sweetgeorgia

Deeper into Colour

The Coquitlam Guild gave me a chance to speak last Thursday about natural dyes and natural fibres, and while I did talk about my experiments with natural dyeing over the past few years, including starting up the Supernatural SweetGeorgia collection of naturally dyed yarns, I think I ended up talking about dyeing and craft and burnout. How do we renew and regenerate ourselves after burnout? Do we even come back to the craft which took us down in the first place? I related this to principles and values that I learned in the completely unrelated activity of surfing and talked about how it gave me back the balance, simplicity and focus, and the appreciation to even attempt to dye things again. I’m not sure my “surfing as metaphor for life” goes over in weaving and knitting circles, but it’s the honest truth about what I believe.

I talked about changing my dye practice from very sharply variegated colourways, requiring a shameful amount of plastic waste, and moving towards a more water- and energy-efficient workflow. That is the reason I have moved more towards kettle-dyeing, semi-solid shade colourways and multiple colour overdyes… so that I could better take advantage of the low-impact benefits of acid dyeing.

Also, I related to the guild members how natural dyeing is not a benefit to the environment for larger scale operations and noted how Lorna’s Laces Green Line ended up being dyed with conventional synthetic dyes.

Regardless of natural vs. synthetic dye sources, I’ve also tried to implement the colour principles that I learned from Michele Whipplinger including the idea of chromatic neutrals. That is, I’m trying to dye more complex browns and greys as opposed to colours that are so obviously… colourful. Colours that are slightly desaturated and more rich in depth.

I’m also working with a new 50/50 silk and merino laceweight base yarn. It’s a slightly heavier laceweight, but so glossy and gorgeous. It’s 765 yards in a 100 g skein and I’m looking forward to knitting up something like a Swallowtail Shawl in it. It has been, so far, taking the colour so well and I’ll be adding it to the online shop soon too.

There are so many things to learn and so many things to explore. I’m happy that I’ll be spending the summer dyeing more of these deeper, richer colours in preparation for the autumn.

Renewal: April Fibre Club

It’s already May and here was what we did for the April Fibre Club…

the fibre // merino Merino. For me, this fibre was so tempting, so enticing, I had to learn to spin it very early on. Usually, new spinners are steered away from merino and to stronger, longer stapled fibres, but spinning a skein of sproingy, super squishy merino will have you hooked. Spin this fibre with a worsted drafting method and you’ll get a beautiful and classic yarn.

the colourway // renewal Spring is a time to renew and be made new. These colours make me think of potential, flexibility and growth. There are longer stretches of rose and lavender and shorter intervals of gold and rust and tulip leaf green. Spinning this all together and 2-plying back on itself might be a recipe for skeins of muddy looking yarn. Maybe take this opportunity to try spinning a fine, firm singles and then Navajo plying into a 3-ply in order to maintain the clarity of the colours.

I truly like to believe that we can renew ourselves. That we can be made fresh and new. That no one is keeping score of your past mistakes. That you can always try and do better. For myself personally, I’ve dedicated the month of May to trying to improve how I think about things. To really try to believe that no one is watching or waiting for me to fail. That I am doing my best and that hopefully a smigen of good will come of it.

To follow up with the previous post about meaningful work, part of me felt very ungrateful for having written it. I think that despite the great expense involved with creating and setting up this studio and business and how stressed I might get about making this all happen, I am very blessed to be in this position. I realize that in our current economic situation people around me are losing their jobs and that the cost of living and healthcare for everyone is very high. It does seem to be quite a luxury to be able to even make an attempt at your dreams.

Literally exploding with colour.

The studio is seriously oozing with colour. I finished dyeing the March Fibre Club this past week and it looks like a million gummy worms have taken over the studio. I love that. AND, I’m in love with this handspun merino/silk yarn. I spun it to worsted-weight and it looks like there is 50g of the greens and 75g of the reds. I am so tempted to spin more of this fibre and weave a humongous merino+silk blanket to live in.

And I’m so excited to present this series of semi-solid colourways for the SweetGeorgia sock yarns as a dye-to-order series. Available in the Superwash Sock or the slightly thicker, Superwash Sport, we’ll be dyeing as many skeins of these colours as you like. Over time, I’m looking to expand the series and also add back our more variegated colourways. I know that knitters want what they want when they want it, so I’m hoping to provide this option to many of you.

From left to right: China Doll, Raspberry, Pistachio, Saffron, Tourmaline, Orchid, Boysenberry. As for the colours, I think I was subliminally inspired by the Visit Mexico campaign that has been omnipresent in Vancouver buses. I’ve never been to Mexico, but my love for fish tacos seems to make me think I might like it.

February Fibre Club + Luxurious Fibres

It’s quite thrilling to be surrounded by a mountain of freshly dyed Wensleydale fibre for our new fibre club…

Wensleydale is crazy stuff. I was originally drawn to it when a fellow guild member was spinning up some hand dyed Wensleydale… it was kind of glossy and shiny like mohair, but slightly lighter and loftier. And it took colour so well! Since that time last year, I’ve spun up Wensleydale in several forms. From very fine 2-ply to make a thin but strong sock yarn to thick bulky lumpy bumpy singles that are weighty and glossy all at the same time. The fibre itself has a very long-staple and is very lustrous with a broad, wavy crimp. Wensleydale fibre is generally considered the finest of all the longwool breeds. When you first start spinning it, you’ll immediately notice the long staple length and adjust your spinning and drafting. However, you spin it, I hope you enjoy the colours! They blend upon spinning and create a lovely heathered and mottled look which I find a little mesmerizing.

And if you have some time tomorrow afternoon, think about joining us for the “Spinning Little Luxuries” session on Saturday, February 7th from 1pm to 4pm. We have space, four different wheels you can try out (Schacht Matchless, Schacht Ladybug, Louet Victoria, and Ashford Joy), and a TON of new fibre… including the cashmere and silk 50/50 fibre above. We just received two shipments of luxury fibre including yak, baby llama, black diamond carbonized bamboo, soysilk, silk+merino, camel+silk, cashmere+silk, tussah silk, and cultivated bombyx silk. You can still sign up for the class here: http://shop.sweetgeorgiayarns.com/collections/classes-at-the-studio/products/spinning-203-little-luxuries and I’ll also be offering many of these undyed luxury and exotic fibres on the shop site here: http://shop.sweetgeorgiayarns.com/collections/undyed-fibre.

Happy spinning!

Random cashmere and silk goodness.

First things first… the shop site has been updated with tons of new yarns and fibres. The latest updates include tons of CashSilk Lace, Speed Demon, Superwash Sport, Merino + Silk spinning fibre and more… plus, we’ve got a new sock yarn—Banbu Sock—a mix of superwash merino and bamboo that is very soft and silky! I’m actually super excited about the CashSilk Lace this time around… much of it was kettle dyed and completely unique. Some of it was dyed twice to increase the depth of these colours. I’d love to save a skein or two for myself, but honestly, I don’t knit fast enough to do it justice. So it’s going to good people.

I’m constantly thrilled and delighted with the new colours and colourways that come forth when I get to experiment and dye in the moment. There is so much that I have learned about dyes and colours just by having the opportunity to try different things… something I would have missed if I continued to dye the same colourways over and over again. Dye results like these make me excited about the next dye session.

This very special skein of yarn is going to my girlfriend, Mary Joy of Yummy Yarn, (currently not rock climbing) from California. When I drove back from San Diego to Los Angeles two weeks ago, MJ and I met up at Hermosa Beach for a long, very hot, very sunny walk down the beach. It was so good to meet her in person… after all, she was one of the first people to inspire me to try spinning. This skein is all hot reds and golds and I hope MJ will make something wonderful with it.

Finally, this is a custom dye project I took on for a long-time customer. She’s been supporting my little yarn biz since it started and although I usually decline custom dye jobs, I do take on the very very special ones. This was a custom dye batch of CashSilk Lace for her wedding shawl… inspired by the colours of the hydrangeas on the cover of the Real Weddings magazine. I’m absolutely delighted and grateful to be involved in someone’s wedding in this way. No white wedding shawls here… it’s beautiful colour.

Happy cashmere day to you.