sweetgeorgia

Supernatural SweetGeorgia

There’s more than one way to get colour on yarn.

Tomorrow when we re-open the shop, we’ll be offering a collection of yarns and fibres under the name “Supernatural SweetGeorgia”. Natural and plant dyes create some of the most beautifully nuanced and luscious colours in our history. These colours are full of life and energy. Supernatural SweetGeorgia is our collection of yarns and fibres from organic, sustainable and renewable sources that are hand-dyed with natural and plant dyes. Multiple overdyes and multi-step processes… there’s a whole lot of love in these yarns.

As a knitter, spinner and weaver, I am well aware of the beauty and benefits of using natural fibres like silk, wool, or linen. But then things became more a little complicated with the release of products like soy silk, bamboo, ingeo, organic wool, and organic cotton. What’s good to use? What’s responsible to use? How do I sort out the options? I am, more than ever, conflicted about the choices.

We are inundated with publicity about “green” products and “sustainability”… just this month’s Knit.1 mag is entitled “The Green Issue” in which they discuss knitting, eco-activism, and organic yarns. Vogue Patterns’ April/May 2008 issue has an article called “Sewing Green” which describes all eco-friendly fabrics. Rowan’s latest magazine features their new “green” line called PureLife. There is Amy Singer’s book “No Sheep For You” which details all sorts of alternative natural fibres… and also Shannon Okey’s new book “Alt Fiber” which delves into even more obscure alternative fibres like pineapple ramie and kenaf. You can’t escape what seems like the immense pressure to make the right and responsible choice.

Treehugger simultaneously evangelizes about the benefits of bamboo textiles while also considering that maybe bamboo textiles aren’t really sustainable or organic. Confused? Yeah, me too. I think it’s all too easy to idealize any one particular “new” fibre or textile and to put something on a pedestal without investigation or scrutiny. In no way do I believe that I have the answers… but I am committed to looking at and studying different options while also encouraging everyone to do the same. Be open and vigilant. Here are some places to start:

• Sustainability in Textiles: An Overview (Worsted Witch)
• Greensleeves: Sustainability in the Fiber & Textile Arts (Worsted Witch)
• Eco-Tip: Mini Directory of Green Fabrics (TreeHugger)
• Sustainable Clothing: Emerging Standards (OrganicClothing)
• Tencel: Sustainable but not necessarily healthy (OrganicClothing)
• Bamboo: Facts behind the Fiber (OrganicClothing)
• Green Knitter: Natural, Organic and Eco-friendly Yarn Chart

In tomorrow’s update, we’ll have some naturally dyed bamboo and silk yarns. And in future updates, we’ll also have organic wools in worsted weight. I’ve just dyed some in pomegranate and it’s lovely, squishy stuff. Pomegranate-dyed organic merino yarn might not entirely save the world, but hey, I’m trying.

1% of the proceeds from the Supernatural SweetGeorgia collection will be directed to OnePercentForThePlanet, an alliance of businesses committed to leveraging their resources to create a healthier planet. Members donate at least 1% of their annual net revenues to environmental organizations worldwide.

Screw it, let’s do it.

Okay, enough waiting. Enough hemming and hawing and fussing with my skirt hem. Friday, April 18th sounds like a good day to re-open the SweetGeorgia Yarn shop… so we’ll open up at 9 AM PST. I still have a bunch of work to do before Friday (like sorting out shipping costs and such) and I’m sure there will be some growing pains, but there’s no way to know without going ahead and trying.

If you visit the shop site now, you’ll see that it’s still password-protected. No worries, there won’t be any password required on Friday when we open. See you then!

Return to [sweetgeorgia] Mountain

Soon soon soon. We’ll be re-opening SweetGeorgia Yarns online in the next few weeks after I return from Whistler. My office is starting to look a lot like it once did… piled high with brightly coloured yarns and fibres… tags hanging delicately off the end of each skein. I’m excited to show you what I’ve been working on, but here’s a teeny tiny sample…

Yep, that last photo is my fridge full of pre-mordanted yarn. All I need to do now is add some colour… soon soon soon.

I am brand new.

… and SO humbled by your responses. I am beside myself with appreciation that so many of you took time to write me your thoughts. Thank you so much for YOUR passion and interest.

It’s a lucky coincidence that most everyone is in agreement on most everything! So, the direction looks pretty clear to me, but I’ll still be taking some time to digest and plan it all out. In the meantime, instead of some new 2008 resolutions, I’ve made myself some 2008 rules/principles/ideals to live by:

1. I am not a machine.
2. I cannot be everything to everyone.
3. I will not compromise on the things I believe in.

All of this needs to happen slowly… oh so slowly… so that it doesn’t all collapse on itself. The very, very last thing I want to do is to disappoint any of you but unfortunately we are not yet at the production capacity of a decades old dye company. So, we will grow slowly and hopefully we will all be able to enjoy the diverse, unique, nuanced and intensely colourful joy that can only happen with a smaller, artisan dye studio. What this means is that for now we won’t be able to supply wholesale accounts… but this is something we will revisit continually. Because what is more wonderful than getting beautiful, squooshy yarn into your hands?

It still amazes me every day that we can get colour like this… delicate, honey gold, butter yellow, corn maize yellow, ochres, deep sea greens… from a couple natural dyes and overdyes. It seems so impossible and just so amazing.

I am brand new. And pretty darn blessed.

Happy new year to everyone and hope you have a wonderful start to 2008! Of course, you want to know who won the little contest, and that would be Pat J from Ontario. Thank you so much.

Top 5 for 2007

I’ve been holding out. I’ve really been holding back from writing this post for a while. This is SweetGeorgia’s 4th annual Top 5 list… you can see 2006, 2005 and 2004… but those old posts seem so irrelevant now. Michelle and I frequently remind ourselves that 2007 is “the year that never was”. 2007 was supposed to be a year of chrysalis… of breaking down, blowing everything apart, re-examining each and every one of the shattered remains and then beginning to rebuild… consciously. It’s a year of rebirth.

Many of you were so supportive earlier this year when my workload and general life difficulties caused me to crumple in a sobbing, drowned lump of a girl formerly known as me. I am grateful for the time and space I have had this year to re-evaluate and thoughtfully consider what is important in my life and what is not. This year allowed me to make some painful but essential choices… among them, the choice to slow down my design firm of ten years so that I can pursue my work in textiles. Dyeing, weaving, designing… and yes, SweetGeorgia Yarns.

So, here is my Top 5 for this year. SweetGeorgia Yarns will re-open in 2008 with new products, new colours… new ideas and new ideals. But I need your help and your input… tell me…

1. What do you love about SweetGeorgia Yarns?
2. What do you hate about SweetGeorgia Yarns?
3. If you’ve purchased from us, what made you compelled to? If you haven’t purchased from us, why? Price, availability, retail distribution…
4. What would you like to see us offer? What kind of yarns, fibres, colours… you name it.
5. How important is pattern support to you? What kind of patterns are you interested in?

Of course, I will be sending one randomly selected responder some gorgeous, naturally dyed yarn. Please send me your thoughts BY EMAIL to info [at] sweetgeorgiayarns [dot] com by Monday, December 31 at midnight PST.

So, this is me. At the end of 2007. Looking forward to new beginnings. A brand new life. This is me now, but it won’t be me next year.

And this is indigo-dyed bombyx silk warps. It looks like a mess now, but I swear, it’s gonna be beautiful.