August ALC Yarn Club

The theme for the August yarn club was Summer Sunsets and oh my goodness is there any better inspirations than nature? Sunsets are so unique and beautiful. The colorways from August are some of my all times favorites and I’m excited to share a little behind the scenes with you.

One of the things that is a little different out ALC Yarn Club is not everyone gets the same exact colorway. I create several different colorways for each month. I do this for 2 reasons: I don’t like doing the same thing over and over again because it just takes the joy out of it & I know not all of my yarn club members like the same colors. Some people just don’t like pink yarn or blue yarn, etc and I want to make sure when they open their yarn club box that they LOVE their yarn! Having more than one colorway gives me more options to hand pick the PERFECT one for each member.

I usually get my color inspirations by searching Pinterest for color palettes. I love seeing all of the different colors paired together and some of the inspiration pictures as well. I am such a visual person and this helps me to really narrow down my options. If I get in the dye room without a plan, there is no telling what theme the yarn will be. I would just be tossing color on the yarn like it’s confetti. I know it will be amazing but it’s nice to stick with a theme for yarn club.

I didn’t need to search Pinterest for August’s color ideas because I drew inspiration from some of my favorite sunsets from some of my favorite places. I love watching sunsets when I am out of town but I tend to miss them when I am at home. Some of my favorite sunsets are in my own backyard.

Having sunsets on my mind while I was thinking about the colorways, really made me realize that I need to slow down and actually take the time to enjoy sunsets. I’m in go go go mode all day long so by the evenings I’m tired and still trying to finish all the things so I can finally sit down and relax. By the time I sit down, the sun has already gone down and I missed another sunset. Taking those moments to slow down and be still really helped me prioritize my to do list! Mainly finding things to remove from that list!

When I slowed down and took some time to be still, it really allowed my creative brain to rest. That rest resulted in some amazing ideas that didn’t feel rushed or pressured. Just like painters and writers, our feelings show up in our creations.

If any of this resonates with you, I want to encourage you to just take some selfish time to just be still and rest. Even if it’s just 15 minutes to work on a crochet project! I know that if you are like me as soon as someone says rest, you have 15,000 things pop in your head as to why that’s just not possible right now. BUT if you really look at your to do list and ask yourself these 3 questions: 1. Does it have to be done right now or even today? 2. Does it have to be done by me? 3. Does this have to be done at all? I know that sounds so silly but it has really helped me.

Last but not least is my favorite colorway from August, Sailor’s Delight!

When I was a kid, we had a small camper near the Mississippi River that was our weekend getaway spot in the summer. We set out trot lines in the evenings and then got up super early the next morning to see what fish we caught. I remember my Dad saying “red at night sailor’s delight” as we tried to beat the sunset on the way back to the boat landing.

I hope you enjoyed a little peek into some of the process behind the yarn club colorways. So much thought and love goes into each hank of yarn.

My favorite part is shipping out of all of those boxes and waiting for the comments to roll in about checking their tracking and the excitement that I know is just waiting for each one of the receivers.

I hope that you will take time to enjoy sunsets. Nature has a way of putting a smile on your face and peace in your heart. Kind of like yarn does. 🙂

I would love to hear about some of your favorite sunsets! Feel free to leave a comment below or reach out on social media. You can find me on Facebook and Instagram.