But, really, I guess it means someone who dyes yarn by hand and that could be all solids or variegates or speckles like this week's Indie Dyer, Sun Valley Fibers. http://www.sunvalleyfibers.com
I have known Jeanette and George for many years. My first meet up with Jeanette was at Meg Swansen's Knitting Camp. Jeanette was sitting in the back waiting for the Saturday market to start and she was knitting on this super cool cowl, in the round, with loads of different colors. I came to find out that it was all different colors of minis that Sun Valley Fibers had dyed. A year later at Knitting Pipeline, Jeanette brought scads of minis to their Saturday market and of course, I had to get some. I still have my minis, and maybe next year, I will get around to knitting the cowl up, although, it would be a nice Summer porch project to knit on wouldn't it?!
One of my sweaters that I have knit and wear a lot lately is Hiro. It was knit out of Sun Valley Fibers Worsted weight, which is so squishy. It was a project that I bought yarn from at Sun Valley Fibers January Thaw retreat that I attended a few years back. Several of the Peoria Knit Wits bought yarn for it, and I think a couple of us have knit either the Hiro Pullover or Cardigan. I really need to get a picture of us all wearing our Hiros, not just me.
As it was, I purchased a bit too much of yarn for my Hiro, so I had plenty left to knit a Hospice blanket out of some of the leftovers. This blanket was so soft and cuddly.
At one of the January Thaw Retreats, the guest teacher was Melanie Berg. Knowing that she was going to be there, gave me the thought to knit one of her shawls to wear to class, Quicksilver, and of course, I had to knit it out of Sun Valley Fibers yarn, which I had purchased the Summer before at Stitches Midwest.
And last but not least of my Sun Valley Fibers knits, one of my fave shawls that I have ever knit. It may be the colors, that reminds me so much of the colors of the oceans, but the fingering weight Merino Cashmere Nylon is pretty nice too. Pattern is Laura Aylor's First Point of Libra.
The blues were from a gradient kit that I bought from Sun Valley Fibers and the dark is Onyx. At the time the Onyx was dyed, it was more of a really deep charcoal which I really liked. The new Onyx that Sun Valley Fibers is dyeing is really black, as the name would indicate.
This particular knit was done back in 2016 when I was off with foot surgery, and it helped me keep my sanity. There was one other blue that did not make it into the shawl. Because they were so close in tone, I used the black and white photograph on my phone to decide which one was too close to the others and eliminated it.
Like designers you find and really like, yarn dyers for me are the same. If you find one, you like you just keep going back to, even if it is only to try out every base they dye, right?
If you are in need of yarn, check out http://www.sunvalleyfibers.com
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