Hello!
Today I've got a special interview with Tara, Hed Dyegoblin of The Dyeing Arts! The Dyeing Arts' Delight base was the featured yarn in February's Club Yumi kit for the Impressionists Gala Wrap & Tara was able to chat with me on February 22nd, 2018 in the Club Yumi VIP Lounge. We chat about her dyeing process, her creative space & how she got into dyeing in the first place. Tara is just as wonderful as her colorways so I hope that you enjoy reading it and getting to know the creator behind the Monet's Pond colorway!
Happy Knitting,
Shaina ^_^
From TheDyeingArts.com:
"The instigator and creative goddess behind The Dyeing Arts, Tara is the one who brings all the pretty colors to all the luxurious fiber. As Head Dyegoblin, Tara is in charge of the ideas and the math. She not only conceives chromatic colorways, she also believes life is too short to knit (or spin) with anything but the best."
YumiYarns: Hi, Tara! How are things going for you tonight?
Tara: Hi, It’s going pretty good. Just finished getting all the snow off my driveway, and hoping I can get some yarn dyed later.
YumiYarns: Sounds like a fun night. We've been getting snowed on all day, too. Do you have a particular colorway that you're wanting to to dye-up tonight or are you just going to be playing with some colors?
Tara: I’m planning on dyeing my ”Land of Smaug” colorway and a semi-solid ”Lagoon” on some fingering weight. My sister requested a sweaters worth.
YumiYarns: Lol, so just a few skeins, huh?
Tara: Yeah, just a few...This is ”Land of smaug” and ”Lagoon” is the same blue.
YumiYarns: Thanks for the pic! Lol, we had the same idea, I was just pulling up your site, TheDyeingArts.com, to snag a pic. ^_^
That's going to be a gorgeous sweater!
I've had such great responses from club members about the colorway that you did for this month's kits, Monet's Pond. Initially you gave me a handful of colorway options to choose from, where did the inspiration for those initial skeins come from?
Tara: Most of my colorways just come from my brain, I have a wall of swatches and I lay them out on the table to see how they would work together.
YumiYarns: Nice! That's a fun way to do things. So are the swatches just done in tonal dyes so that you can see the true nature of the dye?
Tara: For Monet’s Pond I knew that you wanted speckles, so I dyed the test skeins with colors that looked good on the brown base yarn. Usually I chose one color and then find combinations of colors that work with that color. Most of the time the name comes after the yarn is dyed and I can see the complete skein.
YumiYarns: That's how it usually works with my patterns, too. I play around until the yarn tells me what it wants and the name is generally the very last addition. I was so excited to see the name of our colorway, Monet has actually been my favorite artist for years so it was really fitting and the colorway makes me so happy. ^_^
Tara: My swatches are done as a semisolid for each color and depth of shade. So basically I have about 5 swatches per color and each swatch has 9 different yarns on it.
These are the colors straight from the company:
These are colors I mixed from the primaries:
And I have speckle swatches as well.
YumiYarns: Oh, that's really cool! And a smart way to do things. I'm sure that things can get mucky pretty quickly if you're not careful.
How did you get into dyeing in the first place?
Tara: So, many years ago (We won’t say How many) I learned to spin. I had bought some hand painted silk as one of my learning fibers, after I had spun that and the wool I had bought I started looking for more. I couldn’t really find any that I liked that wasn’t affordable or local, so I decided to try dyeing and fell in love.
YumiYarns: Aw, a true fiber love story. Now I'm even more glad that you won the fancy wheel at North Country last year. Do you still spin a bunch?
Tara: I do, although not as much as I would like. Most of my spinning and knitting nowdays is samples of stuff I dyed.
YumiYarns: Haha, I hear you there! My poor wheel was so neglected for the past year so now I'm trying to get in a bit each day (somedays it still doesn't happen, but the intent is there). I've actually got a couple braids of your Sugar Skull colorway (which I completely adore!) that I'm mid-spin on at the moment. I'm just trying to decide on how I want to ply them before I continue on. Do you have any favorite colorways to spin up (if you ever get a chance to just have a fun spin)?
Tara: I don’t really have a favorite colorway, I just love to see how they all transform. My favorite thing to spin is anything with sparkle in it.
YumiYarns: Yes to all the sparkles! It really is amazing how the fiber changes from roving to yarn, isn't it? And how the same exact braid can become a totally different yarn in the hands of another spinner.
I know that you've just started a new round of your fiber and yarn clubs, are you looking forward to seeing how all your subscribers use their kits? I'm sure that folks show you their handspun when you're at events, right?
Tara: The differences between different fiber blends with the same colorway amazees me as well.
I love seing what people do with their fiber and yarn, I’ve had a few people show me stuff at events. Mostly I see it on ravelry, Instagram, or Facebook.
YumiYarns: It's always so much fun to see everyone's creative spin on things, isn't it?
Tara: Yes, I love everyones creativity!
You probably get the same feeling with peoples yarn choices for your patterns too.
YumiYarns: I do! It's so exciting to see others enjoying what I've designed. ^_^
Unfortunately, we've already chatted away the whole hour so I'll let you go. I've really enjoyed talking dyeing and fiber with you and getting a peek into your dyeing process as well. I'm sure that the club members will enjoy reading our chat & everyone else will get to enjoy it when I post it to the blog for non-members at a later date.
Where there any closing thoughts that you would like to share with everyone?
Tara: Thanks for the opportunity to share a bit of myself and my process with you all. Keep on spinning, and knitting!
YumiYarns: Aw, thank you so much for taking the time out for us & for making such a beautiful yarn for us to enjoy!
If you guys would like to catch up with Tara, you can find her at TheDyeingArts.com, Facebook, and Instagram.
I hope that everyone has a great day & Happy Knitting!
Shaina ^_^