A rich brown blend of millspun angora fur & silk is joined by a strand of handpainted garnet red Bombyx silk from Lisa Souza.
Photographed while still in the skein, this blend of angora fur & merino wool from Lisa Souza is called Mesa, her interpretation of the colors of the American Southwest.
This is a collection of images that I've created by photographing my Pussy Caps up close using the macro setting on my digital camera.
Most of these pictures are lit only by a skylight while a few of them have had a fill light added.
Beyond the utility of Pussy Caps are these extraordinary yarns, many of which were created by women whose passion for what they do matches my own.
This is a fantasy - a journey on into the world of yarns and crocheting that we'd never get to see with our naked eyes.
Raccon fur & cashmere in their natural colors, handspun by Gayle Paige.
Raccoon fur & cashmere, buffalo & yak down, possum fur & merino and llama all working beautifully together here in this detail of my Roadkill Pussy Caps.
From the Noro yarnmakers of Japan comes this luscious, fuzzy blend of angora fur, silk & wool in a beautiful pallet of purples, lavenders, greens, greys and blues.
Looking down at the top of a Pussy Cap we see a smoky grey blend of alpaca & wool swirling with a wool & silk yarn in blues, teals and light greens.
Merino wool handpainted by Lisa Souza in shades of green and gold is joined by her handspun yak down in its natural grey. A strand of natural tan Peruvian alpaca rounds out this autumnal feast of colors.
Golden silk & mohair, millspun in Italy makes a shimmering, elegant trim for red millspun alpaca from Peru`
I'll concede that there's probably not too many guys, or gals either for that matter, that get as excited about a skein of yarn as I do. I guess I'm lucky then that I'm a photographer and can take some good pictures of the yarns and the caps before they move on and find a home with someone else.
The process of making and photographing my Pussy Caps has evolved a lot since I crocheted that first cap a couple of years ago. I've learned what yarns work well together and what size hooks work best for certain yarns. Figuring out the best way to photograph the caps has proved to be an adventure all its own that draws on more than 20 years of work as a professional photographer.
But this is a work in progress and things are constantly changing, both in the way I work with the yarns and in the way I photograph the caps they work up into. I enjoy all of it, from beginning to end and my passion for the process is what keeps me crocheting long past my bedtime.
It's all about the yarns.
Above is handpainted, handspun wool from Sandy Ryan's spinning wheel and her sheep named Double Trouble.
To your right is a detail of natural ivory llama yarn handspun by Marsha Berkemeier of Missouri. Accenting in pale pastels are angora fur and a tiny strand of cotton/rayon.
Pastels are still a challenge for me but with yarns like these it's getting easier to take them on and work with them.
Here we have merino wool, cashmere, angora fur, alpaca and wool in a sherbet inspired fantasy of corals, pinks, ivories and steely blues.
OK, so steely blue isn't something I'd want showing up in my sherbet, but here it makes for a nice contrast to the creamy pastels.
From the first shearing of a baby alpaca named Risa comes this rare and beautiful yarn in its natural reddish brown that was masterfully handspun in a thick/thin style by Lisa Souza.
I crocheted it on a smaller hook than I normally would have used, giving the yarn a lot of texture and thickness.
A baby alpaca is called a cria.
A beautiful blending of merino, silk, cashmere and lambswool in an elegant pallet of purples.
Natural tan baby camel down handspun by Kristen Worthington is coupled here with a blend of angora fur & baby suri alpaca that was handspun by Gayle Paige.
If I had the patience to crochet myself an afghan, this is probably what I'd use make it out of.
Can you feel the softness?
Rather than photographs, these are high resolution scans of Lisa Souza's Joseph's Coat cashmere yarn as it looked while it was still in the skein.
Even though the yarns look shiny and slick in these scans, they're really not that way at all. They're soft and smooth in the way that only cashmere is.
What is accurate here is the color and the way it showcases Lisa's masterful use of a wide-ranging pallet of colors that you wouldn't ordinarily see used together.
This downy soft angora fur yarn has already started to bloom, which means that some of the fibers have started to lift up from the yarn and create a halo effect around it.
Handpainted and handspun by Lisa Souza, this yarn is called Angora Dawn and is from Lisa's Rare Treasures Collection.
Olive Tones angora fur, handpainted and handspun by Lisa Souza for her Rare Treasures Collection.
Shimmering silver silk & glass beads are joined by superfine Peruvian alpaca in natural black, grey and white colors.
