Yellow, Seriously?

This weekend at Westport Yarns we had the great pleasure of having Trish from Tanglewood Fiber Creations teach a dyeing class. I worked on Saturday and Danni told me that in the class she learned that you had to add yellow to make color combinations work. Yellow, seriously? I mean yellow is great for flowers, the sun, and other people. I simply do not do yellow. I whined about this to anyone who would listen and/or sympathize. I even peppered Trish with questions about this.

Finally I acquiesced to the fact that the reason I was taking the class was to LEARN and I didn't know the first thing about dyeing yarn. (but, yellow?)

Thankfully Beth bought a tent for the class because it was raining for most of the day. We were quite comfortable under the tent.
Trish gave an excellent talk about the dyeing process and the color wheel with some anecdotal comments about people not wanting to add yellow (gee, I can't imagine who she was referring too ~ other than Jennifer P. and me.)
She dyed a sample skein where we picked out the colors. I jumped right in. Jennifer P. would take off the lids so that Trish would be "surprised". It was really fun and interesting.

Jenny K. made a dye chart with swatches of color for reference.
That was a HUGE help.

I made many scribblings of possible color combinations using the color wheel for guidelines. The color wheel comes with instructions on what colors play well with what. It's very interesting to be a teacher and then be in a position of total newbie.

I posed my quandary to Trish. The colors I wanted to use were purple, teal, blue, and a dash of pink. Trish is very good at what she does. Her classic line is "I'm not the boss of you". She laid out the "rules" of dyeing and if you wanted to fly in the face of that well, she would say, "I'm not the boss of you".

She suggested I start out with those colors and then evaluate it. The other thing she suggested was that I choose (for my experiment) which ever item (silk scarf or yarn) that I was willing to kind of sacrifice to the experiment. My words, not hers.
I chose the scarf. Trish taught us to apply the dye from darkest to lightest color, which I did. After I put my fab four colors on my scarf I totally could see what she meant. It needed something and as much as I hate to admit it, it was yellow. After I added the yellow, could see how it still needed something. There is a divisible into 12 rule and 5 just wasn't going to work. Trish suggested Chestnut. The woman is excellent at what she does. It's like a chef who knows just what ingredient makes the dish.
I didn't swish my scarf around too much because I didn't want it to get over-dyed with the Chestnut. You can see the chestnut on the right side of the scarf.
As a result my scarf has a more ty-dyed look to it versus the other scarves. Still, I learned a lot and that was the point.
For my first pair of skeins of yarn (shibui undyed fingering weight yarn). I chose a triad of colors Alpine blue, emerald green, and pink. It is subtle and lovely.

My second pair of skeins I dyed more tonally because the recipient (and you know who you are), does not go for boldly variegated yarns.
Here's Jenny K checking out the days dyeing. It's amazing how different everyone's colorways are.
I can't express enough what an excellent learning experience this was. Not only did I get to dye my own stuff, I have a new level of respect for hand-dyers. There is so much that goes into this process - no wonder no two dye-lots are alike and colors at the top of the pot will look different than colors at the bottom of the pot.
It was truly a magical day and I look forward to doing it again when Trish comes back in October....

Flap Happy Hat looks fab in Tanglewood Fiber Creations

When Trish was here in October, Mariya, one of the customers at Westport Yarns came in wearing my Flap Happy hat knit in her yarns. That was exciting for me all on its own. Then Trish asked for the pattern to make one for gifts.
She knit this hat with a special yarn that is one ply of merino/bamboo and another ply of merino/angora/cashmere. Trish spun the merino/bamboo while she was in Westport. The colorway is Columbia Gorgeous and she said it looks a lot like the cashmere/silk blend and feels "heavenly".

The hat is being modeled by her son, Steven and is a fits to her son-in-law, Don. I want to know how I can get on her gift list!

I love that yarn!

I had the pleasure of unpacking the Tanglewood Fiber Creations goodies and setting up the trunk show. As I unpacked the yarn, I saw a glimmer of purples shining like a beacon. Trish has a colorway called Northwest Winter; it's a great combination of blues, teals, and purples. I bought a skein of the Merino, Alpaca, Cashmere blend (or MAC as it's known to it's friends) in this colorway last year. (The picture does not do the color justice.)
I figured I'd knit it up in honor of her visit. I finished it last night (picture to follow). The pattern I used was Chloe's Bias Lace Cowl. It was perfect for this yarn.
So, anyway, back to unpacking the Tanglewood yarns. I found 3 skeins of Northwest Winter 50% Cashmere/50% Silk that were far more purple than I've ever seen. I felt like Charlie in "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". You know where Grandpa Joe sings, "I've got a golden ticket"? I felt the same way. Pure happiness.
Trish gave a terrific talk about her yarns. It was really interesting to learn about the different breeds of animals, the process of spinning/dyeing, caring for the yarn, and of course - how to knit with it. With great humor she told us that 'she is not the boss of us' and we can knit with her yarns anyway we choose. She showed several samples knit with the same pattern on different needle sizes to give us some ideas.
I particularly liked this buttoned lace scarf. It has 3 or 4 dichroic glass buttons and you can fasten the scarf any way you like.
I was totally delighted to see that Mariya had knit my flap happy hat in Trish's yarn, the color (I think) is Columbia Gorgeous. Trish liked it so much, she asked for the pattern to knit it up for a couple of family members. Yay!
It was a great evening filled with terrific energy from both the people and Trish's yarns! ;)