It's scarf season again!!

Recently I have begun to receive orders for custom knit scarves. You can see here the black and white scarf in Super Size (or also known as the BIG scarf). It is about 74" x 7" and has a nice floppy drape. The scarves are rib knit, so if you need to cover your head, this large scarf will stretch and fit nicely for that. The Gryffindor style Harry Potter scarf in gold and burgundy is in my regular size, about 64" x 5", with long 7" fringe. It is going to a lucky young lady who is using it as part of her Halloween costume.

This pile of yarn is from my stash of New Zealand yarn. It is a bit scratchy, but felts really nicely, so it is great for felting/fulling projects, as well as rugs and tapestries. I have even had Etsians make Amigurumis with them The white and tan are in Sport weight and the grey is slightly thicker at DK weight. This week I am taking two 100 yard skeins of each and over dyeing them in rainbow colors. I'd done this before, and you can see the whole rainbow in this listing here. I only have the yellow and a couple reds from my previous dyelots, so it is time to redo them. Unfortunately, this will likely be my last batch of the grey, since my supplier is going out of business this month. I do have plenty of the white and tan, so there will be a couple more batches of those. I love seeing how my hand mixed colors take differently as I hand dye these different colored base yarns. Expect more pictures soon!

Hand Dyed Rainbow Yarns are back! This time in Worsted and Bulky weights. On each of these yarns, the rainbow repeats approximately every two yards. My base yarns are purchased from a domestic mill that has been in business for over 100 years.

The lovely above is a bulky weight twist yarn. It is 81% wool, 17% Mohair, and 2% Polyester. The poly wrap string dyes slightly differently, so it adds some kick (and kink) to the yarn. There are 210 yards in each of the two skeins I made, and the gauge is 3-4 st = 1" on US 9-10 needles.

Next is this fabulous worsted sock yarn. It is 100% Superwash Merino wool. I love how superwash takes up the colors so brightly. There are 270 yards per skein (I dyed 4), gauge is 5 st = 1" on US needle 7. Can you imagine mittens and a matching hat made of this?

And finally we have my favorite. This is a bulky, barely spun blend of 60% New Zealand wool and 40% US Domestic wool. It looks hand spun, and some would say this is lopi style (whatever that means). There are 120 yards (I made 2), gauge is 3-4 st = 1" on US needle 9-11. This yarn matches the Mauch Chunky line of yarns available from Kraemer yarns. They only offer solids, so knit up something great and trim it with the rainbow yarn!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my rainbows (ok, I know you do....I can hardly make them fast enough!). These will start appearing in my Etsy shop ( http://www.thepaintedtiger.com/ ) today, and over the next week.

More sock yarn previews!

Crisp Green Apples .............................Blue Lagoon

Fall Aspens ..............................Pine & Burgundy

Mystery .................................Leaf Pile

As you can see, I have been playing around quite a bit with semi-solid yarn dyeing, and random dyeing. These yarns will knit up in random patterns instead of pooling, and the Green Apples and Blue Lagoon yarns will show of stitch patterns beautifully, while still adding life and movement to your project. Come on over! http://www.thepaintedtiger.com/

New yarns for this week!




I'm still playing around with random dyeing, which I have termed "Chaos Dyed" in my shop. I love the colors, and how they can 'play' on the Superwash Merino a little more in this method. Click on any of the pictures to see them larger. I especially love the one on the lower left....browns and burgundies and deep greens! These will be wound and appear in my etsy shop sometime soon. Http://ThePaintedTiger.etsy.com

I've tamed a few of those wild yarns!




Enjoy, and visit www.ThePaintedTiger.com this week to purchase them. A new yarn each day!

Wild Thang!!

Here is one of our newest residents...there are three of these little guys (plus big mama), and they are such fun to watch as they play tag in the trees behind our home at dusk. (We keep the garbage tightly away from them!!)

Also in their natural untamed state are my newly dyed yarns. I'm toying around with semi-solids this week....how'd I do? (You can click on any of the pictures to see them REALLY big!!)

These will be appearing in my Etsy shop, http://www.thepaintedtiger.com/ next week. Hey, ya gotta give me time to tame them. No telling what influence wild yarn would have in your domesticated stash!!

New Yarns for August 24! Black & Blue is at the top, inpired by one of my favorite sweaters. The middle one is "Sunset in a Blender" that I created for EtsyFAST's August Challenge. The bottom one is yet unnamed, thought I would experiment with some thick and thin stripes. All of these will be available in my shop, http://www.thepaintedtiger.com/ , over the next few days.

The fawn twins are back, here's a pic of each. They were on our patio...about 5 feet away from me.

I made it!

Etsy recently held a Treasury style poster contest, and my yarn made it onto this winning entry. The picture will be blown up into a poster and given away at festivals. I also had yarn on a Rainbow honorable mention entry, and apparently I was included in 5 total entries. Not bad for a shop that usually has only 35 items!!

My ball winder arrived!!

I totally caved and purchase a really nice ball winder from Nancy's Knit Knacks. It looks neat, and winds these super cool balls! Trust me, it was worth every penny, and now I can wind the yarn into center pull balls for you! Shown above are a sampling of single color ombres I made to be listed in my Etsy Shop.... http://thepaintedtiger.etsy.com/ .

Above are some other colors I've been working on. The first is Gobble, Gobble (remember making those construction paper turkeys as a kid....same colors!). The bottom two are the exact same rainbow dyebath. On the left is a Superwash Merino/Nylon blend, and the one on the right is laceweight Merino wool. Amazing how the superwash treatment really changes how the color takes on the yarn. These are being wound and will appear in my Etsy shop within the next week.

Elements

Super soft Merino wool and Silk blend sock yarn, dyed in the colors suggested by the four elements. Clockwise from top left: Wind is a tornadic blend of greys, blacks, purples, and flashes of fushia and yellow. Fire contains yellow, red, fushia, and orange hues. Earth explores the brown tones. Water is a beautiful swimming cove of clear blues. Each is 440 yards, 100g. Plenty for socks, scarf, mittens, whatever!

Speaking of elements, I'd like to say that the wind took this tree limb down, but it really was due to all the cherries on it. (It's a black cherry).

It is hard to see in the picture, but that is completely blocking our neighbor's drive. Our tree, though, so we had to chop it up in nearly 90 degree weather. Air conditioning never felt so good.

Earlier that morning, here's the same view:

These twin fawns were born on our property in June, and are getting quite large now. Their mother likes to gnaw on my green beans through the fence. Although not tame, the deer are not terribly afraid. I was maybe 20 feet away when I snapped this picture, and had to walk a fair ways first.