In My Etsy Shop

On the Needles

 

Entries in Dye for Glory (1)

Tuesday
Jul142009

Dyeing for Glory

Yet another fantastic Sock Summit related event! Ravelry is running a Dye for Glory contest for vendors at Sock Summit. Check out the details here... or here, and here.

I've created two colorways that I'll have in my booth for sale at the Summit. I'm going to take pre-orders for pick up at my booth (Booth 1107!)-- I'll have 20 of each colorway. I will take pre-orders for 10. After Sock Summit, I will have some for sale in Etsy shop for shipping in August.

These are dyed on a new base-yarn that I'm debuting at Sock Summit. I'm calling it Meringue Merino. It's a springy 2-ply with a nice, tight, pearly-textured twist (think Koigu) that takes colors beautifully. It's so soft, and knits up with wonderful texture, while still allowing for great stitch definition. I'm knitting the Evening Stockings for a Young Lady out of it, and it's a winner!

Both colors were partially inspired by the Sock Summit logo (see it over there <----- in the top left corner of my blog sidebar?), but also by things around Portland. I've heard Portland is well known for its beer, produced by small breweries, so here's Microbrew:



Lager,



red ale,



and (my favorite) stout blend in a sampler platter of tasty brews.



I love this one!

This second colorway is inpired by some striking photographs I've seen of Portland's downtown area at night, and at dusk. I've entered this in the Watercolors category, because the dyeing method I used resulted in the fluid blending of all of the colors. I'm calling it Downtown Dusk:



The soft, deep red of the setting sun,



the shimmering lights of downtown



reflecting off of the dark, nighttime blue-green waters of the Wilamette River.



This color reminds me of San Francisco's downtown at dusk as well. :)

This contest has been so fun. I've loved seeing what other amazingly talented fellow dyers have come up with. These colorways also really pushed my usual sense of color. I tend to use many of the same colors in different ways, and this pushed me to try new and different combinations of hues and values. LOVE it!