Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival

Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival is a few weeks away, but we want to make sure it gets on your calendar! Yvonne is the organizer behind the event, she's created a great market place and a fantastic class list. There is still some room in classes so take a peek and sign up for one. Debby will be teaching a class that sounds fascinating! A sampling class for spinners and knitters, how to decide what fiber works for different projects. I might need to see if there's room in this class for me!

We'll also have a host of Schacht products for your shopping pleasure! The Reeves wheel is a thing of beauty. You are welcome to stop by the booth and take a spin.

We'll also have a Cricket Loom for you to throw the shuttle on. It's a little addicting, so you've been warned!

You can warp and weave a scarf in about two hours, what a way to use up some fingering yarn right?! There are endless possibilities with the cricket. And it doesn't take up nearly as much room as a floor loom and has an affordable price. We can't wait to see you at the show and show off these fantastic tools!

Oh, What a Night!

Last night the Dyeworks played host to the Yarn Market News Conference. The attendees arrived in Portland over the weekend. They attended workshops that help yarn store owners grow a more successful business. Based on some of the tweets from Erin I'm a little jealous I didn't attend! On Tuesday, after the morning session, everyone was invited on a yarn crawl around Portland. They didn't hit all the shops, but a great spread was represented.

At the end of that journey, they headed out to the Dyeworks for a closing cocktail party. We hosted almost every knit wear designer here in Portland. And wow is this a talented city! Food and drink was prepared by Gino's and so yummy.

The evening was a great way to connect with yarn stores from all over the US and Canada in a more intimate setting. Also a wonderful opportunity for us to spotlight the Dyeworks and where the magic all happens!

Many thanks to Stevanie and all her hard work making magic. Thanks to all the designers as well, a great night with all of you! And of course, thank you to Yarn Market News for bringing a fabulous event to Portland.

What a weekend!

The Yarn Crawl has passed and the studio feels so empty! We loved having people flowing through the dyeworks. And it was great to hear about the paths they had taken to get to our little spot. I love that so many people visited all the 20 yarn shops and studios in the Portland area last weekend. It was great to hear about the yarn finds and the favorite new places that each person planned on visiting again. We love our knitting and fiber community! And we are so very proud to be part of it:)
We do have open studio on Tues, Wed and Thurs from 11-4p. If you want to drop by for a cuppa joe and knit please do so. You can watch us dyeing and being a bit sassy;) We always have a bit of yarn or fiber available to purchase plus items for sale from Lantern Moon, Knitted Wit and patterns by Larissa Brown.

Portland Yarn Crawl!

We had so much fun at Stitches West! There will be a full recap in our March newsletter. Sign up on our website to receive our free monthly newsletter...you can go now...I'll wait;)
And now here we are ready for the next event! This coming weekend we are participating in the annual Portland Yarn Crawl. You will find 20 stores and our dyeworks involved this year. Every stop has a huge gift basket to be raffled off at the end of the weekend. Every store you go to will have tickets to fill out. So you have more chances to win when you visit more stores! I love that all of Portland's yarn stores are unique and very special. This is a way to support your local shops and find some special, yarny events as well.

Pico Accuardi will have sale yarns throughout the weekend. We will be showing yarns that are currently not being offered in any of our supporting Portland stores.

On Friday we will be having a wine and chocolate reception from 4-6 pm.

Saturday we will have Cricket loom demos throughout the day.

Sunday there will be a beginning spinning class from 12-1p. with Schacht spinning products for sale and layaway.

We invite knitters and spinners to come hang out at the studio during the weekend. Put in a yarn order when you arrive and we will dye it while you wait.

If the weather calms down a bit Deb will be bringing some bunnies down from her snowy bit of Mt Hood for a Sunday Angora spinning demo too. We had hoped a few goaties could join in, but it looks like rain and we don't want them inside tasting all the yarn;)

And don't forget--Knitted Wit lives at the studio as well! Lots of Lorajean's beautiful yarns and spinning fibers will be right there beside ours.

The open studio hours for this event will be: Friday 11-6 / Saturday and Sunday 11-4

Headed South

All dyeing all the time! This week has been crazy busy at the dyeworks getting ready forStitches West. There are so many amazing yarns and fiber being dyed up, I was ready to start wrestling Teri over a few of the skeins!

The drying racks are filled to the max!

Debby and Teri labeling all the new pretties.

All the yarn that needs to get packed!

People, I am telling you, I would line up at booth #1144 and sharpen the elbows! Sweater quantities of beautiful semi solids, amazing wool/alpaca yarn, rich colors in Stevie Sparkles. I could go on for days! I haven't even mentioned the fiber going! I would love to see photos of what you get at Stitches, maybe post them to the facebook page or in the Ravelry group!

A quick thank you to everybody that joined us for Open Studio Saturday last weekend. A great time was had by a lot of people! I'm looking forward to next month during the yarn crawl!

Where We're Going

So not all the pictures were taken for the What Doin' There post, a wrap up of what's on the needles for everyone at the Dyeworks. Instead, lets talk about where we're going! It's a busy year full of shows all over the West Coast. We'll stick with the first few months of the year so we don't get too overwhelmed.

this is from the halloween Open Studio Saturday

To start off, we're having an Open Studio Saturday on February 5th from 11am to 4pm. Come hang out with your knitting or spinning, do a little shopping and visit with Louie! The bunny that is formerly of Abundant Yarn. There will be an all levels spinning class from 11-1p. Class is $20 and you do not need to RSVP.

Up next, we're headed south to Stitches in Santa Clara California, February 18-20! Our booth number is 1144, the map can be found here, you can plan your route to the booth for the best selection! Debby, Stevanie and Teri are making the trip. The dyeworks has been awash in color getting ready for the show. A featured yarn for Stitches is Soft Touch, an aran weight luscious yarn made of alpaca and wool. It knits up beautifully and there will be many colors to choose from!

Next on the schedule is the Portland Yarn Crawl. Set aside the first weekend in March and get ready to shop! The Dyeworks will be open for business and the scavenger hunt. Bring a wheel for a little spinning, or your current WIP and make some progress!

April has two happenings for your participating pleasure. The first is the inaugural year of the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival. Yvonne has done a great job getting the show organized. The market place is a shoppers dream, and the class list is fabulous. Debby is teaching a great class that is hopefully on your list! Looking forward to a weekend at the Gorge with fiber!

At the end of April is our annual spring retreat to Imperial Stock Ranch. Our Spring retreat begins Friday, April 29th at 5 pm. Check in and meet up with your hostesses in the Imperial Suite for some food, wine and by-the-fireplace knitting. Saturday there is a continental breakfast, at your leisure, followed by a knitting or spinning class. We’ll take a long break for lunch, plenty of time for a nap or a stroll by the river before the afternoon class. Saturday evening, enjoy your dinner at the Imperial River Company restaurant or bar and gather with us to knit by the firepit in the central courtyard.Sunday begins with breakfast, followed by a tour of the historic Imperial Stock Ranch. For those that have visited the ranch in the past we will have a beaded yarn needle felting class that morning or you may want to relax a little longer before heading back home. Each room is river view and the price includes your river view room, Friday evening dinner, classes, tour to ranch, taxes and fees. The only thing not included will be meals on Saturday and Sunday. Quad occupancy: $230.15, Triple occupancy: $251.86, Double occupancy: $295.29 and Single occupancy: $425.58 Call Imperial River Company to book: 800-395-3903

Wow! And that's only the first few months! We hope you can join us for as many of these adventures as you can! Please let us know if you have questions about any of these happenings.

...And We're Back!

We want to jump right in with what's current! There's only one major piece of news before we get to what's happening: We moved! Maybe this isn't new if you listen to Debby's podcast or follow along in the Ravelry Group. At the beginning of November we moved to SE Portland, not too far from Gino's. The location has turned out to be a winning location with everybody involved! Knitted Wit even made the journey with us!

Back to what's current. TNNA, the trade show for the needle arts, was at the beginning of the month. We had a great time catching up with other dyers, designers and business owners. There is a magic that happens when we all get together. It's like any other show that way. Only so much can be conveyed through emails and tweets! There are some collaborations with different designers and yarn companies coming up, watch here for more details as they develop!

While you aren't supposed to take pictures on the show floor, there was an exception made for one little woodsman!

Knitted Wit (Lorajean) made the trip, which means o-face made the trip too! Joel, from Lantern Moon wore him in the fashion show and o-face was known for the rest of TNNA! Daily there were photo-opps in the booth. A great addition for sure.

The booth had a beautiful theme of being in the woods with fairy's and other magical creatures. We'll be using this set up at a few of our shows this spring, let us know what you think! The hat that o-face is wearing was designed by Sarah and all the little felt creatures were created by Bella Flora Studio. The creatures are available for purchase!

When we weren't at the showing selling yarn and lots of fiber (!) there was dinner at the Lantern Moon house. A great time of food, friends and ping pong! After all the restaurants and hotels it was nice to be in for the evening. The meal was delicious and the competition fierce.

There was also a fun night out with a bunch of fun people: Ysolda, Casey and Jess, Amanda, AVFKW friends, Laura, and more. More pictures need to be taken next time! If you were at the greek dinner and weren't listed, let me know! Yummy food, great time chatting and even a few stitches were knit.

We're hoping to keep the blog a little more up to date, so check back for the next episode. We're calling it "What doing there?" (e-lion's signature question, Lorajean's oldest boy) A little check in with everybody at the studio and what they have on the needles! Also a calendar check in, we're at lots of events this spring and we want to see you at all of them!!

With a little help from our friends

Autumn is very welcome this year. We had quite the crazy Summer. But with some help from our friends we made it through. Thanks to Teri, Sally, Sadie, Alwynn, Mikola, Marisol, Jonny, Zach and Lizzie for being so very helpful at different points of the Summer!

Flock and Fiber Festival

Last weekend we finally came up for air! We have been so busy this Summer dyeing up the yarn and dealing with a few small problems (like Stevanie's house fire). We had so much fun connecting with local knitters and spinners. Oregon Flock and Fiber has been the only show we've participated in the last couple years. However, it was such a wonderful time we are considering doing a few more shows during the year so we can connect with even more people. We'll see what comes of this idea. We shared the booth with our good friend Lorajean Kelley of Knitted Wit. We also share our dye studio with Lorajean. After such a crazy Summer we all decided it was time for a dyers' retreat. So we are creating one for ourselves. Different creative activities for ourselves and a couple other dyer friends so we can all get new inspirations for the coming season. We'll be sure to take lots of pics.

An elsusive green

All of our writing lately has gone into our clubs and newsletters. After a very long Spring it is time to get back to the blog!
With natural dyeing as with all growing things there are seasons. We have ended up in between onion seasons. Because of the long rainy season here in Oregon this year this period is dragging on and on.
There are many plants that give shades of yellow. The buttery yellow above was attained with Calendula petals. You can still see them floating in the yarn. By dipping these yellow skeins in an Indigo bath we achieve some amazing greens. However, different yellows give different greens. We are tapping our toes waiting on yellow Walla Walla onions to hit the market in force. Once they have their thick skinned sweetness in the market we will be right there peeling away. The golden color we get from these skins will be a step in achieving a dark green that is part of our Veneto colorway. You may notice the ties in the above skiens. Just wait and you'll see the final step to this process. We are hoping it all falls into place soon as this is a colorway going to a local store for a sock club.
Speaking of sock clubs--The Community Sock Club is now taking sign ups for round two! This club is hosted at Gino's Restaurant in Portland. We get together every other month for a luncheon with other members, the designer of the month and us (the dyers). It is a great way to knit socks and make some new friends;) Check out more information on our website.

Not so Happy hour

I just got off the phone with my Deb. Her friend Keri just passed away - they've been friends since they were 14 years old and Keri was also a member of our Community Sock Club that meets at Gino's restuarant every other month. Keri has two little girls, ya'll. One of them is the same age as my Elsiebelle. I'm so heartsick for my friend and her friend.

Creating with Love or Spleen

When I'm dyeing yarn, or creating anything, it's an emotional process. I'm not saying my magical ingredient in our natural dyepots is tears (alright, sometimes...) but I am saying that I put what I'm feeling into the colorways I create. Some of our colorways are named for people, some for memories, places we've been, etc. I try not to ever create in a negative mood; I don't want you wrapping your baby in that. But sometimes, I feel a little like this.

That's my middle child when he was about six years old after his brother tried to take a toy he was playing with. Now they are 12 and 15; the elder is preparing to act in Romeo and Juliet and the younger holds a guitar much more often than a baseball bat. Their arguments are both more and less sophisticated than when this photo was taken, but just as "full of spleen" as Shakespeare used to say. I'll admit I've made some spleen colorways - there's one called "Amparo" because "I'm gonna kill Andres with a spoon" doesn't fit so prettily on a label. Or even "Sedona" which I made on a bad day and have repeatedly vowed to stop making but ya'll keep buying it so I have to keep making it.

"Bleeding Heart" is really "the teenage heartbreak that lasts your whole life" - it's slick fresh blood color has earth undertones and bruised purples. It's old and raw at the same time; and that's how I feel every time I see him.

But then there's Elsiebelle, palest lavender and steely gray. It's named for my daughter who is this tough but fragile girl. She's had a kidney disease since birth which requires us to take her for testing every six months. Liz always tells her doctors she's fine, even when she's sick or in pain.

A long time ago, as I would tell the story to my daughter, there was an optimistic young bride heading out on her honeymoon to the Oregon Coast. She and her new husband drove through Tillamook County on the most beautiful of clear days (mid August is always perfect). There was nothing but blue sky and cow fields. Teenage bride should have read something into that.

Tillamook Sky is that memory, just the breath of the color of the day. Bittersweet.

Today, my hands have touched 168 skeins. I've been singing along with Yo La Tengo, The Roots and Radiohead. Cathy and Sean wandered back with stories. Jesse banged shelving around. The wind from the Columbia gorge blew into the studio. The yarn, headed to Colorado and California, is happy and full of love.

A party at the dyeworks

A few weeks ago we had some fun with our friends from Lantern Moon. They walk through and see all sorts of colors on yarn (and hands) everyday. We decided to have an evening event where the Lantern Moon crew could play with some color while we explained the process of the natural dyeing. Everyone had mini skeins that they could dip in dye pots and in additives after to alter the effects. There were two full size skeins that the crew used for a group acid dye project as well. It was fun to see what each person put on their portion of the skeins. Sharon (owner of LM) will be knitting something fun with the yarn. We'll get a pic as soon as we see the project.
Henry the rabbit got in on the fun too. He was just moving to my house and made a stop off for lots of love at the warehouse. Luckily he was still white by the time we got home;)
We will be having other dye events in the future. On March 27th we'll be opening the warehouse for the day to dyeing, spinning and knitting classes. Info will be up on the website this week!

Community Sock Club

We are right in the middle of the first season of the Community Sock Club. A sock club that is creating community through a meet up every other month. The ladies are enjoying lunch together at Deb's restaurant, Gino's. A designer and dyer are paired together (and join us for lunch). This month the designer is David Castillo of Splendor and the dyer is us! It has been so much fun getting to know everyone this year. We are definitely going to host the club at Gino's again next season (starting in September). Plus this club is going on the road. Ask your LYS if they know about the "Made in Oregon" sock club.
We will be sending a box of fun to shops around the country starting this May. Pico Accuardi yarns, patterns designed by Oregon designers and coffee, tea and baked goods all from Oregon roasters, blenders and bakers. We are so excited to share the creativity of our part of the country with the rest of you! I have been a little bad about keeping up on the knitting, but I will be showing you some beginnings real soon:)

Your yarn is in my trunk...

Deb is so much better at this blogging than I am. Deb and I are Pico Accuardi Dyeworks, we specialize in naturally dyed yarns, fibers and fabrics. We have our studio inside Lantern Moon, a fair trade company owned by Sharon and Joel Woodcock - two of the most loving and creative creatures on the planet. A few days ago, we had Yvonne from Lavendar Sheep and Lorajean from Knitted Wit in for an At the Kitchen Table podcast recording. Deb was ready to rock, had all the questions ready and I, well, I didn't even do my hair.

I thought about doing this yesterday, after a long studio day, while sitting in Kelley's Olympian downtown with Larissa Brown and men in leather chaps. I'd just been on a mini knitting retreat at Manzanita (go check out Olga's T-spot, stinking cute!) and all the girls were knitting on their Ravelympics projects and watching the Olympics on TV. I was trying to knit in the hot tub with a full glass of red; Kelley's Olympian biker bar is as Olympic as I get. Larissa's working on Andrea's shawl in my DK superwash and I was supposed to bring her a new color to work in to it, "Bleeding Heart." We were supposed to try to work parallel, but instead we watched people "getting stoked" on The Onion and plotted out stalking Leonard Nimoy at Comicon in Seattle next month (happening at the same time as the Yarn Market News conference!). I think I helped her fill out her Ravelry designer survey. They asked what they could do to facilitate pattern sales and I think we said send boxed wine. I forgot about doing this, our first blog post and about the yarn to be delivered.

Today is going much the same, I went to drop off new stuff to For Yarns Sake ; I like to hand deliver to our Portland stores and see what they are doing and what's new. Also, Pico Accuardi is doing a trunk show there on March 7th and we are doing a colorway for their sock club. But of course I didn't call to check her hours and I turned up about two hours too early. A good friend works close by, so it wasn't a total wasted trip.

Back at the studio, we've been busily preparing for our retreat in May, our nationwide sock club, the community sock club and our regular orders while developing colorways for Imperial Stock Ranch, Cascade and Pear Tree.

It sounds glamorous but really I'm still rolling with every body's yarn in my trunk.