America the Beautiful, from sea to shining sea there is a lot of beauty here. October’s Tiger Club is a fantasy on the song, I made a rich purple mountain majesty color, and some amber waves of grain, and mixed them up with rich pine forests and clear teal blue sky.
The perfect yarn for this month is Targhee Sock. Targhee is a breed that was developed in the United States specifically for the conditions in our Western states. It’s part Merino, so has that soft hand you are used to in a sock yarn, but it’s a bit more durable as each fiber is a bit thicker and longer. It’s blended with nylon, has a good hosiery twist, and 4 plies. Another benefit of the superwash Targhee is how it takes color…..yum. I did a hot pour technique on these, to allow the colors to mingle and break. They just turned out great, I think! The long blocks of color should make a swirling stripe on socks, or try your hand at Planned Pooling in the Round…..or Faux Ikat on your loom!
Wensleydale is really tops for shine, so it was an obvious choice for these colors. It’s dyed in the round, so the colors stay in order (unless you have an 8oz braid, those switch in the middle). I kept the color segments long so you should have less mud, but you still make like to strip this down before spinning for clarity. Or take the whole thing apart and re-organize it how you like….you are boss of your fiber! Keep your hands further apart for this long stapled wool, and try a soft spin and use the ply to add structure for a beautiful lace yarn, or get daring and try boucle.
If you want in the fun, Tiger Club will be open through November 15th. Due to the Holidays, Tiger Club will not open in December so that I can dye and ship ahead. So join now, or wait until January! I can arrange gift memberships, just use the contact form on the website. Thanks!!!
