Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Kaleidoscope

Beginning 2014 with a self-indulgent project just for me. A whole year of the Kaleidoscope Club with The Natural Dye Studio and their delicious yarn. So this is January's segment of the blanket.
The crochet is unblocked so far so the triangles will open up and flatten out a little more in the final blanket.
I'm quite a firm crocheter so had to go up 3 sizes of hook to match the correct size of each triangle. The motifs are really straightforward to work and you soon remember the pattern. The fun is in the changing colours. Don't tell Amanda the designer but one of my colours is not the correct one in the centre triangles. Maybe its because I love orange so much I forgot to change to red. I dont think she's noticed. I admit to being a sloppy pattern follower who thinks her memory is better than it is. The design already lives up to its name.
So February instructions arrived today.......
The yarns are:
A stunning high twist merino fingering (4ply) weight yarn. If you have trouble with yarns splitting apart when you crochet (especially lightly plied S twist yarns) then this yarn is made for crochet. It's not plied and the twist is in the Z direction so it tightens slightly as you crochet each stitch.. The twist is well set by the yarn spinner so your work won't skew and the lustre of the yarn shows off the stitching.
                                            Photo borrowed from the NDS website.

The colours of the yarns come from plant dyes such as logwood, indigo, madder, weld and the cochineal bug. Amanda and Daisy coax an amazing variety of different colours from what could be considered a limited dye range. Happily for me it looks like this blanket is going to use a fair number of those colours.

The bricks and mortar shop has been exceedingly busy over the last month so I've been dyeing yarns (synthetic dyes) flat out to keep the shelves stocked and weaving in any spare time to keep a stock in of wraps, blankets and scarves... already its looking depleted again.... Which means I haven't updated the FELT shop in a while. I plan to remedy this situation soon.


                  There has been time for a recent fish and chip takeaway on our favourite beach.