Baby on the Brain

Last month I was fortunate enough to find out that my little sister is pregnant with her first baby. Not only am I going to be an aunt for the first time, but I am also going to be a God mom again! So with this news, I've had nothing but baby on the brain. Therefore, for fall I
will be rolling out lots of new baby patterns and yarns. Also, since my sister is in Chicago,
i will be doing lots of yummy warm yarns inspired by the freezing Chicago weather which I miss believe it or not. Being in warm California sunshine all year can be a bit boring at times. I miss the change in seasons which always inspired me artistically. I love fall colors! The deep oranges, browns, green, reds, etc. I could never get enough of them.

I have been asked recently, how do I mix up my colors, wet or dry? Actually, I mix my colors both ways: in dry powder form and is liquid concentrates that I mix up and then store in class gallon size bottles, that I use to further deepen, brighten or just adjust the color variations in general.

I'm happy to answer any questions about dyeing techniques, just send me a message.

The "I Sit on Acid" Colorway is a hit!

Last weeks show was awesome! A ton of happy, creative customers purchased my hand dyed "I Sit on Acid" Collection which is new for Spring 2010. No matter how I tried, I just could not go with pastel colors for spring, my brain is just too far out there I guess. I just got more vibrant and more contrasty (that's not a word) and completely out there. Also, seacell as a fiber has been a great hit. I personally find seacell to be one of my new favorite fibers as well. I am trying to decide the line up of fibers I will be concentrating on this year. Definitely more silk, since I am a total silk junkie. Also, I had a special request from a lovely customer from Scotland at the Costa Mesa show last week, asking me to bring in Scottish yarns, so I am currently looking into that, as well as more bamboo and mercerized Egyptian cotton and linen.

I have a small batch of 100% cotton chenile which is so soft and nice, so once I have dyed that up, I will see how everyone likes it.

Look to the Bulbs for Inspiration

I have a Easter show to get ready for, so I have really been inpired by what I see growing in my garden. Lots of irises and day lillies are popping up, so my mind is completely excited about the possiblities. I decided not just simply create pastel or candy colors, I want spring to be infused into my yarns through nature. So with that said, I need to start working on mixing up some new colors. I prefer to mix my dyes dry, before putting them in water. I know I know some dyers say only mix dilluted colors, but I am a rebel. Fearless in creating the perfect Spring colors.

Thick v. Thin

I love thick & bulky weight yarn! I truly enjoy bulky and super bulky weighted yarns, and at the smallest, I will go for a nice worsted weight. However, it seems at times that I am the only one. This picture shows the same color combo in a sock, dk/sport and worsted weights. Of course I love worsted the most and made a ton of it, however, everyone that purchased this colorway went for the the other two and I still have the worsted left. Why is that?

I think that thicker weight yarns are just as flexible as thinner weights. Also, I love the stitch definition achieved with a great worsted or bulky fiber. Am I totally alone on this. I also did a batch of a beautiful turquoise as part of my "Adobe" Collection. The first and last sale of the collection was the Seacell Sock weight. I still have beautiful big bundles of Irish worsted that are awesome.

So tell me, why the resistance to thicker yarns?

I can't stop dying bulky yarns them because I love them so much. And I figure, what I don't sell, is a perfect excuse to use it for my own personal creations.

What do you all think?

DYE DYE DYE!!!!!

DYE DYE DYE!!!!!

I have been doing a lot of dyeing to build up inventory for my March show and the remaining February shows here in Southern California. Here's one of the new colors and fibers, Black Cherrie. I love this color and the fiber. It is a combination of 70% superwash merino wool and 30% SeaCell. I have put a couple of skeins in my Etsy shop. Getting this rich and intense of a color took a little extra work and time. I used 3 different colors to make this color, and 3 different dippings.

I can't wait to knit or crochet something up with this. Right now, I am working on a new crochet fedora hat pattern. I will be hopefully rolling out a nice colleciton of hats for spring. I really want to do some larger pieces, I have designed a caftan for lounging around in the house, but I don't know how long that will take to do. Here are a couple of other items from the dyeing session this week.

Valentines Day Show

Today I did day one of set up of my booth for the Sugar Plum Festival in Buena Park.  The show will open on Thursday and go until Saturday.  I got the frame of the booth setup and will have to go back tomorrow to finish loading product on the shelves, and hanging all of the skeins of yarn.

I have lots of  new yarn colorways to premier at this show, and hope that a good amount of Southern California and LA area knitters and crocheters come out.  By the way, check out the awesome art work and crochet and knitting from one of my favorite customers Matt NIshii. He made this adorable hat and scarf set with my variegated raw silk for his niece.It uses a combination of finger crochet and double crochet stitches.  How great is that. 

Fall Shows

Sugar Plum Festivals are going great!  Lots of wonderful knitter & crocheters came out to purchase new colors and fibers.  They were great and showed some great creations with my hand dyes which always feels really good.

This seasons collection as you can see was really rich and intense, yet still very colorful.  I love it and had a great time creating it. I will be creating even more in the next two weeks for the next show, I hope everyone will be as happy with the newest creations.