dy/eing to knit

I received an order from Berlin, Germany. This means I will fire up the dyepot one more time before the holidays. Then it's off to a winter's nap for the dyes (special orders will be fulfilled, as are yarn shop orders, and the etsy shop will be stocked, with colors on hand).

The needles and yarn are waiting, it's been way too long since I've gotten a good spell of knitting in.

thank you!

Thank YOU.

Thank you to everyone who has bought my yarn this year. I really appreciate it.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! ( It's my most favorite holiday.)

I hope you get a little knitting in here and there. :)

save the dates!

The holiday season is upon us!! Once again, I am participating in a couple of Holiday open house/art fair events.
Mark your calendars -- there are a great many wonderful handmade gifts available at these. And some handdyed yarn, of course...

November 22, 11-2
Holiday Open House
29 Burhans Place, Delmar
(jewelry, art prints, chocolate, handdyed yarn, and more!)

November 27, 5-10 pm
as part of Troy Night Out , with Tight Knit!
Historic Frear Building : 3 floors of vendors!
Corner of Third Ave and Fulton in Troy, NY.

December 12, 12-5
Winter WonderLARK

Thank you so much for passing this along to all your friends.

shop update

Just a quick note to let you know the following colors are now uploaded to my etsy shop.
They are all

Periwinkle Sheep watercolors sock yarn

80% superwash merino wool, 20% nylon (fingering weight)

approx. 420 yds., kettle dyed

7-8 sts/in

machine wash delicate, dry on low, or dry flat.

Suits Him
Navy


Stonewash Denim

Memories of Summer (I've sold out of this several times, so I am stocking up again)

Chai

Thanks for taking a look!!

PS: I am dyeing more Caramel Apple tomorrow, so I can stock that, too. :)

we have a winner! for real!!

I cannot tell you how hard it was to decide on a name for this new colorway. Your entries were so creative and imaginative!! All weekend long I kept thinking about the autumn theme....

But in the end I liked Caramel Apple. That name just really matches the colors of the yarn. Lots of caramel surrounding a red apple... So, the winner is Jana!! Congratulations!!

Apple Peel by Steph was a real close contender, and I know for sure I am going to use it in the future. I have a lot of food names for my colorways, and both of these really fit.

The second runner up is Rustle by Bonnie!! Love that name.

Thank you so much everyone! Would the winner and the two runners up please email me their addresses? First place Jana gets a free Caramel Apple skein; Steph and Bonnie will receive a surprise for their knitting bag. Hint: I got it at the Sock Summit. karinmaagtanchakATnycapDOT rrDOTcom.

Meanwhile, I have been busy working, and photographing yarn, and uploading to etsy. The uploading is going so slowly that I am selling skeins here and there before the whole batch makes it into the shop... adding new colors again over the next few days.

Anywhoo, the Spinning Room is ready to receive a batch of Caramel Apple on Wednesday!

I better get cooking.

and the winner is...

....I don't know yet!! THANK YOU everyone for all your excellent suggestions to name the new colorway. What fun!

There are so many outstanding ideas here, I am going to take the weekend to think about them. I have the field narrowed down to a few that I really like, but I simply cannot make up my mind yet!

All I know is I am so grateful to you for submitting suggestions, I will name a winner, and two runners up who will receive a small suprise.

Oh and by the way, Betty took her yarn home. :)

a new color! and a contest!

Monday's dyeing session yielded these four colors (I know, the two in the middle look awfully alike, but they are two different overdyes):


The one on the far left might be the new Chinese Lantern version, but I believe the one below is definitely a winner. See the skein on the far right, above? This is what it looks like re-skeined:

Periwinkle Sheep watercolors sock yarn

80% superwash merino/20% nylon

approx. 420 yards

7-8 sts/in

COLORWAY ???

I am hoping this is closer to what Betty had in mind. We are going to visit one of our LYSs together tomorrow and I will have a chance to show her. Either way, I am keeping this one for the Periwinkle Sheep line-up! I have all I can do not to make a Multnomah Shawl out of it, right this minute!

Now for a name....

....you wouldn't want to help me name it, would you??

You would? That'd be awesome, as I am torn between a few different ones, like Maple, or Fall along the Hudson, or ... what will you come up with?

If I pick your suggestion, you will win your own skein of this new Periwinkle Sheep colorway! If this color is not up your alley at all, send in your suggestion anyway, but tell me your color preference and I will do my best to accommodate you.

If there are several people voting for the same color, I will randomly select a winner.

This contest is open through Friday, November 13th, 10 pm EST. A winner will be announced sometime over the weekend.

PS: no worries. If Betty likes this color, she has a free skein coming already. I've put her though enough with this!

Chapter 49, in which we learn

that color can difficult when you're trying to achive a certain effect, and in which we learn that I may be slightly incompetent.

I did do some dyeing today. The skeins are still drying. I'm putting up the pictures as proof that I was not twiddling my thumbs (as a matter of fact, I had loads of fun trying out different combinations of colors and the way in which I applied them). I don't think I hit the color Betty was looking for yet! We'll see in a few days when these are dry and skeined up.

Betty by the way has long since called me and told me not to worry about it so much. I'm not worried. I am playing with yarn and color! I am finding out things that I never knew before!

Tomorrow I am having a little routine procedure done; Wednesday is Veteran's Day and we are attending a parade (Crafty Girl is in Color Guard); Thursday, I should be able to skein these babies up and take more pictures.

I'll see you then!

PS: I think the one in front there in the last picture is Chinese Lantern, v.2!

the color debate

Colors visible from my yard a couple of weeks ago.

I have to say I absolutely love this color debate. It is so interesting to me how folks gravitate towards or away from certain colors! Actually, the more you can tell me about your color preferences (see last post!), the better.

Tomorrow promises to be another fine day around here, and as soon as the breakfast dishes are put away, I will fire up the dyepot to see if I can't get my friend Betty the color she was looking for. I'll get it right one of these days, and in the meantime, all the ones I am getting "wrong", will be new colorways in the Periwinkle Sheep line-up!

let me run this by you

One of my long-time and beloved customers, Betty, requested a color in my Periwinkle Sheep watercolors sock yarn. The 80% merino, 20% nylon yarn is very soft yet durable, and it takes on color just so. Even bright colors have manners in this yarn, and when she asked for a flame orange with a deep red, I tried this:

Soon as it dried, I balled up a skein and did a quick test knit for a sock:

It reminds me of the flowers of a Chinese Lantern plant.

What do you think?

Hi Betty,

thanks for remembering to remind me. :) I'll put the kettle and dyepot on tomorrow! Deep red and flame orange...sounds like so much fun. Do you want to name your color?

Anyone else have any color requests? I am dyeing the 100% superwash merino fingering weight, and some sportweight merino.

A major etsy shop update will follow starting Wednesday. It will take me several days to get it all up.

Meanwhile, enjoy a few more hours of FREE SHIPPING on in stock yarn!