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 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.
I had a customer enquire last week about giving a SpaceCadet Creations gift certificate… and I was quite shocked to realise I hadn’t even thought of them before!
Selling on Etsy, it’s a bit tricky to do gift certificates (Etsy doesn’t have the functionality for either gift certificates or for discount codes, unfortunately) and it took quite a bit of digging around, but I finally figured out how to do it. And… TA DA!!!!… I am delighted to announce that Space Cadet Gift Certificates can be now be purchased through PayPal! Just click on the link in the sidebar to the right (just under the SpaceCadet’s head) to be taken to a screen that will walk you through the process.
And Happy Gift-giving!
Not that I’m spin obsessed lately or anything (!), but something made me turn my dyeing attention from yarn to fiber. I don’t know what that could be… cough cough!
Anyway, my one-track mindedness is your gain. Here’s a peek at the gorgeousness that came out of the dyepot. I am sooooo tempted to pull it out of the shop and spin it up myself!
Hand-dyed Combed Top, Superwash Merino, in Pond Lilies
Nourished by the murky blue-green waters and coaxed by the warm summer sun, the Pond Lilies, with their heads turned skyward, open slowly to reveal a ring of white petals — as white as a dove’s wings — that surround a center so yellow it could almost be citrus, and they sway gently on the water’s surface as fish brush past their roots reaching down into the dark water beneath them.
This is over 4oz of wonderfully soft Superwash Merino combed top. It spins up beautifully, and the final item can be machine washed.
Fiber Content: 100% Superwash Merino wool
Weight: Approximately 4.05oz / 115g
Colourway: Pond Lilies 100412-001
Care Instructions for the final item: Hand or Machine wash, Lay flat to dry.
This item was individually hand-dyed by the SpaceCadet, using professional grade acid dyes which were 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.
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.