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Oct 26

22 Comments

Soaring in color.

We are the beautiful Sunriver Resort at SOAR where everything spinning reigns supreme. Believe it or not this is my very first SOAR (a story for another time) and I am really excited and a little nervous. I feel a bit like when I was a kid looking forward to spending the week with my favorite aunt and her menagerie. You know when you have wanted something for a long time and then you get it there’s so much room for all of the built up hopes and dreams based on certain expectations to colour your experience.  Well so far it is exactly how I always dreamed it would be and I have not even had my first class yet. It’s just great to look all around and see spinning.

I do not have class today so got to explore and scope out the whole/vendor booth thing. When I saw my booth space I had a bit of a spasm. I mean I knew it was small but did not really have the luxury of giving it much thought and now I have to figure out how to fit all of this

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and a little of this

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and maybe this

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certainly this…right?

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and …probably some of this

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into an 8X10 space.

Where there is a will there is a way right? Will I certainly have in spades. I have loved prepping for this and have not had such fun in awhile. I got to be a dyer again. I love being a dyer and where there is love and I have witnessed a whole lot of love here in this place of spinning fibers into yarn, all is possible.

It has been over 6 years since I fit into a 8X10 booth space, but if Morgaine and Toni can do it I certainly can.

Right? 

Oct 19

7 Comments

Show prep

Autumn is back to back, wall to wall show prep.

We are trying to get Debbi out the door with everything she needs for helping at the Webs booth at Stitches East.

The yarn is there and we are now scrambling to make sure all sample are blocked and dried.  Here in rain land where moisture is never an issue this is a bit of a challenge.

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We are scumming it up this fall with my beloved Pond Scum colorway. 

The yarn is our new DeVine a magnificent 16-ply cable yarn perfect for a very cozy and warm sweater.

The pattern is “Emerald” by Amy M. Swensen and is available at Knitty

The model my daughter Rabia is embracing her waif- like bohemian artistic nature and decorating herself as such .Her younger sister refers to is as over-sizing.

We have more samples going that way which I will add in here later today when they are dry. Right now have to go sew button on sweater and block these lovelies.

Fanning the Flame Mittens by Heartland Knits in Jabberwocky ( finished one) and Tonalite (in progress one).

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Now where did I put that perfect button for this sweater? hmm…

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And here we have the lovely Sasha Skirt by Louet knit by the on so talented and clever Debbi Stone (aka cockeyed)

We used 3 different yarns all in a different Raven colourway.

Seduction and Socks that Rock lightweight and Silkie Socks that Rock.

We have Rooky Thraven and Haida.

Oct 16

26 Comments

Color me…neutral.

Color—my favorite thing to talk about and play with and really do just about anything in relation to.

As part of the Sock Club for the past two years, we have done some in depth color studies. I really love doing these, and do not really have the opportunity to do them with every shipment.

So, I have decided that we should also do them here, where we can all be involved. Since it is fall and the turn back to the earth, we are going to start with the oh so warm and comforting brown.

I have been musing over this idea and how I want to approach it for a few weeks now (I am a little slow these days). Right after Oregon Flock and Fiber, I received a very interesting email from another dyer with a question that at first glance seemed simple enough but the longer I sat with it, the more thought provoking it was.

She wanted to know why someone so consumed with color wears such neutral colors. (I wore shades of gray that weekend.)

It took a bit to answer her because it did give me pause.

The obvious answer is I am not a small woman and honestly these are the colors that look best on me, or at least I think they do. I like to use bright colorful pieces like scarves as accents to my neutral self. 

The more I thought about this and also about brown and color in general, I realized that her question gave me pause because she was curious as to how a person who obviously has a love affair with color did not decorate themselves head to toe with it. Since it is not the first time I have been asked this question, and most probably will not be the last, well back to the thinking…

So why is this true for me? I have seen a lot of obvious colorful people all decorated on the outside with what I assume is an expression of what they (at least) like. And you know I admire those colorful souls that can pull that off and carry it well. That is most certainly not me. It actually makes me feel a little queasy, and I now know one of the biggest reasons why.

I need to be neutral because what is true for me is I immerse my whole self in whatever palette I am exploring. I experience it on a cellular soul level and almost become one with whatever hue or shade or tone I am loving at that moment. I know it sounds corny as hell but nonetheless it is true for me.

It’s actually my general approach to life. I am a full immersion kind of girl. This approach does create problems for me every once in a while but mostly it leads me to very rich and rewarding experiences. I cannot imagine life any other way and certainly not the color part of it.

I would be very interested to hear from other dyers or artists as to their feelings and experience about our art.

So stay tuned for my first installment of Color Immersion depravedDyer style beginning with case study #1: All That Is Brown.

Oct 10

8 Comments

Show Time

It is that time of year where there seems to be a fiber show or festival around every corner.  September has been just slammed with show prep. First there was Oregon Flock and Fiber in late September (a good time was had by all), then Rhinebeck (Toni Neil of The Fold

imagecarries all things Blue Moon here so look for her booth) and followed very closely by Stitches East (Webs

image will be carrying Blue Moon yarns for this show. They have added tow more booths and are flying Cockeyed ( Debbi Stone) in for this ) and in almost the same breath SOAR (Debbi and I will be womaning the Blue Moon booth here).  Holy smokes… that my friends is a whole lot of dyeing and well, dyeing, rinsing and bundling and labeling and invoicing and packing and shipping. Like a lot.

Friday morning we packed the skids for pick up by a realy really big truck.

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See… I told you I could lift it. No problem really its a piece of cake. Ugh.

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It’s a wrap!

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Turns out our Becky is also an expert Skid wrapper. Who knew? ( Debra says she knew. I however, did not.)

So East Coast knitters that is a whole lot of yarn coming your way. Hope you are ready for it. We made it just for you.

I would like to take a moment and thank Toni Neil for all of her hard work in taking our yarns to all the shows she goes to. She has done us a great service over the years and we are all grateful for her kindness and generosity and friendship.

I also would like to thank Kathy and Steve Elkins for adding Blue Moon into the Webs family of yarns. I am really looking forward to a long and rewarding relationship.

Those of you coming to Sun River, Debbi and I will see you there. I am so very excited. It is our first Spin-Off Retreat and I have been wanting to do this show forever so… kind of soaring here.