We Made More!

Posted on May 24, 2013 by tumbleweedyarn

Kitman and I have rolled up our sleeves, donned our aprons, and have been like little mad scientists mixing our powders together to come up with some beautiful new colors to share with you. Please visit our Etsy site to find more detailed information about our yarn colors. I hope you like the colors as much as we liked creating them.

Cheyenne

Miss Kitty

Sonoran Desert

Dusty Sky

Prairie Grass

Señorita

Señorita

Happy Knitting and Crocheting,

Tumbleweed Yarn

Diana and Kitman

O Canada!

Posted on May 21, 2013 by tumbleweedyarn

May’s color inspiration comes from Loresa Jordan of Prince George, British Columbia. Loresa submitted photographs from her wedding anniversary trip to the west coast of Canada. Congratulations to her and her husband who were celebrating 19 years of marital bliss! The happy couple stayed at a small seaside community of Sooke. They explored many miles of seashore and rainforests, took a whale watching tour in a zodiac, enjoyed afternoon tea at the Empress Hotel in Victoria, devoured scrumptious seafood meals, and watched seals playing from their room on Sooke Harbour.

The photo selected was taken in Sooke Potholes Provincial park, named for the series of deep, polished rock pools carved naturally into the bedrock of the Sooke River. Viewing opportunities of this park include coho and salmon spawning, old growth Douglas firs and wildlife including elk and bear. Loresa was happy to report that she and her husband did not experience a surprise encounter with the latter. Green is my favorite color and the variety of greens in these rocks was quite inspirational. I think we captured the beauty of the deep forest green with highlights of the bright chartreuse in our new colorway that we named Moss.

Loresa began knitting in earnest around the year 2000. She was determined at the time to knit sweaters for her new nephew. Her current passion is knitting lace. My business partner Kitman has designed many beautiful lace projects. If you are not already familiar with her designs check them out at her Ravelry site.

Thank you again Loresa for the inspiration and informing us about the beauty of Sooke Potholes Provincial Park. This July my husband and I will be celebrating our 27th wedding anniversary and we usually take a trip to celebrate. I have never been to Canada so this might be yet another type of inspiration for me.

Happy Knitting and Crocheting,

Tumbleweed Yarn

Diana and Kitman

April’s Inpiration & New Knitting Kit!

Posted on May 1, 2013 by tumbleweedyarn

This month’s color inspiration comes from BreeAnn from Bristol, RI. On a recent trip to New York City, BreeAnn ran into this amazing street artist in Washington Square. I did a little investigating and found out that the name of this artist is Joe Mangrum. The medium for Joe’s art is colored sand! His detailed, one-of-kind pieces can take 7 to 9 hours to complete. When it is done and time to go home, he sweeps up this beautiful swirl of colors into a dustpan. I love this type of art! It is in the moment. I guess that is why I have loved my work in live theatre. It is a shared experience that happens in that moment and then is never recreated in the exact same way ever again.

This artist’s vibrant and playful colors were a perfect inspiration for this month’s new yarn. As I have been working towards becoming an accomplished knitter of socks, I decided that I wanted to try my hand at dyeing self-striping yarn. The colors that Mr. Mangrum uses in his sand art inspired me in our first offering of self-striping yarn. After much reading on the topic, the building of a warping board, and enough math to make my head explode, I present to youSidewalk Sand. Thank you BreeAnn for the photo and the inspiration. If you want to know more about the artist Joe Mangrum there are several YouTube videos that you can check out to see this amazing artist at work.

Tumbleweed Yarn will be offering this self-striping yarn as a kit, which will include the 400 yards/100gms of Sidewalk Sand self-striping yarn and 30 yards of a matching pink yarn. The pink yarn can be used for a contrasting heel and toe if you choose to knit socks–or the pink can become fringe on a very festive striped scarf.

Kitman has also designed a beautiful lace collar that we will offer as a free pattern when you purchase our Rust yarn.

This is a simple, fast pattern for those of us who need immediate gratification. The open lace pattern makes the collar light and it can dress up a simple T for the spring weather or would be a nice addition to a sweater come fall and winter. Kitman knitted this collar using our Aubrey Fingering weight yarn in the colorway Rust. Aubrey is 100% Superwash merino wool. This collar scarf only uses 55gms of yarn so this would be a nice project to knit in order to use up some of that extra yarn you have left over from other projects. Read a more detailed description of this collar scarf and the kits we are offering on our Etsy website www.tumbleweedyarn.etsy.com.

Happy knitting and crocheting,

Diana and Kitman