Hand-dyed Surprises for Tomorrow!

As you may have noticed, I have not dyed yarn in a long time. But this week, I finally did. It was so exciting to play with colors again.

I approached dyeing just seeking to please my hunger for color. I created colorways to match the fibers, and picked fibers to flatter the colorways and reflect the textural qualities of my inspirations. I will have only a couple skeins available in each colorway, and the colorways will vary by fiber. There will be soft haloed alpaca blends and cashmere blends, luxurious silk blends, and seacell blends.

I chose to paint sunsets in Tuscany inspired by one of my favorite novels, Room with a View.

For Sunset over the Arno, I picked an Alpaca blend, seeking to capture not only the colors but also the hazy texture of the Tuscan evening air after a warm summer day.



I hope you will join me tomorrow, Sunday, to enjoy the romantic sunsets of Tuscany.

A Fern Beret for Miss SockPixie

A few weeks ago, I posted a picture of some handspun, a Merino Silk blend. I spun the yarn as a light worsted singles using a short forward draw. The result was a yarn with very little fuzz, great shine, and body.



I had about 4 oz of yarn which left me if two choices: mittens, or a hat. I thought the yarn would be to feminine for a boy, and its "crispness" would allow for stitch play.

Berets are great to show off a stitch pattern as they have a large section that sits in a disc fashion on the head, whitout being stretched or distorted.
I picked a lace pattern that radiates toward the center of the beret, it actually reminds me of ferns. I blocked the beret gently to open up the lace. I love the color, the slight silky luster, and the timelessness of the style.


The beret is now Miss SockPixie's.