Category: Yarn

Three cheers for the red white and blue

Red White and Blue Yarn

A long hot weekend in progress, with parades, fireworks and a trip to the local beer garden.

At knit night this week Irish Girlie brought some goodness to destash and I couldn’t resist the Fiberphile Marino Cashmere Sock Yarn in True Heart (Red) and the Plucky Classics Merino Superwash Fingering in Indiscreet (Blue).

Red White and Blue Yarn

The white is really more of a natural off-white and can you see the sparkle? It’s hard to catch in a photo but it does “Glisten.” A gift from Kollage Yarns via Erica who has been visiting the Bay Area this week. The yarn is Alpaca (70%), Silk (25%) and Estillina (5%). Soo very soft. I’m sure it will be a joy to knit. Muchas Gracias to Kollage and the fabulous Erica!

Happy Happy Fourth to all the People celebrating in the U.S.
Red White and Blue Yarn

Adventures in yarn dying : some photos of the process pt.1

In the last post I mentioned being assigned the task of thinking about the colors I love. That was all preparation for the class I had the great good fortune of taking from Blue Moon Fiber Arts‘ Master Dyer Tina.

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The room was all set up and we spent a little time learning about wool and how the manufacturing/milling process changes the way dyes adhere. We worked with BMFA Socks that Rock yarn in medium weight and the same acid dyes that Blue Moon uses.

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Here’s Tina showing us first how to add the colors.

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She adds a second color and shows us how they blend together.

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After adding a few more colors she demonstrates the fine art of “squooshing.

She lets us loose and we start playing with the colors – oh what fun!

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This is IrishGirlie’s : Isn’t it beautiful?!

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Once it is all saturated and ready to go, it gets a squirt of vinegar and wrapped it up in plastic so it is all nice and snug.

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Here they are ready for the microwave (2 min) to set the colors, then they’ll dry.

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I can’t wait to see the results! Hopefully I’ll be able to share a few photos tomorrow when we pick up our very own hand-painted yarn.