After the skeins are dyed, we reskein them into smaller, more manageable skeins to go in the shop. And we do it outside, if it’s a nice day… in the dappled sunlight with a glass of chilled mimosa. This was my Sunday.
And the result is one of my favourite colourways, Freshly Cut Grass
When I finally bought an MP3 player last year, I thought I’d be using it to listen to music, but it turns out that what I really listen to are fiber podcasts. I love ’em! Ever since I discovered there were these people out there just talking away about knitting, spinning, weaving, and dyeing, I’ve been addicted. Who wouldn’t be? A nearly endless source of people who get it and are right there, on tap, ready at any time of day or night to whisper in my ear about all thing fibery — while I’m doing the dishes or sweeping the floor or stuck in traffic or inexplicably wide awake in the dead of night. Who wouldn’t be hooked?!?
Well… ok, I know there are a lot of people who wouldn’t be, but that’s only because they’re not fiber freaks like you and I. In fiberista terms,the people who matter are the people who understand the allure of fiber, and that’s me, and you …and the podcasters. Here are some of my absolute favourites:
Cast-On from Brenda Dayne is the first fiber podcast I discovered and I think it is the absolute best — a benchmark for all other podcasters to work toward. Thoughtful, whimsical, educational, and always so beautifully put together, Cast-On is always a treat. Brenda is taking a sabbatical at the moment to recover from some health issues but, if you’ve never listened, it’s worth working your way through the archives while we wait for her return.
FiberBeat is what I imagine the B-52s would come up with if they decided to record a fiber podcast. WonderMike has created a zany podcast that, while always full of interesting interviews, news, and information, is also chock full of crazy random audio madness that has me laughing out loud. You’ll have to listen to see what I mean, but that’s no hardship.
Insubordiknit from spinning artist Jacey Boggs is a rare treat — rare because she produces episodes randomly and seldom, but a treat because they are so completely worth the wait. Jacey is famous in the fiber world for her art yarns — unique, creative, and stunning… but always stable and balanced. Listening to her talk through their creation is wonderfully inspiring.
These great podcasters keep me wrapped in fibery goodness even when I can’t be spinning or knitting — a wonderful thing. And you know what? I’d like to find more fiber podcasts just like them! What are your favourite podcasts? Who should I be listening to? I’d love to know.
The response to the May Giveaway has been phenomenal, and it has been exciting and so much fun for me to see the response! I love making these yarns and fiber, dreaming up the colours in my head and then mixing and coaxing them out of the dyepot — that’s why I started dyeing — but absolutely nothing beats the thrill of getting feedback, learning how to be a better dyer by getting other people’s opinions on my work. And this week, people have been signing up to the blog, tweeting about SpaceCadet Creations and — most importantly to me — sharing about their favourite items, their projects, and the yarns they love in the comments and on Ravelry. As a dyer, usually working all on my own, it has been just wonderful. Thank you all so much!
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Now, I want to show you a new colourway I put in the shop yesterday. It wasn’t what I intended at all, but I just love the result. It started out as purples blending into pinks — and, when you look at the photos, you might think that’s what it is — but when I pulled it out of the dyepot, I just didn’t like it at all. It was too sugary-sweet, too bright and girly… Not what I’d intended! So I quickly mixed up a deep, rich orange and poured it over part of the yarn and — voila! — the yarn changed moods completely. The colourway has real depth now. I think it’d would be wonderful knitted up as a triangular shawlette, peeking out from the collar of dark coloured coat and casting its warm tones onto the face.
A evening storm over the sea is a spectacular sight but, after the winds have died down and the palm trees have stopped swaying, as the sun begins to sink beneath the water on the horizon, its rays reach up and turn the sky into a blaze of wild pink and orange, streaked with the deep purple clouds, now spent and tamed.
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 3.65oz / 100g (approximately 490 yards per 100g)
Colourway: Sunset over a Stormy Sea, 100425-002
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 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.
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.
Imagine my surprise when I received an email today telling me that my Freshly Cut Grass yarn has been featured in an Etsy Treasury. Well, no… wait… you don’t have to imagine — let me tell you: I squealed so loud that my husband didn’t know what to do with me and my children ran away up to their bedrooms!
So exciting! Thank you, Heather King, for choosing my yarn for your treasury!
No sooner had I begun to wax lyrical about Spring than the weather decided to teach me a lesson and get cold again. In honour of that, I dyed a new yarn.
Sock Yarn, Fingering Weight Superwash Merino, in Cold Waters
In a still northern sea, the prow of a ship plows through cold waters, dividing the waves into a pale, frothing wake. The water is dark, foreboding… a deep blue broken by white wave caps, and chunks of silver-gray ice. Beautiful in its strength… beautiful, these endless Cold Waters.
This skein is approximately 100g of Superwash Merino in a wonderfully soft 3-ply, fingering weight yarn.
Fiber Content: 100% Superwash Merino
Weight: Approximately 3.75oz / 105g
Colourway: Cold Waters, 100324-001
Care Instructions for the final item: Hand or Mashine wash, Lay flat to dry.
