Sunday, October 31, 2010

RANDOM MUSINGS

In order to make my Silk Yardage more available, I have priced it per yard for the individual who wishes to make smaller pieces or accessories. Multi-yard orders will have a 20% discount returned to them through PayPal.

This past year, I introduced two new yarn lines to provide you with a greater fiber choice – Poet Seat Yarns and New England Yarns. The Poet Seat Yarn Line started with a 50/50 blend of Superwash Merino and Silk, then 75/25 Superwash Merino and Nylon, and added a DK weight 50/50 and most recently Superwash Merino, Cashmere and Nylon (80/10/10) and finally Baby Alpaca, Silk and Cashmere (70/20/10). The New England Yarns are my entry into the heavier weight fibers – BFL/Alpaca 50/50 and 100% BFL. Your response to these entries has been very gratifying.

I will continue with the other fibers as they become available in a reliable fashion and I hope to experiment with plant fibers as time allows.

I am always interested in hearing about your ideas for colorways, combinations, names and what inspired them. That helps to keep me from getting into a color rut! What's your FANCY!

Gail

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Hand Dyeing Silks

Hand dyeing is not just for yarn and fleece, despite the fact that is the name of my book. If you have any protein fiber, one which comes from animals, you can dye it with the formulas in my book Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece. I have been dyeing silk yardage for several years.

One of my silks was featured last summer in Elle Décor Magazine, and we received orders for silk yardage to be used for dress making. Many people use this yardage for a type of felting called Nuno felt. If you look at Chris White’s web site, New England Felting Supply, (http://www.feltingsupply.com/) you can see samples of this technique and listings of her classes.

If you are interested in learning how to dye silk, check out the Webs (http://www.yarn.com/) listing for my upcoming class in Northampton, Mass. I will also be offering a class at a location here in Greenfield, Mass. after the first of the year. I will keep you posted once the details are finalized.

One of my customers, Heather, purchased silk for a class she took using this felting technique. She sent along some pictures of her results (see below). I like the outcome so much, maybe I should ask her to return the silks??