Entries Tagged as 'Color Essence'

Colorways Inspired by Anne of Green Gables

This was the colorway that started my Anne of Green Gables colorways, the Lake of Shining Waters:

Lake of Shining Waters - 2

“They had driven over the crest of a hill. Below them was a pond, looking almost like a river so long and winding was it. A bridge spanned it midway and from there to its lower end, where an amber-hued belt of sand-hills shut it in from the dark blue gulf beyond, the water was a glory of many shifting hues—the most spiritual shadings of crocus and rose and ethereal green, with other elusive tintings for which no name has ever been found. Above the bridge the pond ran up into fringing groves of fir and maple and lay all darkly translucent in their wavering shadows. Here and there a wild plum leaned out from the bank like a white-clad girl tip-toeing to her own reflection. From the marsh at the head of the pond came the clear, mournfully-sweet chorus of the frogs. There was a little gray house peering around a white apple orchard on a slope beyond and, although it was not yet quite dark, a light was shining from one of its windows.

“That’s Barry’s pond,” said Matthew.

“Oh, I don’t like that name, either. I shall call it—let me see—the Lake of Shining Waters. Yes, that is the right name for it. I know because of the thrill. When I hit on a name that suits exactly it gives me a thrill.

It just occurred to me as I was thinking of what to call it. Since then I’ve had fun coming up with more Anne inspired colorways!  This one is called Starry Violet Eyes:

Starry Violet Eyes

“Now you see why I can’t be perfectly happy. Nobody could who has red hair. I don’t mind the other things so much—the freckles and the green eyes and my skinniness. I can imagine them away. I can imagine that I have a beautiful rose-leaf complexion and lovely starry violet eyes. But I CANNOT imagine that red hair away.”

Here is Green Gables:

Green Gables

“…Mrs. Rachel stepped out of the lane into the backyard of Green Gables. Very green and neat and precise was that yard…”

This is The Haunted Wood:

The Haunted Wood

“Fiddlesticks! There is no such thing as a haunted wood anywhere. Who has been telling you such stuff?”

“Nobody,” confessed Anne. “Diana and I just imagined the wood was haunted. All the places around here are so—so—COMMONPLACE. We just got this up for our own amusement. We began it in April. A haunted wood is so very romantic, Marilla. We chose the spruce grove because it’s so gloomy. Oh, we have imagined the most harrowing things.”

Those four items are all for sale in my Etsy shop right now. This last one has already sold but I want to show you anyway, it’s called simply Anne Shirley:Anne Shirley

“You’d find it easier to be bad than good if you had red hair,” said Anne reproachfully. “People who haven’t red hair don’t know what trouble is. Mrs. Thomas told me that God made my hair red ON PURPOSE, and I’ve never cared about Him since.”

Introducing Color Essence

Lately I’m hooked on spinning.  I first started more than a year ago and I’d spin off and on but the last couple months I’ve been doing a lot of it.  Here are some pictures of my handspun yarn and projects knit from handspun:

Green Merino Handspun - 4 skeins finished

Cotton Candy in natural light

Cotton Candy Handspun Socks - finished

Spring Worsted - natural light

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White Stripes Bamboo/Merino - Finished

Mistake Rib Scarf - finished

Calm Waters Merino In Progress

Peachfire Bulky

And my fabulous fiber sources: Green Merino from Jaye’s Little Joys on Etsy; Cotton Candy superwash Merino from a seller on eBay called jenyalovesfiber; Spring color wool sampler from souptoknits on Etsy; Bright BFL from Poppy Flower Fibers on Etsy; Red/Black/White 60% Merino/40% Bamboo by Yarn Love and purchased from The Loopy Ewe; Calm Waters Merino in progress from Willow Acre Fibers on Etsy; Peachfire Merino from a seller on eBay that I don’t remember.

Most recently I’ve been working with this beauty:

Accidental Colorway

I spun it up and have been knitting it into a modified Clapotis. I did only one set of increase rows to make it a narrow scarf.  I spun this thick and thin and left it as a singles because I loved the bold colors and wanted to preserve the varied thickness.  It averages out to about fingering weight with 432 yards from 4 oz of Merino.

Accidental Colorway

The greatest thing about this beautiful roving is that I dyed it up myself!  I’ve been wanting to try dyeing fibers for awhile now so I took some birthday cash and invested in some basic supplies, dyes, and undyed roving.  I set up a shop for myself in Etsy, called Color Essence.  If you aren’t familiar with Etsy, it’s a great do it yourself style online marketplace for handmade items of pretty much all varieties.  There is just a ton of great jewelry, home made bath products, custom stationary, hand knit items, paintings, and I could go on and on.  I’ve bought quite a few rovings from sellers on Etsy myself for spinning so I know there is plenty of interest in hand dyed spinning fibers.  I’ve already sold four of my own hand dyed rovings and am just thrilled!  More fiber is on its way and I can see myself getting really into this.  So go check out my shop and let me know what you think!