Garden Variety (June 2014) on Panda
Each month, we dye a brand new, unique colourway for our Spinning Fibre and Sock Yarn Clubs. We’re shipping out the July packages this week, so it’s a good time to let you know what we did for June:
the colourway //
Each spring, I get inspired to fix up my garden. As I wander from aisle to aisle in the garden shop, perusing the vigorously growing herbs, grasses, and flowers, I imagine my garden blooming with peonies and roses, smelling of lavender. I forget about my perennial black thumb.
Garden Variety is made up of those pale yellow green to deep blue green shades that are found in hostas… a shade-loving plant that I actually managed to grow successfully!
Garden Variety (June 2014) on Tough Love Sock
the yarn //
Tough Love Sock is our most popular and best-selling sock yarn. Spun from 80% superwash and supersoft fine merino and 20% nylon into a 3-ply yarn, this yarn is so versatile — knit it firmly for hard wearing socks, knit it loosely for drapey shawls, or knit it doubled for a great worsted weight substitute.
Even though it is machine-washable, we recommend never machine-drying. Handknits will hold up best if you hand wash and lay flat to dry.
knitting thoughts //
Despite being all shades of green, this colourway is still rather high contrast, so any pooling or streaking that happens might be more accentuated. To minimize the effect, use stitch patterns that mix up the strands (like linen stitch) or alternate knitting with the two ends of your skein.
the fibre //
Panda is a divinely fluffy and silky blend of Superwash Merino 60%, Bamboo 30%, and Nylon 10%. The combination of soft washable merino, strength-building nylon and breatheable bamboo makes for an ideal sock yarn blend. The bamboo fibre results in silky white streaks alongside intensely coloured fibre. While this fibre is machine washable, avoid putting it in the dryer!
spinning thoughts //
Despite being all shades of green, this colourway is still rather high contrast. The light green and dark green sections may overlap during plying and create a sort of barber-pole effect (which may or may not be desirable). Since this fibre is ideally suited to making sock yarn, I’d really consider spinning a 3-ply fractal yarn. You’ll get a strong 3-ply yarn for socks and the fractal spinning (over three bobbins) will blend and subdue the high contrast.
Stay tuned for future updates of our club colourways. I’m hoping we’ll post these on a monthly basis after the threat of spoilers has past! You can see many of our previous Club colourways here »
