We have loved getting to work with Peg and Amanda at Junction Fiber Mill over the past year, first in creating Sublime Skies for Rhinebeck 2024 and now, in developing a new colorway for us in 2025. For our 20th Anniversary, we wanted to celebrate some of our favorite shades, namely that exquisitely nuanced range between green and purple. (Purple is our favorite! But human beings can see the most nuances in shades of blue and green.)
It's easy to look at these colors and say 'ooh, peacock! ooh, mermaid!'... but it's not the whole story. When we got the email from the Junction team that our yarn was ready, together with a photo, there was such an exuberance of rich, swirling color in the untwisted skeins that it made me think of something else -- the arresting, mind-bending art of San Francisco's psychedelic concert posters of the 1960s and 70s.
The visuals borrowed from Art Nouveau (another short-lived style I love) and the inventive hand lettering required the viewer to slow down and read carefully, immersing themselves in the experience, much like the concerts themselves.
I thought about how the colors would emerge as you knit or crochet, one blending into the next, and Psychedelic came to be a good fit.
We also thought about how we wanted to use this colorway - and what kinds of colors would contrast well with it. It can be so frustrating to choose a beautiful colorway and then have difficulties using it in colorwork because the yarn has a sudden light or dark area that would lose definition against your chosen contrast color.
We've mostly paired Psychedelic with light colors in Killington to offset the richness of the Junction Fiber Mill yarn, but it is also not too dark to pop against navy and black.
Patterns shown:
Rolling Along, Helen Cosgrove-Davies
Shot Through the Heart, Ivy Campbell
High-Rise Cowl, Babs Ausherman
Deco Stripes, Veronica Ory
Columbia River Cowl, Kay Hopkins
Each skein of Psychedelic is unique, and we can't wait to see what you create with this special yarn!