Yarn & Fiber Colors for Weeks 35-36

Some weekends I do really great with organizing my time to dye/paint and crank out a good amount of dyed wool. It also helps when the creativity hits me just right. Week 35 was one of those weekends for me and I was able to dye up 11 skeins of yarn 🙂 That was so much fun, and I didn’t even mind the re-skeining (by hand!). Here are some of the colorways:

VIEW FROM FURIGEN in merino/tencel lace:

THANKSGIVING in merino/tencel fingering:

SURF ‘N’ TURF in merino/silk lace weight:

TEQUILA SUNRISE in superwash merino lace weight:

SEA DRAGONS in merino/bamboo fingering:

PEACH COBBLER in merino/nylon/stellina fingering:

MORNING at BILTMORE INN in superwash merino/nylon fingering:

BILTMORE BENCH in superwash merino, fingering:

COMET TRAIL in sparkly merino/silk lace weight:

EIFFEL AT DUSK in superwash merino lace:

HALONA in a tweed fingering:

Some handspun fun . . .

GOLDEN PINEAPPLE in Peruvian wool:

HIEROGLYPHICS in superwash BFL

enjoy!

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Yarn & Fiber Colors for Weeks 33-34

Aloha All! Here are my yarns/fibers from weeks 33-34!

This is AHI POKE in superwash merino wool lace weight. The Fiber Fairy (she-who-will-not-be-named) secretly gifted this skein to another fiber enthusiast. How cool is that?

WINDWARD WATERS is a merino/cashmere/nylon blend fingering yarn that reminds me of the waters off Hawaii.(yes, i know, what doesn’t remind me of Hawaii . . . )

AQUA OVERLAY is also a mer/cash/nylon blend. This was dyed with a beautiful bright aqua, then overlayed with black. I love how the aqua bits poke through here and there.

BEACH UMBRELLA is named for all those colorful umbrellas you see on any given day at Waikiki Beach. A lot of the hotels will rent out these large umbrellas to offer a bit of shade to sun worshipers.

A couple versions of RAINY DAY EIFFEL in Falkland British Merino/Tencel lace and a “Sparkle” fingering weight.

More LAVENDER LEMONADE in mer/silk lace and mer/bamboo fingering weight.

And some wool!

This is FALL HARVEST, a South American wool top.

Oh, sigh and WAIMEA CANYON in merino/tencel. Swoon. . .

WAIMANALO STORM in targhee!

PEACH COBBLER in BFL/Silk:

STREETS OF VERSAILLES in merino/silk:

and the inspirational photo taken on a street in Versailles, France

a quick note on this photo, this was taken Thanksgiving Day 2009. we were trying to find a place for lunch and i knew exactly where i wanted to go. since i allow myself only ONE Big Mac sandwich per year, i always wait until i’m someplace special to have it. i made my family have Thanksgiving lunch at the McDonald’s in Versailles and it was the BEST Big Mac i’ve ever had! when i see this photo i actually don’t think of King Louis XIV’s grand palace, but of two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. . .

SUNSET OVER TITLUS in superwash merino:

and the inspirational photo taken atop Mount Titlus, Engleberg, Switzerland @ 10,000 feet up

SURF ‘N’ TURF in BLF/Alpaca:

and THANKSGIVING, in merino/bamboo:

Also, a couple weeks ago, I found a great site with instructions on how to blend fibers using hand carders so I thought I’d give it a go. I took about 1/2 ounce of merino/silk fiber dyed up in my Ka’anapali colorway and blended them in about 2 passes through the hand carders. I did pull the roving out just as in the website and it worked. Here’s a quick photo of the pulled roving ‘nest’ on top of the original non-blended wool. Fun!

enjoy!

Yarn & Fiber Colors for Weeks 27-28

I wasn’t feeling too well this past week so I’m behind in my posting, so here are the colorways for Weeks 27 and 28.

This is RAINFOREST, a Falkland British Merino/Tencel fingering yarn:

Ah, and SOUTH SEAS, a Falkland British Merino/Tencel lace weight yarn:

I tried my hand at LOVE SHACK in lace weight. This is a merino/silk blend with over 1000 yards!

And a sparkly VENETIAN THUNDERSTORM, in a merino/silk/stellina lace weight yarn:

What’s summer without some bright colors? This one was inspired by a potted plant I used to have that would once-in-a-while bloom a pretty ORANGE HIBISCUS. This is a superwash merino/nylon fingering yarn.

And my homage to the south with SOUTHERN SUMMER SUNSET in a tweed fingering weight:

LANIKAI HIKE is a new colorway inspired by a photo I took while on the Lanikai Pillbox Hike in Oahu. This is a merino/cashmere/nylon blend. Yummers!

AUMOE 2 is a fluffy Targhee wool top of dark blues, blacks and grays.

And another LIGURE SUNSET in superwash merino lace weight yarn.

enjoy!

Yarn & Fiber Colors for Week 26

Whew! Summer is here! After a very hot 4th of July weekend with lots of time for dyeing and all things yarny, here are a few colorways for ya:

WATER & MOONBEANS is a handspun yarn made from fiber from 2 etsy artisans. Water is a cashmere/silk blend from CorgiHillFarm, and Moonbeams is a merino/bamboo/silk/sparkle blend that ws part of a “fiber club” shipment from SosaeCaetano. Both were beautiful on their own but together made a beautiful 2-ply yarn.

LAVENDER LEMONADE is named after a drink found at a local vegetarian/vegan restaurant. I must admit at first I was skeptical to try an all-vegetarian place since I am such a carnivore, but this particular restaurant is awesome.  Native Foods is a chain so I would definitely recommend trying their Lavender Lemonade if you have one near you.

This one is a superwash merino/nylon wool roving:

While this one is a merino/bamboo fingering weight yarn:

HAWAIIAN RED DIRT, named for the famous dirt from the island what will never come off your white clothes no matter how hard you try, is a superwash merino lace weight yarn:

LIGURE SUNSET 2 is a Targhee Top roving – so bouncy!! This time around the black dye didn’t break as much as I liked so I added some brown to add more color.

LOVE SHACK is also a superwash merino wool named for a bus stop in Days Bay, Wellington, NZ.

And lastly, AHI POKE, named for one of my favorite Hawaiian dishes of raw tuna fish, onions, seaweed and spices!! Yummmmmers!

This one is a superwash merino wool fingering yarn:

And this one is a Peruvian wool roving:

Wheeeee!! Happy Summer everyone 🙂 Enjoy!

Yarn & Fiber Colors for Weeks 24-25

Alooooha!! Well, for the past couple of weeks I’ve been focused on work stuff helping my crew towards a big goal. This past Friday was a big milestone for us (and was a successful one! whoo hooo!) so I’ve got a bit more breathing room for fiber fun! Since I wasn’t able to post last week, here are the colors for weeks 24 and 25.

I’ll start with KAANAPALI BEACH, a Falkland British merino/tencel fingering yarn. I just LOVE the sheen on this yarn!

PEACH BLUSH is a very pretty merino/nylon/stellina (sparkle) fingering weight yarn in grays and peach!

LIGURE SUNSET roving in Sweet Grass Targhee – GASP!! You literally just want to climb into this wool and take a nap.

SUNSET OVER FüRIGEN is a superwash merino lace weight wool inspired by our trip to Fürigen, Switzerland.

ZION 2 is a superwash merino wool roving inspired by Zion National Park in Utah. I’m still amazed at how the colors came out!

TOMATO BASIL was so fun to make. I found the dyed merino/romney cross fleece from etsy artisan, sdspin, and hand carded the wool before spinning. The first ply is a nice red while the second ply is a ‘tomato basil’ mix of beige, pinks and green. Towards the end I ran of red so I plied the last few yards with the remaining tomato basil color. This yarn is roughly heavy worsted with some thick-thin qualities as well.

And finally, MORNING AT BILTMORE INN is a superwash lace weight yarn inspired by – yup, you guessed it – a morning at the Biltmore Inn. A few summers ago the hubby and I spent some time exploring the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC and I woke up early one morning – probably jet lag – and opened the curtains to this beautiful vista of the dewy grounds and the town in the far background.

enjoy!

Yarn & Fiber Colors for Week 23

For this week’s colors, I drew from vacation spots and some favorite music!

This is a wonderful merino/tencel blend called THURSTON LAVA TUBE dyed with charcoal gray, black, greens and red-brown.

This is the inspirational photo of the real Thurston Lava Tube on the island of Kauai. I love how the greens and red-brown foliage is such a great contrast to the gray-black of the lava!

PAINTED DESERT is a great lightweight lace weight with 1,312 yards! I keep thinking I can knit a cozy for my refrigerator with all that yarn.  This was named for one of my favorite albums called Painted Desert Serenade by musician Joshua Kadison. I also envisioned a painted desert to have more subdued pastel colors as in a watercolor painting.

KAANAPALI BEACH is a merino/silk blend roving. I have dyed up mer/silk in the past and really like the outcome. These colors are fun, bold and took to the fiber well!

HYDRANGEAS is a colorway I’ve done before in fiber, but not yarn and this is a great superfine merino/silk lace weight yarn. YUM! The inspiration for this was a photo I took of some winter hydrangeas at the Wellington Botanical Gardens in New Zealand.

And lastly, in the fabulous city of Seattle, Washington is the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum. Strange combination for a museum, but it truly is half-music, half-SciFi (as an aside, in the lobby was a poster of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within which both hubby and I worked on 10 years ago in Honolulu!). At the entrance of the music portion is an impressive ‘statue’ made up of mostly guitars and towers two stories up! This superwash merino wool is GUITAR HERO and named for this statue as well as for my beloved music little brother!

And the impressive ‘statue’ from which I drew my color inspiration!

enjoy!

Yarn & Fiber Colors for Week 22

In this episode of National Fiber-graphics, we start off in the City of Lights (Paris) where we view an Egyptian exhibit in the world famous Louvre Museum. . .

I love ancient Egyptian history and the Louvre had a plethora of artifacts including sarcophagi, mummies and stone tablets etched with HIEROGLYPHICS. Some of these hieroglyphics were of a gold coloring against a stark gray/black stone. This fingering weight yarn is a nod to those ancient texts.

In another ancient topic, this BFL wool in MEDIEVAL WALL colorway was inspired by the ‘old town’ wall in Lucerne, Switzerland.

On the other side of the world, other colorways are playing fun. COCONUT LIME in a tweed fingering yarn gets its fun coloring from 2 plies of non-superwash merino and 1 ply of superwash.

And what’s summer without some tropical drinks? or a sorbet? in a sparkly lace weight yarn! TROPICAL SORBET is just similar to the sparkle sock yarn I have dyed up in the past, but in lace weight – gasp! How fun is that?

and we end this week’s journey in my most favorite place in the world…Hawaii. more specifically, the island of Maui. KAANAPALI BEACH is a tribute to a photo I took back in 2003 when our friends got married on the island. As one of the bridesmaids, I was able to share in a spa day with the girls. While awaiting for my treatment I took a photo of the beach from the hotel balcony. I am more than thrilled to represent this colorway in a Falkland British Merino/Tencel lace weight yarn:

enjoy!

Yarn & Fiber Colors for Week 15

Well, this week is more like ‘yarn’ colors as I didn’t paint any wool, but will definitely add that to the list for next time!

I have 2 hand-spuns and 2 hand-painted to share! I’m having such a ball with these new yarns and so far they are coming out quite nicely.

GALAXY 2 is a merino/silk/stellina (sparkle) lace-weight dyed in light blues with a hint of lilac.

ZION is the first of the hand-spun yarn. This one I was going to sell the roving, but it was so interesting that I thought I’d try spinning it myself, then thread-plying with a silver/gray thread. Zion is named for Zion National Park in Utah. Here’s the inspirational photo as well.

RUSTIC is from my new tweed yarn, painted with browns, blues and purples. I just love how this came out! This yarn has 2 plies of non-superwash wool together with 1 ply of SW, so each type takes the dyes different which accounts for the ‘tweed’ effect.

Lastly, WORLDLY is a hand-painted, hand-spun yarn using food-grade dyes. Yup, had to take out the Kool-Aid and food coloring out for a ‘dye fix’ late one evening 🙂 This is 64 count merino wool that I spun first, then dyed using 2 packets of Berry Blue Kool-Aid, 2 packets of Lemon Lime, then mixed Green & Black food dyes for the dark green, Blue & Black for the dark blue. . . but they all came out as pastels! LOL! I have photos of the dye process that I need to post as well . . .

Enjoy!

Yarn & Fiber Colors for Week 14

For this week’s colors, we start off in the islands, work our way back to the east coast, then pay an homage to our childhood 🙂

COCONUT LIME is a merino/tencel roving with dark brown, bright green and a bit of white/ecru. I just love those coconut/lime lotions and bath products so had to make a colorway for this!

NORTH SHORE 2 is a new tweed yarn! It’s sooo cool! With 2 plies of non-superwash and 1-ply of superwash yarn, the aquas & peach/oranges have this wonderful combination where the various yarns took the dyes differently.

I just can’t get enough of this colorway so, here it is again, BILTMORE BARK – this time in a new sparkle lace weight! This is merino, silk and stellina (the sparkley stuff).

Now we go back in time. . . Growing up, there was a popular doll called RAINBOW BRITE, who even had her own cartoon series. Though I never had the doll, I always loved her colorful outfit. This is merino/bamboo/nylon roving.

This colorway was inspired by the 1981 hit single, TAINTED LOVE (doesn’t it kinda look like tainted love?). This is a merino lace weight in pinks/purples with a black overlay.

And lastly, a colorway based on a movie that has transcended time and generations . . . EMERALD CITY is named for Dorothy’s destination to seek the wizard who can help her get home in the 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz.

New Sock Yarns

When my normal ‘base’ sock yarn was sold out until end of February (gasp!), I had to seek out another supplier and found a wonderful company who sells awesome yarn with LOTS of content variations – YAY!

I couldn’t wait to dye up some samples and put them on the shoppe. I’ve now got 5 different kinds of ‘base’ sock yarns (!) and love them all.

Here are my first dyes. Click on the links – red text – to see more photos on the shoppe.

Merino/Cashmere(!)/Nylon. This is truly one of the softest sock yarns I’ve ever felt. Luxurious! This one is called FOG:

Merino/Nylon/Stellina. The stellina adds a bit of BLING to the yarn – so pretty. This one is TROPICAL SORBET:

Merino/Bamboo/Nylon. Since bamboo doesn’t take acid dyes (which these are) the bamboo parts adds a diffuse ‘depth’ to all the colors. So interesting! This one is HANALEI:

Superwash 3-ply Merino. This is a plump yarn and just may become my favorite. This one is AVALON:

Superwash Merino/Nylon. This is similar to the other 4-ply sock yarn I usually get. This is WAILUA FALLS:

Available on the shoppe.