We have new releases!

My friend Janie from The Cat's Whiskers and I have another Collaboration pack. It is Christmas Ornament pack and it contains the charts for an ornament designed by Janie and one designed by me and all the silks needed to stitch them.



If you would like a closer look, go here

I have also released Lightning Ridge, which is the 4th in the Quilt Block series.


The others are Southern Stars, The Dreaming and Terra Australis.
The 5th in the series, The Min Min will be in the September issue of The Gift of Stitching magazine.

Our new Lapel Pins have arrived! I love collecting different pins and decided I would have Dinky-Dyes pins made. We also now have fun multi-coloured Dinky-Dyes pens.

I will have these lovely pins on sale at Hershey but if anyone not going to Hershey would like one, just send me an e-mail.

Yarn Dyeing

Dyeing yarn is so slow. Since I'm not set up for dyeing yarn the way regular yarn dyers are, It's been slow going but I have made some progress. I dyed striped sock yarn yesterday and really like the end result.

Here is a photo of some of the yarn on the drying rack.



The violet yarn at the top is Wool, Mohair and Polyester and the blue yarn next to the violet is Superwash Merino and Nylon sock yarn. On the next row is a variegated tan Merino and cotton yarn and the striped yarn is a Merino, Silk and Nylon sock yarn with a silver thread through it. The silver adds a nice shine that can't be seen in the photo.

The striped yarn below this row is the Superwash sock yarn again and beside that is turquoise yarn with the silver thread and a blue and turquoise variegated yarn which is 100% superwash Merino. It feels wonderful!

Now it is dyed I'm not sure how to prepare it for sale. Maybe I'll just tag it and wind it back into a skein. I do have a ball winder so that is another option.

What I've been up to

I've had a productive weekend. Ian was taken on a fishing trip by a business associate (and came home with about 50lb of fish) so I had the house to myself and managed to get quite a lot done.

I caught up on all my silk dyeing, sorted out a huge bag of silks for the winding ladies, dyed the first of the box of yarn I have and even managed to do some stitching.

I have dyed some yarn before but forgot how different it is to dyeing silk. You have to be really careful not to felt it but you also need to turn it to make sure there are no white spots. Yes, I have a few white spots on the blue yarn so will need to re-dye those patches tomorrow.

There is a variety of yarn but my favourite is the merino and silk sock yarn with a silver thread running though it. I dyed some a variegated turquoise colour today and I love it. I plan on having a variety of different yarn for sale at Hershey CATS. If I remember correctly I have quite a few different hanks of different silk blend yarn. Well, of course everyone knows how much I love silk!

Oh yes, the stitching. I have been working on Love by Papillon Designs. I love the way this design flows and I am using 3 colours of silk. A new variegated silk #137 Riverina (combination of #119, #132,#136 and blue) that will be released in October, 139 Boulia (a deep purple) a Nashville 2008 release solid silk and #136 Sea Grass. I love the way these colours look together. Riverina was dyed especially for my friend Debbie from My Big Toe Designs and will be seen in a design that will be released in October.

Back to the dyeing. I recently dyed a Limited Edition silk to celebrate our 5th birthday in business. A special promotion began in The Gift of Stitching this month and you will find out more about the LE silk next month. Don't have a subscription? That can be easily fixed. Just follow this link or have your needlework shop contact me about subscription cards.

Last week I had a couple of visitors from College Station. I won't mention any names because I didn't ask if I could do that but I did see some wonderful stitching that used Dinky-Dyes silks. The following designs have either #85 Fantasy Blues or #96 Christmas Pines in them. They are Majesty, part of the 'Legends of the Dragons' collaboration by Teresa Wentzler, Jen Aikman-Smith and Karen Weaver, Dragon Dreams 'I Believe' and a lovely Celtic knotwork piece whose designer I don't know, sorry.





Oh, did I mention that I don't eat fish???

And the weeks disappear

I always intend to blog more often but I'm always too busy doing something else. So what has happened lately?

Our Green Cards were approved. My husband and I are now official permanent residents of the USA. No more leaving the country every 2 years to renew our visas. It also means that my husband isn't tied to working for the company who sponsored our visas. If a better job comes along, and they will, he can accept it if he wants to.

I am now distributing for Judith Tuttle from Twisted Oaks designs. I'll have stocks of all Judith's new designs for your LNS to purchase.

Janie and I are releasing a Christmas Collaboration pack next month. No photos yet, but there will be an ornament design from each of us as well as the silks needed to stitch both designs.

I guess the big news is that Dinky-Dyes will have been in business for 5 years this October. I have been working with Kirsten from The Gift of Stitching, who I also represent here in the US, on a special promotion in her magazine. It all started this month with the announcement of a design competition for magazine subscribers.

The prizes include a full set of Dinky-Dyes silks as well as charts, fabric and threads donated by my friends in the needlework industry. Total of all the prizes is around $1000 so well worth entering.

If you are a subscriber of The Gift of Stitching, get designing. If you don't have a subscription, why not? You are missing out on a great magazine, some fantastic upcoming designs and some wonderful happenings over the next 3 months.

Ask your local Needlework Shop if they sell subscriptions for The Gift of Stitching Magazine and if not, ask them to contact me so we can get you in on all the fun.

I have found my helpers

I had many replies from ladies who have more thread stash then I am sure they could use in a lifetime and I have chosen two to help me. One has an amazing personal thread stash and the other works at an LNS that I know stocks just about every thread there is, so I'm well covered.

As soon as they have conversions worked out, I will post them on my website and BB. Of course not every conversion will work for every design so if anyone needs a final opinion, I will always be available to help.

The Limited Edition Summer Pack is all dyed up and the threads ready to be wound. I will start shipping at the end of next week.

I just LOVE some of the colours in this pack and perhaps a similar thread will find it's way into the regular line at a later date.

Here is a sneak peek of the threads and fabrics. I have also designed a cute Summer book mark to go with the pack.



There are still a few packs not spoken for, so if you are interested, e-mail me.

On a personal note, my only daughter is getting married at Easter 2008. She is the only girl amongst 4 boys in our family so I am very excited. I will be making her wedding dress with Fran's help and I can't wait to get started. My daughter isn't a girly girl but has found a photo of a dress she loves and I am going to be stitching on lots of crystals and beads to make sure it is just right.

AND.... My second son and his wife are expecting a baby in February and this will make grandchild #6. I have a feeling this one will be a girl and if so, we will have 3 girls for me to spoil with lots of pretty things and 3 equally spoilt boys.

I need help

Are you the person I need?

This morning I had 2 more requests for help converting other companies threads to mine. Of course I Like to help but each request means I need to log onto the website of the opposition and check out their threads and then find some of my silks that will work in their place.

It all takes time, which I don't have a lot of these days. While I was dyeing up another 100 hanks of silk today (this takes a long time) I had a thought. Why not look for someone who could work on conversions for me so I'm here asking for your help.

I know there are hundreds of stitchers out there who collect many different threads. Is there anyone who would like a full set of Dinky-Dyes (RRP $550) to work on conversions to other threads?

To do the job properly you will need to have a large selection of other brands of hand dyed silks and cottons and be prepared to compare photos on the net for any threads you don't personally own.

I will look at all e-mails I receive and choose the person who is most suitable to complete the task for me. If you are interested, please send me an e-mail ... jo@dinkydyes.com and tell me what threads you personally own and how you would go about working out conversions. If two or three people want to pool their resources and work together, that is ok too. I just need to end up with conversions that are as correct as possible.

So, if you have every thread ever created or even a really good stash of threads and are interested, send me an e-mail!

What's New

Well, I've finally found the time to post again. The last two weeks have been so incredibly busy and I've been flat out trying to keep up.

I'm also working on the Summer Limited Edition packs which will go out at the end of this month. For those who haven't heard of these packs, I put one together for each season and they contain 2 skeins of LE silk and 2 skeins of LE cotton thread and a 18" x 13" piece of hand dyed fabric and a small design. The sell for $25 and are very popular.

I also managed to finish designing a couple of new charts and have a few more to finish and I have decided I want to stitch 'Love with a Capital L' from Papillion Creations. Yvonne has some lovely designs but this one is my favourite.

While I was poking around in my store room yesterday, I found Long Dog's Rosemarkie that I started this time last year and haven't had time to get back to. I love the way it is turning out. I have used 3 colours. #87 Yalling up, #88 Saltbush and #92 Eungella for the backstitching. I need to try and find the time to finish it but it isn't going to happen any time soon.

This is Rosemarkie and it is stitched on a piece of lavender cashel that I dyed.