I have had a very busy, yet very entertaining, two weeks since I received my first shipment of yarns. I spent endless hours transforming the cones of yarn into dye-friendly skeins, but it gave me a chance to think and properly develop my first colourway. Inspired by what some may call the Eighth Wonder of the World, the gorgeous Rice Terraces of Banaue in the Ifugao mountains.

I'm calling the colourway Rustic Tranquility. The first batch of Heavy Laceweight yarns is almost ready and I will be listing them in the shop as soon as I come up with names for each of the colours (that's when the REAL hard work comes in!). The photo below is a stack of yarns showing all ten colours: 

I'm working with two base yarns at the moment:

Heavy Laceweight 85% Superfine Wool15% Cashmere, 500m/546yds per 50g/1.8oz

Laceweight 100% Cashmere, 650m/710yds per 50g/1.8oz

Both yarns are divine to the touch, with a certain 'creaminess' to thier texture that is hard to describe without grabbing and handful and rubbing it against your face... A 50g/1.8oz skein goes a long way and is perfect for small shawls and scarves. I used a layered dip-dyeing technique; each colour is a mixture of dyes, and each skein is dyed in stages to add dimension to the skein.

A little background information..

My parents visited the Cordillera Region back in 1980 before I was born, and this photograph was taken on the day, with the lush mountains forming a beautiful backdrop while posing with local Ifugao women (My parents are the couple on the far left of the photograph, dad in an 80's track suit with his arm around mom). I used to look through stack of family photos in my parents' drawers as a child and this one was one of my favorites. The colourful costumes and the elaborate headdresses fascinated me, so did all the greenery. You have to realise that I grew up in the very hot, dry, flat and urbanised Kuwait, so green mountains were a novelty, and I really wanted to see them for myself. 

My sisters and I went to see the Banaue rice fields in the summer of 2000 (I think it was then.. will one of you tell me if it was then or 2001?), and saw them for real. The view was beautiful. I marvelled at the handmade terraces, carved into the mountainside over 2000 years ago. I couldn't help climbing over the 'safety rail' to take a photo!

Back to the yarns now, here is a mini digital collage to give you a better idea of my inspiration:

I choose the colours from the farmland, the sky, the colourful costumes and headdresses, and the unusual use of carabou skulls as decorations. I'm still working on my 'official' description of my colourway, I can't think properly today I'm afraid.

I just finished the last row of a shawl I'm knitting in one of the green colours, and I will hopefully cast it off later on today and get it blocked, ready to show off! 

I used less than one 50g skein of the Heavy Laceweight 85% Superfine Wool, 15% Cashmere, I can't wait to see how it turns out!