The first time I dyed Beautiful Universe was in 2020 or 2021. I had to create a new method to dye it, and now whenever I use that dye method, I call it the Beautiful Universe method. This was one of those colorways where the idea for the colors came first and the name came later.

I reached out to all of you for help naming it, and most people suggested a name related to space. That sent me down a rabbit hole searching through Hubble Telescope photos for something that looked just like the colorway. I never found a perfect match, but I did gain a much greater appreciation for just how stunningly beautiful the universe is. It didn’t have to be. It could have been dull and flat and homogeneous. Instead, everything–absolutely everything–is unique and different and amazing. I’m still in awe just thinking about the fact that every star, every snowflake, every blade of grass is different. Isn’t that incredible? Anyway, that was the inspiration for the name, Beautiful Universe. Here’s what it looks like:

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Here is a sample I knit of Beautiful Universe on Squoosh Worsted:

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Beautiful Galaxy

The only downside of Beautiful Universe is that it is particularly time-consuming to make. Because of that, I just bring it out as a special treat a couple times each year–like this weekend. More about that below.

Because Beautiful Universe is so time-consuming, a year or two ago I decided to create a colorway that is similar to Beautiful Universe but a little easier to make such that I can keep it available all the time. It has an undercoat of lilac and then all the same colors as Beautiful Universe. Continuing with the same theme, I named it Beautiful Galaxy:

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The colors are a bit softer, and it has more lilac compared with Beautiful Universe. Here is a sample I knit of Beautiful Galaxy:

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Beautiful Nebula

This week, I created a third colorway for the “Beautiful” series. I named it Beautiful Nebula, and this one has more blue. In fact, it almost glows blue. Here is Beautiful Nebula dyed on Stained Glass Fingering:

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Here is a sample I knit of Beautiful Nebula on Squoosh Worsted:

I have Beautiful Nebula all dyed up and ready to ship on Stained Glass Sock, Sock Perfection, and So Silky Sock. I also have both Beautiful Nebula and Beautiful Galaxy available dyed to order.

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Preorder on Beautiful Universe

As I mentioned above, Beautiful Universe is the original of these three colorways, but it is also the hardest to make, so I don’t have it in the regular dyed to order section of my shop. This week, however, I made some space on my dye calendar to have a preorder for Beautiful Universe. I’ll have the preorder open now through through Tuesday, November 18th, so you can order as many skeins as you would like on any of my yarn bases.

Please allow the usual 2 to 3 weeks for me to dye them up after that.

All three “Beautiful” colorways would look great together for a three-colorway shawl or maybe for my Angel Wings Ponchette pattern. Here are all three one right after another so you can see how they would look alongside one another:

You can find all three of these colorways (both in stock and dyed to order) right here.

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Oak Creek Canyon

I have one more new colorway to share with you this week. When we lived in northern Arizona, we often drove from Sedona to Flagstaff through Oak Creek Canyon. It’s a very narrow canyon with a river in it and high cliffs overhead. It’s much greener than the surrounding area because of the river. It’s heavily wooded with a combination of deciduous trees and pine trees. The higher up the canyon you go, the more pine trees there are, especially near the top where the elevation is over 6000 feet. Here’s a photo I found of Oak Creek Canyon:

However, it’s my memory more than the photo that inspired this new colorway, Oak Creek Canyon:

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It’s a Splashed & Speckled colorway with magenta, red, dark green, light green, brown, purple, and gold. I have Oak Creek Canyon dyed up on Sock Perfection right now, and I just set up a dyed to order listing for it too. You can find Oak Creek Canyon right here.

I think that’s everything for this week. I hope you have a great weekend!