Merino

Shop Update: Nobody Likes Green… or Blue?

By Stephanie

You know…  I may be asking for trouble, because nobody likes green, and I’ve dyed four new greens and gone and stuck them in the shop…

Clockwise from top left: Celeste fingering weight yarn in Bluegrass,

Mermaid’s Tail, Steel Leaf, and Nobody Likes Green

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Wait…!  You’re confused?  Nobody likes green? Well, that comes from a story that a friend of mine tells, of a time when she popped into her local yarn shop to buy some green yarn to knit a gift for a friend.  But she couldn’t find any green yarn — not any — so she asked where it was.  And the reply came without a moment’s pause,  “We don’t sell green because nobody likes green.”

Every time I dye green, I feel like such a rebel.  Or… wait!  Does dyeing green make me a nobody?  It’s so confusing!

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And, just in case it’s true and, really, nobody likes green, I dyed some blues too.  Because everybody loves blue…  don’t they?

Clockwise from top left: Celeste fingering weight yarn in Faded,

Gloomy Sky, Blue Horse, and Sing the Blues


Dyeing for a New Design

By Stephanie

Do you remember the fabulous crochet patterns I featured last month?  Do you remember this shawl by Sharon Silverman?

© Sharon Silverman, Used with Permission

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Sharon is the author of Tunisian Crochet: The Look of Knitting with the Ease of Crocheting and the creator of some really beautiful patterns.  She and I got talking, and it turns out she admired my yarns as much as I admired her designs.  And I was so flattered when she asked if I would create a colourway for her to use in a new design!

(I think this is the thing that I like most about the fiber arts community: the way that people work together — and really want to work together — to create beautiful things.  Fiber people are great people.)

I began to think about colours — I wanted to give her something really special to work with.  In my mind, I was seeing something lovely to drape around the shoulders, over a beautiful evening dress…  something as soft as mist…

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Sharon sent me a sneak peak at the design this week, and it’s as light and as gorgeous as the yarn it’s made for.  I can’t share the design with you yet, but I can give you a quick glimpse of the yarn.

This is Evening Fog, a delicate mix of soft greys and the lightest misty blue, in Luna Laceweight 80% merino/20% silk yarn.  And, if you like it, it will be in the shop in time for the pattern’s release.

Shop Update: Bright and Bold

By Stephanie

When I reached into this pile of wonderful fibery goodness to choose the yarns I would put into the shop this week, my hand went straight to the brightest shades, the boldest colour combinations.  Eye-candy!

Left to right: Celeste yarn in Flock of Parrots, Iris, Ball of Fire, HeartBeat, Ripe, and Cold Harmony

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Let me introduce you to them:

Celeste Superwash Merino Yarn in Iris

Hidden for so long within its vibrant green stalk, when the Iris finally breaks through and reveals its bloom, the rich purple of the petals with its surprising splash of yellow is nothing short of breath-taking.

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Celeste Superwash Merino Yarn in Cold Harmony

Grey the colour of cold and blustery — cloudy skies over unkind days. And Purple in asucculent shade of zing, a lively sparks that breaks through the grey and breathes life into the day. Together they blend beautifully into a Cold Harmony.

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Celeste Superwash Merino Yarn in Ripe

Pink slides lazily into Mauve and, hardly pausing to note the change, then dips softly into Purple. And in the end, which comes out on top? It doesn’t even matter — with colours so gentle and ripe, it’s all good.

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Celeste Superwash Merino Yarn in Ball of Fire

A Ball of Fire, burning bright, slowly sinking below the horizon… Crackles, hisses, spits and burns… Red, yellow, and orange come flying out in great streaks of colour, escaping across the sky.

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Celeste Superwash Merino Yarn in HeartBeat

Deep reds and warm pinks like the oxygen-rich blood that carries life on every steady HeartBeat, and cool blue of that same blood as it returns to be replenished again in its life-sustaining circle.

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Celeste Superwash Merino Yarn in Flock of Parrots

Falling from the tree and caught on the wind in a flash of purple-blue and green and startling yellow, a reminder that there are no caged birds in a Flock of Parrots.


 

A Cowl in Colours to Inspire!

By Stephanie

“I’m inspired!” Heather said after reading Pattern Roll-Call: Something Gorgeous Around Your Shoulders, and she ordered a skein of Celeste in Red Brick.  Last week, she showed me what she made with it.  It’s a gorgeous, lacy cowl — I don’t think she could have picked a nicer pattern.   And I thought you might like to see too…

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The pattern is Eclipse by Jacquelyn Ridzy — so simple and really lovely.

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It always amazes me how the colours in yarns totally transform when it’s knitted up.  Look at the way the red flows into the purple!  And those little flecks of gold really pop.

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And it’s got this sweet little garter-stitch border.  I love it!

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I can’t tell you how much I love it when people share their projects with me.  Thanks, Heather — your cowl is gorgeous!

Trade Winds — Help Me Choose the One

By Stephanie

I dye because I love playing with colour.  And when I free myself from the (usually self-imposed) requirement to create a specific hue or shade, and instead just let myself be drawn into pure experimentation, I find real joy in the process.

Last week, I did just that.  I created a basic colour recipe, and then tweeked it, and tweeked it again, and then once more…  and dyed one skein in each, just to see how they’d come out.

The Trade Winds Clockwise from top left: Westerly, Northeasterly, Southeasterly, and The Sea Below

Trade winds blow great ships across the sea, their sails billowing, their hulks lying heavy in the blue and green waters, laden down with trunk upon trunk of brightly coloured silk fabrics, and barrels filled with the warm shades of precious spices.

Because the recipes (and the resulting colourways) are so close, I’m going to choose only one colourway to dye for the shop in future.  But… I’m not sure which one to pick.   And so I’d like to ask you, dear readers, for your help.  Which one would you pick?  Please tell me!

And, just to add a bit of fun, I’ll give a $4 credit on your next order from SpaceCadet Creations to everyone who leaves an answer in the comments here before midnight on Friday.  Howzat then?  Sound good?

So, go on then!  Tell me which colourway you’d pick!

Small print:  Comments must be left on this blog post before midnight on Fri Oct 1 2010.  Limited to one $4 credit per household.  Comments must name a colourway chosen from the four listed to be valid.  Multiple comments will not count for multiple credits. Commenter must list a valid email address when leaving the comment and then use that same email address when placing the order with SpaceCadet Creations, in order to be properly credited. The $4 credit must be claimed via the message section when placing the order on Etsy, in order to be properly credited.

She Likes Winter, Snow, and Ice: Shop Update

By Stephanie

Megan was thinking of a cardigan, something simple, with a crew neck… maybe with snowflakes.  The kind of go-to cardigan that could keep her warm and cosy all winter long.  She was excited to get it on her needles, and asked me to dye the colours of Frost.

It would have white, of course, and a soft silver grey, and…  and… ah yes, that lovely cool blue of winter shadows.  I couldn’t wait to get started!

The key was getting the balance right: the amount of white to blue to grey, and the intensity of the colours.  Frost can be soft and light, or it can hard and crisp; sparkling bright in the sun, or shadowy and blue.   I wanted to make sure that Megan got the Frost that she had in her mind, so I dyed it twice and let her choose.

This is Megan’s Frost:

I loved pulling the yarns out of the dyepot, seeing how the colours came together.  But, better than that, Megan loved the colours — she said her yarn was exactly what she was hoping for.  And I can tell you that nothing is so nice for a dyer to hear!

The silver-grey Frost and more skeins of the shadowy-blue Megan’s Frost are in the SpaceCadet’s shop.