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

Inspired Colorway of February

Posted on February 25, 2013 by tumbleweedyarn

Well, Kitman is off celebrating Chinese New Year with her family and friends in Malaysia. She promises to come home with wonderful stories and pictures with which to entertain me. Our first month of business has been fun and exciting. We feel so proud as we send out each of our little packages to customers from around the world. In fact, that is one of the most exciting parts–seeing what wonderful places where our yarn is sent and imagining the beautiful final products that will come from them.

We continue to build our stock with new colors. And as we build, we look to you for inspiration. A photograph sent to us by Brian from Midland, Texas inspired our 3 newest colors.

In our first blog we encouraged anyone to send us a photo that reflects a sense of home. In reply, Brian sent us this photograph of an orchid. Nature really does supply us with the most magnificent color schemes. Brian wrote to us that his mother was blessed with a green thumb and that his childhood home was filled with potted plants and fresh flowers. Although he claims that his thumb is not quite as green as mom’s, he still loves to have the beauty of flowers and plants decorating his home.

Brian is a beginning knitter and hopes to be knitting sweaters for his beloved pal Max before to long.

Being a beginning knitter myself, may I suggest that you start with a simple dog collar or small throw for Max’s dog bed? I made the mistake of choosing to knit a pair of socks as one of my first knitting projects. This was a mistake. My brain and hands could not handle a simple pair of socks, so I have decided to focus on flat objects for a while, to build my confidence before I try shaping again. But one day I will be a sock genius. As the expert knitter on our team, Kitman will help me to achieve this goal.

Because Brian’s photo was selected for our inspiration, Tumbleweed Yarn will be sending Brian a skein of yarn so he can get started on that sweater for Max. We would love to see Max in his finery, so perhaps Brian will be kind enough to send a photo when he is done. Living in Texas, I know there is a very small window of time in which Max will be comfortable in knitwear; but for our sake I’m sure he would be willing to model for us anytime.

Anyone who has a photograph that would be a good color inspiration, please send us a copy (mailto:tumbleweedyarn@hotmail.com). If it is selected, you will be helping us with our next colorway and receive a skein of our yarn in appreciation.

Diana and Kitman