Oriri Draco Design

The Skinny on the New Base Yarns!

September 25, 2008 – 10:43 pm

Wow, I’m tired. Been a really busy day. And on top of that. as I was taking pictures for this post, my camera battery died! So no pictures. But I said I’d write about the new base yarns, and I am going to. I know it’s not as good as pictures, but those will be up as soon as the camera battery has recharged. (Tomorrow!)

Anyway… three new base yarns.

Lace weight yarn, 60% silk and 40% SeaCell. (So shiny, absolutely gorgeous. I’ve been staring at a hank of this since it got in.) Will definitely be keeping some of this for myself to knit a lace weight Pi Shawl with.

Light fingering weight 100% bamboo with a hell of a twist. It’s a four-ply, and reminds me of tiny ropes or little snakes. (Ok, the ropes are less creepy, but it still reminds me a bit of very shiny scales because of the number of plies. I LOVE this yarn. Shiny doesn’t cover it. ) I’m thinking this one would make breathtaking lace shawls or scarves, or maybe those tank tops that were popular this summer.

Sock weight 50% cotton, 50% milk protein fiber. This one is my absolute favorite, and it is only through sheer willpower that I have not thrown all the hanks on the floor and rolled around in them. It has just a bit of a sheen to it, and is favorite t-shirt soft. Love, lust, will knit myself socks with this and then maybe a tank top and maybe a shawl and… you get the picture. I. Love. This. Yarn. Can’t wait to see how it dyes up!

So. Three gorgeous base yarns that still need names. I’m even more excited because I told myself that if I finished plying all of the brown and orange yarn today, I’d dye the new base yarns tomorrow, and I did finish plying! Wheee! Multi-colored hands, here I come!

(About the plying… worked from 11am to 8:20pm non stop, but got it done! I think I gained a few new grey hairs in the process, but it’s done, and looks great, if I do say so myself. I just hope Brianna likes it too! I still am surprised by how soft and shiny hand spun bamboo yarn gets when two plied, compared to when it’s a single. Yowsa! I did get the effect I was going for too. Pictures tomorrow. <3 )

So yes. Lots done today, more to do tomorrow, and then all out this weekend. Vrooom!

By Oriri Draco | Posted in Day To Day, Shop News!, Spinning News | Comments (0)

Hand Spun - Brianna’s Yarn

September 24, 2008 – 7:56 pm

Hand spun I’ve been working on for ages for a good friend of mine, custom colors.

100% Bamboo, currently around fingering weight, dyed after being spun, fading from brown to orange. Will be plied once fully dry to blend colors a bit. The goal is for the final knit item to resemble autumn leaves. (:

I think it came out well. The colors were right what I was aiming for. I’m near dying of curiosity to see what it will look like plied! (:

The new base yarns got in today, but will have to write about those tomorrow! I will say that they are better than I had hoped for!

By Oriri Draco | Posted in Spinning News, Work In Progress, Yarn Porn | Comments (0)

New Yarns!

September 22, 2008 – 5:21 pm

Wow, it’s been a while! I’ve really missed writing here, but each time I sit down to write, I realize I don’t have much in the way of pictures of new yarns ready to share or photos of knitting progress! And the day to day stuff of running a business probably isn’t all THAT interesting. But I’m definitely still here!

Thankfully, I DO have new yarn and pictures of new yarn this time! Really love this set of yarns, but am going to hold off on making them regulars until I see how you guys like them! They are all metallics or have a frosted look to them… what do you think?

Shot of all the colors together:

The return of Quicksilver! I got so many requests to repeat this one, so here it is!

One of the rare multi-colored yarns, hehe, Steel Blue:

Iced Coffee has a bit of a bronze shimmer to it, but I still think iced coffee first when I see it!

And Black Raspberry Ice, which has more of a frosted look than metallic:

I’m hoping to get a green or two in before I run out of this base yarn, and maybe a second blue. (: Aiming to get these in the shop tonight or tomorrow morning. <3

In other news, three new base yarns will soon be making an appearance in the shop. (SQUEE! So excited!!) I’ve been dying to get these three in the shop for months now, and finally managed to swing it! I can’t wait to dye them up and hopefully nab a few of the lace weight for myself!

(Yes, LACE! /happydance )

By Oriri Draco | Posted in Notes From The Dye Pot, Shop News!, Uncategorized, Yarn Porn | Comments (2)

Reskeining FTW! (YAY Friday!)

August 15, 2008 – 9:13 am

Goooood morning sunshines! (It’s not yet 10am here, and I’ve been going hard since 7:00am. Yay caffeine and techno music! Please pardon my exuberance, if you will?)

Today is a re-skeining day. Lots and lots of it! It’s a bit slow going, since I’m winding from my homemade swift to my niddy noddy. (Yes, I’ve got to do something about that soon. It’s the bottleneck for my yarn production, without fail. But for now, the swift and my arms are holding out, so!)

Anyway! I’ve got 12 more hanks to wind, and a LOT of yarn to photograph for shop listings. But I wanted to share a couple of photos of Burnt Orchid before reskeining… for some reason, I really just love the way it looks!

The little one in the middle is a single, normal sized thingy of yarn. The big fat ones (<3) are two hanks twisted together, for storage’s sake. Here’s a closeup, with the single along the left side…

They are gorgeous re-skeined, don’t get me wrong, but I really do love the painted look in these shots. (Re-skeined they look incredibly complex, as far as number of colors go. Amazing the difference it makes! )

I’ve got another color on the swift and two in the queue right now I need to finish off before starting in on round two of re-skeining Burnt Orchid. This other one is a raw earth and garnet colorway; it’s quite Fall. (I personally like Burnt Orchid more, but this other one is still a very pretty color!)

Ok, back to work with me! Happy Friday everyone!

Oh! Great re-skeining music: