March is a season of sunny skies and storm clouds. It seemed fitting to choose this picture from collection of ‘shelter pictures’, with the cool blue door and concrete, and the bright wall and citrus. A Tropical Delivery!
The wool is Superwash Corriedale, a great all purpose medium fine wool. I chose to dye it in a blended gradient so that you had the most options in spinning it. Please take it apart and make it do what you want. I love the way the fiber (and superwash treatment) made a natural resist and lead to more colors than I started with.
The yarn is also Superwash Corriedale wool, blended with nylon to make Safari Sock yarn. The striping pattern plays the gold and orange against the blue and grey, enlivened by a springy lime green. The sample here is a 64 stitch tube.
As you’ll see later in this post, sometimes the yarn or fiber selection leads the inspiration process. With the fiber having a high contrast, I wanted the colors to work with that. I started thinking of what would be fun with a bunch of bright colors against dark, and ran a search for Paisleys. It did not disappoint, this tie has just the vibe I was going for.
Our yarn is Titanium Tiger Twist, a two ply blend of soft superwash merino fortified with nylon and a healthy hosiery twist. I dyed the background a nice uneven kettle dyed navy blue, then worked in orange, yellow, turquoise, and pink-purple on the undyed parts. The idea is to get a reverse speckle effect. Here’s the yarn:
I was hoping to show you a completed sock, but life got in the way this week. Here’s my swatch, though….it shows you how the speckle might work up (it will vary depending on your gauge and stitch number, just like any variegated yarn).
As I said earlier, the fiber was leading the way in color decisions. I used Jacob Humbug. Jacob is the sheep below. If you remember your Bible stories, Jacob made a deal with his FIL that he could keep any spotted sheep born of the flock. Humbug is the prep of this combed top, and just means they separated the colors of wool and combed them, then made a final pass with the colors together, so they stay in bold stripes.
I kept the dark brown as the background color, then variegated bright orange, yellow, turquoise, and a pink-purple, then generously smooshed everything so that it would blend and give us greens and darker blues and yellow oranges, and even pinks where the purple split. I’m very pleased with how it turned out.
This particular Jacob wool is on the rough side of medium, so I’d suggest making something outerwear, and/or lining it with something softer. It would make a colorful hat or boot toppers, be great for mittens thrummed or lined with soft wool inside, or maybe make some potholders in your favorite fiber method…knit, weave, crochet, felt….
Thanks for being a part of February Club. Would you like to join in the fun? I have a few spots open for March, but grab yours fast….March 15th is the last day to join and I’ll start dyeing on the 16th.
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It’s Fiber Friday, and I thought I’d share the latest fiber I’ve listed.
First up is the last bit of Alpaca/Merino/Silk I have, it’s a glorious 50/30/20 blend, and just shines and oozes softness. The color is Hibiscus, and it is dyed in a smooth gradient.
We’re reaching the end of February, so hopefully our weather will turn the corner. In the meantime, I have a fan favorite restocked, Twenty Below. This is hand dyed in a blended gradient (or you could call it a fade) on Targhee Bamboo Silk 80/10/10.
Another fan favorite is Jeweled, and I’ve also dyed this in a fade style gradient. This is Targhee Bamboo Silk.
And last (but not least), we can look forward to March, with Saint Patrick’s day and a Pot o’Gold at the end of a Tropical Rainbow! This is a faded or blended gradient on Targhee Bamboo Silk. I also have a new batch of Tropical Rainbow Stripe sock yarn!
Thanks for stopping by https://ThePaintedTiger.com !!
I love browsing all the color design options on Pinterest for inspiration, and I found a number of ‘shelter’ photographs I plan to do this year. This one is the first; Derelict Door is still boldly showing off its blue paint, although it is faded in places, and chipped away to show the weathered gray wood. The iron hardware shows richly brown in spots, and in others a rusty orange brown. It’s a great contrast, and a fun pop of color for the record setting cold (-33 actual, -57 windchill) and snow (~29″) of January 2019. I veered away from the ‘suggested’ colors attached to the photo, I wanted a little more contrast and ‘happy’ colors.
I’m very excited about my new fiber supplier, and this is the first of some new breeds we’ll try this year (we’ll also have some of our favorites, too!). This is Finn, which runs about 28-30 microns and average length of 80mm, a nice medium wool that does felt well. It feels softer than the microns will suggest, and has a nice bit of luster (shine) usually only found in longwools. It took dye like a champ, and I decided to do a blended (or Faded) gradient to give you the most flexibility. You can strip this down for recurring stripes, fractal, or separate the colors completely and do what you like….or keep it in order for a nice gradient. For more information on the Finn Sheep breed itself, including charming pictures (did you know they have litters of lambs?), visit the website of the FinnSheep Breeder’s Association.
I chose a self-striping pattern for the sock yarn to show the colors off to best advantage. I pulled out a favorite of mine that hasn’t made it to the shop yet, Targhee Sock. It’s a blend of 90% Superwash Targhee Wool (grown in the USA) and 10% Nylon, has a 3 ply structure, and runs about 460 yards per 4 oz skein. It puffs up marvelously, and has a nice smooth look when knitted. The wool itself has the softness of Merino, but has the sturdiness of being crossed with Lincoln. The swatch above is 64 stitches in the round.
Want to join in the fun? We’re going to have another new breed for February’s Fiber Club, and explore a little different dyeing technique than I usually do for the Sock Club. The buttons are turned on for new subscriptions, you may check out the options on the Tiger Club page of my site. Do contact me if you’d like another combination, International, or manual billing….I’m happy to accomodate.
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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.
Posted inClubs|Comments Off on Time Marches On – December 2018 Tiger Club
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 Clubhas 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!
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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.
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.
Just listed, several new colors of blended gradients on Sparkle sock yarn (92% SW Merino, 8% Lurex….very sparkly!). What is a blended gradient? I specially wind the yarn (NOT a knit blank, so no annoying kinks), then hand paint it, blending the colors at the transitions. When knit, the transitions are not sharp, but rather blur between, making a painterly look. I’ve included a pic of one of my shawls as an example of the effect.
I also have a self striping Christmas yarn on the same base.
All available at https://ThePaintedTiger.com!
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Crisp fall is almost upon us (currently, we are experiencing Soggy Fall!), and it’s a great time to enjoy a campfire and a favorite sugar overload, S’mores. I like my chocolate a little more melty, and peanut butter adds a nice salty counterpoint to the sweet, so I took club inspiration from this ooooey, goooey Grilled Peanut Butter S’mores recipe.
For the sock yarn, I spent some time with colored pencils and measuring tapes, estimating the length of a round of sock knitting, and figuring how I can get the chocolate and peanut butter and marshmallows to stack nicely in the variegated portion between the golden graham crackers of this self striping sock yarn. If you are curious, you can see the online calculator I used to get an idea of how it might look. Here is an example of how it turned out:
This is a 64 stitch tube, about 7-8 stitches per inch. I started at a tighter gauge the closed bottom of the sample, then loosened up a smidge as I went up….you can see it goes from barely pooling at all, to medium pooling, to very strong puddling. There will be larger differences with a different number of stitches (plus these were dyed in batches, and each batch will vary somewhat). So….your socks will come out uniquely, and if you don’t like the variegation you are getting, change something….a size larger or smaller needle, or add/subtract a stitch or two. Adding a pattern to the stockinette will also change how it turns out. The yarn itself is Safari, great for sturdy, long wearing socks.
Our wool this month is Superwash Corriedale. I don’t generally enjoy dyeing superwash, but I have to say that this one behaved marvelously, and I’m sad that it was a limited special….I’ll have to see if I can find a similar fiber elsewhere when I run out of my current bump. Corrie is a great all-around fiber….fine enough for most next-to-the-skin use, yet sturdy for most applications, also….perfect for long wearing socks, mittens, cowls, etc.
