Stripes

The Holidays of December call for some bling, plus soon we’ll be facing the bleak mid-winter, so I wanted to dye something light and fun and sparkly. I actually chose the colors first, so no inspiration photo this time, but the lime green blending to seaweed green, a sky/sea cyan, indigo, and a pinkish violet reminded me of mermaids.

The yarn this month is Sparkle, a 4 ply with 3 plies superwash Merino and one ply sparkly lurex. I dyed this in a dappled gradient…..the color changes aren’t distinct, the colors will waffle back and forth giving a handspun kind of look to your project.

The fiber is a new one for TPT, it’s a blend of 70% Merino wool and 30% firestar nylon. That’s a lot of sparkle. The firestar was pre-dyed in rainbow colors, so it also lends some depth and movement to the colors. Dyed in a long gradient, but you do with it what you like….I just put the colors on the palette, you paint the masterpiece!

Tiger Club filled up very fast at the beginning of January, however I have a possible spot for you if you are interested in Sock Club, so do contact me if that is you. Otherwise, you are welcome to contact me to be on the waiting list, or check back on February 1. Happy New Year!

Tiger Club for October explored “Almond Blossom”, a work painted by Vincent Van Gogh for his infant nephew in 1890. The work contains strong features of the Japanese Ukiyo-e prints that Van Gogh had been collecting. These elements include:Cropping of the image, Bold outlines of the branches, Absence of perspective/horizon, and large, bright blocks of color.

I particularly liked this color palette reduction of the painting, as it pulled out those large bright blocks of color.

The yarn for this month is Journey, a nice round 4 ply SW Merino and Nylon blend. I folded the skeins and eased them into my dye pan, then used a low water immersion technique to apply the color. I actually did not apply any green, I simply let the navy and peacock blues blend with straight up yellow and gold. I didn’t worry about white areas, as they can represent the actual blossoms. Even in the same dye batch, each skein came out a bit different, it will be fun to see them transformed into projects.

The wool this month is a new one to me, Rambouillet. It is also referred to as French Merino. I’d compare it to Targhee most particularly, and also Polwarth. It has a great fluffy hand, and was fantastic to dye. I went for shorter color bursts, and actually dyed these in the same pattern as the yarn, it was fun to see how the blending happened differently.

Due to the upcoming Holidays, Tiger Club will not open for new subscriptions until January, however if you’d like to be on the waitlist I’ll fit you in when I can.

For a little September inspiration, I chose this picture taken at Bear Mountain in New York. The picture has a really wide range of colors, though, and I was looking for something a little less wild. A tight crop, and bit of fun with the color picker, and I narrowed it down to this:

And then I pushed the colors a bit further in the dye, making the burgundy much more purple, and the dark green a bit more evergreen. Welcome to Dappled Autumn!

The yarn I chose for this month is thick and bouncy Targhee Sock, which is 90% USA grown Superwash Targhee Wool blended with 10% Nylon. It’s a nice smooth 3 ply, and about 460 yards per 4 oz skein.

I dyed these in a ‘scrunch and dapple’ method, so while it may pool for a bit, it will change up, making an interesting marbled pattern. If you aren’t finding the way it is pooling to be pleasing, try increasing or decreasing a stitch or two (or more), and/or your gauge. Slip stitch patterns are also nice for taming wild pooling. Each skein is unique despite using the same dyeing method for 3 at a time in each pot. I really love how the colors played with each other, and how the yarn brought out new colors as it acted as a resist to the differently sized dye particles.

The fiber for this month’s subscription box is a blend of 80% Superwash BFL Wool (Blue Faced Leicester) and 20% Nylon. It’s perfect for socks. Spin worsted with middling twist, then create a great hosiery twist using a lot of ply twist. If you find this to be slippery and want your handspun yarn to be a little more fluffy, I’d suggest pulling off tufts and spinning from the fold. I dyed this combed top in a back and forth variegated, and the colors could get muddy if you spin as is, if you’d like the colors more distinct, try stripping the fiber down into narrower pieces (or into color chunks as in the spinning from the fold).

Want in on the fun? As of now I have 2 sock spots, and a pound and a half of fiber spots open. Drop by the shop and check out Tiger Fiber and Sock Clubs. Thanks, and enjoy the transition into fall….I think it might arrive here shortly!

We started back to school the last few weeks of August, DD in her 3rd year of college, DS in his second of high school, DH his 29th of teaching, and me on year 20. The apples start ripening this time of year, so I suppose that is where the ‘Apple for Teacher’ thing began. Pair that with an old fashioned slate chalkboard, and you have our color for this month’s yarn and fiber subscription box.

Our fiber is Shetland, a wool that makes me think of fall for some reason. I really wanted crisper colors than a gradient or variegated would give me, so I decided to kettle dye each color separately and assemble them into a pack for you. There are so many possibilities for combining these, let your creativity roam! You could hold colors together to make a marled single, you could design a fractal or striping yarn. You could spin each separately and combine them in your project with the yarn. You could get out your combs, hackle, carders, or blending board and make your own special combed top or rolags. Have fun, and be sure to share with us in the Club thread on Ravelry, on Facebook, or Instagram!

The yarn this month is Safari, a great sturdy 3 ply made of superwash Corriedale wool and nylon that wears like iron. I designed a striping pattern for it that reminds me a bit of notebook paper, a much needed school supply. The sample shown is 64 stitches, it’ll stripe a bit wider if you use less stitches or snugger tension, a bit narrower if you use more stitches or looser tension. Because the pattern isn’t too busy, you could use a variety of sock patterns for this, there are a lot of fun ones to make stripes do interesting things.

Want to join in the fun? I have openings in Tiger Sock Club and Tiger Fiber Club (and even combinations, just jet me a message!).

While this picture captures the inspiration pretty well, I was actually inspired this month by last November’s Receding Twilight. I wanted to make something that would go with it, particularly with the fiber (see below). I started with the deep blue of Receding Twilight, then pushed the color into blue purple and finally out to a deep pink leaning purple.

Our fiber is luxurious 60% Polwarth wool and 40% Bombyx Silk. I managed to squeeze 3 ounces of this goodness into club, and I’m glad I did. It’s gorgeous and shiny and soft. It should make a good addition to the tail end of your Receding Twilight, or will be great on its own, or as a border with something else you have.

I’m still not happy with this picture, the yarn looks much more like the purple parts of the fiber above, with bits of the deep blue peeking through. Ah, well….I can’t win all the time at photo editing.

Anyway, this is another new yarn I wanted to try. It’s a blend of 60% Merino Wool, 20% Baby Alpaca, and 20% Nylon. It isn’t superwash, but it held up very well to dyeing, and should make good socks (keeping in mind negative ease, as both merino and alpaca like to ‘grow’). Otherwise, this mottled semi-random kettle dye could make a great edging on your Receding Twilight project, or stand on its own.

Tiger Club is open for August, I have a number of fiber spots open, and one more sock spot. Join us!

I’m finding it very amusing that the color title is this, and I’m finally getting around to posting this reveal! June continues the theme of this year related to water (because we sure still have a lot of it here in the Midwest)! I changed the color sampling on this one, see your club note for my color picks….the blues are similar, but I went for the gray metal of the boat, a bit more peachy tan on the paddles, and obviously the glorious coral of the faded boat interior.

The fiber is a new one for club, Dorset Horn. It’s actually a threatened breed, as the polled (non-horn) are generally more popular for farmers. You can read more about them at the Livestock Conservancy. The wool has an irregular crimp and twist to it, which encourages loft and bounce even when spun worsted, and it resists felting. It’s a medium wool, your tolerance to itch factor will determine what you want it to be. I’m thinking socks, at which point I think I might do a combo spin on this…..tear it into much smaller pieces and grab randomly (or color ordered if you prefer), then chain ply to make stripes. You make it do what you want, you are the boss of your fiber.

Our yarn is a new version of an old favorite, Panda. This version leaves out the nylon, because really….you already have the Bamboo rayon in there. This leaves room for more wool, which lends more bounce and memory. This is also spun thinner, so there’s more yardage to play with. Finally, the skein put up is several inches more around, which gives me more options on color placement. I like it, I hope you do, too.

Tiger Sock Club is full for July, but I can still take a few fiber club members. Stop by if you are interested, Club is open through the 15th. (Kaspersky insists my club page is some sort of risk, if your antivirus says the same, I assure you it just has a bunch of PayPal buttons on it!)