Good morning, everyone! I wanted to talk to you about two related things today. First, I have a new yarn base I’m introducing. Second, I am really excited about a new dyeing technique I’m using  and wanted to share it with you.

First the yarn base…

I’ve been searching for the perfect sock-weight yarn for actual socks for awhile now. I wanted something that was soft enough to be really comfortable while still being strong enough to last for everyday socks, and I finally found it. I’m calling it Sock Perfection because that’s what it is. It’s a nice tight 4-ply yarn made of 80% merino and 20% nylon, but the thing that makes this wonderful is the fact that the merino is 19.5 microns instead of the more common 21.5 or above. I was able to price this a bit lower than my other yarn bases. It’s always my goal to price things in a way that is a good price for you while also being fair to my family. You can see all the colorways I have dyed on Sock Perfection here. I’ll be adding more as the days and weeks go by.

And that leads me to the second thing I wanted to talk to you about. Sometime in the middle of the night a few weeks back, I was wondering how it would look to have a black yarn with short segments of a different color. Of course I’m not the first person to wonder about this by a long shot, because this is how Ikat weaving is made. Ikat is an ancient weaving technique used in many cultures where sections of the warp and/or weft are left undyed to provide a stark contrast with the rest of the colors.

I love that my work is half artistry and half science! I spent some time figuring out how to make this work, what kind of resist to use, and what order to dye the colors in. I used black with lavender the first time around, and then I knit up a sample. Here that is:

I love the subtlety of the way it knits up and think it would be fabulous in socks, hats, and scarves, don’t you?

Once I was sure of the technique, I was ready to go! I made several more colorways in black with a bright contrast including emerald green, sapphire blue, and ruby red. Here those are:

I also combined the new (to me) ikat technique with another technique to create Durin’s Bane here:

I’m kind of over-the-moon excited with this colorway. I’m saving a skein for myself so I can play too.

Here are all four together:

I think it would be a lot of fun to combine these different colorways. If you would like to see black combined with another color, please let me know. I would be happy to make it for you.

I have some other ideas for combining different colors and combinations of colors using this ikat dyeing technique, and I’m looking forward to weaving with this as well as knitting.

I am also dying up some of my signature colorways on the new Sock Perfection base. I have Mithril and Telemachus so far. Again, let me know if you would like to see one of my colorways on this new yarn base.