Tour of exclusive colorways, stop four!
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 3:36PM There is an online store whose wares I love to drool over. I like it for a few reasons. One is that they have beautiful yarns, all made by indie dyers, many of the brands difficult to find.
Another is that they carry colorways one large variety of base yarns, so you're not stuck buying a colorway you love on a base that's not your favorite.
It also helps that I've known the owner of this shop for years, well before she opened her yarn shop. She's good people. I would tell you that she fit back into her size 2 jeans less than 6 weeks after giving birth to twins, but you would hate her a little bit, and I don't want that.
If you haven't checked out Pulling at Strings yet, make yourself a cup or a glass or, heck, a STEIN of your favorite vice and drool over the eye candy.
Jenn gave me several colorway inspirations, all based on her home state of Maryland. The fact that I lived there for ten years helped tremendously, as it wasn't much work to picture exactly what she was talking about.
This is Chivalrous, inspired by Maryland's Renaissance Festival, the second largest in the country.
It's a courtly mix of regal purple, red, emerald, gold, and amber.
I like being pushed to do colorways like this, because they are not ones I gravitate toward naturally. But then I'm always happy with the results and am glad I made an appearance at the party.
If you visit Pulling At Strings and enter Chivalrous in the search box in the upper right, you can see everything they currently have instock in this colorway. They even have some mini skein sets and roving up for grabs!
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Another trip to Florida brings us Sea Flower, an exclusive colorway belonging to A Good Yarn in Sarasota.
Sea Flower is part of A Good Yarn's Purl Diver collection, which are colorways based on amazing underwater photographs.
You can see the bright orange, black, and white in the clown fish <Insert Finding Nemo joke here>, and the pretty taupes and rose pinks in the rest of the skein.
This is what I call a transitional handpainted, where the colorway is designed to be conceptual and to transition from one color to the next once the skein is twisted up.
This is a labor intensive colorway, involving lots of tiny paintbrushes, but I think the end results are worth it.
A Good Yarn has this colorway instock, and they'd be happy to send you some. You can visit their web store here for easy stash enhancement.
(I adore this one on Springvale Bulky. Sigh.)
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As luck of the draw would have it, another transitional handpainted gasped for air.
This one is based on salmon. Not just the color salmon pink, but the actual fish.
Copper River salmon is said to be some of the best in the world because of its high oil content, and salmon fishing is the industry on which the city of Cordova, Alaska thrives.
When I made this for The Net Loft, I knew I couldn't just slap some light pinks and grays on Adorn Sock and call it close enough.
My bluff would be called. Who can predict the mayhem that would ensue.
Salmon -- the fish -- has marbled silvery gray skin, which I hope I captured, and the meat is actually a few different shades of pink with a yellow and brown undertone.
It's a manly pink. Because it's a pink that has its own name. Salmon.
When I'm designing a colorway, I will often settle on a color recipe (how to make the salmony pinks, which shades of gray I'll use), and then I experiment with dye application methods.
Here are a few of my earlier versions of Salmon.
This was lacking variation. It didn't say fish to me.
This is a little closer, but it seems like the salmon skin is too mixed up in the meat. It gives me the feeling of picking bones out of a piece of fish in a restaurant.
You can see a side by side comparison here.
The method I settled on uses both kettle dyeing and hand painting. Because I will rarely seek the path of least resistance when it come to yarn. I'd rather make more work for myself and have things just so than go easy and be less than thrilled with the results.
It's part of my personality that spills over into most areas of my life. My husband loves this about me, don't you, honey?
Here's one example of how it knits up:
If you want to grab some of this colorway, you can give The Net Loft a call at (907) 424-7337, or email them at thenetloft3 AT yahoo DOT com.
Speaking of salmon, I had spicy salmon sushi for lunch today. How deliciously coincidental.
Reader Comments (7)
I love hearing from where your dye ideas come - it makes me want to call right away and order! So far, the Salmon and Bald Eagle are especially my favorites. I love how that hat knit up.
Dye on! :)
Daughter Nelly and
"Salmon" yarn inspiration...
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150598669230446&set=a.294309810445.191157.243271355445&type=1&theater
Love the baby hat. Where can i purchase the pattern?
I'm not sure if or where the hat pattern is available. It's really cute, though!
Hat is a custom design by Br Webber, a Cordova knitter who now lives in Juneau who makes them to sell. Her company is called Granite and she was making some to sell in our shop with Three Irish Girls custom colors They are her designs she uses exclusively for her hats. It is actually an adult hat and looks really cute on. http://www.granitegoodness.com/
Thanks, Dotty!
Oh my! I'm in love. I'll take one of each please! :D