interview: Andrea, of Das Schneeschaf – Airbrush Yarns!
Today I have the joy to present you the interview with Andrea of Das Schneeschaf – Airbrush yarns! Let’s all celebrate the great day of her going international – you can purchase her great yarns either at her own shop, or at Woolgirl.com now! Let me tell you from my own experience – her yarns are really a treat! Read on for the interview.
Peachy: Germany might be known for many things, but hand painted yarn might not be among those. How did you get into dyeing yarns and selling them in your shop?
Andrea: I think mainly because I love working with fibers and experimenting with colors. Years ago I painted silk and was always fascinated of the sheen of the material and the way the colours appeared on it. I had a huge stock of Silkdyes and I loved mixing new colourways. So when I started knitting, spinning and weaving it seemed nearly natural to start dyeing my own yarns. When I brought my yarns to our local knitting group I had a very positive response. And then I posted a few skeins on my weblog and they where sold out faster than you could say “sock yarn”. ;o) I had a few days off from work and suddenly I knew that I wanted to give it a try, that I wanted to do a thing that I really love and that I wanted the chance to make something special out of it. There was simply no reason not to try it. Next day I found myself at the local town hall to organize a trade licence and than I began to set up the shop. The shop opening was on April 13th and I was very proud.
You are using a very special technique for dyeing your yarns – please tell us more about it!
I use an airbrush to dye the yarns. I know that sounds kind of crazy, but it was not the way that I woke up one morning saying “hey, lets dye some sock yarn with an airbrush!” The reason is that I wanted a method that allows me to blend colours very softly together, to have a maximum of control of what the colours are doing on the yarn and especially of the colour transitions. I remembered the little flasks that I used when dyeing silk. You could simply pump them up with air and than spray the colours on the fabric. I tried that with the yarn and had nearly exactly the results that I wanted. That led me to Airbrush, because first I thougt I could work quicker this way. The colourmist that comes out of the airbrush is so incredibly fine that the process is very slow. But it is much more comfortable for me to dye with the help of a compressor instead of pumping up a little spraying flask every other minute. Sometimes I use a combination of several methods to achieve special effects. For example I dipdye a skein of yarn in a very light, soft shade and then use the airbrush to spray different shades and accents on it. So every skein is totally individual.
What yarns do you like best for dyeing? Are there any that are more difficult to dye than others?
I really could not say that there is a yarn that is best for dyeing. They are simply very different. The way the colours appear on the yarn depends on the fiber content and on the structure of the yarn. For example on silk yarns the colours appear very soft and on a 100% merino yarn the same colour looks much more saturated. You have to think of it when preparing and mixing the colours, like you generally have to think of what result you’d like to have when you start dyeing a skein. But that’s only a question of being able to visualize what you want.
And where do you find your inspiration for your colourways? Do you work by certain themes?
Sometimes I work by themes but I’m not forcing this. If I have an idea that I like, I dye a series with a special theme. For example to the last Walpurgis Night I dyed a series called “Hexentanz” (dance of the witches). It is a lot of fun, imagining the different witches in their different dance-dresses and how they would look like, dancing around the fire, enjoying themselves. ;o) Generally there are everywhere possibilities to get inspired. Every day of our live we are surrounded by colours. It’s only a matter of opening up our eyes and practicing to remember and kind of “re-visualize” different colour combinations and to “translate” them on the yarn. We have a relatively big garden around the house, that’s of course a perfect source of inspiration. And I guess you’ll often notice this in my colourways. But it can also be a beautiful fabric, an old apron from my grand aunt, a book cover, a movie, a picture, a painter and his preferred colours, the way you ever imagined “Snow White” would look like, when you were a kid … endless possibilities
Of late sets for fair isle knitting have started appearing in your shop. How did you come up with this great idea? How do you match the colours?
That was not really hard because I’m not only a dyer, I’m a knitter and a customer. ;o) In general I tend to think about, what I would like to have as a customer (even if it’s the result of my disability to handle a huge amount of different colors when I am knitting.)
In this special case the colours had to stay out against each other properly, so I used a colorwheel that helped me to find out which colors will work well together.
What new ideas do you have for your yarns?
I like to try out and find more new yarns. This is often not easy and takes a lot of work and time. But I like to work with different materials and I want my customers to have a pretty good selection of different yarns. I am really looking forward to try something new and I think this week I have found some really promising possibilities. But I don’t want to reveal to much by now. ;o)
Do you also do custom orders?
Sometimes, if I find enough time for it. On the one hand dyeing a special colorway someone ordered seems to make you feel limited but on the other hand it is challenging to translate the information the customer gave you in the colors you think that she or he had in mind. This is really fascinating.
About you personally, do you knit? Crochet? Spin?
I knit, spin, weave and sew, but my crochet skills are very limited. I generally like to try out new things, like embroidery for example, if I have the possibility and the time for it. Because besides all of that I have a pretty “normal” job in an office in Frankfurt.
Thanks so much for being patient enough with me, and of course for doing this interview!
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