sweetgeorgia

Four Seasons of Fibre Club

We’re getting ready for another brand new year of the SweetGeorgia Yarns Fibre Club. Just last week, I mailed out our 12th installment of Fibre Club offerings… members are still receiving them so I won’t be posting photos of it yet…. but you can follow along on the Ravelry group! Having never offered a fibre club before, I have had so much fun this past year thinking of things to dye and showcase. I’ve had the chance to play with all sorts of fibres that I rarely work with… including Falkland (which seems to be popular with spinners), Shetland, tussah silk and Tencel.

Occasionally this past year, I’ve had a couple fibre club members subscribe but not realize that it was actually spinning fibre. And since they didn’t actually know how to spin, I was perfectly happy to dye up some sock yarn skeins as substitutes for the fibre.

I’m enjoying the creative freedom in being able to dye new colourways and play with some luxurious new blends. I’m even tempted to offer a “Yarn Club” type subscription if enough people are interested.

Want to join us for our second year of Fibre Club? We’re taking new subscriptions now on the online shop and you can always follow along with our Ravelry group. The Fibre Club members have all been so positive and active about spinning up their fibre and posting photos. Reminds me that I need to finish spinning the Wensleydale in my own set of November fibres.

Autumn brings new colours, yarns and a free pattern

SweetGeorgia has been a busy place this summer. Since returning from the week-long dye workshop in Seattle, I’ve been dyeing for wholesale orders and shipping to yarn stores. Make One Yarn Studio in Calgary was the first to receive their shipment of a wide selection of our yarns. And this past week, we finished orders for Unwind Yarn House in Ontario and Black Sheep Yarns in Port Moody, BC. I’ve been re-establishing old relationships I had with our retailers and on the look out for new retailers as well. Personally, I am so very excited to start seeing our yarns in stores again and am excited about the opportunity to make and design new colours and yarns.

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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.

Gumdrops and sugar highs

Now that we’re pretty much at the end of March, I think it’s safe to post about the recent Fibre Club installment… Gumdrops dyed up on Corriedale. Corriedale was the very first fibre I ever dyed. Done up with Koolaid dyes, the fibre poofed up in candy colours and I was immediately smitten with the entire process. Sweet smelling, luscious hues, and fluffy fibre. This time, it’s done up in professional acid dyes to be light- and wash-fast. These colours just make me happy.

I’ve taken a bundle of this Corriedale, split the roving vertically into three somewhat equal portions and am now plying it into a 3-ply yarn. We’ll see what comes of it.

And now that we’re looking forward to April, I’ve re-opened the Fibre Club for new subscriptions for May to July. If you would like, you can sign up for the Fibre Club now…. Also, if you’re interested in spinning handpainted rovings, mixing and blending semi-solid fibres and playing with our Patrick Green electric drum carder and wool combs, we still have some space in the “Colour for Spinners” day at the studio! Come spin, come play with colour!

Ever since the weaving workshop that I participated in this past weekend, I’ve been feeling a little bit hyper and unsettled. Partly because I was exposed to how beautiful handwoven linen is… partly because I’m completely taken with the idea of weaving utilitarian kitchen textiles for a bit… and partly because it’s easy to misplace your own creative voice when you are overwhelmed with someone else’s. So I’m trying to decide what to weave next and am actually losing sleep over doubleweave blankets vs. 60/2 silk scarves vs. sock yarn baby blankets vs. linen tea towels vs. 16/2 cotton placemats.

One thing I did glean from Jane’s workshop this weekend was the need to focus on one thing at a time. No hopping around from technique to technique, pattern draft to pattern draft, making whatever Handwoven publishes in this most recent issue. Jack of all trades. Focus. Focus. Focus. Keep calm and carry on.

Honestly, I have been focusing on more and more dyeing… and have added both new colours and yarns to the “dyed to order” set. You can see them on the new “Colourways” page on the shop site. Over the summer, I’ll work on developing a series of new colours for Fall/Winter. My mind is endlessly racing with ideas and thoughts about what to do and what to make… it’s a good and wonderful thing to be motivated and inspired. But I’m also looking forward to Saturday when I can sleep in and just knit what I like.

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!