Ready for new colors?

Pantone has released its new 2012 color report. And the winner is……………. Tangerine Tango!  I had never heard of this color before but when I followed the links and saw what they were talking about I instantly recognized this as a red orange that has been slowly creeping into fashion this Fall.  It’s a color I like and have been seeing in the bright red/orange tree leaves around town. Its bright but not flourescent, more red than yellow and warm but not dull or muted.  It feels more vibrant than most of the traditional Fall colors and I can see how it might be nice in the Spring or Summer too. Can you picture wearing it? I’m warming up to it!

2011 year of socks

I’ve just mailed out the last of the 2011 sock yarn travel club mailings. I’ve enjoyed the club for so many reasons. Its given me the chance to continue to work with the talented designer, Jocelyn Blair (aka Fiberdev on Ravelry) as well as explore new colorways. I love being able to play with themes and focus on a select group of skeins; mixing dyes, shifting colors, getting everything just right, watching the dyes strike and forever change the white yarns. Sometimes the themes came first, giving me ideas for possible colorways, other times I started dyeing and the colors inspired the theme. I’m influenced by my surrounds and have taken in the colors of the landscape without even noticing until… there, they show up in my dye pot!

Hope you enjoyed it.

Laura

 and the yarns

dyelots and batch dates

Lately, I’ve been getting more requests from customers for an additional skein to match a yarn that they purchased previously from me or from one of my retail vendors. This has happened to me too.  I completely understand this dilemma; you buy one skein that you love with no intended purpose, later you decide what you want to knit only to find that you really needed 2 skeins! Then comes the mad search for another skein with the same dyelot and the worry that the skeins won’t match and your projected will be ruined forever!

Up until now I have not been putting dyelots on my yarns. I generally dye in small batches of 5-10 skeins per colorway. However, as my business has grown I am doing more lots of 10 and some lots of 20 of my most popular colorways. I’m keeping more dyed yarns in stock, at the ready, to send out on a moments notice.  This is all good!

So, I’ve decided to start writing “dye date lots” or “dye lots” on my labels. They will be in a “monthdayyear” format. I hope it will help with
identifying and locating similar skeins.  (I don’t want anyone to confuse the date with an “expiration date”, luckily I have found my yarns never “expire”!)

The dye techniques I use create variations between skeins even in the same pan, so the dye date is not a guarantee that the skeins are identical, just that they came out of the same batch. It has never been my goal to mass produce large numbers of identical skeins. I instead love the subtle nuances of each skein as it comes out of the dye bath.  Overall, my colorways are consistent as I create my own color formulas and dye to the same formula each time I dye a new batch of yarn.  I keep careful records of my process so that I can recreate the look of the original batch.  Some of the yarns with multiple colors can have more variation between skeins as they depend on the movement of the dyes in the water to create tertiary tones. As always,  if you know you will need more than one skein for a project ahead of time it is best to let me know when you order and I will do my best to send out similar skeins.

Thank you to all my wonderful customers for helping me come to this decision. I love the feedback and I truly appreciate your business.

Trunk Show at The Golden Fleece

In case you haven’t heard The Golden Fleece, 317 Potrero St, Santa Cruz, CA, has a new owner. Tomorrow (Sat, June 4) is the Grand Re-Opening Event. I’m thrilled to be a part of it and will be there with trunks of yarns and patterns from 12-2pm. If you are in the area, chase away the rain clouds and come on by. Its going to be fun.

Where do you find inspiration?

I find this so interesting. I’ve been playing with yarn combinations over the past week or so looking for pairs of yarns to use in a Stephen West shawl. I even dyed some new darker tone yarns so I could create more contrast between the pairs. I left the pile of yarns out on the table and moved them around every few days, trying this and then that just to see what it looked like at different times of the day and with different lighting. I finally decided to use Misty Morning in So-Soft-Sock and Embers in Silky Sock.
This morning I looked out my backyard window and saw this! Just what I had put together on the kitchen table. It wasn’t a conscious connection but I’m sure I was influenced by seeing the Trumpet Vine blooming against the aged teak bench and pebble patio.

Knee-Highs

I’ve been trying to think of how to describe Barb Brown‘s new book since I received it a couple of days ago. I had a lot of fun dyeing a couple of custom colors (sumac, chamomile, mulberries and berry bramble) for Barb about a year ago. Now as  I keep looking through it, I keep finding new things that I like about it. I sat down earlier today to write about it, but had trouble finding just the right words that sounded sincere and not cliché. Its wonderful, lovely, nice, great, interesting, gorgeous patterns, looks fun to knit, current styling, wearable, …… then I had to get up and go get a latte because that always helps!

Coffee is kicking in better description : easy to follow clear charts, straightforward format, bonus section with information about sizing socks, adapting knee-highs to shorter versions, as well as great tips on custom fitting……and gorgeous yarns! 

Better yet get a copy and page through it.

Knitting Knee-Highs, Sock Styles from Classic to Contemporary by Barb Brown. Read more about it at WildGeeseFibres.com

Simple projects simple joy

I’m so enjoying my current project, a simple 4 shaft weave with handyed Classic Sock weft and undyed Classic Sock warp. I’d almost forgotten how satisfying it is to work on a simple project with simple tools in simple yarns. Nothing complicated going on here  but the results and experience is wonderful.  Seems like the perfect project to be working on during the holiday season.  Happy Holidays

Cool Weather = DK time

Cooler weather lends itself to bulkier knits and quick knitting with DK weight yarns. I’ve just added six new DK weight colors to my line up. Try them with Handwerks Comfy DK weight socks pattern or your favorite cowl pattern.

Sock Progress

I finally finished one – just one of the pair- of the Vilai socks I am working on from Sock Innovation by Cookie A. 

Its in Silky Sock, colorway Monterey Cypress. The lustre in this yarn really shows off  the intricate  patterning.  I have 8 new colors of Silky Sock waiting and ready to be knit up into socks to pamper your feet.  One skein is enough for most pairs. 

I played off the color forecast for some of the new colorways and some are just colors I like.

Photographing Yarn

Yarn studio

I’ve been playing with my new yarn photo studio. It’s a small self-contained set-up  just the right size for photographing my skeins. It has a free-standing true color light source, bounce boards and a seamless back drop. I also have a small tripod for my camera. I’m finding that the photos of my yarns are so much better and true in color to the actual yarns. I also like the ease of the set up, its much less hassle for me to take a couple of pics every now and then since everything is all ready to go and set up. I try to take most of my photos at night or with the blinds drawn to filter out any sunlight or shadows in the room.

I took a class from Daryl Lancaster in the spring on Photographing Your Work. Before I took the class I was considering purchasing a new camera but now I realize most of my issues had more to do with my set up than the camera I have. I can get nice pictures just be controlling the lighting and changing a few settings on my camera. Its streamlined the process for me and freed me up to have more time for dyeing, knitting and weaving – always a good thing!