Last year, as we were driving across the Kingston-Rhinecliff bridge early one morning on our way to the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, I snapped this photo of the sky seemingly on fire. The dawn light filtered up through the clouds in a fantastic blaze of color, utterly mesmerizing, constantly shifting, never to be seen again.
Later, this May, Babs and I made the acquaintance of Peg and Amanda from Junction Fiber Mill after walking by their booth numerous times at Maryland Sheep & Wool. We got to talking... and we were thrilled when Peg and Amanda agreed to mill us a special colorway of their color-changing Making Tracks Lite yarn. It was so interesting getting to learn about their process!
Sublime Skies was inspired by the incredible shades of clouds painted by the rising and setting sun: golden yellow, peachy orange, rosy pink, barn red to burgundy, and shadowy lavender. Each skein is unique.
I chose 'sublime' for two reasons - one, because I happen to think it's pretty fantastic, but also to reflect the artistry of Hudson River School painters such as Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, and Albert Bierstadt, who tried to capture the essence of the sublime in their paintings, often including breathtaking cloudscapes in their work.
Thomas Cole. Catskill Creek, New York, 1845.
We brought home some yarn to play with, of course - and then the work really began as we thought through lots of ways to show off this beautiful yarn.
Helen designed a colorwork cowl, Daisy Bell.
She paired Making Tracks Lite with our wool and silk blend Killington, shown here in Nori.
Helen writes, "Daisies always make me think of my Grandy, who enjoyed growing, decorating with, and painting pictures of the iconic flower. I also have a very clear memory of hearing Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two) with my Grandmom. This daisy covered cowl is a celebration of these two wonderful women."
I designed an asymmetrical shawl, Making Ripples, with several stitch patterns evoking ripples and waves. I paired the Making Tracks Lite with a finer yarn, our wool-silk blend Avon in Dusk, to make the contrasting yarn really pop out from the background.
As waves approach the shoreline, underwater rocks, shoals, and other features change their shape and size. In this shawl, stitch patterns push and pull the rows of stitches into waves and ripples, much like underwater features make ripples on the surface of the water.
Ivy knit up a colorwork cowl, Reverb by Kacey Herlihy. She combined the Making Tracks Lite with our Yummy 2-Ply yarn in Bloodstone.
We have been thoroughly enjoying getting to work together with Peg and Amanda from Junction Fiber Mill and knitting with this special yarn!
The Sublime Skies colorway of Making Tracks Lite will be available EXCLUSIVELY in person in our Rhinebeck booth this year - if we have any left over, we'll bring it home and add it online.
We're also thrilled to be able to offer 2 alternate colorways of Making Tracks Lite online -- Vermont Vice, which I used in my alternate sample of Making Ripples, together with Ergosphere Avon, and Alpenglow, which Helen used in her alternate sample of Daisy Bell.
