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!

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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!

2014 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 15 to 17

Aloha! Here are the colors for Weeks 15-17! Most items are available on the shoppe.

ROOM SERVICE ORCHID is inspired by a beautiful flower that came on a tray when we ordered room service while visiting Oahu a few years back. I thought the colors were so pretty I took a bazillion photos of the orchid and dyed them up in superwash merino/nylon fingering yarn and merino/silk roving.

HAWAIIAN MIST is one colorway I’ve dyed up only once before and had forgotten about. I love the photo inspiration and resurrected it for another go around.  I just love how the mountains stop the movement of the clouds which creates this beautiful mist! These are superwash merino/nylon fingering yarn and merino/bamboo/nylon roving.

A true oldie-but-goodie, RAINY DAY EIFFEL in Shetland roving and merino/silk lace yarn.

One of my favorite desserts on Oahu is the DOLE WHIP, a pineapple sherbet that I first had at the Dole Plantation! I thought it would be fun to create a yarn that had soft yellows and a bit of beige (because you can get it in a cone, after all). These are sparkle lace yarn and superwash BFL roving.

 SUNSET IN GALLIPOLIS‘ photo was taken by the owner of Nybble Cafe in Gallipolis, Ohio. These pieces are merino/silk sock blank, superwash merino lace yarn and merino/bamboo/silk roving.

AHI POKE is a colorway inspired by one of our favorite Hawaiian dishes. Made with sashimi grade ahi tuna fish, Japanese seaweed, onions and seasonings. Upon landing in Hawaii, we always head to our nearest favorite restaurant for a plate or two. These pieces are both superwash merino/nylon in fingering yarn and roving.

And for some socks! Here are a few I completed recently.

HAWAIIAN QUILT SOCKS: BREADFRUIT is an original pattern that I’ve been wanting to make for a while. I am always fascinated by quiltmaking and Hawaiian quilts in particular. While there are many beautiful quilt patterns available the challenge is to design a sock pattern that will fit in a 4″ wide canvas! After much finagling and re-designing, here’s the final outcome.

This next pair is a wider version of my original SCI-FI SOCKS using a new yarn line from KnitPicks. Kinda funky, but still fun to make!

And I just finished another test pair of FLAG SOCKS: CANADA using some sparkle yarn! This is a wider width version and I really love how it came out. I am aiming to write up the pattern next month for a summer release.

Last but not least, a skein of handspun yarn. This was dyed by retired indie dyer, Sosae Caetano, in merino/bamboo wool. I spun up a fine lace weight yarn then plied it with silk thread and over 1300 size 6 glass seed beads. I am thinking about making a small shawl with the yarn for myself 🙂

Enjoy!

2014 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 11 to 14

Aloha! Here are the colors for Weeks 11-14!

APPLE PICKING is a hand-dyed, hand spun yarn in superwash merino, then double plied with silk. The dyed silk roving is from Phoenix Fiber Co on Etsy, which I spun into a thin thread for plying.

LIGURE SUNSET 2 in merino/tencel roving (not pictured), alpaca/merino/silk roving and cashmere/merino/nylon fingering yarn was inspired by a photo I took while in Monterosso, Italy.

OLYMPIC SKI TEAMS were inspired by the uniforms I saw during the Winter Olympics. I dyed the wool, ran them through the drum carder and pulled them off as roving. These are available as a set.

KA’ANAPALI BEACH always brings back great memories of my friends’ wedding. This photo was taken while waiting for a spa session for us bridesmaids. These are alpaca/silk yarn and merino/bamboo/nylon roving.

Tencel is great for blending with wool projects!

In the area called Days Bay in Wellington, New Zealand we came upon a bus stop painted in bright colors of pinks, yellows and orange and lovingly adorned with hearts. On the bench were two beautiful words: Love Life. These pieces of LOVE SHACK are polwarth/silk roving and sparkle fingering yarn.

This is a sample set of rolags I created using Corriedale, Wool, Silk, CVM/Romeldale, Merino & Banana Fiber.

I hand-dyed the yellow/green/black multi yarn for this ballet bag, then added the black top for contrast.

Finished up another test pair of FLAG SOCKS: USA, but adjusted the pattern on one sock and found an error as well so I’ll be frogging/re-knitting/re-testing this pair, but here’s what it looked like when I finished.

Another pair of BOARDGAME SOCKS in KnitPick’s Stroll Tweed yarn. This one goes to Ms. Chantal.

Speaking of which, Knitpicks just sent out an email introducing the new line of sock yarn called Hawthorne and included my pattern in the email. Super cool!

More stuff on the shoppe soon! Enjoy!

2014 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 7 to 10

Aloha!

After seeing the vintage-style knit sweaters worn by Team USA at the 2014 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony , I was inspired to knit up some patriotic socks.  This first pair was started the very next morning and was based on a flag pattern I had designed in the summer of 2013, but never got around to testing.  I finished the first sock in a day and the next sock by the following Saturday. These are FLAG SOCKS: USA in US Womens 8-10 | Mens 7-9. I will post these on the shoppe later this spring.

During the second week of the Olympics, I thought I’d knit up another pair for our fabulous friends to the north! For the top portion, I made the maple leaf a silhouette instead of repeating the flag. When I write up the pattern, the knitter will be able to choose whichever image to the socks (all flag, all silhouette or a combination of both). I’ll post this pair on the shoppe later as well.

The following socks are available on the shoppe. I almost ripped out my test pair of SCI-FI SOCKS because it wasn’t looking like I had envisioned in my mind. Fortunately I was so far along that I decided to just finish the sock and see what it looked like on the mannequin. The stitches stretched out and looked like something from The Matrix movies! From then I was happy with the design and kept going.  I made these green/tan socks . . .

and made a purple pair too!

I posted this pair of ROMAN FORUM SOCKS on the shoppe.

Here are a few pairs of socks I knitted for 3 wonderful girlfriends who make me laugh every time we meet. ‘DB’ recently got married so I made her a pair with her new last name, ‘SueB’s’ pair has her art company name, and as for CLA’s ‘Reindeer’ socks . . . well, let’s just say what happened in Upper Montclair, New Jersey in the winter of 2006 STAYS in Upper Montclair, New Jersey.

These pairs were completed on Dec 2013, Jan 2014 and Feb 2014 respectively and I was able to present the socks yesterday so I can post them here now!

This last pair was completed in Jan 2014 for a bride who will be wearing them later this year in her cowboy boots on her wedding day.

Now onto colors! These first four colorways are brand new (11 new colorways for 2014 so far)!

APPLE PICKING was inspired by this photo taken by my cousin Laura. I immediately fell in love with the photo and had to re-create it in yarn and wool. The yarns are superwash merino lace weight, sw merino/nylon fingering sock blank and alpaca/merino/silk roving.

My 5-year old godson, Kai, drew this image on my birthday card last year and I knew I wanted to create a special colorway from it. I had the card on my desk for a few months and finally dyed up KAI’S DRAGON in sw merino fingering yarn and sw merino/nylon roving. Artwork is used with permission of the artist . . . and his mommy.

BROKEN SUNSET 2 was an attempt to re-create a broken colorway! I attempted to dye up some cotton yarn but the dyes broke into many different colors. The broken colorway was well received and I was asked to try to do again – this time on purpose – in  polwarth wool roving, sw merino roving  and merino/tencel yarn.  And yes, it was much harder to replicate a ‘happy accident’.

The background in this collage is a CROTON plant that I took a photo of while on Maui this past December. I loved  the bright magenta and greens and used some hand-dyed wool for the project. I ran the merino/silk wool through the drum carder, layering some wonderful soffsilk (silk waste product) between the solid colors. I pulled the wool off as a continuous piece of roving and made a braid. The soffsilk will add some texture when spinning.

And some ‘oldie-but-goodie’ colorways. . . ORANGE HIBISCUS in sparkle lace yarn and merino/bamboo/silk roving was inspired by a hibiscus plant I used to have. It only bloomed an orange flower every few seasons and when it did,  I tried to take as many photos as I could!

DIAMOND HEAD SUNSET 2 is a variation of the original which was more pastel. This version incorporates the blue/gray sky and a darker gray for contrast. This is merino/silk fingering yarn and polwarth/silk roving.

I dyed up these next two pieces for the shoppe since I was already creating them for a custom order. HONOLULU FIREWORKS is 5oz of merino/tencel roving.

SEA DRAGONS is 5.4oz of merino wool roving.

Now for some bags! These first two ballet/pointe shoe bags come from European and South American wool. The pink/green version was crocheted with two strands held together while the rainbow bag was made with a single-ply yarn.

I finally put together a “Dye your own” ballet bag kit. These fun kits include a crocheted ballet bag, printed dyeing instructions and a few packets of kool-aid ‘dye’. Available in Orange/Yellow/Red and Red/Pinks.

Lastly, I posted a spring-inspired scarf in velvet/silk  in bright lime green!

Enjoy!

2014 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 4 to 6

Aloha! Here are the colors posted on the shoppe for 2014, Weeks 4 through 6.

These first four colorways are brand new (7 new colorways for 2014 so far)!

WEST MAUI SUNSET was inspired by a photo I took while traveling from Kihei to Ka’anapali for dinner. As always the sunsets in Hawaii are unbelievably magical and this evening’s sunset was no exception. I created West Maui Sunset in merino/silk lace yarn, merino/cashmere/nylon fingering sock blank and merino/tencel roving.

SUNSET IN THE DESERT was inspired by a photo my lovely cousin Laura took during at the Desert Botanical Gardens Luminaries Show in Phoenix, Arizona. I loved the dramatic colors so much that I knew I’d have to re-create them in yarn/wool. These are sparkle lace yarn and merino/bamboo/silk roving.

MACARON is a fun colorway inspired by a trip to the mall. While on an outing with my brother and young nephew, we came across a macaron stand at the local mall. I loved all the colors and snapped photos while my brother ordered a few of them to take home. These pieces are merino/cashmere/nylon fingering yarn, cotton roving and corriedale cross roving.

PUNKIN’ PINK is another from my ‘Overlay’ series where I layer one color on top of a base color. I wanted to try some ‘bright’ pinks and oranges and really like how this superwash merino fingering yarn skein came out.

A couple ‘oldies but goodies’ including SEA DRAGONS inspired by these odd-looking creatures residing at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. These pieces are mixed BFL roving and alpaca/silk lace yarn.

I also dyed up some silk/rayon scarves in PLUM & PEACH.

Some of the custom order socks I completed so far in 2014 . . .

And lastly, I completed my January goal of spinning at least 2 skeins of yarn. The first one, WIND DANCER, was dyed by AnnaMarie of CorgiHillFarm on Etsy and I spun the wool late last year, but finished it this January. Wind Dancer is beautiful Rambouillet wool that I plied with silk thread for a total of 1,032 yards of lace/fingering weight yarn.

The first time I visited Venice, Italy I arrived just after the famous CARNEVALE Festival concluded, however there were still remnants of the celebration all over the city. This wonderful BFL wool was dyed by Carolyn of Greenwood Fiberworks on Etsy, and reminded me of those wonderful costumes residents wore. I spun this into 2-ply lace/fingering yarn and added over 700 dark beads.

Enjoy!

2014 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 1 to 3

Aloha! Here are the colors posted on the shoppe for 2014, Weeks 1 through 3.

One of my goals this year is to create 15-20 new colorways and so far I’ve posted 3 on the shoppe. This first one is new.

INSIDE PASSAGE was inspired by a photo I took while cruising Alaska’s Inside Passage a few years ago. It was the last cruise out for the season so I expected it to be rather overcast and cold, but some days were so bright and sunny that I actually came home with a slight tan! I snapped this photo while outside on the balcony and revisited it this month to create the colors in yarn and wool. The wool is alpaca/merino/silk and sparkle lace weight yarn.

STAINED GLASS ALTAR is a colorway from last year and I dyed up these two pieces for myself actually. I have come to realize that I won’t be able to use them for a while as I’ve got custom orders to complete for the next month or so, so I thought perhaps someone else can enjoy them. The yarn is sparkle fingering weight, while the roving is cultivated silk. Yup, pure silk.  I snapped this photo while touring the famous Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, France.

The photo was an inspiration for another colorway, however at closer inspection I decided to extract a different set of colors for a new colorway.  This one showcases the land as well as the sea in LANIKAI VIEW PART 2 and the photo was taken from atop the Lanikai Pillbox Hike on the beautiful island of Oahu. This is alpaca lace yarn and super wash merino/merino/silk roving.

The next colorway is a new one, but only by accident (let’s count it anyway). I had attempted to re-create one of my sunset photos in cotton yarn and bamboo but the dyes ‘broke’ on me and turned into a bunch of different colors! I was really disappointed at first and thought I had ruined the pieces, but after re-skeining the yarn I found it really came out nicely. I don’t have am inspirational photo for BROKEN SUNSET, but this is mercerized cotton lace yarn and bamboo roving.

BLOOD ORANGES is always a fun colorway and reminds me of the first time I had a blood orange – in wonderful Roma, Italia – from the famous Campo di Fiori market. I don’t see them too often here in Los Angeles, so instead I just re-create the colors in yarn. This is also mercerized cotton lace yarn and bamboo roving.

Another goal for 2014 is to spin more yarn. I have a wonderful spinning wheel that has been neglected so I’m carving out more time to spend with her. Here is the first completely handspun  yarn from 2014 (I will later post another handspun that was started in 2013 and finished in 2014). I dyed this Polwarth wool in my SUNSET OVER TITLUS colorway and plied it with silk thread. It is 184 yards of worsted weight yarn. Mount Titlus is located in Engelberg, Switzerland and I took this photo 10,000 feet up. At sunset. In -9 degree weather. It was awesome.

More to come! Enjoy!

2013 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 46-49

ALOHA!

Aloha all and Happy December! Just an FYI –  the shoppe will be closed on December 9th, re-opening later in the month.

Here are the colors and projects for weeks 46-49.  These first 3 colorways all were inspired by photos I took during the Christmas/New Year’s holiday season 🙂

MR. BUTTERFLY in superwash merino lace yarn and superwash merino roving. I took this photo at a butterfly farm in St. Maarten, French West Indies during a Christmas cruise to the Caribbean.

SUNSET OVER FüRIGEN in Falkland roving and superwash merino/nylon fingering yarn. I took this photo while visiting our godson and family in beautiful Fürigen, Switzerland over Christmas 2010.

HONOLULU FIREWORKS in 50/50 silk/merino fingering yarn, superwash merino/tencel roving, sparkle lace yarn and mixed BFL/silk/firestar painted batt. This photo was taken at Waikiki,  just before New Years’.

I had great fun dyeing this new OVERLAY SERIES, inspired by the 2D animation technique of ‘overlaying’ a cel on top of another to bring an object to the foreground. For these skeins, a base color was applied, then a top color was ‘overlayed’ for a multi-color effect.

BLUEBERRY, OLIVE & PEACH-RASPBERRY

and LANIKAI, MOSS & BLACK-PURPLE

 I carded this fun batt of hand-dyed purples & black in superwash merino/nylon wool.

JOKER in handspun, hand-dyed corriedale yarn

And some socks!

These are CHUTES & LADDERS SOCKS in olive tweed.

BLOCKED SOCKS in green & red-multi

ROMAN FORUM SOCKS in green/purple-multi

I was excited to learn this week that my Roman Forum Socks pattern was approved and published into Knitpicks.com’s Independent Designer Program! This is my 7th submission into the program with my colorwork sock patterns and can be found here.

I also posted a set of rolags in hot pink and black. I must admit these are quite bright and fun!

This past week we had a fun gift exchange in our knitting group and we were to make either fingerless gloves or a pair of potholders. I made a pair of smocked fingerless gloves, but fearing I may have made them too small, I also crocheted a potholder using hand-dyed mercerized cotton yarn. I also added a small skein of undyed wool yarn with some kool-aide and dye-your-own-yarn instructions. 🙂

This is me opening my exchange gift – a pair of fingerless gloves is sparkly black and red made by Diana! They are super comfy and I just love the bling!

I also finished a pair of cabled fingering gloves for myself using a beautiful yarn my friend Debra gave me. The wool is merino and silk and the length is about 17″ so they are above the elbow (opera length, I think?).

Lastly, I am trying to finish spinning 5oz of beautifully dyed Rambouillet roving from CorgiHillFarm. I’ve never spun Rambouillet (a fine merino wool) and it’s wonderful to work with. I am thinking about plying the single with silk thread for a lace weight yarn.

Happy Holidays!

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