The Art of Hand-Dyeing

29JunApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

I’ve been thinking about colour a lot lately — about what draws us to it, about what makes us shy away. And, most interestingly to me, what is it that pulls some knitters and crocheters time and again hand-dyed yarns?

yarn, knitting, hand-dyed, indie dyer, crochet — Lucina fingering weight yarn in Carnival

Hand-dyed yarns are very different from the rest of the yarn universe. One thing that struck me at TNNA is that there were only a handful of indie dyers scattered amongst the rows and rows of big yarn companies. And the big yarn companies were very impressive, with their extensive line-up of yarns in every colour imaginable. They sell dependability, repeatability, a yarn you can reach for time and again.

Whereas the magic of hand-dyed yarns lies in something completely different. It’s something about freedom, the pure abandon of colour that might submit to the knitter’s will or might… might just turn wild and uncontrollable. Hand-dyed yarns are about their untamed individuality, their uniqueness… With hand-dyed yarns, you never really know what you’re going to get.

knitting, hand-dyed, crochet, indie dyer, yarn — Celeste fingering weight yarn in Baroque

So, as I watched them for a while, the hand-dyers at TNNA, busy chatting with LYS owners, I suddenly saw the dilemma… For the indie dyer who wants to grow her business, there is the temptation to emulate the big yarn companies and to aim to pull those wild hand-dyed colours under control, to create legitimacy in a bigger marketplace by moving her line toward more predictability and controlled results. But I suspect that what initially drew every hand-dyer into her craft was a desire to delve into the colours and go where-ever took took her.

knitting, yarn, crochet, hand-dyed, indie dyer — Celeste yarn in African Violets

So, being pulled in both directions, which way does an indie dyer go?

I think the answer comes back to the customer — to you. The real question is, why do you buy hand-dyed yarns? Why do you seek out indie-dyers when there are so many wonderful, established yarn brands in your local yarn shop? And I suspect the answer is that you are a very special kind of knitter or crocheter. You are an adventurer. And buying hand-dyed gives you a yarn that is like no other yarn in the world, which acts as a base on which to create your own art — the unique work of your two hands. I think that people who buy hand-dyed yarn do more than just follow a pattern — they see the creation before it is created, they see the colours intertwined, they are drawn to the challenge of taming a yarn that they’re not quite sure will bend to their will.

In short, I think the knitter or crocheter who buys hand-dyed yarns is an artist herself, no less dyer whose yarn she works with.

So tell me, why do you buy hand-dyed yarns? What is it that draws you to them? And do you believe that when you create with them, you are also an artist?

When Pooling Goes Right

03JunApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Last week, I asked you guys to give me your questions and tell me what intimidates you about hand-dyed yarns. And I loved the responses — I got some great food for thought, and you guys prompted me to ask a couple of experts to contribute to the ebook and answer some of your questions. Exciting stuff!

And that post has started several really interesting conversations with friends about their approach to hand-dyed yarns. In each of these conversations, there have been some saying they are always trying to avoid pooling, and there are others saying that they just sit back and go where-ever the yarn takes them — treating it as an adventure, a journey to be traveled, whether the yarns pools or not. I have to admit, I loved hearing that because, as a dyer, that’s how my creative process often feels too — a little adventurous, a little out of control. Sometimes I’m in charge and the colours follow my lead, but sometimes… sometimes it’s better to stop controlling and just go where-ever the colour takes me. Sometimes it takes me to some really beautiful places.

The Beauty of Pooling (…no, really!)

And pooling can be the same way too. Yes, absolutely, sometimes pooling can be horrible — just horrible — and I totally get why knitters and crocheters strive to avoid it. But sometimes pooling can take a really exciting turn that gives spectacular — and unexpected — results.

Take this scarf for example, knit by my friend Megan. Now, we’ve all seen pooling that forms diamond patterns before, but I have to say I’ve never seen a more perfect and even example than this. And though this was entirely unintentional, it adds so much to the scarf — gives it a real feeling of fun and adventure. In fact, she liked it so much that when she switched to her second skein of yarn, Megan was really careful to join it in such a way that the argyle-pooling continued uninterrupted all the way to the end of the scarf. Spectacular!

knitting, handyed, indie dyer, yarn, — Photos used with permission

Pattern: Here and There Cables by Norah Gaughan; Yarn: SpaceCadet Creations Lucina in Megan’s Frost

So, ok… being surprised by nice, evenly repeating pooling along a nice, even rectangle is one thing, but when you get patterned pooling on a shaped project like a hat, that is really something. Here’s a one that Megan knit (that woman has some kind of uncanny pooling gift, I tell ya!) for a little girl with brain cancer, and when I saw the pooling, I nearly fell off my chair. Check out the pictures — this is not colourwork, this is the yarn just pooling in a beautiful way. I love the way the stripes work through the colours and then back out again in reverse order, and they stay in that formation right up until they hit the sharpest decreases in the crown. Amazing!

knitting, yarn, hand-dyed, handdyed, indie dyer — Photos used with permission

Pattern: Swirl Hat by Mandie Harrington; Yarn: SpaceCadet Creations Estelle in Ice Skating

But what if stripes and argyle-diamonds aren’t your thing? Well, check out this shawl by Karrie of KnitPurlGurl.com. Because it’s crocheted instead of knit, the stitches move the colours about in a different way… and it produces small squares of pooled colour that look to me just like tiled mosaic. Honestly, I can’t take my eyes off it! Breathtaking!

crochet, yarns, handdyed, hand-dyed, indie dyer, yarn — Photos used with permission

Pattern: Wycheproof Shawl by Rebecca Velasquez; Yarn: SpaceCadet Creations Estelle in Cold Flame

.So, have you ever had a project start to pool in a really beautiful way? Did you love it? And did you do anything special to encourage the pooling?

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Pattern Giveaway

Don’t forget, there’s only a few days left to enter the Pattern Giveaway to win beautiful shawl patterns from RockandPurl and Leslie Thompson. Click here to see the patterns and get entered!

A Surprising Yarn for Summer Knitting

15AprApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Note from the SpaceCadet: My friend Natalie (peacethrufiber on Ravelry and Twitter) is a fantastic knitter and spinner who creates amazing garments with yarns she spins almost exclusively on spindles.

The SpaceCadet and I were talking the other day about summer knitting and summer yarn. She asked me what I knit with most during the warmer months, and I think I surprised her when I answered, “Wool.”

summer knitting, yarn, wool, handdyed, sock yarn, space cadet, spacecadet, indie dyer — Celeste yarn in a one-of-a-kind colourway

But if you think about it, summer knitting with wool makes a lot of sense.

First there are the qualities that make knitters love wool for winter knitting, such as great stitch definition and memory. These things are just as true in the summer as they are in the winter.

Then there’s the way wool feels on the needles. I knit cotton, linen and other more traditional, cellulose based summer yarns, but I can only knit with them for so long before the stiffness of the yarn starts to tire my hands. Then it’s back to the soft and pleasant hand of wool, with a grateful sigh.

Finally, there’s the fact that, done right, wool is really an excellent choice for summer wearing in addition to summer knitting. People often think of wool garments as cold weather gear but, in fact ,wool is much more versatile than that. It actually regulates temperature, keeping the wearer warm in cold weather, and cool in warm weather. Add in its fantastic moisture-wicking properties, and it starts to look a lot more attractive for summer.

knitting, yarn, wool, summer knitting, spacecadet, space cadet, handdyed, indie dyer, sock yarn — Celeste yarn knit on US size 8 needles (5mm)

Of course, if you pull on a heavy, worsted-weight wool sweater in the middle of July, you will probably end up uncomfortable. Fortunately, there’s no need. There has been a little flurry of garment patterns written over the last few years using fingering and lace weight yarns at a loose gauge to create light, breezy, warm weather garments. I’ve already started a fingering-weight wool sweater for this summer, and am totally enjoying it. I’m using a size 8 needle, and the resulting fabric is soft, sheer and gauzy. I’m looking forward to wearing it on vacation in June!

What are you going to be knitting this summer? Got any patterns in mind that will look great in a skinny wool yarn on big needles?

knitting, yarn, sock yarn, summer knitting, handdyed, indie dyer, spacecadet, space cadet — Skinny wool yarn, big needles... airy and light.

InterStellar Yarn Alliance Launch Winner!

18MarApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

The response to the SpaceCadet’s InterStellar Yarn Alliance Launch contest was FANTASTIC! I so enjoyed reading all your comments, and seeing all your posts on Ravelry. Thank you all so much for participating!

I have just run the numbers through Random.org‘s online random number generator and it has chosen a winner. BUT, before I tell you who it is (because suspense always makes these things so much more fun, don’t you think?)…

SpaceCadet Yarn Reviewed by KnitPurlGurl

So before I give you the winner’s name, I want to tell you all that I recently got the chance to meet the wonderful KnitPurlGurl at the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival, and she’s absolutely lovely — I really wish we’d had time to grab a cup of coffee and sit and knit together for a while! I gave her a skein of SpaceCadet Estelle yarn and she’s posted a review of it on her website. If you’ve never used SpaceCadet yarn before, please pop over and see what KnitPurlGurl thinks about it.

The Winner

Ok… ok… I’ve made you wait and you’ve been patient, so here we go… The winner of a skein of SpaceCadet Creations yarn in the the InterStellar Yarn Alliance Launch giveaway is…

robkat317

Congratulations! Please send me an email with your name and postal address, and I’ll get yarn out to you asap.

Thank you to everyone for participating. And if you didn’t win and you’re feeling down about that, please do come join us in the Yarn Alliance, where you’ll get the excitement of a mystery parcel of yarn again and again!

A Book to Forever Change Your Sock Knitting

11MarApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Note from the SpaceCadet: My friend Amy (DPUTiger on Ravelry) is a knitting teacher, a quilter, and a newly-minted weaver. And she’s been kind enough to write a series of posts about her favourite ways to start new sock knitters on their journey…

I’m back – finally! — for the final installment in this Sock Knitting series, and this is the post where I gush about the knitter and book that completely changed my knitting life:

Cat Bordhi’s New Pathways for Sock Knitters

When I discovered this book, I had knit one pair of toe-up socks with short-row heels and toes — not an experience I ever wanted to repeat. I was chugging along on socks knit using the Yarn Harlot’s Basic Sock Recipe that I referenced in my last blog post. I was even using double-pointed needles to do it!

So I was about to give up on sock knitting entirely, despite the pile of very pretty and seductive sock yarn I had accumulated (of course, the stash that felt large at that time is roughly 1/10^th of my current sock yarn stash. But we won’t talk about that, will we?). I had just moved across the country, from Los Angeles back to my hometown of Pittsburgh, and had begun exploring the various LYSs in the area. While meeting a friend from my new knitting group at a local store, I picked up a copy of New Pathways on a whim and took it home.

Thank God that I did that!

What makes this book so special? What is it about this book that changed my knitting life?

• I will never pick up stitches for a sock gusset again.

• I will always knit perfectly-fitting socks, whether they are for me, my sister-in-law with the teeny-tiny feet, my husband with ginormous ski feet, or anyone else that I want to knit for.

• Cat’s short-row technique for the heel turn has invisible wraps. Really. I’ve never found another short-row/wrap-and-turn technique that I could honestly describe as invisible.

• Not to mention the fact that Cat’s “La-Linc” and “La-Rinc” increases are quite handy in many circumstances — and that almost all of her techniques are detailed through videos on YouTube.

In the most simple terms, to create a New Pathways sock, you knit a tube, then a funnel (increasing by two stitches every three rounds), turn the heel, decrease and knit another tube. That’s it. Those increase lines could be random, could be on the top of your foot, the bottom, the inside, the outside … it doesn’t matter.

Cat Bordhi is my knitting idol. I joke that I would like to be Cat when I grow up, but I know I’m not that fearless. Normal humans make a mistake or deviate from their planned knitting path, and they back up to fix it. Not Cat. She follows her mistakes and sees where they take her. I’ve taken a class with Cat, and this woman makes no bones about protecting her “secret sauce.” Instead, she wants everyone to know the good stuff.

And if you’re local and want to learn what I know about this book, I’m teaching New Pathways starting on Saturday at Bloomin Yarns. Come join us!

Of Christmas, Ballet, and Good Friends

04MarApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Do you remember these funky little slippers by Kate Atherley? Do you remember I said they’d be perfect for two ballet-mad little girls I know?

I had planned to knit them in time for Christmas morning, but as December wore on, the whole month got crazier and crazier and seemed to be flying by at an alarming pace. One day I looked up at the calendar and realised I had only one week left before Christmas, a bazillion things left to do… and the wonderful little slippers weren’t even cast on yet.

Is Christmas about gifts or about friends?

My friend Natalie was ridiculously organised and had already finished all her Christmas knitting well before crunchtime. “Would you like me to knit them for you?, she asked. “So they’re ready for Christmas Day?” I was floored! How could I possibly say yes? They were supposed to be gift from me! But looking at the calendar… oh, how could I not? Without Natalie’s help, there’d be no Christmas ballet slippers at all. I said yes.

Natalie knit like a fiend, and got all four slippers done in a week. …In that last manic week before Christmas. They were wrapped and under the tree for Christmas Eve. They were opened on Christmas morning. They were beautiful! …And loved. And danced in. And danced in… and danced in…

The most perfect Christmas gift!

IMG_2989c — Knit in Celeste yarn in Funky Ballet Shoes

With deep thanks to Natalie for knitting the slippers. And genuine thanks for Kate Atherley for the pattern and her incredibly kind offer to resize it for tiny feet.

And my deep apologies to both for not blogging about it until now. That crazy December pace? Yeah, it’s March and yet the pace still hasn’t let up!