My Paisley World: Hand-dyed, Hand-spun Yarns by Susan Nadelson

Susan Nadelson loves color! Seriously rich, saturated color.

In particular, she loves the colors she creates when she dyes wool.
She does that in two ways:

the traditional pot-of-hot-water method with color tones
developing gradually, or space dying, with instant results.

But Susan doesn't stop there.

She spins the wool into yarn. Gorgeous yarn!

And then comes the knitting.

Fabulously textured sweaters to warm body and soul!

I first met Susan this past autumn while she had a booth at Tyler State Park's

Crafts in the Meadow. You can see my post on that event HERE.

As she sat and spun yarn, she talked about her craft.

I was just enthralled and couldn't get enough!

Before I go on, I'll use the best word to describe the talented Susan Nadelson: passionate.

I witnessed this first-hand during my visit to her cozy Lambertville, NJ home.
She loves what she does. She absolutely exudes it.

I was thrilled with the time we spent together!

She was so eager (and patient) to answer my questions.

Here are some photos from our memorable afternoon~

Hand-dyed bags of wool wait patiently to be selected for the next project. What a variety of shades!

This is Susan's hand-cranked drum carder, which aligns the wool fibers
and blends different colors together in preparation for spinning.
This forms a batt, which can either be spun as is, or
formed into a roving, or long rope, and then spun.

Now we're talkin'! The electric carder is a quicker way to do it.

To demonstrate, Susan selected a few shades of blue
and a pretty green to blend together as a sample.
Not only was she blending colors, but also types of wool.

Susan relied on foot power to show me how the roving is spun into yarn.

Here's the mini skein of our sample yarn.

Now, these are examples of space-dyed rovings. Vibrant for, sure!

Susan explained that when she conjures her color conglomerations, she likes
to add an unusual shade that you wouldn't think would blend, a "poison" of sorts.

And it works. It adds interest and that spark of the unexpected!

Here, Susan spins one of her space dyed rovings into yarn.

This spinning wheel has double foot pedals.

Feast your eyes on these yarns...

...and how amazing they look after having been

magically transformed by Susan's knitting needles!

On Sunday and Tuesday afternoons, and evenings by appointment,
Susan invites knitters and wanna-be knitters into her home
to gather 'round her kitchen table for a casual, relaxing knit-fest.
She's there to instruct, encourage and enjoy the evening of socializing.

No fees, she just asks that they use her yarn and patterns.