She's Nude!

Stevanie named this one after a favorite Radiohead song.  And what a perfect summer look and sound!  I think berries eaten by the pool while listening to some Radiohead--in a knit bikini of course!
How's that for a title;)  Here is a sneak peek of our new colorway for Sock Summit--

Fleece to Foot Challenge Sponsors

We are getting super excited about Sock Summit!!  There is a huge pile of yarn to be reskeined at the dyeworks.  We have lots of buttons to hand out.  We are waiting on our team t-shirts to come back for the Fleece 2 Foot challenge:)  We have raised $500 so far for the American Heart Association!!  So excited about that.  Sock Summit is already a success and it hasn't even started yet.  Be sure to visit our sponsors at their Sock Summit booths and say thank you for the good they are doing.  Don't worry, you can help too.  Make a donation and let us know.  Your name goes in a drawing to be held after SS.  Your get some swag from Summit and us.

Twisted--#201&300
Paradise Fibers--#623, 625, 627, 722, 724, 726
Gardiner Yarn Works--#604
Lavender Sheep--#604

Amy Sacks Eyewear Event

Looking for something to do this weekend?  Pico Accuardi Dyeworks has teamed up with Amy Sacks eyewear for a fun party in downtown Portland!

Do you love animals? yarn? kick-ass glasses? Mingling with amazing people? Come and try on some Amy Sacks eyewear while sampling the newest Pico Accuardi yarns and colorways. Grab a glass of wine and hop into the photo booth to preview your new look.
Amy Sacks Eyewear directly supports the Pixie Project, providing food, shelter and medical care to animals in need. Pico Accuardi Dyeworks, a mainly natural dyeworks, provides spinning, weaving and needlework classes in the Portland area as well as beautifully dyed yarns and fibers worldwide.

Ann Sacks Offices
1532 SW Morrison Ste. 1000
Portland, Oregon
Saturday, July 16, 6-8pm

Fleece to Foot

Pico Accuardi Dyeworks has a team for the Fleece to Foot spinning/knitting challenge during Sock Summit!!  Team Spin U will be raising money for the American Heart Association.  That's right, the prize is $300 for a charity of your choice.  But you know us--we couldn't leave it there!  We are gathering sponsors so that we can raise even more money for the AHA.  So far Twisted and Paradise Fibers are on board!!  You can be too;)  Donate to the American Heart Association and leave us a comment here with how much so we can tally our total.  Even $1 donated helps their research.  This is a number #1 killer in our society.  And if you donate your name will go into a drawing for yarn prizes!!  At the end of Sock Summit we will draw some names for fabulous prizes.  Stevanie has been creating an entire line of red colorways that will be unveiled at Sock Summit.  They are beautious!

The Kickstarter project

We are creating a small publishing (miniature really) branch of Pico Accuardi Dyeworks.  PAD Publications is publishing a 2012 Knitters Datebook themed "Created in Oregon".  You can see the front cover on our website.  We are using what we've learned through creating the calendar to publish a book that has been milling around in Deb's head and her notebook for several years.  We are moving forward on the creation of this project, but we really need your support.  We have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds we need to pay a layout artist, a professional photographer and to keep the printing in North America.  Ideally, we want to print right here is Portland.  That definitely costs a lot more, but it supports a local company and keeps the creation footprint small.
This book will happen with or without the Kickstarter funds, but it takes so much stress off of the Dyeworks and the book will be of higher quality.  Plus it will be out by early Spring!!  Remember that with Kickstarter it is all or nothing.  So tell all your friends, relatives and strangers on the street.  lol
And just check out that site in general.  There are some amazing projects out there!  Such creative people out there in the world.  I love that this site exists to give us a chance to find them all.
 The photo is a swatch for a blanket that will be in the book.

Already July!?!

Last month was lost in trade show, fiber show and working bliss:)  So here we are into July already.  And with July we have just finished round two of our Community Sock Club (round three to start in the fall).  Our total focus is now on Sock Summit!!  Our yarns will be in the Twisted booths (#201 & #300) and so will we throughout the weekend.  You can also find Deb teaching on Saturday afternoon and there will be a PAD "Spin U" team for the Fleece to Foot challenge on Sunday.  We are super excited about the challenge.  The charity we will be raising money for is The American Heart Association.  Our goal is $1000.  Keep checking back here at the blog.  We will have our donation button up soon!  Every dollar helps.  And you know there will have to be incentives;)
Here is a pretty little colorway that you will be able to find at Sock Summit this year--

Meet Gianni

We loooove our new Wool/Alpaca Aran weight yarn!  It feels so light weight for a heavier yarn.  It has 164 yd and is cabled for an interesting look in your knits.  Deb already has a mitten design in the works.  This yarn will be great for Fall sweaters, hats, blankets.  We can't wait to see what you all come up with:)  And who is Gianni?  There are two really.  Deb has a friend in Italy named Gianni that is a wonderful man.  A free spirit that works hard in his friends wineries then is off to ride his moto guzzi around Argentina or Chili during the off season with a scarf flying in the breeze.
However, a Jonny that is closer to home is Stevanie's oldest son.  This Jonny would love to be off on that moto guzzi, but right now he is finishing high school and is a huge help to us in the dyeworks!
Our Aran weight is shown in a new colorway--Patricia--

Another new yarn!

Another of our new yarn bases--Del Piero also in "Infinite Arms".  We wanted you to see how different each of these yarns look in the same colorway.  Del Piero is a Peruvian wool blend coming to us in a natural gray so the colors are going to be slightly muted like our Louie Love.  This yarn comes to us in a sport weight so we thought it was only fitting that we name it for a star in Italian football star;)
These new yarns that we're beginning to show are so new they aren't even out in the stores yet!  We will be showing them at the TNNA trade show in just a couple weeks.  Make sure you let your LYS know you'd like to see them in stock.

A new yarn--Alwynn

We have a few new yarns in our stash these days.  One of which is Alwynn!  Shown here in our colorway "Infinite Arms".  This worsted weight yarn is 70%wool/30%silk with  218 yd in the skein.  Knits from this yarn have a lovely drape.  Gonna have to knit a cardi out of this one.

This yarn is named for Deb's niece, Alwynn.  An aspiring actress she helped us out back at the beginning of our company.  She has as much shimmer as this yarn;)

Dyed in the Wool

While we load our crate with all the new yarns heading to our Columbus trade show (booth #1457), we can't help but pick a little through the wool Stevanie dyed for the Sheep-to-Sweater project.  We'll be blending these in a workshop at the new Gresham shop, Andersen Fiber Works, soon!  They open this weekend, come see us there Saturday.

Oregon Spring

This is not about the colorway today;)  It's about the weather.  Even though it gets depressing to have one nice day in seven here is Western Oregon we can't complain about what those kinds of days bring to us--wonderful Morel mushrooms.  Yesterday's post was missed as it was a mushroom hunting day.  We brought back about 5lb of these beauties.  And had a wonderful mushroom pasta for dinner.

Sheep to Sweater Project

We've started on an adventure!  A group of us have purchased fleeces of Columbia wool from Imperial Stock Ranch to take through the entire process of picking, washing, dyeing, prepping, spinning and knitting on to a sweater or shawl.  This photo was taken at the very beginning of the project.  Most have now washed and dyed their fleeces, but not all.  We are not giving ourselves a time line.  We are, however, going to be supporting each other so that we can finish!  Here is a link to the Ravelry thread where you can follow this group of people.  And, we will be following one fleece through a series of video classes to help you should you want to do this on your own.  Next weekend the stage will be set...

The Schacht Side Kick traveling wheel

Did you know we are a Schacht Spindle Company dealer?  We are all spinners here at Pico Accuardi Dyeworks.  We try to sit down once a week and spin together.  And sometime we actually do;)  As spinners when we looked at a company we wanted to represent in the wheel area both of us agreed that Schacht was it.  We love their products, their service and the fact that Barry and Jane have created a wonderful work space for their employees.  They have a mini farm for people to enjoy at work--small chicken coop and raised beds for those that want to participate.  That is right up our ally as we both now have full working farms to attend at our homes.

We are anxiously awaiting delivery of Schacht's newest wheel--the Side Kick.  We have several on order, but only two of those are not sold.  The first available wheel will be arriving within the next two weeks at the studio.  Make an appointment to drop by and give it a spin;) (couldn't help myself)  And don't worry, we can always order more if you miss this round.  Pico Accuardi Dyeworks offers both  lay away and used wheel trade in programs.  And very soon--online spinning classes.  Learn no matter where you are!

Wicked Freaks

Often dyers will have days where the colorway they are creating comes out really different.  If you don't want to recreate this new colorway, but it's still a beautiful skein, what do you do? Well, we call these one off beauties Wicked Freaks!  We take them to shows. Yarn store owners often order a bag or two as well;  especially in sock yarn.  Ask your LYS if they have any.

Putting a face on it

We forget that with this wide world web many of you have not met us in person.  I found this photo on our desktop this morning.  This was taken in the studio during the Portland Yarn Crawl earlier this Spring.   You can see lots of yarn and fiber teasers all around us.  If you are local or coming to Portland drop us an email.  We'd love to show off our studio.

Rouen

This colorway is named for Deb's Rouen ducks.  They are sassy little things running around the yard in group force.  Here you see Rouen on our La Libera sock yarn.  La Libera means freedom in Italian.  We see this superwash merino/nylon blend as freedom from worry.  When you spend the time knitting a pair of socks you certainly don't want to blow out a toe or heel.  The nylon blend will help with that. We have this yarn put up in 2 50gram skeins so it is ready knit that pair of socks.  La Libera is also the name of a fabulous restaurant in Alba, Italy.  Definitely worth a stop when you get to that part of the world;)  Marco creates the traditional dishes of the area, showcasing local producers, in a relaxed atmosphere that appeals to all.

Let's start the week with a post!

In an effort to blog more we have come up with an idea (we are the queens of ideas)--
We are joining the photo a day brigade.  Sometimes a photo can speak for itself, other times it inspires the writer for a paragraph or two.  We start this exercise today.  We'll see where it leads...

Today needed some color.  This colorway will beat these rainy Oregon blues;)  And this wool/mohair blend has been inspiring to both of us.  We have a joint color/pattern project we are working on.  You'll see in a summer photo;)