Playing With Fiber – A New Beginning
It’s 2023 and I am preparing for all sorts of fun this year! In June, I will turn 65, so I am busy learning about all my Medicare options. I guess, that will be a new beginning, but that’s not the one I am happiest about. What I am rejoicing in, the most, is my new business name and the dreams I have for the future.
Playing With Fiber, is what I plan to do, for the rest of my days on the planet! Playing is the keyword, it gives me permission to try new things, and not place such restrictions on myself. Most of all, it will fit into the life Brian and I, are finally planning to live. It’s taken a lifetime to identify “what I really want,” and suddenly it is right in front of me. Brian and I were recently at a coffee shop, discussing upcoming travel plans, and he suggested we take photos during our quiet moments, and turn them into fiber memories. Like a bolt of lightning it hit me! This is our time, our plan, and our future…the business will work with us, wherever we are.
I’m excited to say, this blog post will be the very first post, on my new website. In our new business strategy, I will write about what I am doing, and offer specially curated custom kits. If a reader is interested in something special, they can reach out to me, and we will do our best to make a kit with supplies that work for them.
This blog post is about … blending yarns to make what you want to see. As my website implies, I am always fiddling with my fibers. I look at a single skein of dyed yarn as a flat canvas on which to build. Most of my favorite knitting projects are knit with a combination of yarns.
In close ups you see the number of yarns I mixed together to get the blends I wanted to see. That sort of play, makes every project fun for me, and makes it uniquely satisfying. This project is from 2017.
Now, let’s fast forward, recent projects I have been playing around with. I made some educated discoveries along the way. Instead of throwing anything together, color wise, I have started to realize the transformative effects of additional yarns, colors, and fibers.
This is a lovely DK weight yarn I dyed. I wish I dyed 2 skeins this way, but instead I dyed 5 of them. Now, that I have this cowl knitted, and no one seems to be interested in buying all it’s brightness, I have 2 entire skeins languishing. I saw a pattern for these quick slippers, and thought I could use some cozy slippers. I grabbed a small ball of leftover yarn and began pulling color options, to tone it down a bit. Nothing I had laying around seemed to work. In a moment of craziness, I threw some brighter colors at it, and surprisingly that was what it needed. I’m going to enjoy wearing these punches of color on my feet.
My next example addresses working with beautiful hand dyed fingering weight yarn, when you no longer enjoy projects on small needles, that take forever. That’s where I find myself at this moment in life. I have a solution that works for me…knit luxurious fingerless mitts.
http://www.mountaintopfarms.net is where I purchased this lovely angora blend yarn. You can see the yummy halo in the photos. This yarn gives all the warmth you can possibly want, and they knit up really quick on US-7 double points.
My last blended fiber project, is a sweet little shawl made with a special skein of silk and bamboo, I purchased at a destash sale. It was only $5. I thought about throwing it away a hundred times. But, every single time something stopped me. It was simply meant to be!
I encourage you to play, with those favorite skeins, you have laying about. Dare to try something different! You may surprise yourself.
Capi Puszcz
