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!

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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!

2013 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 20 -22

Aloha!

Here are the colors for weeks 20 – 22.

First up, a new colorway TEAPOT STILL LIFE in superwash merino/nylon fingering yarn . . .

. . . in polwarth/silk roving

and baby alpaca/silk lace yarn.

This colorway was inspired by this wonderful painting by my colleague, Aaron Spurgeon.

You can find his work here on etsy and on his blog.

OHIO SNOW in superwash merino fingering yarn – 840 yds/2 skeins

. . . and in mixed BFL roving.

I also had a couple more patterns published on Knitpicks.com! You can find them here: CCES and LV.

And, I’ve been knitting up ballet/pointe shoe bags for the shoppe.

ORANGE (!) in merino/acrylic.

BLACK & WHITE in wool/cotton.

CORAL in acrylic yarn.

And PEACH/BROWN/NATURAL handpun, handknitted entrelac bag in wool.

Enjoy!

2013 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 18-19

Aloha!

This post will be dedicated to socks – my personal favorite knitting project.

Last Fall KnitPicks.com asked if I would be interested in having them sell one of my sock patterns as part of a kit for their May 2013 catalog. I was completely floored they would ask so of course I said, Heck Yes!

The catalog and kit was released last week. Here are some photos from their site.

This was on the kits & sampler page:

This was on the main page:

And on page 27 of the May 2013 catalog:

Very exciting! The funny part is that I always wanted to own a pair of these socks but never got around to making one! Perhaps I should think about it now. My most favorite color combination is one my Aunt Tina choose for her mom, in purple and black:

I’ve also been trying to find a little time for some pattern testing. Here’s a work-in-progress colorwork pattern using 3 fingering weight yarns. I hand-dyed the main blue/green variegated yarn, while the light green is KP’s Stroll Tonal in Springtime and regular undyed yarn for the white. This is ATRIUM FLOOR SOCKS, inspired by the 3-toned floor pattern on the upcoming Princess Cruiselines ship, the Royal Princess – due to launch in June 2013.

I still have to finish the second sock and this pair will be mine!

Here is a screen grab of the atrium (computer graphics model) with a view of the floor. You can find the entire video here.

DESIREE DIAMOND SOCKS is a pattern I created with simple bead work in mind. Every diamond on the front of the socks has a center glass bead, while the foot and the back of the leg have a solid-outline-solid 3-diamond pattern. These socks were inspired by my childhood best friend, Desiree, who I met at afternoon day care at age 8 and remains to this day, one of my beloved and dearest friends.

More testing, colorwork, yarn and fiber to come!

Enjoy!

Crazy Crazy Eights & Inlet Socks for Jason

For the past 1.5 months I’ve been working on completing a couple of custom made socks for Jason in Seattle, who found me on Etsy. This was such a fun endeavor as it truly was a collaborative effort. Jason picked out the designs he wanted as well as the yarn color combinations for each pair of colorwork socks.

Here are some photos of the finished knee-hi socks in US Mens 10. Please note the rounded part towards the tops of the socks are for the calf shaping 🙂

Jason’s Crazy Crazy Eights Socks in Dark Blue/Blue Multi (KP lovers, this is Stroll in Midnight Heather and Stroll Multi in Atmosphere).

Jason’s second pair are Inlet Socks in brown multi/burgundy (KP Stroll Tonal in Kindling, Palette in Currant).

Final sock dimensions:

heel to toe: 10.5″ | heel to cuff: 18.5″ | foot circumference: 9.5″

Thanks Jason for the fun opportunity to make these for you!

Custom Crazy Crazy Eights Socks

I recently completed 2 pairs of custom made socks in my Crazy Crazy Eights pattern for a Men’s Size 10.  These were so fun to make because I collaborated with the recipient and he chose the color combinations himself, which makes these socks extra special.  Here are a few photos:

Pair #1 knitted with Kettle dyed yarn in Jay (discontinued) and Stroll Multi in Atmosphere.

the back side

Pair #2 in Kettle dyed yarns in Oak and Ivy, both now discontinued.

the backside and cuff of one sock.

(completed March/April 2011)

Sweetheart Socks Pattern on KnitPicks.com

I haven’t ‘officially’ posted these socks yet on my blog because I was waiting to see if KnitPicks.com would consider adding the pattern to their Independent Designer Program . . . and they did!  You can find the pattern on their site. (GASP!!!!)

These are fun socks that I designed with Valentine’s Day in mind and knitted up one pair with pink and red yarn. The first pair sold on the shoppe so I decided to make another using black yarn and the same pink. I love how the pink pops against the black. This is the colorway I used as my final sample to KP.

This was my first pair – the pink/red version – and here’s what the back and foot bottom look like.

I submitted my proposal to KnitPicks early February and within a week I got a response! I can’t tell you how excited I was to read the email saying they were interested in my design. I was shaking with excitement when I texted the news to my hubby. Needless to say I was on cloud nine the entire week. I submitted my sample and final pattern a couple weeks later and got the official ‘green’ light in early March. I did submit a photo of myself (cringe) and a little bio (smile) so I can no longer hide behind the smiley-face Hawaiian girl caricature done by my former colleague (thank you Katie).

Special thanks to my awesome hubby, Jake, and to the KnitPicks Community for their constant support and encouragement.

Check it out on KnitPicks.com.

Crazy Crazy Eights Socks in Gray/Blue

My Crazy Crazy Eights pattern is one that I haven’t knitted in a while so I thought I’d try out a new color combo and this seemed to work! The gray base is KnitPick’s Stroll sock yarn in Ash, while the multi is Stroll Multi in Atmosphere.  I have more of both colors so I can’t wait to try another pattern with this combo as well!

Socks are available on the shoppe.