Yarn Alliance Exclusive Colourways, July 2023

Sold out.

Shop/Clubs, Kits, & KALs/Extra Skeins of Club Colourways

This colourway is exclusive to current members of the InterStellar Yarn Alliance. If you're not currently in the club, please do not order this yarn. But do feel free to order other colourways from the SpaceCadet shop or join the Club mailing list to be the first to know when it re-opens for subscriptions!

The Colourway:

Three beautiful options

Screenprinting (the graphically variegated colourway in your parcel)
Pop Art (a semi-solid coordinating colourway)
The Factory (a painterly coordinating colourway)

Andy Warhol, the artist most famous for his screenprinted images that question the meaning of portraiture, is a son of Pittsburgh and his legacy looms large over the city. The Warhol Museum on the city’s North Shore is seven stories dedicated to his art and the work it inspired. And the gravestone at his final resting place, south of the city and not far from the SpaceCadet studio, is perpetually adorned by his fans with Campbell’s Soup cans. So as we began developing this colourway, it felt natural to adopt an attitude of pop art, with clear blocks of colour, crisp lines, and bright but opposing hues.

We started by mixing a very intense yellow dyebath and passed the skeins through it, keeping a clean edge to the colour. Then we mixed a deep periwinkle and did the same at the other end of the skein. And finally, as we brought the dyebath up to temperature, we squirted some long, crisp lines of black along the skeins to add that final pop art touch.

Now, you may be thinking “intense yellow…?” and “deep periwinkle…?” And that’s because the yarn in your hands is Maia, our deliciously drapey bamboo-rich fingering. And because the bamboo isn’t a protein fiber, it doesn’t absorb our dyes at all – just lets it fall away into the dyebath again – so even the strongest colours do fascinating things on this yarn. You’ll see how the yellow has softened in a way that really highlights the bamboo’s sheen. And the component dyes of the lavender have actually split as they soaked into the fibers, creating a fascinating flow of shades in blues and purples. (Want a glimpse of the original hue of the dyebath? Check the choke-tie holding the tag – it’s 100% merino and doesn’t change the colour)

The Coordinating Colourways

For our coordinating colourways, we first took the same dye mixtures and applied them this time in a painterly way, letting the colours merge as they flowed along the skeins. Doing so created even more surprise results, with the yellow and periwinkle creating a soft mint green where they met. And for our semi-solid, we fully immersed the skeins in the yellow, and then applied the softest wash of the black for some gentle depth of shade.

The Yarn:

Maia (my-a) is simply a stunning yarn, named after the fourth brightest star in the Pleiades. Spun with bamboo for incredible sheen and beautiful drape, Maia's soft colours and "iced" appearance make it the perfect yarn for your most elegant and eye-catching.

Fiber Content: 80% Bamboo, 20% Superwash Merino; 4-ply
Weight: Fingering; Each skein is approximately 3.5oz/100g, and the yarn contains approximately 400 yards per 100g

Ordering Details:

Order as many skeins as you like, and we will get them in the dyepots for you! Because this is a custom process, please allow up to 4-6 weeks for your order to be ready.
Yarn Alliance Members' Price! Normally priced at $29.99, this yarn is available exclusively to the members of the Yarn Alliance for the special price of $26.99.
This yarn will be remain available to order for a full month from the time you receive this email. The listing will be marked as sold out at 12.01am (EST) on 3 Sept 2023.
A very important note: As you all know, different dyelots rarely match perfectly, especially in hand-dyed yarns. Although we will do everything in our power to replicate the yarns from first dyelot, the yarn you receive may not match perfectly. Do bear this in mind if an exact match is important to you. To minimise any visible impact when using hand-dyed yarns, we always recommend alternating skeins every couple of rows in your project.

Bonus! More adorable SpaceCadet Stitch Markers!

For your gift, I asked Summer (who makes beautiful notions at Sunrise Grove on Etsy – look her up!) to create some beautifully celestial stitch markers for us. And when she sent me a photo of the drawings, I thought they were so adorable that I giggled right out loud. I love all the stars and planets and moons but, most of all, I love how happy our little SpaceCadet looks zooming through them all in his flying saucer. I hope they make your next project feel just as happy as he is! Normally priced at $12, they're available to club members for just $9.

At SpaceCadet®, we passionately believe that knitting and crocheting make people happier deep down inside and that nothing does that more than working with gorgeous, vibrant yarn. For us, dyeing is a cosmic adventure -- a wonderful process of mixing each shade by hand from primaries and seeing where the colour takes us. The result is yarn that is as exciting for you as it is for us. Come with us and explore the farthest reaches of SpaceCadet® colour!