Plum Divine - favorite of all time?

Recently, I was asked, "If you were a color, what color would you be?"

For most people, this should probably be an easy question, right? Well, I thought it should be, and maybe it would have been except for one thing -

I work with color *every day*. *COLOR* is one of the main reasons I do what I do, spin what I spin, etc. I spend way too much time thinking about color and which ones to use together. I spend hours pouring over hand dyed fiber with the most important trait being the color and color blends (followed second by the fiber type). (And let's not even get into the photo-editing process whereby I angst over whether or not my pictures are truly capturing the yarn colors accurately.)

Anyways, my answer to that question was finally, "Plum Divine" - a combination of green, plum/purple, a little burgundy and usually some chartreuse. And, the funny thing is, this combines two of my past "favorite colors" - when I was very young, green was my favorite color, and more recently, purple has become a favorite. But, this blend, this colorway, is truly my favorite - or at least definitely in the top 5.

The color first appeared on Lynn aka the Yarn Wench's site a couple of years ago as her colorway "Plumgrove". It has undergone some slight changes from batch to batch, and also from fiber type to fiber type - but it always grabs my attention and I can't help but purchase it. I have spun it as an art yarn (in merino), a single ply (in merino/silk and Falkland), a Squish-tastic in merino and merino/silk and a Navajo 3ply in merino/silk. Currently, I only have one skein of it available, a single ply in a merino/silk blend, but I have two batches of it waiting to be spun into art yarns. I hope to have those spun up next week, but as always happens when I receive a batch of it - I need to let it sit and simmer awhile, percolate if you will, before I bring it out, match it up with the yarns, and spin it up.

Here is a mosaic of some of the previous spins in this colorway -


Tomorrow, I will be highlighting a great etsy seller who makes gorgeous cowls with my art yarns - and of course, one of them was crocheted with a PLUM DIVINE SKEIN! :)

(If you are interested in a Plum Divine skein in an art yarn form, I should have 4 skeins spun up next week. I also have one more batch of it in the merino/silk blend which could be spun into a Navajo 3ply or single.)

Plum Divine 2009!

Back in December, I bought several batches of hand dyed wool from the Yarn Wench in one of my all-time favorite colors - Plumgrove. I use the plumgrove color to spin my FunctionArt Plum Divine Yarns. I have spun quite a few batches of this color in various fibers and styles of yarn. You can see all of them here in this flickr set. The most recent batches I bought were supposed to be spun in December, and my plan was to "retire" this color in 2009. But, I just can't stay away! (Plus, I never had time to get them spun last year!). So, I've decided I will continue to spin it as it arises - meaning, if Lynn dyes it and I happen to purchase it, I'll spin it, but I am not going to take custom requests for it this year.

Anyways, I finally managed to spin the two batches of merino that I had - these seemed a bit darker and deep in color, so it was a good thing that I had to find new yarns to spin in since I'd run out of some of the "staples" I had used in previous versions. There are still a couple of the same yarns from previous batches, but these new skeins have some new ones added in, too. I am still plying with the same color of thread, though.

Here is a mosaic of the 4 most recent skeins.

You can find them on etsy -
Plum Divine 2009 1A - 84 yards
Plum Divine 2009 1B - 76 yards
Plum Divine 2009 2A - 88 yards
Plum Divine 2009 2B - 80 yards

Now, the decision is what to do with the other fiber batches I have! I have 8-12 ounces of this color in a merino/silk blend, and 16 ounces in a Falkland that feels almost like a Falkland/Merino cross. The merino/silk will most likely become a 3ply, but I'm not sure about the Falkland - singles? 2ply? more art yarns? For now, I'm going to spin other things, but this will be in the back of my mind.

And, now, I must get to work spinning some new colors!

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New bamboo yarns for Monday

New bamboo yarn skeins now listed on etsy! Two skeins of Ocean Dusk and 2 skeins of Chocolate Berry Shine. I should have more tomorrow, too!

And, in other news, today I received some more PlumGrove fiber . . . I know I said I wouldn't be spinning my "Plum Divine" art yarns any more . . . but, I *did* say that it would be a color retired for 2009 . . . so, since it is NOT yet 2009, I am going to try and spin up 4 more skeins in this colorway. As always, they may be slightly different from previous versions, but the main colors will be the same. Look for them late this week or maybe early next week. (Newsletter subscribers please note - these are *not* going to be eligible for the FunctionArt newsletter discount which begins Sunday, December 20. My apologies for this.)

The last of "Plum Divine"

This past weekend I spun 4 more skeins of one of my favorite colorways. It is "Plumgrove" and hand dyed merino wool from the Yarn Wench. Over the past year I have spun so many versions of this colorway, but finally I come to the end. As much as I love this combination, I do believe I'll be "retiring" this colorway and will not be spinning it in 2009. That's not to say I won't have other purple/green combinations, but they would not be "Plum Divine"

Here are the last four skeins -


And, how exciting to find out this yarn was featured on the All Things Dearly blog, as yesterday's Daily Find! Yay!

In other weekend spinning news, I also spun up the last of the "Autumn Spice" colorway. This color originally began as a custom request for a special order. Even though we ended up going with a different color for that project, I loved this combination so much, I still commissioned quite a bit of it from Lynn aka the Yarn Wench. Though I do have more of it in a merino/silk blend, this is the last of the merino spun into two art yarn skeins -

Now, I'd better get to work - I've got lots of Falkland wool to spin into single plys today!

Mad-Town Rocks! (and Plum Grove)

So, my show this past weekend was actually really good!! It was at a mall in Madison, and can I just say - Madison rocks! There are definitely a lot of knitters there so instead of selling mostly hand knits (which is what I *thought* would sell) - I sold yarn!! I always prefer when the yarn sells, since I really do enjoy spinning more than knitting right now. That's not to say I don't like knitting - it's just right now I'd rather be spinning. Honestly, there isn't much I would RATHER do than spin . . .

At the show, which WAS long - 11 hours on Saturday and 7 hours on Sunday and that was just the "open" hours - I was there early both days! - I got A LOT of spinning done! Yay! Since I hadn't spun much in the days leading up to the show, it was actually really great to just sit and spin all day. Here are the yarns that I finished:

Plum Grove - Navajo 3-ply in Merino Wool/Silk blend. This fiber is an 80% merino/20% silk blend hand dyed by the Yarn Wench as a special request. (You know I can't seem to get enough of this colorway!). I spun one batch into this Navajo 3-ply skein, 200 yards total of thinner worsted weight:
With the other batch of merino/silk, I spun a thin strand, that I used in a different yarn (I'll show that one in just a second) but had a bit left over to make this smaller 80 yard skein:

The other yarn I spun was the bulky 2-plys I like to do - spun from one thick/thin strand of merino wool, and then plied with the thinner strand of merino/silk. I also ended up with one large and one small skein. Here is the large, 136 yards, 4.3 oz!

And, the Mini Skein of 46 yards:
This week I plan on spinning up some art yarns, but first I just *had* to spin some of the "Babycakes" I got from LOOP last week! First, I selected some that I thought would work well together (since they are small little "mini-batts" of fiber, I wanted to combine them for a longer yarn) . . . here is a shot of the ones I chose:
Each row was spun into a separate yarn, in my "Rocky Roads" style - plied with thread with coils along the way! I finished quite late last night so was only able to take some shots of the yarn (before setting the twist) in my crappy night lighting - but here is one (I'll have better ones later today!)

They are VERY textured and sparkly! They'll be listed on etsy and my website later today!

That's all for today!

Tuesday!

I actually don't have much to say this morning. It is snowing. Again. But, oh well.

I spun up another skein of the "PlumGrove Revisited" last night! It is 98 yards, here is a shot I took last night before setting the twist:

I am waiting to hear if this and/or the other skein are spoken for, but if not, they will be listed later today.

I DID decide to list the coily yarn I posted about yesterday. "All the Pretty Coils" is now available on etsy:
Even though I will be tempted to spin tonight (and I just might sneak in a little bit of it!) my plan is to knit. I have a show again this weekend (well, I'm *supposed* to have a show this weekend - but it will very much depend on the weather as I'm not going to make the 5+ hour drive if we are getting yet another snowstorm!) so really want to finish up a couple of knit things. I want to have at least one shawl, and finish the scarf I started the other night. Plus, I want at least one more pair of wristwarmers . . . so, it will most likely be more knitting for me tonight!

So, it's Monday . . .

and I really do want to blog. Really. I do. But I'm so cranky that I just feel like anything I write will be so negative . . . and I try to avoid that . . . really. I do! ;)

so . . .

The Valentine Craftacular was this past Saturday and as always it was fun! I had fewer sales this year compared to last year, but I'm just so grateful that it was better than the show I did in January. AND, even a slow day at the Craftacular ends up being fun because of the atmosphere, and of course the other great sellers!

This time, I bought a couple of things. I usually don't. Especially since I sort of need all of my sales money now . . . but, I broke down and bought a beautiful hand-dyed (tie-dyed!) scarf and a pair of bright orange/yellow/pink socks from HipKidsTyeDye! The colors are just so amazingly vibrant! And the scarf is just beautiful!

I was also, once again, next to Lulu from Lulu's Stabby Critters! It is amazing the fun critters she felts and she had some new creatures just for Valentine's Day! I was sad to hear she sold her "Princess Leia" though! (but, good for her, of course)

But. The weather. God I am so sick of the weather. So sick of snow and winter and wind chill advisories! My drive home from Madison was very stressful. It was snowing, which wasn't so totally bad, it was nothing like the foot we got last week - but, it was blowing and causing issues on the freeway, and of course other drivers. So, by the time I got home my neck/shoulders were one big knotted mess of stress!

AND! We were supposed to go out for a friend's birthday . . . we still did, actually, and I'm glad. Since I am usually ravenous when I get home from a show it worked out great - we had a really nice dinner and I was able to get a nice girly drink to relax just a little. Then we went bowling. Yes, bowling. Even though I actually once took a bowling class in college (I was basically looking for a cheap/easy class to take to retain my "student" status so I could keep my job at the library) I still kinda suck at it. I did score over 100, though, 2 out of 3 games and by the last game I was so tired that it was amazing I could even get the ball down the lane . . .

Now, I do want to say that I wouldn't have done any of this if I had had to drive far - but all of this fun happened within 5 minutes of home, so . . . low risk since by then it had stopped snowing. Still cold, of course!

Hmmm . . . so Sunday was supposed to be a spinning day! And . . . I did nothing! Okay, I actually spun one yarn:

why, yes, it may look familiar as it is another "version" of the Plum Grove/Plum Lime skeins that have been so popular. I actually love this color combination and this one, especially, seemed to turn out really . . . intense? The fiber (dyed for me by Lynn aka the Yarn Wench) was darker than previous batches, so I used that as an opportunity to go a little wild in the yarns I chose to spin in - I used more purple yarns this time as well as burgundy yarns, along with some new green ones as well. I believe this skein may be spoken for but I have 6 more oz and do plan on doing them similar to this one since I do like how it turned out.

I did do a little bit of knitting, but this skein is all I have to show for the weekend! :(

Oh, wait! I do have another yarn - this is a coily yarn that I spun while at the Craftacular on Saturday. I usually spin Navajo 3-ply yarns while at shows, but this time, I decided to do something a little different! I spun up one of the coily "beehive" yarns!

This is spun from "Getaway", a domestic wool also hand dyed by the Yarn Wench. Turned out different than what I expected but I do like it. This one *might* be listed tonight OR it *might* become my first "WIN THIS YARN" skein! Not sure yet.

And, just because I don't have a lot to show today, I thought I would post this picture of what is probably my current favorite yarn! "Violets Are Blue" art yarn with coils & beehives!

So, that's is it from me for today! And, I think I got through this post without 1. another rant about the weather 2. a rant about the fact i have no more sick time or vacation time so am not sure how i'm going to survive the next 4-1/2 months and 3. a rant about stupid drivers.

So, yay! ;)