Calling all weavers

Calling all weavers! There is a new club looming on the horizon. One just for those who love your rigid heddle. Keep an eye on the shop, sign up for the newsletter or the Ravelry group to be the first to know all the woolly details. Don't get the shaft and miss out. Sign ups to begin after the first of the year.

So many new yarns and they just keep multiplying. In the past month we have added a new squoshy Sockingbird - just dreamy for socks. A springy Sportmagundi, this one was featured in Hunter's latest (and greatest IMHO) pattern Sybaritic. Then there is a luscious Thickerbocker absolutely perfect for those winter scarves. AND two completely born and made in the USA the single-ply Annabel DK and Aran of Green Gables. We've been having some crazy dyeing fun! But I'm just getting warmed up.

I'm happy to be able to say that moving forward - all colorways will be available in all bases and will be repeatable. In the beginning I thought that dyeing by the seat of my pants would insure creative juices flowing. I've since learned that where that might be fine for me - its not so good for others who want to work with me and my yarns. And since I firmly believe that fiber arts are all about stitching together people to knit up some fun - it was an easy change to tackle.

Here are most of the new colors (Brumalia and Yule are missing, sorry about that) that have been added in the past month. This months theme is Solstice and winter festivals. Enjoy!

Playing pickup

After knitting like a fiend for Sock Summit I find myself with a ton of little balls of leftovers. Enter the Panda Fan shawl. Perfect to use up little bits of this and that. And its not a tough as it looks - just keep your row counter handy. I've incorporated everything from fingering to worsted here (all on the same needle size) and it seems fine so far. (fingers crossed) Probably the biggest challenge for me is picking up all those stitches at the beginning of each scallop - after that the knitting is easy peasy.

And for exhibit #2 - what was supposed to be a cozy/cover but turned out too big. A quick little bit of domino diamonds - another fun way to use up bits and bobs.

Black Friday Sale

Everything on sale - today only! Don't miss out!

New Pattern!

Hunter has out done herself with her new Sybaritic sock pattern. I don't know how she does it - seriously look at that leafy lacy wrap around goodness! Just. WOW! I'm so thrilled that she used my Moby DK for this pattern, unfortunately the base for that yarn was rather suddenly discontinued. But never fear - I found a scrumptious sproingy replacement. Its called Sportmagundi and I dyed Saturnalia to match the Apple colorway she used in this wonderful sock. As a bonus, these skeins are even bigger than the Moby DK - more yarn for your buck. =)

Pop over and check out Hunter's pattern (and giveaway...hint hint) and check out the new yarn going up all week!

New Shop!

Some big changes coming to the shop!

My dear friend made a kick ass new logo that I just love! So I'm plastering it all over everything yarn. LOL Which of course means that the shop needed a face lift - and some re-org. There are gobs of yarn on sale - don't miss out on this sale!

If you pop over you may notice that there are some new buttons and tons of new yarns coming soon. I know its been quiet as of late. I've been busy scouring the country - literally - in search of USA mills that spin with USA wool. As a huge fan of 'voting with my dollars' I decided that our nations textile industry is valuable to me and I want to help save it. After all, wool trade was one of the catalyst to the USA's declaration of independence from Britain. More and more mills are hosting yarns made of USA wool and its amazing! Lets send our domestic shepherds and mills the support they deserve and keep our nations yarn spinning.

If you can't do - teach

Well I'd better stick to doing, cause I sure can't teach. My spinning group asked me to give a 'program' on product photography with the intention that my lovely spinning friends would be able to take nice shots of their wonderful work. Don't get me wrong, we had a great time and I was able to answer some really insightful questions. I think what really hung me was how do you instruct the procedure for taking a 'good' photograph? If there is enough light and the subject is in the frame - is it a good photograph? How do you teach someone to find their voice with a camera? While pondering these mysteries I stood up there feeling like Wanda Sykes yelling, "Look at it". Even so, everyone seemed to have a good time, and I got to break out the spongebobs. So not a complete waste. =)

Yarnscape

Sit back and get lost in the yarny goodness.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled crazy. :-p