We are *not* fully caught up folks, and for that I apologize. I honestly thought July would be it, but scaling opens a Pandora’s box of problems, all of which take time away from dyeing. We’ve had a roof leak, humidity and yarn drying issues, we had to wait to get internet, hot water, gas lines and electrical upgrades. We spent a lot of time trying to make sure we were as transparent as possible with customers and posting regular updates. But yes, I also kept creating because that’s what I do. It’s like breathing.
Please note a few things:
Disclaimers done :) Here is what we’re bringing to market!
Sweater Kits! I’m so proud of these. They are crafted specifically for creating gradient sweaters by utilizing a massive body gradient, two sleeve gradients, and “extension skeins” for the top and bottom. At the moment they are best suited to top down, in the round patterns (shown here in Flax Light by Tin Can Knits) and you will need to work to sleeve separation with the main yoke colour before changing to a gradient; to ensure a seamless transition to the sleeves.
Sizes and Pricing will be as follows. As always, all prices are in Canadian dollars:
Sweater Kits will only be available in 6 colours to start:
Feather, Copper Slate, Rose Gold, Nicaragua, Waterfall and the slightly modified Seafoam shown in the sample above.
Next up – Mega Skeins! With the new space and my upgraded equipment I can dye larger than ever. Because I don’t dye from blanks, I can offer almost any yardage or fiber you can think of! Our new offerings are:
DK Weight Wooly Mammoth – 800 yards in one continuous gradient – $75
Aran/Worsted Weight Wooly Mammoth – 600 yards in one continuous gradient – $85
And now…
BEAST MODE – 1200 yards in one continuous gradient – created for the new Wingspan size by Vector Knits.
Killarney Sock: $89
Cashmere Sparkle: $115
DK Mammoth, Aran/Worsted Mammoth and Beast Mode Mammoth will only be available in these colours to start: Feather, Pigeon, Copper Slate, Ibis, Nicaragua, Muscovy, Aurora, Heron, Waterfall and Seafoam.
There is more! We’re having an opening party to celebrate the new space :) Please visit this link to RSVP. Please note that we are capping the party at 100 folks to make sure everyone has a good time with no crowding, and to make sure that we have enough food and drinks :) That means that if you definitely plan to come please mark yourself as “GOING” on facebook. It will be such a good time, with music and giveaways, a ribbon cutting, food, drink and prizes, an opportunity to buy from our heavily discounted seconds skeins, and we will also endeavour to stock some of our popular items so you can do a bit of shopping. My pups will be there, so we ask that you not bring your little ones just this one time, after that little ones are always welcome!
Whew! There is so much more coming in the future folks, I’ve actually trimmed this down and held stuff back so you still have new things to get excited about come fall. We will have “Cup Cakes” which are Killarney sock skeins, caked up, and placed inside of a hand thrown teacup that’s glazed to match. There will be a big sister to that, “Coffee Cakes” which will be giant, comfort sized mugs glazed to match with wooly mammoth cakes inside; perfect for gifting! My kiln and wheel arrive in three weeks or so and I cannot wait to get started bringing new and lovely things to you. There will be resin jewelry, ceramic yarn bowls, and my much overdue Mediterranean Collection. Coming soon after will be a floral colour line, complete with the actual matching flower preserved in resin jewelry. There will be holiday parties and regular knit nights. There will be classes. I am so excited that my creative muscles are in overdrive, and frankly, happy to see that they’ve thrived, despite a very challenging spring and summer.
As for my poor team, they are TROOPERS. Not to mention my poor husband who wryly asked if I wanted him to build a pen in the space next so we could “Just dye the entire bloody sheep and be over with it”. =D
That’s all for now folks!
Love
S.
“New policy, effective immediately
We are banning support of Donald Trump and his administration on Ravelry. We cannot provide a space that is inclusive of all and also allow support for open white supremacy. Support of the Trump administration is unambiguously support for white supremacy. For more details, read this document: https://ravelry.com/content/no-trump”.
Even though Ravelry goes on to state that they are not banning conservatives or endorsing democrats, and that they do not condone hate speech of liberals against conservatives, it’s easy to see why a bunch of perfectly nice, non bigoted people feel targeted here. I’ve had the benefit of thoughtful dialogue with other dyers and customers since this happened and I’d like to expand on why I took the stance I did.
—
Let’s start with the complexities of getting political at all; first of all there is a cost to the business, undeniably. There have been massive refunds, loss of followers, and reams of angry messages. My own family have asked why the hell I’m sticking my neck out when my company is in a very vulnerable place, and they’re not wrong to do so because here is the thing;
Getting to Canada is not easy. When many immigrants arrive there is a general sense of “Achievement unlocked. Now I shall work hard and keep my head down the rest of my life”. It’s a completely understandable stance to take; especially if you come from somewhere that isn’t easy. And probably you did, because the majority of people do not wish to leave the country of their birth unless their livelihoods or families are threatened. Contrary to popular rhetoric, no one wakes up in their homeland thinking “Today I think I’ll risk my life and the lives of those I care about to make an arduous journey to a faraway place so I can “Rip off the system” and “steal jobs”.
The result of that stance is that the people most often qualified to speak out against racism and bigotry … don’t. They have been conditioned to walk small, to work well, to live quietly and happily and not rock the boat. This is why white allies are critical, but they can’t do the job without us.
That’s my first reason, first gen children of immigrants often inherit this mentality, and I sure did. Which is why I felt the need to step up.
Second; What Rav did was brave. The other major platforms are freely hosting hate speech; YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have protected their bottom line and the interests of their shareholders by not taking any meaningful stance or making any effective moves to de-platform those who use their services to spread and organize hate. As sad as it is, I get that. A corporation is beholden to its shareholders, and massive machines are difficult to move. I don’t agree with it, but I get it. So when Ravelry chose to take such a dramatic stand against hate I was impressed. The Blue Brick has a voice too; 17,500K IG followers and 28,000K FB followers. That’s a big voice. I chose to be brave, too, because I’m the sole owner of The Blue Brick and I can take a hit to stand up for what I believe in.
Third: There IS a rising tide of white supremacy. There are bigger and bolder movements. They have names that sound ok, like the Council of Conservative Citizens, The Creativity Alliance, the Canadian Heritage Alliance. The age of information and social media, plus the endorsement and empowerment of the POTUS himself is allowing their brand of hate to grow, spread and hurt people. We can’t allow this train to come in. We are all responsible for holding the line.
—
Ok, so WHAT do I believe in, and WHY do I believe it?
Ravelry’s stance is a hard line, and I admit I was initially shocked to see it. I thought long and hard about how it made me feel.
They thought about a metric that would define hate and bigotry. That metric could have been anything; flagging certain words on their site, barring certain users or patterns, or simply issuing a statement, without focus, that bigotry and hate would not be tolerated, but they chose support of Donald Trump as their metric. Not if you voted for him initially, not if you identify as a republican or a conservative, but if you vocally support Donald Trump specifically, why did they do this?
Donald Trump is associated with things that, as a global community, are very painful. His crimes against women, children, minorities and the environment are too many to count. He has validated and empowered a white supremacy voice that, as a BIPOC woman is very frightening. It’s not even the man himself so much as it is what he stands for, what he inspires, and some of the groups he has empowered through his hate rhetoric.
I feel strongly about this. If one supports the man then I don’t see how one separates him from grabbing women by the p***y, putting children in cages, forming relationships with other despots and perpetuating racist rhetoric.
I don’t believe it’s fair to call all who voted for him racists, but to those who support him still, despite the human rights violations, the rape accusations, the climate change denial, the horrors at the border…It’s hard not to feel that at some level they agree with, condone and empathize with him, and that’s where someone like me needs to draw a line too.
—
To those who have begun respectful dialogue I have respected their choices and responded in kind. I have not deleted anyone’s comments from my feed because I do listen to and respect their viewpoints, however different from my own. I realize that many different people support him for many different reasons, and I want you to know that I hear you. And I don’t hate you. I don’t think poorly of you and I am ready ready to listen when people want to have respectful dialogue. I have stated where I stand, but that is not to the exclusion of the feelings of others. Division serves no one. Listening with an open heart does. I want to learn and grow and give my energy to healing the divide, not widening it.
I am not someone who likes to get political. I’m an artist who wants to fly under the radar and make lovely things. Speaking out is frightening. My business is in a precarious and vulnerable place as we scale, and alienating customers is the last thing I wish to do. I hope this demonstrates how deeply I felt in myself that it must have been the right thing to do, despite what it’s cost me, and there has been a cost; in followers, friends, mental and physical health, and revenue. I still believe that I am standing up for what’s right. I believe I have a responsibility to my community.
I’d like to thank you for the patience to read this far, and to share just a bit more if I may. This is a story that inspires me every day:
Flight of the Hummingbird: A Parable for the Environment, a book by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
]]>The terrible fire raged and burned. All of the animals were afraid and fled from their homes. The elephant and the tiger, the beaver and the bear all ran, and above them the birds flew in a panic. They huddled at the edge of the forest and watched. All of the creatures gathered, except one. Only Dukdukdiya, the little hummingbird, would not abandon the forest. Dukdukdiya flew quickly to the stream. She picked up a single drop of water in her beak.
Dukdukdiya flew back and dropped the water on the fire. Again she flew to the stream and brought back another drop, and so she continued—back and forth, back and forth. The other animals watched Dukdukdiya’s tiny body fly against the enormous fire, and they were frightened. They called out to the little hummingbird, warning her of the dangers of the smoke and the heat. “What can I do?” sobbed the rabbit. “This fire is much too hot.” “There is too much smoke!” howled the wolf.
“My wings will burn! My beak is too small!” cried the owl.
But the little hummingbird persisted. She flew to and fro, picking up more water and dropping it, bead by bead, onto the burning forest. Finally, the big bear said, “Little Dukdukdiya, what are you doing?”
Without stopping, Dukdukdiya looked down at all of the animals. She said, “I am doing what I can.”
Just before Frolic we were 3 weeks out on our very latest order. We had one week to prepare for Frolic itself and there was a tragic, young, death in the family of our assistant dyers, leading to them leaving us before we had planned for it. Without my assistants, one 40 skein dye run takes 12 hours of girl power. I put it in and we got to frolic and wingspan landed and we sold far, far more than we expected to. Aviary and the wooly mammoths had already done well, and wingspan put us over the edge. At the moment it’s looking like 8-10 weeks to get fully caught up.
I have done everything I can to adjust to this unexpected turn of events; I obtained a new studio space, hired a new dye assistant, hired a customer service manager to make sure everyone was being heard, hired a developer to automate part of our process, and ordered enough new equipment to double our daily yield. During this process I am still dyeing every single day. I scaled back the store to inventory only, I cancelled our booths at Festival Twist, the Kawartha Festival, Barrie’s Fiber Spirit festival, and possibly even Kitchener Waterloo.
That means we have committed to a massive space and a five year lease with no current revenue, and no guarantee that the sales will come when we reopen. That’s terrifying, but it’s the risk we took to expedite our timelines. Every day that we do not promote, produce and sell we are losing market share. I remind myself that no small company becomes a big company without going through what we’re going through, but the fact remains that it’s scary stuff.
We have been open from the moment we went viral; if you feel that the wait is too long you are 100% entitled to a full refund on the yarn. If you are alright with waiting then you have our undying gratitude and know that we are working as hard as we can.
Yes, Italy was poorly timed for us. Those tickets had been booked for a year and a half, since the day a dear friend got engaged. There were those who made it pretty clear that we had no business going, but we were not about to drop out on her wedding and, I promise you, we were wracked with guilt every day. To the point where I was very sick. If you’ve never tried to clean partially digested carpaccio out of a bidet I don’t recommend it.
As of the time of this writing we’ve been home 5 days. We’ve cleaned the space, laid down sub floor, primed and painted and gotten about a third of the way through the main floor. We’ve purchased and assembled furniture and begun to plan a space that will not only serve a functional purpose, but give our customers a place to come see us in person, pick up orders, enjoy knit nights with us, browse samples and swatches, and become part of our community.
The internet is a hard country. Lots of folks have encouraged me to look after myself, to take things at a reasonable pace. I love every single one of you. Lots of other dyers have sent messages of love and support for which I am immeasurably grateful. It won’t surprise you to hear that there are also angry people; who I encourage to reach out to us for full refunds. There are also cruel people who resort to accusations and name calling. They are more than welcome to get their orders cancelled and refunded.
We do not invest much in advertising. Public opinion and the feedback we get online is everything to us. When that tide turns against us because of events out of our control we do our best to communicate, to resolve, and to expedite. We are only a four person business, not a big machine, and we are doing our absolute best.
If you have a concern, please, please reach out to us by email so we can find a way to make it right rather than bring us down publicly within the online community. As we see time and time again, the opinions of the online world can make or break businesses, lives and people. I will be perfectly frank and vulnerable here and tell you that all the commitments I’ve made recently have scared the daylights out of me, and I need to believe that our community will back us when we are ready to return.
Thank you for reading this far. Thank you for sticking with us this far.
I promise the future holds fun things if we can just get though this.
Love
S.
]]>We’ve talked about an inventory based store before, and I have generally avoided it because I didn’t want to limit what folks could get. However, it’s finally time to reduce our online store to inventory-only. We are not there yet, we’re going colour by colour as we generate sufficient inventory, with the goal of moving almost all yarns to an inventory basis within the next two months.
Special colours, heavy metal, sweater quantities and collection releases will still be dyed to order due to volume.
Ombre:
Tonal:
What does that mean for our customers?
Pros:
Cons:
We hope that this new system will allow us to fulfill more quickly and reliably once it’s in effect. Again, it will take time to fully top up and switch over all the colours, with the goal being two months out.
Thank you everyone, for your patience with us as we get over these growing pains. Hopefully the new system is more comfortable for everyone!
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So far, I’ve stayed out of the discussion on IG about racism and inclusion in the knitting world. I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I’m brown in my posts, or that my family is multi cultural. I grew up in the diverse city of Toronto, and felt that I hadn’t really experienced racism in any meaningful sense.
I also personally didn’t connect with a lot of the rhetoric, which didn’t seem conducive to positive change, and in some cases felt tantamount to bullying. I’m all for education, not shaming. I’m all for that which unites us, and against that which divides. I wasn’t personally a fan of having folks who were obviously well-intentioned with their hearts in the right place feeling super guilty all of a sudden for the circumstances of their birth. Historically, I’ve had way more trouble being a woman than I have being brown, and I feel strongly that us ladies need to stick together.
Then, at Stitches West, I overheard this conversation in the washroom (from a stall, they couldn’t see me). It was two vendors discussing the show, totally normal, and then one vendor said: “I didn’t make as much money as usual. I think it’s because it’s a very ethnic group this year and it’s full of trash who aren’t spending any money”.
I came out of the stall, and we immediately all looked at the floor. So, before you ask, I don’t know who they were or what companies they represent. I scrubbed my hands, face burning, and ran out of there.
I don’t know what made me feel worse, that I internalized the humiliation, even though the comment wasn’t intended for my ears, or directed at me, or that I immediately began gaslighting myself on their behalf. “Did I really hear that?”, “Maybe they meant something else?”.
Then I thought a little harder about my own past; I remembered that I initially took up Karate, 25 years ago, because my family was targeted in a racially motivated hate crime at Scarborough bluffs. That was a Big Obvious Thing, where anyone would get it. But there were also small insidious things, and they’re harder to get. I realized that downplaying hurtful things is a trend.
Every time someone asked me “where are you from really, after repeatedly being told that I was born and bred in Toronto. Every time someone joked that I was “practically white” and meant it as a compliment. That time I made small talk about the weather at a baseball game and was told “we don’t get cold, we’re Canadians”, as though somehow I wasn’t (effectively divesting me of the only country I have). Every time a friend has said something racist and then exclaimed “I don’t mean you! You’re different!”. Every time someone was surprised that I didn’t have an accent, or that I turned out to be brown in person after only talking on the phone. When Saks Fifth Avenue opened in Toronto I went looking for a dress for a wedding. A staff member politely told me “the Bay is that way”, assuming I was lost. The list goes on.
So now I think, I need to say something on behalf of both myself and others. And you know what? I don’t even know what that something is. Maybe it’s as simple as “Hey, this happened, and I can’t pretend that it didn’t”, or “Hey, the problem is real”. Part of me also wants to say “If you’re reading this, I sold plenty to BIPOC shoppers, so maybe you just suck.”, (It’s petty, I know).
Worth noting: the incident was reported to the organizers and they had a funny feeling they knew who the vendor was. That kinda tells me they have done this before, or have a reputation for being racist, but seem to be getting away with it, which is the point I’m trying to make. {EDIT – It was not my intention to imply that the organizers were complicit in any way, they were in fact horrified, and issued a general message to all vendors, which I have shared below}. And no, it wasn’t reported by me because I was still feeling awkward and humiliated about outing them. That tells me something else, about the tendency to internalize hate and redirect it to ourselves. So when people trying to instigate change come off as excessively forceful, perhaps we should have a little empathy towards them before we judge.
Having said that, this is worth a read:
https://medium.com/s/digital-trauma/how-woke-became-a-weapon-304f265282df
“Plenty of activists argue that shaming those who err while striving to help build a resistance is a counterintuitive practice. “To organize such a movement necessarily means that it will involve the previously uninitiated — those who are new to activism and organizing,” writes Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, a Black female activist and author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, in a piece reflecting on critiques of the history-making Women’s March. “We have to welcome those people and stop the arrogant and moralistic chastising of anyone who is not as ‘woke’… [movements] are built by actual people, with all their political questions, weaknesses, and strengths.””
Another great quote:
Patrisse Cullors, a queer Black woman and co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, spoke about the downfalls of woke shaming in an interview with Complex last year. “Woke shaming is really unfortunate,” Cullors said. “If we are trying to build a movement to save all of us, we need to be able to invoke faith in people who are new, who are learning, and who are willing to grow. There is a difference between people who are bigots and people who are trying to figure out their way in this. We should have patience.”
Regarding how we can do better, maybe it doesn’t need to be Big Obvious Things. It can be little helpful things. When my dad worked as a factory manager he would stand by the punch clock in the morning and learned to greet everyone in their own language. Something I’ve always respected him for. Something to model myself after.
“Treat everyone with politeness and kindness, not because they are nice, but because you are.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
S.
___
on Thursday February 28th, the organizational committee of Stitches West issued the message below:
Dear Exhibitors!Yesterday Shireen from The Blue Brick Dyeworks posted online about a very disturbing incident that happened at STITCHES West.
Sometime during the event, Shireen overheard this conversation in the washroom (from a stall). It was two vendors discussing the show – and one vendor said: “I didn’t make as much money as usual. I think it’s because it’s a very ethnic group this year and it’s full of trash who aren’t spending any money.”
We condemn, unequivocally, their rhetoric and their overt racism.
I think it’s important that we don’t shy away from this. So if you want to read the full account, here is the link…
https://thebluebrick.ca/2019/02/27/racism-its-a-thing/
We have reached out and apologized to Shireen.
We don’t know who these vendors are. And, in case anyone is unsure about where we stand on this, we want to be very clear about our policy on this issue… if we ever see or hear of this kind of racism at our shows from any exhibitor, we will remove them and their company from the market floor and our event, then openly tell the world why.
Thank you for you time and attention.
Benjamin Levisay
CEO
XRX, Inc – STITCHES Events, XRX Books, & stitchips
How do you find all these things? At 11am EST tomorrow they will all hit the website in their own new section called “Holiday kits”. These products will be available until Monday evening at 9pm EST and then we take them down. As much as we’d love to, we won’t be able to accommodate late or custom orders while still hitting the holiday deadline, so you’ll want to set your clocks for this one ;)
Let’s start with the 2018 holiday colour, “Sugar Plum”. Sugar Plum is rich and deep, transitioning from silver through purple-pinks to a warm reddish purple. It comes with its own pattern, the Sugar Plum cowl. The cowl requires one full 600 yard skein and one 150 yard twin, and it all ships together as a kit with a printed pattern. These kits will be $65 CDN each. You can choose between Merino/Cashmere/Nylon and Merino/Cashmere/Stellina if you prefer sparkles :)
Next up on the list is our calendar. Earlier this year I had asked folks if they would be interested in prints of my yarn photography, and I received a lot of feedback asking me to combine prints with a calendar, so I took a lot of time to search out the largest size on the thickest cover stock paper I could find. The result is an 11×17 calendar on a lovely uncoated paper, single-sided so you can cut out and frame each month
To protect the calendars, they will ship with cardboard backing and an extra protective bag inside an oversized mailer. Each photo has been curated carefully to provide a year of inspiration. Calendars will be $49 CDN each.
Lastly, our pendant/yarn combos. These were a blast to make! Because resin dyes and yarn dyes are not the same thing it was a challenge to recreate our colour ways, and I enjoyed the exercise and the change of pace. The results are shiny and detailed, a silver-plated “pewter” (zinc-based alloy) on an 18″ silver plated snake chain with hand painted resin designs protected by a thick coat of jewelry-grade resin for a perfect, glassy finish.
Once you click on the colour you like, you will be prompted to choose the pendant you want from the list. Pendants will be numbered and you will get the exact one you order. Each one has been hand-poured and is one-of-a-kind, I couldn’t recreate the exact one twice even if I wanted to ;)
We tried to cover off as many of our popular gradients as possible. Each one comes packaged in a vinyl box with its yarn, caked and ready to use. The inserts include the yarn inspiration photo, base information and a download code for a free copy of our “Emy” shawl pattern. The yarn can be either Merino/Cashmere/Nylon or Merino/Cashmere/Stellina; your choice :) The entire thing comes protected in its own cardboard box , cushioned with holiday paper and ready to gift. Kit with yarn are $79 CDN each.
We ended up with a few pendants that were lovely, but didn’t especially match any of our yarns. They will be available for sale along with a few Sugar Plum pendants that, for simplicities sake, also do not ship with yarn (in case someone wanted both a pendant and the cowl kit). These are the only pendants that will be available without yarn and you’ll be able to choose them from the list by number. Pendants without yarn will be $37 CDN each.
Want to complete your holiday package? For an extra $5.50 CDN you’ll get a super adorable, hand made Christmas card by Crafty Lindsay (@CraftyLindsay on instagram) featuring our mascot pups. Cards are blank inside for your own festive message.
Lastly, did you think I’d forgotten Mist? Mist joins the permanent collection tomorrow and will be in the “tonal yarns” section. To learn more about this gentle tonal you can click here.
Happy shopping tomorrow. We had a blast putting together this year’s collection and I hope very much that you enjoy the pieces as much as we did!
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A few years ago, Tito and visited Vancouver Island, rented a car and drove to Tofino. We shot there for several days; the driftwood, the kilometres of empty beaches, the massive trees, Tofino was a dream. We went during the off season, so it felt like we had this magical place to ourselves.
The mist created a very cool effect; there was little to no definition in the day at all. The tide was out and the ocean seemed so far away.
There was a shot I took that day that has always felt kind of magical to me. It’s a picture of the sand and the ocean and the sun, but so very different from the way we typically imagine sand, ocean and sun. Rather than powerful blues in the sky, a blazing sun, warm brown sand and an ocean going through all the blues and greens we expect, I saw this:
I forgot about the shot and moved on. But lately I’ve been experimenting with grey, and in my search for the perfect grey (not too cold, not too slate, not too dark… grey is more complex than you’d think!) I remembered this colourless day. Little-to-no details in the world, defined by shadows and shimmers and little else.
“Mist” is the result. A gentle semi solid that will show up detailed patterns as beautifully as stockinette and is warm and silvery, without feeling flat. I went through several grey iterations before hitting the right mix, and there are so many dyes in here to make this shade. There is taupe, black, grey, brown, gold …. we’ll definitely need to make big batches of the dye now that we’ve nailed the recipe.
I am in love, and Mist will be joining the permanent collection in our next shop update, scheduled for November 1st. It will include Mist, the holiday pop up (Sugar Plums) and a few other goodies (TBA).
Some people would have decided that the day was too cold and wet and glum for a walk along the beach, and eschewed the idea in favour of a fire, a hot drink, a good book. These things were tempting us that day, but we are photographers, and that means that we pursue those unique conditions of light that can redefine a typical scene and make magic out of the ordinary. I was very grateful for the gifts we got on that morning walk, and I hope you enjoy the new yarn as much as I enjoyed making it.
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When the yarn was done, we staged photography of the finished yarns with their living inspirations. The result is a collection of 7 gentle yarns, all of which will launch in our online store on September 15th.
First up; Wine Grapes.
These grapes were gifted to us from Frogpond Organic Vineyard in Niagara on the Lake. The colour is a deep, slightly variegated blue. Not too saturated, not too navy, just rich blue with black flecked throughout.
Birch
Birch was pure delight to work with; this colour is so subtle and yet so nuanced. Beige doesn’t seem to cover it, there are black flecks, shades of warm grey and an almost rusty/peach tone to cover the oxidized areas of the branch where to bark has come away. Anything but boring, this neutral was made for sweaters and accessories.
Succulent
This one could get confusing because we also have a tonal named succulent, and indeed we did try this colour as a tonal as well. As lovely as that tonal was, the gradient won the day. Softer than our usual gradients this gentle colour will shine on shawls! Succulent plants are such a wide world, we really enjoyed seeking out the right plants for our shoot.
Quill
Quill is the most variegated of the lot and a personal favourite. The feathers are from a turkey and the yarn attempts to evoke all the shades of brown, beige, deep almost blue-black and pale, warm grey while remaining wearable and workable. The result is a rustic yarn that’s anything but shy.
Cabbage
“Do you really want to name your yarn after a vegetable no one likes?”. Such were the words of a close friend when she saw this photo. She raises a valid point, but once I saw these small ornamental cabbages in the nursery I knew I had to do something with them! Slightly bluer than grass-green, flecked with brown, blue and gold throughout, this will hopefully redefine how you feel about green yarn, and maybe even about cabbages, too.
Flora
Pink is not normally my jam. As another close friend said, The Blue Brick has a “look” and these light, floral tones don’t normally fall within my zone. However, once we were done we stepped back and thought “here’s a pink I can wear”. Gentle and nuanced with purple and coral, this semi solid yarn would be great by itself or in a fade.
Nest
Nest was the yarn that started us on this journey. My dear friend Kim (of Kim’s Barn!) gave us these lovely farm-fresh eggs. I marvelled at the variation of colour that her chickens could produce and the gentle egghshell vibe I got from them. This colour could also be expressed as something I have yet to do; a fade set. The eggs beg to be made into a palette for a larger project, do they not? Perhaps I’ll try.
This collection will launch September 15th. Whether it’s a pop up or a permanent addition remains to be seen; we’ve been over our heads lately (as you know if you’ve been waiting for yarn) and I want to keep it manageable for us. If it becomes permanent it will be at the cost of other colours which will have to retire. Its a tough decision and not one I’m ready to make right now, so for the moment I’ll pile up on these colours for the upcoming Kitchener-Waterloo festival and prepare them for online sales come mid-month. You’ll be able to order any quantity you like, in any base, when the colours launch.
We enjoyed this series and the challenges that came with it; subtle colours, nuanced tones, softer, gentler changes than we’re used to. The results are so wearable, lovely and versatile. I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as we do.
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Click “Add to compare” to save the product to your personal collection. When you are ready to view all the products together, click on the “Compare Products” button below.
Now you can see them all side-by-side – handy for building fades or multi-skein projects, or seeing how a particular ombre works with a particular tonal.
Hope you find it helpful – always feel free to send us your feedback!
]]>I had quite a bit of fun, painting onto watercolour paper using dyes. Afterwards, I took the “splotches” that I liked most and shot them, then vectorized them (for you marketing types). I then took my favourite of the lot and designed our new logo!
Tada! Look for our new branding starting to make its way slowly onto ball bands and website collateral over the next few weeks. Why a rebrand? There were a few reasons; I wanted something recognizable and original, that hearkened back in a very direct way to what I love doing most; putting colour on things. I also wanted new colours as our signature look, because I wanted to design a signature colourway to go with it, introducing a colour simply called “The Blue Brick”.
This colour has replaced Iridescent (they’re a little close). It’s a rich tonal that lives in the same space as the new logo; deep sapphire, violet turquoise and just a little hint of green. It also is evocative of one of our favourite hobbies; chasing the Northern Lights, which makes it very us.
Of course it also comes in silk, another reason for “dyeworks” instead of “Inspired yarns”.
That’s my big announcement :) Hopefully you enjoy the new colour as much as I do! We’ll have a giveaway on our instagram feed to promote the new look; follow us there for details!
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Country House Knits has 88 pages of lovely photography, and 14 patterns in both written and charted form. This time we released our lookbook as a separate pdf – to help people decide what yarn they need, what patterns they’re interested in, and what the skill/yarn requirements would be.
Click here to view our free lookbook!
Click here to purchase a pdf ebook
& Click here to order a printed book + the ebook
Here’s a preview of what’s inside :)
We had so much fun with the photography for this; we remodelled a corner of our dining room as a staging area and shot the entire book in one small corner.
Of course the pups made an appearance :)
I’m working now on getting the individual patterns uploaded to Ravelry as well, more info on that coming this weekend!
Thank you to everyone who has followed our little journey with this book. It felt so good to go to print this morning. I couldn’t have done it without a spectacular test knitting and technical editing team. I can’t wait to see what you think!
Psst. In a few days we’ll do a contest and giveaway for printed copies – follow me on instagram to stay in the know!
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Aloha (pronounced [əˈlōˌhä]) is the Hawaiian word for love, affection, peace, compassion and mercy, that is commonly used as a simple greeting.[1][2]
I love this. I love that this multifaceted word means so many good things! I thought about Aloha while designing these yarns, and I hope, respectfully, that I managed to include some of that spirit in both the yarn and photography. These colours will be added to our line permanently starting Friday. They will each replace something, so if that something is a favourite of yours, you will have two days to place an order.
These new colours will also be at the Knitters Frolic on April 28th (Booth 31, Shokokai Court), and if you’re local to us we’d love to have you at our Hawaii Colours/Book Launch Luau! Yes! We are throwing a Luau at Spin Me A Yarn and I couldn’t be more little girly-excited about it. We’re going to have flowers in our hair and leis around our necks, there will be Mai Tais, spiked fruit punch and possibly even a pig roast (failing that, pizza with pineapples… but I’m almost certain we can do better). There will be new colourways, copies of the new book, kits for all the new patterns, and of course prizes and giveaways! Save the date: Friday May 11th.
Coastline – Replacing Torii
Coastline is soft and tropical and warm, though made of blues, greys and slates. Variegated with brown and moss-toned speckles, it’s a fun colour for pretty much any project, including sweaters. It would go beautifully with Seafoam or Bauline if you’re looking to pair it with something.
Here’s coastline in context with a few other colours, from left to right: Cobblestone, Muddy Husky, Coastline, Seafoam and Bauline.
Caldera – Replacing Ocean Fortress
Replacing Ocean Fortress was a hard and scary decision, it’s been a favourite for a long time and it’s our oldest existing colour. However, you can approximate it by combining Willow and Iceberg, so it was also a bit redundant. I hope the new colour makes you just as happy :)
Caldera is based off perhaps the most dramatic photo of the trip; the Milky Way emerging over Kilauea’s caldera lava lake, and shot through the trees. Rich, hot yellow changes to a mild lilac tone and then descends into deep blues. On sparkle yarn it’s especially yummy, and we’ll definitely have sparkle bases at the Knitter’s Frolic!
Kilauea – Replacing Gerber Daisy
This is the last of the Hawaii Series, though not the last of the colour substitutes (read on). Kilauea is a very rich colour, going from fire tones through to deep blues (from the metallic flashing that you get on cooled lava as minerals are leeched to the surface) and then a solid black. It’s a daring colour, a committed colour, and has all the drama it deserves for a photo where I literally melted my sneakers.
Next up are colours that are not from Hawaii, but are being added to our permanent line. First up is “Storm” – which is “Overcast” by another name. I loved the denim blues too much to let them go. “Storm” is going to replace “Sundown”.
Last one – you may have seen this colour sneaking around on Instagram and in the “Country House Knits” book work. This is “Stucco” shot off a wall in the south of Spain making it, quite literally, a Spanish Yellow.
Stucco has already been used in a few projects, and it works up beautifully.
That’s it for new colours for 2018, with the exception of our pop-up series colours, which may or may not continue through the summer as we enter festival season. I hope you’re as excited about them as I am! I hope we will see you at the Frolic and also at our Luau this spring. Lots of great things in the offing :)
]]>We used Epic Lava Tours, the guides were professional, patient, and informed. They got us out there safely, let me shoot to my hearts content, and got us back safely.
We had captain Kendra and Sam, who were hilarious and super friendly. We almost saw a hammerhead shark, and were given lots of snacks and drinks on the ship. Afterwards we got an educational tour of the island on the return journey.
Excursion 2 was with Kona Snorkle and Sail for a night swim with Manta Rays. I can’t recommend this one enough, it totally blew my mind. If you’re skittish swimmer then beware; they’re up to 8 feet wide and will come right up to you. They are gentle giants, graceful and awe-inspiring. If you are ok to chill in kinda cold water (they give you a wetsuit so it’s really not bad) for about an hour then you’re in for a good show. I fell in love.
Once the sun goes down it’s a great site for start gazing. Beware though; it’s crowded and though Mauna Kea is a sacred site, expect loud, unruly folks and lots of light pollution from cars. However, if you aim up, and use a lens hood, you can still get some great stuff. The staff of the visitor centre use a laser light to walk the crowd through a star gazing exercise, an awesome experience for kids especially.
Those are our main tips if you decide to visit this amazing place! The Big Island is gorgeous, friendly, and had lots of things that we didn’t get to see, even with almost two weeks. We bought some lovely locally made items, mostly jewellery, hand painted clothing and body products. You can also buy famous Kona coffee, Macademia Nuts and bulbs for exotic plants (approved within the US only).
We have relaxed, explored, adventured and gotten inspired. Lots of great new colourways are coming. I am full of awe and gratitude for the things nature has shared with us and can’t wait to get home!
]]><Lifted from Wikipedia>
Kīlauea is a currently active shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, and the most active of the five volcanoes that together form the island of Hawaiʻi.
Kīlauea’s eruptive history has been a long and active one; its name means “spewing” or “much spreading” in the Hawaiian language, referring to its frequent outpouring of lava. Kīlauea’s current eruption dates back to January 3, 1983, and is by far its longest-duration historical period of activity, as well as one of the longest-duration eruptions in the world.
The hike took about 2.5 hours to get in and 2.5 hours to get out. As the crow flies, it was probably more like 8 miles, but the constant up/down/winding path we had to take to stay safe and stay on track definitely added a lot of time. The last time I shot Kilauea, lava was pouring into the ocean, this time around it was only visible by hike and I’m glad; it was a much more intimate experience.
These photos are for perspective. It’s hard to imagine the scale of this desolate landscape without people for scale.
Can you see the red glow under the ground around Tito? That’s all lava that has cooled off a bit. You have to be very careful where you step because you don’t know how stable some areas are. In our case we had excellent guides to help us – I wouldn’t recommend going it alone. Even so, by the end, the rubber on our sneakers had melted.
It’s hard to choose favourite shots. Lava is beautiful beyond measure, awe-inspiring and primal. You are watching the earth move, rocks flow, it’s profoundly spiritual.
Anywhere you look below your feet you’ll see the lava on the move.
And to end, my favourite of them all. This giant chunk fell away and I, perhaps foolishly, jumped in front of it to shoot. The heat was so intense that the skin on my forearms burned and my lens got too hot. Afterwards I was nauseated and dizzy for a few minutes. I could only stand there for a few seconds, but for those few seconds I stared into the heart of the earth and it was worth it.
Is there volcano yarn coming when I get home? You bet.
]]>Tomorrow it’s time to hit the ocean for some underwater work and an early nights rest before commencing our 4am 16km hike to the active lava fields!
]]>Despite our luggage woes I wasn’t about to lose a day in paradise. We decided to go on a reconnaissance mission to Kilauea – the first of many happening this week. Here are some initial shots!
Lava is no longer pouring into the sea, so I was super lucky to have shot it when I did last time I was here.
However, the devastation of Kilauea remains absolutely stunning. Here are some shots we took down the crater road yesterday.
Today it’s going the other way and just possibly getting in the water :) Aloha!
]]>Next update – the March pop up is here! It’s called “overcast” even though the picture was more like “find shelter, storm watch”. I shot that from our balcony during a spring storm when we still lived downtown and had a fine view of the lake. Overcast goes from cream through shades of blue before darkening into a brown/black. A perfect pairing for denim, moody and very wearable :)
Next up – The Blue Brick has grown greatly in the past few months, a fact for which I am immeasurably grateful. Exposure in the United States, the feature in Vogue Knitting and our patterns have garnered us a lot more attention (ok, and our dogs). As we’ve grown, growing pains come too. As of right now I am the only dyer, and the only person answering emails, so when I am sick, or working on a large goal (such as the recent grading) things can get sticky. Ombré takes time, and we only have the ability to paint so many per day, so it’s easy for fulfillments to get behind.
We are a dyed-to-order shop and it’s very hard to keep a standing inventory for anything. I apologize for not communicating this well enough, and will try to do better but here are the facts right now: orders from us can take up to three weeks to fulfill. That sucks, no doubt about it, and I will do my best to speed things up (maybe get Tito dyeing again?), but with only one dyer we can only do so many skeins per day. All I can do is promise that the skeins are dyed with care and love and are worth it when they arrive <3
Puppy Paw kits have officially earned $610 towards the Niagara Dog Rescue so far! Thank you everyone – you’re amazing! Together we have donated enough to sponsor 6 pups, and I’m sure more will be on the way!
Here’s the next bit – this month’s club in particular may take longer. We are away from March 8th to March 21st in the first vacation we’ve allowed ourselves since launching The Blue Brick. We’ve been through lots of great things, lots of hard things, and it’s definitely time. My parents are moving in with the dogs and we’re going to spend two weeks on Hawaii’s big island, documenting Kiluea’s lava flow and shooting from Mauna Kea’s astronomical observatory. I’m sure lots of amazing colourways will come from it :)
My goal is to dye as much of the club as possible before we leave. I have 8 days to churn out orders related to the club so *hopefully* we can leave on vacation without too much to worry about, but I wanted to put it out there in case we’re unable to get through it all.
Next thing! When we return it will be all hands on deck to shoot the patterns for the book. We’re almost done with the test knitting phase, and there are 12 gorgeous new patterns that take advantage of both tonal and gradient yarns. The book is scheduled for release in April, exact date TBD. It will be online, in print, and at the Knitter’s Frolic. I will also be planning a book launch party with prizes and kits for our local team here in Southern Ontario :)
Right after the book release we’ll be gearing up for The Knitter’s Frolic and then it’s a straight run through festival season right into the fall. What a ride! We’re super excited to meet as many of you as possible this season.
Thank you to everyone who has believed in us, helped us grow, and had patience with us as we grew, learned our limits and tried to surpass them. Every day, in every way, we’ll try to be just a little bit better <3
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Some of you have already seen these colours, and now they’re being added to our permanent line.
French Blue
French Blue is inspired by a gentle pottery glaze that I loved when I still had a studio. It reminds me a bit of blue hydrangea – soft with just a hint of violet.
The second colour that we’re playing for keeps is “Not Quite Sammy”.
Even though it’s really variegated compared to some of our other colours, folks really seem to groove on this sweet, gentle colour that doesn’t look at all like my dog, but was inspired by my dog. So it’s staying.
I have another colour in my mind that is a rich (don’t say it!) yellow. It’s saffron and turmeric, it’s ancient stucco and just a bit of terra cotta. Stay tuned for more things that I really shouldn’t be doing ;)
]]>This month may be February, but we’re already thinking of March :) When I visited the Emerald Isle I was blown away, even in March, by the sheer greenness of the country. Grass green, earthy green, blue-green, sea-green, you name it. The country is gorgeous, the people are some of the friendliest I’ve ever met, and knitting has a rich history there (I actually got to visit Aran Island!).
Emerald green transitions through earth tones to deep brown. It’s a simple, elegant result that comes from a slightly more complex dye process; I don’t actually use green dyes for this. I do everything in a rich turquoise blue and then paint in burnt umber and gold tones to achieve this rich green.
Along with this months colour, we have a new base to announce! The winner of our yarn tasting event, introducing “Blue Mountain Sport”.
This is a heavy, rich base. It takes colour beautifully, at 80% Merino, 10% Cashmere and 10% Nylon. It’s so heavy it actually feels more like DK weight, and it comes in 350 yards of smooshy wonderfulness.
I’ll be designing around this base for the new book (release by April, stay tuned!) – it’s going to round out our offering nicely by giving folks a heavy cashmere option, great shine and solid stitch definition with no halo. We’re excited to offer this in all our colours come February 1st; tonal and gradients.
Ireland will be available in our _ombre_ section starting Feb 1st and lasting until the evening of Feb 3rd. Remember, this one is a gradient yarn, if you buy the Ireland in the tonal section it’s not the same thing (though it will be a lovely match).
Just in time to knit something for St. Paddy’s day :) Enjoy!
]]>To here!
Sammy is also a great big sister. A lot of the credit goes to Arya.
To celebrate Sammy’s anniversary with us, she is getting her own colourway, kit and donation. This is not a pop-up, the colour will always be available on our site.
Tan for Sammy’s fur, White for her stripes. Pink for that little nose. Speckles because Sammy is speckled. Sweet, like Neopolitan Ice Cream because Sammy is sweetness personified <3 Plus Muddy Husky, because my girls are a package deal.
You can see from the swatch that this is *not* a gradient – it’s fun and light and as faceted as Sammy’s own personality. To honour Sammy, we are launching a sock kit: A recipe for vanilla socks, top down, using “Sammy” for the body and “Muddy Husky” for the cuff, toe and heel. We are calling it… wait for it…. Puppy Paw!
Puppy Paw kits will come with one skein of Sammy and two mini skeins of Muddy Husky, (540 yards total of Killarney Sock) a puppy paw stitch marker and the sock pattern. The retail value of the kit will be $49 and for every kit sold, The Blue Brick will donate $10 to the Niagara Dog Rescue. We’ll keep a running tally on our website :)
Look out in the next few days to see the final kit with sock samples and stitch markers! This will be online-only, to keep things simple (so I don’t need to coordinate the donations with stores) and it will launch on January 11th; Sammy’s Anniversary (and what we’re considering her birthday!).
]]>The company that I worked for these past 12 years changed dramatically, and I decided The Blue Brick was a better place for me. It was hard and scary and I miss free time and regular pay cheques, but The Blue Brick benefitted greatly from my presence full time. I never thought I would leave that job, but looking back I’m glad I took the leap.
We launched Ombré Knits; our first pattern collection, started our pop-up colour line, developed and added a tonal line and hired our first two employees (including my dad! Yay for daddy time!).
We launched several patterns, attended lots of festivals and spent time out west at Vogue Seattle and Knit City, thanks to Valley Yarns and the Nifty Knitter.We expanded to the US and formed partnerships with lots of new Brick-and-Mortar stores across Canada. We received a write-up in Vogue Magazine, spoke at several guild meetings and met tons of new friends. We finished up with our first of what will hopefully be an annual tradition; The Blue Brick Holiday Party. It was a great year for The Blue Brick.
There was also loss. My father in law passed in November, after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Kali lost her father over the summer. Our family cat, Ollie, passed away last month. I am of mixed feelings about revealing this next bit, but I’m going to say it in the hopes that it’s helpful to someone to know that my life isn’t my instagram feed; this year I had two miscarriages.
Each miscarriage was followed by periods of depression, poor eating, anemia and sleeplessness. Orders were late, people were mad, and I was trying not to talk too much about it. I felt so many things, loss, guilt, like I was copping out, talking about it too much, (oh god, not playing the miscarriage card again!) and making a mountain out of a molehill. I felt like I was asking for sympathy, making people feel awkward and airing my dirty laundry. I felt the responsibility to care for everyone else’s feelings (How are they gonna react? Are they sick of hearing me complain?) instead of my own. I tried to hide it on a professional level, to keep my social media posts upbeat and happy, to not ask for more time on order fulfillment. I’m still not sure if that was even healthy, but that’s what I did.
I know someone who raises highland cattle and works three jobs to support her cows. I know someone who makes complex chainmail while suffering MS. I think all small business owners know what I’m talking about here, when it comes to loss, sickness and grief. We pour our hearts into what we do, knowing the sacrifice it takes. It’s hard to get time away and it’s easy to put our needs last.
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”- Plato/ Philo of Alexandria/anonymous
Sammy and Arya were the willing recipients of my pent-up maternal tensions. I poured all my emotion into yarn, and into Arya who was just a puppy and played a huge role in the healing process. Sometimes I just wanted to fling my phone across the room but instead I’d take a cute photo of her and post it online. Never, ever underestimate the healing power of animals.
Lest anyone think it was just a terrible year, read on!
The greatest part of our year, no contest, was getting the girls. Sam and Arya are the loves of my life, and my babies in every sense that matters. Sammy’s journey in particular has been beautiful to watch and has made me feel that I have done something worthwhile to steward a little life, which is mama enough for me. I cannot imagine life without them.
Among other amazing people, I met Kali, a friend who has been there in countless ways already, even though we haven’t actually known each other a year yet! Brandt, Treena, Bob, Linda, Lindsay and Ruth, Annika and Susie, my entire weaving guild,*everyone* at the Nifty Knitter, I know I’m forgetting names here, but so, so many wonderful new faces in my life.
My parents moved to Burlington to be close to us and to support us, which has meant the world to me.
The summer rocked. We tried to be done with dyeing by about 3pm every day, which meant beer and burgers on the back patio, knitting and reading and napping and all kinds of long, warm, awesome weekday evenings. Every Tuesday mom comes over with fresh bones for the girls. We built a gazebo.
I joined the local weaving guild and took a weaving class with an amazing teacher; so I learned how to warp my 8-shaft loom at last! I’m so excited to see where my weaving adventure takes me.
A few weeks ago I received the unexpected message that, with enough training and commitment, I might be able to qualify for my Sandan (Third Degree Black Belt) this coming year. I was electric with happiness when I got the word, and immediately afterwards humbled, scared and uncertain, coming on the heels of my physical condition (or lack thereof) and poor performance in class. I don’t feel worthy, but I’m ready to work to get there, and come what may, I know I’ll try my best. I’ll post progress and training shots online!
This coming year we’ve got big plans. I’m going to start teaching dyeing workshops around the GTA and hopefully some of the festivals; tonal and ombré! I enjoy teaching and inspiring so hopefully I’ll get a chance to connect with some of you there.
Ombré Knits 2 is in the works; and I’m so excited about the patterns, which will leverage ombré and tonal together for exciting new projects.
Sammy is getting her own colourway and I’m hoping to start a fund-raising initiative for the Niagara Dog Rescue – more on that come Sammy’s homecoming anniversary.
My focus this year is community; I want to meet as many of you as possible, do KALs together, teach workshops, have knit nights, do guild talks and just generally feel more connected to the core group of knitters who have always gone out of their way to support us. You are my foundation, even if you don’t know it yet, and you are why we do what we do!
We wish everyone a healthy, happy, creative 2018 filled with peace, love and inspiration. We can’t wait to spend more time with everyone and make beautiful things together!
Thank you for reading <3
With so much love,
Shireen, Tito, Sammy and Arya
It never rains but it pours; the following week my cat died, and then our water heater gave out (heat is essential to dyeing). I realize my problems are not my customers’ problems, Christmas deadlines are looming and the post is starting to slow down with the holiday volume. I’m so, so sorry for the impact this has had and I feel awful.
I have to beg a little more patience from folks who have waited too long for their orders, or have received shipping deadlines from me that didn’t happen. I’m truly sorry, and if anyone affected by this would like to email me about a discount code or a full refund/cancellation then I am more than willing to make it right.
We expect all late orders to ship by Friday. If you have questions or concerns please feel free to write to me at hello@thebluebrick.ca.
Best,
Shireen
Moody and tonal, but also rich and layered, these colours will expand our line to allow for multi-skein projects, sweaters and blankets etc. Gorgeous on their own or paired with a gradient, I can’t wait to see what you make with them!
You may have seen some colours on instagram that don’t appear to have made it to the final twelve. This is likely because I couldn’t reproduce them to my satisfaction and they came up while I was playing. Those skeins are still around, first dibs will go to folks who are attending our Holiday Party, and any OOAK skeins left over will go online.
Before I show off todays colours I want to mention two changes to our regular line; Tulip and Daisy are leaving the scene. It was a hard decision for me, especially Daisy, but it’s time to change things up. If you still want Daisy or Tulip and they’re gone from the site you can always shoot me an email and I’ll do a custom order for you.
Replacing Tulip and Daisy are two of the favourites from our pop-up colours this year; Rose Gold and Copper Slate. Both these colours will be added to our ombré line starting tomorrow as regular gradient colours. The icons are not quite ready yet, but you’ll recognize the ones we used for the pop up.
This gentle colour is called “Succulent”:
And lastly, this is “Winter Grass”; rustic but neutral:
That’s all folks! Everything starts tomorrow, and I can’t wait to see the projects that come out!
]]>Next up is a brilliant red that I wanted to call “Sumach” but ended up naming “Torii” after the Torii Gate shrine that I shot in Kyoto. Not for the faint of heart, this is one saturated red!
Now for something softer; this gentle, almost neutral blush colour is called “Flamingo”.
And lastly, a colour that I’ve called Lilac in the past few weeks but changed to “Aster”. Aster means star, which doesn’t make a lot of sense for a purple colour, but it’s named for the New England Aster; a flower that is common in Ontario. I caught this one at dawn, covered in dew, and before it had opened its bloom to the sun for the day. When I came back later that morning the sun was up, the dew was dried, the flower was open and somehow I thought the magic had gone out of it a little.
Tomorrow; neutrals and a few changes to our gradient line (hint, if you really loved Daisy or Tulip you might want to order them soon!). All colours launch Friday!
]]>Grotto looks quite different from the earlier versions I posted – I had a shot in mind that I wanted to coordinate the yarn with. I shot it in Italy, in Capri, where there is a natural formation called the “Blue Grotto”. The opening is so small that you have to lie back in a row boat to enter, and the boat is pulled in by a chain. Once there, the colour of the water will blow your mind, I put my hand in the water and watched it glow. You’re only in there for a few minutes and the light conditions were challenging, so I’m also proud of managing to get a shot, though I would have liked to go again without the camera and just experience it.
Ireland is actually the same shot used in an old club colour, but expressed differently in the yarn. I shot it in the Ring of Kerry, through a bus window, hence the hard colour tinting. Normally I would have dumped the shot, but in this case the motion blur, the tilted angles and the vignette from the window all lent a mood to the shot that I really enjoyed.
Finally, Quidi Vidi. Pronounced “Kiddie Viddie” it’s a lake in St. John’s, Newfoundland. We shot the lake in the evening, with a slow shutter, just as the dusk light was ending. The results gave the lake a beautiful blue tone in the final shot, while retaining the warm tones from the surrounding rock.
Warm tones will be showcased tomorrow, and everything launches Friday :)
]]>Thank you to everyone who took the time yesterday to send us a sweet note about Ollie. Each and every note means a lot to us <3
If you follow us on Instagram (@thebluebrickish) you will have seen some new yarns popping up lately; a tonal line that is intended to be a compliment (not a continuation) to our ombré line and give folks more options for multi-skein projects. They’re also gorgeous for use on their own and, should you want to make a sweater etc., they are all available on the exact same bases as the gradients so no more worrying about finding a close match and getting gauge all over again!
A few notes about our Tonal Line; The final colour choices will be here on the blog and on instagram over the next few days. They will all launch on December 1st and will be a permanent addition. They may look a little different from some of my ‘working models’ that I’ve posted about lately, but it was important to me that these colours be reproducible before I released them, so there has definitely been some tweaking.
Tonals are tricky, and not quite as formulaic as our gradient line. If you want to make a sweater, I’d recommend buying enough with a little to spare all at the same time; and I will make sure it all gets dyed in the same lot. Regardless, I definitely recommend striping your skeins for the best results possible and to avoid unwanted pooling and colour changes. Here’s a tutorial.
There will be either 9 or 12 colours total (TBD), and I’ll show off a few a day from now til the 1st :) I’m pretty excited about them, they’ve taken on a different personality from y gradient work which is generally bright. These are dark and moody and I love them; the kind of colours I’d wear for sure. As with our other work these colours are inspired by, and ship with, our photography.
Without further ado, here are the first three!
Cobblestone:
Cobblestone is dark, but quite complex. There are layers of turquoise, slate, brown and black under there, along with light speckling in both brown and turquoise. It’s rich and subtle.
Terra:
Warm, and utterly autumnal with gold, cayenne and taupe layered in to create something evocative of walking though one of our favourite places; the Terra Cotta reserve.
Bauline:
This piece took on its own life as I dyed it, based on the sunset I shot from Bauline, Newfoundland. A small fishing community, the beach was littered with the detritus of fishing gear lending tones of rust, stone and lichen.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these :) Stay tune to the blog for the next few days to see the rest!
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This evening we had a calamity; my sweet cat Ollie, who I’ve had for 10 years since he was 9 weeks old, passed unexpectedly from a cancer that went undiagnosed until it was too far along. He was fostered as a baby by a girlfriend, she put his picture on Facebook and just like that, Ollie was mine. I lied to my parents about him following me home (they didn’t believe me for a second).
There is no way to put this gently; Ollie was a terrible cat. He peed on things with the discernment of an aficionado who understands that leather is better than laminate, and that purses are preferable to litter boxes. Move that litter box one inch to the left and you would be rewarded with a contemptuous pool of pee, a statement on our perceived incompetence. His favourite hobby was to lie on his back in the middle of the floor and extract a tithe of blood from anyone who tried to pass. I secretly believe that dogs are for people who love to be loved, and that cats are for those who don’t mind being silently held in contempt. Ollie embodied that theory.
Except me.
I could rub my face in his belly and make him purr like a chainsaw. I could hold him like a baby and rub his face against mine. I was his mama, and we loved each other like mad.
He clawed a girlfriend so hard once that he left the claw in her palm. We left a friend house-sitting for a week and returned to find him clawed to the elbow, shaking, emphatically telling us “never again”. I once overheard a vet talking about him saying “If that’s the same #($)@!* (insert invective here) cat I saw Tuesday there is no WAY I am treating him without a general anesthetic.” He got so anxious in cars that he would void in his carrier, leaving us to bathe an angry, poop covered ball of claws and teeth afterwards.
Ollie was also, as it turned out, a lemon. At 4 years old we discovered in one expensive weekend that he had a heart defect. We fought hard for him, and we watched him fight too; to breathe, to live. We emptied savings accounts, borrowed money from friends and even pled with the bank to make it happen, and it worked, Ollie came back home to reward us with his cantankerous self for 6 more years. From then on I assiduously monitored his heart, thinking it would eventually be the thing to kill him. There’s some small comfort in the vet telling us we did well; Ollie’s heart was stable to the end.
I could rock him like an infant and he came when I called. He never learned to meow, opting instead for an inquisitive “Purrrrup?” when he was with me, usually a request to jump up onto the sofa for a cuddle. Ollie was an olympic level cuddler and could go for hours, happily snoring, purring and shedding his way through dreamland while I tried not to move and wake him.
When it was time to sell the condo we moved Ollie to my parents place. It was meant to be temporary; but my folks fell in love and so did he. My parents didn’t know it, but they were born to be cat owners. They needed something that liked to be worshipped, and didn’t need to be walked. Ollie settled into being their benevolent ruler and remained with my parents until his untimely end.
He didn’t suffer much that we can tell. Yesterday he had trouble breathing. The vet found a mass in his kidney, which we were supposed to have diagnosed today. Instead Ollie passed, peacefully, albeit unexpectedly, at home with mom and dad. He was loved and cuddled to the end.
I miss my baby. I loved him and his hilarious habit of supervising everything we did from his signature position of lying flat on his back, thus earning the nickname “Junior Foreman”. I miss his cuddles and his snoring and his motorboat purr. I miss being his mama, and holding that privileged place of being the one to cuddle and calm him, and how good that made me feel. We had a special kind of love and I will miss him always.
RIP Ollie. I hope you are somewhere with ample sunny spots, extracting the tithe of pain from those wishing to cross rainbow bridge like some kind of jumped up security guard. Regardless of whether the theory is true, I know the image would make you happy.
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