Each month, we dye a brand new, unique colourway for our Spinning Fibre and Sock Yarn Clubs. We’d like to share what we sent out to our members in April:
Colourway // Rain in Spain
April is the peak of the rainy season in Vancouver! It’s the soggy wet spring that brings us lush green and beautifully warm May days.
More than simply a reference to a song in the musical My Fair Lady, Rain in Spain is a colourway that is inspired, actually, by my somewhat new-found fondness for quilting. Just as with knitting, one of the most exciting parts of planning a project is choosing yarns and colours. And so, my interest in quilting inevitably led to the obsession with fabric stashing. As I traipsed through aisle upon aisle of fabric in quilt shops, both physical and digital, I kept being drawn to the work of one fabric designer who just embodies a lot of my colour aesthetic — Kate Spain.
Kate Spain designs everything from fabric to paper, rugs to pillows, in fresh and colourful palettes. I’ve been making a quilt top with her “Sunnyside” collection which, ironically, is all about clouds and raindrops. And for bonus “meta” points, Kate Spain’s birthday is in April. So there you have it!
April 2015 Club Colourway // Rain in Spain
April 2015 Club Colourway // Rain in Spain
Yarn + Fibre // Merino Yak Silk Yarn, Yak+Silk Fibre
This month is all about pure indulgence. We need something warm, soft, and special to wrap ourselves in while we wait for all this rain to end! Yak is a rare and precious fibre that is as soft as cashmere or baby camel and has a beautifully soft feel.
Yak fibre can be sorted into three types: the outercoat which is shiny and very coarse, the midcoat with a micron count of 25-52, and the down which is 1.25 to 2.25 inches long in staple length with a micron count of less than 25, down to 13. The yak used in this particular blend ranges from 17 to 19 microns (cashmere is typically 19 microns or less), making it very downy soft. Being a down fibre, yak is extremely warm too.
YARN // Spun from a blend of 60% superwash merino wool, 20% yak, and 20% silk, this yarn combines the best qualities of each fibre to produce a luxurious indulgence of a yarn. This 3-ply yarn is a soft, natural grey fingering weight yarn with approximately 400 yards per skein. The natural grey colour produces a rich, warm depth of colour when hand-dyed. Combined with the subtle shine of silk and the bounce and spring of merino, this yarn is truly special.
FIBRE // This Yak+Silk blend of 50% Tibetan yak and 50% cultivated silk is the ultimate luxury fibre. Mixed with silk, this blend will make a shiny, strong, soft, and supple yarn and fabric!
Please be sure to hand wash your yarn and finished objects delicately. Down fibres like this yak can felt (and shrink) easily, so please be gentle with it!
If you’d like to see what our members are making with their Club yarns and fibres, have a peek in our Ravelry group here »
