Good afternoon and happy Friday to you. As I write this, our daughter, son-in-law, and grandson just headed home after a visit. Everyone was elated over beautiful little Eddie and enjoyed getting to hold him. If you’ll indulge a very proud grandma…

This week I want to tell you about what I have dyed, and I also want to give you the results of last week’s poll for the March club colorway.

Fresh from the Dye Pot

Let’s start with the fresh colorways. Two are in my regular dye rotation. That means I dye them every three or four months. The other one is so old it’s new again. All three are Splashed & Speckled colorways, which means they are not likely to pool.

The first is Sapphire Dreams, which is one of my favorites. My son Joseph created it. He is a very talented dyer. I only wish he had more time to work for me! Sapphire Dreams has many shades of blue, emerald green, purple, and berry. Here it is on Stained Glass Sock:

Here is Sapphire Dreams with Northern Lights, which I introduced last week:

Don’t they look great together?

The next colorway I want to show you is The Hands of the King, which was inspired by Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings. It has several shades of green, blue, gold, and purple. Here it is on So Silky Sock:

The last colorway I want to show you is called Smitten. The last time I dyed it was actually 4 years ago, but this week I was going through my “yarn recipes” when I was going to dye up The Hands of the King, and I just really missed Smitten and decided to dye it up. I’m glad I did, and I hope you like it too. It has greens, purples, burgundy, gold, silver, and copper. Here it is on Squoosh DK:

I also went ahead and knit a sample hat so you can get an idea of how the colorway can work up. Here’s a closeup:

And here’s the whole hat:

The brim is Phantom of the Opera.

I dyed all three of these colorways on a variety of different yarn bases and weights so you can pick the perfect one for your project. You can see them altogether in the New This Month collection of my shop along with the other colorways I have dyed in February.

The March Club Colorway

Last week, I asked you to vote on two paintings for the March club colorway. Both were by Gustave Courbet from the Realist period. One is The Sleeping Spinner, and the other is Young Woman Arranging Flowers. The latter got about three times as many votes as the former, so I’ll be using Young Woman Arranging Flowers as my inspiration for the March colorway. It’s also known as The Trellis. He painted it in 1862.

Here it is once again:

I think it will be a lovely spring colorway! The deadline to sign up for the club in time for the March club colorway is March 1st.

Ode to a Loom

I will leave you with a link to a poem by Martin Willits Jr. called “Ode to a Loom.” A good friend sent this to me this morning. It was just published today, and the poet is a retired librarian–and I presume a weaver as well. He echoes my thoughts that more men should discover the joys of the fiber arts. The rhythm matches the sound and feel of weaving. Here’s the link to his poem.

Have a beautiful week!