This week, we caught up with Tina Newton from Blue Moon Fiber Arts to hear about what makes her tick.
Wouldn't you love to work here?
What is your favourite colour?
As someone whose job is color I am asked this question a lot. So, you would think I would have a quick and easy answer. I don't!
I love all colors and pretty much everything single thing about them. Since it is one of the key tools of my trade, my relationship with color is probably more intimate and in depth than most.
I tend to have what I think of as hue love affairs. Some weeks it's all about the warmth of orange with the cool of aqua. Then something in me shifts and another color or color combination strikes my fancy and boom, I'm obsessed. I'm then immersed, learning and experimenting with all that my current hue-obsession has to offer.
That all said... I do tend to wear neutrals, especially greys.
And, I have never, ever met a green that I did not love!
My longest (to date) hue love affair has been with Pond Scum Green!
I do love the scummy colors.
What is your current favourite yarn/fibre?
I am working with a lot of Targhee right now. It's a local breed to my little corner of the world and one I have worked with for years. I have a few new yarns that I am doing swatch tests on right now to add to the Blue Moon line-up and three of them are Targhee blends. One is a DK single with a silk addition that makes me so happy I am finding it hard to contain myself. I can't wait to share this yarn!!
What is your favourite season?
You know, I love all the bright green newness of Spring and the red the hot brightness of Summer and even Winter's cool dark and here, wet days, but I have to say that Autumn really is my season. You know that moment in late summer when you realize it's a shade cooler and then you notice that there's just the barest scent of fall in the air? That is my favorite day of the year.
As a color obsessed person of course, I love the changing of the leaves. All of those rusty oranges, golds, browns, purplish greens and on and on. Autumn is such a tapestry of earthy rich hues. What I like most of the all though, is the tall grasses and weedy changes. When the plants die back and turn all shades of brown and grey and then go to seed. Such a subtle and beautiful process.
What is/was your current favourite knitting/crochet project?
I don't really have one going. I am doing a lot of swatching right now for yarn development and testing. I am one of those strange knitters that actually likes to swatch. It's probably because of my small attention span. A swatch is just the right amount of time to hold my interest.
If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be?
Oh my goodness, so hard to choose. The fan girl in me would like to have dinner with Dr. Who, the knitter would love to sit with Elizabeth Zimmerman for a few hours and the colorist would like nothing more that to sit in Monet's garden with him and wax poetic about the nature of color over a pot of tea. Right now though in this crazy moment of time I think I would like to sit down with Michelle Obama.
Where do you feel most inspired or get most inspiration?
Pretty much anything and anywhere, but most especially out in nature. I think this is why I choose to live in the woods. No one does color like Mother Nature.
Quick fire questions! What is your favourite:
Book? Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos
Film? The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the 8th Dimension (Embarrassing but true)
Quote? Always be yourself, unless you can be a unicorn, then always be a unicorn.
Cocktail/drink? Fresh hopped rye beer
Cake? I'm more of a pie person so...maybe lemon pound cake.
Cheese? River's Edge, Up in Smoke Chèvre
Tina at work
Find out more about Tina, her team and her amazing range of yarns, including Socks That Rock (and really they do), here.
All photos ©Blue Moon Fiber Arts