The White Rabbit (or a late giveaway)

I'm late, I'm late! But I promise this is worth it. I got back from Seattle on Friday and my age is showing because it took until today to recuperate. I'm going to post tomorrow with my trip shenanigans but I want to get to this month's giveaway before it's even later because I think it's AWESOME.

It has to do with this:

This is a case of the Arctic Hare base, to be specific 110sk of it.

The reason this is significant is that it is the new Arctic Hare base. For those in the "know", I use Kraemer Sterling for my Arctic Hare base. Kraemer recently decided to replace the silver fiber they were using with a silver colored polyester fiber. The price of silver has been fluctuating wildly, and going up and up for so many months that the producer of the special silver fiber could no longer guarantee it. Thus the switch to this poly fiber. This means that production of the yarn should be more timely and they can keep the price the same rather than raising it to reflect the increase in wool, silk, and silver prices.

So yes, the Arctic Hare dyed in September 2011 and earlier is all the old base with the real silver. All the Arctic Hare I will be dyeing this month and onward will have the 2% silver replaced with 2% silver colored polyester. The rest of the fiber content remains the same.

What does this mean for this giveaway? Well, I need to test it out. I have a few underweight skeins of the previous blend left, and I have this whole case of the new blend. You see where this is going, right? I need to dye up several batches to see how they compare. And then I want to give some away so people can see if it's just as beautiful as the old base. I think it will be, but there's nothing like holding it your hands and working with it.

So here's what I'm going to do. I am giving away AT LEAST 1 skein here, and 1 skein in my Rav group. They'll be about 101g, so borderline and not quite underweight but not quite the safe margin I like.

What I would like YOU to do to enter this drawing is comment here (or in my Rav group) with ONE colorway suggestion for this new base (one per location, so if you have two ideas you can double your chances by posting one here and one in my Rav group). You can describe it verbally, or you can link to a picture, etc. Give it a name, and post it any time through October 8th. On October 9th I'll draw a winner for the yarn. I haven't dyed it yet, but it will probably be in Starry Night or Frou Frou, or some other established colorway as yet undetermined. I'll be dyeing it up this week, you see.

Meanwhile, if I pick your colorway idea to dye up in next week's batches, I'll send you a skein of it once it's dyed up. What do you think? I think this is pretty nifty myself. I'm going to say at this point that I will pick at least 1 and no more than 2 of the colorway ideas I get, because I do need to cap this. But I think it's awesome nonetheless. And I'll add here that it's impossible to win more than one skein, just so we spread the wealth a little. So I'll pick the colorway idea(s) I'll use, and then pick the random drawing winners from the remaining entries.

You know you want to do it, right? Have at it, people! And here is the Rav group post if you want to double your chances.

Oh, and don't forget to leave a way to contact you if necessary, Ravelry username is sufficient if your post doesn't link back to your blog, etc.

Yegads! (an anniversary video and a giveaway)

It's been another year! This is the second anniversary of my little shop and I've decided to mark this one by giving up some "secrets". OK, they weren't all that secret, but it sounds more interesting if I say they were.

The colorway that won the poll was Nebula, but since I had several pots going, I also included the runners up Red Desert and Purple Peacock. This is how the finished colorways look:

From left to right: Nebula, Purple Peacock, Red Desert, and a new colorway as yet unnamed that shows up at the end of the video. These are actual skeins dyed up in the video

I taped several hours of dyeing on Saturday and then clipped it down to a scant 30min. I hope it's interesting; I tried to be succinct but that's never been my strong point! *nibbles fingernails nervously*



And, since this is the first of the month I have a giveaway! I am giving away a skein of the Nebula that I dyed up in the video. I have two skeins that are on the cusp of underweight, hovering right at 100g. So I'm offering one up here and one up in my Ravelry group. Yes, one of these could be yours!

It's the Arctic Hare base, which is a sock/fingering weight yarn with superwash merino/nylon/silk/and real silver for that added glitz. It's very soft and perfect for much more than socks.

To enter this giveaway, just comment here. If you link to this giveaway in any other social networking venues (blog, twitter, FB, etc) mention it in your comment and each will count as another entry. I'll leave this one open through June 7th and select a random winner on June 8th. And yes, as always you can double dip with the Ravelry group to increase your chances as well. Just be sure to check back on June 8th or leave me some way to reach you if you win, Ravelry or twitter username is sufficient.

I'd love to hear what you think about the video and the colorways. These aren't in the shop yet because it's disgustingly, unseasonably hot out, but I hope to take pictures and get them listed before the week is out. I have a bunch of new colorways to go up as well and there's still a bit of a backlog from the winter, so there's plenty to keep my busy.

Keep cool and thanks for a great second year! I have high hopes for Year Three!

Pro-crastination

At least I'm a pro. :P

Before I get into the why of all this procrastination, one very exciting thing and one fun thing. First off the exciting thing; my yarn was recommended in the Knitcircus Holiday edition gift guide on page 15.  It looks rather lovely with all those other beautiful yarns, I think.  And if you didn't see it when it came out, two of my colorways were used in a gorgeous sock pattern in the Fall 2010 edition, as well (pgs 70-71 and 90-91). They happen to be two of my favorite colorways, too.

Secondly, the fun thing. There's a gallery of pictures from the festival over at MyCentralJersey.com. Most of the shops I purchased from are pictured in some way, at least the fiber shops. Here's a closer-up of the handspun angora plied with beaded silk which I bought. And the two giant vintage buttons that I adore.  The angora shop was pictured, but the button shop was not.


Anyway, on to the procrastination. :P I'm feeling a little attenuated and blocked. It could be post festival blahs, but I think it's mostly because I want to play with the new fiber and my continued lack of netting means I can't. I went to every shop in the area that might have had it, and none of them did. So now I've ordered some and I'm waiting impatiently for it to arrive. Really, I should have got into the car and made the trek to Fabricland. It would have been a drive, but I would have my netting!

Better late than

I meant to do this yesterday, but it was the last push to get everything dyed in time to dry for Saturday's festival and I never managed to do so. But I'm here today! (Cannily avoiding inventory and labeling, too.) And I get to announce that Random.org picked cthulhulovesme to win the giveaway of lovely LylianMae Fiber Arts fiber.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I did a quick test of my new booth setup today and this is how my wall o'yarn looks.


It's most but not quite all of the yarn. The laceweight is still drying and there are some odds and ends lurking in a box that I haven't excavated yet.

Those are my giant homemade needles on the table in front of the yarn. I decided that the roving was thin enough to knit with straight and so I'm going to make a scarf with some that got a wee bit felted.

I also have a card table to lay out the samples I've made and such. And since I'm in the booth alone this year I'll be bringing some extra chairs so people can relax. There was a definite lack of indoor seating last year so I think it'll be good. I'm leaving the dress form home this year, though. I didn't dye up any more of the colorway I used in the shawl so I don't feel right displaying it quite so prominently.

Oy, OK it's time for me to catch the rabbit and put him away and then I need to finish this inventory. One more day!

Stuff!

I'm a bit swamped right now but I wanted to pop up a post to say that KnittinK and I were accepted to the Boston Bazaar Bizarre in Boston for their Winter Fair.

I'm very excited about this. It's the first festival of its sort that I'll have done, and it's supposed to have great vendors and amazing attendance. This also means I get to go up to Boston and see friends! And, since I poked around with setup today, I realized I can get everything I need into my little car with the gps. So I won't get lost! For me, not getting incurably lost is a requirement for having a good time.

So we will be in Boston on Dec 5th between noon at 7pm at the Cyclorama with much yarn and fibery goodness. If you're in the area, stop by and say 'hello'! :D

Meanwhile, I'm still in the throes of a big update. It's going very slowly as I've proved to be extremely distractable. Also, I took the pictures for these listings over the course of 5 days, so sometimes finding the correct one takes a bit of doing. I realized I had 4 whole colorways (12sk of yarn) that I'd completely neglected to do because I thought I'd already done them *facepalm* So yeah, I'm working on it.

Here are two of my unexpected favorite colorways from July, though. I liked them out of the pot, but they've really grown on me as I've looked at them more and more.


These are Coffee Cup and Asphalt Jungle.

The lighter color on Coffee Cup isn't white. It's actually the palest of pale minty blue. And Asphalt Jungle reminds me of the colors of the movie posters for The Asphalt Jungle. But aside from matching those black and white with splashes of color posters really well, I think it will work up beautifully in a project, with the predominance of the grey.

OK, off back to the Gimp mines. I have something like 43sk of yarn with pictures still to edit. *facepalm* Gimp waits for no one! Or, well it waits, but it doesn't do anything while it's waiting, more's the pity!

Shop update and a note on prices.

The number of times I have to retake pictures because the color temperature is off is really starting to annoy me. I have to retake some pictures this weekend, while I try to finally get all the skeins I dyed in July listed. This, so I can dye up more this week and then list them. I have a lot to dye up before the Garden State Sheep Breeders festival in September (Sept 11 & 12, in Ringoes, NJ).

Additionally, I wanted to give everyone a heads up that my prices are changing. My yarn costs went up considerably in March and sadly, absorbing the difference has become impossible. So a month from now, on Sept 13, I'm going to raise all my yarn prices 6%. For example, Jackalope and March Hare are both going from $18.80 up to $19.95.

I'll be taking all the yarn to the festival in September and vending there with the old prices. The shop will be empty of yarn for the weekend. Then, all the stock returned to the etsy shop on Sept 13, the Monday, will have the new prices. Meanwhile, I do intend to stock the shop as full as I can before the festival so there will be plenty of selection at the current prices.

Please do ask any questions you may have. It's always an uncomfortable sort of thing to have to raise prices, but I'd rather not spring it on people unannounced. This way, it's like a long sale.


Phatfiber colorways, clockwise from the upper left: Red Desert, lapis lazuli and brass widgets, Agate, and Papyrus.  Image links to the shop.

The theme this month was Africa, and these were some of what I contributed.

Dye lots

First things first, I get to announce the winner of August 1 Giveaway! There was a lot of fun discussion of favorite cartoon characters, and I was reminded of a lot I'd forgotten. But, on to the winner!

Random.org has chosen Nephnie to receive the skein of Jackrabbit in the Red Desert colorway. Congratulations, Nephnie!


Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I've been pondering dye lots and my ability to reproduce colorways. Mostly because I had a batch of Heirloom Tomatoes come out nothing at all like the past versions. And I've noticed this with certain of my older recipes from last year; they're not working out quite the same. It's a bit disconcerting.

However, I have pretty good success with current colorways.


These are two batches each of Starry Night and Long Walk laid out on foamcore boards. I could have arranged Long Walk slightly better to demonstrate the interval, but I think it's still clear that these are essentially the same colorways, despite the inevitable differences. The biggest difference between the two batches of Starry Night is where the yellow intervals occur, and that has to do with how I tied the skeins before they went into the pot. They tend to match within a batch, and be wildly different between lots. And that makes sense since I try and make them match when I'm dyeing the batch, but I don't have the previous batch to reference.

I think what's happening is that the variables are greater when there's 9 months between this time dyeing a colorway and that time dyeing a colorway. The way I mix the dye stock is a little different, the dye lots on several of my dye powders has changed, and then there are the innumerable differences in temperature, acidity, and even invisible differences in the base yarn.

It is a little frustrating, however, to have a recipe that worked time and again and then stops working. Luckily, it's very difficult to have something that's completely disastrous. Even if it's not the original intended colorway, something beautiful is possible.

A Gulf fundraiser

A bunch of us have donated goodies to a Gulf fundraiser box that Jessie of the Phatfiber box has been coordinating. It's a big, beautiful box of spinning fiber, yarn, gift certificates, cards and stitch markers, a shawl pin, and Jessie has even included a shawlette she designed and knit. Donations should be sent to Audubon.org, each $5 increment counts as an entry in the drawing. For specifics on how to enter the drawing and to take a look at the box contents, visit Gulf superbox!


My contribution is a skein of the Jackalope base in the colorway Butterflyfish. Butterflyfish are mostly tropical reef fish and many have bright coloration. I really love how cheerful this colorway is.



I really recommend taking a look over at the Gulf superbox post. And if you can, please consider donating to Audubon.org.

Summer is for ice cream

The winner of the first Ice Cream Social giveaway is Renee G.! A bunch of fun and interesting stories came of it, and I had a really good time reading the responses. I highly recommend reading through them! Some are laugh out loud hilarious.

The next giveaway is scheduled for July 1, and is something I hope you'll all enjoy. A bit of pampering for hard working hands is what I'll leave it at for now. :)

Meanwhile, here's another little teaser of what I've been dyeing up.

The colorway in the middle is a new one I call Starry Night. I love how it came out. It's realized what I wanted to achieve more beautifully than I had anticipated, and I'm debating attempting it in a different base.

I'm pretty strict about not crossing Jackalope and Jackrabbit colorways. The different bases all take dye differently, so it's very unpredictable moving a colorway between bases. Still, I love love love it, and all I can think is how the heavier texture and brighter sheen of the Jackrabbit base would be more suggestive of oil paint than the Jackalope it's currently presented in. So, we'll see. Perhaps if I have a few skeins left undyed at the end of the next big push.

In other things entirely, today is Father's Day and we had a pancake lunch with hot smoked salmon and assorted tasties. More and a pancake recipe after the jump.

Ouch, that's hot!

I need a new pair of insulated gloves. There's nothing quite like handling hot yarn and having that creeping certainty that very shortly one will want to dance about going "OW OW OW!!!". Still, it's not bad for nearly a year. They're still usable, just not so great for protecting my hands from boiling water anymore!

I thought I'd show some in progress pictures of my yarn today, since I'm in the middle of dyeing up yarn for June/July. But first up, a reminder that the Ice Cream Social giveaway is still open and will be so through tomorrow. I'll pick someone out of a hat on Sunday. C'mon, you know you want it. It's free ice cream!

Also, I'm in another Treasury. Americana Cat in various fun shades of red, white, and blue.

Now, on to the yarny goodness!

Mmm, the smell of hot wool and vinegar....

These are 3 of my crockpots, in the middle of the dye process. I usually dye three 100-114g skeins or two 170g skeins at a time. That's the most I can fit into the pots and still get results I like.

Wind wind wind print print print

I'm completely off schedule due to the great zombie invasion. But I managed to dye up some yarn yesterday and I'm pretty satisfied with the new offerings. Today and the weekend is all about getting my samples for May's Phatfiber box ready, since I'm a week behind schedule. I'm also trying to get 2mos done instead of just one. We'll see how sleep deprived I am by the end of it.


Left to Right: Colonial Day; Kobol; Titania; Peasblossom; Bottom

Given that I have a scarf to finish knitting by Sunday, I'm a little frazzled.

Meanwhile, Etsy appears to be back to functioning. *crosses fingers* It was messed up for days for people in the Northeast US, not even counting how many of the hacks that I rely on being broken. But it appears to be working again. Which means after I get this lot of samples done, I really need to get my April yarn up in the shop.

The yarn mines

So many things to update, so little time. It is a basic conundrum that the more things there are to blog the less time one has to do so.

Friday and Saturday were spent in the yarn mines. My family doesn't do Easter, but I have some colorful "eggs" nonetheless. I put each batch of yarn in a bag and steam it for half an hour before rinsing. This way I can be certain that everything gets hot enough to set the dye since crockpots can be a little uneven. I reuse the bags until they spring a leak.

I realized upon looking at the first set that my personal preference for green really came out with a vengeance. I tried to subvert it into other colors on Saturday but, well, it didn't work. I went blue, but even the blue is rather green.