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
You know, I forgot how exciting pure silk is. I used to spin it a lot …but then I moved onto other fibers and I haven’t spun it in a while. And I’d just forgotten. But I bought some pure silk at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival — on a bit of a whim, just to play with — and when I dyed it… Oh! OH! Yes, now I remember what I love about silk.
There is no fiber that can rival pure silk. It takes ordinary colours and gives them an intensity and luster that is just amazing to see (and which, unfortunately, pictures cannot capture!). And then you reach out and touch those colours and… oh, there’s just nothing like silk. After I dyed these braids, I showed them to a friend and she actually grabbed them out of my hands and began to squeal and dance across the room. Really, they are that exciting! And I was that excited as I pulled them out of the dyepot, so I understood her reaction. If you love fiber, if you’re a spinner, this is what pure silk does to you. And if you’ve never spun it before, you gotta try it!
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Hand-dyed Combed Top, Tussah Silk, in SouthWest
Shimmering in the light, here is the burnt orange of desert rock, of terracotta walls, of the parched earth. And here beside it is the startling blue of turquoise, the desert’s own true jewel. Two bold colours that reach out and vie for attention. But there, nestled between them,is the softest of dusty roses, quiet and gentle and tempering them both, so that all three can sit together in harmony, and evoke the essence of the SouthWest.
This is over 2oz of the most incredibly soft Tussah Silk, which spins up beautifully into a lustrous and luxurious yarn.
Fiber Content: 100% Tussah Silk
Weight: Approximately 2.20oz / 60g
Colourway: SouthWest 100505-001
Care Instructions for the final item: Hand wash, Lay flat to dry.
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Hand-dyed Combed Top, Tussah Silk, in Oil on Water
Where steam rises from the puddles that form in the road after a sudden summer storm, and the standing water lifts the grease from the tarmac and carries it like little oil slicks across its surface… there, as the sun breaks through the clouds, the light dances across the oils and creates a delicate rainbow — its shimmering greens, pinks, blues at once both murky and crystal clear — that always takes you by surprise and draws your eye back again and again, just to check that it is still there.
This is over 2oz of the most incredibly soft Tussah Silk, which spins up beautifully into a lustrous and luxurious yarn.
Fiber Content: 100% Tussah Silk
Weight: Approximately 2.05oz / 55g
Colourway: Oil on Water, 100504-001
Care Instructions for the final item: Hand wash, 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.
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.
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.
In an attempt to encourage Spring to return, I’ve dyed some BFL combed top in all the lovely colours of Garden in Spring:
Hand-dyed BFL Combed Top, in Garden in Spring
Like an English garden in the full bloom of spring, this wool is a gentle explosion of colour. The pinks are a riot of foxgloves, buzzing with the sound of busy bumblebees collecting pollen. There is the deep bluey-purple of delphiniums, and the impossible green of new spring grass, called to life again by the sun and fresh rain.
This is over 4oz of wonderfully soft Blue Faced Leicester combed top that spins up beautifully.
Fiber Content: 100% Blue Faced Leicester wool
Weight: Approximately 4.10oz / 115g
Colourway: Cottage Garden in Spring, 100328-001
Care Instructions for the final item: Handwash only in tepid water, 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.
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.
