…are up on the website right this very moment. Actually they technically aren’t since I am writing this post at night while canning some premium smoky tomato jam. I’ve developed a bit of a thing for late night cooking and canning. It’s cooler, quiet and feels romantic in a back porch shelling peas with my gran while listening to the the crickets sing as the wind gently lifts the weeping bows on the willow kind of way. I have a glass of wine, my daughter, the frogs peeping away in the background and you. What could be better?
Tomorrow (now today) both this blog post and the new hues and a new home page will go up. If I’m lucky all synched as planned and close to when Knitty launches their Deep Fall issue. We’ll see how that all goes.
Anyway no matter how it all rolls I’m pretty thrilled with my oh, so colorful, first Fall group. I think I hit a pretty wide spectrum with this batch. Starting with all of our contest winners, even Positive Energy, then following the seasonal shift towards the crazy goodness of Autumn, a few chickens thrown in ‘cuz I can, and a holiday one just to keep us on our preholiday knitting toes. I had a rockin’ good time in the dye barn with these Fall hues. I hope you enjoy knitting with them as much as I enjoyed creating them.
There are 25 of them ( I subtracted the 2 September sock club colorways we are putting up because they aren’t new to everyone). The first three knitters to list all 25 correctly here in the comments section of this post wins a skein of their choosing.
Those of you that have been patiently waiting for our BFL Fingering to be back in stock, it is here! It is here!! It is here!!!! And yes, I do believe that does warrant 6 exclamation points. Thank you Jim for making this such a priority! We’ve planned this one right down to the wire. We have a lovely design by Shannon Squire that we’re featuring in the soon to be live Knitty Deep Fall issue. It’s called Vernonia and I am head over heels in love with this shawl in all of it’s holiness. I pestered poor Shannon so we could get it out for the Fall issue of Knitty and here we are. Happy dancing all around. When the stars align and everything comes together it is truly a beautiful thing.
One other piece of news. This Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival will be the last one for Blue Moon. I’ve been easing out of trade shows so I can concentrate on a few other areas for Blue Moon. It is not a decision that I have made lightly and is purely a business growth decision. I will miss shows like Oregon Flock and Fiber but this is a really good move for us. We are opening more and more accounts with yarn stores and developing what I hope to be long term supportive and creative relationships that will last years and support us all.
Oregon Flock and Fiber holds a very special place in my heart since it was my first festival/trade show. It is hard and I am sure there will be tears (mine of course). I am creating a colorway to commemorate this moment ( as I do). This will be a special colorway only available at OFFF on that weekend. Sigh! Change is what makes the world go around!
As usual if there is anything special you’d like to see us bring do let us know and we’ll do our best. We will have all the new colorways in sock yarn and lots and lots of spinning fibers. It is how I started OFFF and I think it is a poetic full circle way to go. We hope to see you there.
To be very clear Blue Moon is only shifting gears and headed in another direction. We’ve been doing this, as quietly as possible, for almost a year now, so we didn’t rock too many boats. Toni Neil of the Fold will still be taking our yarns to both Rhinebeck and Maryland Sheep and Wool for as long as she wants to do those shows.
One of these LYS relationships that we have added to our Blue Moon family and us to theirs, is, Shall We Knit in Waterloo, Ontario Canada! We are super excited to be working with Karen and her team of extraordinary knitters. We just sent them a whole bunch of Socks that Rocks and Some of our lace yarns Marine Silk and Worthy.
Speaking of a team of extraordinary knitters this weekend is the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter’s Guild Fair! Sylvie and her team at Lettuce Knit will be there with all kinds of goodies including our Socks that Rock and Twisted! Please do stop by and say hi if you are there.
Wow… that is a whole lot of goings on! The jam is canned and is now setting. I am tired and those pesky little invisible no see’ums are biting. So I am going to say good night. This is the news from Blue Moon where the colors are inspired and the chickens are happy and … .
PS: We have a new member of the family. My dear friend Gail rescued a few abandoned kittens and my girls and I fell in love with this cutie. We are still working on a name. We started with Watson moved to Nymphadora Tonks ( Tonks for short) and are now at TS Elliot ( Elli for short) . So … who knows.
Maybe just cutie pie.
If you are on the Olympic Peninsula and looking for something really fun to do try out the Jefferson County Farm Tour. It is such a good time lots of wonderful people doing great things. There is all kinds of fiber related fun along with food related goodness. I am headed up there as soon as I can tear myself away from her cute furry self!
