Stripes

After this endless winter, I was ready for some bright spring colors, but I didn’t want just simple rainbow colors, I wanted complex and interesting colors….just a shade off of what you might expect. My inspiration was this lovely shot of a daffodil (also called Jonquils) against a purplish sky.

I mixed up violet with a shot of yellow, blues with the purple, greens with some pink, and a yellow that had both enough pink to lean it golden, and bit of blue to keep it from being brassy. I had a lot of fun playing with application techniques.

For the fiber, I went with 50/50 Merino / Tencel. It is a fun fiber to dye, as the tencel acts to get the merino wet and carry dye to the wool, but isn’t dyed itself, leading to a pretty and shiny look with threads of white throughout. I dyed a true gradient on this, using 9 colors. Each batch came out differently, which is a big reason why I love to dye….you get something not available from a machine. I suggest spinning this one from the fold or make fauxlags, that will help the tencel and merino stay together. This would be lovely as a straight gradient spin, or try a fractal!

Our yarn is Bengal Tiger Twist….a similar construction to my old favorite plump 2 ply, but made with sturdier Blue Faced Leicester wool, a longwool that in itself lends a bit of shine to the finished yarn. I went with dyed-across gradient, using 5 colors, and allowing the golden yellow to dominate. It’ll make a nice swirling variegated pattern, or this is a great chance to try Planned Pooling, or weave it up on your loom for a great plaid effect, or faux ikat. So many possibilities!

You may have noticed that I went old school on the shipping labels, using paper and tape. PayPal has decided that I cannot print my subscription labels through them unless I input the addresses manually and individually each month. Oh. My. Head. So, I did a search for an alternative shipping provider, and found Pirate Ship. I’m tickled with their fun theme, and although it is a very simplistic website, it uploaded my spreadsheets and made labels slick as grog. Plus it automatically looks at the tracking and tells me when packages are delivered, which is why I can post Tiger Club reveal today….a little parrot told me that everyone has their club!! The drawback is that they do not support my thermal label printer, so I’m in the process of researching alternatives. I wouldn’t mind so much, except I just bought a year’s worth of labels for the old printer….I won’t use them up that fast if I can’t print club on them. Ah, well….I’m sure I’ll figure something out!

Are you looking for a Sock Yarn or Spinning Fiber Club of the Month? I invite you to try my Tiger Club, which is now open for new subscriptions.  It is small, so you get personalized service, and my crazy experiments each month. There’s no huge commitment, join for one month and then decide if you want to continue, stay as long as you like. The subscription is serviced through PayPal, so you have complete control (however, a PayPal account is not required, contact me for options). I’ve been running this club since April 2010, and have enjoyed every month of new colors, fibers, and yarns. I hope you’ll join me on this adventure!

January this year was one of the coldest in recent years, and when I saw this picture of mineral crystals, I thought it a fitting theme for Tiger Club. The pale blue is positively icy, and the accents of two deep teals, plus a tan and brown keep the whole interesting.

Our wool is warm and cozy Falkland. In this case, Falkland isn’t a breed, but a location…..fleeces that go into the Falkland Island wool pool are chosen for whiteness and fineness, and is generally in the range of Corriedale. It’s a very nice all around wool, and this batch is especially nice. I dyed this in a layered back and forth, with the darker colors added randomly and the center pale blue added around them and allowed to blend. It makes a very soft look. It really is random, so go with the mottled look when spinning.

Our yarn is Journey, a 4ply sock yarn of Merino and Nylon, at 460 yards per 4 oz. I chose a different path for this yarn, making the colors sharp by sprinkling, setting the colors, then over-dyeing with the pale blue. There’s a twist to the yarn, though…..it is actually subtly striped. I’ve never been thrilled with trying to randomize on a regular sized skein, the randomness just tends to stay a bit too orderly. So I wound this yarn into a two stripes, each making a stripe of 4-5 rows. I speckled one half with the dark blue and brown, and the other with the two lighter colors. I feel this accomplished a more random look, and I’m pretty happy with it. Here’s the same picture, but showing the approximate stripes. Each batch will be a bit different, but this is the general effect.  The sample is a 64 stitch tube.

Want to join in the fun?  Tiger Club has a few spots open for February.  You can find out details and options on our Club page in the shop.