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Spinning My Wheels, Mostly

By Stephanie

The weather has been a little too glorious to be inside blogging.  And the birds have been singing a little too sweetly to be on the computer updating the shop.  And so I have been spending a lot of time on the back porch, drinking tea and watching the children play in the garden, while I spend some quality time bonding with my new best friend:

It was my birthday last week and so my family and friends cobbled together and got me my heart’s desire — a beautiful Lendrum spinning wheel.  It is an absolute joy to to spin on, such a smooth and gentle motion that it fairly seduces the yarn from my fingers.  Spinning on it is all I’ve wanted to do.  A-a-and… I’ve hardly gotten anything else done all week!

But the garden is now in full bloom, and full of inspiration.  So when I have not been spinning, I have managed to bring a little Spring to the dyepots..

Sock Yarn, Fingering Weight Superwash Merino, in Sweetpeas

As you stand at the kitchen sink, doing the dishes and gazing absent-mindedly at the garden through the open window, a little breeze gently blows the curtain and carries a scent so beautiful and sweet that you instinctively breathe in deeply and, called out of your daydream, realise that it is the smell of the sweetpeas, climbing up the wall beside the window in a riot of wild pinks, their delicate heads bobbing gently in the breeze.

Each skein is approximately 100g of Superwash Merino in a wonderfully soft 3-ply, fingering weight yarn. Two skeins available, sold separately.

Fiber Content: 100% Superwash Merino
Weight: Approximately 3.50oz / 100g
Colourway: Sweetpeas, 100330-001
Care Instructions for the final item: Hand or Machine wash, Lay flat to dry.

Each item is individually hand-dyed by the SpaceCadet, using professional grade acid dyes which are mixed by hand from primaries.  Please be sure to buy enough for your project as dyelots can vary noticeably and the colours may not be able to be reproduced exactly.
SpaceCadet Creations is a smoke-free, pet-free environment.
Please remember that the colours in pictures may vary depending on your computer monitor. The colours in the photos are as accurate as possible.

Getting So Much More than I Expected

By Stephanie

Because I mix almost all my colours directly from the primaries (blue, red, yellow, and black), it can be a challenge sometimes to control the colours.  I see a shade in my mind — or, more usually, a grouping of different colours together — and then I work back from there to figure out how I’d need to mix the primaries to get that combination.

It’s such a rush when I pull the yarn out of the dyebath and it’s exactly what I’d hoped.  I get so excited I could punch the air!

But sometimes what comes out of the dyepot is nothing like what I had expected.  That’s when I bite lip, turn it over in my hands, and look carefully at the yarn to see what adjustments I should make to bring out the best in the colours that have appeared before me.  A little more red, a single drop of black, a swirl of yellow at the very last moment… it can all make a world of difference to the final yarn.  And sometimes… sometimes what I get from that is far and away so much better than the colours I’d first hoped for in my mind.

Vineyard Stain was exactly such a yarn.  It was meant to be something completely different — I can hardly remember now what I was aiming for — but it surprised me completely when I pulled it out of the dyebath.  At first, I didn’t like what appeared at all.  But I made those little adjustments — a bit of this, a smidge of that — and put it back in the water.  And when it came out the second time, I fell head over heels in love.

This is an absolutely amazing yarn.  The colours — the depth of colours — are just gorgeous and I simply cannot get my camera to really capture them.  I may never be able to reproduce this yarn again but, oh!, how I hope I can!!!

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Sock Yarn, Fingering Weight Superwash Merino, in Vineyard Stain

When the grapes have been harvested and gathered into great piles at the end of each row, and the piles have been collected and taken to the winery, what is left in their place is a ruby-red mark where the sheer weight of the bounty crushed the succulent grapes and the dark juice escaped and ran down, leaving that beautiful, telltale stain — deep as burgundy in some places, soft as a rose in others — against the yellow-brown of the dry, sun-baked earth.

This skein is approximately 100g of Superwash Merino in a wonderfully soft 3-ply, fingering weight yarn.

Fiber Content: 100% Superwash Merino
Weight: Approximately 3.70oz / 105g
Colourway: Vineyard Stain, 100324-002
Care Instructions for the final item: Hand or Machine wash in tepid water, Lay flat to dry.

Each item is individually hand-dyed by the SpaceCadet, using professional grade acid dyes. Please be sure to buy enough for your project as the colours may not be able to be reproduced exactly.
SpaceCadet Creations is a smoke-free, pet-free environment.
Please remember that the colours in pictures may vary depending on your computer monitor. The colours in the photos are as accurate as possible.

Off the Porch and Into the Shop

By Stephanie

Sock Yarn, Fingering Weight Superwash Merino, in Seagrass

Nourished by the rich seabed and the soft, tropical waters, seagrass stretches up from the ocean floor in a spectrum of impossible greens, hiding clown fish and seahorses in its emerald fingers as it reaches for the sunlight falling through the clear, sapphire waters.

Each skein is approximately 100g of Superwash Merino in a wonderfully soft 3-ply, fingering weight yarn. Two skeins available, sold separately.

Fiber Content: 100% Superwash Merino
Weight: Approximately 3.50oz / 100g
Colourway: Seagrass, 100401-001
Care Instructions for the final item: Hand or Mashine wash, Lay flat to dry.

Each item is individually hand-dyed by the SpaceCadet, using professional grade acid dyes, using professional grade acid dyes which are mixed by hand from primaries. Please be sure to buy enough for your project as the colours may not be able to be reproduced exactly.
SpaceCadet Creations is a smoke-free, pet-free environment.
Please remember that the colours in pictures may vary depending on your computer monitor. The colours in the photos are as accurate as possible.

And Spring Weather Inspires Spring Dyeing!

By Stephanie

With Spring days filled with clear skies and bright sun, this is what comes out of my dyepot…

Sock Yarn, Fingering Weight Superwash Merino, in Freshly Cut Grass

When Winter has loosened its icy grip at last and the snow has melted away to reveal hopeful buds pushing determinedly up through the dark earth, there will come one day a scent drifting past on a gentle breeze… a smell you remember but can’t quite place… And your mind will recall bright clear deep greens, and soft pale yellows — and will give you the name of the crisp, delicious smell your nose had forgotten: Freshly Cut Grass.

This skein is just under 100g of Superwash Merino in a wonderfully soft 3-ply, fingering weight yarn.  It’s in the SpaceCadet Creations shop now.

Fiber Content: 100% Superwash Merino
Weight: Approximately 3.20oz / 90g
Colourway: Freshly Cut Grass, 100319-001
Care Instructions for the final item: Hand or Machine wash, Lay flat to dry.

Adventure, Day 1

By Stephanie

When I was a kid and I’d do something dumb (the way kids do), my dad used to call me a “Space Cadet”. It was usually said with love, often with exasperation… but I knew it was always meant with affection. There was a lot of love in the house while I was growing up, even as we tried our parents’ patience time and again. But I did a lot of dumb things, and I got called a Space Cadet a lot. Eventually the nickname started to really stick, and I began to feel like I really was a space cadet, that I did a lot of things wrong. Sometimes I still do.

So I decided a long time ago that when I finally worked up the courage to break out of the mould of ordinary work and do something creative — something I wanted to be proud of — I was going to call my little venture “SpaceCadet”.  I could baptise that old nickname with a new meaning.

Opening SpaceCadet Creations on Etsy is my new venture — my adventure! — where I hand-dye yarns and roving for knitters, crocheters, spinners, and felters.  I hope you find something there that sparks your excitement, because it’s been very exciting for me creating all these yarns and rovings, watching all the colours develop.

I can say, at last, that I am proud to be the SpaceCadet.