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Heritage Yarns Newsletter #38
What's New - Again!
February 3, 2006
Happy New Year!
I hope it is no surprise that my well wishes
for the new year are a little late as I truly wish you the best year
'round and am grateful for your friendship and patronage.
I took a little time off during the
holidays to celebrate Christmas and New Year's with my loved ones and
to host Christmas Day and New Year's Eve for about 15 each time.
It brings me great joy knowing that someone else in my family will be
hosting this Christmas. <G> And catering for New Year's
is looking better all the time. LOL.
The gathering of family and friends
was quite heart-warming, if tiring, and so, I decided to take a little
more time off in January to recuperate and think about just what it is
that I love about the fiber arts. Can we say "EVERYTHING?"
<G>
To continue the New Year
traditionally, Don and I participated in ROC Day in Lake Charles, LA.
And, for those of you in other parts of the USA and world, I'm sure you
must know how heart-warming it was for us to see those
who have lost a lot to everything greeting us with willing, loving hearts
and hugs. They truly put themselves out with wonderful hospitality
to include the usual good, Louisiana food, handmade items in the goodie
bags and great door prizes. The shower to hurricane victims was an
outpouring from all over the world and a lot of credit is due the
Contemporary Handweavers of Houston. Major legwork was performed by
Linda Sura and Brenda Harms, a victim from Chalmette, Louisiana, who
lost everything. All recipients were grateful.
The finishing touch was when Jean
Sparkes from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, announced that the
Dyed-in-the-Wool Weavers & Spinners from Pass Christian,
Mississippi, will be hosting ROC Day for 2007. I think I was
speechless and know that it brought tears to many. The whole
experience reminded me that fiber artists are a determined, loving lot.
There are lots of new things new
here and it is delightful to hear the UPS and USPS trucks. <G> Among the new items are special patterns from HeartStrings,
hand painted
silk/rayon and some, long-promised
painted warps.
On to the news.
Dyeing for your knitting and weaving
pleasure,
Margaret <><
In This Issue:
- What's Old is New
Again in Yarns
- What's New in Painted
Warps
- HeartStrings Latest
Designs
- Convergence News
- Help Us Help Them
- Quick Links
- Shopping/Contact/Information
What's Old is New Again in Yarns
Shown from left:
Hand knitted Reversible Lace Cables Scarf designed and knitted by Jackie
E-S in Sagebrush, faux ikat scarf handwoven by Margaret Pittman in
Spring at Rocky Springs and Blueberry Hill, faux ikat scarf handwoven by
Margaret Pittman in What a Wonderful World and hand knitted Maple Leaf
Scarf designed and knitted by Jackie E-S in What a Wonderful World.
What do the above projects have in common?
They were all hand knit or handwoven from the first hand painted
silk/rayon I offered a couple of years back. I recently purchased
the remaining stock of former retailer, Jackie E-S. This is a
wonderful yarn with wonderful hand and drape and we really hated to
see the last of it dyed. The fiber content is
25% silk/75%
rayon and is available in 9 colorways.
Suggested weaving sett is 14-20 epi. This is a laceweight yarn and
knits up into wonderful scarves on a size 5 U.S. needle (bamboo
recommended). It is put up on an 8 oz./1050 yd. skein at the
original price of $26. There is a very limited amount of this yarn
remaining and hope you will take the last opportunity to work with
this wonderful yarn. One skein is ample for most shawls and two
scarves. I especially love this yarn in a garter-stitch based
design like the
Reversible Lace Cables shown above or the
Spiral Nebula.
What's New in Painted Warps
Shown from left: Sea Cruise
hand painted chainette warp and handwoven scarf
These are the newest in the line of Heritage Yarns
painted warps and are currently available in
6 colorways.
There are 2 yarns in this warp: 50% Premier 5/2 cotton and
50% Fringe Benefit, the newest of the Heritage collection of
yarns. (Look for skeins soon.) Premier is 100% 5/2 pre-mercerized pima cotton/ Fringe Benefit is 100% rayon chainette.
Combining the two yarns in one warp gives the best of both worlds:
the rayon gives a nice drape, sheen and soaks up the color and the
cotton gives a nice hand and lightens the drape. Dye take-up is
dramatically different for each fiber, creating a depth of color
unequalled in a warp of all one fiber. The warps are 3 yards long
and 168 ends. Recommended sett is 18 for plain weave or 20 EPI for
twill. Width in the reed: 8.5-9.4". This warp is
for a shorter suit or möbius scarf.
Due to variation in stretch of the two yarns, back
to front beaming is recommended. The stretch lends added drama to
the color variation in the finished scarf. Complete instructions,
at
no additional charge, include lashing on to the breast
beam for best tension, a pattern for a 4-shaft combination broken twill
and directions for creating a möbius. Price of the warp and
instructions is only $30; pick up a complementary 8/2 tencel warp for
$12 and weave off a scarf in a weekend.
Experience level: intermediate to
experienced
HeartStrings Latest Designs
Shown from left:
Cat's Cradle Long-Ways Scarf (in Heritage Yarns hand painted tencel),
Filigree Lace Ensembles
These are the latest designs
from Jackie E-S. All are in keeping with Jackie's other designs in
that they are comprehensive and skill-building. Nothing is left to
the imagination in Jackie's designs and all come with lots of built-in
options!
SIMPLE FEMININE ELEGANCE - A variety of lacy and beaded fashion
accessories with a special elegance
Fine Filigree Fingerlings
Three styles
of beautiful hand coverings styled for under-the-cuff wear to give the
look of layering.
Fingering weight yarn.
Filigree Lace Ensembles
Hat, neck
warmer/collarette, and two styles of matching wrist warmers. Team
this pattern up with Fine Filigree Fingerlings for even more ensembles.
Sport weight yarn.
<><><>
Cat's Cradle Long-Ways Scarf
The way the threads
meet and cross each other reminded Jackie of the child's game "cat's
cradle." Pattern includes a mini-tutorial on finishing and
blocking lace. Lace weight or light fingering yarn. Model is
shown in
Heritage Yarns hand
painted Summer Haze tencel
<><><>
Beaded Lace Wristlets
Three styles of hand
coverings feature contoured beaded edging and lovely bead-embellished
lace pattern.
Fingering weight yarn
and size 8/0 (3 mm) seed beads.
Shown from left:
Beaded Diamond Mosaic, Beaded Basketweave
BEADED
ENSEMBLES
-
Mix-and-match ensembles to knit in DK
weight yarn of your choice and size 6/0 (4 mm) seed beads.
The beads give an added depth of color and look of complexity to an
otherwise simple beading knitting technique.
Beaded
Diamond Mosaic
Mix-and-match
ensemble of hat, crew socks and fingerless mittens. Although the
color-work might appear involved, the slip-stitch color knitting is
simple because you only need to handle one yarn color at a time.
Beaded
Basketweave
Beaded
scarf and matching split-cuff anklets to make eyes turn your way.
The interplay of the knit-purl basketweave texture and beaded knitting
makes this a fun-knit project. The stitch pattern used for the
center portion of the scarf is a slip-stitch pseudo ribbing that gives
an extra-soft cushion of comfort around your neck.
Convergence News
Shown above:
Hand painted 8/2 tencel in Grandeur
HGA's bienniel Convergence is just around the
corner and I hope a lot of you are planning to go. It is in my
dreams. <G> I was recently honored to design a limited edition
colorway in hand painted 8/2 tencel in the Convergence colors.
The name of the colorway is Grandeur and is only available through
HGA. It is not available on their website just yet but if you
would like to purchase, contact the HGA office and ask for the yarn by
name (Grandeur) or item #C018. The price is $28 or, if
you're a member of HGA, $25.20.
Not a member of HGA? They can take care of
that too and at the same time you will receive a quarterly magazine,
"Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot," opportunity to
participate in the Learning Exchanges, Teaching and Learning
through Correspondence and Certificate of Excellence, a small discount
on merchandise for members and many other perks.
For more information, see
HGA.
Help Us Help Them
So many of you have written notes of desire to
help those who lost everything in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The
Dyed-in-the-Wool Weavers Guild from Pass Christian, Mississippi could
use your help for some time to come. While at ROC Day, one of
the guild members, Jean Sparkes, graciously gave me an address to
where all types of fiber items can be directly shipped.
Look through your spare yarns and spinning fiber, knitting needles and weaving
equipment and see if there is an item or two you would like to
contribute. They are appreciative of all donations. You
may send them to the following address:
Local Color Gallery
Attn: Jean Sparkes
1141 Robinson St.
Ocean Springs, MS 39564
Quick Links:
Shopping/Contact
Information
Yarn shipments are limited to the U.S. and Canada. If you live outside
the U.S. or Canada and would like to place a pattern order, please
inquire at
Margaret@heritageyarns.com.
Visit
Knitting Patterns and take a look around at the wide selection of
downloadable patterns from HeartStrings.
Purchasing options: by PayPal shopping cart or optionally call
with Visa, MasterCard or mail in a personal check or money order.
Margaret Pittman
Heritage Yarns
5875 Baxter Drive
Jackson, Mississippi 39211-3317 USA
Telephone - (601) 956-1478
Email -
Margaret@heritageyarns.com
Fax - (601) 957-2963
Celebrating color in hand painted skeins and warps since 1994
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fiber artists who might be interested in receiving a free subscription?
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Margaret@heritageyarns.com.
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