January's Inspiration - Caravaggio

If you keep up to my blog, you would know already that I visited the Art Institute of Chicago recently. While on my trip there, I had the good fortune to see several different art pieces that were truly gorgeous and for this month of the club, I decided to draw on a piece from the artist who was having a special exhibit at the Institute while I was there. This piece is entitled Narcissus and I love looking at Caravaggio's version compared to Salvador Dali's. Same premise but such a different take.

Here's one shot I got of Carvaggio's work while at the Institute:


Happy New Year everyone!

December's "Spoiler"

I really enjoyed painting this one for everyone! I hope you enjoy knitting with it too! The colourway is called Broken Dreams and is painted on 100% superwash merino with a nice, tight twist.

December's "Teaser"

I had a lot of fun dyeing this one and to achieve a certain effect, I used a slightly different method for dyeing these. I hope you enjoy the yarns as much as I enjoyed dyeing them. It's always fun to see them finished as I never quite know how my vision will translate onto the yarn.

All yarns mailed today...happy holidays everyone!

December's Inspiration - Theo Den Boon

I’m a little early this month with the inspiration piece but I thought I’d try to get it up before the end of the month from now on so those that are wondering if they should join or not will have a chance to take a look at the inspiration piece and have a couple more days to join if they like the piece.

This month? I wanted something red. I think I’m in some sort of red phase or perhaps it goes nicely with the Christmas season. Either way, we haven’t looked at Theo Den Boon yet so this is the piece I have chosen for December entitled Broken Dreams. Gorgeous isn't it?

November's "Spoiler"

And this month's spoiler! I hope everyone enjoys this yarn - I'm anxious to see how this one knits up as the colours will blend nicely together as they knit up side by side. Now onto December...what to do, what to do? Oh, the colourway is called "Scream" and the base yarn is 80% superwash BFL/20% nylon which should knit up into some hard-wearing socks!

Also, if you'd like to follow through Facebook, ZYG now has a fan page - you're welcome to come on over and join :)

November's "Teaser"

A little taste of this month's colourway - it gives some of it away but not entirely! Hope everyone enjoys this yarn base - it's a lovely one for socks and should be hard wearing.

Everything mails today! Enjoy!

November's Inspiration - Edvard Munch

Yet another artist we haven't explored with the club!

This particular painting has a nice feel colour-wise to it for the yarn base this month as the base likes to produce matted colours instead of bright ones. It seemed appropriate for Halloween too given the title of the piece: "The Scream".

Yarns will ship on Monday - have a great weekend!

October's "Spoiler"

When I decided on October's Salvador Dali painting I looked at it and decided I wanted to go for something dark and moody. Looking at it closer, I saw hints of black with touches of blue that, if painted on yarn, could appear moody. For some reason Dali's paintings always make me think of the dark and mysterious and that's what I wanted to achieve with this month's yarn. Hope you like it!

October's Inspiration - Salvador Dali

I really enjoy Salvador Dali's paintings and when I saw this one, it really reminded me of Fall colours so I had to choose it! The painting is entitled The Metamorphosis of Narcissus and contains some lovely colour tones in it. Dali not only has a way with colours but his paintings always evoke a certain amount of thought. Can't wait to paint this one!

September's "Spoiler"

Really enjoyed dyeing this month's colourway as I tend toward darker tones as a preference and this one was definitely in the warm tone family...woot! Enjoy everyone! The colourway is named Velazquez.

September's "Teaser"

And here we go for this month's teaser! This colourway was fun, fun, fun to handpaint because as a dyer, I loveeeee dyeing dark and saturated colourways. They make my heart go pitter patter and I hope everyone enjoys this one as much as I enjoyed dyeing it!

September's Inspiration - Fernando Botero

I came across this painting and he made me giggle. No idea why because he looks so serious in the painting. However, aren't the colours gorgeous? It'll be interesting to see what inspires and jumps out at me when I get to the dye pots in the next couple of days. Stay tuned and welcome to all the new clubbers for this month! This piece is entitled Portrait of Velazquez.

August's "Spoiler"

As you can see, this month's colourway played with the undertones of the inspiration piece without capturing the most prominent colour of gold. Sometimes I like to do this as paintings as there always seems to be colours hidden in behind the most obvious. Click the image to see it larger. Enjoy!

August's "Teaser"

Here we are...I'm really pleased with how the colours came out and as you can probably tell I didn't do anything with the obvious yellow/gold colour from the painting...nah, I wanted to dive into the undertones of this painting instead and see what I could come up with. Hope you enjoy this rendition!

August's Inspiration - Vincent Van Gogh

Lovely, lovely piece that has some interesting undertones of colours that I couldn't resist! There's an obvious way I could have went with this colourway but I chose to go another and so far, so good! Everything ships on Tuesday, August 4th (Monday is a holiday here in Canada) and the yarns are in the dye pots right now...woot! This piece is entitled The Sower.

July's "Spoiler"

I really like this colourway this month - it's fun, it's vibrant and it's cheery. I hope everyone else likes it too! Handpainted on 100% superwash merino with a nice tight twist that will knit up into a nice firm fabric. Enjoy!

If you are particularly fond of this month, I have a few extras up in the shop if you'd like another. Don't hesitate to ask for combined shipping with next month's yarn - I can set up a special listing for that too! :)

Club Members Only

Seems I've been accumulating club yarns over the last few months and instead of hanging onto them I thought it might be fun to put them up for sale for anyone who would like to purchase another if one of the extras was one of your favourites.

If you are a current club member or a past club member, you're entitled to purchase these skeins if you like. If you aren't a current or past member, you're welcome to join here and then purchase an extra. Any questions, don't hesitate to email me at zenyarngarden AT yahoo DOT com.

For the current month's yarns, these will appear about 2-3 weeks after mailing so watch for those too if this month is one of your favourites.

July's "Teaser"

All mailed and on their way! Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians albeit a couple of days late and Happy 4th to those in the USA for tomorrow! This month's colourway was fun, fun, fun and I love the effect I got as the colourway is both bright and cheery. Hope you enjoy it too!

July's Inspiration - Diego Rivera

This month's art piece inspiration is by Diego Rivera which we haven't done yet and is entitled La Noche de Los Pobres. Isn't it gorgeous? There are a lot of pretty colours in this art piece for me to play with this month....looking forward to it! And this month will complete 2 years of doing this club! Wow, where does the time go? Seems like just yesterday I started this club too...woot!

June's "Spoiler"

I really enjoyed painting this colourway this month. The reds/greens were so saturated in the painting I ended up doing a special technique with these colours and black to achieve a bit more saturation.

When it was all finished, I couldn't help but think the yarns looked a lot like the Zen Peonies colourway from last year but the difference will be in the saturation of the red and the green which will unfold as these skeins are knit with and the black becomes more apparent. There is no black in the Zen Peonies colourway and likewise, the red is a little more pink in the Zen Peonies skein than this one. Enjoy everyone!

June's "Teaser"

All packaged up and ready to go out the door to the post office! Here's a little teaser to whet your appetite while you wait for your yarn.

I hope everyone enjoys this colourway - it was a lot of fun to paint and it was kind of cool to be inspired by a lesser known artist this month too. His eye for colour is outstanding!

June's Inspiration - Martin Heade

This piece of work spoke to me! Although Heade isn't as well known as Monet or Van Gogh or some of the other famous artists, I thought it'd be nice to be inspired by the colours of a painting that is really gorgeous. I'm looking forward to painting these colours onto yarn...aren't they lovely? The painting is called The Magnolia Flower.

May's "Spoiler"

I really enjoyed painting this colourway! Monet has a way with combining colours in his garden paintings that is exquisite. Very inspiring! The colourway is called Argenteuil and was based on Monet's work called The Artist's Garden at Argenteuil.

May's "Teaser"

This month's colourway came out a little different than I expected! Let me explain...each month, after looking at the painting for awhile, I always have a vision of what colours I want the yarns to reflect and go about to paint them onto the yarns. This month was no different until the yarn decided it wanted to have an influence on what colours I *should* put on the yarn. All was going well during painting but when the yarn dried, it ended up being the undertones of the painting colours rather than the darker overtones. Was this bad? Not necessarily! Beneath every dark tone is a lighter undertone that makes it what it is. I decided to go with it because I think it reflects the season nicely too. I hope you enjoy it! This month the canvas had its say! I think I need to explore this concept a little further...it ended with a nice surprise and I'm really happy with the colourway as the lighter undertones. I hope you are too!

May's Inspiration - Claude Monet

When I came across this art piece, I just couldn't resist...the reds, the olives, the browns...yum! I can't wait to paint this one. This month the yarns will go out on Monday, May 4, 2009 as I'm waiting on a new base yarn that's going to definitely be worth the wait! It's a nice tighter twist 2-ply superwash merino that's promises to be a joy to knit with!

Hope everyone's enjoying the slightly nicer weather we've been having! The painting is named The Artist's Garden at Argenteuil and doesn't Monet do a fabulous job of painting gardens?!

April's "Spoiler"

I really enjoyed painting this colourway - it's the first colourway I'd say is very man-friendly since it has a lot of earth tones in it. Hope everyone is enjoying it too! I love the sheen of the bamboo in the Bamboolicious yarn and the softness is wonderful too. Enjoy!

April's "Teaser"

I really like this month's colourway as it turned out how I was hoping it would. Definitely a manly colourway if you'd like to knit for the man in your life! The bamboolicious yarn gives the colours a bit of a muted feel which is perfect for this month's art inspiration piece. This colourway I love as it combines two of my favourite colours onto the same yarn. Enjoy!

April's Inspiration - Tamara Lempicka

For April, I decided to choose an artist I haven't done yet - Tamara Lempicka. She has some lovely paintings and this one struck my fancy for it's subtle beauty. I am looking forward to painting it onto my bamboo blend sock yarn as the bamboo will give it a nice muted effect that's subtle as well as a bit of sheen. Hope you like it too!

March's "Spoiler"

March's colourway was a fun and vibrant one to dye and I really liked the results when it was finished.  The gold and blue go so nicely together...yay!  This one is painted on our 100% superwash merino which is very squishy! Enjoy!

March's "Teaser"

This month's colourway is an interesting one with the colour mix that I used and also with the blending of these two colours in some areas. I hope everyone likes this colourway. For this month, I saw the colourway as one so there won't be two versions this month :-)  

Enjoy everyone!

March's Inspiration - Gustav Klimt

Sooooo pretty and what a lovely piece to draw inspiration from this month. This one is called Musique. 

Off to the dye pots now that I've chosen the inspiration. Stay tuned!

February's "Spoiler"

February's colourways included two versions because I just couldn't decide which way to go! LOL The clubbers got a surprise as to which one they preferred and it was quite fun to do this too. I am thinking I'll do it again another month! :-) The colourway is called Petunia and the base yarn is our squishy 100% superwash merino.

Also, I'd love it if you came and joined me at my new blog where I blog about all things to do with dyeing and a little bit more!

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February's "Teaser"

I'm excited to post these because I had a fun thought this month...why not do two versions of the painting? I was inspired to go one way and yet another way with this painting so I thought I'd mix it up a little this month and send out one version to half of the club and the other version to the other half of the club. I'm really happy with how both versions turned out so I hope you like yours when you get it! If you happen to like the other version too, don't hesitate to let me know as I'm happy to send the second version to you too after I reveal the spoilers.

Ahhhhhhh, flowers...they always make me happy even when I paint yarns to reflect them!

February's Inspiration - Georgia O'Keefe

I was in the mood for something cheery given all the cold weather and snow we've been having here in Ontario so I turned to Georgia O'Keefe this month and she does not disappoint!  What a lovely and gorgeous painting this is.  Sure to brighten up anyone's day!  Look at those wonderful purple hues and given I was in the mood for purple this round, this painting is definitely fitting that bill.  I'm excited to get started on these yarns which I'm doing today :)  Hope everyone's doing well :)  

Are you on Twitter?  I just signed up there if you care to follow along with me and see what life is like in the day of a dyer.  I'd like to follow your day too so come on over and follow me :)

January's "Spoiler"

Here we go!  January's spoiler picture and we're almost onto February!  Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying this yarn and colourway.  The base yarn is a new one for me and I thought it'd be great for the clubbers too.  It has 25% nylon with 75% superwash merino and should knit up into a nice, strong, long-wearing sock if that's what you choose to knit.  It's a slightly lighter fingering weight and would probably work really well with US1 needles.  I don't know about you but I like a light fingering weight every once in awhile for the pretty little stitches it creates.  Enjoy!

January's "Teaser"

Everything is ready and mailing today! These colourways were oh-so-nice to handpaint I must say! I decided to focus on a couple of the colour tones from the painting as they were very complimentary and soothing together. I hope you enjoy my choice too! I like these colours together a lot :)

Happy New Year everyone!