Holiday kits are ready to roll out at last! Everything on this list is scheduled to ship before or on November 30th, which is hopefully ample time for holiday deadlines. All prices are in Canadian dollars and we ship worldwide for $12 CDN.

How do you find all these things? At 11am EST tomorrow they will all hit the website in their own new section called “Holiday kits”. These products will be available until Monday evening at 9pm EST and then we take them down. As much as we’d love to, we won’t be able to accommodate late or custom orders while still hitting the holiday deadline, so you’ll want to set your clocks for this one ;)

---

Let’s start with the 2018 holiday colour, “Sugar Plum”. Sugar Plum is rich and deep, transitioning from silver through purple-pinks to a warm reddish purple. It comes with its own pattern, the Sugar Plum cowl. The cowl requires one full 600 yard skein and one 150 yard twin, and it all ships together as a kit with a printed pattern. These kits will be $65 CDN each. You can choose between Merino/Cashmere/Nylon and Merino/Cashmere/Stellina if you prefer sparkles :)

Next up on the list is our calendar. Earlier this year I had asked folks if they would be interested in prints of my yarn photography, and I received a lot of feedback asking me to combine prints with a calendar, so I took a lot of time to search out the largest size on the thickest cover stock paper I could find. The result is an 11×17 calendar on a lovely uncoated paper, single-sided so you can cut out and frame each month

To protect the calendars, they will ship with cardboard backing and an extra protective bag inside an oversized mailer. Each photo has been curated carefully to provide a year of inspiration. Calendars will be $49 CDN each.

Lastly, our pendant/yarn combos. These were a blast to make! Because resin dyes and yarn dyes are not the same thing it was a challenge to recreate our colour ways, and I enjoyed the exercise and the change of pace. The results are shiny and detailed, a silver-plated “pewter” (zinc-based alloy) on an 18″ silver plated snake chain with hand painted resin designs protected by a thick coat of jewelry-grade resin for a perfect, glassy finish.

Once you click on the colour you like, you will be prompted to choose the pendant you want from the list. Pendants will be numbered and you will get the exact one you order. Each one has been hand-poured and is one-of-a-kind, I couldn’t recreate the exact one  twice even if I wanted to ;)

We tried to cover off as many of our popular gradients as possible. Each one comes packaged in a vinyl box with its yarn, caked and ready to use. The inserts include the yarn inspiration photo, base information and a download code for a free copy of our “Emy” shawl pattern. The yarn can be either Merino/Cashmere/Nylon or Merino/Cashmere/Stellina; your choice :) The entire thing comes protected in its own cardboard box , cushioned with holiday paper and ready to gift. Kit with yarn are $79 CDN each.

We ended up with a few pendants that were lovely, but didn’t especially match any of our yarns. They will be available for sale along with a few Sugar Plum pendants that, for simplicities sake, also do not ship with yarn (in case someone wanted both a pendant and the cowl kit). These are the only pendants that will be available without yarn and you’ll be able to choose them from the list by number. Pendants without yarn will be $37 CDN each.

Want to complete your holiday package? For an extra $5.50 CDN you’ll get a super adorable, hand made Christmas card by Crafty Lindsay (@CraftyLindsay on instagram) featuring our mascot pups. Cards are blank inside for your own festive message.

Lastly, did you think I’d forgotten Mist? Mist joins the permanent collection tomorrow and will be in the “tonal yarns” section. To learn more about this gentle tonal you can click here.

 

 

Happy shopping tomorrow. We had a blast putting together this year’s collection and I hope very much that you enjoy the pieces as much as we did!

 

 

A few years ago, Tito and visited Vancouver Island, rented a car and drove to Tofino. We shot there for several days; the driftwood, the kilometres of empty beaches, the massive trees, Tofino was a dream. We went during the off season, so it felt like we had this magical place to ourselves.

The mist created a very cool effect; there was little to no definition in the day at all. The tide was out and the ocean seemed so far away.

There was a shot I took that day that has always felt kind of magical to me. It’s a picture of the sand and the ocean and the sun, but so very different from the way we typically imagine sand, ocean and sun. Rather than powerful blues in the sky, a blazing sun, warm brown sand and an ocean going through all the blues and greens we expect, I saw this:

I forgot about the shot and moved on. But lately I’ve been experimenting with grey, and in my search for the perfect grey (not too cold, not too slate, not too dark… grey is more complex than you’d think!) I remembered this colourless day. Little-to-no details in the world, defined by shadows and shimmers and little else.

“Mist” is the result. A gentle semi solid that will show up detailed patterns as beautifully as stockinette and is warm and silvery, without feeling flat. I went through several grey iterations before hitting the right mix, and there are so many dyes in here to make this shade. There is taupe, black, grey, brown, gold …. we’ll definitely need to make big batches of the dye now that we’ve nailed the recipe.

I am in love, and Mist will be joining the permanent collection in our next shop update, scheduled for November 1st. It will include Mist, the holiday pop up (Sugar Plums) and a few other goodies (TBA).

Some people would have decided that the day was too cold and wet and glum for a walk along the beach, and eschewed the idea in favour of a fire, a hot drink, a good book. These things were tempting us that day, but we are photographers, and that means that we pursue those unique conditions of light that can redefine a typical scene and make magic out of the ordinary. I was very grateful for the gifts we got on that morning walk, and I hope you enjoy the new yarn as much as I enjoyed making it.

 

 

 

This autumn we wanted to do something a little different to celebrate the coming of cooler weather. These past few weeks you might have seen some yarns with a slightly different flavour showing up on instagram; instead of having our photography inspire the yarn, we’ve brought real, natural items into the dye station with us and used them to direct our dyeing process. Each item was part of a carefully curated collection of living things.

When the yarn was done, we staged photography of the finished yarns with their living inspirations. The result is a collection of  7 gentle yarns, all of which will launch in our online store on September 15th.

First up; Wine Grapes.
These grapes were gifted to us from Frogpond Organic Vineyard in Niagara on the Lake. The colour is a deep, slightly variegated blue. Not too saturated, not too navy, just rich blue with black flecked throughout.

Birch
Birch was pure delight to work with; this colour is so subtle and yet so nuanced. Beige doesn’t seem to cover it, there are black flecks, shades of warm grey and an almost rusty/peach tone to cover the oxidized areas of the branch where to bark has come away. Anything but boring, this neutral was made for sweaters and accessories.

Succulent
This one could get confusing because we also have a tonal named succulent, and indeed we did try this colour as a tonal as well. As lovely as that tonal was, the gradient won the day. Softer than our usual gradients this gentle colour will shine on shawls! Succulent plants are such a wide world, we really enjoyed seeking out the right plants for our shoot.

Quill
Quill is the most variegated of the lot and a personal favourite. The feathers are from a turkey and the yarn attempts to evoke all the shades of brown, beige, deep almost blue-black and pale, warm grey while remaining wearable and workable.  The result is a rustic yarn that’s anything but shy.

Cabbage
“Do you really want to name your yarn after a vegetable no one likes?”. Such were the words of a close friend when she saw this photo. She raises a valid point, but once I saw these small ornamental cabbages in the nursery I knew I had to do something with them! Slightly bluer than grass-green, flecked with brown, blue and gold throughout, this will hopefully redefine how you feel about green yarn, and maybe even about cabbages, too.

Flora
Pink is not normally my jam. As another close friend said, The Blue Brick has a “look” and these light, floral tones don’t normally fall within my zone. However, once we were done we stepped back and thought “here’s a pink I can wear”. Gentle and nuanced with purple and coral, this semi solid yarn would be great by itself or in a fade.

Nest
Nest was the yarn that started us on this journey. My dear friend Kim (of Kim’s Barn!) gave us these lovely farm-fresh eggs. I marvelled at the variation of colour that her chickens could produce and the gentle egghshell vibe I got from them. This colour could also be expressed as something I have yet to do; a fade set. The eggs beg to be made into a palette for a larger project, do they not? Perhaps I’ll try.

This collection will launch September 15th. Whether it’s a pop up or a permanent addition remains to be seen; we’ve been over our heads lately (as you know if you’ve been waiting for yarn) and I want to keep it manageable for us. If it becomes permanent it will be at the cost of other colours which will have to retire. Its a tough decision and not one I’m ready to make right now, so for the moment I’ll pile up on these colours for the upcoming Kitchener-Waterloo festival and prepare them for online sales come mid-month. You’ll be able to order any quantity you like, in any base, when the colours launch.

We enjoyed this series and the challenges that came with it; subtle colours, nuanced tones, softer, gentler changes than we’re used to. The results are so wearable, lovely and versatile. I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as we do.

 

 

We’ve added a small, but useful function to our website that will help users coordinate different colourways, both tonal and ombre.

1. On any product page you will now see two tiny buttons on the left.

Click “Add to compare” to save the product to your personal collection. When you are ready to view all the products together, click on the “Compare Products” button below.

Now you can see them all side-by-side – handy for building fades or multi-skein projects, or seeing how a particular ombre works with a particular tonal.

Hope you find it helpful – always feel free to send us your feedback!

You may have noticed some watercolour’esqu teasers on our instagram – it’s not watercolour, in fact, it’s acid dye! The same dye we use on our yarns.

I had quite a bit of fun, painting onto watercolour paper using dyes. Afterwards, I took the “splotches” that I liked most and shot them, then vectorized them (for you marketing types). I then took my favourite of the lot and designed our new logo!

Tada! Look for our new branding starting to make its way slowly onto ball bands and website collateral over the next few weeks. Why a rebrand? There were a few reasons; I wanted something recognizable and original, that hearkened back in a very direct way to what I love doing most; putting colour on things. I also wanted new colours as our signature look, because I wanted to design a signature colourway to go with it, introducing a colour simply called “The Blue Brick”.

This colour has replaced Iridescent (they’re a little close). It’s a rich tonal that lives in the same space as the new logo; deep sapphire, violet turquoise and just a little hint of green.  It also is evocative of one of our favourite hobbies; chasing the Northern Lights, which makes it very us.

Of course it also comes in silk, another reason for “dyeworks” instead of “Inspired yarns”.

That’s my big announcement :) Hopefully you enjoy the new colour as much as I do! We’ll have a giveaway on our instagram feed to promote the new look; follow us there for details!

 

By now you’ve probably seen the buzz on instagram – our new book is finally ready to share with the world and we couldn’t be happier with the results!

Country House Knits has 88 pages of lovely photography, and 14 patterns in both written and charted form. This time we released our lookbook as a separate pdf – to help people decide what yarn they need, what patterns they’re interested in, and what the skill/yarn requirements would be.

Click here to view our free lookbook!
Click here to purchase a pdf ebook
 & Click here to order a printed book + the ebook

Here’s a preview of what’s inside :)

We had so much fun with the photography for this; we remodelled a corner of our dining room as a staging area and shot the entire book in one small corner.

Of course the pups made an appearance :)

I’m working now on getting the individual patterns uploaded to Ravelry as well, more info on that coming this weekend!

Thank you to everyone who has followed our little journey with this book. It felt so good to go to print this morning. I couldn’t have done it without a spectacular test knitting and technical editing team. I can’t wait to see what you think!

Psst. In a few days we’ll do a contest and giveaway for printed copies – follow me on instagram to stay in the know!

 

One of the things we learned in Hawaii is that “Aloha” doesn’t just mean “Hello”, as I previously thought. According to wikipedia:

Aloha (pronounced [əˈlōˌhä]) is the Hawaiian word for love, affection, peace, compassion and mercy, that is commonly used as a simple greeting.^[1][2]

I love this. I love that this multifaceted word means so many good things! I thought about Aloha while designing these yarns, and I hope, respectfully, that I managed to include some of that spirit in both the yarn and photography. These colours will be added to our line permanently starting Friday. They will each replace something, so if that something is a favourite of yours, you will have two days to place an order.

---

These new colours will also be at the Knitters Frolic on April 28th (Booth 31, Shokokai Court), and if you’re local to us we’d love to have you at our Hawaii Colours/Book Launch Luau! Yes! We are throwing a Luau at Spin Me A Yarn and I couldn’t be more little girly-excited about it. We’re going to have flowers in our hair and leis around our necks, there will be Mai Tais, spiked fruit punch and possibly even a pig roast (failing that, pizza with pineapples… but I’m almost certain we can do better). There will be new colourways, copies of the new book, kits for all the new patterns, and of course prizes and giveaways! Save the date: Friday May 11th.

---

 

Coastline – Replacing Torii

Coastline is soft and tropical and warm, though made of blues, greys and slates. Variegated with brown and moss-toned speckles, it’s a fun colour for pretty much any project, including sweaters. It would go beautifully with Seafoam or Bauline if you’re looking to pair it with something.

Here’s coastline in context with a few other colours, from left to right: Cobblestone, Muddy Husky, Coastline, Seafoam and Bauline.

Caldera – Replacing Ocean Fortress

Replacing Ocean Fortress was a hard and scary decision, it’s been a favourite for a long time and it’s our oldest existing colour. However, you can approximate it by combining Willow and Iceberg, so it was also a bit redundant. I hope the new colour makes you just as happy :)

Caldera is based off perhaps the most dramatic photo of the trip; the Milky Way emerging over Kilauea’s caldera lava lake, and shot through the trees. Rich, hot yellow changes to a mild lilac tone and then descends into deep blues. On sparkle yarn it’s especially yummy, and we’ll definitely have sparkle bases at the Knitter’s Frolic!

Kilauea – Replacing Gerber Daisy

This is the last of the Hawaii Series, though not the last of the colour substitutes (read on). Kilauea is a very rich colour, going from fire tones through to deep blues (from the metallic flashing that you get on cooled lava as minerals are leeched to the surface) and then a solid black. It’s a daring colour, a committed colour, and has all the drama it deserves for a photo where I literally melted my sneakers.

Next up are colours that are not from Hawaii, but are being added to our permanent line. First up is “Storm” – which is “Overcast” by another name. I loved the denim blues too much to let them go. “Storm” is going to replace “Sundown”.

Last one – you may have seen this colour sneaking around on Instagram and in the “Country House Knits” book work. This is “Stucco” shot off a wall in the south of Spain making it, quite literally, a Spanish Yellow.

Stucco has already been used in a few projects, and it works up beautifully.

That’s it for new colours for 2018, with the exception of our pop-up series colours, which may or may not continue through the summer as we enter festival season. I hope you’re as excited about them as I am! I hope we will see you at the Frolic and also at our Luau this spring. Lots of great things in the offing :)

Here’s one tourists guide to the Big Island – take it all with a grain of salt, but if you travel there, here’s what I learned, my best shots, and a bit about how I got them. This is a big list with lots of images, bear with me! All the above-water shots are taken with my Canon Mark III. I use prime lenses mostly; a 28mm, a 50mm, an 85mm and a 100mm. For close ups we use the Canon 70-200 f2.8.

1. Car Rental – get 4-wheel drive. Not all-wheel, true 4-wheel. We didn’t, because as a rule I resist the up-sell speeches from folks who are renting me a car (generally I’m tired, travel-worn, cranky and already know that I’m insured so…) BUT, in this case it would have been a good idea. Here are just some of the areas that are closed to you if you don’t have your own 4-wheel drive: The summit of Mauna Kea, the green sand beaches, and Waipi’o Valley. Definitely make sure you have the right wheels if you plan on exploring!

   

2. Lava: There are two ways to go here. Currently lava is not pouring into the sea, so the only option is a 12 mile, gruelling hike. Lava is hard to see in the day, and you can easily wander the lava fields for hours without finding any. During the day the heat is unbearable. During the night the hike is treacherous. I can’t emphasize this enough – I don’t recommend going it alone.

   

   We used Epic Lava Tours, the guides were professional, patient, and informed. They got us out there safely, let me shoot to my hearts content, and got us back safely.

   

    

3. Lava – option 2: The back of the Jagger Museum has an overlook that aims towards Kilauea’s caldera. That caldera has a lava lake at the bottom, and in good conditions you can see lava splashing around. In bad conditions it’s cold, rainy, and has poor visibility, so we went a few times before things were right. The plus side; it’s an easy drive, a dramatic view, and great for anyone who is mobility impaired (or just hates  hiking).

   

4. Pro Tip: If you leave the Jagger Museum and drive down the chain of craters road, you can pull off in the parking lot for the Thurston Lava Tube. From there you’ll still see the crater, but from farther away. The angle is right to see the milky way right above it and the parking lot is pretty much deserted. To me, it was a far more interesting shot. To get the shot below I used a hard, .9 Lee Filter on the bottom of my lens to stop down just the caldera, so the stars could expose properly.

   

5. Waterfalls: Rainbow falls is pretty, easy, and there is a viewing platform right in front that is close to the lot. We were kinda bored about 5 min in, to be honest, and spent more time shooting the resident geckos. The island is covered in falls, be sure to look over every bridge and down every scenic turn off for lots of surprise falls! There are way more than just Rainbow and Akaka.
6. Snorkelling – Kona side is better for swimming; we dove into the water at many of the public beaches and found interesting fish and sea turtles pretty easily. The water is clear and warm and you don’t need go far to see lots of stuff. We thought about buying GoPro cameras but ended up getting cheap knockoffs from Akaso (which we’ve affectionately been calling the “Go Po’s”) and they worked just fine for about 1/4 the price.

   

7. Weather and food/shopping: Hilo tends to be rainy, and the Kona side tends to be nice. Having said that, the Hilo side was gorgeous for about half of our trip. Kona is touristy and has lots of shopping and dining. Hilo is chill, and has somewhat less shopping and dining, but there are still lots of great options, including more boutique shops owned and operated by native Hawaiians, which was more appealing us for gifts and such. Definitely go to Ken’s 24-hour Pancake House; it’s an institution and both the breakfast and dinner menus are amazing. Expect a line up, but trust me, it’s worth it.

   

8. Accommodations: We stayed on the Hilo side at the Hilltop Legacy for about half the trip, and the Oceanfront Legacy for the other half. The Hilltop is super conveniently located right in Hilo, with great views of the Bay and a very quiet neighbourhood. The Oceanfront is about 16m north of Hilo and is gorgeous, private, and very close to Akaka falls, the Botanical Gardens and Zipline tours. It’s a beautiful mansion with a private Lanai, perfect for knitting.  The owners are great people and we’ll definitely stay here again.

   

9. Excursions: We did two water excursions, both of which we loved. One was the Sea quest Captain Cook Memorial site; which features a giant reef, lots of cool things to see, and a 1000 foot drop off which is kinda fascinating.
   

   We had captain Kendra and Sam, who were hilarious and super friendly. We almost saw a hammerhead shark, and were given lots of snacks and drinks on the ship. Afterwards we got an educational tour of the island on the return journey.

   

   Excursion 2 was with Kona Snorkle and Sail for a night swim with Manta Rays. I can’t recommend this one enough, it totally blew my mind. If you’re skittish swimmer then beware; they’re up to 8 feet wide and will come right up to you. They are gentle giants, graceful and awe-inspiring. If you are ok to chill in kinda cold water (they give you a wetsuit so it’s really not bad) for about an hour then you’re in for a good show. I fell in love.

   

   

10. Mauna Kea; Fun fact: Mauna Kea is actually the biggest mountain in the world, but most of it is below sea level. The visitor information centre is at 9000 ft, and because we didn’t bring the right vehicle, we couldn’t go to the top. At the top is a world class astronomical observatory – when we come back it will be our first stop! There is a hill nearby that you can climb to watch the sunset – totally worth it!

    Once the sun goes down it’s a great site for start gazing. Beware though; it’s crowded and though Mauna Kea is a sacred site, expect loud, unruly folks and lots of light pollution from cars. However, if you aim up, and use a lens hood, you can still get some great stuff. The staff of the visitor centre use a laser light to walk the crowd through a star gazing exercise, an awesome experience for kids especially.

    

11. Driving: Hawai’i’s Big Island is very easy to get around in. There are 2 main coastal highways, the 11 and the 19. They meet in Hilo, and in Kona. There is also a highway 200 that cuts through the middle providing passage from Kona to Hilo in 2 hours. Fog is a problem, driving at night can be very hazardous and fog/rain can come suddenly. Other than that we found it to be pretty relaxed. There is no gas in the interior, so if you take this road, or plan to visit Mauna Kea, fuel up.

Those are our main tips if you decide to visit this amazing place! The Big Island is gorgeous, friendly, and had lots of things that we didn’t get to see, even with almost two weeks. We bought some lovely locally made items, mostly jewellery, hand painted clothing and body products. You can also buy famous Kona coffee, Macademia Nuts and bulbs for exotic plants (approved within the US only).

We have relaxed, explored, adventured and gotten inspired. Lots of great new colourways are coming. I am full of awe and gratitude for the things nature has shared with us and can’t wait to get home!

Shots taken at the Kilauea Caldera, and the 9500ft altitude visitor centre of Mauna Kea. The trip is almost over and I’m so full of soul food and colour inspiration!