The weather has turned crisply cool and the rainy season is on its way into Vancouver. It’s precisely NOW when I feel the overwhelming desire to cozy up to a corner with my spinning wheel and just spin away the evenings. Ever since we retired our monthly Fibre and Yarn Clubs in order to focus on building the School, our team’s workflow and tasks have changed. We’ve replacing the monthly cycle of ideation, inspiration, and dyeing with a monthly cycle of ideation, inspiration, filming, and video editing for the purposes of creating a library of teaching content in and around the fibre arts. While I am deeply passionate about this work that we have chosen to focus on, I do miss one special thing about the Fibre Club… and that is simply playing with different wool fibres each month.
So, in celebration of the Spinning Season that is upon us, we decided to create a new limited-edition colourway that we’re calling “Falling Leaves” and dye it on three very different and very spectacular spinning fibres. This epitomizes what I love about dyeing fibre — the fact that the colours look completely different from fibre to fibre, depending on the inherent qualities of each fibre. Let’s take a look at these fibres in depth:
SweetGeorgia Superwash Targhee – Falling Leaves Colourway
1) Superwash Targhee
This wool fibre takes the dye colours in the most saturated and vivid way, deepening the intensity of our fall colour palette. This fibre is surprisingly bouncy and plush, almost spongey. Being superwash treated, it will draft like butter and spin into a cushy and puffy yarn.
SweetGeorgia Alpaca Merino Silk – Falling Leaves Colourway
2) Alpaca Merino Silk
This blend of 50% alpaca, 30% merino wool, and 20% silk is absolutely sleek and silky to touch. Alpaca typically takes dye colours in a more muted and pale way and so this braid of luxury fibre presents the colours in a mid-tone to light intensity. The appearance is calm and delicate and I can only imagine the drape of this fibre in a handspun, hand knitted shawl or handwoven cloth.
SweetGeorgia Gotland – Falling Leaves Colourway
3) Gotland
Gotland is absolutely one of my favourite wools, for its sheen and tooth. This is a brand new-to-us wool fibre that comes with a natural silvery grey colouring. Combined with our warm, fall colourway, the result is a deep and richly shaded appearance. Gotland feels a little reminiscent of mohair and has a beautiful gentle ripple to the staple as well as a soft glossy look.
Finally, we also dyed this warm, autumn colourway to our favourite all-around everything yarn, Tough Love Sock.
Same colours, totally different results
If you’re curious about the name of the colourway, sure, it’s a bit about autumn, but it’s also the name of the book that my husband gifted to me when we first started seeing each other. Falling Leaves is a woman’s memoir written with a backdrop of her experience in both Chinese and Western cultures. Ultimately, it shares a lesson in letting go of the need for the approval of others… probably a good lesson to learn, regardless of culture or background.
Hitting September is like hitting the reset button for me and it’s a time when I revisit my plans, visions, and goals again, checking in with myself to see if I’m headed where I had intended. What does the change of seasons mean for you? What does it remind you of? What will you be making this fall?
And of course, will you join us for a live spinning sessions during Spinning & Weaving Week? We’ll be online at 9:30 am PDT on Thursday, October 10 and I just might be spinning up these fibres on that call!