2018 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 1 – 11

Aloha!

Happy Spring! It’s been a busy 2018, and exciting nonetheless.  Last month marked my 1-year anniversary of starting the new AlohaBlu.com website – whew, a year already! I still have my original Etsy shoppe open and post my patterns & dyed-to-order listings there as well as the main shoppe.  It’s been wonderful to have 2 sites going simultaneously!

A little change for me – late last year I started working part-time in the new field of ‘virtual reality’. After 2 decades of entertainment production experience, I find the new VR media exciting and challenging and keeps me on my toes. From learning new processes and terminology to the fast-paced non-linear nature of this medium, I sometimes feel like the slow tortoise being lapped by the feisty hare – lol! But, I’m having fun finding the balance between this amazing opportunity in a new field and my passion for fiber arts.

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Along with a new job, I decided to start a FB page for my photos. (Backstory – Along with using my photos as inspiration for colorways, I’ve been posting a weekly photo on Instagram and have enjoyed sharing them with other photographers and travel enthusiasts. So, I changed my IG handle to be alohablu_photography and post every Friday.)  I now add my photos on Facebook as AlohaBlu Photography with photos/products available on Society6.

Here’s a photo I took one evening during our recent visit to Maui. We watched the sun set out on the lawn right by the shore, then moved up into the lobby for this photo of the pool area with just a sliver of a sunset left  on the horizon.

Here is one I took while out paddle boarding  just after sunrise with Jake – still lots of cloud cover with a hint of color poking through on the horizon. I think we were probably 1/2-1 mile offshore and it was super calm and peaceful. I was hoping to bump into some whales, but I think they were still sleeping 😴.

Come follow along  on Facebook and/or Instagram for more photos.

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For the shoppe this year, I’m hoping to keep dyeing up new and oldie-but-goodie colorways, and aiming to do another “Menehune Mini” (mini-skeins) listing this summer. Perhaps some more project bags/sock yarn kits too!  

I’m also hoping to start an email newsletter, so if you would like to join, add your name to the list by visiting AlohaBlu.com, then scroll to the footer to find the sign-up menu:

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Ok, now onto the COLORS!!

I’ll start with a new colorway, inspired by this photo I took last year. San Clemente is a famous surfing town about 2 hours south of Los Angeles. It’s pretty laid back and quiet and the sunsets are amazing – great restaurants too. I dyed up some sock yarn and roving in this beautiful sunset colorway.

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Then I followed up with a couple oldie-but-goodie Hawaiian-themed colorways: Hawaiian Storm Clouds and Big Island Volcano. The former representing the island of Oahu as storm clouds were rolling in – look at the beautiful teal color of the water!  The latter representing the big island of Hawaii where Jake and I saw this smoking volcano via helicopter!

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Let’s stay on the islands a little bit longer . . . shall we?  This colorway, “Wailua Falls 2” was inspired by this photo I took on the island of Kauai. These are a set of twin waterfalls that flow into a secluded lagoon below.  You can hike down and bathe in the lagoon or stay topside and get a birds-eye view. For those of you who remember a TV show called “Fantasy Island”, these were the waterfalls seen in the opening sequence of every episode!

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As the 2018 Winter Olympics were starting, I was asked to come up with a variegated colorway in sock yarn. Happy to oblige, this is “Best of the Best”, inspired by the 5 colors of the Olympic Rings. (Mahalo for the inspiration, Arlene!)

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Let’s travel now to the land of magic! We live a few miles from Universal Studios Hollywood and love to visit the Harry Potter section of the park. I took this photo during our very first visit and noticed that beneath the gray stone castle, the foundation rocks had shades of pastel colors. What a great inspiration for yarn!

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Speaking of magic, I think artist Aaron Spurgeon’s artwork is simply incredible. Aaron has done numerous illustrations for animated films/projects and is currently designing the cover of the Vistor’s Guide for the City of Pasadena (yup, the city of the famous Rose Parade!). When Aaron showed me this teapot design a few years ago, I created a colorway and dyed it again this year.

Please find Aaron’s work on:

etsy.com/shop/AaronSpurgeon  |   www.spurgeonart.com    |    FB: Aaron Spurgeon Illustration

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Another oldie-but-goodie is one of my favorite springtime colorway: Saturated Spring. I don’t have a photo inspiration for this one but love the combination of greens, magenta and brown.

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Next up, the Winter 2018 edition of Addicted to Sock Knitting eZine was recently published and I took part in the “Dyer’s Challenge”. The theme for this edition was your favorite recipe and I love these Chocolate Covered Banana Pops by raw chef Debra Garner.  Find the super easy and delicious recipe here.

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One of our friends is moving back to the US after living in New Zealand for a number of years (and loving it!). I remember visiting out there years ago and recalling how everyone we met really enjoyed the lifestyle as well as the awesome natural beauty all around.  This is a new colorway I dyed up inspired by the colorful hydrangeas we saw at the Wellington Botanic Gardens. It’s on our bucket list to return for another visit!

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Traveling onward from New Zealand to Paris:  I took an oldie-but-goodie colorway and created a kit! When I saw this lovely fabric at the store, I knew I wanted to create a kit using my Rainy Day Eiffel colorway. I still love how the sunset creates such a beautiful silhouette of the Tour Eiffel. The kits have sold out, but there are still single sock yarn skeins available.

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Being a sucker for Purple and Gold, I had to share this custom order listing for a Lakers inspired colorway. I had meant to photograph the self striping skein and the two min skeins prior to packaging, but forgot so here’s what it looked like before it shipped out.

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I’m working on more colorways and will post them next time.

Moving onto . . . finished projects!!  Here are a few things I’ve finished this year.

This pattern was inspired by the Hawaii State Flower (which I know is the Yellow Hibiscus, but I think the Pink version is just as pretty, don’t you?)

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Another Hawaiian-themed pattern:

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Osmosis Socks Pattern by Leah Oakley available on Ravelry. This colorway was inspired by the Dragon our godson Kai drew, which his godfather Jake later recreated and gifted the original drawing to Kai on his 8th birthday.

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Finished socks from the ASK colorway challenge

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Cavalier Mitts (available soon in the Accessories section of the shoppe)

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Some accessories in honor of my beloved Minnesota Vikings:

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And some spinning projects!

This one was probably the largest skein I’ve spun up at over 6oz of continuous yarn! I think I’m going to knit up a cowl for myself.

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This is one of my most favorite colorways and have wanted to spin this up for a while now. Love how it came out so soft and shiny!

More to come! Mahalo for reading along. 

OH! If you have a finished project in AlohaBlu yarn, fiber or sock pattern and don’t mind me showing it off, PM me with a photo as I’d love to add it to the “Showcase” page of the website!

Remember sign up for the newsletter on the shoppe and Happy Spring!

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2017 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 35 – 48

Aloha!

Happy Fall Season. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday here in Studio City, where it topped out at 94 degrees Fahrenheit!  It quickly turned about 20 degrees cooler so all the trees in our neighborhood decided to shed their leaves. It’s nice to have cooler weather finally.

I’ve been creating more new colorways and here are a few posted on AlohaBlu.com.

So, this September, the host cities for the 2024 and 2028 Summer Olympic Games were announced, and for the 3rd time ever, Los Angeles will be a host in 2028! Yes, it’s 11 years away so there is plenty of time to prep, but still an honor to be a host city again. I dyed up a colorway – appropriately named 2028 – inspired by their logo.

Staying in my hometown of Los Angeles, here are new colorways inspired by the Gemstone/Mineral Collection at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. I took these photos this summer when we visited the museum with our niece and nephew! This is FERROAXINITE and FLUORITE – beautiful colorways in purples and burgundy.

I added a couple more colorways to the collection with CHRYSOCOLLA and REDDINGITE!

On my personal/photography Instagram account, I posted a picture I took while cruising through Alaska years ago. I had such great feedback that I decided to make a new colorway: RIDING THROUGH GLACIER BAY 🙂

This summer I participated in a Knit/Crochet-A-Long with the Facebook Group, Love, Peace and Yarn, and we made the Wonder Woman Wrap! It was so awesome to see what colors everyone chose – some paid homage to the classic character costume, while others – like me – took a more modern approach. I dyed two colors for my wrap: Courage Red (a pretty wine/burgundy) and Warrior Gold. The yarn kit is still available on the shoppe.

As some of you may know, my parents like to send me photos of their travels and I love to turn them into yarn and fiber. Here are a few from my folks that I dyed.

FALKLAND ISLAND PENGUINS.  Though the weather was cold and sleeting, Mom and Dad took a 4-wheel drive tour through a peat bog to a penguin colony and took photos of these cool creatures.

YELLOWSTONE BEAR was captured on film by my Dad! Can you imagine being this close to this guy – or looking up and seeing up above you in a tree?? I thought his colors would be great for fall projects.

Here’s another photo Dad took at a museum in Seattle. Beautiful works of GLASS ART!

Along with my parents, I have other artists in my family from whom I draw inspiration. Our godson, Kai,  drew an image of a dragon (he loves dragons) and when my hubby saw it, he wanted to do his version – so art inspiring art. Once hubby Jake was done with his dragon, he framed it up and gave it to Kai for his 9th birthday. Here is a collage of both artist’s work and my yarn/wool interpretation of GODFATHER/GODSON DRAGON.

I later decided to dye up an oldie-but-goodie this fall, called MEMORY. Years ago I had a fiber friend ask if I could create a colorway for her based on a memory of a walk through the woods. I loved this colorway so much that I dyed it up again!

I was excited to add a new sock yarn base to the shoppe, called Lanikai. It’s a lovely superwash merino/lurex yarn so it’s deliciously sparkly. Here are a couple skeins available on the shoppe: PUMPKIN SPICE and ORPIMENT.

I also dyed up a Holiday Collection. Coming from a multi-national, multi-cultural family I thought I’d do a selection of yarn to honor the various holidays we celebrate during the end of the year. Sending lots of love, joy and peace to my Catholic, Christian, Protestant, Jewish & Buddhist families in the USA, Philippines, Netherlands, Switzerland and Japan!

I recently spent some time with my sewing machine again to make some project bags after falling in love with this beautiful purple batik fabric! I paired the bag with a vibrant purple sock yarn skein, and the kits sold out already!

This past weekend, I was able to finish up a custom order for 3 hand-dyed, hand-knit socks in the Lanikai base.  Fruit Stripe Gum Socks and Pay Day Socks are by Leah Oakley. Find her patterns on her pattern store on Ravelry. Here are the final socks:

And finally, some of my sock patterns were recently published on Knitpicks!! I also have Smocked Socks, Vertigo Blinds Socks & Shoreline Socks available on both shoppes and Ravelry. Here are the direct links:

www.knitpicks.com/cfPatterns/IDP/IDP_Pattern_List.cfm…

www.ravelry.com/designers/christina-rowell

alohablu.com/collections/patterns

www.etsy.com/shop/alohablu?section_id=7283925

 

More to come, so check back soon ~ Mahalo Nui Loa!

Come join the AlohaBlu Yarn & Fiber Luau group on Facebook for weekly updates.

Shoppe: AlohaBlu.com

FB page: www.facebook.com/AlohaBluShoppe

FB group: www.facebook.com/groups/alohablu.luau

Ravelry patterns: www.ravelry.com/designers/christina-rowell

Etsy shoppe: AlohaBlu.Etsy.com

Photos: society6.com/alohablu

IG: alohablu

2017 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 25 – 34

Aloha!

It has been a busy summer so far and the Fall Season is proving to be just a busy. We’ve had a few family events before the kiddies went back to school so it was nice to see our nieces, nephews and godchildren. Amazing how fast they grow up!

In September I’m aiming to release some colorways from my Holiday Collection as well as some new Gemstone/Mineral colorways – so stay tuned!

As far as sock projects are concerned, I’m working on finishing up a couple more patterns that were recently accepted into the KnitPicks Independent Designers Program, so I will be busy wrapping those up to send out the final versions – exciting!!

More to come, but in the meantime, here are the colors for weeks 25-34.

 During my Senior Year in college (any fellow Cal State Fullerton Titans out there?), I had an internship on a TV show being filmed on the Warner Bros. lot here in Burbank. It was the first half of their second season, became wildly popular and ran for about 10 seasons! I created a colorway called I WAS AN INTERN ON FRIENDS, and posted a fun video story on my AlohaBlu group.  This is a 6-stripe colorway inspired by the show’s logo. I was gifted the cappuccino mug and bag for Christmas from the production staff and have kept them ever since.

I knitted a pair of shorties socks for myself (wearing them as I type this) and experimented with a rolled cuff, a K2P2 cuff and reverse St stitch for the sole.

Back in June we visited the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County with our niece and nephew – Hannah and Mason – who were visiting from Ohio. I made sure to visit the Gem & Mineral collection to take photos and I found a handful that were wonderful and interesting.  Here is the first of this collection in hand-dyed yarn. ORPIMENT is a mineral that was used for centuries as a pigment in painting and sealing wax – this was before learning that the mineral is arsenic. Another one of nature’s beautiful-but-deadly combinations . . .

This is a tonal yarn dyed using an immersion technique with shades of pink, orange, gold with a final overlay of light brown.

When I switched to this new blog layout, I promised a new colorway was coming inspired by the panorama photo at the top of the blog page. Here is MAKENA BEACH SUNSET – photo taken by my hubby Jake on one of our favorite beaches on Maui. This panorama photo captures the sailboat on the left side to the sun setting on the right. We were married on this side of the island, not to far from this very beach. Mahalo Nui to my awesome hubby for the photo!

I started a new collection this summer of yarn colorways based on food and drink – and yes, I made myself hungry each time I had to dye something! I made sure to take photos of these delicious dishes beforehand and ended up with some fun colorways such as Coconut Pecan Caramel Waffles, Mango Sorbet, Coconut Lime Pie and Chocolate Mousse Cake! I ended up creating a set of Menehune Mini’s called DRINKS & DESSERTS – the set includes 10x – 10gram center pull balls of fun. No need to wind them, just pull the top string to start crafting. Perfect for scrap blankets, hexipuffs, scrap socks, etc.

As you know, I contribute to the Addicted to Sock Knitting eZine – patterns, interviews, photos – whatever fun thing Debra comes up with, I’m in! This past summer the eZine was dedicated to Harry Potter and Debra asked dyers to come up with a new take on HP-themed yarn. I found a beautiful image of Hogwarts castle online (click here for image) and dyed up a tonal yarn inspired by the nighttime castle. This is ALOHOMORA, the unlocking spell in Harry Potter.

Speaking of tonals, this next colorway was inspired by a photo I took during a black-and-white photography class I enrolled in at Pasadena City College many moons ago.The assignment was to take photos of shadows , and the lines and shadows created by the sunlight coming through these vertical blinds made for an interesting photo. I processed the film and print by hand (in a dark room) and loved how it turned out! I decided to create a colorway in self-striping, variegated and tonal yarn. This is VERTIGO BLINDS, from the photo of the same name.

 If you’ve ever seen the movie, Charlie’s Angels, with Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu, then you’ve seen this garden before. One of the most famous areas of the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens is the JAPANESE GARDEN where I took this photo. The koi ponds and replica house are just amazing – not to mention the adjacent Zen Garden.  For this colorway, I used an immersion dye technique and ended up making a Ghost Gardens Shawlette for myself!

Another one of California’s well-known spots is Santa Monica Beach. We don’t visit very often but when hubby’s brother and sister-in-law visited a few years ago, we headed out to the pier around sunset. I took this photo of a SANTA MONICA SUNSET at the beach park and loved the cloud patterns, sky color and palm tree silhouettes – perfect for a colorway!

This next colorway was really fun to do! A few years ago, my parents traveled through Asia and visited Vietnam. One of the great things that they do is visit cities that have well-known industries (like hand-blown glasswork, lacework, ceramics, etc) and visited an embroidery business in Vietnam. They loved this piece so much, they brought it home with them and it now is showcased on their living room wall. I loved the handcrafted nature of this embroidery as well as the colors so I snapped a photo and created VIETNAM EMBROIDERY.

Rounding out the last of the food collection yarns are COCONUT LIME PIE and WINE ON A VINE.

The former is a fun speckled yarn inspired by a super delicious and no-calorie dessert (yes, being sarcastic) from Lei Lei’s Bar & Grill on the fabled North Shore of Oahu.

The latter was inspired by a photo I took while wine tasting at a well-know region of New Zealand called Martinborough. We visited 2-3 different vineyards and each one was wonderful! I snapped this photo of the grapes turning color and thought it would look lovely as yarn and wool.

Come join the AlohaBlu Yarn & Fiber Luau group on Facebook for weekly updates.

More to come, so check back soon ~ Mahalo Nui Loa!

Shoppe: AlohaBlu.com

FB page: www.facebook.com/AlohaBluShoppe

FB group: www.facebook.com/groups/alohablu.luau

Ravelry patterns: www.ravelry.com/designers/christina-rowell

Etsy shoppe: AlohaBlu.Etsy.com

Photos: society6.com/alohablu

IG: alohablu

2017 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 10 – 24

Aloha!

I’m trying out a new theme for this blog and the header photograph is a panorama photo taken by my amazing hubby, Jake. And yes, this will be a colorway soon 🙂

The past few months have been amazing and I’m still getting used to the new shoppe platform as well as keeping the Etsy shoppe. It has been a wonderful – albeit scary – learning experience and I have come to learn that both platforms have their pros and cons, just like everything in life. I’m so grateful for all the support from my fiber friends, non-fiber friends and family as I go along this fun journey of mine.

I’m super excited for the summer and have some fun things planned. We do have some family coming in tomorrow so I might put the shoppes on vacation mode or else just know shipping will be delayed a few days for in-stock items.

I’ll keep you posted on summer plans, but for now, here are the colors for weeks 10-24.

Starting with the most recent, I had dyed up this colorway in cotton yarn years ago and finally got around to dyeing it in wool. We were driving around pineapple fields on Oahu one year and I just loved how the sunset was making the fields a beautiful reddish color. In addition I did take a photo of a pink pineapple at the Dole Plantation which was astonishing to me since all I’ve ever seen were yellow! Here is PINEAPPLE FIELDS in yarn and wool.

 

This past week was Pride Week here in Los Angeles so I dyed up my RAINBOW PRIDE FLAG colorway. This was my very first self-striping colorway and I don’t dye it up very often. One of the first skeins I did dye was used for my Love is Love Sock Pattern. This years’ yarn skeins have already sold out, but the pattern is still available on both shoppes, Ravelry and Knitpicks.

 

For the Spring 2017 “Addicted to Sock Knitting” eZine, indie dyers were challenged to come up with a colorway based on their favorite children’s book. The book I chose was Hans Christian Andersen’s The Princess and the Pea and created both a self-striping yarn and variegated yarn. The pre-orders are now closed, but here are the two versions I created.

 

You know how I love sunsets and I couldn’t help but create a colorway from this photo I took of a SAN CLEMENTE SUNSET. We have family living down in Orange County and we visited them just after Thanksgiving last year. So so pretty!

This year I started a new dye collection inspired by food and drink.  I just completed my final dye session and will be creating a new set of Mini’s (!) soon. In the meantime, this is a colorway based on a fabulous dessert we had at the Blue Bayou Restaurant inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland!! This is CHOCOLATE MOUSSE CAKE and the dessert was divine . . .

 

I expanded my Sports/Team self-striping yarn this year and found many colorways can be used for a variety of teams: football, basketball, baseball, hockey, racing, local schools, etc. Here are a few that I dyed up and can be suitable for schools/teams in Los Angeles, Alabama, Ohio, Indiana, South Carolina and more. These are now available in the dyed-to-order section of the shoppe.

I dyed up this one because I love these colors!

 

ROSE GARDEN is a self-striping colorway created using 2 different dye techniques! The inspiration came a few summers ago when we took our visiting niece to the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Gardens in San Marino, California. The Rose Garden was exceptionally beautiful and the photo I took of Alayna walking through the garden reminded me of beauty, romance, innocence and young love that I knew I had to create a colorway.

 

This next colorway is an oldie-but-goodie and it has oh, about 13 different colors in it so I don’t dye it very often. I did do a gradient yarn too, so the colors don’t repeat – I thought it would be fun for a shawl project! I took this photo at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific and just love all the colorful fish and plant-life – not to mention the coral and rocks. I ended up spinning a small skein of the wool and love how the colors came out using a Navajo ply. Some skeins/braids of AQUARIUM are available on the shoppe.

Here is the Rambouillet/Silk yarn I spun:

 

My first set of 2017 mini’s sold out, but I was ready with my ‘Spring Set’ of MENEHUNE MINI‘s! I do have a couple of these sets available on the shoppe. These are 10x 10-gram balls of hand-dyed sock yarn that I already made into center-pull balls. You just pull the top yarn to start crafting!

 

Remember how I said I was doing a food/drink collection? Well, here’s a fabulous one from Oahu: MANGO SORBET. Jake and I were staying on the North Shore one trip and often dined at a restaurant called Ola’s at Turtle Bay Resort. It was a family owned joint, right there on the beach where you can enjoy drinks or a meal while watching the world go by . . . Ola’s recently closed but I’ll always remember the view, the food, the awesome staff and their wonderful desserts.

 

Since we are talking about Hawaii, here’s another one – inspired by a super special drink called the LAVA FLOW. I had my very first drink at Duke’s on Waikiki Beach with a handsome man who would later become my beloved husband Jake. After he bought my first Lava Flow, it became an instant favorite and to this day is still my favorite tropical drink. I always loved the pinks and red of the drink and thought it would be a fun colorway for yarn and wool.

Just after I dyed up this colorway, my friend Chantal said she needed a pair of custom socks for her niece in Africa and they NEEDED to be pink! Well, how perfectly timed is this?? I used Lava Flow in sock yarn and used black yarn for the personalization. I was told recently that Zozi loves her socks!!

 

Continuing with the food theme, this new colorway was inspired by a breakfast I had while visiting with an old colleague. Jake and I met my old Producer at a well known waffle place in the next town over and though I knew this was incredibly sinful, I couldn’t help myself. I ended up only eating half this (it was already a half portion), but the whipped cream and caramel sauce on top of crunchy waffles was so worth it! This is COCONUT CARAMEL PECAN WAFFLES and luckily the yarn and wool are zero calories!

 

This next one is another oldie-but-goodie and ironically, I was with the same Producer when I had this dessert! AVOCADO CHEESECAKE seemed rather odd to me when I was first presented with it at an Indian vegetarian restaurant.  But, after the first bite, I realized why it was such a hit. The raspberry and mango sauce were a nice touch and the creamy cheesecake was amazing.

 

The final two colorways were inspired by photos my parents took while visiting the Seattle Art Museum last fall. My parents love to travel and I always ask them to keep an eye out for interesting photos that I might create into yarn. Dad took these amazing photos and I am told they have even more for me from their most recent European trip!  This one is called FILMSTRIPS and apparently the artist took these rolls of film and handpainted (!) each one in different colors and patterns.  It definitely made me nostalgic for the days when you would take your rolls of 35mm film into the drugstore to get processed – ha!

 

The last colorway is AFRICAN ART TRIBUTE – inspired by this wonderful exhibit showcasing African art and culture.  Dad snapped this photo and thought it would look great in yarn & wool! The exhibit is now closed, but my parents were grateful they were able to see it.

 

Now for some projects . . .

Back in January I posted a new colorway called CHINESE GARDEN. I used an immersion dyeing technique and was thrilled with the outcome that I ended up dyeing a skein for myself and knitted up a shawl using the Ghost Gardens Shawlette pattern by Kelene Kinnersly. I just love this pattern and already have plans to make another one!

I am fortunate to have a customer who loves my Yin Yang Socks and I’ve made a few for her already. She challenged me with translating the pattern into a hat and scarf for her. I finished the hat already and did a snug cap design. I’m still working on the scarf and am using a double-knit approach so the pattern is reversed on the back – so far it’s working well but it does take some brain power (at least for me!).

I have also been working on a few custom order socks and finished a pair just last night!

And a few spinning projects. . .

This one I knit into a pair of shorties socks and have quickly become one of my favorite pairs! It’s hard to see, but it’s a Rambouillet/Bright Nylon yarn so there is some sparkle in it. The colorway is BOX OF CHOCOLATES.

I’m in LOVE with Rambouillet wool and dyed up a braid in my SATURATED SPRING colorway. I spun this up in a laceweight yarn and don’t have a pattern in mind yet . . .

This was my submission for the June SPINNING BOX – the theme was Sunsets and I snapped this photo on Maui while hubby was driving. My submission included 1 oz of Merino/Tencel roving, a photo of WEST MAUI SUNSET and a Hawaiian Islands Mango Maui tea bag. I spun up a small sample for myself!

More to come, so check back soon! Mahalo Nui Loa!

Shoppe: AlohaBlu.com

FB page: www.facebook.com/AlohaBluShoppe

FB group: www.facebook.com/groups/alohablu.luau

Ravelry patterns: www.ravelry.com/designers/christina-rowell

Etsy shoppe: AlohaBlu.Etsy.com

Photos: society6.com/alohablu

IG: alohablu

2014 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 21 to 23

Aloha! Here are the colors for Weeks 21-23. Some of these items are still available on the shoppe.

WENDY’S MAPLE LEAVES is a new colorway inspired by fiber friend, Wendy, who sent me this wonderful photo of maple leaves she had raked up into a beautiful pile in the Fall. I kept the photo for months and finally had the right dyes to do it justice. Thank you Wendy for sending me such a beautiful photo and for permission to use it. These pieces are superwash merino fingering yarn, merino/silk lace yarn, merino/bamboo/silk roving and mixed BFL roving.

POISON DART FROG is also a new colorway inspired by this little fella I met while touring the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific a few years ago. He had his own little terrarium since you can’t pet him, but his bright colors were awesome and I added the foliage in the colorway as well. These pieces are merino/nylon fingering yarn, mixed BFL roving and polwarth roving.

CAMO self-striping is one of my first self-striping experiments! I’ll post another blog about my adventures in self-stripe yarn later . . . This is merino/nylon fingering yarn.

PAPAYA PALM was once called Coconut Palm, however some very smart people saw that I had incorrectly identified this tree! So, I’ve corrected the title and these pieces are merino/silk fingering yarn and sw BFL roving.

GLACIER BAY 2 is another experiment in self-striping yarn. This photo was taken back in 2010 while on an Alaskan cruise through Glacier Bay National Park. This yarn is merino/nylon fingering yarn.

I also finished a pair of test socks –  I’m calling this HAWAIIAN QUILT SOCKS: PINEAPPLE. It was a challenging image to design (remember the canvas is 4″ wide) but a fun colorwork pattern and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out!

And lastly, my SCI-FI SOCKS Pattern was published on the KnitPick’s website this past week! I’m terribly excited to have another pattern accepted into the program 🙂

Enjoy!

2014 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 18 to 20

Aloha! Here are the colors for Weeks 18-20, posted on the shoppe.

A new colorway, PARISIAN SUNSET, was inspired by this photo I took from our hotel room in late Fall 2010. The week long trip was mostly overcast with little bits of sun popping through the clouds. This sunset was amazing and I had to re-create it in yarn and wool.  These pieces are merino/tencel fingering yarn, sparkle fingering yarn sock blank, sparkle lace yarn and a targhee/firestar roving that I plan on spinning!

PACIFIC SEA NETTLE is an oldie-but-goodie colorway in Corriedale Cross roving and superwash merino lace yarn. And yes, the turquoise is from the gentlemen’s shirt in the background!

I don’t do too much cotton dyeing but it’s always interesting how cotton comes out. This colorway came out more muted than I had expected but still pretty! This is FADED DESERT SUNSET in cotton roving.

JILL’S BLANKET is an almost-self-striping merino/nylon fingering yarn that was inspired by my friend Jill’s baby blanket project years ago. Her yarn colors were more pastel but I remembered how pretty the pinks and browns looked together and dyed a variation.

A couple more cotton projects . . . these skeins are both #10 Crochet thread, so a laceweight yarn. The first one is a pretty blue color that when I dyed the first time came out a very pale blue-gray. I overdyed it and got a more saturated color.

This second skein is perfect for summer with bright green and peach-pinks in the yarn.

One of my fiber friends asked me to dye a rainbow yarn. I had never done a rainbow before and the colors are so pretty that I was eager to try. Later I was asked to make it self-striping, which seemed brilliant, but I didn’t have the tools for it so at first I said I wasn’t able to. BUT after thinking and thinking and thinking, I decided to have a go by manually winding the yarn in 6 sections and dyeing them in the appropriate colors. Here is the custom order with both the self-striping and variegated rainbow yarns.

SUGAR CANE SUNSET is a new colorway! This photo was taken on the beautiful island of Maui during our Christmas trip last year. We didn’t know if these fields were sugar cane because of the flowering tops. We later learned those tops meant the sugar cane was ready for harvest! These pieces are merino/cashmere/nylon sock blank, merino/silk roving and merino/nylon fingering yarn.

PATRIOT is a hand-dyed, handspun yarn in merino wool plied with silk thread. I dyed the wool in pieces of red, blue, light blue and turquoise then spun the singles in sequence. Half of the skein is plied with black thread, while the other in off-white! The colors reminded me of modern and vintage American flags that used various shades of blues for the stars section background. 

KIHEI SUNSET is another new colorway (13 new ones so far this year!). This inspirational photo was taken at Maui Hill Resort in Hawaii. My family has been staying there for nearly 3 decades and we spent Christmas there recently. The sun was just about set, with beautiful pinks on the clouds and a gradient blue/green sky when I took the photo. These pieces are superwash merino lambswool roving and superwash merino/nylon fingering yarn.

SWISS CHOCOLATE, an oldie-but-goodie colorway inspired by some wonderful pieces of heaven on a plate. These pieces are merino/cashmere/nylon fingering yarn and a new wool base, merino/yak/silk roving!

And lastly, some sock photos. I’ve been battling tendonitis in my wrists so have had to slow down the knitting a bit which is not at all fun. BUT I was able to finish this wonderful project for myself! The pattern is Mermaid  Anklets & Socks by Debra Garner. She includes a pattern for both the anklets and socks and since I don’t have any handmade anklets, I gave it a go. Pretty simple pattern and it worked up quickly. I memorized the instep pattern so I was able to just knit knit knit!

Some of the inspirational photos are available @ www.society6.com/alohablu. Enjoy!

2013 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 40-42

ALOHA!

Here are the colors for weeks 40-42.

First is FALL HARVEST in sw merino/nylon roving and merino/nylon sock blank. A sock blank is basically one full skein of yarn that I knitted with two strands held together to form a ‘blank’ – essentially a long knitted piece – which then I hand painted. The knitter unravels the yarn from one end and can make two socks at the same time that will have a near-identical pattern.

I also created a custom order in 50/50 merino/silk fingering yarn.

TEAPOT STILL LIFE inspired by artwork by artist friend, Aaron Spurgeon! This is sw merino/nylon roving, sparkle fingering sock blank and cotton roving.

BILTMORE BENCH 2 in merino/bamboo/nylon roving and merino/silk lace yarn.

BERRY PIE in superwash BFL mini-batt and rolags.

EGGPLANATEE (inspired by Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2) in merino/silk lace yarn and alpaca/wool/bamboo roving.

SUNSET OVER TITLUS in sw merino/merino/silk roving and lightweight fingering yarn.

and another braid in polwarth for me to spin!

WORLDLY in merino & leicester longwool roving.

Purple & Gray mercerized cotton in sport weight and cotton worsted.

MONSTER MASH in cotton worsted.

I also created some rolags!

SOCKS! My Desiree Diamond Socks pattern is now available on KnitPicks.com!

These socks are available on the shoppe.

And lastly, here’s the finished alpaca skeins that I processed from raw to sport weight 2-ply handspun in LANIKAI colorway.

Before re-skeining:

After re-skeining

And a close-up 🙂

Enjoy!

2013 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 37-39

Aloha and Happy Fall! I’m excited for my favorite season and the weather has already been cooler here in SoCal.

Lots to post, and I’ll start with colors for weeks 37 – 39. These first 2 are new colorways inspired by my friend and folk artist, Sue Blanchard. Her “Overheard” series is based on comical snippets of overheard conversations which she then re-creates as whimsical pieces of art. The first is called MY FRIEND and I re-created this in 50/50 merino/silk fingering yarn, superwash merino/merino/silk roving and an alpaca/wool/bamboo mini batt.

The second in this series is called BLESS HIS HEART in polwarth roving and merino/bamboo lace yarn.

Sue’s artwork can be seen on Etsy @ www.soobeeart.etsy.com, on her site @ www.soobee.com and on Facebook.

These next colorways are ‘oldies but goodies’ starting with PIETA ALCOVE in a new base, merino/superwash merino/silk roving, and superwash merino fingering yarn.

WAILUA FALLS in BFL/silk roving and merino/nylon fingering yarn.

MORNING AT BILTMORE INN in 50/50 silk/merino fingering yarn and targhee roving.

And wouldn’t want some SWISS CHOCOLATE?? These are merino/tencel roving and baby alpaca/silk lace yarn.

Some Fall-ish colors in DARK CAMO, merino roving and sw merino/nylon fingering yarn.

MONSTER MASH in cotton worsted weight yarn.

Our eldest niece, Alayna, is now a freshman at Ohio State University, so I created OUR FAVORITE BUCKEYE colorway in her honor. This first skein is superwash merino/bamboo/nylon finger yarn.

And in cotton worsted weight yarn.

Keeping with the red theme, this is PELE batt in CVM/Romeldale, Merino/Romney and Peruvian wool.

I also dyed up some small pieces of bamboo roving.

And sparkly FIRESTAR!

Whew! Now on to the SOCKS!

I presented WAHINE & KANE Socks on this blog before, however they are now available on the shoppe 🙂

SQUIGGLE SOCKS were created using merino/bamboo/nylon yarn that I hand-dyed in my ALOHABLU colorway.

Speaking of dyeing, these are two silk/velvet scarves I hand-dyed in bright fuchsia and lemon yellow.

I love crocheting ballet bags and thought I’d add a mini bag to go along!

And finally, some spinning projects!

First, I spun up 2oz each in purple and orange of Opulent Fiber’s merino/silk roving for Chantal.

Here’s the final yarn. 2-ply lace weight, 696 yards.

Next, some spindle spinning using a Spindolyn and Russian support spindle. I am in the process of plying the Merino/BFL/Silk with silk thread for a cobweb lace yarn. Will post photos when done!

And finally, I’m working a ‘test’ project to process raw alpaca wool from start to finish for DK weight yarn. Here are some photos of my progress so far.

WASHING/SCOURING

Raw white alpaca!

I separated the raw wool into two 8oz sections and one 3oz, and washed the first 16 oz. Here the wool is soaking in the right sink and I’m filling up the left sink for the rinse.

This is what the right sink looks like after draining the water out (knitting group ladies asked to see the process so I thought I’d post the good, bad and ugly!).

Next, rinsing in clean water. I repeat the scour/rinse process one more time to get more dirt and debris out. Note: there will still be vegetable matter (VM) in the wool all through the process as it is impossible to get it all out, but I try to get the bigger pieces out as I go along.

DRYING/DRAFTING

After taking the wool out of the rinse, I draft out the wool into smaller pieces so they dry faster and to make sure the wool isn’t felted.

Once dried, I draft again to loosen more VM and get the wool ready for carding.

CARDING/SPINNING

I use my drum carder to create lofty batts to spin up.

Taking a batt off the drum.

A batt ready for spinning. On the upper right is my spinning wheel with yarn-in-progress.

Spinning fingering weight singles.

Each of these bobbins have 3oz of fingering weight singles, ready for plying.

2-ply DK weight on my Jumbo bobbin.

Here is one skein of spun yarn and the specs:

6oz Alpaca Wool | Prep: Woolen | Spin: Worsted

Spinning Wheel: Ashford Joy | Singles @ 14:1 ratio | Plied @ 8:1 ratio

WPI: 14 | DK weight | 180 yards

Next steps: finish spinning the remaining wool then dyeing them up!

I’ll end with a fun image or two. On 21 September, hubby and I attended the Premiere of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 in Westwood, California. Cloudy2 is the last project I worked on and I’m always nervous when my projects come out just because I’m so proud of the work and hope my crew and viewers like it too.

We had great seats in the theater, right behind Lou Diamond Phillips and his family, and what was I doing to calm my nerves? Knitting socks of course!

And if you do get a chance to see the movie, please look for me at the end. This is the artwork for my ‘card’ credit that I share with our wonderful digital producer, Mandy.

Thanks for reading this rather lengthy post! Hope you enjoyed it! ~ christina

2013 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 34-36

Aloha!

This week through 9/15, I’m having a ‘20% off purchases over $15’ sale. Use coupon code: 20OFF @ www.AlohaBlu.com.

Here are the colors for weeks 34- 36.

A new colorway, STAINED GLASS ALTAR, in sparkle lace yarn and merino/silk roving. I took this photo while we were touring Our Lady of Paris, the famous Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, France. It was an overcast November day so it was pretty dark inside. For a quick moment, the sun came through and illuminated this altar just as I was passing. I snapped the photo and now here is the wool & yarn. 🙂

We are less than a month away from the opening of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 and this colorway – WILDEBEETS – was inspired by the creatures that are part wildebeest, part beet. This is corriedale cross roving and sparkle fingering yarn.

This is an updated version of NZ SHELL in BFL/silk roving and cashmere/merino/nylon fingering yarn. This inspirational photo was taken while strolling on a beach in Wellington, New Zealand.

Another Cloudy2-inspired colorway: FRUIT COCKATIEL in BFL/silk roving and merino/bamboo lace weight yarn. This fun creature is made up of a pear body, orange slices for feet, pineapple and cherry eyes, a grape nose, and parts of a banana for wings and hair!

ZION 3 in superwash BFL roving and Falkland British Merino/Tencel lace yarn was inspired by a photo I took years ago while visiting Zion National Park in Utah.

MEMORY 2 in merino/tencel roving and a hand knitted sock blank in sparkle fingering yarn was inspired by a fiber friend’s winter memory. If you’re wondering what a sock blank is, I’ll explain. I took a full skein of yarn and cut it in half. Using both strands held together, I knitting a long piece of undyed yarn (kind of resembles a scarf) and dyed that up. The knitter will then unravel from one end and start knitting two socks at the same time from the two strands I held together resulting in two identically patterned socks. Cool, huh? (Nope, the idea is soo not mine!)

LANIKAI DEEP is a beautiful mercerized cotton worsted weight yarn that reminded me of the deep waters off Lanikai Beach.

BILTMORE SUNFLOWERS batt in targhee/polypay, corriedale cross wool and banana fibers were inspired by well, sunflowers at the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, North Carolina.

EVIL STEPMOTHER batt in corriedale cross, silk, merino, peruvian & BFL wool was named for a KnitPicks yarn colorway that I love! I believe they still have that in stock 🙂

These two are my new favorites. Having ‘can’ dyed each color separately, I then drumcarded each colorway and pulled it off as roving. This is TOXIC WATER in polwarth roving.

And WEATHER WATCHER in 80s count merino roving.

I dyed up another silk/velvet scarf in blue with a fun paisley pattern.

And a few more ballet/pointe crochet bags.

Thanks for stopping by and remember the sale goes through 9/15! Mahalo!

2013 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 32-33

Aloha! Here are the colors for weeks 32-33.

Since I haven’t posted socks for a while, I thought I’d start with those. Here are some newly finished pairs. (I’ll post them on the shoppe at a later date.)

KANE SOCKS in merino/silk.

DESIREE DIAMOND SOCKS in merino/bamboo/nylon with glass beads.

DESIREE DIAMOND SOCKS in merino/alpaca/nylon with glass beads.

SQUARED SOCKS – work in progress. After over a year I finally finished ONE sock and am having serious Second Sock Syndrome. This pattern calls for 2 fingering weight and 1 lace weight yarn and it taxes my brain (I designed the pattern so only have me to blame!).  This pair will be for me so I’m in no rush to complete them.

On to the colors. . .

The first is PACIFIC SEA NETTLE in polwarth wool roving and baby alpaca yarn. The photo was taken of the North Pacific Sea Nettle at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific.

Next up is FOG in a 64 count merino 2oz mini-batt and superwash merino light-fingering weight yarn (750 yds).  The inspirational photo was taken while cruising through Alaska.

JOKER batt in merino & peruvian wool, banana fibers.

More ballet/pointe shoe crochet bags

And here are some other fun color projects that I’ve done these past couple of weeks.

First, I FINALLY completed the last bit of Tour de Fleece yarn. This is 6oz of Falkland @ 512 yards of Navajo-plied yarn. Am thinking it’s fingering weight yarn but haven’t checked it yet.

Here are the other yarn pieces completed for the 2013 TdF season.

Secondly, some dyeing and  carding projects . . .

These next two braids were fun to make! I first dyed each color separately, then carded them on my drum carder. Using a 1/4″ diz, I pulled the wool off as thick roving which I was able to braid. Here are the before and after photos.

80’s count merino dyed in gray, blue, bright green (colorway name TBD):

Carded & Braided:

And polwarth wool dyed in black, aqua & bright green (to be called TOXIC WATER):

Carded & Braided:

And since I was inspired by a friend’s (Susan D) tomato canning, here’s mine. I was playing around with iPhoto, trying to make a collage and did this ‘card’.

Enjoy!