Tag Archives: fingering

Felici Is Back – Behind the Scenes

felici

Felici has taken on a life of its own because of its enthusiastic fan base. The limited colorways and amazing softness of the Superwash Merino wool/nylon blend make this sock yarn hard to resist and add to its mythical status. The colorways are top secret until they are released, but we thought we would give you an insider look to how Felici gets made.

PS It’s back in stock so get your value pack now!

Development for Felici takes some time. First our graphic designer aka color genie, Heidi, puts together dozens of colorways for us to choose from based on current palette trends in fashion, design, and general life inspiration. We then vote by committee. These can be heated debates as we each all bring our own color eye to the table. Then it’s off to our mill in Italy, where they run the color tests and send us back samples. This could take a few tries as seeing the actual colors on the fiber verses print outs on paper can vary wildly.

Felici color picksfelici

The best part is when we have our final approved picks and we get to name them. That is always a good time as the color inspirations bring up topics like nature, pop culture, and of course, literary references. Even a secret reference or two:  Beyond the Wall or Baker Street anyone?

felici

The hardest part is waiting for it to be produced and make its journey across the Atlantic to our warehouse. If you think you’re anxious about its arrival, you should see our nails!

Spring Blossoms 27431From its initial color conception to the final result there are some shifts and happy accidents as is the nature of fibers and dyes in the handmade world. And that is what we love about yarn!


Diving in Diadem

I can’t believe that it’s finally time to introduce Diadem! I’ve seen so many projects in this glorious yarn around the office lately that it feels like old news, but now I’ll be able to oggle all of your projects on Ravelry! I literally can’t wait to see what creations feature this yarn over the next few months. For now, I’ll content myself to petting the wonderful fabric of the Diving In {recipe} shawl that I made and gifted to my mother for her birthday. The luminous skeins of Diamond and Moonstone were the first colors I spotted when the shipment of Diadem arrived in the office and I made a quick grab for one of each in the middle of the mad dash for yarn. For weeks afterward we all had piles of silky hanks on our desks as we searched for the “perfect pattern” to test this new yarn.

I settled on Mam’zelle Flo’s Diving in {recipe} shawl pattern because I was guaranteed to use every last bit of yardage and I’d be able to get a good idea of the color transitions in each colorway. There are long, rich repeats of three colors in each hank with Diamond as the most subtle colorway – shifting from shimmering white to a soft cream which contrasted nicely with Moonstone’s cold grey and shots of pale blue.

I can’t get over just how much drape there is in this fabric. This yarn was a little tricky to work with because that luscious combination of Mulberry Silk and Baby Alpaca makes for a slippery yarn that wants to slither right off your needles the minute your back is turned. I used wooden Harmony needles to help minimize dropped stitches and by the end of the week I was cringing at the roughness of any other yarn I tried to pick up while I was working on this project. Diadem temporarily ruined me for other yarn! I’ve been contemplating a Rikke Hat project in Sapphire or Azurite, anything to show off those FANTASTIC blues!