Some of you may have wondered, “What is October Country?” when you saw the sudden announcement. 💦This color was actually the second shade I ever created when starting White Bear Linens.
Inspired by the rich depth and quiet strength of Lakeside Linens’ “Autumn Gold,” I set out to create a deep brown that carries character and backbone, yet remains easy to use for samplers.
At the time, however, dyeing a darker shade felt truly intimidating.
As I immersed the linen in the dye bath and slowly raised the temperature, I would watch it grow deeper and deeper in color — and sometimes, I grew nervous and lifted it out too soon.
This was also a color that proved especially difficult to achieve exactly as I envisioned.
During all the trial and error, the number of test pieces quietly grew into a small mountain… 💦
In the early days, I often included those samples as little extras, so some of you may have first encountered this color that way. ☺️
Before long, the dye manufacturer I had been working with decided to withdraw from the dye business.I now use dyes from a different company.
Thanks to the kindness of the company I work with, I was able to receive a new color recipe using the new dyes. However, with hand-dyeing, it is extremely difficult to reproduce exactly the same shade using dyes from a different manufacturer.
To begin with, October Country was a color I had never quite felt I had fully perfected — never truly arriving at that “This is it!” moment.
And so, I made the decision to bring this chapter to a close.
The shades I currently have on hand — the lighter tone (Light) and the deeper tone (Deep) — are still colors I truly love.I find them beautiful, and I would be delighted to see them in the hands of fellow stitching enthusiasts. For that reason, I have decided to offer them at half the usual price.
I’ve titled it “The Last Leaf Fair.” ✨
I would be so happy if you chose October Country as the base for your next stitching project.
That said, I cannot quite let this color go.
I do intend to dye it again in the future, and when I do, it will likely be closer to the deeper shade (Deep) offered this time.
It would be my honor if you might look forward to that day as well.
You can find “The Last Leaf Fair” under its dedicated category on the website, and there is also a link on the shop’s homepage. I hope you’ll enjoy browsing.