Flutterby

My grandmother has a butterfly bush in her garden. I now know that it’s an invasive plant, but back when I was a teenager, I marveled at its ability to attract hordes of butterflies. Monarchs, swallowtails, skippers, and I’m sure many more, would flock to its purple blooms all spring and summer. I had developed a keen interest in photography and, on beautiful days, I would go into the yard and try to capture each insect as it landed and drank the sweet nectar. I’d slowly inch closer and closer to the bush, attempting to get as close as possible without startling the butterfly in my lens’s focus. One afternoon I managed to capture, in my youthful opinion, one of my best shots yet: a pale yellow swallowtail butterfly in profile, delicately resting on a bright purple flower spike. I’ve since learned that this juxtaposition of complementary yellow and purple is particularly pleasing to our sensory perception of color. Back then, I just felt lucky to have gotten so close before the butterfly fluttered away.

Words by Erica Lange

For more information about our yarn bases and spinning fibers, including care instructions, please visit our Yarn Bases page.

Please note that, due to the nature of hand-dyed yarn, no two skeins of yarn will be exactly alike. I recommend alternating skeins every few rows for projects using multiple skeins of the same colorway. If you order multiple skeins of the same colorway, I will do my best to select skeins that are the closest match.

I dye each skein with professional acid dyes and leave the yarn in the dye bath until the dye has exhausted before rinsing and soaking in wool wash. Minor color bleeding may occur on the first wash, especially with extremely dark colors.

Although I do my best to accurately represent each colorway in product photos, please note that the colors may vary depending on monitor and/or device settings.