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.

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.

Color Forecast

I find color forecasting so interesting. Sometimes I try to resist what the forecasters predict and purposefully seek out unpopular colors. But usually I succumb and actually want what “they” say I want! Here is what is forecast for Fall 2010 – just around the corner.

 

I’m dyeing yarns today and I’ll use this as a springboard for some new colorways.  I’ll have to put my own twist on them as the Rose and Gray is making me think of the 80’s.

Are you craving these colors?

Knitcircus

I’m excited to be interviewed by Knitcircus on the Knitcircus blog. If you haven’t checked out the online Knitcircus Magazine you’ve been missing out on great patterns and ideas. It has nice collections of unique and original patterns along with book reviews, recipes and sewing ideas- definately something for everyone.

With a new purchase of Handwerks yarn I’ll include a coupon from Knitcircus for a free copy of the Knitcircus Summer 2010 Pattern Collection pdf (while coupon supplies last).

Dyeing Workshop

5/21/2010 Today I was notified by the retreat organizers that the retreat has been canceled. I don’t know anything more about the situation but if you had signed up, contact the organizers directly.

5/20/2010 The workshop has been put on hold while the company organizing it deals with some issues. I’m waiting to see what the outcome is before I move forward with more plans.

I’m so excited to be teaching a 2 day dye workshop in Chicago, November 12-14. There is also a Ravelry group set up for the retreat with more information here Hand Dyeing Retreat.

There will be plenty of hands on time, dyeing yarns with different techniques as well as time for knitting with hand dyed yarns. We’ll be exploring methods of developing colorways, sources for color inspiration, and how to get the knitted results that you want.

The workshop is limited to 20 people.