i need some inspiration here...

[morganalilith]

a fibery thing i'm participating in has 'Home for the Holidays' as it's theme.   i am having a heck of a time coming up with something.  it can be yarn or spinning fiber.  it will  most likely be, at least in part, alpaca, as i still have a LOT of that, lol.    what i need are ideas for colors to use.  the people i have pinned down have offered the

Comments

[tephralynn]

Hmm, well even after being up here for over a decade the "home for the holidays" theme makes me think of Massachusetts, which is not all that different from here except it gets more sunshine. We've not had much sunshine these past couple weeks.

So if I were working the theme I think white with a bit of saturated sky blue, a touch of bark brown, a pinch pine green, and to warm it up a serving of cranberry and a dusting of gold. Not sure how I'd mix all that, but it's a start. :)

[nancytoday]

What did you decide upon? Are you dyeing your own alpaca? I was so impressed with a friend's results using koolaid, sprinkling bits of dye here and there with other colours.

[morganalilith]

i ended up using tephie's ideas as a starting point... white alpaca to represent snow, with a touch of white firestar nylon added for sparkle. then i dyed some alpaca in cranberry and some in evergreen and added a little natural brown alpaca to represent the bark of the deciduous trees (or mud, if it's been a warm winter, lol). it ended up being more reminescent of christmas hard candy, but i was pleased with it, even if it wasn't what i had originally envisioned.

i sometimes use koolaid to dye fiber, but i see it as more of a novelty thing. i generally use professional dyes... both the lanaset/sabraset and washfast acid dyes.

[nancytoday]

I see I can learn a great deal from you!