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Feb 27

Another week flies by or time flies when you’re dyeing yarn!

It’s Friday already. How does that happen? It seems like just yesterday it was Monday and then boom, here we are at Friday.

Since it means I have another week of radiation under my belt with only 8 more treatments to go I will say, Hi-dee-ho Friday so very good to see you and move on.

We have been very busy little dyers prepping Twisted for the Rose City Yarn Crawl and also dyeing all the BFL Sport ordered for the Big Ass Skein Club, plus a few LYS orders thrown in for good measure. So much BFL and LSS!! The Lan Su colorway I created for Twisted for our beloved RCYC is so pretty in the LSS, especially when there’s almost 100 skeins of it hanging gracing the rafters in the dye barn. I want to put it all in a big pile and crawl into and take a dreamy nap.

Twisted is seriously stocked with Blue Moon yarns and color for the crawl. The two colorways I created are Lan Su in honor of our magical Chinese Garden and Saturday Market. I had so much fun coming up with these two colorways. Saturday Market was easy peasy I just went with bright, happy with a smidge of hippie and a dash of rainbow. A little tie dye inspiration. I love Yasgur’s Farm Market Bag that Megan Parrish designed. It’s the perfect compliment to my Saturday Market colorway and to our local craft and farmer’s markets, especially our Saturday Market.

And then there’s Lan Su Garden Cowl by Katherine Leek which is so very pretty. I think everyone is going to want to knit themselves at least one of these. I definitely want one in the Lan Su colorway. Then again I also might want a blanket with LSS or Sookie in the Lan Su colorway with it’s depth of watery hues.

On Sunday March 8th, the last day of the crawl, Blue Moon will have a trunk show at Twisted with all of our most recent designs and, also, some of our long standing most popular. We are lucky enough to have our 2 designs by Carol Feller from this past Fall, Capall Dubh and Landscape Waves. So if you want a gander at those they will be there in all of their knit glory.

I hope everyone has an absolute blast!! We are so lucky to have such a fun and well organized yarn crawl. I think we all should take a moment to appreciate and even thank those who work so hard to make this happen fr us. As someone who has organized big things I know a whole lot of work is involved.

As I said earlier we dyed the first round of BFL orders for The Big Ass Skein Society! Those will be shipping out on Monday and Tuesday. I can’t wait to see all of these colorways knit up into that beautiful shawl, Vesna that Shannon designed.

One of the best parts of these knit-a-longs is seeing how all the colors knit in one pattern. I walk in the barn and look at them all hanging there and think to myself ( but often out loud) “Wow I never thought of that colorway for this.” over and over and over. I am sure everyone else in the barn gets sick of this but for me it is constant wonder and magic.

One other thing before I head off to check on the baby chicks the Rockin’ Whorl Club will ship out on Monday. Sorry for the 2 day delay. I forgot there were not 31 days in this month and evidently right now I really need my months to have 31 days in them. I promise it is worth the wait. I love this color and fiber combo so much that it kind of makes me weak in the knees.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. I plan on not getting up at 5:00 am and maybe catching up on Grimm!

Feb 21

BASS Update

I’m so excited because today is the first pattern release for the Big Ass Skein Society. There’s a couple of things I would like to mention.

First is the coupon code. It is valid until April 21st, 2015. The way you get the code is from Shannon. It will be with the pdf downloads tomorrow. Now onto redeeming the code. There’s a coupon code box on the Blue Moon order form. When you go to order your yarn please make sure you type in the code in that little box to get your 10% off. If you forget you can email is at info@bluemoonfiberarts.com and we will help you.

Now a little about the yarn. All of our yarns are individually hand-painted to order just for you. Usually we re-skein our garment yarns so they look all pretty like they will when they are knit up before shipping them out. However, because of the volume of orders during knit-a-longs we do not re-skein your yarn in order to get everyone can get their orders in a timely fashion. What this means is that some colors may appear splotchy in the skein, but as you see from the photos of finished objects, that is what makes the shaded variation in hue throughout the skein. The dark and light splotchy places are intentional.

Debra, Shannon and I compiled a list of colors we recommend for this project, but, as Shannon likes to say, you are the boss of your knitting, and you can do whatever your knitterly heart desires. The world is your rainbow! Below is our list of recommended colors.

Don’t forget to head on over to Shannon’s Ravelry group for information on knit-a-longs, contests, pattern support and community!

True Blood Red, Pistachio, Sea Foam Home, Buttah, Passive Aggressive Green, Meet Brown Joe,
Saffron Jungle, Manly Yes, Everyday Grey, Bleck, Winter Solstice, Porcini, KMBFLA, Nyame,
Jade, Ochroid, 24 Karat, Spinel, Cariblue, Midsummer’s Night, Spores, Boysenberry… and of course, Pond Scum!!! So many colors, Ravens and Spirits too.

Have a lovely weekend!

Feb 13

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Big Ass Skein Society

What is a Big Ass Skein Society you ask?

Well let me tell you….
The Big Ass Skein Society is a creative collaboration between Blue Moon Fiber Arts and Shannon Squire Designs.

I love our big-ass skeins (I cannot lie). I also love Shannon’s designs. In turn Shannon also loves our Big Ass Skeins. So… we decided what better way to celebrate this mutual love than to combine the two into a bi-monthly pattern, a discount-on-big-ass-skeins and color plotting thing. Great fun right?!

Actually this all started a few years ago when my buddy Karen Alfke and I were at her kitchen counter doing some serious design planning. At some point in our scheming Karen mentioned that she dreamed of a club that featured our big ass skeins. As soon as the words were out of her mouth she and I exchanged that look. You know the one. It’s the one that is usually followed by, “oh no we can’t. Oh yes we can. Oh hell, YES we can!!!” The one that in this case says, we needed some sort of big ass skein fun. Oh, and a plan.

Unfortunately for me, but not for Churchmouse Yarns and Teas, Karen is a very busy woman these days making wondrous things happen for them. So (with Karen’s blessing) in waltzes Shannon and since, she also shares our love of the big ass skein and our sense of whimsy, off we go with our Big Ass Skein Society. Imagine… a society of knitters with an appreciation for a springy, cozy, soft, colorful, luxurious big ass skein of yarn. Oh Yeah! I do love a big ass skein of yarn.

So what do you get and how does it work?

• A brand-new pattern designed especially for one of BMFA’s ginormous skeins every other month for a year by the lovely Shannon Squire.

A coupon code for 10% off an order for the recommended yarn for that months design at our website, good for 2 whole months.

A community of like-minded individuals working on the same project around the same time frame at Shannon’s Ravelry group
Lots of knitting and color support.
Pattern giveaways.
Contests.How do you become part of the Big Ass Skein Society?
Just head over to Ravelry and purchase this Ebook. At this time, you’ll receive a one-page PDF with most of the same information you’re reading here and a few more details, like the discount information. The first pattern will be released on or around February 21st, and then every other month, from February through December, you’ll get another wonderful pattern, discount code and huge amounts of knit fun.

Other exciting news this week is that we have new color ways coming next week. We have brand new ones and some returning old friends.

Here is the list so you know who to look for.

Flip Flop

Fruity Loopies

Hoppipolla

Imbolc

Jello Melly

Kryptonite

Lucky Number 7

Madrona Madness

Papa Pooze

Pluviophile

Prism

Rocky World Again

Romancing the Stone

Ruby Tuesday

Sherbet 2.0

Sky Fall

Shibui

Silly Puttied

Swizzle Whizzle

Whirly Whirleroo

Slushie

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. It’s supposed to be unseasonably warm and sunny here so I am going to take advantage of it and spend some time in my garden with my chickens.

If you are lucky enough to be at Madrona I hope you are all having a blast. Be sure to visit Mary and her staff at The Fiber Gallery booth. I sent her tons of lovely yarn. Also Tracy Irwin is do weaving demos in the pavilion and is using our Rustica.

Feb 5

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Madrona

Starting next week on Thursday the 12th, begins the Pacific Northwest’s knitter’s paradise , otherwise known as the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat. Knitters from all over the world will be descending upon the magical Hotel Murano in Tacoma Washington to have a grand ol’ knit time. I have to say that since Blue Moon stopped having a booth at shows this is the one I miss the most. I don’t really miss the work involved with the packing and unpacking but I really miss seeing everyone. I was going to come for the day but I just started radiation and I feel like I need to rest instead.

However, I will be there in a fibery way. We are sending quite a bit of yarn this year to The Fiber Gallery. So do check in with Mary at The Fiber Gallery’s booth. She will have a bunch of new colorways in Socks that Rock, one of which is our special Madrona colorway, Madrona Madness. I love this colorway it is just so very happy and bright!

See….

Along with Socks that Rock Mary will have our Targhee Worsted, Silky Victoria, Woobu, Yaksi Fingering, Sookie and Rustica!! I don’t know how she is going to fit it all in her booth. Mary will also have both of Carol Feller’s sweaters, Capall Dubh and Landscape Waves along with designs from Shannon Squire and Karen Alfke. I am so lucky to get to work with suck talented designers as these three.

If you are a weaver or are interested in learning weaving Tracy Irwin will be in the rotunda with some looms spreading the weaving love. We have two beautiful scarves that my buddy Lisa Kobeck designed and wove for us in our Rustica yarn. They are so beautiful!! Mary will have one of those sample in her booth and Tracy will also have one with her along with what she has on her loom.