I Told You I was Having Fun!

After I left you yesterday, I went back to my dye studio... It was fantastic. There were colors, and textures... Merino, mohair, cashmere, and alpaca...

I created greens...

I created blues...

I created purples...

Today I get to knit! The mittens using the over-dyed Alpaca yarns are taking shape. They are full of whimsy, and I love them. I hope to make enough progress to show you tomorrow!

More Playing with Over-Dyes

Today I played some more with my new infatuation over-dyes. I created 2 Perfect Duos of Baby Alpaca yarns: English Lavender and Sea Breeze.

I am in love with the subtle colors. I am in love with their depth. Just imagine striping or fairisled mittens or a tam! I have added these 2 Duos to my Etsy Store. I am going to make this a short post, as I want to get back to my dye studio to play with more over-dyes!

Fun with over-dyed skeins

I had some fun over-dyeing some skeins of fine baby alpaca today.  Over-dyeing is a 2 step process which involves dyeing the yarn a first time in a variegated fashion, they adding an all over color to the skeins thus adding deth to the yarn. Over-dyed yarns seem to glow from within!

As soon as the skeins were dry, I balled them up, and they are in the process of becoming mittens.

This will be a fun design that I am hoping to put together as a kit for which I will design different color combinations! These first mittens will be for me though. I guess I am a little selfish but I just had to have orange and green!

A Yarn for Marie Laurencin

Marie Laurencin is a French watercolor artist I have always loved. I love the women she paints in soft watery hues, with their dark doe eyes.

Here is a skein I called Aquarelle after her work, soft black, grey, muted pink, and aqua with a touch of more profound blue.

It has been so much fun to design new colorways for my Etsy shop. It feels so free. I just love to follow my color infatuation of the day. I hope you will like Aquarelle.

A Kimono for Tiny Betsy McCall

I had more fun sewing clothes for Betsy McCall last night. This time Betsy gets a Kimono!

I actually spent quite a bit of time looking at my own vintage kimono to understand the construction, then  simplified it a little. Betsy is only 8"!  I lined the sleeves , and made the obi out of organza.

I went all out this time and even made her shoes with cork and ribbon!
The final touch was the beaded millinery velvet flower.

I love the outfit so much that I started collecting the objects that will become part of a diorama!

Focused!

This morning I was straightening by bedroom, which lately has been colonized by mountains of fabric, sewing machines, and yarn. As I was arranging the books on my bedside table, I had to smile.

The titles of the books sum me up: knitting, domesticity, handspinning, and obsession, all that topped with a little bit of knitting, a sock in progress for Mr. SockPixie! Pretty focused, wouldn't you say?

Very Vogue!

What do you when you fall in love with a picture (Vogue 1963, I believe), because its colors are so perfect, so balanced, so retro, so classic? You create a colorway and you name it Ombrelles. These colors make me dream, ocean blues, reds, berry pinks, and peach.

                                                                  

I hand-painted 2 SW Merino sock weight skeins in the Ombrelles colorway, and a beautiful cashmere blend in a sock weight. I have just added them to my Etsy Store.

Can you imagine a pair of socks knit in this colorway? Real sunshine in winter!