2016 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 6-11

Aloha!

I’ve been working on a few projects though knitting has been on the back burner as I’m nursing tendonitis in my left thumb. I am itching to get back to my needles! In the meantime, I thought I’d share some fun images.

First, the Winter 2015/2016 edition of Addicted to Sock Knitting eZine came out yesterday! Debra Garner is in charge of the magazine and asked if I was interested in being the featured designer for this edition – gasp. So, not only am I interviewed but she used my image as the cover – double gasp.  These are my YIN YANG socks and the pattern is included in the eZine.

This is one of my favorite dresses and thought it would be a fun accent to the sock photo. Here is a photo of me in the dress back in 2006 . I can still fit into it so long as I don’t try to breathe, sit or move – otherwise, I’m good!

My interview starts on page 108 and is 8 pages long (lots of photos of my knitted socks). So honored to be a part of this publication again. Last year I was interviewed as an indie dyer, so I’m thrilled to be back as a designer!

Onto the colors!

January was a sad month as we lost some really amazing artists. One of them was the legendary icon David Bowie.  Yarn friend, Kloie, suggested I come up with a colorway to honor Mr. Bowie – so I researched and found two images that would look great in yarn, but also showed different sides of the great man. Here are two colorways for the renegade and the gentleman:  REBEL BOWIE RED and BODACIOUS BOWIE BLU.

I then went back to some of my inspirational photos and found this one taken at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. These are LION’S MANE JELLYFISH!

Yarn friends have been asking me for mini skeins, and after doing the set for the Sock Yarn Swappers group on Ravelry last year, I started dyeing some for the shoppe. These are 10gram “Menehune Mini Skeins” that I’ve wound into balls, so all you have to do is pull the yarn on the top of the ball to starting using. In Hawaiian mythology, the MENEHUNE were people of smaller sized who lived in the hidden parts of the islands in the forests and valleys. They were known to be very crafty people so I thought the title to be fitting.

The first set:

And the second:

These were so popular that I’m working on another set to be posted soon.

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Two SPIN THIS BOX editions have been released since my last posting.

February had a sweet theme and I used sw merino/nylon roving:

and I even dyed up some yarn to match . . .

The March box was just released and has a bit of a lucky feel to it. I was even able to spin up a skein myself in wonderful Mixed BFL roving!

I’m starting on April’s submission soon and will be using Merino/Silk roving – swoon!

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And, I promised last time I would show some weaving projects that I’ve done. Our friend, Nghia, gave me this amazing 32″ Ashford Rigid Heddle Loom for Christmas. He was aware of my yarn obsession and thought a loom would be a nice addition. I was completely surprised by the gift. I mean, I own an Ashford Joy wheel, Ashford hand carders and generally am a fan of the brand (almost got an Ashford Drum Carder but opted for a Patrick Green instead) – but he didn’t know this when he got my loom! Aren’t supportive friends the greatest?

Ok, so I put together the loom which is as wide as my dining table . . .

and started on my first project, a scarf, in Minnesota Vikings colors, of course!

After finishing that one, I wanted to make something for Nghia. I bought some darker colors and decided I needed  to try the clasp weft technique.  Here are my first two weaving projects!

I just acquired a 12 dent reed so I can use sock yarn for weaving, so stay tuned for more fun images in the next post!

Much Aloha!

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2015 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 6 – 12

Aloha!

Been a while since I’ve posted so I have a bunch of fun images to share.

First, the Spring Edition of “Addicted to Sock Knitting” eMagazine was released this week and I’m one of the featured dyers!  Hubby helped take photos of me dyeing yarn in my studio. You can find the magazine on the Addicted to Sock Knitting website.

Along with the interview, there are photos of my colorcards and favorite knitted socks I made for my Aunt Tina’s mother using hand-dyed purple yarn with my Hawaiian Tattoo Socks pattern.

I also contributed two colorwork sock patterns to the eZine. The A.S.K. Socks were designed just for this magazine  . . .

and the Flowers on A Fence Socks are more traditional colorwork socks.

I’m truly excited to be part of such an amazing Facebook group and magazine.

 Now onto some colors! Here are the colors for weeks 6 – 12.  Some of these items are still available on the shoppe.

HAWAIIAN STORM CLOUDS is a new colorway that got me misty while dyeing it up. I guess I’m homesick and I love this photo of storm clouds rolling in over glassy teal water.

Of course dyeing up some STRAWBERRY PAPAYA didn’t help either since I added hunger to my homesickness 🙂

But I did remember how beautiful LANIKAI is and this braid was made from hand-dyed wool, drum carded then pulled off as roving.

Sunsets are supremely magical at DIAMONDHEAD.

I’m so very glad we live with such wonder all around us.  I thought outer space may be void of color, but learned it’s just a DARK UNIVERSE. . .

devoid of any TREES . . .

OCEANS . . .

or BIG ISLAND VOLCANOes.

Ha ha ha! Ok, enough with the seriousness. Here are a couple more I dyed up:

PARISIAN SUNSET in targhee and firestar

WINTERGREEN kettle-dyed lace yarn

STAINED GLASS ALTAR

And another new colorway in lace yarn, MAD SCIENTIST: M.A.B.V (magenta, aqua, black, violet – yes, very creative of me . . . )

Last December someone on Twitter sent me a photo of a beautiful bird and thought I could capture its color in yarn. I dyed a few skeins and posted one skein on Facebook. I sold the yarn before it was ever posted on the shoppe then proceeded to get inquiries about custom orders.  I’m so happy to be spending my time dyeing up more TANAGER colorways.

The last post for this entry is one that I’m super proud to show. My hubby, Jake, directed a VR (virtual reality) project called “theBlu: Encounter” that was released at a big gaming conference (Game Developers Conference “GDC”) this month.  theBlu starts with the viewer on the deck of a shipwreck with sealife all around – manta rays, schools of fish.  I was able to move to the end of the deck and look at the rocky ocean bottom below. Even though I knew I was in a room in a building on dry land, I couldn’t help but get a bit nervous about being on the ledge of a ship!

As I turned to my left, a gigantic blue whale was swimming towards me. A. GIGANTIC. BLUE. WHALE. SWIMMING. TOWARDS. me. . . The whale stopped right in front of me and with his basketball-sized eye looked me over. He then turned with his pectoral fin to swim right over me as I ducked away.  His fluke pushed downward almost hitting the ship, propelling him to swim away. The force of his tail sent the mast of the ship wobbling so I ducked again thinking it would hit me.

As the whale swam into the ‘sunset’, my heart was pounding from this Encounter. I grabbed the headpiece to take it off when hubby said “Let’s do it again!” – this time he had me step even closer to the whale.

It was such an amazing experience that of course, I had to re-create that experience in yarn! Here is theBlu, in honor of my hubby and the hardworking crew of WeVR studios.

Enjoy!