We are so excited to feature Apple Tree Knits in our Indie Showcase for October 2016! Apple Tree Knits has beautiful gradient colors and which were born to solve a need . . . Liz Capik, the dyer behind Apple Tree Knits, started off designing patterns in her spare time. One day she had an idea for a pattern that required a very particular yarn. When she couldn’t find what she needed, she decided to take a shot at dyeing her own yarn around her specific design idea. After stutters and spurts, the business took off and now she spends most of her time dyeing full-time, at home with her 15-month old twins, and only gets to design in the rare spare moment. And one thing has been consistent from the start – she only carries bases and designs colorways that she would thoroughly enjoy knitting.
This is very lucky for us because she has sent us some amazing yarns for you to check out on the truck in October! We will have 4 beautiful bases to showcase Liz’s dyeing skills!
Plush Fingering is a light fingering weight yarn, 100% superwash merino in a 2-ply structure. Each skein contains 560 yards (512 meters) of beautiful hand-dyed goodness. An anything-but-basic merino, Plush is suitable for a huge range of projects. Super soft, smooshy and warm, this yarn gives beautiful saturated colors and feels lovely on the skin. The care recommendations for this yarn is machine wash and dry-able.
Luxe Fingering is a luscious blend of silk and ultra-solf merino. Each skein has 500 yards (457 meters) of a 49% wool and 51% silk blend. This yarn cannot be matched for feel. All the smoosh and bounce of super-soft wool with all the smoothness and shine of silk. The lovely combination of drape and memory makes it lovely for both garments and accessories. It’s well-suited for lace, colorwork, cables, and texture stitch patterns. Once you have completed your project in this yarn, be sure to hand wash and air dry your piece.
Silklin Light Fingering comes in a 756 yard (691 meter) skein of 65% silk and 35% linen. A delightful year-round option that’s suited to a range of projects. With lovely drape and subtle sheen, this yarn combines the breathability of linen with the softness of silk. It holds blocking well making it perfect for lace projects, and is also an ideal choice for warm-weather items to be worn against the skin. This is also a hand wash, air dry care.
Plush DK is 100% superwash merino and is delightfully soft and squishy. We have their JUMBO sized skeins in this base. Each skeins has 420 yards (384 meters) in this super-soft and warm yarn that dyes up in rich, brilliant colors and is perfect for quick-knit accessories and garments for all ages. All the smooshiness and rich color you’d expect from Plush. Care instructions for this base are machine wash and dry.
We asked Liz to tell us about where she gets her inspiration for her colors and here is she shared:
“My color inspirations come from everything and everywhere – emotions (guess how Murderous came to be?), nature, even music (Night’s Bright Colors came to be because I misheard a lyric in Simon and Garfunkel’s song Kodachrome, and started musing on what ‘night’s bright colors’ would look like). One of the fun things about doing gradient dyeing is it imposes certain limits, so there’s always an element of creativity in coming up with ways to work around or transcend those limits to create something really gorgeous. The way I dye my gradients involves a dip-dyeing process to achieve optimal blending between adjacent hues – this creates a really organic sense of movement in the colors, and it means there aren’t harsh lines where colors change. But it also means that going from, say, orange to blue will mostly just mean a whole bunch of muddy gray-brown in the middle where they meet. Even trying to go from a very light, bright, clear color to a very dark color can be a challenge to do smoothly. So exploring how I can tweak the dyes and the process to create the most smooth and beautiful gradient is a color inspiration in itself. And the speckle gradients are a new approach that I’m very excited about – they’re dyed differently, and every one is totally unique because of this. They’re almost as much fun to dye as to knit with!”
We feel very privileged to be able to share these wonderful yarns and colors with you. They will only be on the truck for the month of October 2016. Be sure to check our calendar of events to find out when we will be in our area and don’t miss the chance to come and see them on the truck!