The Pacablogger

I received my Winter 2009/2010 issue of Wild Fibers Magazine in the mail yesterday. For those unfamiliar with Wild Fibers, it’s a cross between National Geographic and all the Interweave Press fiber arts magazines. Imagine if your unquenchable thirst for fiber arts knowledge took you around the world – that would be this magazine. So even though I can’t be the one to tread across the Gobi or clamber with cashmere goats, I can experience the thrill vicariously through the intrepid editor, Linda Cortright.

Last night, after reading the current issue, I dreamed of red and green alpacas. And before you wonder exactly what I was tipping down my throat at dinner time, let me explain. There was an article, called Never Say Dye, about the decades-spanning research and perseverance of a cotton “breeder” in California, Sally Fox. Against all naysayers and opponents in the cotton industry, she has developed organic colored cotton offered through her company Foxfibre Cotton Textiles. With meticulous seed selection through multiple generations, she’s segregated the brown cotton plant into subcomponent colors of green, red, and pink, while overcoming the short staple length issues inherent in the colored cotton strains. And although that may seem a rather modest color selection compared to the numerous shades we achieve with alpacas, it set my brain racing.

If you know a bit of color theory (which is all I can lay claim to), you know that all colors are composed of the three primary ones: red, yellow, and blue (RYB). White is the absence of color and black is the combination of all three. In the printing process, this translates to cyan, yellow, and magenta (CMY) plus usage of black by default (CMYK). We know we have red and yellow in alpaca colors but what about blue? If we have true black alpacas, does that mean we also have blue as well? And is it at all possible to extract these colors in their pure primary hues?

By now, I’m guessing any geneticist would be laughing. But I can’t help but feel inspired by Sally Fox’s story. The other cotton growers told her colored quality cotton was impossible and she persevered. Her vision became reality through sheer determination. So I’m letting my imagination run wild…I’m picturing alpacas categorized in 50 colors. I’m loving the idea of discarding my odiferous dyes and dedicated dye pots and knitting in the full spectrum of color. And dreaming of red, yellow, and blue alpacas.