Fall. While every season has it's unique beauty and claim to some special part of the soul, Fall commands a pretty big one. It's the season of harvest when the hopes and dreams and plans of Spring are realized (or re-evaluated). It always feels like a frenzied time of year out here in our little prairie corner of the world. The work gets started in late summer when the dye gardens and vegetable gardens come into full production; the last of the long summer evenings are spent picking and drying blooms of Marigold and Dyer's Coreopsis until Fall's chill nips the fingers, chasing you inside. Rainy days are spent in the kitchen making pickles and jams and jars of summer peaches put away to bring sunshine to a cold Winter's days. As the season progresses, the pace picks up and all around farmers are working in the field, machines droning, hurriedly trying to stay ahead of the snowy whether that is sure to arrive one day soon. And then, oh the Fall colours - burnt oranges and yellows, smoky reds, bright golds - dyed skeins of yarn against the brilliant blue prairie sky, the harvest moon against the deep dark dusk. Fall; the sounds, the beauty, the bone tiredness that makes you sleep without stirring, the bounty of food and colourful yarn that promises to keep the heart and soul and body warm for the winter to come.
This fall at the Mill, the colour bounty is great. Megan Samms from Live Textiles joined us to dye the 2019 Field & Forage Yarn using harvests of marigolds and madder root grown here at the mill, dahlias and zinnias grown by farmer-florists Elfi and Jordan at Blue Moon Farm, and avocado pits salvaged from grocery store waste through Loop Food Rescue participant farms. Dyed on a 2-Ply Mule Spinner Yarn base, the colours are outstanding and they are available for purchase in store and online now!
In addition to the 2019 Field & Forage, we are very excited to announce the release of Naturally Dyed Prairie Sea Fusion Yarn and Naturally Dyed Prairie Wool Medium Soft Spun Yarn. 12 people-friendly, earth-friendly colours to compliment the natural sheep shades in your bulky knitting adventures (those of you who visited us at Knit City Vancouver got an early glance!). Available in 4oz skeins, these beauties can add a hit of colour to your next West Coast Cardigan or Salish Toque.
And lastly, a note to stay tuned because soon we'll be releasing the CWM Natural Dye Club 2020 subscriptions so that you too can learn to cultivate and harvest your own colour bounty!
You can probably gather at this point that we are wild for natural colour here at Custom Woolen Mills. We are constantly thinking about how our little business impacts the world near and far to us, and being mindful of the dyes we use and the colour we offer to consumers is a huge part of that. If that resonates with you too, you can now easily find natural yarn options in most weights of yarn in the Naturally Dyed Yarn section of our website.
Happy knitting!
