GothSocks (at last) and Madrona announcement

First, Rainy & Wooly are proud to announce that we will be selling at the 2009 Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat. It is a great festival and we are so honored to be able to participate. The festival runs February 12th through the 15th, 2009 at the Hotel Murano, in Tacoma, Washington. Please come visit us at our booth or see Wooly in the Pavilion Rotunda where she will be the spinning mentor in the "Spinning Demonstration Booth."

Also, Rainy and Wooly were FINALLY able to get into the studio this last weekend. We spent two busy days releasing all our creative energy. Bliss! The result of our our work is a new batch of GothSocks (some in new colorways!) and lovely roving. Right now, we have the GothSocks up. We will list more items as the week progresses. Please have a look at our latest listings below.

First up is RomantiGoth. We worked hard to find the right purple for this one and we think we found it. It is a gorgeous strong purple (not violet nor maroon) which contrasts so nicely with the black.
This next one is a new colorway we are calling MaudlinGoth. We see it as a more instense version of our popular MopeyGoth. It is a moody mix of purples and berries like the wine stained lips of the darkest of Goths.
More purple in another new colorway! This one is called GypsyGoth. Perfect for the Stevie Nicks and tarot card loving Goth. You know who you are! This is a blend of deep and pale maroons spiked with pumpkin like the velvet tablecloth under your crystal ball.
We love this new colorway, one of Rainy's creations. It has the traditional black stripe followed by a beautiful color changing section that moves from a stripe of deep chocolate brown, followed by a stripe of pale mochas, moving finally in a blue amethyst stripe back out to mochas and again out to chocolate. It reminds us of amethyst geodes. Therefore, we named it Maenad for the lovers of Dionysus, the creator of amethysts. Great for pagan goths or grecogoths!
This is a another new colorway! We are calling Cthulhu Goth. It is a mix of oceanic blues and greens highlighted with sandy terracottas. It reminds us or R'lyeh, the home of Cthulhu. We think it is perfect for all you Lovecraft loving, Necromonicom reading Goths.Finally, another version of our MopeyGoth. It is our all time favorite! We have lots more to list and we will get to it as soon as we can. We hope everyone's holidays were just grand. Thanks to everyone who has supported in this our first year of business. Your encouragement and appreciation make it all the more fun. We couldn't do it without you!

Dye day turns into Snow Day

We really look forward to the days we can head into the studio. We spend all week planning new colorways and concepts for our yarn and fiber. This week was no exception but Mother Nature had other ideas. Have a look.

The Cascade Foothills east of Seattle, where our humble little workshop is, were inundated with a foot and a half of snow. There was no way for Rainy to get in and now way for Wooly to get out! A week without dyeing is like a day without knitting or spinning. Oh well. Hopefully, we will be dug out very soon (at least, before the coffee runs out) and have the studio up and steaming. Please check out the video for live snow action!

GOTHSOCKS!!!!

We've been super busy at the dye pots and just did a huge update with a ton of new gothsocks in the shop. We have romaticgoth:



and Spicygoth:



And Perkygoth:



and many many more.

Come check out the shop and all the new yarns at:

Rainy Days & Wooly Dogs

Thanks!

Of Fiber and Fairies

We have some of the softest fiber in the world in the shop right now. We bought some luxury fiber blends and had fun at the dye pots recently and have these beauties for you:

Murisake is a blend of 80/20 fine merino and cashmere.



This fiber will practically spin itself. It is so soft and squishey. It would make the best cowls of the season!

We also have San:



This is our 70/30 merino seacell blend. This is also supersoft and light as air. A true luxury! And it's even good for you too. Seacell fiber has calcium and minerals in it that will be absorbed by your skin as you wear it. You can't get any better than that!

We also added another gnome hook and for more whimsy, a dancing fairy!



Isn't she cute? She's dancing around in the lavender and bleeding hearts. We are really proud of this hook and hope it finds a home soon.

So check out our shop at Rainy Days & Wooly Dogs.

A week gone by...and shop updates!

Oh poor sad blog, you have not been forgotten!

We've been busy dyeing and making up things for you. Wooly handcarded some more yummy rolags that are in the shop right now. Check them out.



Is it wrong to want to eat wool? Because I totally want to eat these!!!

This is one of the most gorgeous yarns yet. I LOVE it. Wooly outdid herself with these. It is one in a series of 3. All have the same base colors but one charm color is different in each. I love them all for different reasons. You'll have to check back to see the other 2 soon :)



I've been working on some fun and whimsical orifice hooks.

Jack Skellington anyone?



Or perhaps Gir?



There are fairies on the way tomorrow and soon we'll be adding some of the softest rovings I've ever handled.

Check our shop out! There's more coming in the next few days!

How could I forget?

Another new item! This is the first in our yarns inspired by the Twilight series This one is called Edward's eyes, a tribute to Edward Cullen. His eyes are a rich amber and his skin sparkles in the sun.

Edward's eyes has rich deep amber tones along with some honey and gold notes that help set off the sparkle from the silver threads. This is one of our Kira Kira yarns, with over 400 yards of a luscious, luxurious blend of superwash merino wool, silk, real silver fibers and nylon.

New Item!

After a busy weekend dyeing and prepping fiber, we are proud to announce the first listings of our hand-pulled top. We make all of our top on wool combs one bird's nest at a time. Hand-pulled top is finer and smoother than commercially processed top. You will discover greater levels of control resulting in finer and smoother singles. If you have never spun hand made top you are in for a treat. It is the ultimate fiber prep for worsted spinning. The pics below are our Bartlett's Deep and Fluffy Tufts listing respectively. Aren't they beautiful?

Lime & Violet Love!

Our humble little store just recieved the honor of a mention on the most recent episode of Lime & Violet! Give it a listen! Thanks ladies!



http://limenviolet.blogspot.com/



They seemed to really like our orifice hooks and our new line of self striping sock yarns, GothSocks. Rainy and Wooly, your hard-working crafters have been giggling over this all day.

Another shop update!

I was a busy girl this morning listing new stuff. I made some more orifice hooks to put in the shop.

Who doesn't love Totoro?



And another gnomey for good measure.



Some more OCEAN RAIN roving:



Go check it out. And make sure to check tomorrow afternoon when we fill the store up with all sorts of goodies!

Betty's Bees

As a tribute to our new favorite show (c'mon! It has a knitting detective in it who knits gun cozies! What's not to love?)

Our latest shop update has "Betty's Bees" as the roving featured today.



I love this one. It will make such a beautifully soft yarn. YUM!



Gnome hooks are on their way! Keep checking the shop for more.

Shop Update!

Wooly hand carded some more beautiful rolags for the shop and I've just listed them. They are so beautifully soft and fluffy.



Beauty School Drop Out (for Frenchie's hair in the movie Grease)

and also



Turquoise Days after the Echo and the Bunnymen song.

I had some fun doing some hand painting and also kettle dying and came up with a few rovings for the shop. Here's the first one that I listed today.

Named "Ocean Rain" after another Echo and the Bunnymen song (I've had them stuck in my head for a little while. Can you tell?)

So come by the shop and check us out at Rainy Days & Wooly Dogs.

And don't forget to check out our big grand opening on Oct. 31st!

New Listing!

This is a beautiful yarn that we just had to share. This is one of our Usui yarns in the colorway "Sakura." This skein just glows in a delightful cherry pink with delightful sparks of brown and blue. Isn't it gorgeous? We just love the luster and silky hand of this yarn.

Rainy and Wooly are going to be dyeing this weekend so please come back soon to see the lastest from the dyepots. They have also been busy making some body soap in delicious beverage inspired scents like "Champagne Cocktail" and mocha-like "Les Deux Magots."

Update

Hi!

Just a had to post a pic of the orifice hook Rainy made for the store. Isn't it a beauty? All the art is done freehand. It just slays me! The design is called Henna Flowers. Every spinner needs a good orifice hook.

We have also posted another lot of rolags. It's over 6 ounces of our luscious Ram Brulee and a very gorgeous red hue I call Robert Red. It's like kissing Robert Smith!
Finally, we have some more soap in offer. We are still working on the label. Let us know what you think of our recent version. This is our Wool Wash soap, supercreamed with lanolin for washing your skeins and knitted items. It makes a great bath soap, too. This batch is scented with sweet orange and lavender. We love how sweetly it smells and lathers.

New Items Alert!

Hi! After an exciting weekend of dyeing we decided to post a few new items. We got some new yarns and new colorways we are excited to share with you

First, the very first installment of our Kira Kira yarn. Kira Kira is a blend of superwash wool, silk, nylon and silver. Yep, sterling silver is scattered through the yarn giving a marvelous shimmer. We love it! It is sock weight with nice drape and firm twist. One skein is enough for a very indulgent pair of socks. The colorway is called Melancholia. It is a pleasurably somber mix of blues, purples, greens, burgundys, with highlights of amber.

We also listed two of our Okii yarns. Okii is a very soft and sensuous superwash merino worsted weight yarn. The two colorways highlight one of our favorite methods of hand dyeing, something we call charm colors. We believe that beauty of all kinds is heightened by a touch of misbalance. We bring that notion to our dyeing by incorporating a little surprising spark of chromatic disharmony in our semi-solid yarns. Thus in the colorway below, olive's charms are elevated with kisses of burgundy. This colorway is called ARISTAEUS after the god of olives.

And in this lovely yarn pictured below, chocolate and malty browns are enlivened by a gorgeous sky blue. This one is called DOMINANT RECESSIVE, to match your beautiful eyes, whatever their color.

Finally, we put three more colorways of our buttery Rambouillet top. We love this top. Spinning it is like eating creme brulee. In fact, we are calling it Ram Brulee! We promise your eyes will roll back, your toes will curl and you will let out a little moan when you spin this sinfully soft stuff. Respectively, they are called "The Purple shall Govern," Blue Monday, and Big Time Sensuality.




Please let us know what you think.

Hajimemashite!

Welcome to our blog! This will be the place to keep abreast of the lastest news at Rainy Days & Wooly Dogs, our little indie dye studio. Right now, we are hosting what we are calling a soft opening. We are in the process of testing everything from shipping to keeping a store blog. We are thankful to everyone for their patience! Our grand opening will be October 31st, our favorite holiday!

Currently, we only have a small sampling of our wares listed on our Etsy site. Keep on eye out for more of our hand carded rolags (none of that mini batt business!), hand combed top and additional soap for fiber AND body which we will be posting very soon! We will also be posting hand dyed yarn in other weights. New items will be listed every few days so checking back often is a good idea.

That's all for now!