Stripes

I find myself following the seasons with Tiger Club, and January’s club is a good example of that.  In my search for Art Noveau inspiration for last year’s club, I ran across this Poiret fashion drawing.   I love the snowy scene, the chocolate and pink, and flash of blue.  And her little face all screwed up in a pout about how cold it is.  (Although I haven’t much sympathy….look at this decadent outfit!) Plus….chocolate and pink….can’t get more Valentine’s than that!

The fiber choice was an easy one….that chocolate and ivory skirt looks just like Mixed BFL.  I added in the brown and made the pink mottled with bits of darker red-pink, and tucked in that bit of blue to set it all off.  (Maybe it’s static electricity in that muff?  ZAP!!)

To match our fiber, I chose Bengel Twist for the yarn, as it is made of superwash BFL wool. I decided to create a dappled effect this month, to keep it from being too swirly and sweet.

I must apologize for the tardiness of this reveal.  I’ve been muddling through some hosting issues (which are now all resolved…..if you had problems with my cart system before, do please try it out again.)

Anyway, February Tiger Club is open for new subscriptions until this Friday, February 15th.  This will be installment 2 of 3 of a mini-theme of overdyed naturally colored fibers.  The fiber this month will be a brand new one for the club, so I hope you can join us.  I also have a new sock yarn to try out, and I look forward to your feedback.

Ah, December Tiger Club….a finish to one year, but a kick off for the new.  In honor of the transition, I chose an idea of hope…..a new dawn.  This is the inspiration photo, from which I took the colors of inky navy, saturated blue, blue-violet, an orange-pink, and a pink-orange.

As you know, I’ve been steering more toward stripes for yarn in the shop, and Club benefits from my experiments!  Here I went with wide stripes on Panda, a blend of superwash Merino, Bamboo, and Nylon.  Love the shine.

And for the fiber, I made a gradient on a blend of Merino, Bamboo, and Tussah Silk.  It is delicious!

Out of my club yarn experiment, I’ve perfected the long stripes in many colors, and I’ll soon be bringing them to the shop……for example, here is a mini version of what will be Tropical Rainbow Stripe.  The lucky folks at Phat Fiber and the Des Moines Sticks and String will be getting these little treats.

In the meantime, watch for a fiber update coming soon, I have a couple of colors of Targhee and a bunch of Superwash Merino to list.  And Tiger Club is open for January subscriptions until the 15th.

Ah, November…..fall is in full swing, with the Holidays swiftly approaching.  From the kitchen come delicious wafts of cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and pumpkin everything.  Tiger Club was treated to a little something from my dye kitchen, inspired by all this yumminess.  Spiced is a rich warm brown color, applied in a semisolid manner for subtle movement in your project.

The sock yarn is a new one for The Painted Tiger.  Journey clocks in at 463 yards, is a blend of superwash Merino and nylon, and has a nice twist to it that lends shine and strength.  Journey will be next up for striping yarns in the shop, so watch for that in the future.

The fiber for this month is Superwash Merino.  Sometimes good ole plain vanilla is best, and this fiber shows off the many shades of warm brown so well.  I hope you are able to enjoy some relaxing spinning with this during the Holidays.

Thanks for checking out the November club reveal!  Like what you see and want to get in on the December Club?  Limited spots are open through Saturday, Dec 15th.  Want to purchase club as a gift?  Simply use their address when signing up, and I can do that for you.  You can tailor the length of their gift by deciding when to unsubscribe, which you control.  Questions?  Do ask!

For October’s Tiger Club, I wanted to go with a seasonal theme, but in an unexpected way.  Traditional brown, orange, and yellow combined with bright blue, green, and pink to give us a candy coated treat.

My inspiration was Smarties, a candy that is like M&M’s, and are available in Canada, parts of Europe, Australia, and South Africa.  On a fun note, in the UK the orange ones are filled with orange flavored chocolate, and in the past there was a tan one with coffee flavored chocolate!

To show off the fun colors, I chose Tiger Tweed as the yarn base, as the plies of regular and superwash merino take the dyes with different intensity.  I dyed in-the-round, so these colors will stack and swirl.

The fiber is a new one for The Painted Tiger, and it is here to stay.  Targhee is a breed developed in the United States from Rambouillet (French Merino), Corriedale, and Lincoln.  It is a dual purpose breed that is adapted to the dry western graze lands.  The wool is fine, dense, lofty, and quite elastic, making it suited for fine and light knit and woven fabrics with good shape retention.  (Paraphrased from “In Sheep’s Clothing” by the Fournier’s)

Our Targhee is grown and processed right here in the USA, and I’m proud to be dyeing it.  Look for colors available in the shop soon.

Spots are open in Tiger Club right now for November’s Club.  My fantastic members are so loyal that spots are limited….I added several sock spots and a few fiber spots to allow new people to join.  So if you’d like to try, please stop by the shop.  Subscriptions close November 15th.