But the best colourways — the ones that I can’t stop looking at — are the ones where there’s an element of risk. A combination of colours that might’ve worked… or might not have. A dyeing technique that pushes the boundaries beyond what’s usual. That is the essense of hand-dyed and, when that happens — and happens well — the results are nothing short of breath-taking!
This weekend I’ll be sending out the InterStellar Yarn Alliance parcels, and the yarn the members will find inside is risky indeed. I laid down colours that shouldn’t have worked together, I dyed them in an unusual way. And, as I was twisting up the skeins, today… Oh! I am in love, I am in love, I am in love!
I so hope the Alliance members feel the same way. Risky yarns are… risky, I know. But all I can do is create the colours that call to me, and let them become the colourways I see in my mind. And them pack them all in their little boxes and send them on their way. Beautiful, beautiful, risky yarns…
Here’s a little sneak peek at the Yarn Alliance parcel…
What? You wanted to see the colours? Sorry — no one can see that until the Alliance members have received their parcels! But don’t worry — I’ll reveal this risky, beautiful colourway as soon as they’ve had time to be delivered.
These are cosy days. Here we are at the end of December, mid-way through Hannukah, with the Winter Solstice just yesterday, and Christmas only a few days away. And the days are cold, and the nights are so long, and crisp, and sparkly. We are all tucked up indoors, with fires crackling and twinkly lights all around. These are cosy days indeed.
And to me, days like these call for tea — copious cups of steaming, fragrant, soothing tea. Tea to warm the fingers and toes, tea to warm the soul. A cup of tea, I have always felt, puts everything back in its right place. So long as that warmth remains — in my fingers, down my throat, warming me from the belly out — all is right in the world.
So long as that warmth remains…
If cosy days call for tea, then these chilly days call for tea cosies — little teapot-shaped jackets that keep the warmth in the pot and keep the world right longer. And what could be better than that? Well, this could: tea cosies are often one-skein wonders, and the most exciting ones call for mini-skeins. Here are a few of my favourites…
I love the Tea Mitten by Elisabeth Kleven. I love the simplicity of it, the way it perfectly hugs the teapot, and the fact that (if you poured very, very carefully), you’d never have to take it off.
And this is a classic tea cosy shape… The Kureyon Kosy by Emma Crew is like a warm blanket that your teapot can snuggle down into. Hot tea, happy teapot — perfect!
(I haven’t actually checked this with the designers, but I feel really confident that either of these designs would also work on teapots in colours other than brown.)
And if you’re making a single cup of tea? Well, it deserves to stay toasty warm too. Check out MK Carroll’s Mug and French Press Jacket. It’s gorgeous, isn’t it? I love the big, fat button, the rich cable detailing, and… oh, just the adorableness of it!
Now, I know there are a whole host of tea-making traditions in the world and probably a bazillion opinions on how to make the perfect cup of tea, but I am steeped in the tradition of English tea-making — four, six, ten times a day — and so this is how I think the perfect cuppa is created…
(“steeped”… ah hahahaha! I love a good pun!)
First, start with English Breakfast tea. I do love a cup of Rooibos and just lately I’m a little bit in love with Trader Joe’s Candy Cane Green tea, but there is nothing nothing nothing so restorative as English Breakfast.
The best tea is loose-leaf, of course, but I won’t turn my nose up at a teabag. One is Sunday Best, and the other day is workaday.
Put the kettle on, bring that water up to a happy, busy, rolling boil. Please, never ever make tea with just hot water. Get it rollin’!
If you’re using a teapot, warm it first by putting a bit of the boiling water in for a minute or so, and then chucking that away. You need to keep the tea happy with a nice, warm, cosy pot.
Tea goes in — either loose into a pot or a bag into a cup — and then the water must go in after and hit the tea. The water must hit the tea. That’s the only way. Food-service workers of America, please take note: great tea cannot be made by dunking a cold bag into a cup of (vaguely) hot water! It’s got to be boiling water, plunging right down into the tea.
Let it steep for… how long? Until you get that perfect colour. I can’t help you here — you just know it when you see it. And, if you’re making a pot — the phrase round here is ‘mashing a pot’ — again, I can’t tell you how long, but you know the colour when you see it. (Actually, it’s a little like dyeing in that respect!)
Sugar and milk, thank you very much. Not cream (too rich), not half-and-half — just plain milk. How much milk? Well, about that much… Just until you get that perfect shade of mid-brown (I’m really not much help, am I?). And though my dentist long ago made me wean myself off the sugar, this is my perfect cuppa, so it’s got a teaspoon of sweetness in it. No honey, thank you. No lemon, please! Sugar and milk… hot sweet tea… the perfect shade of gentle, warm brown… mmmm…
And then, gather up your knitting, and sit back and enjoy — so long as that cup is warm in the hands, all is right in the world.
Ooh, just one more thing before I go… As we are smack in the middle of so many mid-winter celebrations, I want to take a moment to wish all of you the most blessed and happiest of holidays. And that amid all the hustle and bustle of the season, there are quiet moments of peace, love, and joy to all of you!
There was snow on the ground this weekend, and there’s a tree covered in twinkly lights in my living room. What better week to put a little bit of warm and sparkly in the shop?
First, the sparkles…
These are Lucina, an incredibly soft fingering weight yarn in Superwash Merino and Nylon, with a just the right amount of sparkle. There are four skeins of each colourway, and pink in Translucence is the same pink in Gentle, so they go beautifully together.
Then, the warmth…
Now is the season for warmer knitting and thicker yarns, so here are two skeins of Astrid, a wonderful DK in 100% Superwash Merino, in a colourway called Happy Secret.
And then, warmth and sparkles together…
And as this is also the season for going a bit overboard, how about a few skeins that have both warmth and sparkles? These beautiful experimental colourways are dyed on a soft and luxurious DK yarn in 75% Superwash Merino, 20% Silk, with 5% Stellina to give that fabulous touch of sparkle.
They’re all the in the SpaceCadet shop now — click here to see them!
This is not going to be the post I had planned today, but there’s something important I want to share with you. No pretty pictures today, no big announcements… Just something I really need to say.
Yesterday I did a video interview with Johnny Vasquez of Fiberstory.tv and, while I suspect I blathered on like a complete numpty through most of the interview, there was one question that sparked such a moment of clarity for me that I just have to tell you.
Johnny asked what made me start my two yarn clubs (the InterStellar Yarn Alliance and the SpaceCadet’s Mini-Skein Club). And as I rambled my answer (and rambled and rambled…), I found myself talking less about why I started the clubs and more about how much fun I have doing them. Not just creating the colourways for the Yarn Alliance, but also coming up with the goodies for each parcel, and pulling together colourways for the Mini-Skeins club… I mean, those are fun — great fun — but it’s more than that.
Sure, it started out being about doing the yarn club stuff, but it quickly changed…
And the reason it’s changed is because of you guys. No seriously, look… This past Monday, the Mini-Skein parcels went out and within two days, I was reading this:
On Twitter: “LOVE my miniskeinclub shipment!!! I cannot WAIT to use these.”
And on Ravelry: “My mini-skeins arrived today and, Wow! They are lovely! Beautiful colors!”
“I had to open them in parking lot at work since i couldn’t wait to see what colors.”
Do you guys have any idea how happy it makes me to read this stuff? When I choose the colours and put together the mini-skeins, and I pack them in the boxes and send them out… I’m just hoping you all will like them. And then I get feedback like that. Oh man!
“What a helpful guide! I learned a bunch of new things… Thank you!”
“Love the ebook! …Love all the drool-worthy photos too.”
And I even got a Christmas card this week from a customer who’d asked me to create a custom colour for her. I sent off the yarn with my fingers crossed that I’d created the shade she’d been seeing in her mind’s eye. And she’d actually send a card just to tell me how happy she was with the result!
And then, when I go on Ravelry, and see all the fantastic stuff you guys are making with SpaceCadet yarns… Ohhh, it just makes me want to squee! Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous projects! You guys have no idea how much I love seeing what you all create with the yarns I send out to you.
So there I was answering Johnny’s question about why I do the yarn clubs and, as I was fumbling to say something clever (or just plain coherent), I began to realise that the real answer has absolutely nothing to do with yarn and nothing to do with clubs.
The real reason is actually about you guys, and how much it means to know that you love the yarns and colourways that you receive.
So when I sat down to write a blog post today, I knew I had to scrap what I’d planned and write this instead… You guys are great customers. Your feedback and your support mean the world to me. And as we near the holidays, I just wanted to take a moment and tell you all that. You guys are what make all make all this worthwhile.
One of the things I love most about doing a yarn show or festival is getting to meet all of you. It’s so wonderful to get to put faces to email addresses, and talk to you about your yarn choices and your projects. I enjoy that so much!
But sometimes I see a customer pick up a yarn and, even though I can tell she clearly loves it, and even though she turns it over and over in her hands to admire all the different colours, I hear her say to her friend, as she reluctantly puts the skein back, “But how would I use it?”
I always want to reach out to her and offer the chair next to me, so we can sit down together for five minutes and talk through hand-dyed yarns… I want to show her how to understand all those colour changes so she choose a project that will use them to their very best advantage. But yarn festivals are crazy-busy places, and there’s never the opportunity…
The SpaceCadet’s Guide to Using Hand-Dyed
But now there is! Because today is the day I get to release Launching into Hand-Dyed: A basic guide to knitting and crocheting with hand-dyed yarns. It’s a new ebook from SpaceCadet Creations and, in it, I get to do what I never get to do at those yarn shows. I get to sit down with you and talk about how to choose a hand-dyed colourway that’s going to work with the pattern you have in mind …or how to choose a pattern that’s going to work with the yarn you just fell in love with.
And it’s not just me telling you this. Abigail Horsfall of TAAT Designs shows how she chose a pattern for her SpaceCadet yarn, and Sharon Silverman, of Sharon Silverman Crochet, walks you through how variegated yarns work with different crochet stitches. And then to round it out, textile conservator Christine Maurhoff discusses different ways to wash and care for your projects made with hand-dyed yarns.
Doesn’t it sound great?!? Doesn’t it sound like something that’d be really helpful for that customer who’s fallen in love with that beautiful yarn but doesn’t know what to make it with it? Does it sound like something that’d be helpful to you?
Well, let me tell you the best bit. It’s yours. No, really, it’s yours — for free. The thing is, I really hate to see people fall in love with a yarn but not be sure what to make it with it. Hand-dyed yarn is for more than petting (no, really, it is!). Hand-dyed yarn is for using …for knitting, for crocheting, for running through your fingers and turning the colour loose stitch upon stitch. I want you to have this book and so I’m making it available free for signing up to the SpaceCadet mailing list. Just click here and get yourself a copy!
Cue the Oscar Style Tears…
Now, I just have to tell you something else. You know when you read the first few pages of a book and the author is going on and on about how they owe everything to their editor for being such a support and sooo patient and blah blah blahhh? I always thought those dedications were overdone. I mean, really, this life-long devotion? Really?!?
Yeah, well… I was wrong. Turns out there’s a reason authors write with such love and dedication to their editors. I thought I had this book all ready to go when I turned it over to my editor, Carrie Keplinger (of Ebooks That Rock), but I had no idea how much more there was to do. And she was incredibly patient with me as we went through edit and re-edit… and re-edit. And I changed the pictures, and then changed them again, and then tweaked them for good measure. I never, ever, ever would have got this done without her — even though I had no idea how much I would need her. So, yeah, I learned why authors are so dedicated to their editors. And I want to tell you, Carrie is worth her weight in… well, yarn. Could I come up with any higher praise than that?
Tell Me What You Think!
I am just so excited about this, I can hardly tell you. This book has been months and months in the making, and I so genuinely hope you find it useful and inspiring. So go on and download your copy right now! And then, please please do come back and leave a comment below to tell me what you think of it. I can’t wait to hear!
And for everyone who is already a subscriber — don’t worry! You guys have been dedicated readers for a long time, so you’ll be getting a special email shortly with your download link. Keep an eye on your inbox for it!
So, I’m standing there in the studio, mixing colours in the dyepots, when my husband appears in the doorway. It’s a rare treat when he stops into the studio and I’m always pleased to see him. We start chatting, while I apply this colour and then that to the yarn…
And when I look down, I realise the yarn looks completely different from what I’d been trying to dye. Completely! Different! And… I don’t know what I did to achieve it. Chatting and dyeing — they do not mix. And what’s more, I love this new colourway. Whatever it is, however I did it, I looooove it.
But I should be able to figure this out, right? I mean, I know the colours I mixed, I just applied them in some strange order. It shouldn’t be too hard to reverse-engineer. Right? Right?
People, I’ve been trying. Trying and trying! And while I haven’t quite hit it yet (damn! what did I do?!?), I’ve produced some really beautiful yarns in the process. And they went into the shop today!
And those aren’t the only colours I’ve fallen in love with lately. Check out these purples…
And I did some warm browns and jewel tones… Oh! Aren’t these lovely?!?
And then… and then… I decided to play with the negative space a bit, and try lay down the softest, lightest, most barely-there layer of colour I could. What do you think?
If you like them as much as I do, get over to the shop and nab them before they go!
And if some of these colourways look a bit too wild for you and you’re not quite sure how you’d use them, then keep you eyes open for my new ebook, Launching Into Hand-Dyed. It’s a 42-page guide designed to walk you through choosing and using even the most highly variegated colourways. I’ll be launching it in the next week, so do look for it!
What? You wanted to see the colours? Sorry — no one can see that until the Alliance members have received their parcels! But don’t worry — I’ll reveal this risky, beautiful colourway as soon as they’ve had time to be delivered.
