I'm Your Huckleberry Club now open

After a brief hiatus due to my summer schedule, the I'm Your Huckleberry Club is open again! When designing it, I thought about what I'd personally like in a club, and at the top of the list was flexibility. So you'll find lots of choices--which colorway you want, what kind of yarn or fiber you want, and how you want to pay for it--in this club. It's your yarn, your way.

Here are the details for the club:

• Each shipment will have two colorway options, a variegated and a semi-solid (which will usually coordinate with the variegated option).

• Shipment will be one skein of yarn or braid of fiber of either colorway, plus the option to choose additional skeins of either colorway.
  
  
• You can choose from 3-6 base yarns or 2-4 base fibers, which will vary with each installment. For simplicity, the clubs are listed below as either yarn or fiber, but you can switch back and forth each month, and I will adjust your credit balance/amount owed accordingly.
  
  
• No patterns or other non-fiber items. I’d rather keep prices lower instead of including swag that people might not want.
  
  
• Shipments will be every other month, with an initial subscription period of 6 months. This comes to a total of 3 skeins/braids over six months.
  
  
• Billing can either be per individual installment, or a total upfront for a discount. Additional skeins will be billed separately if you choose the upfront option.

The yarn club selections will generally be new colorways, although I may offer existing colorways for the semi-solid option.

The first shipment will be in late August 2012.

Even More Options
If you would like any of the following options, you may select them below.

1. Pay for your six-month membership all at once, for a discount of approximately 10% (rounded to the nearest dollar).
2. Upgrade to a luxury base (an additional $5 per month). For fiber, there is also an ultra-luxe option (an additional $10/month). Luxury options will include wool/cashmere and wool/silk blends; ultra-luxe includes either a higher percentage of silk or more exotic fibers such as camel and yak. You can also choose to upgrade/downgrade your base at the time that colorway selections are sent out.
3. Ship to a destination other than the U.S. or Canada.

If you wish to purchase more than one skein or braid per shipment, you will have that option after seeing the colorways for that shipment. You'll be billed separately at a later time.

Signups are open through the night of Monday, August 6, or until the maximum number of club members has been reached, whichever comes first. PLEASE NOTE: If you live in Washington state and choose to pay in installments, I will need to manually alter your subscription to include sales tax for all three installments, because PayPal doesn't automatically add sales tax to subscription payments.

For the first time, I will be selling the club memberships on my blog, so let's see if I can get all these buttons right. Flexibility means a LOT of buttons--sorry about that!

EDIT: Signups are now closed. Welcome to all the new members!

Yarn Club

Yarn club, payment in full

standard base, US shipping: $73.00 USD standard base, Canadian shipping: $77.00 USD standard base, international shipping: $86.00 USD luxury base, US shipping: $86.00 USD luxury base, Canadian shipping: $90.00 USD luxury base, international shipping: $100.00 USD

Yarn club, standard base, US shipping, 3 installments of $27

 

Yarn club, standard base, Canadian shipping, 3 installments of $28.25

 

Yarn club, standard base, international shipping, 3 installments of $31.50

 

Yarn club, luxury base, US shipping, 3 installments of $32

 

Yarn club, luxury base, Canadian shipping, 3 installments of $33.25

 

Yarn club, luxury base, international shipping, 3 installments of $36.50

 

Fiber Club

Fiber club, payment in full

standard base, US shipping: $57.00 USD standard base, Canadian shipping: $60.00 USD standard base, international shipping: $70.00 USD luxury base, US shipping: $70.00 USD luxury base, Canadian shipping: $74.00 USD luxury base, international shipping: $84.00 USD ultra-luxe base, US shipping: $84.00 USD ultra-luxe base, Canadian shipping: $87.00 USD ultra-luxe base, international shipping: $97.00 USD

 

Fiber club, standard base, US shipping, 3 installments of $21

 

Fiber club, standard base, Canadian shipping, 3 installments of $22.25

 

Fiber club, standard base, international shipping, 3 installments of $25.50

 

Fiber club, luxury base, US shipping, 3 installments of $26

 

Fiber club, luxury base, Canadian shipping, 3 installments of $27.25

Fiber club, luxury base, international shipping, 3 installments of $30.50

Fiber club, ultra-luxe base, US shipping, 3 installments of $31

Fiber club, ultra-luxe base, Canadian shipping, 3 installments of $32.25

Fiber club, ultra-luxe base, international shipping, 3 installments of $35.50

Summer of Fiber Fortune: week #5

I've had at least one winner every week, which is very cool! Maybe this week you'll be one of them?


This week’s winning numbers are:

10% discount: 25

free shipping: 38

$5 discount: 23

After endless days, I finally got through my 2 oz batt that I've been spinning into laceweight. It's terrible yarn because I kept waffling between "it needs to be thinner" and "I hate how this is turning out, so I need to spin it thicker to get it over with." Plying was the most tedious experience ever. Ugh.

But now I'm on to my Sally Bill roving. I was a little regretful when I first got it back from the processor because I thought I should have processed it by hand to separate out and maintain the interesting variegation in colors. But when I started spinning it, the charcoal and caramel started peeping through the silver in the singles. Love it. I'm intending to do a 3-ply in a DK weight. I'm spinning it woolen-ish--backward draw of about 3", but with little to no twist in the fiber supply. It is going so fast--I've spun about 4 oz after two nights of spinning, which is super speedy for me.

Summer of Fiber Fortune: winning numbers for week #4

Sorry I'm late this week. This week’s winning numbers are:

10% discount: 76

free shipping: 72

$5 discount: 78

Busy wrapping up a wholesale order and developing new apple colorways. I belong to a group of artisans called Universal Mama, and our August theme is apples. Right up my alley!

Summer of Fiber Fortune, and BSG recap

Oops, I posted this on my Ravelry group but forgot to also post here. This week’s winning numbers are:

10% discount: 4

free shipping: 36

$5 discount: 90

Kiddo's summer camp schedule didn't start till this week, so I took a sort-of vacation from dyeing the two weeks after BSG. I reorganized the yarn storage/winding room, sorted through my dye jars (why on earth did I have five jars of fuchsia, two of which have never been opened?), and started sales analysis. The sadly-neglected house got some attention, too: I purged my closets, we all got rid of stacks and stacks of books, and the garage got a major overhaul. It's amazing how my mind feels less cluttered, too.

Speaking of BSG, here are some photos:


My booth, the yarn side



The fiber side(s)

 

A gorgeous parasol that Maiya made from some BFL/silk lace that she got from me last year. Isn't it stunning?

 

BSG was wonderful, as usual. The organizers always ensure a smoothly running show. And this year, I had rock star helpers who made my weekend completely stress-free. Kathy, Alexis and Val did a fantastic job with setup. And Alison spent most of the show helping me out in my booth, writing up sales and answering spinning questions. At breakdown time, Kathy, Alexis, and Alison got me out the door in a record 40 minutes. (Though I squandered my time savings by getting on the highway in the wrong direction after filling up my car at Costco, boo.) Thank you all so, so much!

This was my third year, and the vendor and customer friends that I've made are a huge part of what I love about it. I feel like the other vendors are basically my co-workers, and the ones who feel the same way and share their knowledge and stories really enhance the sense of community that fiber shows tend to have. Before I started doing shows, I wouldn't have guessed how much I would look forward to seeing my vendor friends on the circuit.

It was pretty soggy for most of the weekend (I was so happy that I got an indoor booth this year) and the Olympic track and field trials had incited most hotels to do a bit of price gouging, so turnout was noticeably lower than usual. Some of my vendor friends also commented that people were buying less per purchase, as well. My own sales went up a bit this year, so I am really grateful to everyone who visited my booth. Thank you for giving into temptation!

Summer of Fiber Fortune: winning numbers for week #2

This week's winning numbers are:

10% discount: 71

free shipping: 8

$5 discount: 30

I've changed my comment settings for the summer, so you won't need a Blogger account to post here. :)

news flash: you don't have to be white to be an American

This weekend, we went camping with the in-laws. This is normally pretty fun. We were at a lovely place, Lake Wenatchee State Park, the weather was cooperative, and our neighbors were mostly quiet.

But on Saturday night, I had the most enraging conversation that I've had in quite a while. My sister-in-law's 15-year-old stepson said something about all the "foreigners" at the campground.

Slightly unable to believe what I was hearing, I said, "What do you mean, the Canadians?"

"What? You haven't noticed all the Indians, and how they all talk in their funny language?" And he started to make some sounds that apparently he thought sounded like ones heard on the Indian sub-continent.

My blood started to boil. "Just because they're not white, doesn't mean they're not Americans," I said flatly.

"Well, yeah, it kind of does."

Full boil. I leaned over and stared at him. "You want to look me in the face and say that again?"

He stammered, "Um, well, you kind of look white to me."

Dear god. I have not been smacked in the face with such stupidity in a long, long time. I said with a certain amount of disgust, "Just keep digging yourself a deeper hole," and said nothing else to him for the rest of the evening.

He's just a kid and I certainly don't blame him for all the racial problems in this country. Hopefully he was a little shaken up and will do some thinking about his assumptions. Maybe he'll eventually realize that white does not equate better (though of course I am ever so grateful that he thinks of me as white) and that not all true Americans have to have the same color skin that he does.

But I'm pretty sure it was the first time that my son, now 7, has heard the news that white people are better than others. That some people will look at him and only see the color of his skin. And once they've neatly labeled him as Asian (when he is only half), they will then stick him in the foreign/outsider box.

(Digression: this is pretty similar to how many people look at President Obama and never see the white half, just the black half of his parentage.)

Despite being born in this country and speaking English more correctly and precisely than the average America--this grammar nerd's dog does not respond to "lay down," only "lie down"--a fair number of people will take one look at me and assume I am from elsewhere. I thought people were getting less ignorant, though. This exchange used to be pretty common when I was in my twenties:

"Where are you from?"

"Olympia." (where I was living at the time)

"No, I mean originally?"

"Massachusetts."

"No, where are you really from?"

I once got this from an African American man. I said, "Do you know where in Africa you're 'originally' from?" He half-laughed and said, "Of course not. I'm from here." Um, well, why don't you think I'm from "here"?

So really, this is nothing new. It's just that most people don't tell me to my face that I'm not white enough to be an American.

This week, my country celebrates the anniversary of our Declaration of Independence. It seems as good a time as any, and better than most, to think about what makes us Americans--and it sure as hell isn't the color of our skin.