ART WALK Sock Yarn Club

Come to Ravelry!

2011-07-03T23:51:00.001-04:00

For all of you wanting to see what's going on with the club, come on over to Ravelry to keep in touch! We won't be blogging here any longer as Ravelry is a much better way for us all to keep in touch with each other. Thanks!

June's "Spoiler"

2011-06-18T19:53:00.002-04:00

June's Inspiration - Edgar Degas (& Teaser)

2011-05-31T18:21:00.002-04:00

A lovely piece of art inspired this month's colourway:

And the teaser shot of the yarns:

The majority of the yarns are in the mail today to try to avoid a mail strike scheduled for Thursday if Canada Post can't reach their agreement with the union. Those of you on the west coast of Canada may see a delay in your yarn delivery if they do go on strike and *crossing my fingers* the yarns headed out of Canada will be on their way prior to Thursday.

May's "Spoiler"

2011-05-17T14:59:00.001-04:00

May's Inspiration & Teaser - Kandinsky

2011-05-02T11:36:00.000-04:00

This month's colourway is inspired by Kandinsky and his painting is called "Blue":

And a little teaser shot to whet your appetite:

April's "Spoiler"

2011-04-24T13:53:00.002-04:00

April's "Teaser"

2011-04-04T19:08:00.003-04:00

April's Inspiration - Andy Warhol

2011-03-31T10:32:00.005-04:00

Just the right amount of whimsy in this painting to lead us into the Spring season!

"You can lead a shoe to water but you can't make it drink"

March's "Spoiler"

2011-03-26T20:55:00.001-04:00

And this month's spoiler image of the Judith colourway handpainted on a fun base yarn with gold-coloured strands in it!

March's "Teaser"

2011-03-02T15:31:00.002-05:00

March's Inspiration - Gustav Klimt

2011-03-01T08:51:00.001-05:00

We've done other Klimt paintings as inspiration and like the others, this piece also has fantastic colourations which were fun to handpaint onto the yarns! Look closely at your yarn when you get it as it has an extra special something to it!

Piece name: Judith

February's "Spoiler"

2011-02-22T10:00:00.001-05:00

I really enjoyed dyeing this one as the use of colour in Schiele's piece is amazing! Enjoy :)

February's Inspiration - Egon Schiele

2011-02-01T10:16:00.000-05:00

I wavered between a couple of self-portrait pieces from this artist but when the yarns came out of the dye pots, this one was the best to capture the colourway:

If you get a chance, visit his website here. Lots of thought-provoking pieces as well as a few racy ones but his use of colour is glorious!

January's "Spoiler"

2011-01-27T10:09:00.003-05:00

And this month's spoiler image...since I couldn't decide which way to go with the colourway, I ended up doing two versions - they were mailed to everyone randomly and about half to half - which one did you get?

I still have 2 of the red (not green) colourway available if anyone is interested in that particular version. Enjoy!

January's Inspiration - John Waterhouse

2011-01-03T15:25:00.002-05:00

A lovely painting entitled Narcissus, 1912 was this month's inspiration piece. Because I couldn't decide which way to go with this colourway, I ended up with two versions for this month which everyone will receive one of randomly. Yarns mail tomorrow due to Canada Post being closed today for New Year's Day on Saturday. Happy New Year everyone!

December's "Spoiler"

2010-12-22T10:47:00.001-05:00

Colourway: Ravishment Psyche

Yarn: 100% Superwash Merino

December's "Teaser"

2010-12-01T13:45:00.004-05:00

December's Inspiration - William Bougeureau

2010-12-01T09:17:00.004-05:00

A lovely piece indeed entitled Ravishment Psyche:

Yarns mail today - enjoy!

November's "Spoiler"

2010-11-19T11:36:00.001-05:00

Virgin of the Rocks Colourway

Squooshy Sock Yarn

November's Inspiration & "Teaser"

2010-10-31T12:50:00.000-04:00

November's inspiration piece this month is "The Virgin of the Rocks" by Leonardo da Vinci. The colourway came out rich, dark and mysterious...I love it! Enjoy :)

October's "Spoiler"

2010-10-17T11:08:00.000-04:00

And I have a few extras in stock if anyone would like another skein! :)

October's "Teaser"

2010-10-01T14:46:00.003-04:00

October's Inspiration - Sue Coleman

2010-09-30T11:03:00.001-04:00

This month we're going in a whole different direction with the art piece! Sue Coleman is not a name like Van Gogh or Dali *but* she does some amazing art pieces and I decided to go with one. She hails from British Columbia where I grew up and her work is gorgeous! This piece is entitled "Wolf":

September's "Spoiler"

2010-09-24T14:20:00.003-04:00

Lots of fun to handpaint this one - hope everyone is enjoying the colourway!

September's Inspiration - Salvador Dali (& "Teaser")

2010-08-31T16:01:00.002-04:00

Salvador Dali holds a special spot in my heart and I like to come back to his paintings every once in awhile for that reason. I have no idea what he is trying to say with his paintings but I sure do love the bold colours which seems to go so well with his bold, "out there" paintings. This month's painting is entitled "Burning Giraffe".

Enjoy everyone! The yarns are in the mail already today!

August's "Spoiler"

2010-08-13T22:59:00.000-04:00

Really enjoyed dyeing this one and also enjoyed the yarn base (merino/bamboo/nylon) as I haven't dyed this one in particular for the club for awhile! It seemed perfect for the summer months with the bamboo content!

August's Inspiration - Ivo (and "Teaser")

2010-07-30T16:04:00.002-04:00

This month's inspiration comes from an artist named Ivo and the piece is entitled Enlightenment. The yarn chosen for this month is a blend yarn that seems appropriate for the hot summer months and is one I haven't used for awhile in this club - enjoy!

July's "Spoiler"

2010-07-17T15:37:00.000-04:00

Handpainted on 100% superwash merino - enjoy!

July's Inspiration - Alfred Gockel

2010-07-01T10:35:00.003-04:00

A slightly unknown artist plus non-summer colours for this month of the club! Can you tell I wanted something a little different? :) The piece is entitled Split Flowers Lilies - enjoy!

June's "Spoiler"

2010-06-28T14:09:00.003-04:00

June's "Teaser"

2010-06-05T09:37:00.001-04:00

A lovely yarn this month that I don't usually send to the club plus a fun dye technique.

Enjoy everyone and happy summer!

June's Inspiration - Andy Warhol

2010-05-31T11:53:00.002-04:00

This painting was so zany I couldn't resist! It is very adorable too and obviously titled "Green Cat"...LOL I have a fun dye technique planned for this one and hopefully it'll surprise you! Also for this month due to my supplier being late with my shipment, you are all getting a super nice and squishy base yarn to play with! Hope you had a nice weekend!

May's "Spoiler"

2010-05-19T09:34:00.000-04:00

May's "Teaser"

2010-05-03T19:45:00.000-04:00

Just a wee hint of the colourway in the bottom left corner. Make sure to look at the skein closely - there's a few colours in it! :)

May's Inspiration - Michael O'Toole

2010-05-03T19:44:00.000-04:00

This month I decided to choose an artist who is a little less well known. I was quite intrigued that he also grew up in Vancouver since I am also a west coast girl. This painting in particular is lovely and reminds me a lot of Vancouver! The title is Aspen Grove.

April's "Spoiler"

2010-05-03T19:41:00.002-04:00

April's "Teaser"

2010-04-03T13:09:00.000-04:00

A little taste of this month's colourway...yum!

I know it doesn't show much but it is a refreshing colourway for sure - enjoy!

April's Inspiration - Pierre Auguste Renoir

2010-04-01T13:05:00.001-04:00

I was in the mood for a spring-like colourway so I turned to Renoir this month for a botanical painting. This one is gorgeous and it's called Tulipes.

Hope you enjoy the yarn - it's painted on BFL Nylon Sock this month.

March's "Spoiler"

2010-03-31T13:03:00.000-04:00

A bright and bold colourway for March's inspiration! Hope everyone likes it...it is painted on 100% superwash merino and I can't wait to see how this one knits up - it's very colourful!

March's "Teaser"

2010-03-01T11:59:00.001-05:00

As you can see, this is going to be a bright colourway...LOL The colours came out quite saturated this go around...

All the yarns mail today! Seems like Spring is around the corner too - March sneaked up on me...LOL

Enjoy!

March's Inspiration - Paul Ranson

2010-03-01T11:58:00.000-05:00

This month I decided on an inspiration piece by Paul Ranson called "Christ and Buddha". It has a lot of lovely colours in it and I decided to play with a couple of them to see what kind of result I would get. These yarns are dyed so that if you knit socks, you will get mini stripes going on if you don't do a lot of lace within the socks...enjoy!

February's "Spoiler"

2010-03-01T11:55:00.000-05:00

I had a lot of fun painting this one as it's a totally different technique that I used to create random application of both colours on the yarns. To celebrate Valentine's Day for the month of February I decided to send out the Serenity Sock yarn base which has 10% cashmere in it...yum! Enjoy!

February's "Teaser"

2010-02-01T19:17:00.000-05:00

Everything mailed today! This was a great colourway to paint and also, the base yarn is a bit of a surprise for this month as it's February and Valentine's Day and I thought we needed something a little special for the base yarn :) Enjoy!

February's Inspiration - Andy Warhol

2010-01-29T11:39:00.001-05:00

I've been wanting to work Andy Warhol into the line-up for awhile for this club and this piece seemed quite appropriate given it's Valentine's Day this month!
Appropriately named Heart with a Bow, this piece is circa 1983.

Looking forward to painting this one today...everything mails on Monday!

January's "Spoiler"

2010-01-18T09:32:00.003-05:00

Can you see the blue in the painting that I picked up on for the yarn? If you look under his chest, there's a lovely blue mixed with black that caught my eye. To that, I added little bursts of white to add a bit of light to the darkness of the colourway. This is painted on 100% superwash merino with a lovely tight twist - enjoy!

January's "Teaser"

2010-01-04T12:49:00.002-05:00

I had fun with this one! I ended up being a little wee bit fixated on a certain colour of this painting which will be explained further with your package :) The teaser hints at the colourway but doesn't give away all - you will see what I mean when you get your yarn! Enjoy everyone!

January's Inspiration - Caravaggio

2009-12-27T14:24:00.003-05:00

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"

2009-12-26T19:40:00.004-05:00

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"

2009-12-01T20:55:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-24T21:08:00.002-05:00

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"

2009-11-17T11:27:00.002-05:00

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"

2009-11-02T11:43:00.004-05:00

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

2009-10-29T15:02:00.005-04:00

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"

2009-10-14T21:23:00.002-04:00

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

2009-09-21T08:53:00.003-04:00

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"

2009-09-21T08:49:00.003-04:00

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"

2009-09-01T23:21:00.001-04:00

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

2009-08-27T22:18:00.001-04:00

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"

2009-08-27T22:13:00.002-04:00

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"

2009-08-03T11:52:00.001-04:00

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

2009-07-30T12:05:00.002-04:00

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"

2009-07-19T17:43:00.005-04:00

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

2009-07-03T14:43:00.004-04:00

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"

2009-07-03T14:41:00.003-04:00

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

2009-06-24T11:10:00.003-04:00

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"

2009-06-23T12:35:00.002-04:00

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"

2009-06-01T15:00:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-27T07:59:00.002-04:00

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"

2009-05-27T07:30:00.003-04:00

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"

2009-05-05T11:10:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-30T18:21:00.003-04:00

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"

2009-04-30T18:17:00.002-04:00

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"

2009-04-01T15:33:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-25T09:30:00.000-04:00

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"

2009-03-25T09:22:00.004-04:00

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"

2009-03-02T13:27:00.002-05:00

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

2009-02-26T10:58:00.004-05:00

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"

2009-02-25T20:04:00.004-05:00

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"

2009-01-30T14:11:00.005-05:00

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

2009-01-28T09:09:00.004-05:00

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"

2009-01-21T09:16:00.003-05:00

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"

2009-01-02T15:43:00.003-05:00

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!

January's Inspiration - Claude Monet

2008-12-27T13:28:00.004-05:00

I thought it would be a good time to do another painting by Claude Monet and this one is gorgeous! We haven't done a lot of green in the club so far so I thought it'd be nice to venture into some for the first month of the new year. This painting is called Le Pont Japonais a Giverny and is a wonderful landscape painting of a Japanese bridge.

Happy New Year everyone and hope you all had a wonderful holiday season :)

December's "Spoiler"

2008-12-26T19:00:00.003-05:00

Hope everyone's enjoying their holiday season! I'm so enjoying a couple of days off and thought it'd be a nice time to post the spoiler for December's colourway. It's always interesting to decide on colours from each painting every month and this month was no exception. I decided to go a little lighter in the colours for a bit of a "softer" colourway that would hopefully remind everyone of the Christmas season without being too bold or too bright. Enjoy everyone and Happy New Year!

December's "Teaser"

2008-12-01T10:45:00.001-05:00

Everything is ready and will be shipping today! Here's this month's teaser. I decided to go with the softer/medium tones in the painting this month as I always seem to gravitate toward the darker tones in all the paintings. It produced a nice, soft effect on the yarns. I hope everyone enjoys this version too! I am happy with it :) Enjoy!

Happy Holidays to everyone!

December's Inspiration - Ando Hiroshige

2008-11-25T22:42:00.002-05:00

This month's inspiration piece is called Plum Garden over Shin-Ohashi Bridge". Isn't it pretty? I'm looking forward to putting these colours onto the yarn...it should give an interesting result!

Hope everyone's doing well and Happy Thanksgiving to those in the USA who celebrate this holiday this week.

November's "Spoiler"

2008-11-21T10:50:00.003-05:00

Here she is! November's colourway inspired by Gustav Klimt and called "Fulfillment". I thought it was a lovely colourway for the season and I hope everyone is enjoying it! Can't wait to see what people knit from this one too!

Happy Thanksgiving to those in the USA for next week! We got our first snowfall here in Ontario and what a shocker that was! Not just a bit either...more like over a foot and guess who had to shovel it all? Oh, my aching muscles! LOL Winter surely came in with a vengeance this year!

Have a great weekend :)

November's "Teaser"

2008-10-31T14:50:00.002-04:00

A little sampling of this month's colourway to peak everyone's interest :) I found a new "liquify" feature in my photo editing software that creates a very cool effect without showing the yarn at all...reminds me of an oil painting too!

Everything ships on schedule on Monday. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

November's Inspiration - Gustav Klimt

2008-10-27T11:38:00.003-04:00

I stumbled on this painting while browsing for an inspiration piece and the colours really resonated with me! Isn't this just a lovely and gorgeous painting? I'm excited to paint these colours!

I've decided to use 100% superwash merino this month as it reflects colours a little more brightly and I think it'll suit this painting nicely. Deciding what yarn to use on a monthly basis is also a consideration every month. With different base yarn compositions I will get different colour results so each month I have to think about what yarn to use depending on what painting is chosen. Pretty cool eh?

Hope everyone's doing well! I can't believe it's almost November...where does the time go?

October's "Spoiler"

2008-10-27T11:34:00.003-04:00

Here she is her non-teaser format! I hope everyone enjoys this colourway! I liked the effect the bamboo content gave this colourway - made the colours nice and subtle just like the painting.

Hope everyone's doing well :)

October's "Teaser"

2008-09-30T15:14:00.003-04:00

Almost done with this month's yarns! The last batch is drying today and the colours came out how I wanted them to - woohoo! The bamboo gives them a nice water colour-ish feel and adds another dimension with the sheen. I hope everyone likes this one. Yarns ship tomorrow already which means it's October!

October's Inspiration - Salvador Dali

2008-09-27T11:55:00.004-04:00

Awhile back one of the club members suggested this painting (sorry, can't remember who but thank you!) and I've had it in my back pocket for awhile for painting. It's lovely and it feels like October would be a nice month for it too. I hope you like it! It's called "Person at the Window" and I am planning on putting it on my Bamboolicious base yarn - the bamboo sheen would be lovely for it and bamboo comes out nice and subtle in colour like this painting is. I also like it for the mixing of colour tones.

Happy October everyone!

September's "Spoiler"

2008-09-20T15:38:00.005-04:00

I hope everyone's doing well and enjoying this colourway! I enjoyed painting it as always and am looking forward to next month already!

Congrats to Julie who's our random winner this month and will receive next month's for free! Happy knitting everyone :)

September's "Teaser"

2008-08-29T21:25:00.003-04:00

A little teaser of the yarn for September and hope everyone has a fabulous long weekend! Everything ships on Tuesday, September 2nd!

Looking at this yarn, it reminds me a bit of the blog button too - something subconscious going on there? LOL

Anyways, have a great one everybody and see you in September!

September's Inspiration - Wassily Kandinsky

2008-08-24T10:55:00.002-04:00

It's that time again! September's mailing is just around the corner and it's time to announce this month's inspiration piece! While searching through the art pieces I was looking for something that would be both summery but yet also hint at Fall coming and I think this piece captures that wonderfully. It's bright enough to take us through the last days of summer but Fall-like enough to remind us the leaves will soon be turning colours.

Hope everyone likes the piece - it is called Improvisation No. 23.

August's "Spoiler"

2008-08-18T12:23:00.002-04:00

Wow, who could believe a year has gone by already for this club? I sure can't! I am enjoying each and every month of this club and this month was no exception. I loved choosing the art piece and then dyeing the yarn to match! We had two winners this month and congrats go out to Mary and Kelly - you will both receive September's shipment free! YAY!

How's everyone doing? Summer is coming to a close and I'm itching to get back into the cooler weather not only to help my knitting mojo return but also my dyeing mojo. When it's hot, it takes a lot of motivation to dye the yarns! It was a rather hot and humid couple of days painting this month's colourway but in the end, it's so worth it when I see everyone enjoying the yarns!

Happy knitting everyone!

A New Year & A New Contest

2008-08-04T21:04:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone! Hope everyone's enjoying their summers!

I've been mulling it over a little and I've decided to return to choosing the art piece monthly. Why? I miss it terribly and part of the fun is picking the art piece that will inspire my dyeing. It also gives me a bit of leeway when it comes to what art pieces are chosen including up and coming artists and even unknown artists. I have a few ideas for these too and would like to slide them in every once in awhile to mix things up.

As for the contest, I love having a monthly contest so we will continue to do so! The format will be similar to August's in that everyone who is a member for the month will be eligible and the winner will be chosen randomly by having the words "WINNER" or "YOU WIN" on their insert card. This will help with keeping the contest random and for making everyone eligible to win each month. I think it's kind of fun to open your package and hope for those little words on your card! Whoever wins will win the next month free!

Hope this sounds good to everyone and thank you for being a member of this club...I appreciate everyone's support in making it what it is!

August's "Teaser"

2008-07-31T11:52:00.002-04:00

I'm so excited to get this out to everyone as I'm really pleased with how the colourway worked up from this month's painting! YAY! Don't forget to check your insert card for the word "WINNER" as we have two random winners for September's membership. How fun! I still can't believe we've come to the first year anniversary for the club - HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to everyone! Onto another year of great paintings and fun colourways!

August's Inspiration - Jo Moulton

2008-07-25T10:20:00.002-04:00

I thought it'd be fun to incorporate "Zen" into this month's anniversary offering so when I did a quick search of zen on Art.com I stumbled onto this painting and fell in love! Isn't it gorgeous? The artist calls it Zen Peonies. Wonderful combination of colours...lovely! I can't wait to dye this one on the Louet Gems - it should translate in a beautiful way!

Oh, and to make the drawing for 2 winners for September completely random, I am going to be putting "winner" on two insert cards for August and if you have the card, you're one of the winners so make sure to double-check your insert card to see if you won! I didn't know how else to make it totally random and thought this would be fun...a bit of a scavenger hunt with your packages :)

August's Membership Subscriptions

2008-07-14T17:55:00.004-04:00

Wouldn't you know it! Paypal's invoicing is down and not accessible...some kind of glitch...I called about it but not sure when it'll be back up and working so I've set up Paypal buttons in the right hand sidebar for subscribing for August's membership. Please choose by your country and these buttons will be available until at least the 23rd or 24th of July so you have a chance to sign up now or later.

August is our anniversary month so in celebration, I'm going to do a random drawing and give away two (2) free memberships for September! You just have to be signed up for August and that's it to be eligible.

Thanks everyone for your continued support and if you have questions, don't hesitate to email me at zenyarngarden AT yahoo DOT com.

NOW CLOSED!