a new retailer

My yarns will be debuting at a brand new retailer, Pulling at Strings, owned and operated by my friend Jenn. She’s celebrating her grand opening this Saturday, October 31, with some fun contests, so be sure to check it out!

Also, I’ve donated two items for a fundraiser for two charities that have been supporting a friend through the loss of her full-term baby. One item is a skein of hand-dyed Licorice Twist, a DK/light worsted yarn with a ply that takes dye more vividly, creating a cool marled effect. The other item is a pair of longies (baby pants) with my flowering plum embellishment. With the purchase of a $2 ticket, you’ll receive a PDF with some fun craft ideas, and will be entered into a drawing for the item.

I also have another retailer announcement coming up in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

just a few more to go

I have just 17 skeins to go, and I'll be finished with my current wholesale order. Well, dyeing it, anyway. Still need to do a little reskeining of the really tangled hanks, and all the labeling. My husband accidentally threw one of the skeins in with the laundry today, requiring a redye (argh! yes, it's superwash, but the results after heavy agitation aren't pretty) so I think I can get him to help me with the labeling. He owes me.

My yarns will be debuting with two retailers over the next few weeks, so in preparation I've started a Ravelry group for my yarns and fibers. I'm kicking it off with a knit-along and contest. Make a project with my yarn (or spin some of my fiber), complete it by December 31, post it in my group, and get entered into a random drawing for a store credit worth $20. Get cracking!

fiber show tonight and tomorrow

I dropped off some yarn this morning for the Whatcom Weavers Guild's Fibers and Beyond show. This will be my second year doing the show. I was a little surprised by how well my sock yarn sold last year, so I brought a bunch of my Willow BFL sock yarn and Cascara merino/cashmere/nylon sport, plus some silk/merino, Targhee and BFL spinning fiber, and a few other random things. It's marked down a bit as I have some plans for new colorways and sock clubs, and I'd really like to clear out some storage space.

I'm working the floor tonight, which I'm excited about because I'll get to see all the goodies early. When I was there, there was already a rack of handspun and three giant baskets of gorgeously dyed fiber. I saw a woman with a pile of vivid felted wall hangings getting checked in. And the weaving! Oh my, the weaving. We have some brilliant weavers in the guild.

I love how pretty the show floor is, too. There are some people with a real knack for display and merchandising, and every year it gets more and more polished looking.

I love what I do!

Today was an exceptionally good dyeing day. I was productive and efficient, I got more done than I realistically expected, and my perfectionist self could find nothing to complain about. And the feedback from the Winesap pre-orders started coming in, with the kind of comments that make you all warm and fuzzy inside. I'm happy!

After a flurry of orders, I'm stocked back up with base yarns. Even the long-awaited silk and silver yarn turned up today. I really want to call this yarn Sparkle, but it doesn't fit in with my usual native plant names. I've already used Shooting Star for my superwash 100% merino sock yarn, or else that would be perfect. Alas.

This week I also got a brand new base yarn that I've been coveting for a while--a thick and thin BFL that will probably knit up on size 10 needles, so a quick knit. (I have a hard time saying no to acquiring new BFL lines.) It's even better than I expected--lovely texture, and never gets too thin the way some thick/thin yarns do. I'm caling it Madrona, after the native tree with the beautiful peeling bark. I'm itching to dye some up and get it on the needles. Probably a hat for me; I've been wearing a pretty ugly brown one that I got as a Christmas gift several years ago. It's comfortable, but it's not that warm (it's acrylic), doesn't match anything I own, and makes me look washed out. It's truly pathetic that I haven't made the time to make myself something as simple as a hat.

no sock club this fall

I had every intention of launching a sock club this fall. Then after Sock Summit, I acquired a lovely new exciting wholesale account. The first order, plus a small group order and the Winesap pre-order, have eaten up all my time and yarn storage space. After I finish with all those things, I've got another small group order and a different wholesale order for November and December. So no sock club until early next year, I'm afraid.

Mentally, I'm getting closer to leaving my day job and focusing on this. I'm penciling out the numbers and seeing if I can make it work. Kiddo and I recently lost insurance coverage through my husband's work, so now I'm paying for premiums out of pocket and it's eating up a fair amount of my take-home pay. But it's absolutely necessary, if only for peace of mind; due to paperwork snafus, we didn't have coverage for a month (though I know I could've applied retroactively for COBRA) and I was half-panicked the whole time.

Anyway. I'm risk-averse when it comes to finances, so taking the leap and depending on Huckleberry Knits for my living is a big mental and emotional barrier.

stocking on Thursday

A little bit of sock yarn and sport weight yarn is going up in my own store tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. ET:





And my congo, Venus Vanguard, is doing an Alice in Wonderland themed stocking this week. Items go live at 8 p.m. on Thursday night. If you like gorgeous hand-dyed velour, this is the place to be! I'm stocking some aran and bulky weights in new colorways, Queen of Hearts and Looking Glass.

belated but heartfelt gratitude

I'd thought this would be the first SS09 post I would write, but to my chagrin it's not. I hope my friends know how much I appreciate them.

I couldn't have gotten to Sock Summit without the help of my friends, who understood how important it was to me to "go big or go home," as Tina and Stephanie described it during the SS opening reception. (Wish I'd gone, in hindsight; it sounded like a pretty amazing event.)

Many, many thanks to Treva and Anne, who offered to watch my kiddo all day on several occasions so that I could dye yarn. It made such a huge difference to have that uninterrupted time.

And much gratitude to friend Nicolette, a weaver who used to do the craft show circuit, and who fully understands the effort it takes to make a career (or even a serious side business) out of handcrafting. She reskeined countless messy hanks of yarn, and labeled yarn for hours.

Love to Bridgett, who knitted my samples for me. She went above and beyond the call of duty to find patterns and knit socks that showed my yarn to its best advantage.

Thanks to my child, who loyally insisted that all my yarn was beautiful even when I thought it (and I) was a horrible failure.

I am so appreciative of my friends on the HC forums, who were cheerleaders from the beginning. And particular thanks to Denise, Diane, and Kimberly, who shared dyeing know-how and commiseration, and to Erika (on HC) and Erika (off HC) who encouraged me every step of the way.

The biggest THANK YOU goes to my husband, who whisked kiddo away for a long weekend so that I had four days of nonstop dyeing (I did about a quarter of my total skeins then), never complained about not seeing me for six nights out of seven, patiently wound yarn off cones, labeled yarn, and did far more than his fair share of housework and child rearing. No way could I have done Sock Summit without him. I've always known that marrying him was a pretty smart move, but every year I discover new reasons why it was a darned good idea.