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Jun 24

Summer of Love!

Summer Solstice was this week which means it is now officially summer.

Yay!!  My favorite part of summer are the long light and warmth filled days.

Sunshine!!

That said, I have to say I have really been enjoying the mercurial weather pattern we have been experiencing here in the PNW. The rain showers here and there with sun breaks in between. The best of both I guess!

I walk by this willow so many times a day on my way back and forth from my home to the dye barn. Yesterday it was putting on quite the show! I walked by at just the perfect wet lit, luminescent raindrops moment!  Little jewel drops of light!

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Light!

You can’t create in the world of color or design without an appreciation and understanding of light.  Color is light!

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 Let the Light In

Let the Light In

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Designed and knit by the lovely and talented Karen Alfke!

You can read all about our KAL on this page of the blog.

When Karen and were discussing all the wicked design collaboration fun we were going to have now that she had some time this was the firs thing to pop up!  We actually have had some version one way shape and then another of this on the back burner for a few years.  With all the stunning fabrics and great patterns and beautiful sun dresses what better time to have a knit-a-long for a light and lovely lacy mesh pop-over.

A perfect summer knit and top and a great way to ring in Summer

I love that this last KAL is about Letting the Light In!!

I have linked to Karen’s ravelry group where she will have all of the details on the pattern release, dates, how it all is going to work and the 15% discount code that we are offering. So check this Friday June 24th.

The code for the yarns. Laci and Silky Laci will be good starting June 24th. We have learned to give plenty of yarn buying, dyeing and shipping time!

We are introducing a new yarn with this KAL a silky version of our Laci!!

You are going to LOVE it!!

A note from your dyer (me): “We usually re-skeins our lace and garment yarns, especially those dyed as shaded solids, to show and highlight the shading. During a KAL, when we are dyeing in larger numbers than normal and getting them out in time for your cast-on date, we do not have the time to re-skein. So when you get your lovely skeins of Laci and Silky Laci, they may look a little blotchy. Those blotches are not a dye accident, but dye art!

Also, we ask you to please consider your yardage carefully and not err on the side of caution when ordering your yarn. Running out of yarn and needing more (from a new dye lot) is no one’s favorite thing. Two skeins will provide ample yardage for all;
you may even have enough left over to knit a shawl or scarf from the leftovers in the same Irish Mesh Lace pattern!”

I do hope you will join in the KAL fun. if you wanted you could even make a dress to go with it. We did!

Well Karen did anyway.

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My fabric is still sitting on the sewing machine. Right next to my knitting basket full of projects and my loom that is half warped. I do have plans!

I hope you join us!  If you have any questions please do let us know. info@bluemoonfiberarts.com

Summer Of Love

We are spreading LOVE all the ways we know how in our little woolly colorful part of the world.  Please stay tuned for a dye class schedule next week! ( I know!!!!!) If you could suggest a dye or color class from me what would it be??

Lots more colorful goodness, more kits, games and give-aways.

Oh speaking of give-aways we have not heard from all of you birthday contest winners. Please email us so we can get you your yarn and such.

Have a lovely weekend!

 

AlSookaokay me

Jun 17

Love is…

After what happened this past week I find myself having a hard time just launching into yarn and color without some acknowledgement of the violent and senseless loss of lives. I think most of us are still reeling in the aftermath of the horrific violent act that took the lives of all of those innocent souls in Orlando.

I can’t even imagine how all of the families and loved ones are coping with such a tragic loss.

My heart aches for them.

I have been listening to how we all feel and what we all have to say and also thinking a whole lot about where we are right now in our country, how we have gotten here, and how we can go about some sort of healing. I keep reading and hearing about tolerance. How we need to be tolerant of all our differences and how that tolerance would make everything better.

And while, of course, I agree wholeheartedly with the premise. I wonder if we might be using the wrong word. I’m not sure we should be just tolerating the many faceted aspects of life that makes us all our very own distinctly stunning snowflake. I wonder… what it would look like if we accepted and celebrated those differences instead of just tolerating them? If we truly understood at our core that in order for there to be any sort of narrative there has to be various perspectives and view points. All the colors!

After all isn’t that what life is about? Isn’t that one of the ideals this country was built upon? Isn’t it how we grow and learn?

I don’t know about you but I can not imagine a world that has no variation, for it would be a truly colorless, lifeless world.

Diversity is what makes this world go round.

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One of the ways I work through the ups and downs of life is through color.

So that is most definitely what I have done this week. It is a small thing but there needs to be some light so we are putting up a few these colorways in honor of life, of June being Pride month, and this weekend here in Portland, the LGBTQ community, diversity as a whole and love… just love.

Because…

Love is… often the answer.

Love is… most definitely hope.

Love is… the remedy for hate and fear.

Thank you to Lin-Manual Miranda for so very much but most especially for your heart-breaking-wide-open sonnet at the Tony’s Sunday night.

Love is…

 

Knit-a-long updates:

Santa Rosa Plum

Our Marine Silk Sport is here ( yay!!!)  and we have shipped out all orders that were pending before this week. If you just placed an order we will be shipping those out early next week. If you would still like to participate please contact us to order a kit! info@bluemonfiberarts.com

Farmer’s Market KAL

I will post pictures of color trios here and to instagram so look out for those.  Some of the color trios you have selected are really wonderful!!! I can’t wait to see them knit up!

Please do let me know if you need color scheming assistance.

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Thank you for being a part of the Blue Moon Rainbow!

Love!

Jun 10

KAL’s,Barn Sale,Dye Day and New Colors…Oh my!

I love playing with yarn and color quite bit. I know, nothing like stating the obvious. But what I love even more, is sharing my passion with others. One of my favorite days of Blue Moon’s year is this Saturday…

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Dye Day!! And of course, the Barn Sale. All of which feels like a big ol’ yarn party to me. Even the set up is a bit like a party. Everyone is here today cleaning and moving stuff around and pulling out mill ends from the pod. Debra is here! So much fun!

I hope you will come and play for the day. Our dye slots are full but we will have an indigo vat going and so very many wicked yarn specials. There will be door prizes and loads of laughter and joy!  Our whole team will be at Blue Moon on Saturday. Come meet the newbies!!! There are delightful! You will love them as I do!

I know it has been calling for rain but I have ordered sun and even though we have the Rose Festival weather curse to deal with I think we will be just fine. (Just in case we have some outdoor cover type things which you are also welcome to bring.

I’ll put directions to Blue Moon-land at the bottom of this post!

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New colors are up!!!!

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Meet (from left to right) Fuzzy Peach Specks, Heirloom Tomato Jam, In a Pickle and Apron Strings! I am pretty tickled with all of this speckled goodness on their own but I’m also excited because they are part of a bigger more mysterious plan!

As we love to do we have teamed up with our buddy the lovely Shannon Squire for a  MYSTERY KNIT-A-LONG

Who does not love a mystery kal??!!  So very much knit suspense. I for one am all about knitting that comes with clues!

Our theme is the all the color and bounty of the summer that is inspired by our local Farmer’s Market finds. Shannon and I chosen 5 colorway grouping themes to start the color scheming yarn ball rolling. we have combined on of our BeSpeckled colorways and teamed  with a Shaded Solid and a Multi-colorway. I know… so much color fun to be had, it is a bit mind boggling. Below are picture of the five we put together. You can use those or you can put together your own trios of hue happiness. As always I am more than happy to help with this process.

We have Peachiness: Fuzzy Peach Specks, Peachy Keen, and Everyday Grey

Heirloom Tomato Jam: Heirloom Tomato JAM, On the Vine, and Vine Ripened Red

Summer Canning Apron:  Apron Strings, Fruity Loopies, and Spawn of Scum

Pick a Peck of Pickles: In a Pickle, Mossy Plaid PDX and Spinel

 Berry Berry Jam: Shaken not Stirred, Purple Rain, and HRH Princess Violetta.

You can change these trio’s by choosing a different shaded solid or multi-colorway or…as I mentioned earlier put you own together!

And look here is what happens if you change it up a bit.

We are going to have all kinds of fun with this and…we have a 4 week dyeing shipping window. ( I got this lesson loud and clear!)

We are in the process of making a new colorway category for our speckled friends! BeSpeckled!!! So if you do not see them in Multi-colorways this is why.

We are offering 15% off of a few of our fingering weight bases for this KAL: Featherlight, Seduction, and BFL Superwash Fingering, so you can choose whichever floats your boat the best. When you purchase the pattern, you’ll receive a pdf chock-full of information, including the coupon code. The discount code is good through July 15th, but the first clue will be released on July 6th.

If you have not used our Featherlight this is your chance. It lives up to it’s name!

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Carol Feller’s Santa Rosa KAL

Okay before I go help in the barn one last piece of info is our Santa Rosa KAL/Marine Silk Sport update.

I pick up our Marine Silk Sport bright and early Monday morning and we are dyeing and shipping all next week. Everyone from the first go around who did not get their kits are first and then the wait list knitters.

We have  enough yarn to supply a few more kits for the Santa Rosa Knit-along. If you would like one please email us at info@bluemoonfiberarts.com and we will do our very best hook you up with one.

Thank you all so very much for your patience.

Have a bright and happy weekend! Hope to see you here.

PS:

Here are the directions:

56587 Mollenhour Scappoose Oregon 97056
Google maps works pretty well.
Cell service gets kind of sketchy once you head up the hill.

If you are coming from Portland or Vancouver you want I-405 to US 30 West towards St.Helens
You will be on this for about 14 miles.
You are going to drive all the way through Scappoose to the end of town.
Right after the fire station is the last traffic light which is Scappoose-Vernonia Highway
You are going to turn left onto Scappoose-Vernonia Hwy
Go about 7 miles up. It’s a pretty and curvy drive!
Turn left onto Chapman Road
Go about quarter of a mile and then turn left onto Mollenhour Road
Go about an eighth of a mile and  our gravel drive is right after a row of mailboxes where the 1st one has 56587 on it.
Also…there’s a huge piece of driftwood with a green house number sign on it.
The gravel road dead ends into Blue Moon.

Note: Before Chapman Road there is a Chapman Grange Road. You DO NOT want that one!!!!

Also PLEASE come all the way down to us and do not park on any of our neighbors property.

Jun 9

2 Comments

Birthday Give-Away Prizes

So before I go any further I just want you to know that I have a touch of the flu and am a little loopy so…grain of salt.

After I post this I am going to curl  up on the couch with a cup of ginger-lemon-honey-elderberry goodness and then maybe sleep this bug off.

Here is the complete list of winners from our week long Birthday bash. Thanks so much for playing along with me. I so loved reading all your comments. I think that. “Why is a raven and like a writing desk? ” and  ” If you could have a meal with anyone?” comments were my favorite!

#1  hipknitta wins our lovely 2 coloring books!

#2 ZenJen07 wins 3 skeins of Featherlight dyed to order.

#3 Scarletfever wins  2 skeins of Worthy Fingering dyed to order.

#4 milly_moe@yahoo.com wins 2 skeins of Cloud 9 dyed to order.

#5 nightmaji wins 2 skeins of Single Silk Targhee in a Raven

#6  and #7   Deb and joviv   each wins a skein of Socks that Rock lightweight in wonderful Goodness

#8 Annarch wins  a wool/silk scarf painted by none other than yours truly, me, myself and I.

If you could all email paula@bluemoonfiberarts.com (who is now Brandy) Welcome Brandy folks she’s a little nervous to step into Paul’s shoes.

I know some of you already have emailed and that is fine! You do not need to do so again

Please put the day number that you won. What your color choice is if there is one and your address.

We have all kinds of other stuff to tell you so I’ll post again Friday morning, as I do!

Oh look at this I wrote a blog post during the week. 59 is already working well for me.

Oh….new colorways are up!!!!!!!!

okay….

I have a date with the couch!

 

 

Jun 3

18 Comments

The party is over…last day Birthday Give-away.

Santa Rosa KAL Kit UPDATE: 

As far as we know from our communications from the mill in Switzerland we are still good for the  Marine Silk Sport hitting the east coast on the 1oth and to us on 14th. I know! So very far away. It’s a great mill and they seriously rock the silk blending and spinning.

We have been trying to figure out the best way to handle new orders on the kits.

We’ve decided a first come, first serve, waiting list would be the best option. How it will work is if you want a kit you email us. We will put you on the wait list and when we know the yarn is on it’s way, which could be as early as this coming Monday-June 6th.  We will then  contact everyone on the list with a link for purchasing the yarn.  As soon as it hits our doorstep will move into the barn and dye it up as fast as we can to get it out to you as close to the cast-on date as humanly possible.

Those knitters we have already contacted whose orders we could not complete with the first batch of yarn of course, come first. Everyone else who has emailed us already I will be contacting this weekend to see what kit you want and if you’d like to be put on the waiting list.

If you want to be  on the waiting list for the Marine Silk Santa Rosa Plum KAL  kits please, email us at: info@bluemoonfiberarts.com. Put Santa Rosa KAL wait list in the subject line of your email.  What we need to know is which colorway kit you want and the size ( 4,5, or 6 skein size). All of that info is still on the website here and the discount will be good until we all have our yarn!! It would also help us to have your address and phone number.  Once we get your email we will send you a confirmation email back letting you know that we did.

I want to thank all of you for your patience and understanding. I know it is knitting and we all have projects to keep us occupied. You have all been so very gracious and kind. I just want you to know it is greatly appreciated!

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Grading the Skein!!  Coming early next week,  one color gradient in a skein. I’ve done a few of these through the years but have always wanted to work a little more in this arena. Since I already had a base from the gradient kits I made for Carol’s Santa Rosa Cardigan I thought there is no time like the present. So here we are.  My favorite is the Deep Purple one using my Smoke on the Water shaded solid recipe as the base.  So many knit-possibilities here.

Also early next week we will be taking down the following coloways so if you feel the need to stock up the time is now!

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As always if there colorways you would like to see return let us know in the comments section of this post. All of which brings us to our last question of birthday week.

If you could have only one color in your life what would that color be and why?  I know a scary thought. I certainly have a hard time with that concept. However it is interesting to ponder. As with all other parts of our Birthday Give-away please put  your answers in the comments section of this post.

What the prize is for this last but certainly not least day of celebrating life is a finely woven silk and wool scarf that I will paint in the palette of your choosing!

I will choose all of the rest our prize winners this weekend and announce them on Monday.

Thank you so much for celebrating my birthday with me it has been all kinds of fun!!! I have to say that so far the raven and writing desk question might be my favorite.

Oh…I almost forgot. BARN SALE!!!!!!!! Next weekend on Saturday the 11th  9 to 5. Those of you coming for the dyeing aspect please wear clothing that you do not mind getting dye on.

Those of you that are signed up for the 1st time slot please come around 8:30 to pick your yarn  that you are going to color out and get it all soaked. and ready.

We have a whole bunch of SALE goodies!!

What we do not have is a ton of PARKING space so we ask that if you can carpool that would be all kinds of wonderful.

I will post the directions on Monday when I announce the winners of the contest.

The address is 56587 Mollenhour Rd. Scappoose.

Okay it has been a week and I think I am actually going to take a before dinner prep. nap

Have a great weekend!

Stay cool!

 

 

Jun 3

17 Comments

Birthday Give-away day #6 & #7

Okay before we go into more Birthday-Give-away-fun let’s talk Santa Rosa Knit-a-long.

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As far as we know from our communications from the mill in Switzerland we are still good for the  Marine Silk Sport hitting the east coast on the 1oth and to us on 14th. I know! So very far away. It’s a great mill and they seriously rock the silk blending and spinning.

We have been trying to figure out the best way to handle new orders on the kits.

We’ve decided a first come, first serve, waiting list would be the best option. How it will work is if you want a kit you email us. We will put you on the wait list and when we know the yarn is on it’s way, which could be as early as this coming Monday-June 6th.  We will then  contact everyone on the list with a link for purchasing the yarn.  As soon as it hits our doorstep will move into the barn and dye it up as fast as we can to get it out to you as close to the cast-on date as humanly possible.

Those knitters we have already contacted whose orders we could not complete with the first batch of yarn of course, come first. Everyone else who has emailed us already I will be contacting this weekend to see what kit you want and if you’d like to be put on the waiting list.

I know that this is not a perfect solution but I do think it is the best way to be fair and keep team Blue Moon sane.

If you want to be  on the waiting list for the Marine Silk Santa Rosa Plum KAL  kits please, email us at: info@bluemoonfiberarts.com. Put Santa Rosa KAL wait list in the subject line of your email.  What we need to know is which colorway kit you want and the size ( 4,5, or 6 skein size). All of that info. is still on the website here and the discount will be good until we all have our yarn!! It would also help us to have your address and phone number.

Once we get your email we will send you a confirmation email back letting you know that we did.

I will be sending out a newsletter tomorrow with this information.  I want to thank all of you for your patience and understanding. I know it is knitting and we all have projects to keep us occupied. You have all been so very gracious and kind. I just want you to know it is greatly appreciated!

 

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It has been quite the few weeks here at Blue Moon. Today was our beloved Paula’s last day. A bittersweet day indeed. While we are all beyond thrilled that Paul has found something closer to home we will miss her more than I have words to convey at this time.

I will say with a very full heart, THANK YOU Paula, for being you, for sharing yourself with me and all the incarnations of team Blue Moon you have been around for caring about and treating our wonderful knitters so well!

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Our contest for the 6th and 7th days one.  If you feel so inclined please leave a good wish for Paula to take with her on this new chapter of her life.

I will pick two of you from these comments and you will win a skein of Socks that Rock lightweight in the colorway Wonderful Goodness.

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Happy Knitting my friends!

Jun 1

22 Comments

Birthday Give-away Day #5

Okay so it has been a day. In my experience this is Tuesday’s payback when you make her pretend that she is Monday. She does not like it at all! I wouldn’t either.

Since it has been all kinds of crazy here today, and because I have been immersed in Alice in Wonderland research for a while now, and it is still my birthday week  for a few days, and…I love ravens, this is my question for you today.

Why is a Raven like a writing desk?

There are no wrong answers!

Winner gets…are you ready cause it’s really good?!! Our Single Silk Targhee is due to show up this week.  Yay!!!!!!!! Happy dancing all around the barn! So the winner get 2 skeins dyed in a Raven colorway!!!

Also because it is now the work week and we are all busy bees I am going to leave all the contests open from day #4 until Friday that way we have more time to ponder and play and more of us can play if we so choose.

Look at this!  The wonderful Kalia ( team blue moon) made this for me for my birthday. Kalia is all kinds of wonderful. We remind each other to be grateful!

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