Many of you have e-mailed asking me to continue making kits for you for holidays and special events, and as I aim to please, I have a new kit to share with you! In honor of Mother's Day, I've designed the Tea Luncheon Knit Kit in either Pink or Celadon Green. This kit is inspired by my own first Mother's Day two years ago.
James was a energetic baby- not yet a year old (shown above), he was at the stage where he was constantly changing. I would get used to one stage and think "wow, I can really do this- I'm getting used to this and feel like I'm doing a great job!" and then his sleep pattern would change, or he'd want to eat more, or he'd get more clingy... basically changing things up enough that every few weeks our patterns would be different and I would feel like I was caught in a tide, being repeatedly banged against the rocks and never reaching shore. Being a new mom was a trying time for me, and I think had someone just said, "This part ends, and life gets back to normal... a really great, new normal. Trust me. This too shall pass."
It was during this time that my sister-in-law invited me to Indy to the Scottish Rite to attend their Mother's Day Luncheon. It was a day to dress up, drink tea, eat chocolate covered strawberries, visit crafty booths and watch a fashion show. And as a new mom whose new uniform was yoga pants and an IU t-shirt, I was sure I would feel out of place and uncomfortable. Plus it would mean 2 hours in a car with a baby who had acid reflux and hated being scrunched up in a car seat.
But I decided that I might as well try it. I might as well commemorate my first mother's day by doing something memorable and fun. Who knows, I might like it.
It turned out to be a wonderfully relaxing day- almost jarring in how different it was from how I typically spent my afternoons. I dressed up, sat at a table of family amidst 300 other mothers who had all been in my place at some point in their life. Each table was elaborately decorated with a different theme. There were flowers and smiles everywhere, and no one was yelling or crying or attached to my body. I was served hot tea and got to finish the cup while it was still hot, ate delicious morsels, and I wasn't in charge of anything the entire day. It was just the vacation I needed.
I designed this Mother's Day kit to bring you a mini vacation in your life. Sit down in your favorite chair, brew a cup of hot tea, nibble a tasty cookie, and knit away. Give yourself this gift of fiber-filled time, or gift it to a mother in your life. Not a mother? You can still treat yourself! It's just a gorgeously feminine kit! So what's in the kit? Take a look:
I have two colors options for the bags for this kit. Shown above is the PINK KIT. It's the exact same as the CELADON GREEN KIT shown below, except that the flower fabric has an ivory background, and the reverse side is a pink stripe instead of the green stripe shown below. Each fully reversible sock project bag is hand made by Stacey at Silver Moon Studios (here are some of her other bags).
See that little fabric pyramid on the right? The one that looks like a fancy tea bag? That's a lavender-filled sachet! Stacey stitched up for us a whole slew of adorable sachets filled with hand picked lavender. They smell awesome and are a great way to keep your sock yarn stash, or sock drawer, smelling lovely. She sent me one a few months ago, and I keep it right by my knitting chair and every night I shake it up a bit to release the lovely lavender scent. I think you need one too.
Miss Bab's Fiber Goods designed the special edition Tea Roses colorway for this kit. And if 100 grams of Bab's Yummy 2-Ply Merino isn't special enough for you, there's even a 33-yard mini skein in the coordinating Blushing semi-solid color. You can knit your toes and heels in the semi-solid, or use it for edging on lace, or use it for an adorable little pair of baby booties. These colors are only available through this kit.
You'll also receive a sampling of teas from Ashby's of London, as well as Scottish shortbread. I want you to receive a truly special package that reminds you to take a bit of time to smell the roses... or lavender in this case.
While I was able to increase the number of kits available from the last time, please do keep in mind that the last kit I designed for Valentine's Day sold out in 4 hours. I expect this kit to last the better part of a day- perhaps a few days. I'd love to have enough of these kits made so that you can order days or weeks after they come out, but as each part is hand made, there's a limit to how much I can ask the artisans to do. They do have other stores to dye/sew for and as much as I'd like to monopolize their time, I can't expect them to spend a year creating pieces just for SSYC and alienate all their other accounts. So I have a few hundred for you, and once they are sold out, that's it. So please do order your kit either in pale CELADON GREEN or PINK as soon as you decide for sure that you want it. These its are available for immediate shipment, and you are welcome to order other items along with it, if you want to qualify for free US shipping (orders over $70).