Stripes

Throughout April, our family had been eagerly awaiting a certain huge movie release, so a name jumped out at me when it came time to name this month’s fiber (based on the above picture of multi-colored doors). I chose to ge with four colors, a blue sky turquoise, lemony yellow, a pretty pink coral, and a purply fuschia. I allowed the colors to blend together at transitions to get all the other colors of the spectrum.

The fiber for April is Wensleydale. While many fibers have a variety of ways to be spun, Wensleydale is really happiest spun thin, in worsted technique, with lower twist and ply. If too much twist is added, it makes the ends poke out and it gets prickly. The staple length is longer, so get your hands further apart. I really love the color blending that happened on this fiber.

For the yarn this month, I’ve been experimenting with different patterns. I wanted to do a gradient over matching 50 gram skeins, but I wanted a little more variation than just the gradient. So I added a grey stripe in there, as it fit with the theme. I love playing with the tool on Planned Pooling for experiments like this. Above is my prototype.

I’m super pleased with how it turned out. The yarn is Journey, a 4 ply Superwash Merino and Nylon blend, with plenty of yardage (~460 yards), in this case split between two matching 50 gram skeins. Due to the method of winding and dyeing, there are only two matching sets in the world, each turned out a bit different. Shown is one repeat, there are 4-5 repeats per set, so you don’t have to worry about using up the whole thing to get the entire gradient. I think this would be fun as ankle socks for summer. If you used a solid for toes and heels, you might even get two pairs of ankle socks from it. (Let me know if you want a matching mini or two!)

Tiger Club is currently open for new subscriptions, you can stop by the shop and sign up now!

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.

Would you like to enjoy a surprise yarn and/or fiber every month? There are a few spots open in Tiger Club, we’d love to have you join us!

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.

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!