Mum

A year ago, I wrote this blog post.

After her funeral, my dad asked me to dye a special colourway in my mum’s honour. He had very specific colours in mind. (Those of you who know my father are cringing right now, aren’t you?) And a name.

But nothing was ever quite right.

After May 23, 2012, colour changed. How I perceive it. How I see it. How I mix it. It’s all different now. You may have noticed. Or it may be so subtle a change that only I can see it. I have no way of knowing.

I tried. A few times. In my head. In the pot.

Nothing was ever quite right.

Then in December, I asked Ron to dye me a pretty pretty blue to knit on my vacation.

And he did.

It was several weeks, months even, before I could say it out loud. This is my mum’s favourite colour, in all its subtle variations. It’s perfect. It’s hers.

I tried to come up with clever name. I was told it was my job and that there would be no Ron’ing of the name.

There isn’t a clever, funny name. It’s just Mum.

After my mum died, I heard from so many people. It was overwheming and yet the most comforting experience of my life. I haven’t known how to say thank you.

So instead, this.

This is for you if you wrote me to say you words weren’t enough. Because they were. And now when I do the same, I know mine are too.

This is for you if you told me it would come in waves. It does. And when it does, I think of you and hope you feel some of the same comfort when the waves come for you.

This is for you if you planted a hydrangea bushes in exactly this colour in honour of your mum and mine. (yes, you)

This is for you if you emailed me sketches and asked for input on your design to distract me for just a little while. It was exactly what I needed. Thank you for knowing.

(it totally worked)

If you acted as de facto food deliverers and burst into tears when you saw the colour of the casket was the same colour as my mum’s kitchen (her favourite room) and essentially kept me from falling on my face for the past year…I know you don’t knit, but this is for you too. (I won’t tell you we really chose it because it was the cheapest one )

If you told me it would fucking suck. You were right. Knit up.

If you donated in my mum’s name, prompting letters to my dad that he still talks about with tears in his eyes and his voice…this is yours.

And if you also lost someone special to you this year (yes, you, you and of course, you)…this is so much for you.

Minion On The Loose

Hello! Indigodragonfly Minion here!

Just wanted to let y’all know that Kim and Ron have unchained me from the winder for a few hours of freedom.

I really enjoyed meeting some of you at the Knitter’s Frolic in April. It’s swell to actually witness how bonkers people are for this yarn.

I enjoy minioning away in the Squirrel Hut dyeing and winding and saying bizarre things like, “I’ve made the Squid and wound the Hot Cheese and there are two pots of Unicorn ready to go.” or “How many Lizards should we make into Punching?” and “Do we need to weigh more Gesundheits?”

Sometimes I make a thing I call 1xNS which Ron refers to as a dyslexic 80’s band but is in fact the description of a very common dye.

I have learned that “Inara” and “Cordelia” are colourways, neither of which have the words Inara or Cordelia in their proper titles. This was confusing for me for ages.

There is an impressive amount of jargon which I’m fairly certain only exists within the walls of said Squirrel Hut. But I’m starting to speak the lingo.

I’ve caught myself asking the yarn how’s it’s doing. This had not ever occurred before my career as a studio minion.

As much as we all joke about me being a slave, I actually get to play fairly often. Working out my own colourways helps me learn about the properties of the dyes and how to apply them for a desired effect and it keeps me creatively motivated. Which is a very valuable part of any job in my humble opinion. Kim and Ron are great at giving me direction for my colours while still letting me take the lead on those ones. In case you are wondering, my colourways thus far have been: “The Impenetrable Apricot Forcefield”, “Punchline Executed by Five Year Old In More Ways Than One”, The Worst Part of Nodding Off Is Folgers In Your Lap”, “Jeeves, The Prim Reaper” (Ron made the names of those two), “Mongo Only Pawn In Game Of Life”, and most recently, “Caffeinate The Minion!!”

From left to right: Apricot, Caffeinate, Jeeves and Folgers

So just in case you were worried about me, I’m good. There was one slightly traumatic incident involving a slightly pornographic arboreal pictograph, but I’ve been seeing a therapist so it’s fine.

Okay, back to the yarn dungeon with me. Ciao for now.

Darbs

A Special Colourway for Minden

Over the past few weeks, knitters have been asking us about the flooding in Haliburton County we live in and how everyone is coping. Because of your interest, this week we have developed a new colourway and are donating 50% of all sales (what’s left after minions & materials have been paid for) to the official Minden Hills flood relief fund: http://www.seodevspace.com/mindenpub/floodrelated.shtml (we will post the receipt as proof of payment when a donation has been made)

When today’s yarn is gone, we’ll be taking orders for this colour way. As long as you still want it and as long as funds are still needed, we’ll keep dyeing it.

Ordering is simple:  Email us at “orders AT indigodragonfly.ca” and tell us what you want (base & number of skeins) & where you live (US? Province? Australia?)

Don’t see the base you were hoping for or your favourite is sold out?  Email us to order it.

More info on the flood:
The Minden Times - day by day coverage of the flood and aftermath
Amazing aerial photos of the flooding in Minden from Warden Carol Moffatt’s Facebook page

******************************************************************************************

Canoe Up to the Beer Store
(because you could…)

Blues and greys overwashed with teal to create a complex, multi tonal colourway.  Colour shifts are more prominent in bases with more wool in them, and more subtle and blended in those with high silk content

Merino Silk DK: 50% superwash merino/50% silk – 220 yds – 100g – $32 - Sold Out! (you can order more by emailing us!)

MCN Lace: 80% merino/10% cashmere/105 nylon, 630 Yds, 115g – $32 – Sold Out! (you can order more by emailing us!)

Merino Sock: 100% Superwash Merino 2 ply sock yarn – 400 yds/100g skein – $25 – Sold Out! (you can order more by emailing us!)

Merino Silk 4-Ply Sock: 50% Superwash Merino/50% Silk – 430 yds – 100 g – $32 – Sold Out! (you can order more by emailing us!)

MCN Sport: 80%merino/10%cashmere/10%nylon – 250 yds – 115g – $32 – Sold Out! (you can order more by emailing us!)

MCS Sock: 75% merino/15% cashmere/10% silk – 400 yds – 115 g – $32 – Sold Out! (you can order more by emailing us!)

************************************************************************************************

Email orders to: orders@indigodragonfly.ca to place all orders.  Let us know: 1)  what you would like to purchase, 2) where you live (state/province/country), and 3) whether you would like us to wind your yarn into cakes (charge of $1 per skein with proceeds going to our Otis Houndation).  A PayPal invoice will be mailed to you that includes airmail shipping (or surface mail if you’re in Ontario).  Please allow approx. 1 – 2 weeks for delivery in Canada, 1 – 3 weeks for deliveries to the United States, and 2 – 8 weeks for international shipping (and possibly a bit longer depending on where you are). For further information, see the bottom of this post. Please Note: Once an order has been placed, payment is due within 48 hours of the invoice being sent. If payment is not received within this time frame, the order will be canceled and the stock will be returned to the General Inventory.

 

North Bay, ho!

This Friday (May 10), we’re packing up the yarn mobile and driving the cashmere airbags to Stix and Stones in North Bay ON for a trunk show.

Stix and Stones
147 Main St W  North Bay, ON P1B 3W7
(705) 223-8245

We’ll be there for knit night, with all the yarn we can carry and lots of samples, from 5 pm onwards (but it’s very likely you’ll find us there a little earlier than that as well)

Join us!

Remember: all our upcoming trunk shows, workshops and other events are listed in the left column of this site.  Check often for updates!

Yarn Update: Linen Silk!

As advertised, an update for Linen Silk!!!

***************************************************************************************************

Ordering is simple:
1) send us an email at orders AT indigodragonfly.ca.  Tell us what you’d like to order (what colourway, what yarn base, how many skeins) and where you live (so we can calculate shipping);
2) We will email you a Paypal invoice, which can be paid with a Paypal account or a credit card.

Please Note: Once an order has been placed, payment is due within 48 hours of the invoice being sent. If payment is not received within this time frame, the order will be canceled and the stock will be returned to the General Inventory for others to scoop!!!

***************************************************************************************************

Linen Silk Lace:  65% Linen/35% Silk, 715 yds/653 m, 115 g, $35

Claws Don’t Kill People, People…No Wait, Claws Do Kill People. (Fake Wolverine Quote series)

1 Skein Available

I Made That Tape Special For Today! (High Fidelity series)

2 Skeins Available

Not A Suitable Date For A Mormon

3 Skeins Available

People Are Particularly Stupid Today; I Cannot Speak To Any More Of Them. (Gilmore Girls series)

Sold Out!

Curse Your Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal! (Wash – Firefly series)

Sold Out!

Bunnies, Bunnies, It Must Be Bunnies! (Anya – Buffy series)

2 Skeins Available

Blink, Edith, Blink! (Doctor Who vs. Downton Abbey series)

Sold Out!

My Name Is Indigo Montoya

Sold Out!

Sailor Bait: The Official Lipstick Of The 2012 Walk Of Shame

3 Skeins Available

Up Until The Punching, It Was A Real Nice Party. (Kaylee – Firefly series)

2 Skeins Available

Fringe Over Troubled Walter

Sold Out!

****************************************************************************************************

Email orders to: orders@indigodragonfly.ca to place all orders.  Let us know: 1)  what you would like to purchase, 2) where you live (state/province/country), and 3) whether you would like us to wind your yarn into cakes (charge of $1 per skein with proceeds going to our Otis Houndation).  A PayPal invoice will be mailed to you that includes airmail shipping (or surface mail if you’re in Ontario).  Please allow approx. 1 – 2 weeks for delivery in Canada, 1 – 3 weeks for deliveries to the United States, and 2 – 8 weeks for international shipping (and possibly a bit longer depending on where you are). Please Note: Once an order has been placed, payment is due within 48 hours of the invoice being sent. If payment is not received within this time frame, the order will be canceled and the stock will be returned to the General Inventory.

One more sleep!

The Knitter’s Frolic…I get as excited for this as I did for my birthday when I was 6.  :)

As you can imagine, all the yarn in our studio has been packed up into every square inch of car space — ours, and the minion-mobile — so you can expect an explosion of soft, squooshy & COLOUR in booth #35 this weekend.

Ultra MCN Sock…Merino Sock…Merino Single Lace…and some new favourites like Octobaa and Merino Silk DK.  Can’t wait for you to see it all.

(Don’t be too disappointed if you can’t make it.  We’ll have a big update next Thursday when we get home!)

We’ll also have brand new ceramic buttons by Charlene McConnell in a huge range of colours and textures and sizes and shapes…get your first crack at them.

We’ve drawn for the 2 sets of tickets. Paulina and Joanna are the lucky winners! Congratulations, and thank you to all of you who entered.

We’ll see you soon!

Frolic Forecast: Swoop!

I’ve just finished a new pattern in the Spatial Distortion series!

This one’s called Swoop. Can you guess why?

I loved knitting this and watching the colours play against each other. Perfect for semi-mindless knitting…repetitive enough to be relaxing, but enough changes to keep you interested to the very end.

It’s another Order & Chaos pattern, with instructions that lean both ways.  Line by line written instructions for those who prefer to be guided through each step.  A pattern recipe and guidelines for those who want to go “off road.”  Use one or the other, or something in between.

I haven’t taken it off since knitting it.  Perfect around my neck in this strange not-quite-spring-yet time.  Or draped around my shoulders for a layer of cozy.

The pattern is up for sale right now on Ravelry:

We’ll have yarn packs perfect for this and for the other patterns in the Spatial Distortion series in our booth at the Frolic (#35!), as well as hard copy and digital copies of the pattern for sale.

(Super secret hint: buy the Spatial Distortion ebook on Ravelry now before the price goes up on May 1!)

Frolic Forecast: New Colours!

We’ll be bringing some brand new, hot out of the dyepot colours to Frolic this year.

This:

Some of this:

And a little of this:

And many many more.

Complex colours like this are some of my favourites to dye.  So we’re bringing plenty along with us:

 

Remember to leave a comment on today or tomorrow’s post to be eligible to win a pair of tickets to the Knitter’s Frolic, this Saturday in Toronto!

Frolic is Coming!

We’re busy getting ready and packing up for the Annual Downtown Knit Collective’s Knitter’s Frolic in Toronto this weekend.  You’ll find us in the Marketplace in booth #35 (same booth as last year).

Over the next few days we’ll show you some of what you can expect to see from us.  So keep watching!

Also: comment on any or all of our posts today, tomorrow or Thursday and you’ll be entered in a draw for 2 pairs of tickets to the Frolic!  We’ll email the tickets to the winner on Friday.

So today’s fun item?  Buttons.  You know, the colour name ones…but new ones (and a few we just couldn’t let go of):

Meet our Club designers!

Today is officially the last day to sign up for the Smart-Ass Knitters/World Domination 1 Skein Club!

Full details & sign up here       Quick sign up here

For the first time, we’re announcing some of the designers that will be creating new designs for the Club.  Handpicked and invited to design with us, these are the people that make each package a true collaboration.  The colours you receive are inspired by each designer’s idea.

We’re pretty excited about a line up that includes:

Julia Farwell-Clay’s command of texture and colour play make me swoon.  Your eye follows each line as it tells it’s story. I plan on living in Mindy next fall/winter.

Ruth Garcia-Alcantud’s (Rock and Purl) elegant, very wearable designs always have quirky details that I love.  Full of Ruth’s joyful personality!  Paseo makes me lose my mind!

Bristol Ivy shifts perception. Simple lines and fine details reveal themselves to be so much more.  I’m currently playing colour tetris for the perfect combination for Stripanan

Melissa Lemmons creates designs that don’t quit, keeping your eyes and hands happy to the very end.   I’m fairly convinced knitting Columns of Grass will finally melt the snow in my yarn.

Lynne Sosnowski never stops thinking…about how things fit, how they work and how they’ll make you feel to wear…and this shows in her designs.   She has also designed the only hat that does not make me look like a dork.  Really.

Come join us!