December update

Posted on December 3, 2021 by gobsmackedyarn

Thanks for another great update! Everything is now sold, invoices are all out, and packages will be in the mail on Monday. I’ll be back in the new year with lots more yarn and some new adventures; in the meantime, I’m sending all the best to you and yours for the holidays and throughout the year to come.

Time has been moving strangely lately, but I have it on good authority that it is currently December, so here we go! The process for today’s update is the usual: If you see some yarn you’d like to claim, email me with your request (gobsmackedyarn@gmail.com). An update can get pretty wild on my end, but I promise I’ll respond to your email to let you know if you got your choices. I’ll send out PayPal invoices once things start to quiet down a bit (usually, about an hour after the update starts).

Reminders: Colours vary from device to device; I always include a written description of how I see the colour, but please do ask if you’re uncertain about a particular cake or set. I’ll mail packages on Monday afternoon. That should be enough time for yarn to arrive by Christmas if you’re in Canada or the US– but please note that I cannot guarantee delivery times. Packages to the US occasionally take a month or more to arrive. If you’re ordering yarn for a gift, let me know and we can talk about some options.

**Four Quarter**
**Top Left:** ~~A Sense of Home~~; **Top Center:** ~~Not the Norm~~; **Top Right:** ~~Rolling Through Like Thunder~~;
**Center Left:** ~~My Dear Petunia~~; **Center:** ~~After Four~~; **Center Right:** ~~Strawberry Time~~;
**Bottom Left:** ~~Quench~~; **Bottom Center:** ~~Mischief Maker~~; **Bottom Right:** ~~Nightflight~~

**Four Quarter**
**Top Left:** ~~Fire It Up~~; **Top Center:** ~~Wooing Warblers~~; **Top Right:** ~~Legend Has It~~;
**Bottom Left:** ~~Let Them Meow~~; **Bottom Right:** ~~Sun and Shadow and the Light Between~~

**Four Quarter**
**Top Left:** ~~Now That’s More Like It!~~; **Top Right:** ~~Confetti Party~~;
**Bottom Left:** ~~Trout Time~~; **Bottom Right:** ~~The Purpling Tide~~

**ASL (alpaca/ silk/ linen)**
**Top Left:** ~~Lichen Love~~; **Top Center:** ~~Drop By Drop~~; **Top Right:** ~~Stealth Lilac~~;
**Bottom Left:** ~~Astrophysical~~; **Bottom Center:** ~~Acid Test~~; **Bottom Right:** ~~Ocean Time~~

**ASL (alpaca/ silk/ linen)**
**Left:** ~~Clown Car~~; **Right:** ~~Where Elvers Hide~~

**merino fingering double** (one long gradient, dyed over two 100g cakes)
**Left Top-and-bottom:** ~~Sky Puddle~~; **Center Top-and-bottom:** ~~Home Sweet Homeward~~; **Right Top-and-bottom:** ~~Everything Worth While~~

**merino fingering double** (one long gradient, dyed over two 100g cakes):
**Left Top-and-bottom:** ~~Taking a Wander~~; **Center Top-and-bottom:** ~~Watching the Waves~~; **Right Top-and-bottom:** ~~Along the Way~~

**merino fingering double** (one long gradient, dyed over two 100g cakes):
**Left Top-and-bottom:** ~~Making a Choice~~; **Right Top-and-bottom:** ~~A Bit of a Brainstorm~~

**merino fingering double** (one long gradient, dyed over two 100g cakes):
**Left Top-and-bottom:** ~~Breaking Through~~; **Right Top-and-bottom:** ~~The Best of Both~~

**sock** (matching 50g cakes, each wound in opposite directions to better show colors):
**Left:** ~~Berry Toes~~; **Center:** ~~Super Sonic~~; **Right:** ~~Wet Feet Blues~~

**BFL/ silk lace**
**Left:** ~~Firecracker~~; **Right:** ~~Coming In and Out~~

**BFL/ silk lace**
**Top:** ~~Whipped Up By the Wind~~; **Bottom Left:** ~~Friends of Flowers~~; **Bottom Right:** ~~Midnight Garden~~

**camel/ silk lace**
**Top:** ~~Quite Enough~~; **Bottom Left:** ~~Coppertone~~; **Bottom Right:** ~~More Than Sufficient~~

November news

Posted on November 9, 2021 by gobsmackedyarn

Hi folks! It’s been a long time since I introduced myself; I’m Marit, the dyer behind gobsmacked yarn. The daughter of a librarian and an engineer, I’m something of a hypothesis muppet: I’m always asking “What if…?”

Marit, a white woman with very short hair, stands in front of a whiteboard that says "Hypothesis Muppet." She's grinning hugely and proudly holding a skein of gradient yarn. — This is me at Dye Camp almost a decade ago, brain fizzing with ideas; I’m holding the first-ever prototype gobsmacked gradient. (Photo: Kim McBrien Evans)

I learned to dye yarn in 2012, at indigodragonfly‘s Dye Camp, and I’ve been experimenting and playing in the dye pots ever since. I’ve developed some unusual dyeing techniques that result in one-of-a-kind dappled gradients, full of lively colours that shift with every stitch.

Two gobsmacked yarn cakes sit on a black background. One is teal green to yellow; the other is cobalt blue to bright magenta. — Each gobsmacked gradient results from its own unique blend of skilled technique and serendipity in the dye pots.

After more than 15 years in Ontario, I’ve recently relocated to Sackville, New Brunswick, where my wife lives. Sackville is in Mi’kma’ki (the traditional territory of the Mi’kmaq people), right on the Bay of Fundy, with its famously high tides and sweeping salt marshes. I’ve been finding the colours of the landscape really inspiring, and am learning to embrace some of the murkier colours. Don’t worry– I still love bright, jewel-toned gradients and rich oil-slick colours! But I’ll also be introducing some new small-batch tonals in the new year, inspired by the complicated cusp colours of the mud, the tides, the marshes, and the blueberry fields.

Low tide exposes the wet mud of the banks of the Tantramar River, which slope down to a narrow channel of muddy water. The blue of the sky is reflected in the mud, creating a complicated mix of brown, lavender, and blue. — I’m fascinated by the strange colours of the wet mud and muddy water of the Tantramar River. The proportions of browns, blues, and purples shifts constantly depending on the time of day, the clouds, and the tide. (Photo: Marit Munson)

There’s a lot happening in the coming days; here are a few highlights:

Digits & Threads holiday gift guide

I’m pleased to say that gobsmacked is included in Digits & Threads’ new holiday gift guide. Digits & Threads is an online magazine focused on Canadian fibre and textile arts; this week, they’re releasing a gift guide to help folks in Canada find local (or local-ish) fibre-related businesses to support. If you’re in the US or elsewhere in the world, you might still want to take a look– there are a lot of great fibre and textile folks in the guide, plus Digits & Threads’ articles cover important issues like accessibility and highlight artists you’ll want to know.

Heart & Pocket Revue

I’m so pleased to have an in-person show on my calendar! The Heart & Pocket Revue is a lovely curated art and craft market in Sackville, NB, on Saturday, 20 November. It’s at the Legion Hall (15 Lorne St.), from 10am to 4pm. Covid protocols will be in place (currently, proof of vaccination & masks required). Accessibility: The Legion Hall has a level entryway, with a flight of stairs (handrails on both sides) to the show location on the second floor; a wheelchair-accessible elevator is available by asking an event volunteer. Washrooms include women’s, men’s, and a gender neutral, wheelchair accessible one-person bathroom.

Online update

The next online update will be on Friday, 3 December at 4pm Atlantic Standard Time (= 3pm Eastern/ Toronto/ New York). This update will feature laceweight gradients, mostly in BFL/ silk lace and a super-luxurious camel/ silk lace. I’ll also have a bunch of merino fingering doubles (a single gradient dyed over two 100g cakes of 2-ply fingering-weight merino), plus more gradients in Four Quarter and in silky yak DK. Details of all of these bases are available here; an overview of the update process is here.

Jasmine cowl pattern release

Check out the Jasmine cowl from Aklori Designs! Lori’s new pattern uses a gobsmacked DK gradient striped against a contrast colour; add in the gorgeous stitch texture of Tunisian crochet and I’m smitten! If you’ve never tried Tunisian crochet, be sure to check out Lori’s tutorials for beginners.

A crocheted cowl lies on a wooden floor; the cowl has grey stripes on a blue gradient, with a highly textured surface. — Jasmine Cowl, by Aklori Designs (photo courtesy Aklori Designs).

Mailing list

If you’d like occasional news about gobsmacked, including announcements of the dates and times of my online updates, please join my mailing list. I usually send a single email in a month, so you don’t have to worry about filling up your inbox. Just send me a quick email (gobsmackedyarn@gmail.com) indicating that you’d like to be on my mailing list; that helps ensure that I’m adhering to Canadian anti-spam laws. Thanks!

October update

Posted on October 15, 2021 by gobsmackedyarn

Thanks for a great update! I’ve sent all of the invoices as of Friday evening and will get packages in the mail on Monday. If you missed the scheduled time, never fear– there’s still some great yarn left. Just shoot me an email; I’ll be checking in throughout the weekend.

Welcome to the October update, featuring DK doubles perfect for Flexture, or other two-skein DK-weight shawls. Of course, there’s plenty of fingering weight yarn as well.

If you see some yarn you’d like to claim, email me with your request (gobsmackedyarn@gmail.com). An update can get pretty wild on my end, but I promise I’ll respond to your email to let you know if you got your choices. I’ll send out PayPal invoices once things start to quiet down a bit (usually, about an hour after the update starts).

Reminders: Colours vary from device to device; I always include a written description of how I see the colour, but please do ask if you’re uncertain about a particular cake or set. I’ll mail packages on Monday afternoon/ Tuesday morning. Please note that many mail services are still experiencing delays, with packages to the US occasionally taking a month or more to arrive; I can’t make any promises about delivery times.

**merino/ silk DK double** (one long gradient, suitable for the Flexture shawl, dyed over two 100g cakes of yarn): ~~Mint & Berries~~

**merino/ silk DK double** (one long gradient, suitable for the Flexture shawl, dyed over two 100g cakes of yarn): ~~The Brightness of Clouds~~

**merino/ silk DK double** (one long gradient, suitable for the Flexture shawl, dyed over two 100g cakes of yarn): ~~One Cool Jupiter~~

**merino/ silk DK double** (one long gradient, suitable for the Flexture shawl, dyed over two 100g cakes of yarn): **Top:** ~~O, Joyful Chaos!~~; **Bottom:** It’s So Easy Being Green (bright mossy green to acid green to acidy yellow)

**silky yak DK double** (one long gradient, suitable for the Flexture shawl, dyed over two 100g cakes of yarn): **Top:** ~~Tardigradient~~; **Bottom:** ~~Why Not Water?~~

**silky yak DK double** (one long gradient, suitable for the Flexture shawl, dyed over two 100g cakes of yarn): **Top:** ~~Keep On Moving~~; **Bottom:** ~~Coming Through to Morning~~

**silky yak DK double** (one long gradient, suitable for the Flexture shawl, dyed over two 100g cakes of yarn): ~~Wandering the Fundy Shore~~

**silky yak DK double** (one long gradient, suitable for the Flexture shawl, dyed over two 100g cakes of yarn): ~~Thriving~~

**silky yak DK** (individual 100g cakes; not enough yardage for Flexture): **Left:** ~~Revisiting the Home Place~~; **Center:** ~~Sunset Vibe~~; **Right:** ~~Right On!~~

**silky yak DK** (individual 100g cakes; not enough yardage for Flexture): **Left:** ~~Clear Horizon~~; **Center:** ~~Above the Volcanos~~; **Right:** ~~Getting Closer~~

**Cabra giant: Left:** ~~The Woods Are Waking~~; **Center:** ~~Asking for the Wild~~; **Right:** ~~Proud as a Peahen~~

**Cabra giant: Left:** ~~To Put to Patience~~; **Right:** ~~To Leap the Pale~~

**BFL giant: Left:** ~~Working at Great Orme~~; **Center:** ~~Talking Nineteen to the Dozen~~; **Right:** ~~Back to Bisbee~~

**Four Quarter fingering: Top left:** ~~Stealth Plum~~; **Top right:** ~~Night Blossoms~~; **Bottom:** ~~Dried Petals~~

**Four Quarter fingering: Top left:** ~~Just Out the Front Door~~; **Top right:** ~~Time For Hay~~; **Bottom left:** ~~Spinning in the Storm~~; **Bottom right:** ~~On the High Seas~~

**Four Quarter fingering: Top left:** ~~Gardening in Emerald City~~; **Top right:** My Dear Petunia (magenta to dappled charcoal grey and pale pink to light grey, with dark dapples throughout); **Bottom left:** ~~Fiery~~; **Bottom right:** ~~Getting Stuck In~~

**Four Quarter fingering: Top:** ~~Looking Like a Million~~; **Bottom left:** ~~Happiness & Others~~; **Bottom right:** ~~Wherefor?~~

**Four Quarter fingering: Top:** ~~All Around the World~~; **Bottom left:** ~~Calm Seas~~; **Bottom right:** ~~Compliment~~

**merino/ silk fingering double** (one long gradient, dyed over two 100g cakes; not the yarn specified for Flexture, though the pattern could be adapted for fingering weight): ~~To Hover at Height~~

**merino/ silk fingering** (two separate 100g cakes available; dyed at the same time, so they match as much as possible, given the quirks of the dyepots): ~~Caught By the Light~~

Colourplay

Posted on October 13, 2021 by gobsmackedyarn

Have you fallen in love with Kim McBrien Evans’ shawl Flexture? It’s a pretty special piece that brings Kim’s creative brain and keen colour sense together with gobsmacked gradients and contrast colours from Murky Depths Dyeworks.

A woman modeling Flexture, a shawl with colorful stripes on an orange-to-blue gradient. The model has long grey hair and is perched on the edge of a table holding a mug. — Flexture, by Kim McBrien Evans. Photo c. Abrams.

The gradient that Kim used for the shawl is a gobsmacked DK double, or two skeins of DK-weight yarn dyed to create one long gradient. I love the result of dyeing doubles, but it’s really labour-intensive so I don’t do it often. Happily, I have a whole batch of DK doubles ready to go for the next gobsmacked update, on Friday 15 October.

How to choose colours for Flexture? It’s best to start with your gradient, then choose contrast colours from there. I thought I’d walk you through an example, using this lovely steely blue to grey gradient on Silky Yak DK:

A close-up of gradient yarn, from deep navy through soft turquoise and aqua to warm grey. — Silky Yak DK double, in delicious blues.

This gradient goes from a deep greyed navy to light turquoise with aqua dapples to a light warm grey, which is the natural undyed colour of the base yarn. The contrast colours for Flexture are used as stripes across the entire shawl, so I want to choose colours that complement the full gradient, from the darkest blue end to the lighter grey.

To give you an idea of how I’d approach colourplay for Flexture, I’ve pulled out some assorted mini skeins to play with– they’re fingering weight and not enough yardage to use for the actual shawl, but I have a lot of them, so they’re great for auditioning colours.

Four mini-skeins lying on the dark blue to grey gradient. The minis are pale aqua and green, dark magenta-purple, deep red, and soft heathery pink. — Colourplay for Flexture: The first palette.

I happen to love red as a contrast to blue, so I thought I’d start there. I really liked the weathered barn feel of the dark red (second from right) with the blues and greys of the gradient. And once I chose that first contrast, I started thinking about related hues in the red-to-purple range. I decided on a reddish purple that I love, plus a muted pink that will give a bit of variation in value (light/ dark) too. For the last colour, I wanted to pull something quite different, to keep the end result from feeling flat. Colour theory (and some vintage tea towels that I have) suggested the classic pairing of red/ pink combined with green. I auditioned several different greens before deciding on a variegated pale leaf green and aqua that gives a nice pop without being too shocking. The end result has a quiet garden feel to me.

Four mini-skeins lying on the dark blue to grey gradient. The minis are reddish purple, spring green, acid green, and golden yellow. — More colourplay for Flexture: The second palette.

Here’s another possibility– brighter and more lively than the first, this combo is built around the contrast of a deep golden yellow against the blue gradient. Using that yellow meant that my favourite acid green and a bright spring green fit right in, with all three making a strong statement against the main colour. For the fourth accent colour, I chose a medium magenta purple that really pops compared to the other contrast colours, while being a bit closer to most of the gradient in hue and value.

Of course, there’s an unlimited palette of potential colour combos! What to do if you’re feeling overwhelmed or uncertain where to start when choosing your own colours? You can use colour theory if you want– the discussion in Custom Shawls is a great place to begin– or just start tossing your stash to see how colours look when they’re laid out together. Just remember that there’s no right or wrong answer. Colourplay is play, after all, of the most creative kind. Have fun!

Pattern: Flexture, by Kim McBrien Evans, published in Custom Shawls for the Curious and Creative Knitter, by Kate Atherley and Kim McBrien Evans (Abrams, 2020).

Yarn: gobsmacked yarn DK double, with 4 DK-weight contrast colours. The shawl uses one double, which is a single long gradient dyed over 200g (=2 skeins) of DK-weight yarn. Recommended fibres are Silky Yak DK (20% silk, 15% yak, 65% merino) or merino/ silk DK (50% merino, 50% silk).

Update: Friday, 15 October at 3pm Eastern/ 4pm Atlantic. Information about the update process is available here.

July update

Posted on July 17, 2021 by gobsmackedyarn

Thanks for a great update! There is still yarn available, so do take a look. If anything catches your eye, send an email to claim it. I’ll get back to you shortly.

Welcome to the July update! If you see some yarn you’d like to claim, email me at gobsmackedyarn@gmail.com. An update can get pretty wild on my end, but I promise I’ll respond to your email to let you know if you got your choices. I’ll send out PayPal invoices once things start to quiet down a bit (usually, about an hour after the update starts).

Reminders: Colours vary from device to device; I always include a written description of how I see the colour, but please do ask if you’re uncertain about a particular cake or set. I’ll mail packages on Monday afternoon/ Tuesday morning. Please note that many mail services are experiencing delays; packages to the US sometimes take a month or more to arrive. I can’t make any promises about delivery times.