The Creation of Tanyth Fairport

Nathan Lowell is one of my favorite authors. He creates characters that are so wonderfully complex yet seemingly simple; characters with subtle layers, with a richness yet a simplicity , about them.

Tanyth is my favorite. She is of the earth, browns and greens. There is a quiet strength to her and a spark as well (burgundy and gold). She is older and wiser with a gift of magic.

So for this yarn I didn't use a diagram. I made a list of dye colors I wanted to use and used a more primitive and random method of applying the dye. I let the yarn tell me what it wanted to be. And the results are pretty spectacular.

The Creation of Dragon Lady

When I started creating the Balticon colorways in 2010 I imposed some rules on myself. The big one being that I could only dye colorways based on the books or podcasts of someone who is going to be at the con itself.

This can pose a problem in that I have to wait until I know someone is planning on attending before I can base a colorway off of their work.

In 2011 I started reading The Antithesis Progression series of books by J. Daniel Sawyer and was immediately captivated by the character, Cassie. At times she is known as the Green Lady (for wearing a striking Green outfit) and also as the Dragon Lady.

In 2012 I wrote Dragon Lady on a list of potential colorways along with the colors red, purple, and green in parenthesis. Well, in both 2012 and 2013 Dan wasn't able to attend. So Dragon Lady was just a name on a list.

Finally, this year Dan will be there again so I got to do a Dragon Lady colorway. But when I thought about Cassie the color that sprang to mind was red. So instead of being predominantly green with accents of red and purple, she ended up being red with accents of green and purple.  I find it interesting that it was the red that struck with me most when she was really much better known for (and even called) the Green Lady.  

The Creation of Nobilis Erotica

I think the seventh grader in me wanted shades of blue just so I could make jokes about blue balls.

But seriously, Nobilis Erotica is the longest running erotica podcast. It's this wonderful blend of spec fic and sex. It's blues with some subtle purple and a twist of orange. It's blue stretched to the boundaries of the edge of blue. But not too far. It's tasteful yet strange.

Most of all, it's the man behind the podcast, Nobilis Reed. He's a true blue friend and a class act.

The Creation of Ginnie Dare

Ginnie is the main character in a series of middle grade sci-fi space opera books by Scott Roche. The brown and yellow are her no-nonsense coveralls that she wears aboard her father's space ship and the pinks are for the girl underneath.  I know this is a very short description, but it's a very simple yet strikingly beautiful colorway...much like the character.  Besides, I think brown and pink is quite possibly one of my all-time favorite color combinations.

The Creation of Dead Robots Society

First, I should say that I designed this with Justin, Terry, and Paul in mind. I know Scott is there instead of Justin now but for me, DRS will always be synonymous with Justin. Besides, Scott's series "Ginnie Dare" got its own colorway so I'm sure he'll understand.

I started with black and silver grey. Both good colors when dealing with robots, dead or otherwise. Then I added gunmetal blue. This is a serious podcast about a sometimes serious subject so I wanted those kinds of colors. But it needed some spark. Accents based on the individual personalities and the stories they write.

Paul was easy...crimson. That's his favorite way to describe red and I'm pretty sure it's in every story he's ever written. Terry was easy too...pink. For all the erotica he's written over the years I went straight to pink. Okay, so now I've got a splash of red and a splash of pink. What to do for Justin? Green. Emerald green. For Still Water.

The final question was placement. So, I paired up colors, one major with one accent and put them across from each other; black and crimson, gunmetal and pink, and silver with green. The result is a very dignified and orderly series of stripes that build a story interrupted by moments of insanity. Sounds like a perfect fit.

And Justin, it's been a while... (sorry, if you've listened to this podcast you get the joke)

The Creation of Mahna Mahna

This colorway was the easiest to design in that the colors were already chosen for me by Jim Henson himself. Mahna Mahna is one of his earliest creations so all I needed to do was google a picture. And yet, technically, this was the most difficult to dye. The only real color choice I had was between Kelly and Chartreuse for the green. The challenge was to keep the green, pink, and orange clean from the purple.

After deciding on the dye colors, I then have to figure out placement. I decided that while i wanted the purple to be the dominant color, I didn't want all of the other colors to be lumped together so I alternated between one of them with the purple. I can see the swirl of the colors in the swatch but it also has plenty of randomness in the way it knit up.

That is until I decided to use it as the heel for the first Balticon sock...I've never had colors line up the way these did. This completely blew me away. It's easily the coolest happy accident I've ever had with a colorway.

The 2014 Balticon yarn is ready!!

The 2014 Balticon yarn is ready!!

Clockwise from top right: Tanyth Fairport (all grean), Dragon Lady (mostly red), Nobilis Erotica (blues), Mahna Mahna, Dead Robots Society, and Ginnie Dare

As in past years, I will be offering discounts for buying more than one colorway...the more you buy, the more you save. 

Because these are Limited Editions and in very small quantities there is a limit to one (1) of each colorway for the first week that these are on sale.  After than, if you would like to order more of a particular colorway (and it hasn't sold out already), you are absolutely welcome to do so.  Prices for additional skeins will be $22 each.

These colorways will go on sale Friday, May 9, 2014, at 00:01 am Eastern.

To order, send an email to DyedBrightHere (at) gmail (dot) com. 

I will then send you an invoice through PayPal.  This invoice is your order confirmation.  If a colorway that you want has already been sold out, I will instead reply directly to your email to see how you would like to proceed at that point.

Orders are first come, first served according to the time stamp of your email.

Prices are:

$24 for 1 colorway

$46 for 2 colorways 

(save $2)

$67 for 3 colorways 

(save $5)

$88 for 4 colorways 

(save $8)

$110 for 5 colorways 

(save $10)

$120 for the complete set of Balticon 2014 colorways 

(save $24...like getting a skein for free)

Shipping anywhere in the US will be $3 for 1-3 skeins and $5 for 4 or more skeins

International shipping will be $10 per order regardless of number of skeins

If you will be attending Balticon and would like to save on postage, just let me know in your email and I will deliver them to you there.