This yarn was a dyeing disaster. I was aiming for Garden In Spring, one of my favourite colourways, and the colour just went all wrong on me. I pulled it out of the dyepot and… Oh no! The pinks were crazy-bright, the greens were just plain ugly, and the purples totally non-existent. I have a picture of it… I can’t even show it to you, it was that awful. It was embarrassing.
I set it aside and decided not to think about it for a few days.
When I finally went back to it and turned it over in my hands (cringing, cringing the whole time), I realised what I wanted to do with it. I thought I knew the shade that would salvage it. I mixed my colours and in went the yarn. And a little while later, this is what I lifted out…
I had hoped to salvage it — instead, it has been saved. It came out so much better than I could have hoped!
There’s one skein in Astrid DK and one in Celeste Fingering weight. And now I just have to decide if they go in the shop or… if I keep them for myself!!! I may have to think about this for a spell.
This is the bombyx silk I was going to spun for the second half of the Tour de Fleece, but… life intervened and I didn’t manage to get that far. So, running just a wee bit late, I’ve finally got it on my wheel now, and it is a dream to spin.
Not that silk is always a dream to spin… Bombyx silk generally has a very long staple length, and that can make drafting a challenge. The distance that you’re used to holding your hands for drafting wool simply isn’t far enough apart when you’re spinning silk, and it can easily become a struggle as you start tugging at both ends of the same fibers.
A few months ago, I spun pure bombyx silk for the first time in many years and, even though I’ve spun a lot of silk in the past, I realised that my hands had forgotten what to do. It seemed to take forever to retrain my hands (…or more likely, my brain) and until that moment when it finally clicked, I was pulling and tugging on that silk as if I’d never spun in my life. As a result, the yarn came out much thicker than I’d wanted and lumpier too. There’s no doubting it’s beautiful to look at, and the colours ethereal, but because I spun so much thicker than I intended, I just didn’t get the yardage I was hoping for. It’s come out to a measly 143 yards and I’m really not sure what I could make with it.
So now, as I begin spinning this second braid of silk, I am really focusing on spinning as thinly as I possibly can. And, it turns out, I can spin pretty darned thin! Now that my hands (and brain) are back in the groove with spinning silk, this is how it’s coming out…
That is, as long as I don’t get too involved in a scary movie on telly and forget to spin super thin (see the occasional thick bits in the photo below? Yeah… that was when the film hit a tense spot…). But overall, this is coming out exactly the way I want it. And now that I’ve got the hang of it, it is just sooo much fun to spin.
And this time, I hope to come out at the end with a really good length of some truly beautiful, smooth, pure silk yarn.
In Abigail‘s post last week about Choosing a Knitting Pattern for Hand-Dyed Yarns, she focused on reading the yarn’s colour repeats in order to choose a pattern that would work best with the yarn. Doing this avoids undesirable pooling and flashing, and brings out the best in the unique colour changes in each hand-dyed yarn.
But there are a few other things to take into consideration when choosing a pattern for a hand-dyed yarn, and one of the most important is the type of colour changes the yarn contains. Whether a yarn is dyed in gently undulating shades of the same hue or with wild changes from one colour to another makes a big difference to the type of pattern that will suit it. And understanding thise difference will help you choose a stitch that will really show off both the pattern and the yarn.
Hand-dyed yarns can be generally put into three categories. I tend to call them “Semi-Solids”, “Gently Variegated”, and “Wildly Variegated”. Carol J. Sulcoski, in her wonderful book Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarns, calls them “Nearly Solids”, “Muted Multis”, and “Wild Multis”. Either way, the distinctions are the same.
Semi-solids gently move through different shades of a single colour. The transitions from lighter to darker are usually subtle and gradual, giving the colour more life than if it had been dyed in a single shade. Because the colour changes in semi-solids aren’t very attention-seeking, they don’t draw the eye away from intricate stitch work. And for that reason, semi-solid yarns are a wonderful choice for complicated patterns and delicate lace work. Examples of semi-solids are SpaceCadet’s Luna Laceweight in Sage and in Plum Wine.
Luna Laceweight Yarn in Plum Wine
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Luna Laceweight Yarn in Sage
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Gently Variegated yarns contain more than one colour but the overall effect is still subtle and gentle. The colours are all closely related in either hue or value, so the changes don’t pop out too much. Gently Variegated yarns can be used for textured stitchwork, but they work best where the patterns are simpler so the colour changes don’t compete with the stitches. The kind of intricate patterns that work so beautifully with Semi-solids would be overwhelmed by Gently Variegate yarns, but choosing a simpler pattern lets their colours sing. SpaceCadet’s Celeste yarn in Spiceberry and Astrid DK yarn in Red Brick are good examples of Gently Variegated yarns.
Celeste Fingering Weight Yarn in Spiceberry
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Astrid DK Yarn in Red Brick
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And finally, there are Wildly Variegated yarns. These are the yarns that grab everyone’s eye, the ones that seem to jump right out of the yarn basket and yell, “Look at meeee!” They contain multiple colours, of wildly differing hues and values, and their colour changes are distinct and eye-catching. With colour as commanding as that, the key is to choose a knitting pattern that will make the colours the feature, and not compete with them. So, with Wildly Variegated yarns, the best patterns use simple stitches that really let the yarn show itself off. Good examples of Wildly Variegated yarns are SpaceCadet’s Celeste yarn in Garden in Spring and in NightDive.
Celeste Fingering Weight Yarn in Garden in Spring
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Celeste Fingering Weight Yarn in NightDive
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So, there we have it. Three categories of hand-dyed yarns — Semi-Solid, Gently Variegated, and Wildly Variegated — and one simple rule: with wild colour changes, go for simpler stitchwork and, conversely, when the colour changes are gentler, the yarn can handle more complicated pattern work. Just keeping that in mind when you match your yarns to patterns will help ensure you end up with finished objects in which both your yarn and your stitches shine.
So, let’s say I was holding out a skein of yarn to you — beautiful, light, airy yarn, with a slight halo that made the softness just call out to you. And let’s say that, as I held it out to you, I said, almost in a whisper, “It’s laceweight, a two-ply of silk and merino…” As you reached out to touch it, what would be the first thoughts that came into your mind? Would you be thinking strength? Would you be thinking red-hot? How about razor sharp? No? Those words wouldn’t be what popped into your mind? Huh. Me neither.
I’ve been dyeing the new laceweight yarn that will be going in the shop this week. It’s called Luna and it’s everything that laceweight ought to be: delicate, soft, luxurious, stunningly beautiful. With 20% silk blended into 80% superfine merino, it feels divine against the skin — the kind of yarn you just can’t stop touching. Oh, and it takes colour like a dream.
So far, so good.
It was when I was reskeining the dyed yarn that everything changed. I was turning the skein winder with my right hand and gently guiding the yarn with my left… I had the skein winder going at a good clip because, at 1300 yards per skein, it makes for very tired arms if it goes too slowly. So, we’re going along at a good pace, this yarn and me, when I realised my left hand is starting to hurt… The space between my thumb and my index finger is really starting to burn. So I moved my hand and rolled the yarn up my finger a bit and… moments later, that spot is red-hot too. This yarn is just so thin and going at such a pace that it was actually cutting into my skin!
So I looked about for something to hold it with — an oven glove would be ideal — and spotted a plastic coat hanger which will do the trick nicely. Arranging the yarn so it was running through the hook, I could guide it onto the skein winder by moving the coat hanger back and forth. And it worked perfectly …for a time.
After a little while, I realised that there wass a little ball of fluff forming on the hook of the coat hanger. Thinking that there might be a rough spot taking some of the halo off the yarn, I stopped the skein winder and took a closer look. And that’s when I discovered this…
That’s right. You are seeing what you think you are seeing. In a matter of minutes, my lovely, light, airy, and stunningly beautiful laceweight yarn was actually slicing througha coat hanger. You could have knocked me over with a feather!
And I’m so pleased I’d not carried on guiding it with my bare hand…
So, there you have it. SpaceCadet Creations’s new Luna Laceweight yarn: delicate, soft, luxurious and saturated with colour. Just as you’d expect.
…And also, apparently, red-hot and razor sharp. Not as you’d expect at all.
Note from the SpaceCadet: My friend Abigail of TAAT Designs is a wonderful knitter and real connoisseur of hand-dyed yarns. And I am delighted that she agreed to share how she chooses the right pattern for each unique yarn…
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By Abigail
In a recent post on my blog, I was reflecting on my relationship with yarn and I realized that it’s not just about the yarn, but also about the potential contained within it. When I see a skein of yarn, I see more than just the yarn itself. I see the twist of the yarn, the way the colors blend together and how the fiber appears. From here, however, it’s not always straightforward to picture what the yarn will look like when it is knit up, which makes it hard to choose a pattern. Especially with handpainted yarns, there’s always a bit of uncertainty. How long is each bit of color? Do the colors repeat in a systematic manner, or are they completely random? With experience, it becomes easier to predict these things without knitting a swatch, but even a prediction is still no guarantee of what the finished product will look like.
Most handpainted yarns do have a predictable repeat. This means that they will tend toward pooling or striping, depending on the length of each stretch of color. The best way I have found to determine this is to unwind a length of the yarn – two yards is usually enough. If the entire length is all one color, then the yarn will stripe in many usages (socks, children’s sweaters, hats, mittens – anything that is less than about 2 feet in circumference or width). If the length is multiple colors, then you can try to predict whether it will stripe or not by estimating how many stitches you can get out of each color section (a good rule of thumb is that it takes 3x as much yarn as the length of fabric you are knitting across).
Once you know roughly whether the yarn will stripe or not, it becomes easier to choose a pattern. My preference is for yarns that do not stripe, or have minimal striping – I like a new color in every row of my knitting. I’m also a big fan of knitting socks with handpainted yarns, so that’s usually where my mind first goes.
When I received my skein of SpaceCadet Creations’ Cold Waters earlier this year, I wasn’t sure at first what it wanted to be. The colors were so subtle and yet striking all at once, and I wanted to choose a pattern that would really show off the colors. From looking at the yarn, I was able to predict that it would stripe slightly, but not be too overpowering. There was also not much chance of pooling (which I do my best to avoid). This told me that I didn’t need to choose a pattern that would actively reduce pooling, but I didn’t want to choose a pattern that was too busy, either, so that I didn’t overpower the yarn. Because Cold Waters uses tonal shading rather than lots of different colors, however, I knew the pattern could have a little something going on.
The stockinette portion of the sock clearly shows the beautiful, subtle, not-quite-single-row striping of Cold Waters.
Around the time I received my Cold Waters, I also received a gorgeous pattern from Yarnissima (through a monthly sock yarn club I belong to), The Portland Gussets. I had been looking for the perfect yarn for this pattern, and Cold Waters seemed like it would fit. It had everything I was looking for: medium-length color repeats (too short, and the pattern would be lost in the yarn), not too much color variation (any more, and the yarn would obscure the pattern), but enough visual interest (not enough, and the pattern would be boring).
I quickly cast on, and the socks just flew off my needles. The pattern and yarn were a great fit!
When you’re knitting hand-dyed yarns, each skein is a unique adventure. With a little practice, it becomes easy to match a yarn to pattern. If you take the time to examine the yarn and read its color repeat, the yarn will help you decide which pattern to choose for it.
TAAT Designs is a newly formed design group created by four friends — Trisha, Allison, Abigail and Tesia — to combine their love of knitting with their desire to create unique and fun patterns for knitted objects of all types. Read more about their adventures on the TAAT Designs blog.
A couple of weeks ago, I changed the theme of my blog (the “theme”, for anyone who is not familiar, is the template that creates the layout of a blog, the way it looks visually). Previously, I’d been using a theme called Vigilance, which I chose for its clean lines, minimalist style and simple appearance. I liked it a lot, but I was never happy about the sidebar — I always felt it was hard to see where one item ended and the next began.
So a couple of weeks ago, I went hunting for a new theme and found one I just loved — it’s called Under the Influence and I think it looks great! It has the same clean lines and simple style that the blog had before, plus a few really cool features like the nifty footer at the bottom of the page (You hadn’t see the footer? Ooh, quick!… scroll down and have a look! I’ll wait for you here). And I’m really happy with the new sidebar — much, much better.
But then, about four days after I installed the new theme, I realised it had one drawback: it’s really hard to see where to leave a comment. It’s in the small print and it’s just doesn’t stand out that much.
And that’s a huge drawback, because a blog is a two-way conversation, and the comments are the lifeblood of that conversation. I love hearing from you, reading your comments, and getting your feedback. And if it’s hard for you to see where to leave a comment, then all that is going to grind to a halt pretty quickly.
When I first realised, I thought about going back to the old theme …or maybe looking for yet another one. But I really like this theme in every other way besides the comment issue, and I’d really like to stay with it.
And I probably will, but I thought I’d ask you guys as well. Do you think the new theme makes it difficult to leave a comment? To read others’ comments? Do you find it confusing …or did you not even notice the change? Please leave a comment and let me know. Just click where it says “Leave a Comment” (or shows the number of comments) right at the end of this post.
Right there… No, it’s right there. See it? Down a bit, and over. Small type, in red. See it? There you go!
