2015 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 42-49

Aloha and Happy December!

So excited for the holidays this year. Last year I was waist-deep in work and felt the holidays came and went so I didn’t really have the opportunity to savor the season. This year, I’m taking it all in and even taking the “One gift for you, one gift for me” a bit too seriously (I know, I know – how many parkas do I really need?).

As is consistent with working in film, our jobs start & stop and this holiday season I’m ‘between jobs’ as they say, so I’m taking the opportunity to knit more, dye up more and maybe even get a jump on my taxes (well, it’s on the to-do list at least).  I’ve been taking meetings/interviews so I’m excited for what the future holds!

Next year for AlohaBlu, I’m hoping to do a bit more pattern work, add some ‘Dyed to Order’ colorways on the shoppe, and folks have been asking for sock kits – a skein of yarn for the body of the socks and a small skein for the toes, heels and cuffs – so I’m working on adding those as well.

Thanks so much for all your friendship and support. Without further ado, here are the colors for Weeks 42 – 49.

First, two of my sock patterns were published today on Knitpicks! These are my KANE SOCKS and my & hubby’s MAORI TATTOO SOCKS. This pair of Maori Tattoo Socks uses KP’s Ash yarn paired with my hand-dyed “Hawaiian Storm Clouds” yarn, and this pair is mine 🙂

Speaking of socks, here are a few I finished recently. TANGO SWERVE SOCKS were actually first done as a non-colorwork socks many years ago. In 2013, I thought I’d try a colorwork version, knitted one sock too tight, then threw it in the bottom of my UFO stash (Un-Finished Objects) because I didn’t want to deal with frogging (rip-it, rip-it) and re-knitting. Picked up the needles again this year – yup, 2 years later – and finished the pair. No pattern yet, but hopefully it won’t take another 2 years!

This was a custom pair of my YIN YANG SOCKS. No pattern for this one yet but it was sure fun to make again.

When folks contact me about these next socks, they call them my “Wedding Socks” though they are actually a variation of my Sweetheart Socks pattern. This particular pair is a custom order for a bride getting married this year. She wanted the date on socks and I incorporated them into the back – what a great idea!!

Here’s the colorway I created for the November SPIN THIS BOX edition. This year, hubby and I spent my birthday on Oahu’s ‘Fabled North Shore’ at the Turtle Bay Resort. When I made the reservation, I told them we are returning customers who loved their resort. They gave us the honeymoon suite (complete with window from the bathtub to this view!).  Man, I just love Hawaii.

Here’s the yarn I created in the same colorway – TURTLE BAY.

Another fun thing I did recently was complete the 30 skeins in 30 colorways for the Sock Yarn Swappers Ravelry group. A few new colorways in there too!

More colorways to come.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

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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!

2013 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 12-13

Aloha! Here are the colors and inspirational images for weeks 12-13.

We’ve been missing ‘home’ again so I thought I’d dye up some reminders from the island.

This is WAIMANALO FLOWERS in sw merino/tencel roving and merino/cashmere/nylon fingering yarn:

I think I’ve only dyed up this colorway one other time and seeing how I’m now in LOVE with the color orange . . . again . . . this was great fun to dye up. ORANGE HIBISCUS in sparkle lace yarn and sw merino/tencel roving:

And the inspirational photo that I took years ago when I had potted hibiscus plants. Most of the time, pink flowers would bloom and only one per season would be this beautiful orange color!

A quick story about the color orange. . . When I was about 8 years old and a Girl Scout with Troop 124 (yes, I still remember that troop number), we once went on a camping trip to Camp Whites Landing which is located on Catalina Island, off the coast of Los Angeles. We had to pack a sleeping bag, and back then orange was my favorite color. Mom and Dad bought me this super warm, super big, bright orange sleeping bag and it was so slippery on the outside that my 8-year-old self could not roll it up. My greatest memory of that trip was watching my troop leader and another adult try to roll up that slippery sleeping bag before the ferry came to take up back up to the mainland! We kept the bag for many years, but eventually it was given away. Luckily, we still have my Care Bear slumber bag which is much easier to roll up. . .

Now, back to yarn. I finished up a custom sock order this week for a bride whose wedding is later this year. She picked out the colors herself and they will be shipped off to her as soon as I print out the postage label.

I had forgotten that I also made 3 pairs of custom socks last year for a customer who wanted to give them to her sisters as Christmas gifts. The one on the left is the customer and the middle and right are her sisters’ socks.

Last month I also finished testing a new pattern, WAHINE SOCKS, to complement my Kane Socks. Wahine in Hawaiian means woman or female, Kane means man or male, and the found the inspirational Hawaiian designs while visiting Disney’s Aulani Resort on Oahu.

This is WAHINE SOCKS in Knitpicks Stroll in Merlot Heather and Sunset Multi:

And for fun, here are last year’s testing of KANE SOCKS in Knitpicks Stroll in Midnight Heather and Blue Topaz:

enjoy!