FAQs: Why Doesn’t This Skein Look Like That One?

07AugFebruary 11, 2018 By Stephanie

I was having coffee the other day with a friend who is knitting a pair of socks in SpaceCadet Oriana yarn in the colourway “Honey”. It’s a lovely tawny-gold, perfect for bright summer days, and her project looks beautiful. But she pulled her yarn out of her project bag and asked, “Is this different from the last skein of Honey I got from you? It looks different…” And she turned the ball over in her hands with a puzzled look on her face.

She’s not alone in her confusion — I get asked this question fairly regularly and I suspect I’m not the only hand-dyer who does. So if you’ve wondered the same thing, don’t worry — you’re in good company. And, here, I have a photo I want to show you…

Five Yarns Dyed in the Same Dyebath with Very Different Results

Mmmmm… I love do Tickled — that’s the colourway above and it’s such a juicy, vibrant shade! So, which one of these skeins is Tickled? They each look different but the answer might surprise you… it’s all of them! This is a photo of five different SpaceCadet yarns, each with a different fiber content or yarn construction, and all dyed together in the exact same dyebath — and look how differently they’ve all come out! Can you guess which yarns you’re looking at?

Most people don’t realise how much of a difference the fibers a yarn is made from and the way that yarn is spun make to how that yarn takes colour. One yarn drinks in the dyewater as if it’s been stuck on a desert island, and another tries to pretend the dyebath doesn’t exist like a kid with his eyes squeezed shut and his fingers stuck his ears. And that means that, as a dyer, I have a choice: I can either try to rework the recipe for every colourway on each individual yarn or I can keep the recipe the same across all the bases and allow each yarn to take the dye the way it comes naturally.

Embrace The Differences!

Well for me, the answer is easy. Unlike commercial yarns, it’s the nature of hand-dyed yarn that each skein is distinctive and individual, and so it just feels right to go with that and embrace the different way each of the bases takes on dye. I never get tired of seeing a batch of mixed bases come out of the dyepot and just falling in love with each yarns individual beauty. And after they’re dry, I love combining different yarns in the same colourway and seeing how those differences contrast and combine in my knitting.

So, that picture above… let’s see which yarns you were looking at:

Celeste is a light and generous 3-ply fingering in 100% Superwash Merino
Lyra is our incredibly sproingy cabled 8-ply sport, also in 100% Superwash Merino
Thebe is a 2-ply heavy laceweight in a wonderful 65/35 silk and linen combination
Maia is made with 80% bamboo and 20% Superwash Merino, giving it stunning drape and a sheen that creates an “iced” effect
And Capella, our delightfully squishy single-ply worsted in 100% Superwash Merino.

Let’s go back to the coffee shop with my friend, who was still looking quizzically at the yarn in her hands. I explained that the yarn she was holding is Oriana, which has eight plies that soak up dye deep and fast. That’s very different from Lucina, the last SpaceCadet yarn she worked with, which has similar yardage but is constructed from only two plies — meaning each ply has to be much thicker. The difference in the way these two yarns take on dye is sort of akin to the different ways a paper towel versus a cotton ball might soak up a spill. And so even though both Oriana and Lucina are dyed in the same recipe — and might even have been in the same dyebath — the results can be noticeably different.

And now you know why!

(PS — here’s another example. This is the same five yarns in Drizzle)

Five Yarns Dyed in the Same Dyebath with Very Different Results 3

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I Love This Colourway! The Latest Yarn Alliance Parcel

28Jul By Stephanie

Sometimes we dye a club colourway that excites me so much, I’m just itching to show it to you. The latest yarn was exactly that kind of colourway and, because the Yarn Alliance parcels went out last week, I think it’s safe to show you…

Honeydew — the colourway inspired by…. well, honeydew!

One of my favourite things about this time of year is how wonderful summer fruits suddenly become. Oh, you can get berries and grapes and oranges and melons all year round but, right now, they are beyond compare, bursting with flavor, and so very juicy – each one a sweet respite from the heat of summer.

For this colourway, we were inspired by one of my favourite summer fruits, the Honeydew melon. We started by capturing its sublime soft green, keeping the dye gentle and letting it swirl and flow in the dyepot to create the changing depth of colour that you see in the fruit’s flesh. And then we layered on the warmer shades of the melon’s center, blending it from a bright soft orange to a sweet clear yellow. The result is a beautiful fusion of summer’s best colours, which will flow and mingle into a sublime summer mix.

For this colourway — and these hot weather that goes with it — I chose Oriana, a yarn that is unexpectedly well-suited to summer projects. Constructed with 90% Merino wool, the surprise is that it behaves almost like cotton! Oriana’s eight plies soak up colour deeply and give it an amazing drape and swing that is perfect for cool summer patterns.

The Gift — A Beautiful, Tiny Tool Box

And the gift is fantastic too! Knitting and crocheting involves some really teeny-tiny notions that are so easy to lose – stitchmarkers, needles, buttons, and suchlike – so I asked Brittany and Angie, the lovely makers at Remember Wynn, to create these adorable little notions boxes for us. The perfect size to keep the tiniest tools neat and tidy, I just love the SpaceCadet grinning away on the front!

The Yarn Alliance Reopens Soon!

You can see why I love this Yarn Alliance parcel so much, can’t you? And I can hardly wait to see what our Club Members make with their new yarn!

And if you’re wishing you were in on the fun too, then grab and pen and mark your calendar, because the Yarn Alliance reopens for new subscriptions in September. Or hey, forget the pen — just click here and give us your email address and we’ll not only make sure you’re the first to know when the Alliance reopens, we’ll give you an early-bird chance to grab your spot a few days before the club opens to the public. Sound good? Great! Click here!

Limited Edition Colourways: Summer at the Beach

21JulJuly 22, 2015 By Stephanie

You would think summer would be a slow time for a yarn business but ours has been incredibly busy, and I realised the other day that I’ve fallen behind on posting our Limited Edition full-skein sizes of our Mini-Skein colourways so this morning — as is appropriate for a hot summer day — you get a bumper crop to choose from! But like all our Limited Editions, you have to be quick — these gorgeous colourways are custom dyed and available until August 5 only.

These are the colourways from May and June’s Mini-Skein Club parcels (if you’re in the club and wondering where the gorgeous colours from July are, they’ll be coming soon, once all the parcels have had a chance to be delivered). As the weather warmed up, we found ourselves in a mood for seaside and nautical colours, and you’ll see that reflected in the colourways we’ve chosen here. So, c’mon, jump on in — the water’s fine!

Full Skeins and Sweater Kits of SpaceCadet^{® ‘}s May and June Mini-Skein Colourways!

Let’s start with the Sweater Kit from May’s Ombre & Gradient bundle. I am so in love with this colour combination!

Shoreline explores all the wonderful colours of that special part of the world where the land meets the sea, and takes us on a journey through seagrass and salt air, right down to the water’s edge.

Watch as the colours change in your hands, flowing from soft seaweed greens through to bright grass green and then morphs into the blue of turquoise waters. And then — because this is a SpaceCadet Start Anywhere Kit — the colours of the last skein flow back again into the first!

(Where’s the order button? This kit is exclusive to May and June Mini-Skein Club members. If that’s you, look for an email arriving shortly with your members-only link!)

And if you’re in love with that Sweater Kit but you aren’t part of the club, fear not — we’ve pulled one colour out and made it available to you. And it’s gorgeous!

Sea Grass is soft, muted yellow-greens combined with stunning ocean turquoise, offset perfectly by touches of earthy browns.

Available until August 5 only

Ready to see June’s Ombre & Gradient colourway? It’s just as cool and summery as May’s…

The sea’s waves roll gently toward the shore, lifting and rocking the boats along its way, like a soft summer lullaby as the lazy days slip away in endless blues and greens and summer sun.

Sail Away explores all the colours of a summer’s day spent on the water, moving from deep sea greens into stunning bright blues, and then fading out into pale turquoises that disappear into touches of crisp nautical white. And then — because this is a SpaceCadet Start Anywhere Kit — the colours of the last skein flow back again into the first!

(Where’s the order button? This kit is exclusive to May and June Mini-Skein Club members. If that’s you, look for an email arriving shortly with your members-only link!)

Trade Winds is everything that’s warm and cool at the same time — an overall warm purple that’s rich and intense, shot through with stunning hints of coppery-browns.

Available until August 5 only

Sand Pebble explores the colours of the shoreline — from gray rocks to tawny sand, with streaks of rich copper, pine greens, and deep purples. When knit or crocheted, the colours will flow and blend together to create a stunning, almost-pointillist effect.

(Where’s the order button? This kit is exclusive to May and June Mini-Skein Club members. If that’s you, look for an email arriving shortly with your members-only link!)

And from the Sail Away Sweater Kit, we pulled our favourite colourway for a full-skein option. Wouldn’t it make a stunning summer cardi?

Tidal Pool‘s blues and greens start out intense and fade away, to capture all the variety and interest found in each of these fascinating micro-worlds.

Available until August 5 only

Clean, clear blue-turquoise that fades away into crisp white, and brings all the joy of wandering barefoot down the beach, stopping to collect little treasures of water-worn Beach Glass along the way.

(Where’s the order button? This kit is exclusive to May and June Mini-Skein Club members. If that’s you, look for an email arriving shortly with your members-only link!)

Our Mini-Skein Club Members get access to all these colourways so, if you’re not in the club, you’re missing out! And not just on the full-skeins here but on all the wonderful bundles of yarny goodness we deliver to your door every month. The Mini-Skein Club is where we really explore colour, letting our imaginations run wild to create ten new colourways each and every month — and our club members get to join in on all that fun, diving right into the colours and trying all of SpaceCadet’s fingering yarns along the way. Click here to join us!

Limited Edition Colourways

5 Reason Why I Love Mini-Skeins More than One-Skein Gradients

07Jul By Stephanie

Gradients and ombres are awesome! And they create stunning colour effects in all sorts of projects. One of my favourite things is going through Pinterest to find amazing ways to use colour in knitting and crochet patterns, and the gradient and ombre projects just jump off the screen.

And while lots of them use single-skein gradient yarns, I gotta tell you that — personally — I prefer Mini-Skein gradients for those projects. Yeah, it is because SpaceCadet makes Mini-Skeins (of course!) but, here, let me share with you the five reasons why I love Mini-Skeins way more than one-skein gradients

1. You Control the Colour Changes

So you’re knitting something beautiful and the lace section is coming to an end… and that’d be the perfect place for the colour change to happen, right? With a one-skein gradient, you don’t have any control over that — you just have to hope everything lines up — but with Mini-Skeins, you are totally in control. If the lace section ends a few inches before one colour finishes, you simply switch to the next Mini-Skein and carry on knitting. And your project looks so much more stunning — because you are entirely in control of the colour changes!

2. You can use Mini-Skeins to Add Pops of Colour to Any Project

When you pick up a bundle of Mini-Skeins, it’s easy to think of them as a single unit — something that has to be used up in one project like a one-skein gradient — but Mini-Skeins aren’t like that at all. Break that bundle up and what you have a bunch of yarn-crayons that you can use anywhere and in any combination. Pick one colour for a contrasting edging on a collar or cuffs (like MSkiKnits’s beautiful Sanctuary Shrug, below). Or take a basic gray sweater and line the pockets in bright red that just barely peeks out.

3. You Can Use Them to Create Larger Projects

We do something amazing with our gradient Mini-Skeins — each month’s colourway blends into the next month’s colourway so that, month after month, you can collect a stunning Never-Ending gradient. One-skein gradients work perfectly in one-skein projects — and, with careful thought, can sometimes work in larger projects — but with the Never-Ending gradient Mini-Skeins, you are free to use your Minis in as large a project as you like!

4. You can Start Anywhere

So you’ve found this gorgeous gradient and the thing you love love love about it is that amazing magenta right there in the middle of the skein. Except you want it right on the edge of your shawl where it will really stand out, not buried in the middle. With a one-skein gradient or even with most mini-skeins sets, you’re stuck — the colour progression is set and it wouldn’t work in any other order.

But our Mini-Skein gradients are uniquely designed to work in a complete circle, so that instead of starting a project at Skein 1 and working through to Skein 5, you could start a project anywhere in the set, and the skeins all work together. You you won’t get that in any other gradient. So hooray — your magenta can be on the edge. You’re completely in control!

5. You can Mix and Match between Gradient Sets (Or… Your Favourite Colour isn’t Trapped)

When we dye a set of gradient Mini-Skeins, we’re telling a colourstory — a story that starts with one hue, moves gently through several others, and finally ends with the last hue — just like a one-skein gradient. So these colours all work together beautifully within the set, but the cool thing with Mini-Skeins is that you are not limited by the colourstory we dyed. If you find yourself wishing you could pair up a colour from one set with a colour from a completely different set… well, you totally can! Your favourite shades aren’t trapped within their separate gradient — they’re Mini-Skeins, so you just take them out of their sets and put them together any way you like.

My assistant Jade did exactly that when she spotted three Mini-Skeins from two different sets that she thought would work beautifully together. Each skein played a bright shade against a background of gray and so, while the brights pop and bounce, the gray ties everything together. Because they were dyed on Mini-Skeins, none of these colours was trapped within a different gradient — and the result is gorgeous!

So you see, Mini-Skeins gradients give you amazing control and endless options for colourplay! Go for a big project or small, create eye-catching pops of colour, and mix-and-match your skeins. Best of all, you are always in control. And for that reason more than any other, I love Mini-Skeins for gradients!

You too? Click here to check out the SpaceCadet’s Mini-Skein Club!

Our Giveaway Winners — and an Eye-Popping Pattern Pick!

23Jun By Stephanie

Fun stuff today! I’m going to announce the winner of the Sarah Jordan Shawl pattern giveaway!

But, before I do, I wanted to share with you a pattern I came across and just fell in love with because it’s just so whimsical and cool. And best of all, it’s the perfect for one of my favourite things… SpaceCadet Mini-Skeins!

(You know I love patterns like that, right? But, if you’re reading this first thing in the morning, may I suggest a good solid swig of your coffee before you read on. This colourplay is wild.)

Rock the Party knee socks
by Trisha Paetsch

I wasn’t lying, was I? It’s a colour explosion! You can see why I took one look at them and thought, Mini-Skeins. And whether you’d choose to knit them just a few inches above your ankle or right the way up to your knee, they change things up every inch or so, so you know that you’d never get bored. I think they’re adorable, fabulous, and so fun, and I just had to share them with you.

(Quick, another gulp of that coffee, ok? There you go. Better now.)

Want some more Mini-Skein Ideas?

Check out our Mini-Skein Ideas board on Pinterest! Jade and I get our kicks hunting out the coolest Mini-Skein ideas and collecting them all together. Some are patterns and some are just creative and interesting ways to use mini portions of yarn to add pops of colour to your knitting or crochet. Click here to get inspired!

The Winners of the Sarah Jordan Shawl Kit Giveaway

Ok, I know this is what you’ve been waiting for, so let’s get right to it. You’ll remember that a couple of weeks ago, I featured two of Sarah Jordan’s beautiful shawls, Embossed Lines and Margalit, which she’d designed in SpaceCadet yarn. And then she and I decided to make things even more fun by giving away each of the patterns with the yarn it was designed in to two lucky winners. So many of you entered — thank you all so much!

And now, without further ado, let’s announce the winners…

The first pattern is Embossed Lines and comes with a skein of SpaceCadet Lucina yarn in Drizzle.

And the winner is…

Barbara Gibbs

The second pattern is Margalit and comes with a skein of SpaceCadet Aurora yarn in Tickled.

And the winner is…

Wendy Melillo

Congratulations! Please send us an email to missioncontrol(at)spacecadetyarn(dot)com, confirming the email address you used to enter and giving us your postal address, so we can get your prize out to you!

New SpaceCadet Fiber Triple Kits!

19JunJune 19, 2015 By Stephanie

Even though I talk a lot about knitting and crochet, the truth is that I wouldn’t be a dyer if I hadn’t first become a spinner. It was spinning that really got me hooked on colour, and spinning that led to me meet all the dyers (both here in the States and in the UK) who inspired and influenced me. So spinning, and thus spinning fiber, are really very dear to my heart. So you’d think SpaceCadet would dye a lot of fiber, right? Well, I’ve always wanted to but, to be honest, we’re so busy with all the yarn we dye that we’ve never seemed to have the time.

But then I was talking with a friend of mine when I had an idea… Instead of one braid, what if we dyed three mini-bumps of fiber in separate coordinating colourways that are designed to work together no matter which way you spin them? Work them one after another for a dramatic gradient fade, spin them separately to ply into a barberpole, or use bits from each mixed all together for a soft blend with crazy pops of colour. The more I thought about it, the more excited I got to start dyeing it… and so the SpaceCadet® Hand-Dyed Fiber Triple Kit was born!

Packaging three separate mini-bumps was a bit of a challenge (how do you keep them together but still tidy?) until I thought of these cool reusable tins. Your fiber stays clean and neat until you’re ready to spin it. And — bonus! — you can still love all over the colour even when it’s safely packed away!

Three Fibers, Five Colourway Trios

We chose three types of fiber (to start with, at least… we may be adding more soon)

100% Fine Superwash Merino — Soft as clouds, a dream to spin.
50% Merino / 50% Bamboo — The merino takes the dye but the bamboo doesn’t, which makes for an incredible sheen as the bamboo “frosts” your yarn with a stunning icy shimmer.
65% Superwash Merino / 35% Silk — There is nothing so special as silk, and this combination of merino and silk creates a yarn just that special.

And these five awesome colourway trios. Each one is designed to coordinate and still contrast — so much fun to spin!

Flow Trio — A bump of spring greens, a second bump of dusty blue, and a third bump of intriguing blue-violets, tied together with pops of fuchsia and streaks of black.
Breeze Trio — A bump of barely-there blue, a second bump of soft lilac, and a third bump in a gentle lemon with touches of blues and lilac.
Fathoms Down Trio — A bump of smokey blues, a second bump of drizzle grays, and a third bump of turquoise-grays.
Temper Trio — A bump of warm red, a second bump of bold magenta, and a third bump of rich purple, all flecked with spots of black.
Thrive Trio — A bump of bright grass green, a second bump of soft aquamarine, and a third bump of electric pink, all with touches of gray, black, and stunning pops of rust.

Order for Tour de Fleece!

And with Tour de Fleece right around the corner, the timing couldn’t be more perfect! The Tour de France starts on July 4th and teams of spinners are forming all over Ravelry in preparation to spin along with the cyclists in the Tour de Fleece. Click here to place your order for in-stock fiber and we’ll get it out straight away — domestic orders go by Priority Mail and should arrive in plenty of time for the start of TdF; International orders go by first class and, depending on Customs, can be a little more unpredictable.

Look for More Colourways in the Future

It’s been tons of fun to dye this fiber — I forgot how much I enjoy it — so we’ll be adding more colourways (and more fiber too?) in the coming months. In the meantime, I’m just so excited to share this with you. And I can’t wait to see all the creative ways you guys spin up your mini-bumps of fiber!

The SpaceMonster Club Closes on Sunday!

If you love big, smooshy Worsted and Bulky yarns, the SpaceMonster Club is the place for you! It combines gorgeous colourways, delicious yarns, and fabulous gifts, but it’s open for subscriptions only until this Sunday, June 21. Click here for all the details or click below to grab a spot before they’re all gone!

Full Skeins and Sweater Kits of SpaceCadet® ‘s May and June Mini-Skein Colourways!

Fun stuff today! I’m going to announce the winner of the Sarah Jordan Shawl pattern giveaway!

Rock the Party knee socks by Trisha Paetsch

Want some more Mini-Skein Ideas?

The Winners of the Sarah Jordan Shawl Kit Giveaway

Barbara Gibbs

Wendy Melillo

Full Skeins and Sweater Kits of SpaceCadet^{® ‘}s May and June Mini-Skein Colourways!

Rock the Party knee socks
by Trisha Paetsch