Happy Friday, my friend.

First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who took part in my Black Friday through Cyber Monday sales. There was a tremendous response, and I am grateful to you!

I got the last dyed-to-order package out this morning, and I have been dyeing up some lovely new fall-into-winter colorways.

Fall Into Winter Colorway Combos

Here’s a new combination made from three of these, dyed for the first time on Sparkly Merino Sock:

Ochre and Forest Floor both exude warmth and almost glow. They are very much outside my typical colorways, but I hope you like them as much as I do.

Ochre was inspired by the beautiful golden-brown pigment used by artists. For Forest Floor, I was thinking of taking a walk through a late autumn forest, crunching over all the beautifully pigmented leaves. For Ode to the West Wind, I was inspired by Shelley’s poem to create an all-speckle colorway using all the colors of autumn.

I have these on a variety of different yarn bases and weights, so if you use the search bar on my website to search by name, you’ll see all the options come up. They are also available in the dyed-to-order section of my shop if you don’t see the yarn base you need in stock.

Objectivity

Another new (sort of) colorway I made this week is called Objectivity. Here it is shown on So Silky Sock:

It’s a colorway I had made once a long time ago and then just never got back to. It’s one of my Ikat colorways with short stripes of white in the midst of a mostly black yarn. I dyed it on Squoosh DK, Sock Perfection, and So Silky Sock. As you can see from the photo above, the So Silky Sock has some dark gray as well as black just because of how it takes the dye.

Here are Javert, Jean Valjean, and Objectivity together on Sock Perfection:

I also think that Objectivity and Javert together would look great with a cheerful semi-solid colorway like Marigold or Turquoise. Alternatively, it would look very dramatic with The Winedark Sea or Cherries Jubilee.

Black Butterfly

Speaking of Ikat colorways, I have Black Butterfly available on four different yarn bases right now. Here it is for the first time on Quick and Cozy Bulky:

A Tale of Two Yarn Bases

Yesterday I was dyeing up two batches of Pagliacci–one on Quick and Cozy Bulky and the other one on Alpaca Lace Cloud. It was a great opportunity to show how different yarn can look on different yarn bases even using the same dyes, quantities, techniques, etc. I decided to make a little video showing the differences. Do keep in mind that few yarn bases will be this different except for Alpaca Lace Cloud. The fuzzy texture changes everything!

Here that is:

If you have trouble getting the video to play, you can also see it in my Instagram feed right here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CIV7zOjJrLN/

Coming Soon

I have a couple new things coming my way. The first is a new yarn base known as Zebra Yarn. It comes undyed with a ply of black merino. When I first saw the yarn base, it didn’t really strike my fancy until I started thinking about all the colorways that could be made and create a stained-glass effect. Then I got really excited about it. If you have particular colorways you would like to see dyed up on this new base, let me know.

I also have a number of luxury fiber blends heading my way so that I can make more hand-dyed top. There’s a baby camel/silk blend, a BFL/Seacell blend, a shetland/silk blend, and of course merino and Polwarth too. It may be awhile before I receive these and get them dyed up and in the shop, but I can hardly wait to get my hands on them.

Christmas

I will be doing something relatively unprecedented and taking a little break at Christmas time this year so I can focus on my family more. I will have the shop open for orders, but I won’t be mailing them out between about December 20th and January 1st. I will be checking my email but not as frequently. There will be an announcement in the shop as a reminder, but I wanted to let you know ahead of time too.

Show and Tell

Last but not least, I would like to do another Show and Tell newsletter either next week or the week after. If you have finished projects or works in progress, please email them to me. Be sure to include the colorways, yarn bases, and the pattern you used. I can’t wait to see them and share them to inspire everyone. I know I’ve said this before, but I can’t even express how exciting it is to me to see what my little yarn and fiber babies grow up to become.

Maybe one good thing about 2020 will be a bit of a slower pace that allows you to enjoy the holiday season with a little more time for the fiber arts in the process. Stay well, and happy fiber artistry!