Glorious Gradual Gradients

I've just finished up a big wholesale order of Gradual Gradient yarns:


There are 40 x 100g balls, in four different rainbow colourways (Primary Rainbow, Gypsy Rainbow, Sandry's Rainbow and Pastel Rainbow). The yarn is a sinfully soft organic and free-trade baby alpaca called Angel Touch, a sportweight yarn.

These will be exclusively available from Ecoyarns soon.

The wild, wild west

A lot has changed since I entered WAHM-dom by opening Jolly Jumbuck on Ozebaby way back in August 06. Back then, there were only a handful of dyers in Australia and it seemed a more genteel time. A time where etiquette played a larger part than it does now.

Dyers respected others' colourways, names of colourways, and even the base yarns used. If XY of OPQ Yarns was using Blackberry Ridge, for example, I would think long and hard before adding BBR to my line of yarns. If I named a colourway the same or similar to another dyer's, I would get a polite but firm email to please change the name on mine to avoid confusion.

Now, it's a free-for-all. Signature colourways have been replicated, yarn bases copied ad hoc, colourway names the same (there are some skeins for sale RIGHT NOW that have similar or identical names to mine)... it's easy to take it personally but I try not to. Or I would go nuts.

That said, it's time for a new direction in my dyeing. Rather than giving it up completely next year, I think I can be organised to have yarn prep nights before M's school days, and dye about once a week. I'm giving up "colourways". I'll be dyeing OOAK sets of skeins and that's all I will have for sale. This fits in with me and my current mood as an indie dyer in this environment.

*undyed yarn* LOVE

As some of you may have noticed, I'm trying to clear some room by having an *undyed yarn* sale. Well it's been going well and I've cleared quite a few totes -- creative storage is a must in this house.

I only skein up the yarn as I get the orders in, so I've been playing with quite a lot of undyed yarn in the past couple of weeks. I really do miss this part of dyeing, the skeins have so much potential and are just lovely in their natural state.

The sale was recently boosted by a large order from a very special customer... I can't wait to see what goodies she comes up with with all these "canvases"!