Colour Swatching
Daily we are asked to post swatches of our yarns. I understand! When you look at the colours in a skein, it is nearly impossible to determine how the yarn will knit up. Here is the truth of the matter.
Many of our colours are 1 of a kind. Limited skeins of are produced. This is part of the magic behind hand painted skeins. When you have that skein, it is unique to you or very few others in the world. How you use it makes it even more unique. Enjoy the process knowing as many of us have discovered, not every yarn is meant to be what we think it should be. If you love the colours, you will love the project it ultimately becomes. Sometimes that is 2 or three projects down the road.
Even if we did swatch every colour, chances are it won’t knit up like the swatch I have knit when you knit your skein! I worry when we do post swatches that you will be frustrated when your project doesn’t look like my swatch. Tension, number of stitches, pattern are just the beginning to variation. The larger issue is the hand painting process. By example, “Morning at the Lake” in this post by the simple twitch of my hand has more navy, less pink, blends green in one spot or fails to strike every strand underneath. All of these variables change how the yarn will work up for you even IF you used the same needles and achieved my gauge.
I see comments online when individuals are frustrated that their socks don’t match perfectly. This is no fault of your knitting or the dyer. It is the gift of the yarn that you have purchased. If symmetry is important to you, my strong suggestion is a factory produced yarn. Save the handprinted for that beautiful shawl you have been eyeing.
Now that I have gone on about why we don’t…. here is our compromise. To the best of our ability and time (mostly mine because try as I might, I have yet to convince David or Tyler they need to knit) we will post a swatch for our repeatable colourways. Over the past week we have added Shiver, Fireflies, Autumn Treasure, Morning at the Lake, Seaside Sunsets and Sugar Skull. My project bags are full of half complete socks and singles. They will get done, along with our new colourways. I promise.
Many of our colours are 1 of a kind. Limited skeins of are produced. This is part of the magic behind hand painted skeins. When you have that skein, it is unique to you or very few others in the world. How you use it makes it even more unique. Enjoy the process knowing as many of us have discovered, not every yarn is meant to be what we think it should be. If you love the colours, you will love the project it ultimately becomes. Sometimes that is 2 or three projects down the road.
Even if we did swatch every colour, chances are it won’t knit up like the swatch I have knit when you knit your skein! I worry when we do post swatches that you will be frustrated when your project doesn’t look like my swatch. Tension, number of stitches, pattern are just the beginning to variation. The larger issue is the hand painting process. By example, “Morning at the Lake” in this post by the simple twitch of my hand has more navy, less pink, blends green in one spot or fails to strike every strand underneath. All of these variables change how the yarn will work up for you even IF you used the same needles and achieved my gauge.
I see comments online when individuals are frustrated that their socks don’t match perfectly. This is no fault of your knitting or the dyer. It is the gift of the yarn that you have purchased. If symmetry is important to you, my strong suggestion is a factory produced yarn. Save the handprinted for that beautiful shawl you have been eyeing.
Now that I have gone on about why we don’t…. here is our compromise. To the best of our ability and time (mostly mine because try as I might, I have yet to convince David or Tyler they need to knit) we will post a swatch for our repeatable colourways. Over the past week we have added Shiver, Fireflies, Autumn Treasure, Morning at the Lake, Seaside Sunsets and Sugar Skull. My project bags are full of half complete socks and singles. They will get done, along with our new colourways. I promise.