Every spring in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, we celebrate sakura, cherry blossom, season. During this wonderful time of year, there are cameras capturing the new blooms on every cherry blossom lined street. Families and loved ones smiling under the delicate canopy of flowers. We become completely enamoured by these spring blossom. For this month’s Secret Stash colourway, we were captivated by the theme of sakura, along with the challenge of looking at one idea from different perspectives. We are delighted to now share with you this month’s Yarn Club colourway, Sakura Season!
FELICIA’S STORY BEHIND SAKURA SEASON
Inspired by the Japanese tradition of hanami, the Japanese term for flower viewing, both Vancouver (where the studio is) and Richmond (where I live) hosts Cherry Blossom Festivals throughout the month of April each year.
The theme of cherry blossom, sakura, and hanami is one that has captured me over and over again. We’ve already designed multiple colourways inspired by these delicate pink flowers — colourways that celebrate the delicate and fragile nature of cherry blossoms, and the transition of deep pink buds to pale pink petals. I love the challenge of looking at one idea from different perspectives.
In this month’s celebration of cherry blossoms, I wanted the colours to emphasize the celebration. Flower viewing parties might be meditative, tranquil, and quiet for some… but it also might be raucous, unbridled, and social for others.
My grandparents lived in Japan for nearly 70 years and I was lucky enough to visit a few times during cherry blossom season. On these occasions, I recall walking through parks lined with cherry blossom trees and crowded with exuberant picnic parties. There were vendor stalls along every path, selling desserts, snacks, and vibrantly coloured Konpeitō sugar candy. It’s this memory that inspired our April colours — vivid pops of fuschia, pink, and juicy tangerine contrasting with earthy green park foliage and clear aqua sky.
PROJECT IDEAS
A popular idea for working with this month’s yarn, double sock blanks are a fantastic way to get two identical socks or projects, each using approximately 50g of yarn. Some ideas would be matching socks or matching wrist warmers.
SweetGeorgia Team member Anita paired Sakura Season along with one skein of our Tough Love Sock in Lavender, choosing to knit Corrina Ferguson’s Wylene top design. The result is a colourful and fun new top to wear all through spring and summer. See more at the Sakura Season Wylene project post »
For this project, Anita unravelled the sock blank and wound the two strands by hand along with Rachael’s help at the studio. If you find it difficult to separate the two strands of yarn while winding, Felicia filmed a helpful tutorial video. You can see how a yarn swift is used to separate the two strands into two hanks.
Alternatively, if you want to knit two-at-a-time socks, you can knit directly from the double sock blank. This would be if you don’t mind knitting with the kinks in the yarn. Or, if you want to knit something like a worsted-weight hat, knit straight from the sock blank holding both strands together.
JOIN THE CLUB CONVO
We’d love to hear your thoughts on our Sakura Season colourway, and see what projects it inspires you to create. Whether you knit, crochet, weave, or something else, join us at our crafty community at the SweetGeorgia Discord server. We’ve created a special section for Secret Stash and we’ll create a new thread for each month’s release.
You can find all future samples of our Club colourway projects at our Project Index page »
You can also see a closer look of this colourway reveal at our April Taking Back Friday Live »
