commence your city-wide celebrations now.

Gettin' all squammy about it

Awesome art outside jazz club in cambridge

Hello Muddah, Hello Fadder:
Here I am at…Camp Squam (ama…add those last letters to rhyme).

Welcome to the Princess’ report on Squam Art Workshops, from which She has just returned (well,
almost. Technically, We are on the last day of our worldwind East Coast pageant. Our people came out
and cheered and wept at the sight of their beloved Princess. And also kept asking Us for directions,
whence We were in NYC. We had cleverly disguised Ourselves as a local, so that We may walk amongst
Our east coast subjects with ease. But We’ll get to that later.

First stop: Cambridge, whatfor to visit Our brother, Jimmy. We continued Our eons-long viewing of Dark
Shadows, which made Us want to knit an intimidating and mysterious cloak.

Then onto Our country seat in Cape Cod, for a one-night-only engagement with the family. We began
to convert (corrupt?) young Sammy, a mere 10-year-old sprite, into the Cult of Knitting. She, in turn,
retaught me how to latchhook. Sammy is an expert at the latchhook ways. We would like to carry fun,
twisted devious latchhook kits in the store, if anyone has a good line on some.

Thence back to Cambridge for more Dark Shadows, and watching a bust at the Harvard Coop of a couple
of ne’er-do-wells in the bathroom. Apparently these bilious rogues were well-known to the constables
as thieves, and, after said thieves emerged from the men’s bathroom, where they stayed for 20 minutes
or so, threw them up against the wall and cuffed them. Apparently it took seven coppers to subdue two
hapless shmoes. At one point, the one copper told them “You gimme any trouble and I promise you’ll
suffah!” (insert boston accent). My favorite part was that the excuse one rogue gave for being in the
bathroom so long was “I got colitis! I couldn’t hold it anymore!” And a big case of shoplifting, too. If the
Princess ever gets corralled, you get bet We’ll yell “Stay back! We got colitis!”

Next onto the main event: Squam Art Workshops in New Hampshire. The Princess is not one for large
group getaways, but this was awesome. Fantastical to be surrounded by so many knitters and crafters,
every age, every craft, all coming together to get all crafty. And major crafters too, like Cat Bordhi,
Ysolda Teague, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, and Cal Patch. Situated on the lovely Squam lake, it was great
to be in the middle of the woods and craft the hell out of everything. Re-learned to embroider with
Rebecca Rinquist, and finally, finally learned to crochet. We actually feel ready & excited to take on our
first crochet project, whatever that may be. Squam was incredibly inspiring, and gave Us confidence to
get to the next step, which is designing, yo. With a why not attitude. Made tons of new friends, and as
a result will soon be featuring hand-dyed yarns by the lovely Jill Draper and patterns by the so-young-
and-talented-it-makes –Us-jealous Natalie Selles. We Squammies bonded the heat the first day, cold the
second, the infestation of mosquitoes, but especially this, summed nicely up in Squam’s Journal:

“Friendship is born when one person says to another

What?

You too?

I thought I was the only one.”—C.S. Lewis

Oh, then on to NYC to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit, which was awesome. We will be installing a hologram in the store as a result. Okay, not really. But we’d like to.

We very much want to thank the whole Squam team for putting together such a great event. Hopefully
we’ll have Squam on the West Coast soon…

But one thing We very much wanted to start a discussion about here is the question of craft vs.
creativity. There was a lot of talk at Squam about knitting being creative. We actually disagree. We think
that knitting is a craft, handiwork, an immersive experience, and a set of techniques and tools that fire
learning and also signal relaxation. We think that creativity comes when you’re designing something,
rather than following a pattern. The Princess is an extremely happy pattern-follower (and hopefully will
be designing stuff soon). We heart patterns. But does that make Us creative, or adept at technique?
Which is not to say at all that the two can’t be combined, and often is, but We think there’s a difference.

What do you say to that, crafters? Agree to disagree in the comments, yo.

-As ever, We remain your beloved Sovereign, soon returning to Our homeland, the Queendom of San
Francisco,

Princess Animal