Stripes

2018 Tiger Club came to an end with “Time Marches On”. This inspiration picture brings to mind the battle between man and nature, the deep red faded into coral, the green/blue/grey lichen creeping across the face and chipping away at it.

Our fiber this month is a blend of Superwash BFL and Nylon. I dyed it in a back and forth short color method to encourage blending and barber-poling. If that isn’t what you want, you can divide the colors out, or strip the top down thinner to help preserve the colors as dyed.

For the sock yarn, I didn’t want to jumble these disparate colors all together. Fortunately, I had another option….mini skeins! I dyed sets of 5, which are equal to one full skein of our Journey sock yarn. So, you can stripe socks however you like, or use it for one of the popular shawl, cowl, blanket, or other project in the mini craze! They can also be useful as heel/toes/cuffs to stretch yarn for larger socks….the blue and grey would go well with last January’s “Shards”, and the Coral could go with Dotty Daisy from May. If you don’t mind mixing base yarns, the red could go with Jelly from February. I’m sure you have other things in your stash, as well. If you need a coordinating skein (either solid, or variegated), I’m happy to custom dye it for you.

I’m truly lucky to have all of you to dye for, and I look forward to a new year of color and wool in 2019! Want to join the fun? We have openings in all clubs.

Every year, I like to stretch my club budget and send something a little extravagant.  This year, it’s November.  One of my favorite subjects for dyeing is Twilight…either that bit between dark and dawn, or day and dusk.  Each one is a beautiful and unique masterpiece.  I took the coral (hey, 2019 color of the year!!), blended it into dusty pink, lavender, deeper violet, and finally into shades of blue….seven distinct colors in all, with blending at each transition.

The yarn this month is Silky Soft, a beautiful 85/15% blend of fine 19.5 micron merino yarn and mulberry silk.  The two ply structure makes it perfect for lace patterns.  This is NOT superwash, so do hand wash.  I love the subtle sheen the silk gives this, and the yarn is so soft.

I specially wound this yarn, then dyed it across.  The method is not exact and results in a nice painted look when knitted or woven, as the colors will go back and forth at the transitions.

I’m very happy with how these turned out, and I’m looking forward to bringing more colors on this yarn in this dyeing style to the shop in the new year.

Even dyers have stash, and our fiber this month came from a special I purchased and used for club in 2014(!), and it has been waiting for the right time to come out again.  The fiber is gorgeous, and now I wish I could get more!  The blend is 50/30/20% Alpaca, Merino, and Silk.  This is going to drape very nicely. 

I hope you enjoy your club, and if you’ve missed the fun….you can always hop on board!!  Tiger Club has various sock and fiber clubs open for new subscriptions through December 15th, after that it will open again on January 1.  Contact me about gift options, I’m happy to work with you!  

It seems I wasn’t quite done with summer yet….so to bridge the gap I’ve created Sunflowers…..summer cheerful, with a touch of fall.

The fiber is Cheviot, a great medium wool.  It’ll make great outerwear like mittens….maybe divide up the colors and do some fair isle work!  Below is a Cheviot ewe and lamb.

The yarn is Safari….it would make nice mittens, hat, scarf…..or socks!   It is made with Superwash Corriedale wool, I’ve pulled up a picture of the breed below.  The shorter color stretches and back and forth color patterning will pool differently than in-the-round dyeing patterns.

I’m moving on to a cool winter colorway in November.  Want to join us?  Sign up for Tiger Yarn and Fiber Clubs here.

As our minds turn from September to October….Halloween looms near. A beloved childhood memory is making sure we watched
“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” when it was broadcast every year. I took inspiration from the pumpkin oranges and greens, and the dark purple of the night sky to create “Great Pumpkin”.

The fiber this month is a wool I often think of as a ‘fall fiber’ (I dunno why, I just do). Shetland is a great all around wool, great for learning to spin; and fabulous for socks, mittens, scarves, cowls, hats. I made a blended gradient of this, with 5 colors to make it a little more smooth. As always, please bend the wool to your will!

Our sock yarn adds another dimension to our animated tale…the bits of donegal in Tiger Tweed puts the stars in the sky and lends to the overall fall vibe. I dip dyed these in the round, overlapping the colors. The longer color runs will overlap in the spiral and make some nice pooling and/or mini-stripes.

I do have a few spots open in all clubs, if you’d like to join the fun!

Every summer I like to create a color suitable for lace spinning and/or knitting. June came about somewhat serendipitously. When dyeing Annestown Beach (March Club), I really liked the idea of bright green against a dark background, and wanted to explore that. I also did a thorough clean out of my supply closet to sell on things that I didn’t want to dye, and found a lovely ball of the softest dark Alpaca, blended in streaks with silk. Was there enough of it for club? Yes!! I then did a little bit of image searching to narrow down a palette. I love this picture (Hostas?), so the gradient inspiration was established.

Next came out the colored pencils.  The colors aren’t accurate, this is the idea.  In the past, I’ve brute force mathed out the lengths of yarn needed, but this time I tried a spreadsheet a fellow dyer had made.  I wound the yarn and the amounts came out pretty accurately, so yay!

Here’s the finished yarn.  I went with Sumatran Tiger, which is 100% soft Superwash Merino yarn, 490 yards per 100 grams.  I can’t wait to see it knit up!

And here is that dark Alpaca with silk all dyed up.  It’s a luxury blend, so the portions are 2 oz this month.  Both of these fine micron fibers go far as a lace (or cobweb…or froghair) weight, but you could easily extend it with something else as your second ply if you like.

As always, I enjoyed the process, and I hope club members enjoy creating with the palette I’ve made.  If you’d like to join in, I do have a couple of fiber spots open for July Club.