Serendipity

This is the story of two yarns. Very different in character and colorway, but sisters nonetheless.

Meet Earthenware.

and Taffy

(Okay, so Taffy is still roving. Not quite yarn, yet. She's waiting patiently in the Shop for someone to take her home and turn her into the yarn she longs to be!)

These two seem so different, don't they? Earthenware is subtle, but filled with color. Like a hand-glazed bowl, she shimmers with reds, blues, greens and browns that blend and play together through her plies.

The roving was born of one of those frustrating periods of dyer's block, when I felt completely uninspired. So I took some random colors, pretty much picked out of a hat, along with the leftovers at the bottom of several squeeze bottles, and tossed them at 8 oz of merino roving, hoping for the best.

To be honest, I have no idea what colors I used. I'm usually reasonably meticulous about taking notes, but this is a case of randomness and serendipity. I don't think I can ever recreate it. It's a rainbow, but a subtle and subdued one. All of the colors are represented, but softened.

So where does Taffy come in?

As I spun Earthenware, letting all of the colors slip past my fingers, I fell in love with the junction of turquoise and dull, red-orange. You can see them here:

I heightened and brightened the turquoise and red-orange into candy hues, reminiscent of the bright, unnatural, but delicious colors of salt-water taffy.

Earthenware was such a fun, fruitful exercise, and the inspiration for other colorways, I hope! I have notes of other striking combinations, that I'll be working on soon.

Playing with color is so much fun. And if you like Earthenware? Two skeins are going into the Etsy shop in tomorrow's update. :)