Author Archives: Guest

We were so happy to get two talented local dyers in for our May meeting! While they seemed shy at first both of them opened up while talking about their passions.

Our first speaker, Yvonne Elsworth, admitted that her love of both sheep and the color purple gave her the perfect name for her company – Lavender Sheep. A childhood spent immersed in crafts and visits to the local knitting guild with the artistic women of her family set the stage for (so far) a lifelong pursuit of all things fibery.

Once she started dyeing, she found that she preferred direct application dyeing, which is where you apply the dye directly to the yarn. Her eyes lit up while talking about how different fibers take the same dye, and the little changes that can happen with different yarn bases. It was definitely fascinating after her talk, holding up her different yarns that were the same colorways and being able to see what she had described.

Her plate is full these days chasing after two young children and running her business in Hood River. She teaches weaving at Knot Another Hat, her LYS. Her table was full with a huge variety of yarns; she loves trying new and exciting bases. Lavender Sheep yarns are sustainably sourced. Yvonne boasts a beautiful line of Oregon yarns sourced from Imperial Stock Ranch. A personal favorite was the many colorful mini skeins. Yvonne said she doesn’t mind the labor intensive process of making mini skeins, “they’re so much fun!”. We were encouraged to give her a call if we found ourselves in Hood River; she is very proud of her “Sweet Studio” and would love to open it up and show us what she’s working on.

Melanie Dilsworth was a goth girl in Eugene with a love of literature and science. She had a post grad degree on the east coast planned when she met her husband and life took a detour. With two young sons underfoot in a tiny apartment she started dyeing her yarn. Thanks to a lot of time spent wearing black and memories of the local trillium flower, Black Trillium Fibres was born.

She favors a submersion dyeing method, where the yarn is completely submerged in the dye, and sources from an exclusive mill. Melanie takes a scientific approach to dyeing and meticulously formulates her process. She has an incredible three hundred repeatable color ways! She does not believe a professional dyer’s colors should bleed, it is a serious pet peeve of hers.

Besides her retail yarns she also focuses on her gradient kits, which she only sells on her website and at shows. If you can believe it, a single kit will take two weeks to create! She has a very specific process for creating each kit, which is why they take so long, but also why they are perfectly gradated. She had a gorgeous selection of her gradient kits for purchase at the meeting. There were so many amazing samples for inspiration that it was difficult not to snatch one up in each color.

It was a pleasure to have these two ladies join us. We look to forward to seeing (and knitting) their yarns in the future.
-Jess

At our April meeting we were introduced to the incredibly creative Leigh Radford, and she shared her amazing artistic journey with us. Starting with a childhood rich in arts and crafts, then later as a graphic designer turned career knitter and artist.

Finding herself laid off from her job as a graphic designer Leigh found a weekend position at a local yarn store. In her free time she started to design her own patterns and submitted them to Interweave magazine. They were impressed with her skills as a knit designer, as well as a graphic designer, so they offered her a position as their Art Director.

She moved to Colorado to work for Interweave, but soon found herself longing for the Pacific Northwest again. She left her position at Interweave and returned to Oregon where she added a new job to her resume: Author. Over the next four year she had four books published, with over 70 knit and crochet patterns. After that she decided to take a break from being a pattern dynamo, by pursuing her dream: a B.A in Fine Arts.

Leigh is a true artist. While still highly influenced by fiber arts she has created sculptures using everything from wood and felt,to knitted rope and plaster, and beautiful haunting triptych paintings. If you can believe it she even knit cups and bowls to use them as molds for porcelain cups and bowls! She isn’t afraid to work with all mediums and craves the experience of the artistic process.

Since I only knew her from her knit designs I was blown away and amazed by her ability to think outside of the box. She has knit lantern shades for garden lights, a tire cover for her Jeep, a full size decorative screen door, and more. It really was a joy to listen to her as she told us about her artistic process, what inspires her, and how she translates her ideas into reality.

As I watched her presentation, I kept thinking her 1920’s bungalow filled with all of her creations must be the coolest house.
-by Jess