sweetgeorgia

Studio Opening + Shop Update

We have been busy dyeing, moving looms, and getting set up … and now we hope you will join us at the opening for the SweetGeorgia Yarns Studio! It’s a weaving studio… it’s a hand-dyed yarn shop… it’s a production dye studio… come see for yourself! We’re located at East 4th Avenue and Main Street in Vancouver.

Saturday, November 15, 2008 from 2pm to 5pm
401 – 228 East 4th Avenue, Buzz 32
Vancouver, BC

The online shop has been updated with a few new yarns including CashSilk Lace and Big Buttercrunch. CashSilk Lace is 55% cashmere and 45% silk 2-ply laceweight in 60g skeins. Big Buttercrunch is a chewy, sproingy 100% silk boucle in 50g skeins. Also in this shop update are freshly dyed Superwash Sock and Speed Demon Sock yarns, and 20/2 Silk yarn. Your feedback and comments on these yarns are welcomed!

Now that we’ve got more yarns dyed up, the online shop updates should be more frequent. Also, Vancouver residents will have the option to skip shipping fees and arrange to come pick up your orders. We’ve also set up Visa and Mastercard processing in case you prefer not to use PayPal. Please let us know if these new options make a difference for you or if you have any new suggestions on how we can improve things.

And finally, one important note… I am out of town from Sunday until October 30th and so all orders will ship during the first week of November. I hope this doesn’t cause anyone inconvenience and I appreciate your patience as I get my schedule more organized. In the meantime, I hope to find some lovely things to write about during my travels and I hope to see you on November 15th!

Dyeing and overdyeing

It’s raining again in Vancouver. But let’s rewind back the last few days of dyeing…

These are hunks of Gotland fleece that were originally dyed in osage, logwood, and osage + green acid dye that have been overdyed in indigo. The process helps unify all the colours and I’m excited about putting this through the carder.

Just being surrounded by colour, even on a gloomy dreary day like today, makes me happy.

Mixed warp scarves come to life…

Yesterday, I had a chance in the afternoon to warp both the looms with mixed warp scarves. I managed to use up all my handspun laceweight merino/silk singles as weft for this scarf… and so I’ll have to go back and spin more in order to finish weaving this. So here it is for now:

Since the weft is overspun singles, I’m hoping that when I take this off the loom and wash it, it will end up a little bit crinkly. I love the texture of this… nubby raw silks, silk boucle, handspun yarn and hand dyed yarns. It’s back to the spinning wheel for now.

But in the meantime, I’m working on this second scarf. The weft is 20/2 silk dyed in cutch and then overdyed in indigo, leaving a greenish grey colour that is so subtle and interesting. It ties all these mixed warp textures and colours together.

The weaving for these will be done soon and I’ll have to decide how I want to finish the fringe. Hmm.