Show time!

It’s show season here at gobsmacked, which means lots and lots of yarn dyeing– soon to be followed by lots and lots of yarn caking!

A batch of new gobsmackers, fresh out of the rinse bucket and ready to be skeined for drying.

That’s because the Toronto Knitters’ Frolic is just under a week away, and I’m aiming to bring a whole lot of fresh new gobsmackers to feed the fans.  The Knitters’ Frolic is always a lot of fun, in a huge yarny whirlwind kind of way.  It’s this Saturday, 28 April, at the Japanese-Canadian Cultural Centre (6 Garamond Court, Toronto) from 9 am to 4:30 pm.  I’ll be in the indigodragonfly booth in our usual location (booth 29, to the left just inside the main doors).  I hope to see you there!

My ballwinder has been working overtime, and there’s still a big pile left to be caked.  They’ll be ready come April 28th!

PS: If you’re not able to make it, please check out the shows and online updates that I have scheduled for this summer (in the menu bar on the left margin).  The next online update takes place right here on 12 May at 3pm Eastern (Toronto/ New York) time.

A little bit of genius

I love dyeing yarn and playing in the dye pots– but my very favourite part of creating gobsmackers and setting them loose in the world?  It’s seeing what you do with them.  I’m constantly surprised and delighted at how my yarn + a designer’s great pattern + your match-making and crafting skills end up creating something amazing.  It’s like a collaboration distributed across several people, each bringing a little bit of genius that ends up… well, it ends up like this:

This is Boomerangle, a new pattern by the talented and prolific designer Nim Teasdale.  As a dyer, I love the way that Nim thinks; she takes my work and, as in all the best collaborations, transforms it into something even better.  And, as an exhausted knitter-by-night, I enjoy relaxing with her clever textured patterns that provide just enough interest but not too much challenge for my work-tired brain.

Boomerangle combines two gobsmackers, in this case Silky Yak DK, to create simple colour-play with a fun plaid feel.  Nim’s sample is a russety red to coral-orange cake, striped with another in a pale aqua-green to a deep teal.  The result is an asymmetric triangle that unites a lot of colours into a single wear-with-everything shawl.  Perfect.

Perhaps your own version of perfect is less stripey, though, and a little quieter?  Check out Nim’s other new release, Darwinian.  It’s a lovely triangular shawl, knit sideways, with a bit of lace and a bit of cable, with a relaxing garter body.  It’s a great canvas for dappled gradients like gobsmackers– it has texture and interest, while still being streamlined enough to showcase your yarn.

Intrigued?  Check out the Ravelry project pages (Darwinian and Boomerangle) for a special pattern discount, available through April 1st!

March update

This was another quick one!  Everything has been snapped up.  I’ve sent all invoices and will be shipping on Weds. night/ Thursday morning.  For an announcement of the next update, plus several upcoming shows in Ontario, check back here in a few days’ time.

Welcome to almost-spring, everyone!  It’s not here yet, but the red-winged blackbirds’ calls and the brave (or foolish!) snowdrops peeking out of the brown earth have me hopeful.  In the giddy spirit of spring to come, I’ve chosen colournames for this batch that are either onomatopoeias or are just really fun to say out loud.  Give it a try!

First, though, email me if you see something that you’d like to claim: gobsmackedyarn@gmail.com.  Remember that colours may vary across different devices, so please ask if you’d like more description of a particular gobsmacker.  Prices for doubles (one long gradient over two 100g skeins) are the equivalent of two regular skeins.

Please note that shipping for this batch may be slowed somewhat by the Easter holiday, as Canada Post is closed on 30 March and 2 April.  I’ll ship all orders paid by 6pm Weds. on Thurs. morning; anything after that won’t go out until the following Tuesday.

Four Quarter:
Back left: Trickle; Back right: All Aflutter; Front left: Babble; Front right: Zoom

Four Quarter:
Back left: Creak; Back right: Whip-poor-will; Front centre: Tarnished Rainbow

 

Four Quarter double (one long gradient, over two 100g cakes): 
Stealth Plum

merino/ silk fingering:
Back left: Plunk; Back right: Beep, Beep!; Front left: A Satisfying Splatter; Front right: Gibbering Gerberas

ASL fingering:
Back left: Giggle Monster; Back right: Flutterby; Front centre: First Sign of Spring, A Rainbow

merino DK doubles (one long gradient, over two 100g cakes):
Back: Flip & Flop ; Front: Hiccup & Honk 

merino DK doubles (one long gradient, over two 100g cakes):
Back: Squelch & Squish; Front: Chirp!

merino DK double (one long gradient, over two 100g cakes):
Crackle & Snap

 

 

Feb. update

Wow, that update went fast.  Everything is now sold.  I’ll get the next few updates scheduled soon and will try to keep increasing the amount of yarn available for each update.

Olympic fever, anyone?  I love streaming the Olympics online, because I can choose all kinds of odd events and watch for a good long stretch.  Yesterday, I was amazed by women’s speed skating– 3km in just under four minutes?  Colour me impressed!

In the spirit of sport + whimsy, I’ve named some of this batch of gobsmackers after a series of quirky sports that are not part of the Olympics– some were demonstration sports that never quite caught on, others were official sports that have fallen out of favour, and a few are interesting “sports” that have never been part of the Olympics.   If there’s a year listed as part of the colourname, that’s the last time that that sport appeared at the Olympics.

As usual, email me (gobsmackedyarn@gmail.com) to claim any yarn that you love; I’ll respond by email as quickly as I can and will follow up with a PayPal invoice.  Remember that colours vary across different devices, so do ask if you would like more description of a particular gobsmacker.  Note that doubles are equivalent in price to two skeins of the same base.

merino DK doubles (one long gradient, over 2 skeins):
Top: Dog Sledding (1952) (bright turquoise to kelly greens to dark magenta); Bottom: Ice Stock (1964) (this is royal purple to light turquoise)

merino DK triple (one long gradient, over 3 skeins):
Opening Ceremony

merino/ silk DK doubles (one long gradient, over 2 skeins):
Top: Synchronized Skating (2002); Bottom: Speed Skiing (1992)

 

merino DK: Top left: An Eye for Elegance; Top centre: January Dawns; Top right: Polar Bear Swim; Bottom left: Cannon Shooting (1900); Bottom right: Military Patrol (1948)

merino/ silk DK gobbets (two matching 50g cakes): A Bartholomew, Ostentatiously Displayed

Four Quarter:
Top left: Hot Air Ballooning (1900); Top right: Reining (2004?); Bottom left: Snow Kayaking; Bottom right: Shovel Racing (this is dark royal purple to cadet blue with some magenta speckling)

Four Quarter gobbets (two matching 50g cakes): Kaatsen (1928)

merino/ silk fingering double (one long gradient, over two skeins):
Alpinism (1936)

merino/ cashmere/ silk heavy lace:
left: Born a Year Old/ Korean age; right: Wushu (2008) (this is royal purple to emerald green)

Alpaca/ silk/ cashmere lace: left: Frost Fire; right: The Women Divers of Jeju

BFL/ silk lace:
Ski Ballet (1988)

 

Taking flight

I’ve been dyeing lots of doubles and even some triples lately– that’s two or three skeins of yarn, dyed as one long continuous gradient.  They’re great because they give you lots of yardage for larger projects, as well as some fun options for striping a single gradient against itself.

Sometimes, though, more options means a harder time figuring out what to do with a precious gobsmacker…  So I thought I’d start a series of posts with some pattern suggestions, featuring some of the amazing gobsmacked FOs that folks are posting in my Ravelry group.

First up, Pteryx, a brand-new design from Nim Teasdale!

Pteryx, by Nim Teasdale, in Double Rainbow, a gobsmacked merino DK double.  Photo courtesy of Nim Teasdale.

It’s a stunning textured triangle, knit sideways from a DK double.  The stitch pattern works beautifully with the dappled gobsmacked gradients, simultaneously mixing and highlighting the variations in colour.  The double provides a generous 420 m (460 yds) of DK weight, so the final shawl is squishy and warm– and big enough to wear easily.  Nim used a merino DK double for hers, but the pattern would be amazing in merino/ silk or silky yak DK as well.

The textured stitch of Pteryx looks like the structure of feathers, or birds in flight.  Photo courtesy of Nim Teasdale.

Nim is just wrapping up testing of Pteryx; I’ll be back with a link to the pattern as soon as it’s published.  In the meantime, do tune in for the gobsmacked update this Sunday, 11 February at 3pm Eastern (Toronto/ New York time).  I’ll have various laceweights and some fingering, plus several beautiful sets of DK doubles, just waiting to take flight as Pteryx!

Happy New Year

Happy 2018, friends!  I hope that you rang in the new year with style, or at least in good cheer.  I had plenty of time set aside this past week and a half and was really looking forward to playing with some new ideas in the dyepots– but, alas, I was flattened by the flu over the holidays.  I’m improving steadily, if slowly.  Unfortunately, the lost time in the dyepots means that I’m not going to be able to pull things together for the January update.  That means that the next update will be Sunday, 11 February, at 3pm Eastern time (Toronto/ NY time).

In the meantime, I’m hosting the annual gobsmacked Ides of March KAL, known as the gobSMACKdown, over in my Ravelry group.  Please do come join us– there are lots of interesting projects on the go, and a bunch of pattern suggestions that are sure to make your queue grow ever longer.  Oh, and there are prizes, too!

 

December update

This update is mostly about blues– not the blues as in sadness, but the colour blue, for those who are planning on participating in the Blue, White, and Sparkle knit-a-long on Ravelry (info here).  Blues can be hard to photograph, so I’ve provided a brief description for many of the cakes; please email if you have questions about colours.  Also, remember that my gradients are dappled, not smooth– the simplest looking blue-to-white cakes will probably flash and pool in interesting ways.

To claim yarn, email me using the new email address: gobsmackedyarn@gmail.com.  Note that doubles are the same price as two skeins of the same base.

Four Quarter:
Left: Wearing Ditto-Blues; Right: A Blue-Drugget Gown

Four Quarter:
Left: Tiger Balm for Tots; Right: To Knap a Hot ‘Un

Four Quarter:
Left: To Sport One’s Oak; Right: Join the Swamp Thing!

 

Four Quarter: Wondrous Camouflage

Four Quarter double (2x 100g, one long gradient):
Fairydust Fallout

merino fingering:
Left: Tenacious; Right: To Have a Button On

BFL giant double (2x 150g cakes, one long gradient):
Well Dash My Buttons!

 

MCN giants:
Back Left: Suprisingly Fruity; Back Right: Blushing Like a Blue Dog; Front Left: A Tall Glass of Blue Ruin; Front Right: Unbelievably Cool

merino/ silk doubles (2x 100g, in one long gradient): Left: To Get One’s Silk; Right: Not All Is Blue

 

alpaca/ silk/ linen: Stealth Sky

merino DK:
Back Left: January Dawns; Back Right: An Eye For An Elegance; Front: A Blue-Pigeon Flyer

merino/ silk DK double (2x 100g, one long gradient): By All That’s Blue!

 

BFL/ silk lace: Back Left: And Thence Into Deep Water; Back Right: The Whole of the Roof; Front: La Bleue Celle-La

 

merino heavylace:
High Cockalorum, Jig Jig Jig

Gargantua: Left: She Fell Into the Alphabet (reddish purple to hot pink to bright coraly orange); Right: Boxing a Charley