Some of our KnowItAllDivas have chosen an official yarn for the Linden Hills Yarn Shop. I suggested a knit-along. Kathleen selected an arbitrary date to end the "contest" and this whole thing has snowballed!
Austrian painter, sculptor and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser created his painting "Die StraBe zum Sozialismus" in 1982. He "rejected the straight line and embraced bold color, organic forms and humans in harmony with nature." He loved experiencing the heightened colors found during rainy days and often painted in the buff.
ZwergerGarn is a German yarn company which produces a spectacular line of sock weight yarns by the name of Opal. The rainforest, insects, birds and Hundertwasser's paintings have been used as inspiration for their colorways over the years. We've had the Hundertwasser 1 sock series in the store for a while and are excited to report that Hundertwasser 2 will be available this fall.
The labels on these products are a mix of German and English text. All it took was for one of our brilliant customers to point out that the name of this particular colorway of yarn is translated as "The Road to Socialism" (and she of course used it to make something for her uber-conservative niece) in order for Jan to start selling it like capitalism might end tomorrow. I believe it was the Saturday morning KIADs that adopted it as the "Official" yarn of the store. Then serendipitously, although not suprisingly, Claudia was over at her mother's place and noticed on her shelf a small book about Hundertwasser and his paintings which she brought into the store.
I'm always up for a promotion and decided we should have a knit-along using this sock yarn. However, we will not bring down the hammer and sickle requiring the participants to make socks. Make whatever you want using your yarn. Hats, sweaters, comrade cozies. Just bring your finished project into the shop before the ending ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics and in addition to a brotherly pat on the back, you will be eligible to put your name in a drawing to win more Opal yarn!
M. already finished one sock.
