Welcome back! Are you ready for more? I know I am! If you missed our first post be sure to scroll down and check it out! We here at Jimmy Beans have been putting together some great color pairings for you because looking at colors on a screen can make it so hard to determine if they look good together - am I right? Well fret no longer! We are using Madelinetosh's Tosh Merino Light because it is one of our most popular yarns of all time and is really versatile as well. OK - here we go!


Three Color Combos


Yesterday we explored some great two color combinations, and you can check out that post below or see our kit on our website here. Today we will be talking about three color combos (kit link here). Putting three colors together can be a daunting task. Each color must look good with not one but two colors and must be an essential part of that pairing. A favorite saying of mine is from Antoine de Saint Exupéry - "It seems that perfection is attained, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away." If you think you would be doing a disservice to your project by excluding the third color you know you have chosen great colors. We hope we have done the same here. What patterns might you use these wonderful colors in? Well there are myriads to chose from but we think Any of these would be stellar: Ripple Effect, Herrington, Deep Woods Toque from Knitscene Winter 2015 and Lilli Pilli,



Top Left: Composition Book Grey, Silver Fox and Sugar Plum -  We had to do at least one gradient combo - right? Imagine how wonderful this combowould look in the Changing Light pattern?!? Composition Book Grey consistently has a purple bent and combined with Silver fox and Sugar Plum you get a magically elegant purple pairing.


Top Center: Edison Bulb, Holi Festival and Oceana - This is the most wild pairing in the bunch! You can find flecks of Edison Bulb in Holi Festival and the whole thing is reigned in a little by the bright Oceana blue. It's a raucous celebration of color, but not an assault on the eyes!


Top Right: Mineral, Celadon, Brick Dust - I am calling this the ultimate Southwest color pairing. Mineral is the bright turquoise color. Celadon is our Sagebrush green, and Brick Dust is the perfect orange/brown/grey mix representing the land.


Middle Left Whiskey Barrel, Rey, Dubrovnik - This is a very refined pallette. The deep blue, Dubrovnik, is one of our favorite new colors. The deep brown and blue look classic together, and the speckle makes it very modern. This is a great combo for men or for any occasion that requires more sensible, formal colors.



Middle right: some colors selections on a table in our warehouse.

Bottom Left: Well Water, Murakami, Neon Red - This is the combo that most surprised me! I NEVER would have thought to put these colors together, and they look stunning! You can find flecks of the red and the blue in Murakami, but it also adds flecks of yellow and black as well. It is a modern Piet Mondrian pallette.


Bottom Center: Cactus Flower, Outlander, Jade - This combo is for color lovers! The slightly variegated Cactus Flower looks great next to the heavily speckled Outlander color, and the tonal green Jade balances out all the lively pink while still matching it ounce for ounce in terms of color saturation.


Bottom Right: Tart, Birch Grey, Thunderstorm - This is a wintery version of a red, white and blue combo. Tart is one of our favorite reds in the whole warehouse. Tart and Anzula's One Red Shoe have got to be our two favorite reds. Paired with the lightly speckled birch grey and deep blue/black, this red looks even more elegant. If I needed a holiday party shawl, this is the color set I would use!


I hope we have tempted and inspired you! Please keep calling us for color help! Happy Holidays!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! I'm talking about knitting season - of course! It's been quite chilly here in Reno this week, and we are so excited! It's officially our busy season, and the phones are ringing off the hook these days. We get calls every day asking us to help with color suggestions and color matching, and to be honest, it's one of our favorite things to do. So we thought during this season of giving that we would put together some killer color combos just for you in our most popular yarn of all time: Madelinetosh's Tosh Merino Light!



Tosh Merino Light (or TML as it's known around here) is a single ply fingering weight yarn in 100% superwash merino wool. It shows off Madelinetosh's fantastic handdyed colorways to great effect. Tosh Merino Light has 420 yards of deliciousness and is so soft to the touch. It's no wonder it is a staff and customer favorite! We have put together 9 two color combos and 7 three color combos below. We hope love them as much as we do, and you can purchase them as a kit here: two color three color.


Two Color Combos

When you find two colors that go together really well I imagine it feels similar to however the person who discovered that peanut butter and chocolate went together felt - like a genius! Once you find two colors that play so well together, it's hard to imagine them apart! There are so many amazing two color fingering weight patterns out there that could be brought to life with just the right color combination. Like the Vitsippa hat from the Spring 2015 Pom Pom magazine, or the Spectrum wrap from Joji Locatelli, or the whimsical Whipporwill from Carina Spencer. See if any of the combos below inspire you:



Top Left: Gossamer and Penumbra - If you are looking for a more monochromatic palette, but with plenty of contrast, look no further! Gossamer is a very pale pink/purple and looks great next to the deep purples of Penumbra.

Top Middle: Esoteric and Robin's Nest - The light blue in the Robin's Nest is set off very nicely when Esoteric is next to it. The two greenish blues look really nice together and helps to tone down the wild variegation of Robin's Nest.

Top Right: Begonia Leaf and Spectrum - The purple in the Begonia Leaf matches the red/purples in Spectrum really well. It should be noted that Spectrum as a color varies widely from purple dominant to blue dominant, but Begonia Leaf matched all of them! Who knew?

Middle Left: Geyser Pool and Earl Grey - The grays in the Earl Grey are perfectly matched with the green-gray in the Geyser pool. This combo is very neutral and subtle, but elegant.

Center: Pendleton Red and Dust Bowl - We thought this warm red and warm brown looked great together. Pendleton Red is often overlooked, but it has great depth of color and really shines next to Dust Bowl.

Middle Right: Baltic and Spicewood - This year saturated colors have been all the rage, and this combo plays on that. The bold mustardy yellow/orange with the bright blue is striking - to say the least!

Bottom Left: Dr. Zhivago's Sky and Stormborn - By itself, Dr. Zhivago's Sky seems like just another tonal grey, but next to Stormborn it practically transforms! Some of the flecks in Stormborn match Dr. Zhivago's Sky really well, but there are also much brighter blues as well. It's brings out the blue grey in Dr.Zhivago's Sky and really breathes life into the color. So exciting!

Bottom Middle: Penumbra and Birch Grey - I love this combo. If I ever make a Breathing Space from Interpretations Volume 3, this is the color combo I would chose. The deepest royal purple with a white speckled very delicately with black. What's not to love?

Bottom Left: Pool and Dirty Panther - This combo is pretty wild! Pool has a lot of variegation going on and Dirty Panther perfectly matches the grey/black running through the Pool.The dark of the Dirty Panther will really make the Pool stand out.

Stay tuned to see our three color combos, which will be posted tomorrow!

There's one thing everyone in the USA can agree on: this year's presidential election has been extremely polarizing! We're here to bring us all back into one happy family; instead of "Red State" and "Blue State", let's all be Purple State!

Lorna's has created two one-of-a-kind, Just-at-Jimmy's colorways to commemorate the 2016 election, and they're available exclusively as a pre-order in Shepherd Sock, Shepherd Worsted and Solemate!

Now tell us - Speckle or semi-solid? That's a choice that you can feel good about! Just place your order and expect a happy surprise in your mailbox around Election Day. No matter what the results of the election, at least you'll have some yummy yarn!!!


Create your own user feedback survey

We are currently in planning mode for our 2017 concept for our Madelinetosh Limited edition colors, and we need your help! We want to know from you, our most awesome customers and fellow Tosh enthusiasts, why this year's concept was so popular. We want to hit it out of the park next year too, and we are trying to pin point what exactly was so compelling about this year's theme. Would you help us???



Please fill out the survey below and let us know in the comments what you would like to see next year! Thank you all!

What was compelling about our Madelinetosh Limited Edition colors (Toshstrology) this year?

I liked that I had a personal connection to my astrological sign

I liked that there was a full year project (the Tosh DK blanket)

I liked that the colors were more tonal and solid rather than variagated

I liked that I could pre-order any color and any base for the whole year

Other (please elaborate in the comments)

pollcode.com free polls

What new knitting skills have you been learning lately?

We are trying to decide on some upcoming Mystery Knit and Crochet Alongs, and we need your help! We have some ideas, but we'd like to know if we are on the right track. We'd appreciate if you'd take the following poll to help us out! Thanks in advance!

The SpellbindersFestival​ is a FREE Magic event that brings kids into their local libraries and encourages them to embrace their creativity What's not to love?!?!

We've partnered with Spellbinders, Rowan Yarns​, and Marinade Designs​ to create this fun Spellbinders Magic Kit complete with yarn, a knitted project, and an EXCLUSIVE video by Larry Wilson​, an Emmy-nominated Magician, where he teaches you to do some cool magic with yarn (oh, and you can knit with it too!)! How fun is that?!?! The best part is 100% of the profit from these kits goes to Spellbinders!

Have you seen Eddie the Eagle yet?! If not, be sure to put it on your movie watching list! Not only is it a great inspirational movie (we certainly all loved it here at the shop!), it also casts knitting in a supporting role! Get the inside scoop on how we partnered with Hollywood to promote this movie and put knitting in the spotlight in this awesome podcast from Power Purls. 


Listen to the podcast on the Power Purls website! 

Hope you enjoy listening as much as we did! 
-Leanne 

Want to knit a hat to show your support for the #iKnitForEddie campaign - or maybe for the Design Contest? We have a few tricks up our sleeves that might help!

First you will want to start off by downloading one of our FREE #iknitforeddie patterns! We have created both a knit AND crochet patterns for your enjoyment! 


First, a note about hat construction: while you can knit a hat from the top down, most are constructed from the brim up, and that's the method we'll be looking at here. The basic recipe is easy: cast on, knit the brim, knit the body, make regular decreases so the top of the hat will be spherical, and cast off. 






We love a long-tail cast on for hat brims, for two reasons: it's simple (always a plus), and it's stretchy (essential for hats). Here's a great video of Jeanne explaining how to do a long-tail cast on.

Once you get your stitches cast on and joined into a circle (see our helpful tutorial on how to join knitting into a round), you'll knit the brim. This is usually 1-2 inches of ribbing (knits and purls in combination - we used k2, p2 on the hat above). Ribbing is stretchy so the hat will fit over the widest part of your noggin.

The body is smooth sailing - all stockinette on this hat (knit all rows, in the round) until the hat is long enough to cover most of the head. You can incorporate other stitch patterns in this section, too - texture, lace, you name it!

Then, you'll start consolidating stitches using decreases to make the circumference of the top of the hat smaller (you know, like most human heads are shaped). We used knit-two-together (k2tog) every so many stitches, every other row to make a nice, sloped decrease. We also spaced the k2togs at appropriate intervals as our rows got smaller so the decreases would line up in nice little ridges right up to the top of the hat, when we only had a few stitches left. Then we drew the yarn through those stitches and cinched up the top, and voila! A hat!

But wait, that's not all: we used duplicate stitch on this hat to make a nice, solid "E" - for Eddie, of course! And you can also add fun embellishments like pom-poms to make your hat one-of-a-kind!

We hope this little tutorial was helpful - now get out there and knit (or design!) your Eddie Hat! If you'd like to make one just like the one above, here's a handy free pattern!