There’s a fun new collaboration happening at Spirit Trail Fiberworks: Subscriber Color Inspirations! I love collaborating with knitwear designers on colors for their designs, and I thought I’d extend color collaboration to a wider circle, and collaborate with my subscribers, too! Each month, newsletter subscribers send me color inspiration photos, and each month I choose one to use for the inspiration of a new, limited edition colorway (and possibly complimentary colorways to go with it, as I did this month). The subscriber who sends me the winning photo receives a free skein of yarn in his or her special color. The hardest part is choosing just one from all the gorgeous photographs I receive!
February’s colorway is inspired by a photo sent by Rheba of a (somewhat photoshopped) Blue Laced Red Wyandotte chicken. I was immediately taken with this photo because it held a challenge: colors I don’t usually put together on the same yarn — purple and orange. These two colors can be tricky because they’re not always so friendly. If they blend together too much they can create an unattractive shade of … swamp sludge? stale strained peas? oxidized avocado? Yeah, it can be pretty gross. But setting the base color, and then adding color on top, prevents any unpleasant mingling.
Subscriber Inspiration yarns are limited editions, only available for pre-order for a limited time after they debut each month. February’s dyed-to-order options are now live for this month’s special yarn, which I’ve oh-so-creatively named Chicken Chicken, along with two complimentary colors: Chicken Butt (inspired by the pretty lilac-lavender-blue of this chicken’s heiny) and Chicken Wattle (inspired by the red-orange of its facial area).
This month’s colors will be dyed on Aurora, my fingering weight 100% superwash merino single ply yarn. Future colors may be dyed on additional bases; this is my first foray into dyed-to-order and limited edition colors, so it’s a work-in-progress.
February’s colors will be available for pre-order until February 19, 2018, at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, at which time they’ll be closed and I’ll start dyeing up the orders. You can order just one skein, or an entire sweater quantity. You decide. Click the link to see all three! Orders will ship by March 5, 2018.
If you’d like to play along, subscribe to my newsletter at the top of my homepage, and send me a photo that inspires you!