Gimme Gimme Gimme Your Questions About Hand-Dyed Yarns!

27MayApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

I’ve been working on a lot of things that have got me pretty excited lately — things that I hope will help us to bring you more of the best and most beautiful yarns that we can create. And, for one of those things, I really need your help….

I’ve been putting together an eBook, a little guide to choosing and using hand-dyed yarns. Because they can be really special things, hand-dyed yarns, can’t they? Beautiful, enticing, intoxicating, and… sometimes overwhelming. When you first see them, you want to dive in the colours. When you hold them, the colours change as they catch the light. And when you cast them on, the results can be absolutely spectacular… or sometimes terribly disappointing. Yep, there is a real art to using hand-dyed yarns!

hand-dyed yarn, yarn, knitting, crochet, indie dyer — Celeste Yarn in Garden In Spring

So, as I’m putting this eBook together, I’ve been trying to look at my yarns through the eyes of my customers. I’m asking myself the questions that they have — that you have — when picking yarns and choosing colourways. And, as I was trying to put myself in your place, trying to come up with these questions, it suddenly dawned on me… why don’t I just ask you?

Huh! Now there’s an idea!

A gentler, less intimidating variegated yarn — Fingering Yarn in Bamboo, Superwash Merino, and Nylon, in Translucence

So, when you bought your first hand-dyed variegated yarn, what questions went through your head? Were you confident in choosing a pattern for it, or did you have trouble? Were you worried it would pool, or did you not care? Or maybe even hope it would pool? Did you shy away from wildest colours or gravitate straight to them? And did you do anything to tame them …or did you just let them rock?

When you work with beautiful, wonderful, variegated hand-dyed yarns, what are your biggest questions? What perplexes you? What do you wish you had a little guidance on? Go on and tell me! Put your questions in the comments below and you’d really be helping me out.

And if you have answers to any of the questions, leave them too! Because I suspect that the answers are actually just as individual as the yarns that inspire them…!

(Hey, by the way, I’m not guaranteeing I’ll have all the answers. But if life is about the journey, then the journey has to start with the questions, right? Hit me!)

The Sexy Knitter Pattern Winner Is…

17MayApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

The response to the Sexy Knitter’s pattern giveaway has been fantastic, and it was so much fun to see the comments rolling in and all the feedback on your favourite Sexy Knitter patterns! Thanks so much to all of you for participating.

And I’m about to tell you who’s won but, before I do, let me just quickly show you two exciting yarns I’ve put in the shop today. And they’re exciting not because of the colours I’ve applied, but because the yarns themselves are just so beautiful. Really, when I’m holding them in my hands, turning them in the light, they are so lusterous, just so gorgeous! I can hardly take pictures to do them justice — but trust me, you’ll love them.

First is a combination of silk and superwash BFL which produces a 4-ply yarn that feels incredible and has the most amazing sheen…

yarn, knitting, hand-dyed, indie dyer, — From left: Silk and BFL Fingering Yarn in Plumberry and Straw Into Gold

And the second is a beautiful combination of silk with merino wool that creates a 2-ply yarn with a distinctive texture that is incredibly smooshy with a breath-taking luster…

And The Winner Is…

Ok, I’ve made you wait long enough. The winner of two Sexy Knitter patterns of her choice is:

Dvora Geller

Congratulations! Please email me at spacecadetcreations (at) gmail (dot) com, using the same email address you used in your comment, to let us know which patterns you’d like. And the Sexy Knitter will get them to you!

MDSW: The Glorious Aftermath

13MayApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

The weather was glorious, the shopping overwhelming, and it was sheep as far as the eye could see! I got back from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival exactly the way I knew I would: drunk with excitement, completely exhausted, and yet ready for more! There is nothing else like MDSW…

MDSW, Maryland Sheep and Wool — The traffic to get in was CRAZY!!!

I was lucky enough to run into the lovely Nora Bellows of Noni. I discussed spindles with Sasha Torres of the SpinDoctor podcast. Got to say hello to Amy Singer of Knitty magazine. And I had really enlightening conversations (about credit card machines of all things!) with Andrea Berman (I Speak KnitSpeak), Gale of Gale’s Art, and Jennie Lanners (you know… Jennie the Potter!).

Did I take any pictures of any of them? No, not one. I know …I know!

So, you’ll just have to settle for pictures of my swag instead…

Oh wait! I forgot… I got some really cool stitchmarkers too from Jennie the Potter. Let me go grab my knitting…

I love that they have knit stitches on one side and instructions on the other! So cool! The yarn is SpaceCadet’s Stella in Vibrance.

So, you see how much fun it was? Oodles and oodles, and I am jonesing for more! What are your favourite fiber festivals through the year? Which ones do you love?

Bamboo, to Shine in the Summer Sun

03MayApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Are you ready for summer? Ready for those warm breezes, some long cool drinks, and golden light filtered through the lush green that you missed so much these past months? Yeah, me too. I really, really am ready.

And those kinds of days call for a really special yarn. Something like… bamboo. Not only because bamboo really does evoke thoughts of those tropical breezes accompanied by tropical drinks but, more importantly, because it has a spectacular sheen that captures the warmth of the sun and reflects it back in way that is everything you want in a summer yarn.

Here’s to those lazy days to come, gentle days bathed in golden sunlight, and lot of glorious, shimmery, summer knitting…

Clockwise from top left: fingering yarn with bamboo in Soliel, Pink Sun, Juicy, Evening Fog, Translucence, and SeaFoam

Shop Update: Yarns for Spring in All Her Guises!

12AprApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Spring is a conundrum. One day it’s gloriously sunny and warm, and the next has a chill wind and grey skies. Spring is a tease. Spring is frustrating! Spring is fickle…

And today’s shop update reminds me a lot of Spring. Some of the colourways are light and bright and sunny, full of the colours of newly opened buds and warm days to come. And some of the colourways are dark and brooding, the days of wet and drizzle that are so necessary to process of Spring’s unfurling…

From left to right, starting top-left: Celeste yarn in African Violets, Poppies in the Fields, and Tiger Lilies; Estelle yarn in a Dept of Rocket Science colourway, Celeste in Baroque, Celeste in Carnival; Estelle in Cold Flame, Translucence, and Grave Goods; Estelle in Hieroglyphics, a Dept of Rocket Science colourway, and Celeste in Grave Goods.

Pattern RollCall: The Knits You Loved at HSYP!

05AprApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

At HomeSpun Yarn Party, we had finished two pieces that got so many comments, so many questions, so many compliments, that I knew they had to be showcased in a Pattern Rollcall!

Paint the Sky

The first was the Paint the Sky wrap by Susan Wolcott of Y2Knit, a beautiful rectangular scarf with delicate yarn overs that rise up the length of it like bubbles through water. Knit in a semi-solid yarn, the pattern would really shine, but done in a varigated yarn, it becomes an absolute gorgeous riot of colour.

We knit ours in one skein of Lucina yarn in a gentle pink-and-purple colourway called Sweet Dreams, and it was gorgeous! But it would look stunning in any of these yarns that have just gone in the shop:

yarn, hand-dyed, sock yarn — (clockwise from upper left): Lucina sparkly yarn in Most Ardently, Swollen, Carnival, and Baroque

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Fleurdelise

The second finished piece that got so much attention was the Fleurdelise One Skein Triangle Shawl by Michelle Miller of Fickle Knitter Designs.

This was knit for me by my friend Natalie (as my birthday present!) using one skein of Lucina in SouthEasterly, a yarn that is varigated but all without a great deal of contrast in the colours. With a more complicated lace pattern like this, it often works best to use a yarn that’s either semi-solid or has a simpler change of colours. Personally, I’d love to see how it comes out in two of our most popular colourways, Sugared Violets and Beguile.

yarn, sock yarn, hand-dyed — (left to right) Lucina Yarn in Sugared Violets and Beguile

You can see why these patterns got so much attention at HSYP, can’t you? So beautiful!