Colouring

Its designing day today and I am sitting on the floor with my laptop colouring in charts on photoshop.
I love colouring in.
Give me a piece of graph paper and some colours and I will spend hours and hours playing.

My eldest daughter Felice is an artist, when she saw my colourings for the first time she said I should publish them as works of art on the internet. She is a painter, but has done a lot of computer art as well.
I don't really think they are interesting enough on their own to publish, as they are all part of patterns.

But its made me think about the way I present my patterns.
I have come to the conclusion that I treat the whole pattern is a piece of art.
I'm very, very obsessive about what the finished pattern looks like, just ask my tec editor!
I could add more detail, but it wouldn't fit with the aesthetic.
Although the charts are a minor part of the pattern they are also one of the most important parts for me.

Maybe the reason I love designing blankets so much is that it gives me the chance to do lots of colouring in.

Anyway back to the colouring for me :-)

Oooops I forgot

To tell you about this weeks update, which went on-line last night.

The featured yarn is Stardust, Merino/silk/stellina 2 ply Lace.
Its one of our wholesale yarns, but we thought you might like a little treat, so have done an update for you.
Its not a yarn I normally crochet with, as I'm not keen on lace.
But its sparkly and pretty and lovely to use.
http://www.thenaturaldyestudio.com/yarn-of-the-week-359-c.asp

The kit of the week is Iris crochet scarf, as I've had a week of thinking about rainbows I thought Iris would be appropriate.
As I write this post there are 5 kits left, I wonder if they will last the week.
http://www.thenaturaldyestudio.com/iris-scarf-kit-7612-p.asp

A rainbow club is born

Just a very quick post as I have been up to my neck in wool all day.
Photographing and editing for tomorrow's update.

I'd like to announce yesterday's idea is now a reality and I have added the new rainbow club to the site.
You can find all the details HERE

Rainbow Club???

Everyone loves rainbow's
Especially me :-)
I use a lot of rainbow colours in my work.

I get really excited when I see lots of colours together in the same place.
In the past I've bought some really hideous clothes because I was so excited about the colours, only to realise later how awful they looked.
I love paint charts and art shops where the paint and pencils are displayed in colour order.

I am obsessive about the colour order.
I don't know if you have noticed that all colour names of my yarn are in rainbow order, they are alphabetically named so that the colours will appear in the right order on the site.
You can see what I mean if you follow this link to Dazzle BFL 4 ply/sock - Dyed to Order.

We used to dye rainbow colour yarn, but the trouble with it was that it looked amazing in the skein, but I was never happy with the way it looked when worked up.

I'm far happier using lots of separate colours together as then I have control as to how they work together and where they appear in the project I am working on.

I woke up yesterday morning thinking it might be nice to do a rainbow club.
I could start at one end of the rainbow and each month dye the next colour along.
The club would be for me as I love the idea of dyeing a continuous rainbow.
It would give me a huge palette to dip in and out of.
I think I'd do it in Dazzle 4 ply/sock as its one of our most versatile yarns, I love Dazzle its a proper woolly wool and not too expensive.
I could use the colours in all sorts of exciting new ways and maybe come up with some new designs too.

I guess you might like it too?
Let me know.........