pretty, pretty

Last August, Maia came up to Portland for a bit of a yarn crawl. Somewhere during the day, I whined mentioned to her that I couldn’t find just the right honey-colored laceweight that I wanted for the Bee Fields Shawl by Anne Hanson. Sort of like this, I said, picking up one ball of super-bulky something or other, shading into this (picking up second ball). Not solid, but slightly variegated. Honey and golden bees. You know.

Maia, bless her soul, said that she would be happy to dye yarn for me. All I needed to do was to send the yarn to her. Little did she know that I would actually take her up on that.

There began the search for the perfect yarn. I had almost given up hope when at the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival I found a gorgeous undyed cashmere/silk blend by Hokulani Farms. Three skeins were dispatched to Maia.

Maia was pretty busy because she and Brooke had started Tactile Fiber Arts, purveyor of gorgeous, naturally-dyed yarn and fiber. So I had to wait awhile. But I forced myself to not email Maia every day asking is it done yet? waited patient (mostly), knowing that my yarn was in good hands and having other lace in progress anyway.

Last week I received a package in the mail. And, oh, it was so worth the wait!

See in the picture? Gorgeous, honey-colored yarn with just the perfect amount of shading into reddish-golds, and sometimes into slightly greenish golds. I can’t wait to have this on my needles! In the meantime, plans for this have changed to the Honeybee Stole, also by Anne Hanson, because I think I will wear a rectangular stole more than a triangular shawl. And I will want to wear this one. Lots.

The fingering-weight skein in the picture was a surprise from Maia. Isn’t that just beautiful? Coral and khaki and white. I am in heaven! And that’s just a tiny sample of Tactile Fiber Arts offerings. Their online store will be coming soon. Until then, you can keep up with announcements on their blog. And look for them in the markets at Madrona and Stitches West.

I’m really hoping to get to Madrona for part of one day, and I’m going to definitely stop by Tactile’s booth. Will I see you there, too?