Ahhh! Now This Feels Good…

18FebApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Getting ready for the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival was great fun (and exciting, and crazy, and chaotic) and it took over my life for a few weeks. And in a way, that was a lovely break — everyone needs a change from their day-to-day routines now and again — but one thing I really missed was the excitement of putting new yarns in the shop, of sharing new colourways with my customers. Sometimes, it takes a little break like that to remind you how nice your day-to-day really is!

So last night I filled the shop with just a few of the mountain of new yarns and colours I have ready to go in…

Clockwise from top left: Silk and BFL in Spice Trade, Celeste in Cove, Estelle in Sunshine, Estelle in Goodbye Blue Sky, Celeste in Rubble, and Celeste in First Love

Ahhhhh… It feels soooo good to be back to normal again!

An Open Letter

04FebApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

An Open Letter to Those who Don’t Get the Fiber Arts

I am not doing this to recreate the past. I don’t harbour any fantasies of wearing petticoats or a bonnet. And I don’t knit because I want to feel domestic.

I do this to free my soul. I do this to work in colours that make my heart sing. I dye because I see in my mind hues and shades that are bursting to be let out. And so I do let them out, laying them down in dye upon fiber – vibrant shades poured out over wool, over silk, over the ordinary of life.

And when, at last, I cast those colours onto my needles, I feel a calm wash over me as I work them up into a fabric of my own making — the needles clicking softly and the colours gently blending and contrasting.

I know you think this is old-fashioned, but it’s not. It is as modern as imagination, as current as discovery, as now as creativity. Would you ask a painter why he doesn’t just take a photograph?

And it’s ok if you don’t get it. I understand. But I just wanted to say – I just wanted to say out loud – that this is nothing about old fashioned. This is what I do, and I do it now. I am a fiber artist.

The Department of Rocket Science

12JanApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

C’mere, I want to show you something… Here, over here, through this door. It says, “Department of Rocket Science” and I’ve heard crazy things happen in there… No, don’t worry… it’s ok. Look, I’ll come with you. It’s this door here, see? Come on!…

I love to experiment with colour — it gives me such a rush and it’s why I dye. For me, there is no moment in the whole dyeing process more exciting than when I lift a skein of yarn out of the dyepot and it reveals its colours to me. Darker on the outside, softer on the inside… opening up like a soft spring flower, or glistening like a decadent chocolate. No matter how many skeins I dye, that moment gives me a rush every single time.

sock yarn, hand-dyed, hand dyed, knitting, yarn — Estelle in Dept of Rocket Science Colourway 101222-002

It’s through this process of playing with colour that I’ve created all the wonderful colourways that I dye for the shop time and again. But, along the way, that process also produces yarns in colourways that probably won’t be repeated again — yarns that were stepping stones in the development of a new colourway, or yarns where I simply let my muse run free to see what would come out of the dyepot.

And so I have created the Department of Rocket Science. It’s a special place where I can go to experiment with abandon — to mix new colours, to dye with my eyes closed, to play with new fibers and new yarn bases. And it’s place where you can come and discover results of all this wonderful experimentation, and choose one of these very special yarns for your one-of-a-kind project. (And remember that all these experimental yarns will go into this section, regardless of yarn/fiber type, so if you’re searching the shop for a particular yarn type, don’t forget to check the Dept of Rocket Science as well.)

Stella in Dept of Rocket Science Colourway 110105-005

So go ahead… open the door! You never know what you’ll find inside… But it will always be something exciting!

Inspiration for Colour in Knitting and Dyeing

07JanApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

A few years ago, I took a class with Brandon Mably that completely changed the way I thought about colour. It was an intense 2-day course which challenged us to think about how we see and use colour from the minute we arrived in the morning, until we left at the end of the day. Brandon had us doing a lot of crazy things to shake up our brains, from throwing all our balls of yarn into the center of the floor and mixing them all up, to free-knitting swatches that contained 10… 15… 20 different colours. It was a great weekend (and if you ever get a chance to take Brandon’s Design in Colour class, I highly recommend it).

And there’s one technique that he taught that has translated particularly well from knitting to dyeing. He suggested that we use artwork that we love — paintings that really spoke to us — and use the colours as inspiration. If those colours work in the painting, then they would work in our knitting too. He walked around the room and let us choose from a stack of fine-art postcards and greeting cards, whichever painting called out to each of us the most.

The thing about using this technique is that you suddenly realise how many colours you don’t see, even as they are right in front of your eyes. When you first look at a painting, you may see what you think of as a “yellow painting”…

But when you take the time to really immerse yourself into the colour, you suddenly see so much more — little spots of red that jump out at you, the grays that fade into the background, subtle greens that you didn’t even notice. They all work together — these colours that you never would have thought of putting side-by-side — and they create a depth and complexity that pulls you back again and again.

Just realising that really began to set us free in that class, and we dove into the pile of yarn in the middle of the floor. Using our cards as a guide, everyone’s knitting exploded into wild colour — combinations of shades far more daring than we would have tried before.

And then Brandon showed us a something else that I hadn’t noticed: different areas of the the same painting contain their own micro-colourways, and give off completely different moods from what you felt when you first saw the painting. So if you take a painting that you think of as mostly sunny and yellow, and cover part of it up, you might find an area that’s completely different… that’s moody and blue…

And when you switch your hands around again, the whole mood changes back to the sunny and yellow you saw before. Or maybe to a different section, and a different colourway and mood. Here are little colourways that you can pull out for inspiration in your knitting, and that I use in my dyeing — a whole world of colourways in one painting, just waiting to inspire you, if you stop and look closely enough! And once you start seeing them, you really can’t wait to start using them yourself… to start knitting as though you’re painting.

(When I lived in the UK, fine art cards like this one from Woodmansterne were available in any card shop for just a couple of pounds. But here in the US, I don’t regularly see cards like this — the shelves seem to filled with the standard assortment of greetings cards with nice-but-not-overly-interesting artwork. I’d love to find a good supplier of art cards like this one to inspire me… Can anyone suggest where I might find something similar here in America?)

This Post Is Not For You

29DecApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

This blog post is not for you. Unless you are my mother or my sister. If you’re not, that’s ok — you can still read it — but it’s not for you.

It’s for my sister, firstly. Are you there, meine kleine Schwester? It’s for you because, while you were staying with us over Christmas, and we were sitting at the table and enjoying that wonderful holiday feast and a few glasses of wine, you mentioned something that that showed me just how much work there is to do. Hang on, let me explain for everyone else…

My sister is not a knitter or a crocheter — if you handed her a pair of needles, I’m certain she’d hold them like chopsticks. But she’s been really supportive of SpaceCadet Creations. She’s proud of the work I do, she comes into my studio to see the dyeing in action, and she promotes the fiber arts on her Facebook stream… in her own particular way. A few weeks ago, she posted this:

Knitting is not just a hobby which reduces stress and improves manual dexterity, but it’s also an eco-friendly way to buy your clothes.

And a few days before that, this:

All the cool kids buy their clothes from knitters, because sweatshops are so uncool.

And also this:

The Knitteratti are ready for Christmas. Are you?

She’s a kook, yeah, but she’s a supportive kook. And then, there we were, sitting at the table and drinking the last of the wine and sneaking a few extra bites of spice cake, when she mentioned that she’d had some good feedback on my yarn from a couple of friends, but that they hadn’t bought anything because they don’t knit socks.

For a moment, I was taken aback. “Well… erm… you know, they don’t have to knit socks with it,” I said.

“They don’t?” She was genuinely shocked by the revelation. “But it’s sock yarn! You called it sock yarn!”

“Um, well… yeah, it’s sock yarn if you’re going to knit socks with it. But… it’s just yarn. You can knit anything with it.”

“You can?!? Like what?!?”

“Like hats, or scarves, or mittens, or sweaters, or… well, anything you want. It’s… y’know, it’s yarn.”

“You never told me!” And she actually jumped up a little in her seat as she said it. “I thought it was just for socks! I’ve been telling everyone that it’s only for socks!”

So, for my sister — my lovely, kooky sister who has been so supportive but totally doesn’t get knitting — (and for you, just in case you might be similarly confused), let me just clarify: sock yarn is not just for socks. It’s only called sock yarn because it’s the right weight to be used for socks, but you can use it to make whatever your heart desires. Don’t let that label hold you back!

In fact, that’s really important. Let me say it again, with Center and Bold this time:

Sock Yarn is Not Just for Socks!

The rest of this post is for my mum, who really wants to knit something with my yarn but, so far, neither of us have had a chance to sit down and pick her a colourway and a pattern. I suspect she is thinking of a scarf, because that’s her comfort zone, but (ignoring everything I’ve just said above!) I’d love to see her try a pair of socks. I think it would really stretch her knitting skills and, more than that, she’d have a lot of fun in the process. And I know she finds that prospect of socks a little daunting, so this is the bit that’s for her (and for you too, if you’re feeling a little intimidated at the thought of knitting socks):

Mum, go ahead and choose your colourway, pick up your needles and knit your gauge swatch. There’s nothing to worry about. Because we’ve got some blog posts coming up in the next couple of months that are going to take you by the hand and guide through starting off as a sock knitter. It’ll be good — trust me.

And, Mum… you are going to love sock knitting!

The Perfect Yarn for the Season

07DecApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

This is the season of twinkling stars on cold, cold nights, of candles that glow cheerfully, and holiday lights on trees inside and out… This is the season of virgin snow glistening in the silver moonlight, of shimmering icicles, of perfect crystalline snowflakes that catch the light in their icy lace. This is the season for Sparkles.

Introducing Lucina, a beautiful fingering yarn that sparkles with all the magic of the season and turns every colourway into something stunning. This is the kind of yarn that catches your eye instantly — that you pick up and don’t want to put down. This is a yarn perfect for the season of Sparkles!

Lucina Yarn in Midnight Swim

The best light for photography is always natural light, outdoors. And even though it was freezing today, I wanted to be sure to capture the way this yarn shimmers so gorgeously, so I braved the bitter wind and the icy temperatures and took the whole batch of Lucina outside for a photoshoot. And just as my finger froze to the bone and I began cursing the winter, a gentle snow began to fall — big, fat, beautiful flakes that landed softly on everything and then… just stayed there, almost too perfect to be believed.

And so, the sparkles in these photos are the beauty of the yarn, but the snowflakes are courtesy of Mother Nature. And as I was trying so hard to show off my lovely new yarn, didn’t she just go and steal the show?!?

Snowflake on Ripe

Snowflake on Evening Fog

Snowflakes on Nightfall

Snowflakes on Midnight Swim

Snowflakes on Mermaid’s Tail