Barely two weeks since Leo Pola left us.   Leo was a very prolific lace-knitting pattern designer and writer, creating dozens (scores? hundreds?) of patterns that he shared freely, encouraging others to knit.   As they knit, they’ve have questions, find mistakes, and generally encourage Leo’s creativity even further.  It was an amazing partnership between designer and knitter — a literal community of sharing and caring.  Not many designers have the privilege of having so many knitting their designs, and not many knitters have the privilege of such open access to the designer.

Back in 2010, Leo was in the area for one of his Renaissance Faire events (he was also incredibly active and well known in that sphere as well) and he came by to share an afternoon of dyeing yarn in my studio.  He was creating a speckled gray skein for himself here:

Leo was a great friend to Knitivity, supporting my work in various ways, but mostly buying my yarns and (even better) sharing my yarns with others.  Through the years, when I would post new yarns for sale, he would share the links with his network, which was much, much larger than my own network.   Because of him and his openly sharing my links, my own network grew as well, and I have many clients who found me through him and many have become friends as well.

After he passed, a mutual friend suggested I create a new colorway in his honor.  I pondered it a bit, and remembered one colorway in particular that he really liked and ordered more than once:  The After Hours Collection.

This picture is from 2014, so I redyed new samples, as my techniques have changed slightly but the main recipe is the same. First  is the 3-skein Collection, followed by 4 samples from each individual colorway.

Disclaimer:  I am currently fighting with both a new computer and a new-to-me older camera that I’ve not figured how to adjust, so it seems the colors are washed out, at least on my new monitor screen, but the new dye jobs are actually pretty close to the 2014 versions. A new camera is on its way so I hope to get better pictures soon.

Click any image to see larger versions.

To honor Leo, I am bringing this collection out of retirement for a limited time for those who wish to order some for themselves.   These shown are on Phydlbitz Sock (75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430), and many of these shown are already pre-claimed.   However I am making these colorways available for the month of January,  as pre-paid custom orders.  They are each $27.00 per skein, and you can request as many of any of them as you want.  I will order as much yarn as there are requests for these.

Each week, on Mondays, I will collect the orders and then order enough yarn to fill those orders, my supplier will ship via Fed Ex, so should be here in time for dyeing the next weekend and shipping the following Tuesday or Wednesday.  So figure about a 2-week turn around from placing your order and me shipping them back out.

Instead of creating special order forms for each of these, just send me an email and tell me what you want, which color(s) and how many.   And be sure to tell me your state or country so I can calculate correct shipping for you.  I’ll send you a PayPal invoice (same as I do for the Blog Reader Specials), and when that is paid your custom dye order will be included in the queue.

Each skein is $27.00, but if you request the Three-Color Collection (After Hours, Sensatorium, Luscious) I will give you a 10% discount on a set of three (so $72.90 for the Collection, instead of $81 for three individual skeins).   Each skein is individually dyed so there will be some variation in dye distribution, but the colors will all be the same.

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