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New Colour Friday!

As I sit down to write this I realize that we’ve had a whole bunch of newness this week.  We were able to print the sock club labels without a system reset for addresses USPS didn’t like. If you ship anything in bulk you know how great this is.

We got through our first shipment of the year with no snow. Not a flurry.

We shot our first-ever Blue Moon video. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while but that whole not enough hours in the day thing keeps cramping my style. So look on the sock club blog next week for the video link.

I got this goodness in the mail this week.:

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It’s JC Briar’s new book Charts Made Simple.JC has been working on it for the past year or so, and I, for one, have been waiting for it completion. It’s gridding brilliant and, no, I’m not biased.  As a knitter, I am pretty excited about this book. How can you not be? She tells you absolutely everything you need to know about reading, writing and using charts for all of your knitting. She thinks of things none of the rest us us mere mortal knitters have. There is a whole chapter dedicated to cable charts and one for knitters like me called counting stitches.  I love that she refers to chart as the big picture and refers to no-stitch symbols and phantoms ghost stitches (because they are not there get it?).

As someone who writes, proofs and publishes patterns for sale I am over the moon thrilled about Charts Made Simple. I’ve worked with a whole lot of tech editors and they are wonderful but in my humble opinion, JC Briar is in a league of her own. Her attention to detail and ability to translate the most incomprehensible knot notes into a pattern is magical. She is at heart a techie, which is clearly evident in her book.  If you can only buy one knitting book this year, make it this one.

JC left Blue Moon as tech editor to write this book. I have to tell you, I was not real graceful about this change in our relationship. I’m not proud. There were tears and maybe some whining and a few more tears.

There might have even been a fit or two. I don’t let go easy. Obviously.

Anyway, I’m telling you all of this because every time I open Charts Made Simple, there is JC with all of her wit, wisdom, knit common sense and tech savvy. It’s the perfect size to fit in my knitting bag so I can take it everywhere and one at home, maybe one in the car too, just in case. Hey, you never know. We are selling JC’s book on our website here.

Another new:

Today we are going to start a new tradition. What’s new in and around Blue Moon land Friday?  The idea behind this is to share, talk about or with link with all the great designers that use our yarn. Yet another something that’s been brewing in by brain. (yes, that is what that smell is.)

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See this lovely knit. This beautiful vest is Sam Roshaks newest design, “Grrlzz in the Hood”. 

She knit Grrlzz (love the name) with Gaea in one of our new Raven fledgling colourways (which we will be putting up today).  I’m a bit possessed by this vest of Sam’s.  I have a thing for hoods, so right off the bat this vest had me.  I love the flow and fit of Grllzz.  It looks so good and natural that it leaves me thinking I can not only wear it everyday with jeans but maybe also dress it up with a skirt for dinner out.

You can visit Sam Knitquest for all of the specs and details and how to get a pattern.

Last newness for the week is colour.  We are putting new colours up today. Actually, I do believe they are going up as I type the blog entry.

We have so many. I had a bit of a tonal meltdown last week and this is the outcome. There are quite a few here that make my heart sing but the ones I am really excited about are the new Ravens.  When I was creating the Ravens, there was a whole lot of experimenting to get exactly what was my vision for the them. One of the experiments I loved quite bit. It was dark gray instead of black. Stunning. I decided to hold on to that recipe until just the right moment presented itself.

Today we are introducing the Fledglings. We are welcoming our first 6 Fledglings to take wing and join their older more worldly winged compatriots. You can find them on the site in the Raven Colour section.  As always, if you do not see them in the yarn you want please ask. It takes us awhile to get them all up.

Meet Fledgeling Grawk

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You can see the other Fledgelings on the site along with the following new colourways:

FLEDGING RAVENS

Corvid Fledge

Grawk Fledge

Haida Fledge

Lenore Fledge

Rauen Fledge

Thraven Fledge

SHADED SOLIDS

Stumptown Brown

TumbleScum

MULTICOLOURS

Babymama

Cozy,firece,scummy girl

Sigur Rós

Clare de Lune

Daffodilly

Amélie

STORM large

Lavender Truffle

Vintage

ScumbleBEE

On Blueberry Hill

Chawton Cottage

Femmebot

Mmm, Mmm, Good

L. L. Cool Sock

With All My Heart

There are 10 returning colourways. The 1st 5 of you lovely knitters to list all ten them correctly here in the comments get a prize skein of Socks that Rock, your choice of colourway.

Have a lovely weekend!

If you can make it there

On the other side of the country this weekend, in the city never sleeps was a little thing called Vogue Knitting Live. Sockateers Cockeyed and Etta Mae (otherwise known as Debbi and Susan) were joined by Massachusetts Mama Marcy (aka KnittingGolfer) to spread the yarny goodness with students and shoppers alike in the Big Apple.

In addition to our own yarn and patterns, we shared our booth with some of our favorite independent designers. This is how we work, as part of the great knit circle of life. Designers manifest dreams into in reality through sketches, swatches and samples. My colors and yarn get to take the form of their inspiration. Knitters respond to the siren call of a great pattern and start their own magical journey. We’re all in this together, as a tightly knit community (even the loose knitters).

So, a big thank you to the designers who helped out at the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth, in spirit, as well as pattern. If you didn’t have a chance to get to New York (like me and most of the knitting world), please check out their fabulous designs online.

My dream is to create a community of great knitting, through color, fibers, the unique visions of designers, and the creations from the needles of all knitter.

Exporting goodwill/wool

As we all await the new coloursways to appear on the site*, I wanted to let you know of a few New Year’s hiccups we’ve experienced with online ordering for people outside of the United States.

Unbeknownst to us, the 2011 United States Postal Service rate changes made it so our online shopping cart didn’t play nicely with other countries. It let some international orders through, but not others. Very frustrating to yarn-seekers, our tech team and us in the barn. Thanks, USPS.

We’ve implemented three rounds of fixes and believe that everything has been resolved now. From our stateside tests and the new orders that are coming in, it’s all looking pretty good. (knock on wooden knitting needles!)

If you or any of your friends were unable to order recently, please give it another try and let us know if you’re experiencing any problems. You can always contact us by (email), by phone or through the site (click on Contact Us up in the right corner).

We’re truly sorry the website was preventing anyone from placing orders. As you can imagine, we’re pro-yarn trade, and anti-embargo.

So, Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome, one and all. Here’s to a new year of covering more of the planet in yarn!

*The new colours are SO worth the wait.

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There’s a colour shift on the wind.

Can you feel it? Can you smell it? There’s a colour change in the air. A BIG one too. I’m in the mood for all kinds of new colour stories, poems and maybe even a song or two.

And as we all know in order to make room for the new you have to let the old have a rest.  Don’t fret. Remember the colourways on this list are not going anywhere they will return. You can even special order them if you have a project in the works that needs more.  They’re just going on a little holiday, resting up for the next go around.

If there are any colourways you ‘d like to see return please let us know in the comments here.

We’ll be taking these down on Monday the 17th and hope to have the new ones up on the following Monday.

Alina Alley Oop Autumn
Banded Agate Blarneystone Christmas Balls
Cockamamie Cookie Next Door Dreidel
Faulty Dyer Fred Flintstone Gingerbread Due
Gingerbread Dudette Goody Goody Gypsum
Harlotty Highway 30 Hollyday
Kallish Moss Agate Mr. Green Jeans
Nodding Violet Oma Desala Pirate’s Booty
Potomac Retroid Seal Rock
Tree Hugger Sugarplums Typhoon Tina
Christmas Rock Grandma’s Flower Garden January One
Rocky Horror Slayer Grinchy
Mystic Kelp Pretty in Blue

Knitting mantra

I discovered something quite interesting yesterday that I bet we knitterly types all do. Maybe you are aware of doing this but I was not.

I was on the phone with the trucking company. The trucking company that was suppose to pick up the 411 kilos of yarns all boxed, palletted (hmm, is this a word?), shrink-wrapped and was currently residing in the driveway. It needed to leave yesterday because today we are expecting snow and we’re up high and I know they won’t show in the snow and it needs to get to Vogue Live and there is a shipping deadline that if you don’t meet they charge you a flippin’ fortune and…well, you get the picture.

Long story short, they dropped the ball. They really messed up and of course their mess-up meant more work for us. I can NOT express how much I hate it when someone else’s error makes more work for me. Seriously, I hate it. I make enough of my own errors that I really don’t need any help in this area.

So now, we had a whole lot of yarn sitting outside that we needed to deal with for the night. We then need get the aforementioned truck here early in the morning before the snow hits.

I was on the phone with this guy who obviously was not getting what a huge deal this was. It had to be that he just wasn’t getting it that their “error” was making such a problem for us otherwise he would apologize or at the very least sound like he gave a @#!*. At the least, this was aggravating and as I was trying so hard (I think my tongue was bleeding) to communicate this in a clear rational way. In the most tense moment when I had to pull on all my resources not to yell at this guy, I realized I was repeating over and over to myself the knit pattern I was currently working on. It’s an easy-peasy knit 2, purl 3 rib scarf out of handspun that I love.

Knit 2,Purl 3. Knit 2, Purl 3. Knit 2,Purl 3. Knit 2, Purl 3. Knit 2,Purl 3. Knit 2, Purl 3. Knit 2,Purl 3. Knit 2, Purl 3. Knit 2,Purl 3. Knit 2, Purl 3. Knit 2,Purl 3. Knit 2, Purl 3. Knit 2,Purl 3. Knit 2, Purl 3. Knit 2,Purl 3. Knit 2, Purl 3. Turn and…

Over and over and over.

I tuned into it once I realized I was doing it, got my point across without losing my temper.

I got off the phone, vented pretty loudly to a friend and then Debra and I set to problem solving the trucking company’s error.

Thank you, Knit 2, Purl 3. You saved the day.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about personal comfort levels, stress tolerance and coping skills. Anything fiber-related is most certainly a coping tool for me.

What I wonder just how long I have been quietly knitting in my head in situations where I could not really knit? I marvel at the brain’s ability to cope, to take what it finds comforting and assuring and plug it into a stressful situation. I did not consciously choose to do this. I didn’t wake up one day and say, “Hey, how about I try an internal knit mantra for stressful situations?” It just evolved, grew was I guess a natural step for my knit brain to take.

I bet yours does it too.

Off to call trucking company to make sure they are showing today. Knit 2…

I wonder if my brain in all it’s wisdom (hehe) has been subconsciously spinning also? I know it dyes.

Update: It’s 4:17 and still no truck. Been on hold with trucking company for 5 minutes. Mantra now: K1,P1.  K1,P1.  K1,P1.  K1,P1.  K1,P1.  K1,P1.  K1,P1.  K1,P1. K1,P1.  K1,P1.  K1,P1.  K1,P1.  K1,P1.  K1,P1.  K1,P1.  K1,P1. !

And we have lift off.  Yarn on it’s merry way to Vogue.